Ash On The Fire

How To Get Out And About With The Bush Baby

What a whirlwind the last 6 months have been, the arrival of baby Ross has led to many changes in our lives but one thing that has remained constant is our love for the great outdoors. I am fortunate to have a wife that shares this passion with with me as well as the want to pass this onto our son.  

The grandparents have always been a little nervous of our activities in the great outdoors and I think they were secretly hoping that once the baby arrived we would calm down a little and take up some more sedate hobbies. Unfortunately for them this has not been the case and in fact we are more determined than ever to get out and learn new things so that we can pass them on to our son.

We have been heading out with Bodhi since about 2 weeks (some trip pics at the end of the video), he has been out in the snow, rain, wind and (finally) bright sunshine and with a little preparation and the right kit none of these conditions have been an issue. I have put together a video of what we carry and why every time we are out. The kit we have built has been used in all sorts of conditions and locations. I hope you find it of use and I welcome any comments on what you have found has worked well for you. The only thing I have added since the video is SPF 50 baby sunscreen with insect repellent. 

 

 

I have had some great comments from people asking for more posts, due to changes in my work arrangements I have had more time on my hands and have ut together some more content that you should be seeing over the next few months! You will also have to put up with me bragging about my first "proper" Bass I caught of the north Norfolk coast recently!

Chino the wonder dog is fast asleep on the couch and dreaming of the next big meal of the created on Ashonthefire.com

Double Dutch Oven: Roast Chicken Curry Part II

I am now a Dad! My son Bodhi Michael Ross was born on the 3rd of December 2011. To say it is a life changing experience is an understatement. My wife an I had done our research and attended the classes so thought we were well armed for what was about to come. This feeling of preparedness soon vanished after the second or third contraction, and was completely obliterated some 14hrs later when he arrived bang on 09:00! Bulk preparing food was an absolute God-send and this post is about the batch curry I prepared in quieter times!

This recipe is one that I had originally seen on BBC Saturday Kitchen (perfect inspiration telly) that I thought would be perfect to do in a dutch oven. At first glance the list of ingredients seems a lot, but you can quite easily pre prepare well in advance with the spices being pre mixed together and the fresh ingredients such as the chillies and and the coriander being replaced for dried ingredients.

 You will need....

The stock/fat from the roast chicken

1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

2.5cm/1in knob of fresh ginger, peeled and grated

1 red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped

8 green cardamom pods, slightly crushed

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tbsp ground turmeric

½ tsp chilli powder

1 tsp garam masala

1 tsp ground coriander seeds

2 large potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes

1 butternut squash, peeled, seeds removed and cut into cubes

570ml/1pt chicken or turkey stock

125ml/4fl oz yogurt

85ml/3fl oz double cream

1 tbsp lemon juice

Meat from one large roast chicken , chopped

1 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, chopped

I like to use the left over juices from the chicken roasting as it gives the dish more flavour. Basically I use the same dutch oven that I roasted the chicken in to prepare the curry in. Just leave the juices in the bottom of the oven and suspend it over an open fire just low enough to keep the juices fluid. This dish requires the ability to vary the temperature for different stages of cooking.

By using a tripod it allows you to vary the heat levels simply by lowering or raising the oven over the heat source, some people like to do this by increasing or decreasing the distance between the legs. Personally I have a tripod with a chain and hook system, all I have to do is place a chain link over the hook at the desired height to adjust the heat.

 

 

 

Once all your ingredients are prepared add the onions to the juices   Cook over a medium heat - hot enough to hear a gentle simmer, until the onion starts to soften. If you can hold your hand for 3-5 seconds over the heat source, that is the correct height for the oven

 

Once the onions  start to soften  add the garlic, ginger, chilli, cardamom, cumin, turmeric, garam masala and ground coriander. When adding the spices it is important to monitor the temperature as you don't want them to burn!

 

 

When you think the onions are looking nice and soft and a little translucent, add the potatoes and butternutsquash and cook until the potato begins to stick to the bottom of the dutch oven. Don't worry about this, if your pan is correctly seasoned it will be easy to clean (Keep checking back for a seasoning article).  Add the stock and bring to the boil. Season to taste.  Reduce heat by raising the oven ( I use a 7 second hand-over-the-heat guide rule for this) and simmer until the potatoes and butternut squash are tender.

