2 simple recipes for cooking on coals

Coal-roasting your meals is easy and gives your food a delicious smoky flavour. The following guidelines will get you started.

The simplest method of fireplace cookery is coal-roasting, for which aluminium foil only is required. Food is wrapped in a double layer of foil that is folded firmly around the edges to make an airtight and watertight seal and buried in the embers (not in open flames).

Assess cooking time as you would on a conventional stove. This is generally around 10 minutes for soft green vegetables, 20 minutes for meat and fish and one hour or more for potatoes and large cuts of meat. An entire meal can be cooked in this way.

• Wrap potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, chunks of pumpkin, whole carrots or other vegetables such as zucchini in foil and bury them in the embers.
• Greens such as broccoli, beans and Brussels sprouts can be steamed in the foil; simply add 15 or so millimetres (a few tablespoons) of water, some butter or margarine, and pepper or lemon.
• Whole fish and pieces of meat will yield delicious results when they are cooked in this way, and particularly if special ingredients such as wine, soy sauce, herbs, lemon, garlic or other favourite flavourings and marinades have been added to the foil packet.

The staple of Australia pioneer days was damper, an unleavened dough usually cooked in a camp oven, in the coals or wrapped around the end of a stick. Sweet or savoury, a delicious damper can be rustled up and put on to bake with your potatoes. For quick damper, make a few small loaves that will take around a half hour to cook. A larger loaf will take up to 1 1/2 hours.

• 250 g (1 c) self-raising flour
• 50 ml (1/4 c) milk or water
• A pinch of salt

1. Mix ingredients to a firm dough, shape and dust the outside with flour. Wrap the dough in foil, leaving sufficient space for it to rise. Place in coal embers for 30 minutes or until cooked.
2. Damper is cooked when it has a golden brown crust and a stick or a skewer inserted into the damper comes away clean. A well-cooked damper makes a hollow sound when it is rapped with the knuckles or tapped with a stick.
3. Serves two.

• For a "dessert" damper, mold dough into a thick snake and wind it around a stick so that it cooks with a hollow centre. Cook in foil as above and, when ready, remove the stick and fill the damper with butter and jam, cream, golden syrup or some other sweet treat.
• Sweet additions: Oats, coconut, ground nuts, brown sugar, powdered milk, honey, jam, sultanas or chocolate chips.
• Savoury additions: Grated cheese, chives, onions, bacon, chopped olives or mixed herbs. Another delicious addition is a large wedge of brie or camembert cheese put in the middle of the damper.