Perth Caravan and Camping Show

The show was on this week. I am not planning to do either, but I knew there would be lots of  stalls with interesting ancillary goods. I spent some time looking at Weber BBQs and sampled their breakfast frittata, but I had come on the train so it would be tricky to get it home. The Showgrounds were enormous, with so many caravans on display and - the latest craze - rooftop tents that are mounted on top of your vehicle. I started off with the courtesy golf buggy ride, going all the way round to check out what was what.

Rooftop tent.

Ecopots.

Pull-out kitchen for a 4WD.

I bought a checked bush shirt for the cooler weather, but the temperature in the Showgrounds reached 31 degrees: too hot to walk around, so I looked at the programme for a sitting down opportunity. This was a cooking demonstration all about Dutch Ovens. Just about everyone who has camped in the Australian bush has one of these heavy cast iron pots that sit in the hot coals of the camp fire. Then they languish in the shed for the rest of the year getting rusty. This is mine:

Leaves stencilled in the rust.

Well, I learned a lot from the presentation: how to clean off the rust and how to “cure” it with oil in a hot oven and importantly how to keep using in in a domestic kitchen year round. 

The presenter, Jo Clews, was full of info.

How to clean off the rust

Soak it in warm water in the sink and give it a good scrub with steel wool. It will probably need more than one treatment and a lot of elbow grease. Wipe it and put it in the oven at 200 degrees.

How to "cure" the cast iron

Rub some oil all over it, especially on the inside. Put it back in the oven for 2 hours. This stabilises the protective barrier permanently. Do this more than once; it will not go rusty again.

Cooking tips

You can make a juicy roast chicken in a normal domestic oven. It's not necessary to put a trivet inside the pot, but one idea is to sit the chicken on sliced potatoes, which will soak up the juices and prevent the bottom from burning.

Everyone has suffered from burnt bottom damper when camping. The trick is to remove hot coals from the main camp fire and make a private cooking spot, with most of the hot coals on top of the lid, with not so much heat underneath. A small rack can be put on top of the coals, in order to preserve an airflow and keep them alight for longer. A BBQ temperature gauge can be used to know the inside temperature, which should be about 180 degrees for 35 minutes. 

Damper recipe

Traditionally, it was simply plain flour, baking powder and water, plus a little oil or butter. When I was in the bush, we tried adding beer or lemonade to get it to rise. Jo suggested putting in a tin of pumpkin soup as the liquid, plus some feta and chorizo. She also made scrolls with a little basil pesto and set them on baking paper, 5 to the pot.

Melangata Station

Jo lives on a historic station north-east of Geraldton. She does station stays during the winter season from April to October: sounds good!