What to cook?

[Matthew P]

Now the stove debate has cooled (but be ready for a flare-up) the more important question is what to cook and how to cook it.  I'm interested in anything cooked in advance (Mrs Rory's biscuits comes to mind) or "cooked" on board but Graham's M&S Chicken Korma could be becoming repetitious, even with Tabasco sauce.

When I cook it is usually very simple, filling, cooked on a single burner and probably eaten out of the pan.  But I'd like more ambitious ideas to get my teeth into. Ideas and recipes please.

Matthew
BR20 Gladys

[Jonathan Stuart]

Matthew,

I can't really help with recipes because my approach to food is much like yours, but I'll share what I do in case that helps.

I take lots of pre-prepared food: hard boiled eggs (filling and last a couple of days); dried fruit (not just raisins & sultanas but dried apples, pears, dates, etc); nuts (generally cashews); dark chocolate; fruitcake - a good dense fruitcake is filling, tasty and keeps me going; chorizo sausage (or similar); some oranges (avoids scurvy :-) ); breakfast consists of muesli because not only is it my normal breakfast but it's filling and packs down small. A 500ml carton of UHT milk (which these days tastes close to normal milk) per day is used with the muesli and the remainder covers the day's tea rations.

After too many days of eggs and dried fruit the crew starts revolting - or did they say I'm revolting?! - but I can live on the above for a weekend and longer when combined with other stuff.

Cooking is a single burner plus collapsible kettle and a small non-stick frying pan. The collapsible kettle is great and replaced my Trangia kettle because it has a larger capacity and packs smaller. I also suspect the silicon body is a better thermal insulator than the metal on normal kettles. I notice that Sea To Summit now do a collapsible kettle that doubles as a small saucepan so that looks good. I take Sea To Summit collapsible X-Mugs and X-Bowls (the latter doubles as plate and bowl) and sporks for drinks and eating.

The burner is mostly used for tea. Last year we took a box of eggs and had scrambled eggs and bread while on a pontoon in the middle of the upper reaches of the Fal. Scrambled eggs has never tasted better, and can be prepared, cooked and, if you want, eaten from a single pan. Taking fresh eggs on a small boat seemed madness but packed with care we didn't break any. I later read that Frank Dye took large quantities of eggs on his cruises. I'll be doing the same this year and will take more eggs.

I keep thinking about (but haven't advanced to "doing") vacuum packing and/or home canning so I can make stews, etc, at home and take those. This would open a world of possibilities for taking nice, home-cooked food without having to stray in to the dubious world of too much pre-prepared meals-in-a-can. etc. May be I'll do that this year...

Sorry, that mostly didn't address your original question but I thought I'd share anyway!

[david]

Hi,
       I have not done more than day sail. I am planing an overnight trip in June, which will be my first. So no first had experience to share.
 There is good information on the Steve Early blog here in the states. He takes trips every year for a week or two. Here is an excerpt form his blog on how he prepares his food for his trips. He uses the freeze dried packages favored by hikers/campers.
http://logofspartina.blogspot.com/

He has a great picture of the packaged food. Which I am unable to paste here

Sunday, March 20, 2016
meals and putty
Cold, grey and windy.  I had hoped to sail tomorrow but the forecast is not encouraging.  I was happy to have sailed in January and February, now I find myself wondering if I'll make it out in March.


With nothing else to do I picked out a dozen meals for the spring sail.  Spaghetti with marinara sauce, spaghetti with meat sauce (the only meals being close to a repetition), scrambled eggs with bacon, kung pao rice with chicken, Jamaican jerk style rice with chicken, beef stew, biscuits and gray, chicken fajita filling (I've had this on board for three trips and never eaten it.  I ought to try it on this trip or get rid of it), Hawaiian style rice with chicken, beef stroganoff with noodles (a fave), chili mac with beef (another fave) and Lousiana style red beans and rice (which I will use if I'm lucky enough to catch a fish).

That will be more than enough for the trip, I always end up getting a nice dinner in places like Ocracoke or Beaufort.

[Julian Swindell]

On the easy cook theme, I have been using something called "look what we found" meals, which are cooked stews and curries in a plastic pouch. They keep for several months at least. Their curries and chilies are good, the stews and hotpots bland. They just need heating, so what I do is to boil a saucepan of water, drop in a bag of boil in the bag rice, and the whole chilli pouch. When the  rice is cooked in about 10 minutes, the chilli is hot right through too. Washing up is fairly easy and only one pot is needed.

[Graham W]

Anything with rice is a winner.  Rice is easy to store, no preparation required, simple to cook.

