Camping and cooking | All Things Sicilian and more

THREE MONTH ROAD TRIP

Initially, the plan was straightforward, my partner and I were to head north in our simple campervan to the Northern Territory and then loop back to Melbourne via Mount Isa and the inland roads of Queensland and make our way back to Melbourne.

But just like my cooking, there were revisions, adjustments, unexpected twists and the itinerary evolved – the two-month trip became a three-month exploration.

I left Melbourne on July 16 (2024) driving first to Mildura and then through parts of South Australia to the Flinders Ranges and on to Marree and Coober Pedy. From there we planned to travel via Uluru and Kata Tjuta National Parks to Toritja (Western McDonnells) and Alice Springs to Darwin, stopping off at Litchfield National Park, Katherine Gorge and, of course, many places in between.

The second lap was from Darwin to Kakadu and Katherine, into Karumba in the Gulf of Carpentaria, the Atherton Tableland to Cairns, down the Great Barrier Reef Coast through places like Mission Beach and Cardwell to Townsville.

From Townsville, I travelled through inland Queensland to Emerald, Carnarvon Gorge and Roma, and into Northern New South Wales to Lighting Ridge, Dubbo and Canowindra, Junee, Jerilderrie, Shepperton. Once again with many places in between.

Every location and every state disclosed their unique cultures and tapestries of breathtaking landscapes, waterfalls, vibrant colours, extremes of dry and lush vegetation, shifting weather, dawn and dusk, and the fascinating cycles of the seasons. The six Aboriginal seasons rather than our four colonial imports make so much more sense in a country as vast as Australia. I marvelled at the ancient rock paintings and the splendid Aboriginal Art in galleries and museums.

Cooking in our camper van is an outdoor affair. Meals were quick and easy, ready to be eaten and cleaned away before dusk to escape the incoming swarm of mosquitoes and sandflies. The buzzing of the mosquitoes was a constant alert to their presence, but the tiny insects were crafty, silent attackers, their bites lingering for days.

This transient cooking meant I didn’t always have sufficient light or time to take photos of our meals Still, my partner and I ate extremely well and healthily, even if in the remote outback, the variety of fresh vegetables were lacking. I took my chances to stock up for a few days at a time from the larger towns.

I bought fresh herbs (such as parsley, rosemary, thyme and oregano) from home and was happy to find the bay leaves and thyme lasted in the ice box for about four weeks. In some supermarkets I was able to buy basil and coriander. From a stall in the front of a sugar cane plantation in north Queensland I bought fresh tumeric. As you can see, my cooking was not all Italian, but the principles, respect of ingredients and dedication remain the same.

I cooked mainly vegetarian meals: cauliflower, zucchini, red peppers and sweet potatoes were always available and I made many tasty vegetable braises using pulses, often with eggs poached in the braises or topped with feta. This was the cheese that mostly available, sold in plastic packs, I was willing to I forget the Italian fresh cheeses as I was for anything that was a little out of the ordinary.

Tomatoes, avocado, lettuce and, strangely enough, rocket and red cabbage were also available in some places so I managed to make interesting salads. I did not expect to see any Italian greens, but bok choi was plentiful in most places – especially North Queensland – and a variation of simple stir fries with bean curd was often on the menu. Pulses and nuts have always been part of my cooking. Once again I had to I forget the Italian vegetables and anything that was a little out of the ordinary.

I seem not to have bothered with taking many photos of vegetarian dishes, instead I took photos of the very few occasions I cooked meat or fish – Barramundi in the gulf of Carpentaria and in northern Queensland, green tiger prawns on Queensland’s north coast and fillet steak in the Northern territory and it was so good to find lush greens in the Atherton Tablelands that I bought pork fillet, bok choi, coriander and fresh ginger that I accompanied with squashed cucumber.

Barramundi cooked two ways:

Fillet steak with a herb butter:

Pork fillet with bok choi

Green Tiger Prawns:

We only had two meals out, each with friends and here, too, we embraced the local flavours. In Cairns, northern Queensland I ordered barramundi at a yacht club with friends visiting from South Australia and later, in Canowindra in central New South Wales, I enjoyed a hearty steak, fittingly so, since our friend is an environmental consultant, pastoralist adviser and beef cattle rancher.

Purchasing alcohol while traversing the outback comes with its own set of rules, and ordering alcohol can be an intimidating experience! I quickly learned that beer reigns supreme as the drink of choice. And if you find yourself in a remote location, avoid asking for specific wine varietals, dry cider, or red wine that has not been chilled to the same degree as beer—there’s no forgiveness!

Phone and internet coverage was very spotty at best in the outback. When we did manage to connect, it was all about researching maps, checking road conditions, and booking campsites.

In my previous post, “From Melbourne to Darwin,” I shared snapshots of some of the food from that leg of the journey, and I’ll continue to do this in this post. i had difficulties selecting photos, there are so many, and we covered so much ground.

See other posts about cooking and camping:

TRAVELLING, Melbourne to Darwin

CAMPING AND COOKING IN W.A.

CAMPING and COOKING

GLAM COOKING ON THE ROAD Camping

PRODUCE IN GIPPSLAND Campside Eating

EATING WELL, Camping in Tasmania, BBQ chicken-Pollo alla Diavola

TRAVELLING, Melbourne to Darwin

This post contains photos of the cooking that can be achieved with a simple stove in an extremely basic van while travelling in country Australia. Experiencing nature and being part of the stunningly beautiful scenery stimulates the appetite.

