CAMPING THE KIWI WAY

Hot cross buns

One year when we were at scout camp over Easter, we cooked hot cross buns. This is the recipe that we used. It worked great in camp ovens. 

I use the same recipe at home in my bread maker and electric oven. I put all the ingredients in the bread maker bowl, except the dried fruit which I put in the fruit and nut dispenser, and use the dough setting.

The recipe includes a cross and glaze for the buns. I tend to leave these out.

• 600g plain flour

• 2 tsp dry yeast

• 4 Tbsp brown sugar

• 2 tsp cinnamon

• 2 tsp mixed spice

• Pinch each of ground cardamom and ground coriander

• 2 tsp salt (optional)

• 2 eggs

• 250ml milk, lukewarm

• 2 Tbsp orange marmalade

• 40g butter, softened

• 250g sultanas, raisins and currants

• 30g mixed peel

For the cross: Plain flour

• Icing sugar

• Water

• For the glaze: ½ cup caster sugar

• ¼ cup water

◗ Mix flour, yeast, brown sugar, spices and salt in a large bowl.

◗ Whisk egg, milk and marmalade together and pour into the flour mixture to form a sticky dough.

◗ Knead on a floured surface for 10 mins until elastic. Add softened butter and knead a further 5 mins until smooth. Fold in dried fruit and mixed peel and knead for a further 3 mins.

◗ Mould into a loaf shape and then divide into 12 segments. Roll each segment into a ball and then flatten onto a greased tray. Place 2cm apart.

◗ Cover loosely with cling wrap and let dough rise in a warm place for 2 hours until doubled in size. 

◗ Preheat oven to 180°C.

◗ To make crosses, mix the flour, icing sugar and water into a thick paste. Pour paste into a zip lock bag and snip one of the corners off the bag to create a piping bag. Pipe crosses on the buns.

◗ Bake buns for 15–20 mins. 

◗ Turn out onto a wire rack.

Cooking the buns in a camp oven

You need a camp oven, a trivet/trivet stand-in, a round tin that fits in the camp oven.

More about camp ovens

◗ Put some form of trivet in the bottom of the camp oven (such as a rack or upturned metal plate). Then put the lid on the camp oven and place it in a spot on the fire that has good embers or on a low setting on your gas hob. 

◗ Allow the inside of the camp oven to warm up before you put the hot cross buns inside.

◗ Shape your hot cross buns as described and place in a round cake tin that will fit inside your camp oven. Open the warmed camp oven and place the tin with the hot cross buns on top of the trivet. Replace the lid. 

◗ Check frequently to ensure they are cooking but not burning. You may find that you need to move the camp oven to a warmer or cooler part of the fire or adjust the temperature of your gas hob.

To create glaze

◗ bring the sugar and water to the boil until it is a clear syrup. Take off the heat. 

◗ Apply glaze to hot buns with a pastry brush. 

Enjoy.

Lentil and eggplant stew with gnocchi

None of the ingredients in this recipe require refrigeration. We were low on fresh vegetables, so I used my remaining eggplant and mushrooms. 

The quantities below made enough for three hungry people. If you wanted a smaller meal, you could omit the tin of tomatoes. Alternatively, you could add more vegetables, tinned foods and gnocchi to feed more people.

• 1 eggplant chopped into cubes about 1–2cm in size

• 1 Tbsp salt

• 1 onion, diced

• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped, or 2 tsp ready-chopped garlic

• 3 Tbsp oil

• 100g sliced mushrooms

• 1 chopped capsicum or 2 small zucchini

• 450g tin brown lentils, drained

• 450g tin chopped tomatoes

• 450g tin tomato-based pasta sauce

• 1 tsp each of basil, oregano and Moroccan spices (or whatever you have available)

• 1 packet of dry gnocchi

◗ In advance of making the dish, chop the eggplant and sprinkle the salt over it. Set aside until you are ready to use it. 

◗ Chop the onions, garlic and any vegetables you are adding. 

◗ Rinse the salt off the chopped eggplant.

◗ Fry onions and garlic in 1Tbs of oil in the camp oven. When they start to brown add the chopped eggplant and another Tbsp of oil. Stir regularly and cook until eggplant is transparent. You may need to add more oil if the eggplant begins to stick. 

◗ Add mushrooms and brown them (if using).

◗ Drain and add tinned lentils, then add the chopped tomatoes and pasta sauce. Add herbs and spices and continue to cook as a stew.

◗ Cook gnocchi according to the instructions on the packet, in a separate pot.

◗ When the gnocchi are cooked, drain them and add to the stew in the camp oven.

◗ Add zucchini/capsicum at this stage (if using). Mix and cook for a further 2–5 minutes before serving.

Pork and vegetables in hoisin sauce

I cooked this recipe using pork steaks that I diced up. It could also be made with pork mince. The kumara and carrots went well with the sweetness of the pork.

The quantities below fed three hungry people and could easily be adjusted for smaller or larger groups. If I was cooking for one or two people, I would use only one packet of the ready sauce, less pork, a small kumara and fewer carrots.

• 1 onion, diced

• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

• 500g diced pork or pork mince

• 2–3 carrots, peeled and diced

• 1 medium, red kumara, peeled and diced

• 2 packets of ready sauce for hoisin minced pork

• 1 tsp ground ginger 

• 100g mushrooms, sliced

• 1 capsicum, diced

• 1 Tbsp oil

◗ Peel and dice vegetables and chop up pork (if not using pork mince).

◗ Cook onion and garlic in the oil in the camp oven.

◗ When onion is transparent add pork and brown.

◗ Add carrot and kumara and sufficient water to nearly cover the vegetables.

◗ Simmer until kumara and carrot are partially cooked.

◗ Add ready sauce, ground ginger, mushrooms and capsicum to the camp oven. Continue simmering until vegetables are fully cooked.

◗ Serve over rice or noodles.