Here are my tasting notes on all the other M&S tinned meals that I could find (to go with the rice):

* Chili con carne - quite good but not enough meat in it.  Not very spicy.
* Hot chicken curry - not particularly hot but nice big chicken chunks.  Tends to spit when being heated up.  Good with Mrs Balls chili chutney.
* Hot lamb curry - like the chicken, not particularly hot but has tender small lamb chunks.  Also tends to spit when being heated up.  Good with Mrs Balls chili chutney.
* Chicken in white sauce - somewhat tasteless and salty. Could be improved with the addition of herbs and spices.
* Hot beef curry - reasonably hot, nice chunks of beef, a success.
* Beef Madras - strangely, not as hot as the hot beef curry, above.  Fewer meaty chunks too.
* Chicken casserole - tastes strongly of tinned vegetables (which it contains) and not one of their best.
* Beef casserole - quite salty but unlike the chicken version, doesn't taste of tinned vegetables even though it contains them.  Not bad.

Most of the tinned contents look like dog food but I'm not fussy.

[Tony]

Hi, Matthew.
Just back from Paxos so this springs to mind:

Sea Urchin Spaghetti .
First catch your Sea urchins. (With a sharp stick from the boat , like the locals, or with a glove!)
Open with scissors and remove the roes ( Orange bits in the photo.)
Mix the roes with a little seasoning, oil and lemon juice then stir into just-cooked spaghetti.
Eat, fighting off all who said it looked like too much fuss but now want to have some!

Closer to home, and with Sea Fair Milford Haven coming up, here's a recipe I begged from the chef at the Lawrenny Arms last time. It's easy to cook on board  (although you'll need a trip to the shops) and nearly as good as Breton Cotriade anytime!   

Cawl pysgod o'r Lawrenny Arms
(Fish Chowder  á la Lawrenny Arms )
Serves four.

450g (1lb)   Smoked Haddock filleted and skinned
25g (1oz)   Desiccated coconut
50g (2oz)   Butter
175g (6oz)   Chopped onions
6       sticks of celery, chopped
350g (12oz)   Old potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks
1      Small green pepper (capsicum) de-seeded and chopped
300ml (½ pint)     Milk
125g (4oz)   Peeled prawns
Chopped Parsley and Dill, salt and black pepper, to taste.

1/    Cut the haddock into bite sized pieces. Place the coconut into a measuring jug and make up to 300ml (½ pint) with boiling water.
2/    Heat the butter in a large pan. Add the onions and celery, cover and cook for about 5 mins until starting to soften.  Add the potato and peppers and cook for 1-2 minutes
3/    Strain the cocoanut liquid and add to the pan with a further 600ml (one pint) water. Bring to the boil, season, cover and simmer for about 20 mins or until the fish is flaking. Mix in the prawns, warm gently and adjust seasoning.
Serve with good welsh bread. (Bara dda Cymraeg)

[Matthew P]

Thanks Tony, I knew you would come up with something interesting. By co-incidence while you were lolling in Paxos we had a fish supper in the Lawrenny Arms 2 weeks ago and it was excellent, strongly recommended. 

Sea urchin is adventurous, looks tasty but I'll let someone experienced enough to spot if it is "off" prepare it...

Regards

Matthew
BR20 Gladys

[Graham W]

Tony,

I'm off to Corfu in a couple of months and will certainly try your recipe for sea urchin spaghetti, which sounds delicious.  Around where we stay, there seem to be several types of urchin, brown and black ones with fairly short spines and black ones with longer spines.  I've no idea if these differences are to do with the species or the sex of the urchins but it looks like you use only the black short spine ones.

Matthew, if the urchins are still alive (and are therefore fresh), they waggle their spines, even with a sharp stick through the middle of them.

[Tony]

Here's another easy seafood recipe from Paxos:
Grilled Octopus.
First catch your octopus. ( Or cheat and buy it fresh from Asda...  Or if in Greece or Italy get a frozen one from the super market.)
If fresh, thrash it on a rock for a couple of hours to tenderise it...or stick it in the freezer overnight like the little old ladies do on Paxos.
Marinade in olive oil and lemon juice plus oregano, black pepper or crushed, dried chilli, if prefered.
Meanwhile light your barbecue and let it die down to embers.
Chuck the octopus on the grill bars and cook, turning often, until the thicker parts are cooked through but without crisping the ends of the tentacles. Cut into chunks and serve with green salad and enough alcohol ( tsipouro ) to make even the burnt bits enjoyable !

(Don't try this on the kitchen grill. The burning oil will stink the place out.)
Photos show empty tsipouro glass and Greek Easter fire works - which is a fair approximation of what your head will feel like after a typical Paxiot easter bash.)
Graham,
If you get down to the south of Corfu or Paxos, look out for "Wabi".  A black hulled Deben Lugger with tan sails. I'Ll keep my eyes skinned for a BayRaider. 