I left Melbourne six weeks ago and although I have been cooking every night, I have had very little time or phone coverage to write posts. At the same time it has also been very difficult to take photographs in the semi dark of the food I am cooking or eating. Our VW carrier is a simple van and the cooking facilities have to be done outside, but we have continued to eat healthy fresh food. This has never been difficult because when we travel we are picking up a vegetable or two in the bigger communities and storing them in our little icebox, so we have had fresh produce all the way. A few tins of pulses help but I have also carried a selection of pulses, the small shaped ones, and once soaked they cook quickly.

Zucchini, cabbage, sweet potatoes, carrots, pumpkin and cauliflower seem to be available everywhere and wherever we could we bought spinach (the blede type) and silver beet. We always do well with fresh vegetables, wherever we are!

I brought fresh herbs from home and after 6 weeks I still have thyme and bay leaves. These last for ever! Spices are also a must and there are many of those.

Here are some photos of some of the things I cooked or was in the process of cooking. The stunningly beautiful scenery and surprisingly vivid colours of the Northern Territory certainly are beautiful!

Food

And now for some Northern Territory scenery:

And all of this, performed in a very simple van!

These links have more photos and ideas for what can be achieved:

CAMPING AND COOKING IN W.A.

GLAM COOKING ON THE ROAD; Camping

BEING ELDERLY, TRAVELLING and COFFEE

CAMPING and COOKING

CAMPING AND COOKING IN W.A.

For me, it is very important to eat well, wherever I am.

I have recently returned from a nine week trip in Western Australia. It was in a very simple campervan with a basic pull out stove, but as always, I manage to eat well even if some supplies were difficult to purchase.

I realize that the range of vegetables I am accostomed to where I live (Melbourne and previously Adelaide) were not to be found even in the larger towns I visited. Supply and demand is important and I consider myself lucky to live in cities where the the different ethnicities have contributed to what is grown and available.

But maybe I am expecting far too much.

I need to acknowledge that much of the produce I bought was in small, often remote communities and, as in the rest of country Australia, what was mostly available was limited to pumpkins, iceberg lettuces, carrots, cauliflower, cabbages and tomatoes (not the greatest). Potatoes, onions and sweet potatoes were everywhere. Beetroot, sometimes – but without their leaves. the sort of vegetables that my family was able to purchase when we first settled in Adelaide and I was eight years old.

In some places I found broccoli, green beans, spring onions and sometimes boc choy and red cabbage. On rare occasions there was asparagus and, if I was lucky, there were good bunches of silverbeet. I made sure to buy bunches of this leafy green vegetable wherever I could and cooked it in various ways: braised with chillies and anchovies, sautéed in butter with a final dash of lemon juice, sautéed and deglazed with vinegar and a bit of sugar, or mixed with other vegetables.

Sometimes, I found curly Kale, but never Tuscan Kale, the Italian Cavolo Nero. Having said that, I acknowledge that growing seasons may be different in the West, especailly the North West, but if there was Kale there was never Cavolo Nero/Tuscan Kale which grows in the same season. I saw and bought Brussel sprouts in a few places but they were extremely expensive.

Capsicums/ peppers were pretty abundant, especially red ones.

In the larger cities produce was more varied. One of the things that I found quite perculiar is that zucchini were were exceptionally large and old singly. I only once found small zucchini (the size they should be) which was in Albany and I bought all they had. Green grocers seem few and far between and people shopped in supermarkets, but perhaps, on reflection supermarkets don’t necessarily have a wide range .

The produce in the Fremantle market was certaily fresh and excellent in quality and i stocked up there as much as I could. Occasionally, we’d pass through a place that had a Saturday Market but most of the stalls had a limited range, usually more of the same. On one rare occasion I found a market stall that had broadbeans and English spinach, fresh bunches of basil, coriander and parsley. Heaven! I’m an opportunistic shopper and while I do pine for leafy green vegetables, I know I can always make a meal of whatever I have in the pantry. The occasional tin of borlotti, canellini or black beans came in very handy as a mixer.

Whenever I saw red, teardrops tomatoes, as I did in the market in Fremantle and Saturday Market in Carnarvon I bought plenty.

I made many salads using what vegetables I had. In one supermarket in Denmark I found a celeriac. I teemed this with beetroot and dressed it with a mustard vinaigrette.

I bought fennel in Fremantle and on another occasion radicchio in Albany. As well as salad I braised some with leeks and chicken breasts. Pretty good with mashed potatoes.

I bought a 2k tub of bocconcini and a burrata in Margaret River.

That was a real find!

My pantry in the campervan is always well stocked with extra virgin olive oil, vinegars, capers, olives, nuts, anchovies and a farly generous supply of spices including different types of pepper. The only dry herb I use is oregano. I am a big consumer of fresh herbs and I picked fresh rosemary wherever I saw it and kept it fresh in a container in the small fridge in the van. In some places I was able to buy fresh basil. I make harissa – strong and fragrant and take this with me.

For camping trips, I also marinade feta in extra virgin olive oil, bay leaves and black peppercorns and store it in the fridge. Feta is very versatile and when it is marinaded it lasts for a long time. I add this to salads, dress pasta with it and spread it on bread.