We’ve all got one and it’s not until you become one that you realise maybe you should have said thank you a few more times…
So this Mothers Day we’re saying a huge Thank You to all the mums out there. Your unconditional love and tireless support is what’s building the next generation of amazing humans.
A generation that will act consciously and compassionately to build a world we can all be proud of and the future we’ve been dreaming of.
Thank You for kindling their dreams and always believing.
To celebrate Mothers Day this year we stepped away from the kitchen and got the boys creating a wild bake up on the fire. Such amazing flavours from smoked corn to roasted potkin and succulent sausages. The best thing about it was that the kids were entertained for a good 4 hours whilst is was cooking.
Here’s what we got up to…
This sort of cooking is so far from a recipe, all you need is beautiful produce that speaks for its self, some salt, olive oil and a couple of local chutneys for the table, oh and a fire pit with a view!
Here's what we did, don’t be afraid to experiment. We had so much fun doing this on Mothers Day we did it again for the next two nights, we just mixed up the veggies and meat and it worked every time! The best thing about it was that everything was grown within 100km from where we we’re cooking!!
Ingredients
Camp oven Veggies
Potkin Pumpkin from Tinklers
Local Garlic from Hunter Valley Produce
Potatoes from Sciberras Fresh
Leeks from Peter Chetcuti
Local Chilli from Golden Fields
Olive Oil from Riverflats
You can swap out some of the veggies for other things that are in season and roast well like carrots and eggplant.
Smoked Corn Salsa
Fresh local corn from Sciberras Fresh
Cherry Tomatoes from Goldenfield
Coriander from Sciberras Fresh
Lemon Olive Oil from River Flats
Again you can really smoke anything that you can get hanging over the fire like carrots or apples, play around with it.
The Meat
Smoked Trout from Arc En Ciel Trout
Using smoked trout as the meat meant that the meal was ready pretty quickly as it was only the vegetables that needed to cook. On the other nights we did a beautiful lamb shoulder and a beef topside roast. These cuts of meat took a bit longer but we just put them in the camp oven with the veggies and a bit of bone broth and they we’re ready in a few hours. The key with keeping the meat tender is low and slow. Don’t get tempted to stoke the fire too much!!
What we did…
Before we got the fire going, we hung corn up over the fire for smoking, amazing! The corn cooks with a beautiful smoky flavour and then we made it into a salsa with fresh baby tomatoes, coriander and lemon olive oil.
Once the corn was hung we got the fire going so that there was a good stash of coals in it, this took a good two hours and is much more successful when you’re using bigger bits of wood.
In the mean time the kids made good use of the fire for damper on a stick (just make sure you’ve got enough hands on deck to help little hands with cooking.)
And we got creative and made some native flower posies for the table.
Next we got the camp oven ready with all the veggies, a healthy serving of olive oil and some salt.
Once we had enough coals we pulled some to the side to put the camp oven onto and kept adding more coals as the fire burned. The boys checked the oven every 30min and everything was cooked perfectly within the hour. Cooking on a fire is much harder to regulate so again you just need to pay a round and keep an eye on things. My one tip would be to start early so that you’ve got enough time to cook it all low and slow and you’re not sitting down to eat at 11pm!
Oh and at the last minute the boys decided to set up a grill over the fire and cooked some sausages in a pan, I guess cooking works up an appetite!!
Thanks Mum and Happy Mothers Day!!
