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Looks like we got the bread recipe sorted .

Mgoddard gave me one for " swedish rye bread " which I have still got to test for those who need to be health conscious , myself included .

Zorro , I also do your "WILDTUIN (GAME RESERVE) PASTA SALAD" and use all kinds of DIFFERENT additions including tuna and the juice from the pepperdews . Usualy add foods that spoil quickly to only a portion of the pasta "feedstock" so that it's eaten up in one go . Next day you do a different combo . I will try your baked whole garlic out too .

It's amazing how many creative ideas come out using basic foodstuffs that travel well and need simple preparation .

Next week I will post our game pie recipe , just need to check the baking details .

Hi all,

You guys have come up with some amaizing ideas. One of our fevourites is a mushroom and bacon kebab. Individualy wrap each button mushroom in a piece of streaky bacon and skewer on kebaba stick, (you can normally fit about 3 or 4 on eack stick) then chuck on the braai.

Does anyone have a recipe for mielie bread?

Mielie bread is the basic potbread recipe to which you add a tin of drained whole kernel corn (or frozen) just as you would cheese, bacon, biltong, caraway seeds, dried fennel , brown onion soup powder , sundried tomatoes , olives , feta etc.

GAME PIES (Part 1 - the meat)

1 Prepare pies at home before you leave , to have pies for the road and instead of a braai for a meal .

2 Into your pressure cooker put a generous knob of butter and on high heat brown 2 or 3 roughly sliced onions , as this will give the meat it's colour . Stir a few times . Could do in a large pot but much longer cooking times .

3 Spices . Couple of cloves , and juniper berries (if you can get them but they are excellent with game) broken/bruised into small pieces . Other spices and coarse salt to your taste .

4 Game meat (rough portions on the bone) about 2-3kg .

The butcher has a lot of these available when he prepares the cuts off the carcass . You can of course use beter cuts like the shins but these are normally saved for the potjie . Mince also is good for cornish pies .
What it comes down to is that the butcher dosn't spend overly much time stripping the bones completely for the wors etc. and there are a lot of "bones" with meat , gristle (gelatine) and marrow which are perfect for pies (and not much else) .
I personly won't shoot an animal , but I do go with on the hunts and just buy a few surplus carcasses for the butcher to process into biltong and meat cuts for me . Many suburban butchers stock game meat , but you could even make "game pies" with cheap cuts of beef .

5 Just before the onions burn , toss in the meat and a very little liquid , possibly stock or even balsamic vinegar , to set off steam build-up inside the pressure cooker with it's lid now on. Turn the temperature down low as soon as the pressure is up . The bones will give off a lot of liquid of their own under pressure that is why you use only a little stock .

6 A very little bit of diced vegetables can be added but I only think potatoes , leeks , Celery and carrots are suitable . Potato do thicken the gravy (and leeks, celery and carrots impart flavour ) but to much veg thins the gelatine so the meat is not sticky and falls out the pie .
A note on health issues .
Eat your game pie with salads to balance the vegetarian intake .
Besides game meat is 100% organic and because the animal grazes and/or browses on many various plant species so is much healthier than battery fed , feed lot , growth hormone , and geneticaly modified domestic stock .

7 After an hour and a bit , cool of the cooker and in a big dish strip the pieces of meat off the bone . The bones are bleached white but not crumbly and the meat and gristle is still intact and firmish . Big pieces can be roughly cut into smaller cubes .

8 Return the meat and the cooking juices to the pressure cooker and simmer for another hour under pressure . The meat fibres become tender and break into strands - called "fynvleis" or "fine meat" . Remove the lid and render down the gelatine , stirring (and if needs be cutting) often to break up any big pieces of meat .
There meat will still be in juicy gravy but not floating in liquid . Some chefs would add sherry and even mushrooms but I would rather have them separate - this is a MEAT pie afterall .

9 Let the meat cool completly and then chill it in the fridge . The jelly will set with the meat .

10 This has been a lengthy process but effectivly has been looking after itself , leaving you plenty of time inbetween to have some wine a-la-Floyd-in-Africa (or read a book) . Let's put it this way - much less work than stuffing boerewors casings .
The recipe is also more of a guideline and you can be as creative as you like with the pie filling medium as long as it's not watery . I often take left over potjiekos or savoury mince and bake a "pub lunch" pie .

Part 2 the pastry and baking, follows Monday morning.

look goods mikeV

Hi again,

I like new ideas, the bacon and mushroom scewer sounds great....

To Mike, yeah if you understand that pasta salad, there is just sooo much you can do with it... everything goes....

My other, and rather strange combination is the following... it sounds weird, but the combination of tastes works, always a winner as well....

Sweet corn, pre-cooked and halfed...

Butter the cobs with peanut butter.... yeah, sounded weird to me as well...

Then cover with streaky bacon.... use some toothpicks to keep the bacon
intact, on the fire it goes.... I promise, this is delicious... and different...

Easy healthy dip option, and works as well.... also sounds weird...

One avo, and one banana, mush together with a little bit of mayo or plain yougurt... again it works, and the fruit is normally always available in the Lowveld....

