Fire to Fork | Recipes | Fire Roasted Veggies

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FIRE ROASTED VEGGIES

Fire roasted veggies seem to go with everything, including more of themselves.

This is not a precise guide, but that is the beauty of fire cooking, nothing is precise. This is a general list of tips that will help you on your way to delivering a delicious fiery array.

I N G R E D I E N T S

Veggies: almost anything works but our favourites are potatoes, small sweet potatoes, broccolini, asparagus, corn on the cob, carrots, asparagus, beetroot and plenty of others.
Olive oil
Butter
Salt and pepper
Onion
Garlic
Smoked paprika
Lemon

D I R E C T I O N S

GREENS

Brococolini, asparagus (in half), string beans (in half), brussel sprouts (in half) etc

Pour a dash of oil in a wok, add greens, diced garlic (1 clove per bunch), salt and pepper.
Put on medium/high heat and stir regularly until the ends start to blacken.
Add a squeeze of lemon at the end to freshen

ROOT VEGGIES

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips etc.

Method 1 - camp oven

Cut 1kg of veggies in to rough chunks about 1.5 - 2cm.
Roughly chop up a shallot and remove the skin from 3 cloves of garlic.
Put everything in a camp oven (dutch oven) and liberally coat and toss through olive oil, salt and pepper, a teaspoon of smoked paprika and a knob of butter.
Take a shovel load of coals and put it away from the fire - put the oven on this pile of coals.
Load up the lid of the oven with hot red coals (or charcoal) - try and avoid putting lots of ash on here. Add one or two small burning logs as well, having a flame on the lid gives a great heat.
The trick here is to have 20% of the heat underneath and 80% on the lid, this will stop the veggies from sticking to the base and it will cook the veggies more evenly.
Continue to keep the fire on top of the oven burning - adding medium sticks helps keep the heat up.
After about 25-30min, check the veggies and lift a couple of bits up to make sure the base isn't burning. If it is fine don't stir the veg, stirring will turn it in to a mushy mess.
Put it back on the heat and take off when the veg is golden brown - total cooking time is usually 35-45 min.
Enjoy! They go really well with the Steak mushroom sauce.

Method 2 - Aluminium foil and baking paper

Follow the first 3 steps of Method 1 - except wrap the veggies in one layer of baking paper (stops sticking) then 2 layers of aluminium foil and throw them in a bed of coals.
Turn the veggies every 5 minutes to ensure they don't stick to the alfoil.
Check after 15 minutes to make sure they are not burning in any areas.
Remove when they are golden brown - cooking time is around 20-25 minutes.

Tip: when wrapping in foil, make sure you have the opening for all 3 layers in the same spot- it makes it easier to check the veggies and not tear the foil.

CORN ON THE COB

Soak the ear of corn in some water for between 20 min and 3 hours.
Peel the corn and coat in your favourite coating (some Nandos peri-peri sauce works really well) .
Put the corn on the hot plate over medium heat and turn every 2-3 minutes until there are a few small charred bits all the way around it.
Take off and rub a bit of butter over the outside, then put back on the heat for another 2 min to melt it in.
Total cooking time 10-15 min.

ROASTED BEETROOT

Take your fresh beets and remove the stems.
Scrub the beets with some steel wool or a scourer until the skin has been removed and they are bright red.
Cut the beets in to quarters and wrap in 2 layers of aluminium foil (leave the foil open).
Add some cracked pepper, pinch of salt and balsamic vinegar in the foil with the beets (around 4 tbpsn per beet).
Close up the foil and throw on the coals for 30 min, turning once after 15 min.
The should be slightly charred in a couple of small spots. Add a small knob of butter to the foil and let it melt under low heat for 5 minutes (you can leave the foil open for this).
Total cooking time 30-40min.

Tip: This also works really well with carrots!

FLAME GRILLING

This is really versatile and can be used for things like asparagus, thickly sliced broccoli, broccolini, corn, thickly sliced cauliflower or field mushrooms.
Toss them in a bowl with oil, salt and pepper, some finely sliced garlic and a little optional vinegar like sherry vinegar or balsamic.
Then grill them over low-medium heat with minimal flame until they have some nice dark lines on them (use the grill, not the hotplate).