 

Stir in the yogurt and cream, then add the lemon juice and check your temperature. You may need to add more fuel to the fire or lower the oven to maintain the temperature

 

 

 

 

Add the chopped up chicken, it will have cooled since you roasted it so heat it long enough for the chicken to be hot through.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Final thing to do is  to add the chopped coriander and stir through and then serve!

 

 

 

 

It is a great dish, and you can 'up' the spiciness by simply keeping the seeds in the chilli's!

 

 

Double Dutch Oven: Roast Chicken Curry Part I

 

As I sit here pondering what the future may hold, writing this post whilst  eating jerky, drinking beer and listening to the blues, I am theoretically one day out from meeting my son! Pending fatherhood is one of the most daunting and exciting things I have ever experienced, but what does this situation have to do with outdoor cooking? As any of you who been in a similar situation know, the time after birth can be amazing but also draining and the last thing a new family want to do is cook, so its a good idea to do some 'bulk' cooking in advance.  Also as you approach your due date there are a few people who suggest spicy food may, well, errm speed up the process!  I am impatient, so it seemed like an ideal time to cook up a big batch of curry!

 

Last weekend the weather was good and the dog was keen. The reciepe for this dish is a good one for practicing a few skills in the dutch oven and with that in mind I am going to split this post into two. The recipe is for a roast chicken curry, but it is also ideal for left over turkey, which is even better as the festive season is rapidly approaching! In this post we will deal with roasting the chicken in a dutch oven. I had only done this before with chicken legs, so the whole bird was  another step up.

Dutch ovens are one of the worlds most versatile bits of cookware, there are many variations around the world but all take advantage of cast iron's heat excellent heat transfer properties.

Dutch Ovens draw on 3 principles of heat transfer: Conduction, the ability to transfer heat evenly, convection which is the transfer of heat through gases and liquids, and radiation which is heat transfer through friction. A good quality oven will take advantage of all three principles.

Cast iron allows for an even transfer of heat from your heat source to the inside of the pot minimising hot spots and therefore burnt bits. A good fitting lid effectively creates an air tight seal that traps any gases inside the oven allowing heat transfer through convection, but there does need to be space in the pot around what ever you are cooking to take full advantage of this, and as soon as you lift the lid it is all gone! Radiation occurs simply through the design of the pot reflecting heat waves back into the pot and therefore into what ever is inside.

Cast iron is a great retainer of heat and the design of the pot means it will still cook even after a heat source is removed and that once it is up to temperature it is easier to keep it it at an even temperature.

Its important to take advantage of different principles for different types of cooking. For roasting/baking it is important to get what ever is being cooked off the bottom of the pan. I like to do this by just placing a cake rack in the bottom I have seen others make a "trivet" by placing chopped veg on the bottom of the oven. What this also does is get the chicken out of its juices allowing it to cook evenly.

For roasting meat I have had no problems with just placing items on top of the rack, if I were to roast vegetables I would use another tin with the vegetables in on top of the rack and something similar for baking (watch out for future posts on this).

The challenge is then gauging temperature. There are many guides and even apps to help you decide how many coals to use. For this roast I used briquettes.  As I was using a large oven I placed 10 underneath and 10 on top working on the principle that each briquette should give me 20 deg c therefore 200 deg c in the oven and a 90 min cook time.

 

Its important to lay the coals out evenly on top of a solid base that won't cause you to loose heat into the ground below, I chose a paving slab, which worked but the heat from the coals did crack it!

 

 

One of the tips for creating an even temperature is a quarter turn of the base anti clock wise and a quarter turn of the lid clockwise (being careful not to allow the gases to escape) every 20 mins to maintain an even temperature.

 

Then it is a case of leaving it cooking for 1hr 30 mins replacing any spent briquettes as the roasting takes place. Each briquette last roughly about  40 mins and takes about 20 mins to get up to heat. With this in mind I had a feeder fire running with fresh coals in it to replace those that had disintegrated to dust!

 

The easiest way to tell if your bird is done is to puncture the thigh at its thickest point then press the flesh to see if the juices run clear. If they don't or if there is still a hint of blood give it another 10-15  minutes and test again.