Our Beer bread version is similar, but we always add a packet of White Onion Soup, Cup of grated "blue cheese" and Biltong Powder, about 100ml... Its works just fine....

I will have to stop visiting this thread, as I am going to make that Pie Recipe of Mike now.... it sounds lovely... we will still burn the fire though as well....

Greetings to all of you, and please keep on sending in new ideas, I absolutely love seeing what others do... new ideas are always great...

Zorro

Game Pies - part 2

You need :
Ready made puff pastry - DEFROSTED . buy frozen in supermarkets . a roll makes one large pie (and 2 small ones - next part) .

Aluminium pie dishes for the big pies , about 22 cm diameter and 2 - 3 cm deep . If you are making pie to eat at home straight out of the oven then a ovenproof pie dish .

1 beaten egg .

OK :
Roll out the pastry with its plastic film underneath onto the coolest surface available - granite kitchen top or a large breadboard . no need to dust the surface with flour.

with a rolling pin ( or bottle) just smoothe out any cracks and wrinkles in the pastry from the inside half towards the outside (that way the pastry dosn't stick and roll up ). The ready made pastry is perfect thickness etc. already just touch it up .

Take a overturned pie dish and cut a circle of pastry to it's diameter out with a little knife .

Fill your pie dish with cool filing of meat more or less to the top using a spoon or you may eat you fingers .

with your finger or a pastry brush wet the outside 1 cm circle of the pastry to make it sticky .

Take the pastry circle and fit it upside down over the pie .

With your fingers or a fork stick the pastry down onto the pie dish lightly .

Stick 4 very small holes into the pastry for steam to escape .

With a small sharp knife cut incisions , about a mm deep , to form cross hatching squares about 2cm by 2 cm .
Decorative but also makes the puff pastry flake nicely .

Brush (or finger) glaze the top of the pastry with beaten egg .

Let the pastry recover from the trauma of handling (else it shrinks unevenly) , in the fridge .

While you pre-heat the oven to 220 centigrade (I like an initial slightly hotter start off) .

Then pop the pie into the oven and after 5 minutes turn down to 200 centigrade for another 25 to 35 minutes when you can open for the first time to check for a golden brown crust and flaked pastry . Pastry will flop if the oven is not consistently hot .

Can be eaten straight away or if it is destined for a KNP trip dinner , cool it down before freezing it for travel .

Part 3 - the small pies for eating along the road , and reheating the frozen large pie to follow .

PS I only learnt baking pastry in the last year , so this a beginers guide , and it is made possible by the ready made pastry dough industry.

Another nice bread roll recipe is this one: (Maybe not possible to make in the Park, or you could do it the first day)

Buy dough from the supermarket (I usually order 1kg)

Grease your cast iron pot with butter
Make the dough into a long log
Break/Cut of pieces and make into balls (similar to what you would do to make rusks)
Put these into the pot
Sprinkle the top with about 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
Pour a 250ml fresh cream over the top
Close the lid
Cook on a slow fire ontop of the grid for about 1 to 1and a half hours

Its a little sweet and very soft and moist from the cream and sugar

Game pies - part 3

Small pies

with the balance of the pastry and the offcutts, roll out 2 circles about the diameter of a sideplate . the pastry can be a little thinner than the large pie .

cut out two circles using the side plate instead of the pie dish .

spoon some pie filling into the centre of the pastry round , and wet the outside of the pastry too stickyness .

now fold the pastry close around the filling and stick the ends together above the pie filling , or at the bottom on one side like a cornish pie. hope you have seen bought pastries at home industries to visualize .

poke small holes and glaze as before .

place on a grease baking tray (or sheet of foil) and bake together with / as for the large pie .

take them on your next KNP trip for eating along the road . they will defrost well and still taste good cold if necessary because the pastry is not greasy (dosn't stick to the roof of your mouth).

quantities baked will depend on your requirements .

Reheating a large pie for dinner .

your pre-baked pie/s travel excellently in a frozen state inside plastic bag or shrinkwrap . on the day you want to eat take out and defrost .

take your flat bottomed cast iron pot and put the pie in it's pie dish inside .

using coals (maybe slightly cooler) exactly as you would for a pot bread , ie. a few coals below and as few on the lid , reheat / rebake the pie . it should serve 4 .

(note for those carnivoras - it can be defrosted and eaten cool (ie. not reheated) for lunch as well if you have brought plenty of supply because a slice sticks together amazingly well )

serve with foil-baked potatoes (or chips if you have the equipment ) and plenty salads (else you will overeat on the meat) .

until the take-aways bring back the buffaly pie this is my only remedy .
by the way they used tinned buffalo meat for the pies , which was freely obtainable from the shops , and on the trails camps one night was buffalo potjie because there was only a parrafin coke-fridge .

Part 4 - baking a pie in the KNP using a flat botton potjie follows .

Mgoddard - sounds yummy but have your insulin handy.

I think they are sometimes called (or similar to ) "potballetjies " , and could alternativley be savoury (onion soup powder instead of sugar).

