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FIRE
ROASTED VEGGIES
Fire roasted veggies seem to go with everything, including more of themselves.
This is not a precise guide, but that is the beauty of fire cooking, nothing is precise. This is a general list of tips that will help you on your way to delivering a delicious fiery array.
I N G R E D I E N T S
- Veggies: almost anything works but our favourites are potatoes, small sweet potatoes, broccolini, asparagus, corn on the cob, carrots, asparagus, beetroot and plenty of others.
- Olive oil
- Butter
- Salt and pepper
- Onion
- Garlic
- Smoked paprika
- Lemon
D I R E C T I O N S
GREENS
Brococolini, asparagus (in half), string beans (in half), brussel sprouts (in half) etc
- Pour a dash of oil in a wok, add greens, diced garlic (1 clove per bunch), salt and pepper.
- Put on medium/high heat and stir regularly until the ends start to blacken.
- Add a squeeze of lemon at the end to freshen
ROOT VEGGIES
Potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips etc.
Method 1 - camp oven
- Cut 1kg of veggies in to rough chunks about 1.5 – 2cm.
- Roughly chop up a shallot and remove the skin from 3 cloves of garlic.
- Put everything in a camp oven (dutch oven) and liberally coat and toss through olive oil, salt and pepper, a teaspoon of smoked paprika and a knob of butter.
- Take a shovel load of coals and put it away from the fire – put the oven on this pile of coals.
- Load up the lid of the oven with hot red coals (or charcoal) – try and avoid putting lots of ash on here. Add one or two small burning logs as well, having a flame on the lid gives a great heat.
- The trick here is to have 20% of the heat underneath and 80% on the lid, this will stop the veggies from sticking to the base and it will cook the veggies more evenly.
- Continue to keep the fire on top of the oven burning – adding medium sticks helps keep the heat up.
- After about 25-30min, check the veggies and lift a couple of bits up to make sure the base isn’t burning. If it is fine don’t stir the veg, stirring will turn it in to a mushy mess.
- Put it back on the heat and take off when the veg is golden brown – total cooking time is usually 35-45 min.
- Enjoy! They go really well with the Steak mushroom sauce.
Method 2 - Aluminium foil and baking paper
- Follow the first 3 steps of Method 1 – except wrap the veggies in one layer of baking paper (stops sticking) then 2 layers of aluminium foil and throw them in a bed of coals.
- Turn the veggies every 5 minutes to ensure they don’t stick to the alfoil.
- Check after 15 minutes to make sure they are not burning in any areas.
- Remove when they are golden brown – cooking time is around 20-25 minutes.
Tip: when wrapping in foil, make sure you have the opening for all 3 layers in the same spot- it makes it easier to check the veggies and not tear the foil.
CORN ON THE COB
- Soak the ear of corn in some water for between 20 min and 3 hours.
- Peel the corn and coat in your favourite coating (some Nandos peri-peri sauce works really well) .
- Put the corn on the hot plate over medium heat and turn every 2-3 minutes until there are a few small charred bits all the way around it.
- Take off and rub a bit of butter over the outside, then put back on the heat for another 2 min to melt it in.
- Total cooking time 10-15 min.
ROASTED BEETROOT
- Take your fresh beets and remove the stems.
- Scrub the beets with some steel wool or a scourer until the skin has been removed and they are bright red.
- Cut the beets in to quarters and wrap in 2 layers of aluminium foil (leave the foil open).
- Add some cracked pepper, pinch of salt and balsamic vinegar in the foil with the beets (around 4 tbpsn per beet).
- Close up the foil and throw on the coals for 30 min, turning once after 15 min.
- The should be slightly charred in a couple of small spots. Add a small knob of butter to the foil and let it melt under low heat for 5 minutes (you can leave the foil open for this).
- Total cooking time 30-40min.
Tip: This also works really well with carrots!
FLAME GRILLING
- This is really versatile and can be used for things like asparagus, thickly sliced broccoli, broccolini, corn, thickly sliced cauliflower or field mushrooms.
- Toss them in a bowl with oil, salt and pepper, some finely sliced garlic and a little optional vinegar like sherry vinegar or balsamic.
- Then grill them over low-medium heat with minimal flame until they have some nice dark lines on them (use the grill, not the hotplate).