Toasties in the old boat shed by Pambula River

Words: Harrison Balodis Photography: Luisa Brimble

Come on an adventure with us — one where we will cook by the water with friends.

The cottage stands proud five minutes down the road from the Pambula River mouth. Known by most for its turquoise, crystal clear waters which washes up onto the red rocks, the place has proven to be the perfect place for a picnic over the years. So, one day, when Luisa and Kat visited, we piled into the kombi van and headed straight there. We cooked up some toasties and enjoyed a day at our local – as you can imagine, they fell in love with the river mouth.

One of my favourite things about the river mouth is the old boatsheds which were built right on the shore line. We walked a little further up, to find a secluded one with no other people in sight. The bush proves to be the perfect back drop, with the ramp of the boatshed the best place to set up the cooking station. The beauty about beach cooking is that it is simple. We have a basic set up  which we leave in our kombi van, with only the essentials, so you have everything you need when you find that perfect place. If you’re interested in getting started, below is a list of our basics.

Getting started 

-          A picnic basket to haul your kit in(we were lucky enough to score an antique fisherman’s basket from Sibella Court’s shop, The Society Inc.)

-          An esky (tip: this doubles as a great bench top). 

-          Enamel plates and cutlery (tip: cater for four, you never know who you’ll be cooking for!).

-          A propane burner or camp stove

- A fry pan 

-         Utensils like : A chopping board, chopping knife, wooden spoon, grater

- Cooking Oil 

- Paper towel for cleaning up

Building on the basics 

If you are looking to get serious about cooking outdoors, we think it is worth investing in some good quality outdoor gear. We love YETI and think it’s a pretty safe bet to build on your basic kit. YETI have some of the best gear money can buy. From their eskys to their keep cups, their products are designed to work extremely well and are built to survive the extremes or in our case, many outdoor adventures.

The next thing to work building on is a good sized kit that is readily stocked and ready for any spontaneous cook up! For us, this is a small plastic clip lock container that is pretty much a kitchen in a box. Tip: It’s all in the way you pack your kit - pack to save space means that you only need a small clip lock container and therefore is easier to store in the back of your car.

It has things like:

- Cleaning necessities i.e sponge, scourer, dishwashing liquid, paper towels, tea towels etc.

- Cooking utensils i.e wooden spoons, plastic stirring spoon, tongs, salad servers, a foldable sieve, a microplane, grater, measuring cup and ladle etc.

- Cooking wares i.e medium metal mixing bowl, medium pot with lid, medium pan etc.

- A lighter and matches! Every kit needs a lighter and matches otherwise, you can get into strife if you can’t light your stove.

To help get you started on your outdoor cooking, we have shared the recipe we used to on our cook up at the river. We always try to use the best quality ingredients when we cook, especially when we are cooking simple dishes. For this dish, we used our favourite kimchi from Cherry Moon General Store in Sydney’s Annadale, gourmet cheese by Prom Country Cheese and fresh sourdough by the Bread and Butter Project also in Sydney. Kat and Lu had picked up these ingredients on their journey down, but we have great local suppliers down here which would be perfect for this dish. We would suggest bread from Wild Ryes or Honor Bread, local kimchi by South Coast Kimchi and cheese from Tilba Dairy.

Recipe: Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

A loaf of Sourdough (or bread)

500g of cheddar or any hard cheese that you fancy

5 sprigs of Thyme

3 cloves of garlic

500g of Mushrooms

580g Jar of Kimchi

Salt and Pepper

Olive Oil

Optional: Side salad of Rainbow Chard

METHOD:

Light your stove and put the pan on a medium heat.

While the pan heats, slice your bread.

Once your pan is hot, lay your bread out and lightly drizzle olive oil over each slice of the bread. Then toast your bread by laying the slices in the pan. You only want to lightly toast your bread to ensure that your toastie turns out crispy. Tip. - alternatively, you can toast your bread directly on the naked flames of your camp stove and get that chargrilled flavour.

Slice your mushrooms into uniform sized bits and set aside.

Thinly slice up a few cloves of garlic and set aside. Tip. - the more the merrier.

Use your fingers to pinch the bottoms of the sprigs of thyme and then drag your fingers up the sprig to remove the thyme leaves and set aside.

Once your bread is toasted you can move onto cooking the mushrooms.

To cook the mushrooms firstly, pour a good glug of olive oil into your pan - 2 tablespoons - and wait until the oil heats up. Tip. - You can also use butter.

Add the mushrooms, garlic, thyme to the pan and season with salt and pepper, stirring until cooked.

Once cooked, set aside and leave the pan on the stove but at a low heat.

Lay out the slices of toast because its time to pile on your toppings.

Firstly grate a good amount of cheese, drizzle with Kewpie Mayo, then add your kimchi, mushrooms on top of that and finish with some more grated cheese.

Once your’e topped with toppings, turn your pans heat up to a medium heat. Put a slice of toast on top of each toastie and gently carry one over and into the pan, trying not to spill any of the cheese or mushrooms - sometimes spilling is inevitable.

Fry until each side is brown and most importantly, until the cheese on the inside of your toastie has melted. Tip. - Watch the heat of your pan. Try to avoid burning the toast before the cheese has melted. This may involve tuning the gas knob between low to medium.

Enjoy!

Tip: We served ours with a side salad of wilted rainbow chard from the garden dressed in the liquid from the Kimchi jar.