this is my first post on this forum so please do not laugh.
We have owned our camp oven for a while now and had some delicious meals out of it BUT
whenever we attempt to roast a leg of lamb and vegies we end up with very soft vegies and lamb which is more steamed than roasted.
we use our shed heater as the source of heat and just sit the camp oven on the lid.
how do we go about getting our vegies crunchy and our lamb roasted????
any help would be grateful
thanks

Hi Wolly and welcome to the site.

What you are experiencing is not uncommon with a camp oven.  The way I overcome this is to use a trivet in the camp oven and keep the meat and vegetables out of the juices.  

To get a good dry browning on the vegies you need a lot of heat on top of the oven.  This is the joy of cooking on an open fire or by using heat beads as you can keep heaps of heat on top.

Another way is to use two camp ovens.  Meat in one and vegies in the other.  ;)

Cheers


Derek

thank you derek for your advice.
off to buy some lamb now and a trivet , and a few beers to drink while it cooks
cheers

Here's one I've read before, that you Aussies like brown crisp veggie.

Which veggies do you brown?

:)

LK
Most root type vegies are used for baking and browning here spuds pumpkin sweet potato carrot choko etc
Furphy

Little_Kopit wrote on Oct 2^nd, 2006 at 6:18pm:

Here's one I've read before, that you Aussies like brown crisp veggie. Which veggies do you brown? :)

Actually soft on the inside with a nice crisp and crunchy outside.

Come on Furph, stop telling fibs, chokos aren a root vegetable. http://www.formulaforlife.com.au/asp/vegetables.asp?cmd=show&vegetableid=21  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D But you can add parsnip to that list as well.  ;)


Derek

OOPs Dereck you are correct they grow on a vine but Bluddy Bewdiful baked
Furphy :-[ :-[ :-[

The choko has several other names: chayote, mirliton, mango squash.  What made sense to me is that it is a member of the cucumber family.  I couldn't find any photos.  

Now why have I never heard of it, well, it requires 12 hours of daylight for many days.  

& Furphy isn't completely wrong.  You plant the entire fruit as the seed.  http://www.lsuagcenter.com/NR/rdonlyres/7A61D3C2-9717-4747-9107-49EE61A17E6B/2826/pub2032vegpears1.pdf#search=%22vegetable%20pear%22

:)

Just stirring the soup so as the ingredients above rise to be visible.

:)

So LK
How right is half right

Furphy ;D ;D

On the right track, of course!!!

:P

hey guys chokos are in the same category as brussel sprouts and spinnich they all taste like dirt and should only be fed to old farm animals very old farm animals as you can probably tell by now i dont like them as i was forced to eat them as a youngan and will never eat them again as i now have my taste buds back ha ha
cheers cb

Oh, CB, I just love NZ spinach, especially in salads.  Do you mean you never had a spinach salad?

:)

LK I cant get the idea of NZ spinach....not silverbeet hey?....I have a day off tomorrow ..

..Tomorrow,Tomorrow,I'll love you tomorrow ( I Love That play)....Sorry.Ï'll google it then....( the NZ spinach)

Anyway, back to the veg...My favourite veg is Brussel Sprouts, corn cob, kau kau, and

peas...Tho meat has to take precedent above veg. Then theres Yorkshire Pudding...

...Grew up on that !..However , I'm Digressing.

                                                                Cheers CGee

CGee, I do NOT eat either brussel sprouts or broccilli.  

Why, well as kids we used DDT and rotenone as pesticides and yet when these vegetables appeared on the table, there was extra protein in them too many times for me.  You see I think in pictures.  & while I'm a tomboy and garden organically, worms are not my cuppa.

I know of people who will throw out an ear of corn rather than cut out the worm, not I.  But if I can't find it and be sure I've gotten them cut out, I won't choose that veg. from the freezer in winter.

I have to wonder what they use as pesticides for those two veggies these days.

:)

hey guys whats the diffrence between silverbeet and spinich ? they both taste like dirt to me. i thought they were the same thing cheers cb

Yeah LK, now your looking at a topic which has contradictions, hypocracy,social and economic issues involved....Like opening up a can of worms...s'cuse the pun!

                                                                                  Cheers CGee ;)

Well, I have found that the taste of all greens, especially those in raw salads was just that much tastier here in Newfoundland.  Given that I'm moving after I retire, I'll find out again.  I grew up with spinach.  Love spinach.  One of the bestest, most adaptable veggies around.  Of course, organic content and true freshness (did you pick it) add much to flavour.

How about celery.  A little celery in a cooked dish, uuuuuuuuuuuu;mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm YUM!!


