10 minute read
Campfire wizard
Meet Australia’s best open-fire chef. Harry Fisher’s new book, Fire to Fork, is the bible of adventure cooking.
For years I would sift through blogs, recipe books, YouTube videos and magazines looking for campfire cooking ideas and I was constantly met with the same sorts of things: hipsters cooking on fire but buying their ingredients in Narnia, or celebrity presenters making variations of the same pre-packaged, bland camp meals (inevitably on a gas burner).
I was getting pretty frustrated, so I stopped reading what was out there for campers and started adapting recipes from proper chefs so that anybody could cook them over a fire outdoors. In doing so, I established a few rules: Book extract
1
Only use ingredients I can buy from a butcher and a supermarket— no more activated avocados and vegan bacon sprinkles from hipster shops.
2
All ingredients should travel well—san choy bow is delicious, but good luck keeping a lettuce leaf in good condition on a corrugated road.
3
If possible, use the long-life alternative— while most of my recipes are ideal for short getaways, there are also plenty that will work on a three-week desert trip.
4
Conserve water, which means conserve pots—I try to use as few different implements and vessels as possible to reduce washing up.
5
Everything is cooked on fire.
These rules were simply the formalisation of what I was already doing, but they have helped simplify my cooking and planning process a lot, and will do the same for you.
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LESSON 1: KNOW YOUR FIRE
If you are reading this, I will assume you know how to light a fire. If not, I suggest opening YouTube and typing “how to light a fire”. Lighting good cooking fires is a skill that is far better to watch than read about.
Once your fire is going, the aim is to have a solid, steady and largely smoke-free heat source to cook on. Now, there are a few ways to go about this—one is to make a massive, raging fire and then shovel out a few loads of coals to cook over. That is a great method when it’s cold and you have a bit of time up your sleeve. However, if you’ve just arrived at camp or have just woken up and the fire is in its infancy, you are much better off using small pieces of good-quality, dry hardwood, no thicker than 5cm. It doesn’t matter whether you use an axe or splitter or just collect smaller, dry branches.
Building the base of coals with smaller bits of wood makes it burn faster, cleaner and hotter. Then, when you have finished cooking, feel free to drop the big logs on and sit back for a few hours.
Low Heat
120°C – 150°C
Low, steady heat is best for gentle cooking like toasting bread or sandwiches, cooking steaks before the reverse sear, or making sauces. You only need a thin bed of coals and about 20cm between the coals and the cooking surface. For reference, the grill pictured is 23cm high.
There’s a simple way to tell if you’ve got it right. If you hold your hand 10cm above the grill, you should be able to keep it there for approximately eight to ten seconds. An infrared thermometer should read between 120°C and 150°C (250°F to 300°F).
The temperature should be around 170°C to 220°C (340 to 430°F). You shouldn’t be able to hover your hand 10cm above the grill for any longer than five seconds.
Medium Heat
170°C – 220°C
You will do a lot of cooking on fires at this level of heat. It’s the perfect temperature to cook most vegetables and meats that need to be cooked evenly and right through—fish, crayfish, sausages or chicken, for example. Under your grill, you want a healthy shovel of coals and sticks to get the heat source, and a little bit of fire, about 15cm from the cooking surface.
Medium/High heat
270°C – 320°C
At a medium/high heat is where the majority of my cooking happens. It is hot enough to comfortably boil water, cook most meats and brown up anything in a pan. To get this much heat, you either need a serious load of coals only about 10cm below the grill, or a bit of flame licking the cooking surface.
Using the hand-guestimation method, this is the right temperature when you can only hold your hand over the heat for three or four seconds, which is about 270°C to 320°C (520 to 610°F) at the grill.
High Heat
320°C+
A fire this hot is reserved for a small handful of tasks, particularly for finishing a piece of meat as part of a reverse sear. The coals will be 5–10cm below the grill with a clean, smokeless flame high above the grill.
You need to treat this with a lot of respect because this is a quick way to turn a cutlet into a bit of coal with a bone sticking out of it. If you are using an infrared thermometer, most likely it will have maxed out its range (over 350°C or 650°F) and you won’t be able to hold your hand over the heat.
LESSON 2: A QUICK WORD ON COOKWARE
Over many years and far too much money, I’ve trialled and discarded all sorts of camp cooking gear. What I’ve found is that the traditional, heavy and often cumbersome pieces of equipment aren’t necessarily the best if you really want to get the most from your food.