 

All that is left to do is carve and in this case get it ready for the next stage, the dutch oven curry! You'll have to wait until part two for that.

HUNTER-GATHERING: wild & fresh food

Foraging in Sussex: Hunter:Gather:Cook School 2011.

via huntergathercook.typepad.com

Just a quick link to Hunter Gather Cook's courses for next year that I will be helping out on!

The Daily Grind

For those of you who have visited my blog before, you will know that I am a fan of good coffee. I have mainly been using pre-ground beans which give a good flavour but deteriorate quickly once opened, which is not good for trips lasting more than a day. A good friend of mine has been singing the virtues of grinding your own beans.  Most grinders are designed for home use, so not ideal for going bush where there are no plug sockets.

 I have been on the hunt for a good coffee grinder for outdoor use for quite a while. Whilst I was in the US I bought a GSI JavaGrind which I used solidly for a week. I found it didn't work for me; the design means you have to balance it over a mug whilst you grind, this does mean that every time you hit a tough bean you knock the cup over! Also after only 5 days use the handle fell apart, so the grinder was returned.

After further searching I came across the Hario Mini Mill Grinder, this for me is coffee grinder gold. I have been using it for the last 2 months and I am still loving it.

What is so great about this grinder is that it is a completely sealed unit. It can hold enough beans to make coffee for two decent cups. You load your beans in the hopper in the top, which can be done before heading out. You clip the handle onto the lid, grind for about a minute, then you have your grinds contained in the bottom section.

 

 Once your water is boiled and your filter is set it is just a case of unscrewing the bottom section and pouring your grinds into your filter ready to make a brew.

The thing I like about grinding your own is the smells that are generated whilst grinding and then whilst brewing. It does turn your brew stop into a little bit of a ceremony but then that is  half the fun of it!

This grinder has been well thought out and is a very practical, easy to use unit. It is even possible to adjust the grind of your beans from fine to chunky though a simple twist of the grinding burr located on the bottom of the upper black section of the mill; this is just visible in the image on the right.  At first I didn't get the need for this, but after a bit of research I have found that you need to adjust your grind to suit your brewing method. An espresso machine is a high speed method so you need a fine grind, a filter is a slow speed method so you need a more chunky grind. If you have too small a grind for your brewing method the result is a bitter taste to your coffee, so it is important to adjust your grind to get the optimum flavour and therefore enjoyment from your coffee.

With the addition of this grinder I don't think I will be changing my coffee set up for some time, it has finally reached a point where I am happy with the outcome! I also really enjoy the ritual when I stop for a coffee. I even now take this kit with me when I am away with work so that I can be sure of a decent cup in the morning, sad I know!

Grinding your own really allows you to taste the flavours of different coffees, I am now finding many favourites. I currently get my beans from Has Bean coffee, their taster collection is well worth a try. Happy coffee brewing!

 

 

 

Ash on the fire on the road!

It's been a busy few weeks, for those of you whose day jobs include formulating annual operating plans I have felt your pain the last two weeks! This is the fourth year of doing one and yet it is still as stressful as ever!

I am fortunate enough to have an outlet for the tensions of the day job, the great outdoors! Writing this blog has given me the opportunity to be in contact with many like minded people, but as great as this is, it is only in the digital world! Recently I had a chance to work at the Wilderness Gathering with my good friend Nick Weston who runs the Hunter Gather Cook school just outside Brighton. This gave me the opportunity to meet and learn from a lot of different people.

I was there as his general lackey and dutch oven cook! I did my mexican breakfast, spicy breakfast donuts, the Thai Green Curry, a blind baked puff ball mushroom pie (blind baking coming soon) and was even part of the championship winning cake baking team with Boo from Bushcraft Tools using the dutch oven baking technique mentioned in my last post. Judging can be seen in this video  at about 7 minutes courtesy of silverfox bushcraft.

As a school we spent most of  the four days demonstrating many different ways of processing and cooking wild game. Something Nick and I are passionate about is eating well in the great outdoors. By taking a few simple ingredients with you and supplementing with foraged edibles you can  knock up something quite special. Combine that with some simple outdoor cooking techniques and you can really start to live well!

