Minimalist cooking in the bush

Lazy cooks rejoice:
Dampers:You dont need a mixing bowl for making damper or a camp oven to cook it in just a large square of plastic. Make a bowl sized hole in the sand and line it with the square of plastic - voila simple mixing bowl. Light a fire in a sandy area, when hot, scrape away the embers and ashes plus a bit of the hot sand - handful of flour in the hole plus a dusting on the damper. Add the damper into the fire hole bit more flour on top and then rake in the hot sand coals and hot ash - leave it heaped over the buried damper. Leave for 30 - 40 mins depending on the fire heat. When ready a quick 'bang' between the hands and you have a very clean damper. In the mean time the dough on your square of plastic will have dried, scrumple it up and all the dried dough will fall off - ready for re-use. Use onion and bacon for tasty savoury dampers.

Fish: Catch fish - do not scale , fillet or clean in any way - and dont stick a knife into it either. Rake hot coals from the fire to one side. When fine white ash has formed - lay the fish onto said coals - 6-8 mins per side depending on size. When cooked, remove from the coals lift off the entire side of skin - which reveals steaming hot white juicy flesh. Season to taste. After the first side is eaten, flip over and repeat. When finish toss skins and backbone into the fire - great tucker with no preparation and clean-up

Omeletes: This was from a explorOz post some time ago. To make a number of omeletes you requires a supply of mid-sized zip-lok plastic bags. Bring pot of water to the boil, mix omelete ingredients and pour in zip lock bags, remove air and seal. Add bags to the boiling water until cooked. Some of the tag-along tours would give each person a bag the night before with a list of ingredients available. Each person listed their required ingredients and wrote their name on the bag and handed it to the cook in the morning. Sounds like they were good organisers.

Enjoy

John

I like the sound of all of them, but the omeletes sound really easy to do..

Thanks for the recipe.

Jen

Sounds like some good tucker there BT, I know certain cooking bags are all supposed to be all good and everything but the cooking in a plastic bag thing always rings a little wrong to me, very convenient, but the plastic........

Wayne.

Digginerup wrote: but the plastic........

Take the omelette out of the bag before eating
But seriously your probably ok to cook in the bag. Similar to tin foil I guess... ever cooked a fish in tinfoil on the campfire then wonder why everyone has a shocking headache after....rrrrgggghh

Jerryx4 wrote:

Digginerup wrote: but the plastic........

Take the omelette out of the bag before eating
But seriously your probably ok to cook in the bag. Similar to tin foil I guess... ever cooked a fish in tinfoil on the campfire then wonder why everyone has a shocking headache after....rrrrgggghh

Yes and never eat or drink from chipped enamel plates or mugs !

Ark wrote:

Jerryx4 wrote:

Digginerup wrote: but the plastic........

Take the omelette out of the bag before eating
But seriously your probably ok to cook in the bag. Similar to tin foil I guess... ever cooked a fish in tinfoil on the campfire then wonder why everyone has a shocking headache after....rrrrgggghh

Yes and never eat or drink from chipped enamel plates or mugs !

Duh!! Take the egg out of the bag!!!! why didn't I think of that!! it's the "probably OK" thing I'm concerned about, are you serious about the enamel ware?... , never heard about the tinfoil thing either. .

Wayne.

Yes very serious ! Had a mate who was very crook ! And it was found the chipped enamel that was the problem

Ark wrote:Yes very serious ! Had a mate who was very crook ! And it was found the chipped enamel that was the problem

Really?, what was the problem?, poisoning or actual chips in guts??

Wayne.

Some sort of poisioning ! Was a long time ago but I remember other ppl tellin me the same thing! I will see ifi can find any info on it .

I have heard the same thing about chip enamel cups, plates, and it doesn't matter how clean they are, if they have a chip in them you can catch germs from it.. That's what I have heard anyway..
Yes I will take the omelette out of the bag before eating..

Thanks
Jen