Barossa Beef — a wine-braised camp oven roast that turns inexpensive stewing beef into a tender Sunday-grade dinner. The red wine cooks off (the alcohol burns off completely), leaving a deep, rich, complex sauce. Kid-friendly + gentle enough for everyone at the table.

90 minutes mostly hands-off camp oven cook. Serve sliced over mashed potato with the vegetable gravy spooned over.

Photo by dmrjy on Unsplash

Serves: 4 · Prep: 15 minutes · Cook: 90 minutes · Equipment: camp oven (12-inch), or Dutch oven on gas stove, or kitchen oven

Photo: Sanju M Gurung / Unsplash

• 1kg piece of roasting beef (chuck, blade, silverside or topside)
• 2 large carrots, thickly sliced
• 2 brown onions, cut into wedges
• 2 stalks celery, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ¼ cup plain flour
• 2 cups dry red wine (shiraz, cab sav, grenache — Barossa varieties work brilliantly)
• 1 tin (400g) chopped tomatoes, drained
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Salt + cracked black pepper
• Optional add-ins: sprig fresh rosemary or thyme; bay leaf; 100g chopped pancetta/bacon for extra depth

To serve:

• Mashed potato (the standard partner)
• Steamed greens (broccolini, beans)
• Crusty sourdough to mop the gravy
• OR pappardelle pasta tossed with the gravy

1. Pre-heat the camp oven to MEDIUM heat — over coals OR on a gas stove. Build a good coal bed if cooking outside.

2. Brown the beef. Season the beef on ALL sides with salt + pepper. Add the olive oil to the camp oven. Brown the beef thoroughly — turn to seal every face. About 8-10 minutes total. Pull out + set aside on a plate.

3. Sauté the vegetables. Toss carrots, onions, garlic + celery into the camp oven. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring, until starting to soften.

4. Add the flour. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables. Cook + stir for 3 minutes — toasts the flour + creates the gravy thickener. (This is the "roux" step.)

5. Add wine + tomatoes. Pour in the red wine + drained chopped tomatoes. Stir well to scrape up any brown bits. Bring to a gentle simmer.

6. Return the beef. Place the beef back into the camp oven, turning to coat in the sauce.

7. Lid on, slow cook. Lid on the camp oven. Cook slowly over MEDIUM coals (around the edges + on TOP of the lid, NOT directly underneath — too hot). Cook for 90 minutes, or until done to your liking.

For lower heat (longer cook): reduce coals on top + bottom. The longer + slower it cooks, the more tender the result.

8. Test for tenderness — fork should slide in easily; meat should pull apart with little resistance.

9. Slice + serve. Lift the beef onto a serving board, rest 5 minutes. Slice across the grain. Serve over mashed potato with the vegetable gravy spooned generously over the top.

• Cut choice: chuck or blade for the most tender slow-cook result; silverside or topside for cleaner slicing. Avoid expensive tender cuts (eye fillet, scotch) — they don't need slow cooking + are wasted here
• Wine matters but doesn't need to be expensive. A $15 Barossa shiraz or grenache works brilliantly. Avoid sweet wines (overpowers the dish)
• Alcohol cooks off completely in the 90-minute braise — kid-friendly final dish
• Without wine: 2 cups beef stock + 1 tbsp balsamic + 1 tbsp tomato paste = similar depth without alcohol
• Stretch with vegetables — add chopped potato, parsnip, sweet potato, mushrooms in the last 30 mins
• Gravy too thin? Pull beef out, simmer gravy 10 min uncovered to reduce
• Gravy too thick? Splash extra stock or wine
• Make ahead: tastes EVEN BETTER the next day. Refrigerate overnight, gently reheat. Big batches work for multiple meals
• Leftovers — pulled beef sandwiches with horseradish + rocket. Sensational
• Without camp oven: kitchen oven 160°C for 2 hours, OR slow cooker on LOW 6 hours, OR pressure cooker 45 minutes

The Aussie answer to French daube — wine-braised beef from a camp oven, served over mashed potato. Cheap cut, simple ingredients, magnificent result. The kind of dinner that turns a wet evening at camp into the cosiest dinner of the trip.

Make a double batch for multi-day camps — second-night leftover Barossa Beef is genuinely better than first night. The 90 minutes is mostly hands-off — set it up after lunch, by dinner time it's ready.