A SUREFIRE CAMPFIRE STEW RECIPE
Those based in higher altitudes can look forward to a multitude of cold nights and frosty mornings during the winter touring season.
Nothing to worry about of course with a well-stacked campfire to oversee, a hearty feed and a cozy swag to collapse into.
Talking of hearty meals, the standard summer fare doesn’t quite cut it when you’re stamping the frost off your boots in the morning. Cold weather camping’s all about classic comfort cooking that leaves a glow in your belly and a smile on your dial.
Occasional camp cookery correspondent Les Dooley knows all too well that you don’t make friends with salad – especially at this time of year.
Les patched through his personal recipe for the perfect pot of beef stroganoff, practiced over a couple of decades of high altitude campfires and it’s guaranteed to satisfy.
The team whipped up a batch of the creamy casserole on a High Country tyre-testing trip and can promise two things; you won’t find a scrap of rabbit food on the ingredient list, and it tastes bloody tops.
INGREDIENTS
250g diced beef (blade steak or any cheap cut will do)
250g cup mushrooms halved or quartered
One brown onion diced
Two tablespoons cooking oil
Teaspoon of salt
A cup and a half of beef stock
One tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
200g wide egg noodles
A teaspoon of thyme
Half a cup of sour cream
METHOD
Add your cooking oil to a heavy skillet and heat up before adding your diced beef. Season with salt and brown meat on all sides before removing it from heat, covering and setting aside
Heat up your camp oven with another dash of cooking oil, drop in your mushrooms and diced onion and sauté for five minutes
Add your stock, Worcestershire sauce and thyme to camp oven and mix through for another ten minutes or so until sauce is boiling
Mix your noodles into the broth and cook until tender – usually another five to ten minutes
Remove your camp oven from the heat and start mixing in your sour cream. You want to add just a spoonful at a time and continue mixing thoroughly to avoid the cream curdling
Add your pre-browned beef to the camp oven stew and put it back over a low heat to simmer for another few minutes
Remove from heat and serve up piping hot!