We were fortunate enough to be asked to demonstrate wild brewing, and to our surprise we had over 60 attendees! My dandelion wine, sloe gin and blackberry whisky all vanished. Nick also knocked up a wild cocktail consisting of water mint, pineapple weed, sumac-ade, sugar syrup and rum which was very well received. If you are in to your wild brewing or just want to learn more about it I would thoroughly recommend Andy Hamilton's new book Booze For Free. It was quite daunting demonstrating my alcholic ginger beer recipe to such a large group but once I got into it I really enjoyed the experience. There is a batch of ginger beer currently brewing in the ashonthefire.com household for a future blog post.

What I loved about this event was meeting many different people and sharing ideas. I have walked away with a new understanding of deer butchery, a few new food recipes and some excellent home brewing tips that I will be trying out in future posts!

There were a lot of wild/outdoor cooks at the show, and I had serious kit envy. If you ever get the chance to spend some time with Vince from Nordic Outdoors jump at it! This man can really cook, and has some serious toys to do it with! On the back of Vince's work I have committed my self to spit roasting a suckling pig for bonfire night, the wife is on board which hopefully means my kit trip to the blacksmith shouldn't get me in too much trouble!

This is the first ever show like this that I have been to, and I will be going to more like them. There is a lot to see and do. You have to be careful as there are a lot of "must have" bits of kit and I was convinced on many occasions that I really did need that ridiculously big knife or that new bit of clothing! There were a lot of different trade stands, demonstrations and schools which gave me a chance to catch up with some of my old instructors that started me on this path. What is great about these shows is that it gives you a chance to completely immerse yourself in what you enjoy doing. Getting to practice many different techniques morning noon and night was great, to then have people want to learn about what you are doing is very motivating.

The show for us wasn't just cooking and demonstrating; we did get a chance to head out and have some fun. Above is Nick with Kane of the South Coast Axe Throwers Association trying to convince himself that a tomahawk is what every back-country chef needs! Was a lot of fun, with great instruction from Kane ( the guy in the skirt, sorry I mean Kilt).

Unbeknown to me the whole event was a bit of a job interview, and next year I will be helping out on some of the courses at Hunter Gather Cook demonstrating some of the techniques I have learnt. Thanks to all who made this a great weekend, James, Sean, Fraser and everyone else who visited the stand and a special thanks to Nick for bringing me along to the event.

 

Big Boys Love Cake!

First off all I need to start with an apology, I am a blogger and I haven't blogged for 5 weeks! Just moved house and have been without the internet for 4 weeks! I blame BT, they blame me for not giving them 2 months notice! Metaphorically speaking I am now back in the saddle , technically speaking I am back in my swivel chair in front of my key-bored!

So as every skinny comedian will tell you, fat guys love cake. I am larger than your average bear ergo I love cake! As I mentioned in my last post I picked up some great books in the US, this post is from a recipe taken directly from one of those books, Campfire Cookery: Adventuresome Recipes and Other Curiosities for the Great Outdoors. I spent hours pouring through this book in Denver. The section that caught my attention was their chapter on cakes (see above).

 

I have baked bread, cakes etc. in billy cans/dutch ovens by placing a tin inside the billy/oven balanced on pebbles. I have found this to work well but have suffered with hot spots (burnt bits). This book advocated adding water to the oven to create a bain-marie thus generating an even temperature as well as slightly steaming the cake.

I thought I would give their dutch oven darkly bitter chocolate spice cake recipe a try. In addition to this new method of baking I thought I would also try using lump-wood charcoal. I have cooked in dutch ovens before with briquettes and with coals from the fire, but never with lump wood. As I was to find out out this choice required a lot of attention!

With charcoal for the bbq I always try to buy from a local charcoal maker, great guys to talk with and the charcoal is always top quality! Miles better than your local supermarket's offering. With regards to dutch ovens always try to get one with a lid that fits properly, they need to seal correctly to  work efficiently. You will find some that have slightly warped lids; steer clear of these! Reputable traders such as Ronnie Sunshines will swap out any ovens that aren't quite right.

