cooking in the bush Connie's scones

FOOD AND SELF-CATERING TIPS

We get requests from time to time about food and cooking considerations out in the bush. The following is based on our experience and is what suits us as a balance between ease of preparation and nutrition. Of course it will depend on your likes and dislikes; the variety is limited only by your imagination, but I hope it will give you an idea about where to start when planning your next desert trip menu.

GENERAL TIPS

Simple is best - I can’t stress that enough. Remember, you are going away on holiday to relax and temporarily get away from the normal routine, you’re not trying to make things as much like home as possible!
Prepare a shopping list first with what you intend to buy and roughly how much you think you'll need for the time between re-supply. Plan your menus first if necessary and work it out from there. Remember, you'll need at least a few days extra rations for emergencies. A list will make things much easier at the supermarket, believe me!! Even now I still use one, adapted over time.......
You don’t need a fridge. There, I have said it. We don’t and manage pretty well, even though a cold drink & juicy steak is nice at the end of the day! Life on the road is a lot simpler without one for you and your vehicle. Most tours for us still include fresh meat bought frozen from an Aboriginal store or roadhouse and cooked that night (kept wrapped in newspaper in a cooler bag). The longest we have gone without fresh supplies is 18 days on one of our remote Expeditions, but usually we have access to basic meat, bread, fruit & vegetable supplies (not to mention soft drinks & ice cream) every week. Take care though, supplies from these places are not reliable in regard to quality and availability and are more expensive, so plan to use them for top-ups only.
If you do travel with a fridge and/or freezer then most folk cryovac their meat in meal-size portions. If you need to restock on your journey then it is best to research in advance which places offer the service, saving you time & hassles later. BBQ meat of course is quick and easy and a roast here and there makes a welcome treat, worth a bit of extra effort on a lazy afternoon.
You always need to have food & water left over, carried in case of emergencies (plus 20 litres of water saved only for your radiator). REMEMBER that fridges and batteries can (and do) fail so it is important to keep that in mind when planning your emergency rations.
Plan mostly simple meals that will save you time when cooking & uses the least amount of ingredients, pots and pans as possible. Remember, water is precious when you have to carry it all yourself, so use the least amount in your cooking as you can and reduce your washing up as much as possible. Roasts and other more time-consuming dishes are very welcome as a treat but we recommend not planning them for everyday meals. As far as cooking gear goes, we carry a large & small billy, a frypan, griller that sits over a campfire and a separate billy for boiling water. We also have a camp oven (a wonderful square one that Mick made for me) that is used to make bread and other treats, and welding gloves are just the thing to protect my hands (I don't do much welding myself but they are great for cooking...).
Don’t jam-pack your vehicle with things you MAY need in your camp kitchen; only pack those that you WILL need. The more you carry the more time you waste setting up your campsite and packing it all away again in the morning, day after day after day.
Decant as much as you can into plastic containers (the square fruit ones are perfect). Don’t carry bottles if you can avoid it. Apart from the possibility of breakage, bottles are harder to dispose of.
Keep soft drinks to a minimum; it is less weight for the vehicle to carry & it will give you more room for water (much more useful and far less fattening!). Strange as it may sound sugary drinks like these can actually make you thirsty.
Same for alcohol – most desert trips have periods where you can’t drink alcohol anyway due to travel through Aboriginal lands.
Dried foods – take care as they require quite a lot of your water reserves to reconstitute. They are good for a change when you have access to water and are light & small to pack.
If you're travelling interstate check out your border crossings for quarantine regulations in regard to fresh fruit & vegetables, honey, some nuts and even fruit & vegetable boxes. Seasoned travellers still get caught & end up having to give up all of their fresh stores.
You folk with gluten intolerance and the like know more about your diet than I do, and what is available. I can say that we have quite a few on our tours with special dietary needs and they get on pretty well.

NO FRIDGE CAMPING

The following is designed to help you with some specific suggestions, but adapt it according to your tastes and circumstances.
Packing the vehicle
By the way, to carry it all in, we have 2 sturdy plastic boxes for tins & packets, plus one easily accessible box with lunch things/snacks/cutlery in a pencil case/plates/mugs/tea & coffee, milk powder & sugar. Another accessible box contains billies, frypan, utensils, cooking oil etc and thermos. One big cardboard box works for fruit/veg/eggs/cheese and a smaller box is kept for bread. We also have 2 spare boxes for top ups and bulky extras that you don't want straight away (like paper towel, toilet paper, extra milk powder etc). Ultimately the time between stock ups will determine how much you take; we often have to carry enough for a month. All 6 plastic "food" boxes fit easily in the back of our ute, with the 2 cardboard boxes sitting on top (and our small wash up basin), along with the usual water & fuel, spares etc. My Nissan Patrol station wagon was nowhere near as easy to pack; I found the slide out drawers a must for accessible items like breakfast/smoko/lunch gear & tools like tyre changing equipment.