[Tim Riley]

Fresh caught pan fried pollock with unkle bens tikka sauce.
Best use for pollock so far which is just as well as can't seem to catch anything else right now!

[Tony]

Perhaps you'd like a hand-held fish finder, Tim?
Useful for administering the coup de grâce, if nothing else. (The transducer is solidly built and well up to the job. )

[RoyandSally]

Try a nice piece of steak fried with mushrooms then dip some baguette in the juices and layer the mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes and salad on the baguette.  Just one pan and a wonderful smell.  The advantage of the Look What We Found range is that they come in pouches so reduce the rubbish volume.  There are more and more of these pouch packs on supermarket shelves these days including various grains.

[Matthew P]

After a week on the briny I now feel qualified to offer the Gladys diet and production engineered (but definitely NOT Lean) cooking system.


Attached is Martin's (Gladys's quarter master and provisioning officer) meal plan which we used as a starting point. Experience showed the washing-up liquid was unnecessary

We used an Alpkit Brukit (recommended by Bill) and a 1 ltr stainless steel vacuum jar every morning in a carefully choreographed routine:

1) Boil 1 litre of water
2) Put porridge oats into SS flask and thoroughly stir in boiling water.  Leave to "rest" with lid on jar.
3) Boil another litre of water
4) Make 2 cups of tea
5) Put on 3rd litre of water to boil while we eat 1st batch of porridge from SS Jar
6) Make 2nd batch of porridge in SS vacuum jar for lunch.
7) Put away nice clean Brukit (because it was only used to boil water)

For lunch we add jam, nuts, chocolate, curry mix (yes, we really did - delicious) and any other left-over nibbles from the morning, to the porridge in the SS vacuum jar.

In the evening we don't eat porridge. We use a flat square cheapy gas stove to warm up a tin of fish or stew or similar and the Brukit to boil water and cook rice or pasta in the SS vacuum jar, same method as porridge and the Brukit has still only seen boiled water.

No cephalopods or echinoidea were harmed in this production.

Matthew

BR20 Gladys

 

[Tony]

@ RoyandSally. Et al.

Do you know of a camp stove - preferably not paraffin - that's hot enough to grill a steak 'black and blue' ?
The only thing I've found that'll do it is a disposable charcoal barbeque - and they are such a pain to use on land and rather dangerous on a small, wooden boat. (Or a plastic one, come to that.)

[Jonathan Stuart]

Tony - Stating the bleeding obvious, I guess there's two factors here: the heat of the flame and how much of that heat gets to the food. My MSR petrol stove boils water faster than my gas stoves so that would be my choice. I also use a windshield and, beneath the stove, a heat reflector, (both simple thick aluminium foil versions that came with the MSR) and that creates a "cosy" and hot environment for the pan - the difference is definitely noticeable.

All - I've just come back from a week's cruising the Solent with 4 of us aboard the BRe. We carried all our food apart from 2 suppers (I thought I wouldn't get away without taking the family out a couple of times!).

Thanks, Julian, for the tip about "Look What We Found". While not the cheapest option, LWWF was the tastiest, has a long use-by date (2017), is easier to pack than tins and the rubbish is also smaller and lighter. We also used Sainsbury's own-brand tinned curries, a tinned dhaal, and a chicken in white sauce and these were all good. We bought Sainsbury's ready-cooked packets of rice and mixed this with the curries and added a splash of water to make a 1 pan dish.

We also took a lot of "The Food Doctor" pitta bread because this lasts a few weeks and has high levels of protein/fibre, so is quite filling. Good at any time of the day: with jams, peanut butter, tuna mayo (small tins by John West proved useful) or with the evening meal. Naan bread typically has a 1 week use-by date so a couple of packs were taken to go with curry.

Sainsbury's also do a "Bacon Brunch" - foil wrapped pack of potato and bacon. Long sell-by date and while not healthy (or the best quality) it did make a good outdoor / camping breakfast. Can be bulked out further by mixing-in beaten eggs when the potato's finished frying.

Packs of Merchant Gourmet ready-cooked pulses worked well for lunch. Eat them on their own or mix through a small sachet of pesto and some chopped tomatoes and/or spring onions (in a plastic box, before sailing) for something even better. Their packets of quinoa, "wholesome mixed grains" and "spelt sun blush tomatoes" (latter doesn't need anything adding) all went down very well with the whole family. Sounds a bit trendy / poncy but tastes great, fills you up and is easily stored on a boat so I don't care!