We asked our adventure man Henko Roukema to share with us his top 4 recipes from his mountain adventures, and here they are, all prepared on the fire and shared with fellow mountaineers!
1. Beer Bread, way better than one would imagine!
Perfect to share with everyone around the camp fire. Left overs are great for some sandwiches the next day. This will score you some serious brownie points!
Ingredients
500g self-raising flour
5ml Garlic Salt
340 beer
25ml Mixed Herbs
Instructions
- Pour the flour and mix mixed Herbs and garlic salt together in your cast iron bread pot or round pot.
- Add the beer and knead well.
- Place the dough into a cast iron pot, cover and let the bread stand for 20 minutes so that it can rise.
- Bake for 45 - 50 minutes. The secret is to heat up the whole cast iron pot by distributing the heat,
- Place some coals on top of the lid and turn the pot regularly so that all sides get heat from the fire.
- Once the top is golden brown, stick a knife in the bread. If the knife comes out clean with no dough stuck on it. It is ready to eat. Viola!
2. Spinach and Feta Stuffed Mushrooms
Ingredients
Large portobello mushroom caps
Olive oil
Packaged baby spinach
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
Mixed herb of choice
Instructions
- Boil/steam spinach in a pot.
- Place mushrooms on square pieces of tinfoil, top facing down.
- Prep the mushrooms by adding a little bit of oil and mixed herbs.
- Distribute spinach on top of the mushrooms & crumble feta over the spinach.
- Partially close the mushrooms with the foil, creating a small bowl.
- Braai on top of a grid, over warm coals.
3. Biltong potato salad
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
6 large potatoes - peeled and sliced into 2cm rounds
100g butter – melted
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 large red onion - finely chopped
Big handful of moist biltong -roughly chopped
handful of chopped fresh chives
handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley – chopped
handful of crumbled Feta small
handful of capers
Mayonnaise
Instructions
- Par cook the potatoes in a large pot of salted boiling water. On the fire or on a camping stove.
- Do not cook them too soft or they will fall apart on the braai, 3–5 minutes should be good.
- Drain the potatoes then brush with melted butter and season with salt and pepper.
- Using a grid, braai the potatoes until cooked through and caramelized.
- Once the potatoes are cool you can cut them into squares and place them into a large mixing bowl.
- Add the rest of the ingredients, then gently fold everything together and season with salt and pepper.
- Ready to eat!
4. Braaied bacon, blue cheese fig chilli poppers
Ingredients
For the filling:
250g blue cheese – crumbled
1 small tub cream cheese
2 preserved green figs – chopped
Small handful of finely chopped fresh chives
Salt and freshly ground pepper
For the chilies: 12large pickled jalapeños
12 rashers streaky bacon
24 toothpicks
To make the filling, place the blue cheese, cream cheese, figs and chives into a mixing bowl and stir well to combine.
Instructions
- Carefully slit the chillies on one side from the stem to the tip.
- Grab the chilli with your thumb and index finger and gently press to pop open the pocket that you’ve cut.
- Scrape out the seeds and then spoon in a good amount of cream cheese filling, but don’t over fill it.
- Press the chilli together to seal and wipe away any excess filling that pops out.
- Repeat until all the chillies are stuffed.
- Carefully wrap each chilli in one rasher of bacon then stick two toothpicks through each bacon-wrapped chilli to secure.
- Braai the poppers over medium heat coals until the bacon is crisp and the chillies have softened.
Header photo credit: Caro Jordaan