Monthly Archives: October 2022

camp oven, Dinner, Guest Recipe

Guest Recipe – Pacey’s Campfire Beef Stew & Dumplings

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The Pacey family from Brisbane Queensland are masters when it comes to cooking over a fire — not just when travelling — at home too.

We met the Paceys, also known as ‘Pacing Our Travels’, early in our travels at Perlubie Beach, South Australia. We were blown away by their custom van they designed and built themselves, (it’s well worth a look), and the boys weren’t short of yarn comparing notes on their unique 48 volt off-grid systems.

During our nine months on the road, we’ve crossed paths several times — and yet never met back on the east coast where we’re neighbours, just an hour apart.

When I recently caught up with Amber Pacey, she explained that some of their favourite meals have developed over this past year as they’ve cooked their way around Australia.

“Finding amazing ingredients and recipes that push our boundaries from our lives before travel has been a fun experience,” she said.

“Travelling means our lives are simpler, and we are not rushing home and reheating easy meals, we can try new things.”

Amber said the idea for their go-to Campfire Beef Stew was inspired by their time in Tasmania.

“While in Tasmania, we sat around a campfire with a crew who were cooking a beef stew,” she said.

“Just before serving, they mixed up a batter and made dumplings to pop on top of the stew,” she said.

“We love cooking in cast iron and these guys opened our minds to something new,” she said.

“So we hit the shops, found a travel crew and tried it out,” she said.

“The base of our stew is Maggi Gravy Mix, it comes in a yellow box and is sold at specialist catering shops,” she said.

“The Gravy is the secret ingredient!”

Easy as Pie!

But that’s not all, this meal can be reinvented… the Pacey’s use a cast iron sandwich maker to create delicious pies with the leftovers, (pictured above). Whip out the puff pastry and you’ve got a lunch of champions!

Pacey’s Campfire Beef Stew & Dumplings

From Amber and Trent Pacey

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Ingredients (serves 4)

  • 1kg cheap diced beef
  • 1 cup of Maggi Gravy
  • 1 tablespoon worcester Sauce
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 4 garlic cloves, crushed
  • As many vegies as fits in the camp oven – potatoes, carrot, pumpkin, corn, peas, and zucchini
  • 2 tablespoons of tomato paste
  • Pepper to taste
  • Water to cover all ingredients

Dumplings

  • 2 cups self-raising flour
  • 4 teaspoons butter
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
  • Salt, pepper and spices of your choice.

Method

Stew

  • Place camp oven over hot coals and sauté onion, garlic and meat.
  • Add gravy, worcester and tomato paste and stir. Add vegies, stir, and cover with water.
  • Cover with lid, place camp oven on hot coals, and slow cook for minimum of two hours, or longer if you wish.
  • Pop your dumplings on about 45 minutes before serving.

Dumplings

  • Mix flour and butter with your hands to make crumbly. Add parmesan and mix.
  • Add milk gradually and mix with a fork until you get the consistency close to a moist scone dough. Roll into dumplings and place in camp oven on top of the stew, replace lid.
  • Place camp oven back on hot coals, ads extra coals on top of the lid. Cook for 30 – 45 minutes.

Do you have a recipe you’d like to feature in the ‘Fellow Foodie – Traveller’ series? Get in touch with us here.

Breakfast, Gluten-free, Paleo, Primal, Snacks, Vegan

Healthy Primal Banana Bread

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This is the healthiest banana bread recipe in my repertoire and I’m really excited to have it come to life during my journey towards living a simpler, Primal lifestyle.

I love it when experimental recipes are born out of necessity. I’ve got a few go-to recipes I follow for Banana Bread, but being off-grid travelling Australia, I found myself without a few key ingredients.

So, I threw caution to the wind and made it up with what I had! Pretty darn proud of myself.

It’s paleo, vegan, gluten-free, flour-free, and sugar free*! What’s not to love?!