PS I still have to test-bake your "swedish rye bread" recipe , but will have a hardwood fire going next weekend on the farm up north and hungry mouths to feed .

BUSHVELD POTJIE PIE

Steak and kidneys are the traditional meats for this substantial pie , normally a hunter's wintertime special . Feeds an enormous party (say 8 ) with leftovers too .

Braise in butter your cubed meats (about 2 kg) and onions and simmer for a few hours . Drink old brown sherry if you need to and add to pot if needs be . Veges such as potatoes spuds carrots and mushrooms are optional in small quantities as are spices soya sauce salt and a tin of red kidney beans .
This potjie benefits by standing over in the fridge till the next night as then meat really becomes pie-like. It has lots of thick moist gravy but is not like a stew or soup (else the dough will become dumplings) .

Pie crust .
1 kg (4 cups) cake four (but others will work too)
large packet of crushed potato chips
250 grams soft butter
Mix very well all together (using clean washed fingers)into a crumbly pastry held together with the butter . Resembles krummelpap with small and larger crumbs .

Pour and spread evenly the crust pastry over the simmering meat in the potjie . It will look like crumbled bread on top with an uneven / not smooth surface . You can tamp it down with the back of a spoon to a more level surface if desired but you don't want the dough to go into the gravy and turn into dumplings .

spread the coals into a circle larger than the potjie so that the potjie can stand on the hot ground where the fire was and the sides can absorb heat from the circle of coals. put a few coals on the lid and replenish every 10 mins or so .
theoretically (dutch oven technology) the meat will stop simmering but still be very hot and steamy (else you get dumplings) , and the potjie will bake the crumbly dough .
check for golden colour , after half an hour at least .
only use slow coals on the lid for baking the crust (especialy if it's close to the lid) , rather bake slower for longer .

sounds complicated but like all dutch oven (potjie) cookery very forgiving .

this is also the way you could do a cottage pie (use minced meat and mashed pototo for the crust) .

Hi All,

@ Mikev, I did your meat with some Eland I had in the fridge.... it did go extremely well, did the easy doug part, prepared by someone I don't know.... Have I frige filled with lovely meatpies to keep me going for a while.... and untill I sleepover there again.....

Greetings
Zorro

Reading all of this is making me very hungry especially in this rainy weather!

I have a real sweet tooth one that I learnt from an old Zuid-Wester (Namibian). You can make it at home or in the park but it needs to be stored in the fridge to keep it sticky but not runny.

1 can of condense milk
2 medium bananas
2 - 4 cups of rice krispies
For something xtra:
Either chopped peanuts or peanut butter (you don't have to place the peanut in)

Skin the bananas and chop into rings and then halves. Mix bananas, rise krispies and condense milk together in plastic container that can fit in the fridge. Guess the amount of people eating on dessert if rice krispies are not enough just add more but be careful not to add too much.

Then mix in peanuts / peanut butter and place in fridge for at least two hours. The mix will set until it's not runny anymore. WARNING VERY SWEET!

We love eating this and it lasts between 4 adults a whole weekend.

The potato in foil is a good one I do it also but we bought ours in the park so this is what you do if you don't have a microwave.

Wash potatoes and don't peel it. Pierce holes in the potato.
Next cut piece of foil that will cover the whole potato, place potato in middle of foil and throw salt, black pepper, mixed herbs, fresh garlic (always ) on. Roll potato to cover the whole veggie.
Then close up potato with foil and make sure it's properly closed.
You can then place your foil looking rocks (that's what it looks like to me) in the coals on the side. Wors takes the longest to cook so we used the braai (BBQ) time for the wors as timer for the potatoes.

When ready open foil carefully, the skin should be black but soft inside and cooked. You can either scoop the inside out or eat it straight out of the skin with some butter, salt and pepper.

Hmmm...to hungry now again will have to make it in two weekends time again...and will bring some more ideas

Thanks Fanta
Good one for extending the life of a tin of condensed milk .
Normally I just punch 2 small holes and suck on one .

More desert treats .
Caramelized banana desert .
Grill bananas in their skins over the coals till the skin is black , say 10 mins .
With a knife and fork (because it's hot) get the caramelized banana out onto your plate and pour some amarula over .

Tinned fruit and Ultramel custard

Chocolate slab

Rice pudding in black pot .
Leftover rice , milk or cream , beaten eggs , sugar and cinnamon and raisens or finely chopped dry fruit specialy dry apricots .
Bake over low coals (as per pot bread) after braaing , till the egg (custard) sets . Have an after dinner drink while waiting .

Hey my cooking mates,

Love all the great food ideas, @Mike, yum-yum!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am unfortunately not I sweet one, so i will have to do the banana thing for the fam....

Thanks again for all the wonderful tips...

The potatoes can be cooked in the pot as well...... but the black fired up potatoes with garlic and butter are the bestes of the best...

And someone the the thread mentioned that they alway over eat whilst there, trust me, we do as well... why??? I do not know....

Greetings to all the Foodies out there! !!
Zorro