Sunday, May 1, 2011

Gourmet Campers

Although I love my kitchen comforts, when we have an opportunity, we enjoy being out in the bush in our 4WD, camping in the middle of nowhere. I'm not the "walk-in" camping kind of girl, as I would need a pack horse to carry my high end camping requirements, and we're known for being "Gourmet Campers," not settling for cans of beans heated up on a fire, or dehydrated camping meals!

Our Easter camping trip was no exception and we had a menu rivalling any Easter Sunday roast! Marinated butterflied lamb on the BBQ was the main dish, accompanied by BBQed corn, stir fried veg and Tuscan potatoes. 

This camping trip, inspired by the MKR challenge, we also gave a go at making the Aussie bush tucker favourite, Damper. Damper is a bread made without yeast and baked over the campfire. We added sugar and sultanas to ours and tried cooking it two ways - the traditional: wrapped around the stick and cooked over the heat, and wrapped in foil and pushed into the embers. Both were relatively successful and we enjoyed the fun of making and eating our afternoon snack!



Sultana Damper

Ingredients
4 cups of Self Raising Flour
1 heaped spoon of Brown Sugar
A large pinch of salt
175g of sultanas
2 spoons butter
200ml milk
1 egg
Lots of foil

Method

1. Build you campfire and get some embers glowing!
2. Add the dry ingredients (including the sultanas) to a large bowl. Melt the butter over the campfire (a little foil basket works a treat!)
3. Pour the melted butter into the dry ingredients and mix in
4. Break an egg into a mug and lightly beat, add to the milk
5. Mix the egg and milk mixture into the dry ingredients till all combined
6. Knead till reaches a smooth dough consistency and it holds together without crumbling

To cook wrapped around the stick: Roll out a long sausage using 1/4 of the mixture and wrap around a long stick. Hold over the campfire turning till firm and cooked.
To cook in the embers: Wrap the dough in foil (so there are 5 or 6 layers) and place the parcel in the hot embers. Takes about 30 mins, depending on the heat!

Whilst not as comfortable not convenient as our own kitchen, there's a lot more space and it's a lot more adventurous to cook our camping meals under the stars in the vast open bush of Australia!



1 comment:

Japan-Australia said...

I love camping and nothing can beat a big old steak cooked on a grill on an open fire.

Japan Australia

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