What will you need for this recipe:

A dutch oven

A metal bowl/cake tin that fits inside the dutch oven

A saucepan to melt some of the ingredients

A large mixing bowl

4 small stones/or tea towel

 

Ingredients

5 table spoons unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups of plain flour

1/2 cup coco powder

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon flaked salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (yes it sounds odd, but it works!)

2/3 cup sour cream

2 large eggs

1/2 cup of coarsely chopped dark chocolate

 

So, first step is to light your coals. Once they are going, butter your cake tin (mine is a ss Ikea fruit bowl) and then melt your remaining butter over the hot coals.  A MSR Stoway pot is great for this.

Set the melted butter to one side and then combine all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl apart from the chopped chocolate

Once the butter has cooled slightly, add to it the sour cream and eggs, whisk till combined.

Then fold the wet ingredients into the dry and finally add the chocolate. This is a good point to check that you like the taste of the mixture (raw eggs, so do this at your own risk!)

Now pour the mixture into your greased cake tin and then lick the bowl, spoon and anything else that has been in contact with the mixture!

 

 

Dont be tempted to eat it all, it tastes great but you will feel a little off in a very short space of time!

Once the mixture is in your "cake tin" place in the dutch oven on top of stones or a tea towel and then fill the dutch oven 2/3rds of the way up the cake tin with water.

Now this is where the fun began.  When using charcoal briquettes (which once lit just keep burning), there are many guides for how many on top and how many underneath the oven you should use. Using coals from a campfire will give you a constant supply of coals, as long as you keep a good feeder fire going.

With lump wood charcoal I rapidly realised that in low volumes  I would need to work hard to keep them alight and therefore maintain constant temperature. I soon found I had to light an additional pile of lump-wood to keep me supplied with hot coals.

For this type of cooking coals from briquettes lit in a chimney are a good way to start.  If you fancy a challenge go with coals from lump-wood!

With the lump-wood I had enough coals under the oven so that the entire base was heated by a single layer of coals. To ensure the  top of the cake was cooked I piled some coals on top of the lid. I piled them in the centre of the lid mainly to try and keep the coals alight.

With briquettes I would have made a ring of briquettes with the same diameter as the oven and placed 5-6 briquettes around the edge of the lid of the oven.

Then it is a case of just sitting back and waiting for the cake to bake, whilst periodically swapping out coals or fanning the coals to keep them alight/maintain heat.

Depending on how well you have maintained the heat your cake is done when you insert a tooth pick/ twig/ tent peg or knife and it comes out clean, about 45 mins to 1 and 1/2 hrs.

Mine took about an hour and a half, I mainly put this down to me having to mess around with the lump-wood coals. With practice I think I will get better at managing them.

The cake itself was delicious, the cooking method gave a texture to the cake that was mid way between a  sponge cake and a steamed pudding.

I really like bitter chocolate and have been adding it to all sorts of savory dishes recently. I was sceptical about adding what I would deem to be more savory ingredients to a desert. The addition of the salt and the cayenne pepper worked well but does make it  a more grown up flavor. The flaked salt doesn't quite dissolve  into the mixture which results in a pleasant salty bite every now and then that compliments the dark chocolate. The cayenne gives  a pleasant heat at the end of each bite.

My dome shaped bowl didn't quite make the cake as aesthetically pleasing as I would have liked. However it did mean the cake just slid out. I was nervous to try a cake tin with a pop out bottom due to the use of water.

Overall I was very impressed with this technique, no hot spots (burnt bits) and tasty end result! I will be trying more from the book and I am interested to see how a traditional sponge recipe would work with this approach!

 

The English Try S'mores

So I am now back from my travels around Colorado, Utah and Nevada. It was one amazing trip; lots of micro brews, hiking and of course food! I have discovered the joys of adding hickory chips to my bbq to give meat a deep smokey flavour,  something I will be trying to recreate back home.  I have come back to the UK to moving  house whilst trying to get on top of the work back log, so this post is a little bit of fun that we had in the US.

So, s'mores! This is something I had never seen before, and is a campfire staple everywhere in the US! From a little bit of research, apparently s'mores were originally developed by girl guides trying to impress their male scouting counterparts around the campfire.

All you need is Grahams crackers (UK alternative, digestives) , chocolate (Cabury's is miles better than Hershey's) and marshmallows.