I know it all sounds like a lot but it is the reason that we advise simplicity; your vehicle will love you for it and it will give you more time on your holiday to relax and enjoy yourselves.

DRINKS

ITEMS	HINTS	NOTES
Water, cordial , milk powder, coffee & tea etc	- Decant cordial into stronger plastic containers. A weak cordial is useful if you're feeling in need of a sugar hit and the higher % juice varieties are very tasty. - A thermos of hot water is very handy for smoko during the day. - I find milk powder more useful than cartons of long life milk (and less messy if they break) and you still have access to the water if you need it for your radiator.	Remember to ration your water intake, especially if you have a long period of time between re-supply.

MAINS

ITEMS	HINTS	NOTES
Tins of vegetables, soup, casseroles & stews	- Fluid is incorporated and you can cook without adding water. - Use as a base for other dishes.	Check labels for nutritional value – some have more value than others & some have a high fat content.
Tinned Leg Ham / light Spam / light Corned Beef / chicken / turkey, tinned fish	Lunches; sliced and BBQ’d for an easy dinner e.g. ham & pineapple; put in with a tin of soup, or chopped up and fried with an onion and packet of pre-cooked rice and a tin of vegetables.	Relatively good value & nutrition.
Sanitarium Soy meats	Good to mix into a one-billy dish for dinner; sausages & veg	You can buy from the supermarket e.g. Casserole Mince (wheat gluten), Nutolene (roasted nut loaf), Tender Pieces (wheat gluten in gravy). They are more expensive than tinned stew but are high in protein and a good meat alternative. We call it “pseudo meat”!
The famous Fray Bentos meat pies	Cook in a reasonably hot camp oven.	We like the chunks of meat & the puff pastry is pretty good too......

FRUIT & VEGETABLES

A general tip here - buy as fresh as possible and wrap each fresh piece individually in newspaper to help with bruising & store in a cardboard box out of the sun. For us that means in the back of the ute under canvas. We have had apples and oranges still OK after 3 weeks, potatoes & onions keep very well, carrots in a vegie bag will last for a few days to a week or so depending on the weather. Throw in some garlic too for flavour & doesn’t take up much room!

ITEMS	HINTS	NOTES
Apples & Oranges	- Have you ever had an apple sandwich?? - Mick and I have half each when we are on short rations.	Pink Lady & Fuji apples are 2 varieties that carry well, but buy as fresh and green as possible.
Potatoes	- Baked in foil in the campfire coals. A quick tip – cut potatoes into quarters before wrapping in foil, with a bit of oil spray & flavour sprinkles, and they will cook in 30-40 mins. Turn over part way & don't have them too close to the really hot coals. - Cut up and cook in a juicy stew. - Potatoes sliced and fried on the griller with some chicken salt make a nice change too!	Take care with potatoes – some varieties do not bake or boil very well. I usually buy the all-purpose plain white washed variety (don’t buy unwashed as they require water to properly clean.....).
Onions & carrots	Both are good for baking in foil as above as well as the usual uses.	I find the vegie bags do help carrots to keep longer. Wrap the whole bag in newspaper & put in the cardboard box with the other fruit & veg. Use them up first before opening the tinned veg.
Tinned fruit	Peaches, fruit salad & apricots in pure juice are the go for us, great for dessert with a small lunch-size pack of long-life custard or tin of Rice Cream. Tins of apples are good to use as a base for a crumble, or with custard for a change.	They are full of moisture if water supplies are low. Fruit in jelly is also a nice change although as we need a pack each they take up more room in our boxes.
Tinned veg.	A useful mainstay for us is the handy Mixed Vegetables – chuck the whole thing in a billy with a tin of stew & a small tin of corned beef for a quick & easy meal.	Tinned peas, beans, 4 bean mix, corn, Tiny Taters or similar. There is quite a bit to choose from depending on your taste.
Tinned beetroot	Good to add to lunches as it adds a moist touch to an otherwise "dry" sandwich of cheese or tinned meat, especially good for those days when water is not plentiful.
Dried veg.	- Peas are better if soaked in cold water before cooking. - "Deb" and other dried potato products fit into this category although you can use these straight from the packet to thicken a soup or stew. You can add boiled vegie water to Deb to reconstitute (have you ever had green mashed potatoes?).	We don’t use dried veg as much because they require water to reconstitute. I tend to keep a few packets for "civilised" camps near water.

