Gourmet camping lunch: Russian river reuben sandwich
Images: Luisa Brimble // @luisabrimble
Recipe: Sarah Glover // @missarahglover
Tassie-born chef, Sarah Glover has spent the last two years camping across 17 different locations, compiling delicious recipes designed specifically to be cooked outdoors. Her idea of camp food challenges all your preconceptions about what camp food really is – and there’s not a marshmallow or damper in sight.
This recipe for her killer Reuben sandwich is proof. It takes a simple idea –a reuben sandwich – and turns it into a gourmet camping lunch using quality, fresh ingredients that will keep your belly full for the whole road trip.
Russian River Reuben
FEEDS: 4
INGREDIENTS:
4 flank steaks
your favourite spiced steak rub
1 red onion, quartered
1/3 cup verjuice
1 tablespoon raw sugar
3 baby carrots, sliced
1/2 Chinese cabbage, shredded
bunch of chives, finely chopped
Cobram Estate EVOO and lovage aioli (recipe follows)
salt
sliced sourdough
sliced cheese
sliced avocado
lemon juice
AIOLI: (Makes one cup)
INGREDIENTS:
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons lemon juice
about 11/2 cups Cobram Estate EVOO
3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
salt
a few sprigs of lovage (or celery leaves), roughly chopped
EQUIPMENT:
Traeger Grill using pellets
METHOD (sandwich)
1: Put the steaks in a bowl and massage in the spiced rub. Cover and marinate in the esky on ice for a few hours.
Heat your Traeger Grill to 200∞C as per the instructions.
Add the steaks to the grill and cook for 5 minutes each side. Remove and let the meat rest for a few minutes before slicing for your sandwich.
2: Combine the red onion, verjuice and sugar in a bowl and allow to sit for 10 minutes so the onion starts to pickle slightly. Add the carrot, cabbage and chives, then mix in the aioli and toss together well. Season to taste with salt.
3: Make your sandwich as desired; mine has cheese, meat, slaw and avocado, with a squeeze of lemon juice to finish. So good!
METHOD (AIOLI):
1: Whisk together the egg yolks and lemon juice in a glass bowl. Slowly whisk in small drizzles of the EVOO until you see an emulsion start to form. Keeping it steady and slow, continue whisking in the EVOO, adding a few small splashes of cold water if it gets too thick.
2: Finish it with the smashed garlic cloves and a few pinches of salt, then stir in most of the lovage leaves, reserving a few for garnish. Don’t worry that the garlic cloves are whole – you’re going to fish them out later. Cover the aioli and let it sit in the fridge or esky over ice for at least an hour to let the garlic flavour infuse and allow it to firm up a bit. Take out the garlic cloves, scatter the remaining lovage leaves over the top and you’re good to go.
For more tasty ways to spice up your next camping trip, check out Sarah’s book WILD Adventure Cookbook, $69.95.