Healthy Primal Banana Bread

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups almond meal
  • 10 soft medjool dates, (no seeds)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2 large overripe bananas, mashed
  • 2 eggs, whisked
  • 1/2 cup coconut oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • 1 lime, juiced

Method

  • Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line a bread tin with grease proof paper and set aside.
  • Combine the dry ingredients (almond meal, baking powder, cinnamon), in a large bowl and mix well.
  • In a separate bowl, melt the coconut oil.
  • Place dates, bananas, eggs, coconut oil, vanilla essence, and lime juice in a mixer and blend. I use a Magic Bullet when on the road as it’s nice and small.
  • Combine wet and dry mixture and mix until fully incorporated. Pour into the greased pan.
  • Set to bake for 45 minutes – go for a swim – cook until a toothpick/skewer comes out clean from the centre.
  • Tip: The first time you cook the bread, check at the 35 minute mark, then again at 40 minutes and so on – this is the time required for our small air fryer/oven in our caravan, so you need to check what’s best for your appliance/s.
  • Cool for 10 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
  • Tip: if you prefer the bread firm, store in the fridge. If you’re impatient like me and love the bread warm, cut immediately and enjoy the crumbly texture.
Dinner, Primal, Quick Meals, stir fry

Stir Fry Spicy Chicken & Vegetable Curry

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Stir-frying is a healthy and quick cooking method with an infinite variety of dishes.

I haven’t always been a fan of cauliflower but I find myself buying cauliflower often and craving this meal – this recipe is a game changer.

Swapping out cream for a good quality yoghurt is a much healthier option, and when paired with lemon, the yoghurt takes on the flavours of the spices beautifully.

This Primal recipe brings vegetables to life with a refreshing burst of flavours.

Stir Fry Spicy Chicken & Vegetable Curry

Ingredients (serves 4)

Rating: 1 out of 5.
  • 1/2 lemon, squeezed
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  • 2cm piece ginger, grated
  • 2 cups grass fed & organic full fat yoghurt
  • 1/2 chilli, seeds removed sliced thin
  • 2 teaspoons garam masala
  • 2 teaspoons coriander powder
  • 2 teaspoons cumin
  • 5 cherry tomatoes
  • 1/2 chilli, seeds removed sliced thinly
  • 1 chicken breast, chopped into small bite-size pieces
  • 1 head of broccoli, cut into small pieces
  • 1/2 cauliflower, cut into small pieces
  • 1 carrot, chopped into small pieces
  • 1 zucchini, sliced into circles
  • 2 shallots, thinly sliced

Method

  • Heat oil on HIGH until very hot, fry off garlic and ginger.
  • Add chicken, season with a pinch of cumin, garam masala and coriander powder (fresh preferably), stir fry until brown.
  • In a small blender, combine tomatoes and chilli to a pulp, pour over the chicken.
  • Move chicken to outside of pan, add vegetables starting with those requiring more cooking (cauliflower and carrot), stir fry for 2 minutes, cover to steam.
  • Add vegetables that don’t require as much cooking (shallots, broccoli and carrot), and lemon and yoghurt.
  • Stir all and cover, simmering on LOW for about 7 minutes ensuring you don’t burn the yoghurt.
  • *Simmer time varies depending upon how crunchy or soft you prefer your vegetables.

Tip: The meat should be cut into small pieces or thin strips so it cooks quickly and evenly.

Air Fry, Dinner, Oven, Paleo, Primal

Thai Sticky Chicken Niblets & Wild Rice Lettuce Cups

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Doing the 21-day Primal Reset has really stirred up the creativity and resulted in this very clean and healthy indulgence.

As much as we love our Texan BBQ Niblets we’re looking to cleanse our systems – along with our lifestyle – so the bottle sauce had to go.

No need to miss out though – where there’s a will there’s a way, and the proof is in the pudding, (or in the niblets)!

We love our Thai flavours and as we’re choosing to avoid all the nasties and prepare our sauces from scratch, hubby got his creativity on and nailed it first time.

Thai Sticky Chicken Niblets & Wild Rice Lettuce Cups

Ingredients (serves 4)

Rating: 1 out of 5.
  • Marinade
    • 1 red chilli, seeds removed and chopped
    • 1 bunch coriander, stems only, some leaves to garnish
    • 1/2 lime, juiced
    • 4 garlic cloves, peeled
    • 4cm piece ginger, peeled
    • 1 tablespoon sesame oil
    • 4 tablespoons olive oil
    • 1 teaspoon organic gluten free tamari soy sauce
    • 5 drops of fish sauce
    • 1 teaspoon pure raw honey
  • 1kg chicken niblets
  • 2 cups wild rice (1/2 a cup per serve)
  • 1 iceberg lettuce (one large leaf for each person)
  • 1 small carrot, a few long strips grated

