practicing over the coals

[aladatrot]

Chris got me a ton of cowboy cooking goodies for christmas. I got another 12 inch oven (plus the borrowed one I have been asked to keep cooking in), a 12 inch kettle with a bail, 9 inch skillet, 3 quart combo cooker with a lid that doubles as a skillet (I actually got two of these), 60 inch tripods for the two ovens and the kettle, metal cooking utensils, 4 place settings of camp dishes, a lid holder made of horse shoes, and a percolator for making my tea over the coals. I also got lid lifters, a checkered table cloth, and clips to keep it from flying away. I'm sure there is more, but that is most of it.

Sooooo..... We have been hoping to get some practice time in before actually having to use the ovens in the wilderness. Last night we got in a little late and I didn't have time to make a big extravagant meal. I cut up a bunch of potatoes and onions and tossed them into a warm oven with butter. Added salt and pepper and let it cook. I also browned some ground whitetail and seasoned with taco seasoning. When the meat was done, I put taco shells in there to warm. It was a little weird combination, but we had tacos and craig's potatoes. Yummy.

Today chris heated up the coals for an apple cobbler that turned out great. Tonight he said he wants to try a king ranch chicken on the coals. This is fun, but we are driving up the market on charcoal! I may actually build a fire with wood tonight if I can get the wet stuff lit.
Cheers!
M

[Paul Marx]

Mandi , I highly recommend the yellow corn tortillas for the King Ranch chicken . Better flavor good luck.

[jdt]

mandi , i want you and cris to be our knew camping partners  my wife stacie is a good dutch oven cook , bless her heart she didnt have any choice except to learn . 

[craig]

somebody was on the nice list..   you got some cool stuff.    just keep on cooking, its alot of fun.

[pig snatcher]

It isnt realy "cowboy cooking" but since you are using all these cast iron pots, I can tell you my darn near famouse purlow recipe. Good on the stove or over a gas cooker in an iron pot.

Dont know if yall have purlow out west but it is a rice, sausage, meat concoction that is great.  Will take years off your life but well worth it.

[Ned Makim]

Our family has used cast iron cooking gear (camp ovens) for generations. We come from the bush and decent cooking in the camp is considered a minimum. Indeed, all the men (as boys) are expected to learn to cook on the coals and traditionally do most of the cooking in a family camp. My mother used to say ' a man who can't feed himself is not much a man in my opinon...' I was surrounded by men (Dad had five brothers) so you learned to cook on coals so you could face them.
My boys are now real good camp oven cooks and we do the lot from damper (type of bread) through hard timers (sort of biscuits) to stir fries and roast dinners. A lot we make up as we go along depending on what's left in the tucker box at the end of a couple of weeks camped.

Hardtimers in the camp oven ready for the coals...


Cheers.

[HogzgoneWild]

Mandi, I only have one question! "Whats for dinner?"

[aladatrot]

Tonight is something with fresh tortillas harina. Chris found some he loves, so as I type this, we are waiting for our tortillas in a mexican carnaceria. When we walked in, the music stopped playing and the whole place fell silent as they stared at us in disbelief. I hope all these people can resume their shopping when we leave.

Ned, that is so awesome that you guys use camp stoves down under! Do you have a recipe you could share for those hard timers?

Cheers
M

[Ned Makim]

G'day M (is it Mandi?),
Hardtimers are a big part of our family history. Called such because they could get you through hard times. As I said before, we come from the bush and know about easy and hard times and I can guarantee these things will stick to your ribs when you need it.

OK. The recipe as handed down from Gran Makim (my grandmother) through my mother Madge.
Both ladies are long at rest but knew all about keeping the feed up to wild physical men.

