Post-lockdown summer is the perfect time to get away and cook up around the campfire

Cooking with a campfire doesn’t mean your meals have to be basic. Try these top recipes for gourmet, and super tasty, camping dishes.

Campfire food doesn’t have to be basic. Picture: Nicole Cleary

It’s the summer after the longest winter and Victoria is hitting the road.

It’s going to be a holiday season like no other and one of the best antidotes to months of being cooped up is to go bush.

“You can’t beat setting up camp somewhere on the banks of the Goulburn River,” says Jayco ambassador Dan Hawkins. “Cooking over the embers of river red gum, the kookaburras laughing at you while you burn things, for me, the Goulburn River is home.”

Executive chef of The Prince Hotel and Mitchelton Winery, Hawkins says Victoria is blessed with amazing camping opportunities from bush to beach and nominates the Cumberland River along the Great Ocean Road as another favourite.

“There is a great campsite there and the fishing and wild seacoast foraging is abundant. Driftwood for the fire, sand in your toes, life is pretty good down there.”

These days there’s more hi-tech kit available than a simple swag or two-man tent, but whether you’re camping or caravanning one of the highlights of getting away from it all is a campfire cook out.

Here’s some unbeatable receipes to help top off the perfect summer night.

Enjoy Melinda Whadcoat’s Mexican spiced beef and baked spuds with salsa and pickled jalapenos recipe Picture: Nicole Cleary.

RECIPES

MEXICAN SPICED BEEF AND BAKED SPUDS WITH SALSA AND PICKLED JALAPEÑOS

Recipe Melinda Whadcoat, Wyanga Park Winery, Lakes Entrance

Ingredients:

11/2kg chuck steak

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons pepper

½ tablespoon cumin

1 ½ tablespoon smoked paprika

1 tablespoon powdered chicken stock

¼ cup Australian olive oil

1 large onion, roughly chopped

1 large capsicum, roughly chopped

2 cups Wyanga Park cabernet sauvignon

6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1 can Australian crushed tomatoes

600ml water (reserve extra if needed )

6-8 washed spuds of your choice

1/3 cup Australian olive oil

Method:

Mix in a large bowl salt, pepper cumin, paprika, chicken stock.

Cut steak into large cubes, add to bowl and massage the spices onto steak and set aside

Add olive oil to camp oven pot, heat over the fire or coals to a fairly high temp.

Add spiced beef cubes, brown all surfaces.

Once browned add onion, capsicum and garlic, cook through for about 5 minutes stirring until veg has softened.

Then grab a corkscrew and open that delicious wine, add your 2 cups then pour the cook a glass – it’s absolutely necessary.

Add tomatoes and water stir through and place on the lid and cook on a low heat until meat is tender 3-4 hours, checking occasionally and adding extra water if needed (you may need an extra bottle of wine to get you through this stage).

Once you are about 2 ½ -3 hours into your cook add 1/3 of a cup of olive oil to a separate camp oven place over med/ high heat. Once hot add whole spuds and throw the lid on bake until browned on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside.

SOUR CREAM SALSA

INGREDIENTS

300g cherry tomatoes diced

1 small red onion finely diced

1 small capsicum finely diced

200g can Australian corn kernels

½ bunch of coriander leaves

400g sour cream (we use Gippsland Jersey cultured sour cream)

1 firm avocado, diced

1 tablespoon honey (we use Tambo Valley round leaf box honey)

Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

Mix all ingredients together

PICKLED JALAPEÑOS

INGREDIENTS

8-10 fresh jalapeños

2 cups white vinegar

½ cup white sugar

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

2 teaspoons salt

½ tablespoon peppercorns

METHOD

(To be made prior to camping) Slice jalapeños and place in an airtight container. In a small pot, add all other ingredients, bring to a simmer for a couple of minutes. Take off heat, leave to cool slightly and pour over jalapeños. Cover with lid on and leave for at least 2 days to pickle .

TO SERVE

Plate up your spuds, slice the top, add the beef over the them, add salsa and pickled jalapeños.

Tatlocks Gourmet Produce make fine beef, pork, lamb and game birds, butchering it themselves and then delivering it around the state Picture: Nicole Cleary

ROB ELDER’S CAMPFIRE BEEF

Line a casserole dish with onions, potatoes and tomatoes. Add a good quality piece of topside or bolar blade. Season well with salt and pepper and add a bit of gravy powder. Massage in to the meat.

Place the lid on and cook on the coals for 1 hour per kilo.

Serve in bread rolls with condiments.

Dan Hawkins from Prince Dining Room’s Jambalaya recipe Picture: Nicole Cleary.

JAMBALAYA

Recipe: Dan Hawkins, Prince Dining Room

Serves 4

Ingredients

-250g long-grain rice

-1 med brown onion, diced

-2 cloves garlic, crushed

-1 green capsicum, diced

-1 red capsicum, diced

-200g chicken thigh, diced

-150g chorizo or andouille sausage

-150g peeled prawns or shrimp

-30g tomato paste

-400g tin crushed tomatoes

-500ml chicken stock

-30g Creole spice mix (see recipe below)

-Salt and pepper to season

-Spring onion to finish

-Cooking oil

METHOD

1. In a heavy saucepan heat oil over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and capsicums and saute for two minutes. Add the diced chicken and the sausage and lightly brown, about four minutes.

2. Add the tomato paste and rice and stir through. Add the crushed tomatoes, stock and Creole spice. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat, cover and cook for 15 minutes

3. Stir through the prawns and cover. Cook for a further five minutes

4. Remove from the heat and season with salt and pepper. Finish with chopped spring onions

Mexican beef with baked potatoes is another family favourite Picture: Nicole Cleary

CREOLE SPICE MIX

Make a batch and pack it down in an airtight container. Keep it in the pantry at home or in the camper for a whole range of uses other than Jambalaya. Season seafood and steaks before going on the grill, spice up your hummus or add it to soups and stews. Wherever you want to jazz up a dish, this spice mix will do it.

INGREDIENTS

-100g sweet paprika

-50g garlic powder

-50g cumin powder

-25g chilli powder

-10g cayenne pepper

-10g black pepper powder

-25g dried oregano

-50g fine salt

METHOD

1. In a dry bowl add all the ingredients and mix well to combine.

2. Pack down in an airtight container. The spice will keep for three months.