MASTER BUSH CHEF

After a couple of successful magazine trips where no-one starved and some even came back a few pounds heavier, the boys asked me to put down a few recipes on paper. These are the kind of meals that are easy to make after a long day of driving, and contain few ingredients so require only the bare essentials.

All meals feed four people, or two journos hungry for the truth… and dinner. Travelling with this lot of 4WD journos is no chardonnay picnic, and it’s often dark before cooking starts. That’s why I use head torches and 12V fluoros to provide light for cooking, setting up camp and so on.

If we’re all bushed and our stomachs think our throats have been cut, gas stoves are the go. I’ve used suitcase-type gas cartridge types, which are okay, but with up to half a dozen hungry mouths to feed, a three-burner gas stove with gas bottle is the way to go. It pumps out more BTUs and cooks faster.

Campfires are great, but I find it best to cook over red coals, not flames. I manage to get by with two cooking pots and a large deep teflon-coated frying pan. Long cooking utensils and long welder’s gloves are the shot. Remember that most camping accidents are caused by burns, so watch kids around fires.

Although Glenno jokes about my cooking style, he summed it up pretty well. “Wait till the boys have had a can or two, talk them half to death with old stories, and by the time food arrives, they’ll eat anything and love it.” You’ve just got to work out your own style!