OTHER BITS AND PIECES

ITEMS	HINTS	NOTES
Cereals	Packets, instant porridge etc. A healthy breakfast is important, especially when you don't have access to your usual menu.	Buy a good cereal like Sustain which is important for nutritional value. Don’t be tempted into buying Coco Pops........
Pure butter without oil additives	It keeps out of the fridge better than you might think. I put a couple of pats in a small lunchbox and keep it in the back of the vehicle where it’s coolest.	It will get soft of course if it is hot but it hardens again overnight. I’ve usually got some left after a month and it’s perfectly OK. For those of you who prefer margarine or the softer alternatives I would not recommend it for carrying in this manner.
Cheese	Use for lunches or thinly sliced on top of spaghetti bolognaise and egg dishes.	Fresh block cheese will keep for a week or 2, also wrapped in newspaper in your cardboard box out of the sun. Kraft processed cheese is the go after that, already wrapped in foil and carries well for months. I open a small packet for lunch and we eat it over 2-3 days.
Eggs	Make a toasted egg sandwich for brekky as a change from cereal. Omelettes are easy for a light tea with vegies, tinned ham, onion & cheese on top.	Eggs also keep well out of the fridge – wrap each egg in a bit of newspaper and put back in the carton. I then wrap the whole carton in newspaper and keep on top of our cool fruit and veg box.
Bread	We also carry a couple of boxes of crackers and/or long-life flat bread to have once the fresh bread runs out, plus I make my own in the camp oven.	Take a few loaves and wrap each loaf in newspaper & put in a cardboard box in a spot out of the sun. It will keep for a week to 10 days depending on the weather. I find good old Wonder White and Mighty Soft generally keep longer than multigrains & the like.
Bread mix	Make up the mixture at lunch-time if you want to save time and put in a dish in a warm part of the vehicle to prove during the afternoon’s travel. Knock down on stopping and give it a final prove before cooking. Add sultanas for a yummy fruit bread.	We like Laucke’s being proud South Australians, although I have used Tip Top and others and find they work perfectly well. It does take around 300 - 400mls of water to mix up though, so be sure to budget for the extra water use if re-supply is a long way off. I usually carry a few extra sachets of yeast as well.
SR flour	Keep a kilo or 2 for scones, crumble mixture (Butternut Snap biscuits & walnuts are also excellent to mix into crumble toppings), pastry for the top of pies etc.	There are some good pre-mixed products available for scones & cakes. They are easy but check out the ingredient list first. There are nice cake mixes that only use one egg for example.
Microwavable flavoured or plain rice	They also fry up well with vegies & tinned meat or cook in a saucy hotpot. Much easier to boil in their packet if you have access to water – less to clean & you can use the water to wash up with!	Available in handy packets & flavours.
Pre-cooked noodles	Great to add to a tin of soup & veg, or with a tin of spaghetti sauce.	Come in sachets that last for ages & you don't need water.
Small pasta spirals	Mick loves them with a tin of Spaghetti sauce & grated long-life cheese on top.	I keep a couple of packets for cooking up when we are near to water. There are also tinned or packet pasta meals around that are good for a quick snack.
Extras	We carry lots of BBQ sauce as Mick puts it on everything! It can also be added to stews etc for a touch of flavour.	Salt, pepper, meat sprinkles, chicken salt, lemon pepper & dried packet soups are also useful according to taste.
Spreads like creamed honey, jam, Vegemite	Toast & lunches. Vegemite is also good to flavour stews. Creamed honey is thicker and doesn't spill.	Buy in plastic containers if possible. I have a little cardboard box that fits a small jar of Vegemite & jam wrapped in a rag to keep them apart.

Camp Oven fruit cake SNACKS etc

Nuts & dried fruit - sultanas we carry to put in our bread mix as well as to nibble on.
Fruit cake carries well and is good as a snack when you are hungry. If you have room for extra ingredients a nice moist fruit cake is easy to cook in the camp oven.
Muesli bars, biscuits etc. Rice crackers or the like to have with cheese.
Check out the supermarket aisles when you have spare time; there is much that is good for camping that you wouldn't look at twice otherwise.
Chocolate - very important; you have to have some treats!!!!

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