One of the highlights of our jobs is hearing from authentic char grillers, out on the road, with bag of briquettes and grill in tow.

Last week we received these delicious camp oven recipes from Nathan King. In search of something new for 2012, Nathan decided to move to Perth, embarking on a road trip from Lismore, NSW via Melbourne, VIC. His month long trip included four delicious camp oven recipes (cooked over Heat Beads^® Briquettes), two of which we’ll share today…

Oytsters Kilpatrick

“An easy one. Filled my camp oven up mostly with gravel. This was to lift the height of the oysters so they would be closer to the lid as this is more of a grilling exercise. After adjusting to the right height I layered the gravel with rock salt. It tends to hold and radiate heat and let’s face it, it’s more appealing to eat something off a bed of salt then road gravel.

I had previously shucked the oysters so I added shredded bacon (having none I went all Bear Grylls like and shredded bacon I had in the car). Add this and a few drops of Worcestershire sauce to each one.

Each oyster is placed in the rock salt bed and the lid placed on the saucepan upside down. Only reason for this is its concave side is then pointing down, and holds the Heat Beads^® briquettes (used 5 briquettes that had already ashed over).

The heat that transfers through the lid should warm the oysters and crisp the bacon in around ten minutes.”

Chicken, Asparagus and Mushroom Risotto

“Heat Beads^® briquettes and a camp oven are ideal for this BBQ recipe as it allows the rice to cook over a slower heat and hence, take up more fluid. I use 5 Heat Beads® briquettes under the camp oven for this.

Cut up chicken breast and brown in a little oil. Add 1 inch pieces of asparagus (fresh, but I have used tinned before). Cook for three minutes then add mushrooms. Stir until asparagus softens. Add big blob of butter and stir until melted.

Add one cup of risotto rice and stir to coat in the oily goodness. A little at a time and stirring frequently I add 1 cup of vegetable stock (I use Vegeta; powdered, made up in water to preferred strength, quite salty which negates the need for salt later). Keep stirring and adding a little at a time until all soaked up by rice. Test rice. Add more stock if necessary until cooked. Ideally the whole thing should be creamy but the individual bits of rice still distinguishable.”

P.S. Nathan tells us he used a camp oven for most of his road trip as he believes it holds and distributes heat better, and is good for stews and the like.