Jen’s Wolfe Creek Beef Casserole

We’re always on the lookout for meals to cook on our road trips that are fast, healthy, tasty and don’t use a lot of pots and pans – to save water and washing up.

So on our Big Lap we perfected a dish that came to be known as Jen’s ‘Wolfe Creek Beef Casserole’.

We always keep a supply of frozen meat and frozen veggies in our car fridge/freezer for those times when we want to eat a decent meal quickly but we’re a long way from a supermarket.

This dish ticks all the boxes for classic, simple bush cooking recipes:

1. It only needs one pot in total
2. It needs no fresh ingredients – frozen meat, frozen and canned veggies, onions & potatoes (which travel well) & flavours.
3. It takes less than 30 minutes to prepare
4. It’s healthy
5. The kids love it

So what’s in it?

Ingredients:

• Beef – rump and scotch fillet are best but porterhouse would work too – gravy beef is no good because it needs to be cooked for hours. This is a quick and easy recipe. (remember to take the steak out of the freezer in the morning so it defrosts during the day)
• Large onion
• 2 or 3 large potatoes cut into potato salad sized chunks
• Can of Red Kidney beans
• Large can of crushed tomatoes
• Bag of mixed frozen veggies
• Beef stock
• Tomato paste
• Salt & pepper
• Cayenne Pepper to spice it up
• Cooking oil or butter
• Red wine or port

Equipment:

• Large cooking pot or camp oven
• Stirring spoon
• Tongs

Method:

1. Dice the onion and potatoes and fry in the oil for about 5 minutes.
2. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the steak and add it to the pot and fry it to about medium rare. This will give the final dish more flavour than just putting raw meat into the casserole.
3. Once the steak is medium/rare, cut it into bite sized chunks and put it back in the pot with onion and potatoes.
4. Make up about 2 cups of stock using stock powder, red wine and water.
5. Add the stock to the pot and mix.
6. Add the drained kidney beans, frozen veggies, tomatoes and tomato paste.
7. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
8. Take the kids serves out then add the cayenne pepper to the pot if you want it spicier
9. Serve in a bowl with a beer or glass or two of red wine.

There are many ways to vary this dish by using fresh veggies if you have them, chicken thighs instead of steak and so on.

But when it comes to quick, healthy, tasty and simple bush cooking recipes, this one is a winner.

Do you have a favourite recipe for us to publish? Tell us about it.