Out in the bush and in no particular hurry at the end of the day … Here is one of Willie’s favourite ‘on the go’ meals.
Roosterkoek (Camp Fire Bread) and Venison Eye Fillet with Beer Gravy
500g Self raising flour
1 can of beer
½ teaspoon salt
Salted butter for application to cooked bread rolls
Put the flour, salt and beer into a bowl (and make sure you have plenty of beer on hand for drinking while making the dish!). Stir ingredients together.
Knead the sticky dough until it is elastic and stretchy in appearance and consistency. This should take around 5 to 10 minutes. The dough should take up just under half of the space in the bowl. (You are going to need the other half of the bowl for when it rises.)
Cover the bowl with a lid and put the dough aside to rest in a warm place (preferably between 21 – 30 degrees Celsius but not in direct sunlight if you can help it). It’s important to keep the bowl covered as direct sunlight will kill the yeast – and your bread will remind you more of stones than of anything else.
Now is the perfect time for a nap if it’s cold.
If you need to, crawl into your sleeping bag with your bowl and use this time for a little siesta. Your body heat should be as efficient as the sun in heating the yeasty mixture. Make sure you don’t sleep too long though as you may well be scraping yeasty dough from your inner lining if the brew overflows!
Basically wait until the mixture is doubled in size and then knock it back down with another quick knead until it is about 2/3rds of its original swollen size. And try not to add any other unwanted ‘methane gases’ from inside your sleeping bag while it is doubling.
Roll the mixture into palm sized balls and press them flat into round circle ‘patties’ that are about 1cm thick. Lightly flour to prevent them from sticking.
Then place them on a grill over a slow burning open fire and cook. The fire should not be flaming but if you can hold your hand over the coals for about 4 – 5 seconds comfortably, that’s a goldie and you are good to go. Cook away!
Turn them often until they’re a golden colour. They should have a hollow sound if you tap them when they are cooked. This usually takes around 10 – 15 minutes.
Rake those babies in off the grill when they are ready and cut them open to slather butter (or a lovely aged cheddar or jam) all over them. Eat a few and then keep the rest for the remainder of the meal
Which is .…
Venison Eye Fillet with (more) Beer Gravy…
500 g of venison eye fillet (or however much you have)
2 onions
2 green, red or yellow peppers
More beer (probably around 150ml)
Slice the venison fillets into 10mm slices (think ‘sliced bread’).
In a hot skillet throw some olive oil, sheep’s fat or what ever oil you have and heat it. Throw in the venison slices after that and brown them for around 30 seconds each side.
Take them out.
Season with salt and pepper (or BBQ seasoning or your own brand of magic seasoning) and leave them aside to rest.
Thinly slice your onions and get fancy with your green (red or yellow) pepper chopping and casually toss them into the pan together. If you haven’t had too much beer this should be a cinch.
Sauté the peppers and onions until they are translucent, soft and ‘glassy’-looking on a high heat (i.e. rark up the flames now).
Add in the ‘rested’ fillet slices that you put aside earlier (once these boys are done) and swish them around in the mix for another 2 – 3 minutes. A lot of liquid will flow from the meat, which is good. The meaty flavours will seep into your onion/pepper mix and make it super tasty.
Next, with the steak still in the pot, add in some more beer (around 150ml) to make a thick and meaty gravy.
By this stage you should be so hungry you’ll be able to imagine the taste just by smelling it.
Cook the meat slices until they are medium rare on the inside – You can pull them out to cut them and test the pinkness of the flesh.
Done!
Crack open another beer! You’ve earned it!
Grab a roosterkoek (nothing to do with a real rooster) and spoon oodles of your venison into the bun – or if you prefer to eat with a little more decorum, neatly place the bun on the side of your plated serving.
If you now would like to ruin it, squirt tomato sauce all over it and you will have achieved your aim.
For those who love green, toss in a bit of salad and you’ll be ready to impress your camping mates.
If you liked this recipe and have got to this point of this ‘article’, tell us how you enjoyed your bushfire camp dining experience. We would love to hear about it. Better still send us some photos!
And nope you don’t get one of those stylised photos to see what your dish should actually look like from us! As long as it tastes good, it’s perfect.
We are far more interested in your photos!