3 cups of self raising flour
1 cup of dry sultana grapes
1 cup of sugar
Maybe half a cup of butter or margarine
Milk

Use the butter to rub through the flour, sugar and sultanas and then add milk bit by bit. Throw in a pinch of salt if you like too. You are trying to make a dough that sticks together but not to the rolling pin. Just a good flexible dough..
Use a cookie cutter to cut out your shapes and whack them in a camp oven the base of which has been floured lightly. You want the camp oven fairly hot but taken off the coals. At home hardtimers take about 20 mins or a bit more in a hot oven so you have to watch them or they will burn. It's sort of best to trial and error  but they should be light brown on the outside and cooked but softish inside. Traditonally you roll them about  half an inch thick before cooking because they can roughly double in size in a slow camp oven and they are supposed to be able to slide down into saddle bags...if you are going to whole traditional thing, that is.

Don't imagine it's going to be a big taste sensation but they will be good to eat, will provide plenty of energy and will be worth eating even if they are stale. You can also make them when you've got no money...

Cheers.

[aladatrot]

I have never heard of those grapes before. Are they like raisins?

Thanks ned!
M

[Ned Makim]

Sultana grapes are white grapes grown and sold in Oz as table grapes and dried. Yes very similar to raisins but lighter coloured and sweeter. Give raisins a go, I'm sure they will work...

Here's a bit more camp tucker (food)...

These are mudcrabs, their claws are serious business and can break bone or worst case take off a finger or a toe. We get at them once a year on a month long camp about 4000kms from our home.
You catch them in traps baited with fish or pork or whatever. The fun starts when you get them in the boat. The proper bush way is to pin them with your bare foot and tie up their claws with a couple of throws of string. Magic when you get the knack but can test your nerves a bit learning how...

That's me bumbling along with a crab we've trapped. I've got him by the back swimmers and his claws our out front. See my mate has no shoes on. You have to do it barefoot...



And this is what they look like after they've been in the crab cooker on the fire. (A crab cooker is a stainless steel stock pot with a liftout basket. Boil them for a little while and crack 'em open. Top tucker.

[aladatrot]

Okay Ned, enough is enough. That's just plain mean showing me seafood like that! We live about a mile from water on three sides of us, but you really have to go about 10 miles to get good fresh seafood in a little town called Kemah, TX. We don't fish for it ourselves, we aren't that talented - but I LOVE seafood.

Last night the neighbor brought over ceviche (suh - vee- chay in Texican). Ceviche is fish that has never been cooked with heat, but is instead "cooked" in lime juice. Add fresh avacado, diced tomato, and onion YUMMY. Eat it on fresh fried corn tortillas. Chris doesn't eat it, he isn't big on sushi either.

What other delicacies do you have down under?

Cheers
M

[Ned Makim]

This is a pot of redclaw, a little crayfish from the fresh water. Down home we have similar things. I think also every continent would have something like them. Taste very good. Catch them in traps too.


Cheers.

[aladatrot]

You have MUDBUGS! I was going to ask if yall had those. They are scrumptious with hot seasoning. Again, we don't trap our own, but we buy them like crazy during the season. MMMMmmmmm!

Cheers
M

[Mike]

This is a pot of redclaw, a little crayfish from the fresh water. Down home we have similar things. I think also every continent would have something like them. Taste very good. Catch them in traps too.


Cheers.

Now you're talking! We call them crawfish over here... or mudbugs as Mandi put it. Many, many pounds of those and some ice cold beer... it doesn't get any better than that!

[jdt]

uhh , mike i'm pretty sure itS PROPERLY pronounced  " crawDADS "     but your right about the cold beer . i guess thats universal !

[Ned Makim]

There's different species of them all over Oz. Look much the same, some taste better than others but they are everywhere.
There's great big ones down south callen Marron, they are black and about a foot long or more. These ones  in the pot literally have red claws and are called Redclaw...the normal everyday ones you get around here in the rivers, creeks and dams are called Craybobs. Elsewhere in Oz the same things are called Yabbies.
Boiled in a bit of salt water, they are good tucker. You can use them like prawns (shrimp?) and cook them green. Garlic craybobs are very good in the camp.
Cheers.

[craig]

thats the main reason i make the trip to winnfield La. every year,    10# of crawfish and a 30 pac and im set