:)

Luuuvvvv Celery.....Salads. Stews..Sticks with peanut paste..Sticks with Cottage cheese,
Never good enough to grow here myself for anything other than Stir frys (too skinny)..
Blame it on the drought...we do everything else,..or the birds..or the possums..or the wallabies...or..? :D

                                                                    CGee

hey guys nobody has answered my question WHATS THE DIFFRENCE BETWEEN SILVERBEET AND SPINICH? cheers cb

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chard



Quote:

Chard (Beta vulgaris var. cicla), also known as Swiss Chard, Silverbeet, Perpetual Spinach or Mangold, is a leaf vegetable, and is one of the cultivated descendants of the Sea Beet, Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima. While used for its leaves, it is in the same species as the garden beet, which is grown primarily for its roots. Chard has shiny green ribbed leaves, with stems that range from white to yellow and red depending on the cultivar. It has a slightly bitter taste. The leaves are generally treated in the same way as spinach and the stems like asparagus. Fresh young chard can also be used raw in salads. Cultivars of chard include green forms, such as 'Lucullus' and 'Fordhook Giant', as well as red-ribbed forms such as 'Ruby Chard', 'Rainbow Chard', and 'Rhubarb Chard'. Modern cladistic botanical taxonomic systems such as that of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group place chard and the other beets in family Amaranthaceae, but the older systems more likely to be encountered in horticultural sources place them in a family Chenopodiaceae.

I didn't check these out but recipes for silverbeet http://fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=silverbeet



& this makes it really clear.  Silverbeet is what we call Swiss Chard  http://home.vtown.com.au/~dbellamy/vegetables/silver1.html


Quote:

Silver beet Silver beet is a really useful vegetable, which can be grown all year round in cold climates. It is highly nutritious and tastes much like spinach. Prepare soil by digging in lots of organic matter. Plant seedlings from spring through to early autumn. The spring crop will probably go to seed in summer, so keep planting for a continuous crop. The autumn crop will last right through winter. Mulch plants well in summer, but keep mulch away from the stems to prevent rot. Silver beet responds well to regular feeds of organic liquid fertiliser. Harvest the leaves by snapping them of at the base of the plant. New leaves will soon grow to replace the ones already harvested. I like to steam silver beet and use it as a side vegetable. It can be used in any recipe in the same way as spinach.

Now, for my personal assessment.

In Newfoundland people let chard grow huge, like in the illustration in the last link.  They do things like chard rolls, akin to cabbage rolls.  I think you have to cook them 2x to do that, thus, lose vitamins.

Me, I like the chard young and tender, both cooked and in salads.  But I only use young chard in salads.

You can cut through an unrowed patch of chard 3' x 3' in 5 minutes, harvest once a week and get 30 - 50 servings into a freezer from that little space.  Chard picked young continues to come tender from the freezer, but beet greens of the same size can get tough.

Spinach leaves don't grow as large.  You have to keep the plant low to the ground.  You have to pick the leaves one at a time and don't pick all leaves from one plant  (thus, don't cut).  It will grow a long stem and grow to seed in hot weather.  New Zealand spinach likes hotter temperatures.  Leaves are smaller, flatter and come along the stem.  

IMO spinach is preferred, more choice.  It keeps it's distinctive flavour through all kinds of preparation.    You are always sure it's spinach you have taken out of the freezer.  Not so chard.

If you steam or boil it, put a wee bit of lemon juice or cider vinegar in the water or sprinkled over the leaves, in mid cooking.  

Now, the piece de resistance of all gardening seasons.  This is not the salad made pre-baby carrot time from 11 types of greens using green onions.  No, it is the end of season vegetable pancakes made using 11 different veggies.  Ready:

Cruise the garden counting and pick (only in your hand - no other container) 11 of the following
- a small chard leaf
- a small beet chard leaf
- a small beet green leaf and stem
- 3-5 spinach leaves
- 2 green beans
- 2 wax beans
- 3 or 4 fat juicy edible pod pea pods
- small onion (less than 1/4 cup)*
- small gherkin or cucumber** (NOT tomato.  Tomatoes ruin this)
- or small zuccini in lieu of cuc**
- small carrot
- small beet, if you don't mind red pancakes
- herb leaves such as basil, chervil (especially chervil), thyme.....
- swipe one outter little celery stalk
- swipe one or two flowers from earlier picked cauliflower.
- chives

Now, you really want to keep all this stuff down to about 1.5 cups diced to about 1/4" cubes.  So, wash, dice, toss.  Mix up the usual white flower dough for pancakes.  You can use olive oil for the dough shortening, but use butter for the cooking.  Spoon onto preheated fry pan.  spread out and cook slow for pancakes.  Flip when it looks like it will hold together on the flip.

Smack, smack.  Take your fingers away from the 1st cooked one.  

I think I get a whopping big, fattening treat of about 5 pancakes.

Get it right and you'll be back out as often as you dare.  & the temptation to nibble while cooking will increase for the first several days.    A late frost can be disastrous to the waistline.

* white portion only
** 1/4 c or less cubes of one of these.
;)

swiss chard is awesome. takes heat very well, better then any other green. it takes cold very well too. it only dies after numerous freezes or deep freeze like they have in NL. very tasty weather small or large. i have grown some for years now. love it. btw. there are a few different varieties but i sure can't taste the difference.