We’ve tried a few different ideas for cooking over a campfire but none has really worked that well. They’ve been pretty crude and not really meant for campfire cooking but when we saw a Muurikka we thought it would be great for us.
The equipment
So, without much hesitation we ordered the 58cm wide Muurikka together with their 46cm long spatula and gloves (to move the hot Muurikka from the campfire).
The 58cm Muurikka, thick leather grill gloves for protection and a flexible Muurikka spatula.
Maiden voyage
Before trying anything more fancy we just wanted to take the Muurikka for a test spin and what’s not more appropriate than frying a few hot dogs. We were a bit uncertain how hot the plate would be so this was a good test. Turns out frying a few hot dogs was pretty simple and the plate really didn’t get that hot with the glowing wood underneath.
Frying hot dogs on the Muurikka over a campfire is a bit more relaxing than the more traditional way placing the hot dog in wooden sticks and holding over the fire.
Upping the game
The day after we tried to heat up some old food we brought from our apartment. We put the chilli in a separate pan on the Muurikka and spread out beans, tomatoes, sallad and some cooked rice. It all went pretty much as expected but some of the rice got burnt and stuck to the surface. This was all served in fajita wraps with sauces.
Chilli, vegetables and fried rice for fajita wraps and a few veggie hot dogs for our visiting friend.
All in all we were pretty happy with the result. Though, it is hard to cook over a campfire with the heat gradually going down and if you put another wood on the fire it gets really really hot. However, with some practice we should get better.
Cooking from scratch
Next level was to try cook something from scratch. So, the day after we chopped up some potatoes and vegetables, marinated chicken thighs and got to work.
Raw chopped potatoes, bell pepper, onions and jerusalem artichoke.
When the potatoes and vegetables were roughly half way done we threw the chicken thighs onto the Muurikka. We also added a few black olives.
Finally we added tomatoes and some sallad and gave it a few more minutes before serving it.
Cooking from scratch was a lot harder than our previous experiences. Especially not burning the potatoes and vegetables too much before they were fully cooked was hard. In retrospect, we’ll most likely try to pre-cook the potatoes and some vegetables before putting them on the Muurikka.
The chicken however was just perfectly charred and had an amazing taste to it. It was most likely the best tasting chicken we’ve ever done on our own (some of which could have to do with the fact that we bought really good chicken from Reko.)
Summary from a few days of cooking
Overall we’re happy with the Muurikka. It’s well built and will likely last quite a while. The steel was thinner than we expected but any thicker would make the heating slower and the Muurikka a lot heavier so this seems like a good balance. We’re still beginners and we hope we’ll improve our cooking as we learn to understand the heating etc. Looking forward to searing a flank steak and do some mexican style wraps with it.
For more information on the Muurikka click here with links to local distributors.