Method

  • Blitz all marinade ingredients into a paste, cover the chicken and marinate for 30 minutes.
  • Cover a tray with foil and spray lightly with olive oil so wings don’t stick.
  • *Variation: if you don’t have time to marinate, place niblets on foil and dribble paste on spreading around with a brush, so as to baste.
  • Cook in air fryer on 200 degrees for 30 minutes, turning half way.
  • Prepare the rice as per packet instructions.
  • Serve niblets on a large lettuce leaf, topped with wild rice, and a few grated strips of carrot. Squeeze some lime juice over the top, then add the chicken on top. Garnish with coriander.

Play with your food!

Not something you hear every day, but today you have permission. Have some fun with it by removing the chicken from the bone and wrapping it all up in the lettuce leaf. Or, if you’re like me and can’t resist, dig into the chicken, then wrap all the rest up in the lettuce. Devine!

Dinner, Guest Recipe, Slow Cooker

Guest Recipe – Moroccan Beef Casserole – Slow Cooker

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Welcome to the ‘Fellow Foodie – Traveller‘ series, a collection of recipes from travellers we’ve met on the road.

The Granges are seasoned travellers having explored our wondrous country several times, so when it comes to dinner at the end of a very long drive, Moroccan Beef Casserole is ready, piping hot and on the plate as soon as the car stops, but how!?

Michele Grange said their secret to achieving this seemingly impossible feat of having a hot casserole ready – without the use of power on the drive – is her thermal cooker.

“We made this Moroccan Beef Casserole in our Thermos Outdoor Thermal Cooker before we hit the road from Daly Waters to Devils Marbles,” she said.

Michele & Chris Grange at Devils Marbels

“The Thermal cooker is really interesting – it’s like a big thermos with a stainless steel inner,” she said.

“You prepare and cook in the pot and then pop that with its lid inside the thermos and it cooks while you drive,” she said.

“It’s like a slow cooker but without electricity,” she said.

“We had it in the back of the car, but you can sit it in the van too,” she said.

“We were able to share an incredible meal with our friends travelling with us, on a trip we’ve dreamt of sharing with them for many years.”

“We had a 500km drive so having dinner ready for us at the other end was such a relief, she said.

“The meat was extremely tender when we took it out that night at the end of a long day!”

Michele said it was the family trip ‘2011 Across the Top’ from Wollongong to Broome and back, with their three children, that inspired them to hit the road again – but this time with their friends.

“We always wanted to share the experience with friends and hence we’ve recently completed ‘Broome n Back ’22’ – BnB ’22,” she said.

“Joined by the Markhams and the Blays, we had four months on the road in our fabulous Titanium Hardcore caravan, and would do it all again in a heartbeat.”

Moroccan Beef Casserole Recipe – Thermal Cooker / Slow Cooker

From Michele Grange
Original recipe from taste.com.au

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Ingredients (serves 4)

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 750g chuck casserole steak, cut into 4cm pieces
  • 1 brown onion, finely chopped
  • 1 tbsp ginger, finely grated
  • 1 cinnamon stick or quill
  • 1 tbsp ground cumin
  • 2 tsp turmeric
  • 400g can crushed tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup (125ml) beef stock
  • 1/3 cup (55g) currants
  • 1kg sweet potato, peeled, cut into 4cm pieces
  • 75g fetta, crumbled
  • 2 tbsp flaked almonds, toasted
  • Coriander leaves, to serve
  • Lime wedges, to serve
  • Lebanese bread, to serve

Method

  • Heat the oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Cook one-third of the beef, turning, for 3 mins or until browned all over. Transfer to the bowl of a slow cooker. Repeat with remaining beef.
  • Add the onion, ginger, cinnamon, cumin, tumeric, tomato, stock, currants and sweet potato to the beef in the slow cooker.
  • Cook on HIGH for 4 hours, or on LOW for 6 hours, or until beef is very tender.
  • Spoon the beef mixture into serving bowls. Sprinkle with fetta, almonds and coriander. Serve with lime wedges and Lebanese bread.

Do you have a recipe you’d like to feature in the ‘Fellow Foodie – Traveller’ series? Get in touch with us here.