Camp Oven Lasagne

(Feeds 8 people)

If you are cooking over a fire make sure you are making good coals for your camp oven as you cook the meat sauce.

​Ingredients

Meat Sauce

• 2 large onions (red, white or a mix)
• 4-6 cloves of garlic (how much do you like garlic?)
• 1-2 Heaped Tablespoon Dried Oregano
• 1-2 Heaped Tablespoon Basil
• 2-3 Bay leaves
• A good pinch of cayenne pepper or ¼ t chilli powder
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1kg Mince (we substitute with white beans, either chickpeas or cannellini for vegetarians and sometimes if we have big eaters we will add into the mince to bulk out the lasagna)
• 2 - 3 Tablespoons Tomato paste
• 2 Tins Chopped Tomatoes
• ¼ Pumpkin and/or 1-2 orange kumara – chopped up small
• 3-4 Carrots - grated
• Paper bag full of mushrooms – quarters or chunky slices
• Pre-cooked Lasagna sheets (we use about 375g)

‘White sauce’

• 2 x Cottage Cheese pottles (we use 300g tubs)
• ½ t of Nutmeg per pottle
• Grated cheese for the top, we use whatever we have in the chilly bin, it is normally ‘mild’.

Method

1) In a large pot with a couple of tablespoons of oil fry onions until clear, then add garlic, herbs/ spices, grated carrot, tomato paste and chopped pumpkin.

2) On a cast iron hot plate/frying pan brown off the mince in batches, add into vegetable mixture as it is browned

3) When carrots are softened and all mince is added, mix in tinned tomatoes. (if mixture is starting to stick you can do this earlier) rinse tins out with about a small amount of water if more liquid is needed.

4) Add beans to mixture if you are using them

5)Add Mushrooms as well as salt and pepper to taste.

6) Allow to simmer over the fire until the pumpkin is cooked. Sometimes a little sugar is needed to make it taste right, other times the carrots add enough sweetness. Taste and perfect before assembling lasagna.

Assembly

1. Mix the nutmeg into the cottage cheese tubs
2. In a camp oven spread a small amount of meat sauce on the bottom
3. Alternate layers of lasagna sheets and meat sauce for 2-3 layers.
4. Spread one tub of cottage cheese on top of a meat layer then add a layer of lasagna sheets
5. 2-3 more layers of meat sauce and lasagna sheets.
6. On top of the final layer of lasagna sheets spread the 2^nd tub of cottage cheese
7. Sprinkle grated cheese on top
8. Put lid on camp oven

Baking

1) Use a small shovel to move hot coals beside your fire to make a base for your camp oven,   make sure there will be no flames from the fire licking the side of your oven.

2) Sit the camp oven on top of these coals and gently shovel coals onto the top of your camp oven lid.

3) You will need to swap out the coals when they start to go cold

4) Cooking the lasagna usually takes about 50 minutes. We know to check it when we start to smell it.

5) When you can push a knife easily through the lasagna layers and the cheese at the top is golden brown it is ready.

Red Coleslaw

Ingredients

• 1 large raw beetroot - grated
• 2-3 carrots (equal amount to beetroot) – grated
• Red Cabbage (equal amount to beetroot) - sliced thinly
• 2 good handfuls of toasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds
• 2 NZ oranges, peeled and chopped into pieces of about 1cm
• Juice of 2-3 lemons
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Handful of fresh mint (optional)

Method

Mix everything into a bowl and serve. The lemon juice, salt and pepper and mint act as a simple dressing. We often make enough for wraps at lunch the next day.