Camp Oven Lamb Shanks with Tomatoes & Beans — the winter camp dinner that cooks itself while you tend the fire

Three hours of slow fire, one pot of the best cold-weather camp dinner you'll eat all winter.

There is a particular kind of quiet that settles over a bush camp in August. The sun drops behind the red gums, the temperature falls away, and the only job left is getting the fire right. On nights like that, you want something that rewards a slow afternoon — something that fills the camp with the smell of garlic and rosemary while you split the kindling and set up the chairs.

Lamb shanks done in a camp oven are that dish. Cheap to buy, forgiving to cook, and almost impossible to stuff up, they turn a simple fire into a slow-braised dinner that tastes like it came from a country pub. This version braises the shanks with tinned tomatoes, red wine and white beans, so the sauce does double duty as the side dish. You get protein, carbs and veg out of the one pot, with nothing left to wash but the camp oven.

Ingredients

- 4 lamb shanks (ask the butcher for the short, meaty ones — they cook faster than the long cut)

- 2 tbsp olive oil

- 2 brown onions, diced

- 4 garlic cloves, crushed

- 2 carrots, diced

- 1 celery stick, diced

- 2 tbsp tomato paste

- 1 cup (250 ml) red wine — whatever you're drinking

- 1 × 400 g tin crushed tomatoes

- 1 × 400 g tin cannellini or butter beans, drained

- 2 cups (500 ml) beef stock

- 3 sprigs fresh rosemary

- 2 bay leaves

- Salt and cracked pepper

- Handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped, to serve

Gear

- 4.5 L (or larger) camp oven / Dutch oven with lid

- Heat beads or a well-established bed of coals

- Tongs and a long-handled spoon

- Heatproof gloves or an oven-lid lifter

- Fire shovel or rake for managing coals

How to make it

• Get the fire ready. Light your fire or heat beads about 45 minutes before you want to cook. You want a solid bed of grey, glowing coals — not roaring flames. While that happens, pat the shanks dry and season them generously with salt and pepper.
• Sear the shanks. Sit the camp oven on a few coals and heat the olive oil until it shimmers. Brown the shanks in two batches, 3–4 minutes per side, until deeply coloured on all sides. Set them aside on a plate. This step is where most of the flavour comes from, so don't rush it.
• Soften the veg. Add the onion, carrot, celery and a pinch of salt to the pot. Cook for 5–6 minutes, stirring now and then, until the onion is translucent. Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook for another minute until the paste darkens and smells sweet.
• Deglaze. Pour in the red wine and scrape the browned bits off the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon. Let it bubble for 2–3 minutes until it's reduced by about half.
• Back in the pot. Return the shanks to the oven, nestling them into the vegetables. Add the crushed tomatoes, beef stock, rosemary and bay leaves. The liquid should come about three-quarters of the way up the shanks — top up with a splash of water if it doesn't.
• Get the coals sorted. Put the lid on and arrange a layer of coals on top of the lid as well as underneath — about 60% of the coals on top, 40% underneath. This creates the even, oven-like heat you need for braising.
• Let it work. Cook for 2–2.5 hours, topping up the lid coals every 40 minutes or so to keep the temperature steady. You want a gentle, even simmer, not a boil. Check at the 2-hour mark: the shanks are done when the meat is pulling away from the bone and yields easily to a fork.
• Finish it. Lift the shanks out carefully, whisk the beans into the sauce and simmer for 5 minutes to warm them through. Season to taste, pull the bay leaves and rosemary stalks out, and sit the shanks back on top.
• Serve. Ladle the beans and sauce over the shanks and finish with chopped parsley. Serve straight from the oven with crusty bread or a few floury potatoes boiled in the coals while you waited.

Camp tips

- Prep at home: Dice the onion, carrot and celery at home and store them in a labelled container in the Engel. You can also pre-measure the wine and stock into one bottle — one less thing to juggle at the fire.

- Short on time? Use a pressure cooker base for 40 minutes if you're caravanning with 240V, or swap the shanks for lamb forequarter chops and cook for 60–75 minutes.

- The sauce is the boss. If the sauce looks thin at the end, take the lid off for the last 15 minutes and let it reduce. If it's too thick, a splash of stock fixes it.

- Leftovers: Shred the leftover meat off the bone and fold it through the sauce — you now have a lamb ragu that's even better on toast or pasta the next night.

- Washing up: Wipe the camp oven with paper towel while it's still warm, then a quick rinse and dry over the fire. Never use detergent on a seasoned camp oven.

The closer

A camp oven dinner like this is what winter touring is about — big flavour, small effort, and a meal that gives you time to sit back and watch the fire. If you're running a 12V fridge or a dual-battery setup to keep the meat and wine cold for three days, our 12V Accessories Collection has the power gear to make it all fit together. Otherwise, just grab a decent camp oven, find a good bed of coals, and let the fire do the work.