 

The traditional approach is to skewer your marshmallow on a stick and then toast it over an open fire until gooey! Then you place the marshmallow in between two crackers (biscuits) with a chunk of chocolate. The heat from the melted marshmallow should slightly melt the chocolate and then you devour!

This to me sounded like a great result, but I am a messy kinda guy and I wanted to ensure that the chocolate was melted into the marshmallow!

So I thought I would try and pre stack mine and then wrap them in tin foil pockets to be roasted directly over the coals. This is also a great way to do your s'mores  on the bbq. I had not discovered the joy of hickory chips yet so i don't know what  a "smoked" s'mores would taste like!

 

 

It doesn't take long on the bbq, 5 mins max. The end result really is quite something! A big, sticky, gooey, marshmallowy, chocholatly sandwich heaven!

I reckon that you could do many variants of this experimenting with different types of chocolate, adding peantnut butter or even wild mints and berries. Will be trying a few of these out in the future.

The US is an outdoor cooks heaven, I spent most of my time cursing at the stupid 23kg weight limit for the return flight to Heathrow!

There is every possible shape and size of high quality yet well priced cast iron cookware. A full range of ingredients, tools and knives that aren't available over here.

Every campsite we stayed at had well constructed fire pits and your own individual bbq. Even at roadside rest stops there would be public bbq's.

 

I also trawled the book shops looking for inspiration. I have come back with some excellent resources for the budding camp chef which I will be using to inspire future posts.

 

 

 

Canoe Coffee

I am fortunate enough to live close to the Cuckmere river and when I can I like to get out in the canoe and enjoy the sights. The challenge with all of my trips is that my coffee addiction has to come with me.

Over the years I have tried  many different products and set ups for my bush coffee. The lightest I have used is the 3 in 1 instant coffee sachet which gives ok coffee if a little sweet and chemically creamy. What I really like is fresh filtered coffee and I wanted to be able  have this whilst I am out and about. I originally tried a Press Bot, which turns your Nalgene bottle into a cafetiere. Great concept but practically no good. To make your coffee  you have to tip out all your water and are  left with a lot of coffee grounds in your bottle! Not great!

 

Trawling through a few outdoor forums (listed on my page) I came across a few rave reviews for Orltieb's coffee filter holder. This has actually gone on to become one of my favorite bits of kit and now travels with me everywhere I go,  including the back of the car for when I am stuck in non moving traffic or if I fancy a quick brew whilst on route somewhere.

It is a very simple system, Orlietb are known for making waterproof kit holders mainly made out a heavy duty pvc like material. Similar to the same stuff bouncey castle are made out of and this is what they have used to make this filter holder.

It's conically shaped and holds a standard coffee filter paper and has two slots either side to insert chop sticks (or tent pegs or twigs) to brace the holder across your cup.

 

 

 

Before each trip I just bag up some freshly ground coffee . Apparently coffee doesn't keep well for long periods of time so I try to use fresh every outing. I have yet to find a compact bean grinder to take with me.  I would imagine this would take my back country coffee to the next level!

 

 

Once the coffe is loaded into the filter all it needs is hot water. I like to be able to carry everything I need for this inside my cooking pot which is a Snowpeak Titanium Trek 900. Its not quite a dutch oven or a skillet, but I find it works well for boiling water and on the odd occasions baking bread rolls!

I have tried trangia/alcohol stoves in the past but have not got on well with them.  I like to have the ability to vary temperature to suit what I am cooking. I am currently using Optimus Crux, which is a folding screw in stove that when packed away sits in the recess of a gas canister and therefore sits nicely in the pot!

 

 

Once the water has boiled pour over the coffee, the smell is amazing!

Sit back and enjoy the view whilst the coffee filters through.

Then enjoy the coffee, my brew kit cosnsist of: ground coffee, sugar, Dairystixs milk sachets and a few herbal tea bags.

One advanatge to being on the road all the time with my job is that I can raid the hotel room's tea and coffee making kits which keeps me well stocked in supplies!

Once I am done all I have to do is lift up the filter paper, wipe out the holder and pack it all away back into the pot.  This system works for me, it doesnt take up to much space and is easy to clean but most importantly it makes good coffee!

Simple.