Last Monday evening I happened to watch the episode of My Kitchen Rules where Ben from NSW cooked a Saltbush Lamb Shoulder in a
camp oven and all but destroyed it.
Well, I got hooked and just couldn't wait for the weekend to arrive to see if I could do better and printed down the recipe from the MKR Web site.
Saltbush Lamb
The recipe gives a poor instruction in
camp oven cooking and no wonder Ben crashed and burned.
Well folks, I have to say while writing this with a belly full of delicious roasted lamb, Fondant Potato, Roasted Sweet Potato and steamed Asparagus and Green Bean parcels that the recipe itself is OK but the instructions re
camp oven cooking would turn anybody off cooking in this way for life.
Unfortunately for Ben, the approach in digging a pit and setting alight to a pile of wood over a four hour period or so with the result that at times the fire was roaring and other times hardly working at all is not what
camp oven cooking should be. When using coals for cooking you need plenty of them, a long handled shovel and a good quality
camp oven.
Above all, you need to experiment and learn from your experiences.
I recommend people try this excellent recipe but use the
camp oven in the following manner.
Take a quantity of Heatbeads® equal to twice the diameter of your
camp oven for the top and four to six less for the bottom.
In my case for the 12” Hillbilly, I placed 24 heatbeads® on top and 8 heatbeads® underneath, then removed two heatbeads from the bottom as the stock inside the oven was bubbling a bit too much.
I find I have more control over the heat using heatbeads®, unless I am at
camp with a good sized campfire and plenty of coals to shovel around. You can adjust the heat to suit adding or removing heatbeads. I place my oven on a pot stand sitting in a cast iron frypan which allows plenty of air circulation underneath to ensure the heatbeads are not smothered. The meat is also placed on a trivet to keep it off the bottom of the oven.
There is a misconception that most of the heat should be on the bottom of the
camp oven but all this will achieve is to burn the bottom of the oven, destroying anything inside. Most of the heat should be applied to the top when roasting or baking and the Hillbilly has a great shaped lid to contain the coals or heatbeads®.
After an hour or so, add the sweet potatoes to the vegetable ring to roast them along with the meat which is also turned at this stage.
One other problem with the MKR recipe is the use of multiple cooking processes.
The
camp oven for the meat, boiling the potatoes in a saucepan, roasting the sweet potato in a household oven. (what’s wrong with the oven you already have hot).
Again, the flexibility of the Hillbilly
camp oven with its vegetable ring accessory makes this process simple. Just dump the sweet potatoes in half way through the meat cooking process.
When out in the bush, I wouldn’t bother cooking the potatoes separately. They would go in the veggie ring with the sweet potato.
Overall, an enjoyable time making a good recipe even better by using the
camp oven in a controlled manner.
I’m just finishing the bottle of red I used to keep me company during the cooking process and all is good with the world:-))
Bill.