Before heading to the 2021 Australian camp oven festival, my 11-year-old son told me he wanted to enter a cooking competition at the event, upon looking at the different categories we decided to enter “Logans Camp Oven Beef Stew” the Fisherman challenge.
The Fisherman’s challenge is a taster challenge, perfect for those who don’t want to enter the bigger competitions, as for us entering a bigger challenge means you miss out on seeing a lot the show has to offer.
The idea for the Fisherman’s basket was set on the idea when you went fishing and come home empty-handed and just cooked something out of the pantry, however, this coming 2022 festival they have created a set recipe to create outlined here on the entry form.
Interested in competing at the 2022 Australian camp oven festival? Find all the details and entry forms here.
The Fisherman’s challenge Competition day
It was an early start to a Sunday morning for us, as today at the 2021 Australian camp oven festival, we had to get up bright and early to set up our cooking area, ready for the Fisherman’s challenge competition we had entered.
The only thing provided by the festival was the campfire to render the coals for the 3 teams that entered, and a roped-off area next to where the main competitions happen.
Along with bringing your own camp oven equipment and cooking utensils and ingredients, we also set up a small gazebo to protect us from the sun, a table to prepare our recipes, a drum for fresh water, and some display items for our presentation area.
At 7 am Mary, the cooking competition organiser gave us a morning talk and said we were allowed to start, so it was all systems go, as this was a challenge that logan wanted to do I just assisted mainly with the heat control and timing he prepared everything else.
He started off by dicing the stewing steak into good sizes pieces and then lightly coating it in cornflour, this will help thicken the stew as we were not able to use gravy powder in the competition.
Next, off he went on to prepare all of the Vegetables, peeling and cutting them into the size, he also diced the onion and chopped up a handful of dates into little pieces, his secret ingredient for the stew.
Once all of the ingredients are prepared, it’s time to start cooking the stew, logan started off by heating up our 12-inch limited edition Camp Oven Festival Oven, on a bed of coals.
To start off you would put in a splash of olive oil and brown off some onion, garlic and mixed herbs, once that’s cooked for a couple of minutes add the meat and cook till it’s all browned off.
Once all the meat is cooked, throw in the vegetables and mix up the beef stock with some water and pour into the camp oven, then top up the rest with just water until it covers the vegetables.
Simmer for a few hours, ensuring you add water if needed but not too much as it will make it runny.
Along with the stew, we had to serve a plain damper, so as we had time before judging logan made one serve as samples, as well as one for the competition. Just follow the standard damper recipe here.
Judging time
We had to have our meal ready for judging at 11 am, the judges were 4 people known as the Bait Layers, who usually competed in the championship rounds at the festival, however this year they were catering for the moonlight dinners at the festival.
The judges had a taste and made their way around each team’s site tasting and recording their scores, which were tallied up to choose a winner
So how did he go? He came in second place and won a $100 BCF voucher which he was pretty stoked with and bought himself a fishing rod on special for $80 the rest was used to have line spooled onto the reel.
Here is Logans Camp Oven Beef Stew Recipe
Logans Camp Oven Beef Stew
Course: Main MealCuisine: StewDifficulty: Easy4
servings20
minutes2
hours9 QT
Bottom Heat
2
hours20
minutesLooking for a beef stew recipe, try logans camp oven beef stew he cooked last year competing in the fisherman challenge at the 2021 camp oven festival.
Ingredients
1kg cubed stew beef
2 Carrots, Sliced Thick
4 Potatoes, Cubed
Olive oil, for frying off meat
1 Handful Diced Dates
Cornflour, enough to coat meat
3 bay leaves
3 Beef Stock cubes
1 Tablespoon Mixed Herbs
Water, enough to cover
1 Tablespoon, of garlic
1 diced onion
Directions
- Prepare the ingredients ready to make the stew and put them to the side.
- In a bowl, lightly coat the diced beef with some cornflour.
- Place a camp oven on some bottom heat, add some olive oil, and fry some onion, garlic and some mixed herbs.
- Then add the beef and fry the meat until it is all brown, then add the carrots, potatoes, bay leaves, diced dates
- Make up the stock and pour it into the camp oven, top up with water to the top and simmer for a few hours on bottom heat. Remember to stir regularly.
Notes
- The dates will dissolve and add a wonderful flavour.
