Roadkill stew

 

 

We decided in a terms program for cooking - much of it outdoors based and also using the Geezers cookbook.  The most fun recipe and activity for me was the Roadkill stew.  Nothing like psyching up the youth with good stories about Russia and dead meat and meat shortages and recycling any dead animal found on the road!  There are many others and some we used successfully - the Coke a cola chicken stands out in particular.  Anyhow below are some images from that day we cooked our roadkill stew - it was fun. 

Getting the water supply ready - basic safety first - in case either the fire spread or we needed to apply first aid.











Where shall we put our fire safety bucket??  Here or there??? - actually - not bad carrying nearly 50 liters of water!!












 I made a rocket stove out of a soup tin-can and a larger 5 liter fruit salad tin-can - insulated it and was keen on test driving this little baby.  It needs very little timber for heat produced and can boil water in a shorter time then a conventional fire - but more on that in another log entry









 Getting the fire ready!!  This time, due to time constraints we showed the scouts a different method - and we  used some of the "Magic Water"!  Basically we used two runners on the bottom and then crisscrossed layers over the top with kindling and some larger pieces.  The two runners leave a good 2 inch of clear air gap from the bottom up - and from both end-sides - thus the air can get underneath and let the fire "breathe".  Then tossed on some "magic water" and added a match - whooooom instant fire.  Once it burned down and was reduced to ashes we cooked on that.


 Having told the scouts to keep their eyes peeled for roadkill - and scrape that of the tarmac and take home - we gave them the option of buying fresh beef or venison - and bring that instead.  Funny how the idea of fresh tenderized meat from the road did not appeal. It did not help at all that during the term leading up to this I dropped some very subtle hints about how I found this meat . . . . .  Anyhow - the basic idea is that you take some fresh meat (and fish or chicken works best) lay that inside a golden syrup tin (500g size) then add flavor (any flavor you want) a handful of vegetable, and a handful of either rice or pasta and top up the tin with water leaving about 15 mm gap to the top rim.  Of course you can be as creative as you want to be.  For instance I boiled up some beef bones the 2 days before hand to get some decent stock and for additional flavour - well - think garlic  / rosemary / curry etc etc.  Then there are musrooms / capsicum . ough ough ough aahuuuuuuuuuuu    Urm better stop here - my water is running round my tastebuds again and I am getting hungry. ^^
Once all filled up you close up the tin with its lid and punch a tiny wee hole in it.  After about 5-10 minute it will release steam - indicating near boiling point and from there it is another 10 minute of cooking. Voila - a cooked meal inside it's own container and easy to eat from!!  Now - A N Y  food grade tin will do and it needs to be metallic - and as it acts like a pressure cooker the punched hole is there for an obvious reason!! 

If you check the picture - on the bottom left the geen tin - you can see the liquid bubbling out!!  Further you will notice that one enterprising scout decided he was VERY hungry and used a larger tin - which naturally took longer to cook.









 I had successfully test driven my rocket stove! Amazing how LITTLE wood you need to use for cooking - in fact I managed to use enough branches from the ground without using any of the prepped wood from home.  Further there was enough left to finish of the large tin from one of our scouts and use the 2nd large tin for boiling water - so that they can wash up their cutlery. 














As I said earlier - I  found the Geezers cook book on the internet some years back and have used it many a times to run a fun night with our youth - indeed once I based a whole terms program on it.
It can be found here ---->  geezercookbook..com

and here  ---->  GeezerCookBook.pdf   (which is easier to download and store on hard drive)

I salute to  Dwayne Pritchett and his children - your resource has provided many a good scout nights!
Yours in Scouting
rip Dwayne