Grill Plate
I’ve used a few different designs in my time. I was a big fan of one that fit over a spare wheel, but unfortunately, the design has changed and the legs are aluminium which melt in hot fires. Now, I use OzBraai’s Braai Grid (which I had input into the design of) and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.
Whatever you use, I recommend one that’s stainless steel, or it will rust badly. Choose one that has three legs, as they’re more stable than four legs on uneven surfaces. And I think they should always come with a bag because they always get filthy.
Camp Oven
I have owned and used many camp ovens— from $350 Japanese hand-finished cast iron ones through to $20 cheapies from Aldi, but none have beaten the design, materials and finish of the Southern Metal Spinners 10-inch camp oven.
These have been made in Australia for well over 70 years, and I wouldn’t be surprised if every one that has been made is still in use. I don’t seem to be able to kill them!
They don’t crack, are easy to clean, are 75 per cent lighter than cast iron and the handle design makes them extremely stable and easy to use. You can also use the lid as a skillet in a pinch. A Bedourie oven will also work, but I find them wobbly and they don’t seal as well.
Grill Basket
I have always been a massive fan of the grill baskets. I use them for cooking everything from a whole chicken or fish through to field mushrooms, asparagus or a truckload of toasted sandwiches. The best I have come across are OzBraai’s Camp Braai (large) and Travel Braai (small), which you’ll see used in heaps of my recipes. You don’t have to use these, but if you are looking for one, it’s important that they have a retractable handle, adjustable thickness for different ingredients, a stand with a clip to hold it steady, a good bag and, most importantly, it must be stainless steel.
Wok
A wok is incredibly useful and I would strongly recommend buying one over a frypan or skillet if you can’t have both. I have a Hillbilly 350mm Wok with a folding handle and use it for pasta, chilli mud crab, stir-frying, fried rice and I even cook bacon and eggs in it. I used it instead of a frypan for around five years and it did a great job. The deep design of woks makes them very forgiving and hard to spill when you (inevitably) have your hot plate on an angle or want to drop it straight on the coals. Things to look for are a folding metal handle, a flat bottom and avoid non-stick surfaces.
The Pantry
No two camping trips are the same, and there will never be a time when you need to provision your camp pantry the same way.
However, after years and years of cooking in the bush, I’ve come to stock the same basic ingredients on just about every trip. I’ll then supplement them with the specific things needed for particular meals.
Importantly, it’s almost all food that you can get from one of the major supermarkets, a good butcher or fishmonger, and almost all of it is available even in smaller towns.
Always In My Car
• Soy sauce • Sesame oil • Fish sauce • Red wine vinegar • Rice bran oil—lots, for seasoning cookware and deep-frying food • Extra virgin olive oil—for everything else • Cooking or table salt • Rock salt • Pepper • BBQ sauce • Ketchup—not tomato sauce • Mustards—mainly American and Dijon • Sriracha • Stock • Baker’s flour • Fried shallots • India Pale Ale—preferably Colonial and icy cold
Dairy I Can’t Go Without
• Butter—proper stuff, not margarine or any oil-based fake • American burger cheese • Grated, three-cheese blend with mozzarella • Fresh mozzarella—in a ball, not grated or in brine • Buttermilk—awesome for marinating chicken • Thickened cream • Coconut cream—I know, it’s not really dairy, but I use it a lot
Veggies I Use A Lot Of
• Garlic—I always pack a bulb or two • Fresh chillies—both red and jalapeños • Lemons • Burger or dill pickles—mostly sliced for my various burger creations • Potatoes—I usually use russet potatoes • Sweet potatoes—small, they cook faster than the big ones • Onions—plenty of brown ones and a few red and white ones, too • Cherry tomatoes—much more versatile than big ones • Broccolini—keeps well and is easy to divide into many meals • Carrots—so I can see well at night • Mushrooms—plenty of button mushrooms and a few portobellos • Peas—frozen
Stuff I Always Need
• Wraps—I prefer Mission brand as they’re the best you can easily get • Kewpie mayonnaise • Self-raising flour—or just add some baking powder to plain flour • Dried yeast sachets • Crusty bread—sourdough or Pane di Casa • Burger buns—potato or brioche are the best; or a gluten-free alternative • Eggs—free range, because I’m not a monster • Long pasta—like spaghetti and linguini • Rice—long grain, or sushi rice for Asian meals
Herbs And Spices Always On Rotation
• Brown sugar • Fresh, flat-leaf parsley • Fresh coriander • Oregano • Fresh ginger • Cumin • Paprika—any kind will do • MSG—yeah, you read that right. Get it from an Asian grocer.
