Our church has been holding our annual family camps at Christian Youth Camps in Ngaruawahia for the last six years. Every year we ask the camp staff for instructions to run the equipment in the kitchen. During the Matariki holidays in the weekend, we had our camp for this year, and this time I recorded Nick Dodds when he gave us the instructions. Even over this weekend, we referred to the recording a number of times, to remember what we had been told. Now, back home from camp, I quickly turned the recording into the six videos you see in this post, editing out some unnecessary comments and a couple of disturbing sneezes. This post will no doubt help us, and maybe other groups as well, to go to camp better prepared and bother campsite staff like Nick a little less.
Below are the recipes that Nick mentions in the videos. We successfully tried out the recipes for toast and also for rice using ‘Steamer (Left).’ I also used ‘Steamer (Right)’ for cooking 20 kg of chicken for making Butter Chicken, which then came together in all its authenticity and richness in the Bratt pan. Some teams used both the Bratt pan and the Hot plate for cooking their burger patties. The Breakfast Squad used the Bratt Pan for making scrambled eggs every day.
Toast
The ovens are good toasters.
1. Load racks with bread. You can fit 12 slices per rack.
2. Place the racks in the oven.
3. Set to bake (not steam) for 6 mins at between 220°C & 250°C. The 6 mins will vary depending on whether the oven is hot or cold, the amount of bread, and the type of bread. Toast will burn quickly, so watch it near the end, and beware of very hot air escaping the oven when you open it.
Porridge
Cooking time is one hour.
1. Put 3 L of rolled oats and 3 L of milk into a deep oven pan (gastronorm tray).
2. Fill to the ‘line,’ which is about 1 cm from the very top, with hot or cold water.
3. Steam cook (oven will only allow 100°C on steam setting) for an hour , or until cooked.
4. Stir once after half an hour (optional).
5. Stand clear when opening the oven.
Hot Chocolate
Hot chocolate made this way keeps hot for hours and serves 30 people.
1. Start by boiling water (enough to fill the container).
2. Half fill one of the two containers with hot tap water to warm the container.
3. Dissolve 1 cup sugar and 1 cup of drinking chocolate in boiling water.
4. Add the dissolved sugar and drinking chocolate to the pre warmed container after tipping out the hot tap water.
5. Add 4-6L milk.
6. Top up with boiling water.
White Rice
White rice cooked this way serves 35-40 adults.
1. Place 3L of rice in a deep gastronorm tray. Rinsing the rice first is optional.
2. Add 3L of water to the rice.
3. Cook on the steam setting for 25 mins. At the steam setting, the temperature is set to 100°C; the Steamer will not allow you to change the temperature.
4. Stand clear when opening door at the end of cooking, because a great cloud of hot steam comes out.
Nahomi how could I even consider querying the cooking of rice with a person who has cooked rice all their lives!! But I always measure twice as much water as rice? Is this method different?
Joan, many of us had the very same question, and if we were going to make our rice this way, then we had to get it right, for we had to feed a 100 mouths and would have no time to cook rice in a pot after that. But I also knew that if Nick’s recipe was wrong, he would have corrected it years ago. So we went with it. The steamer ensures that it does not go dry. The rice while it was cooked through, did not swell up as much as it would in our homes, and it stayed as separate grains, which is not a bad thing. It was yummy too, as you would have noticed. But the quantity of rice to serve was less by about a third, so Niju had to go to New World and get some more rice. But cooking in trays in the steamer is so hassle free and quick. This is a keeper recipe for coming years at camp, for sure.