Roast Beef & Veggies

Yes another roast meat post but they taste so fantastic in the camp oven that we just had to share. I won't put up detailed instructions, you can find those in our roast pork or lamb post.

The one thing I will suggest is to always have some heat beads with you while camping. These can really save a meal of the firewood you have is of poor quality or doesn't make the coals you had hoped for. We used heat beads to finishe off this roast. Heat beads are also fantastic for beginners as they give a very consistent heat. So get out there & give your camp oven a run. There's nothing better than a day spent in the bush cooking in the camp oven. We made our Apple & Blackberry cake on the same day as this roast. Yum. 

Preheating the camp oven helps get that roast going

A lovely rolled beef roast, dried with paper towel

Seasoned with a drizzle of oil, salt, pepper & a BBQ spice seasoning

Into the preheated camp oven on a trivet

Hot coals to start it & we finished with heat beads

Veggies in about half way through the cooking

Allow the meat to rest for at least 10-15mins before carving

Dinner is served, well it was actually lunch this time

 cake

Blackberry & Apple Cake

Sorry for the lack of posts on the blog lately. We are actually home from our trip after having to cut it slightly short due to cyclone Marcia. Everything is okay but we had a bit of stuff to sort out. So we still have lots of posts to bring you including the rest of our trip, more recipes, product reviews & an in depth look at our cost to travel over the last year. 

But for starters here's another recipe. We picked the blackberries & apples for this one in the bush as we drove around the Snowy River area near Tumut. 

Blackberry & Apple Cake

Ingredients 

- 1 large Apple

- a large handful of blackberries

- 1 tablespoon of raw sugar

- 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon

- 125g of softened butter

- 1 cup of caster sugar

- 2 eggs

- 2 1/2 cups of SR Flour plus a tablespoon extra

- 1 cup of milk

Directions

- start your fire at least an hour before to build up your hot coals

- cream the butter & caster sugar in a bowl

- add the eggs & beat well

- add the flour & milk & stir until you have a thick batter

- add in 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon & stir

- wash your blackberries in cool running water before use

- coat your blackberries in the extra tablespoon of flour, this helps them not sink to the bottom of the cake while it cooks

- add the blackberries to the cake batter & gently stir through the mix

- pour into a cake tin lined with 2 layers of baking paper

- pour the batter into the pan & spread out evenly

- peel & then cut your Apple into thin 2mm slices 

- arrange over the top of the cake in a nice pattern

- sprinkle with the raw sugar & remaining 1/2 a teaspoon of cinnamon 

- preheat your camp oven over the fire for 5 minutes

- place the cake in the oven on a trivet

- place 1 shovel of coals under the oven & 1 on top

- cook cake for 20 minutes

- open oven & check how the cake is going, add more heat if necessary

- cook for another 15-20 minutes

- use a skewer to check when cake is cooked, the skewer should come out clean

- once cooked allow the cake to rest for 5 minutes & then remove from the cake pan & allow to cool

We cut our first slice when it was still just warm. YUM!!

Scones

I can't believe this is my first scone post of the trip, although I did do the Choc chip damper. These ones are inspired by my Mum & the recipe comes from the lovely ladies at 4 Ingredients. The only thing I changed was using diet lemonade & halving the recipe. So very simple with just 3 ingredients, Self Raising Flour, Cream & Lemonade. Check out the recipe here.

To cook these in the camp oven is pretty simple a few pointers below- 

- start your fire at least an hour before you want to bake them

- don't over mix/knead the scones

- if you don't have a scone cutter just cut your scone mix into equal pieces with a floured knife 

- preheat your oven for about 5 minutes over the fire

- digging a hole to put your camp oven while baking really helps to regulate the heat 

- once your scones go in check the temperature after about 10 minutes & adjust if necessary

- once cooked allow the scones to rest for 5 minutes before devouring with jam & cream

- if you don't have a whisk to thicken the cream for serving while camping, place the cream in an airtight/watertight container (Lock n Lock work great) with 2 small stones/pebbles (cleaned), shake for about 3-5 minutes & your cream will thicken, be careful you don't turn it into butter by going to far!

I used Plain Flour & Baking powder in place of SR Flour

Place all ingredients in a bowl

Mix with a butter knife, don't over mix

Turn out on to a floured cutting board

Knead very gently into shape

Cut scone mix with a floured knife into equal portions 

Place on a baking tray

Into the camp oven on a trivet

Check after 10 minutes, we needed to add more heat as we like crunchy topped scones

Perfect

Light & fluffy

So soft on the inside

Yum, now that's awesome camp oven baking. 

Potato Bake

Potato Bake is one of those special indulgences in life. Go to any family or friends backyard BBQ & you are likely to get one served up. When I realised we had not had potato bake in the whole time we have been travelling I realised I had to fix that problem & whip one up. I stick with very traditional with how I make mine, just like my Mum taught me. The only thing I do a bit different is add a bit of chopped bacon mixed in with the cheese on top for an extra special topping. I have to admit we ate the whole tray of potato bake, it wasn't a huge tray, but so delicious we couldn't leave any. It goes great in the camp oven & served with something extra special like a rack of lamb it was a pretty special meal & made up our Australia Day feast. 

Potato Bake

Serves 2 but easy to adjust for more people 

 

Ingredients

-  2-4 peeled potatoes sliced into about 2mm thick slices

- 1 small onion sliced

- 3 gloves of garlic finely diced

- 4 rashers of bacon diced (reserve 1 rashers worth for the topping)

- 150ml of thickened cream

- 1 cup of grated cheese

- salt & pepper

Directions

- start your fire at least an hour before you want to cook to get enough coals

- slice up the potato & onion & chop the garlic

- dice up your bacon

- in a tray layer 1/4 of the potato, then 1/3 of the onion & garlic

- season with salt & pepper

- add 1/3 of the bacon pieces

- continue layering the potato, onion, garlic & bacon, finishing with a layer of potato

- pour over the cream on the top, it will work its way through the layers as it cooks

- finish by making the topping, by mixing the cheese & bacon together & sprinkling over the top

- warm your camp oven for 5 minutes over the fire

- place the potato bake in the oven

- place 1 1/2 shovels of coals below the camp oven & the same on top

- it should take about 40 minutes to cook

- if you are not cooking anything else with it as below, remove the potato bake & cover with foil & allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving

We served ours with a rack of lamb

- take your lamb out the fridge when you start cooking the potato bake to bring it to room temperature

- remove it from the plastic wrapping & pat dry with paper towels

- season with salt & pepper

- when the  potato bake has been cooking for 30 minutes, check how's it going & add in your rack of lamb to the camp oven

- add more coals to the bottom & top if needed

- after 10 minutes, remove the camp oven lid & take out the potato bake to rest (as above)

- the lamb will take another 10-15 minutes, put another shovel of coals on top to brown up the fat layer

- remove the lamb & rest for 5 minutes before carving

- serve with your choice of salad or veggies