This is something that might appeal to the "outdoors" types...
On Saturday I built a bonfire to dispose of some of fallen timber that isn't suitable for burning indoors. By Sunday morning I had a sizeable mound of ash covering lots of hot embers. This reminded me of when we used bonfire embers to bake potatoes in foil when I was a kid. Well, waste not, want not...
Back in the house, I prepared the essence of a lamb stew - seared chunks of lamb in butter with garlic, onions, celery, various root vegetables, mushroom, oregano...whatever I had to hand. I added a handful of whole peppercorns and some shallots and covered the whole lot with a mixture of stock and red wine. I should mention that this was in a cast iron pan with a matching lid. I then covered the lid with a layer of heavy duty foil, mostly to keep it reasonably clean.
Back at the bonfire, I scraped away the embers until I reached the ground below, set the pan on the ground and covered it with embers. Eight hours later I had the tastiest stew imaginable, rich with caramelised onion and red wine. Eaten with chunks of hot, crisp bread, this was a wonderful way to end a February day.
If you decide to give this a try, you'll need to experiment with the amount of stock and the cooking time as well. I probably left the pan in the embers for too long - even with day-old embers. The liquid had reduced considerably, although no doubt that contributed to the richness.
Feel free to use this thread to describe your own "bonfire cookery" experiences and recipes. You may have a favourite Dutch oven or Aga recipe that would work well in a campfire, pre-barbecue environment too...
