FOOD post!
As per request by my mother. (which must always be fulfilled!) Here is a change from the usual post of 150 pictures and as Claire puts it, “an essay of boring ship’s log stuff that no one cares about.” Well hopefully soon she will be posting her own creative entries and photographs.
If you haven’t seen our new stove and upgraded galley, you should check out this archived post. <-- click that to view.
Below are examples of meals we have prepared on ‘Splendid Isolation’ and also meals we have enjoyed on land.
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Turkey Noodle Soup
I start with this one because I’m actually enjoying it as I type, and damn is it good. Too bad I’ve been on anchor and in solitude for over 24 hours. I secretly like it when others enjoy my cooking.
First off I started with boiling water for the pasta, any shape or size will do. I almost grabbed bow-ties, but the small elbows were easier to dig out. I made enough for two people, I guess out of habit. But, I can also eat for two so it’s working out. Once the water boiled I threw in 2 handfuls of pasta. I also added salt, pepper, ground thyme, garlic salt, oregano, and chicken bouillon. I figured I’d let these flavors make love together as the pasta cooks. When the pasta was almost al dente, maybe 2 minutes out, I added the carrots. Once the carrots were almost done (taste, taste, taste!) I added the celery and garlic. Then I added sliced deli turkey, parsley, savory, and a few red pepper flakes for good measure. I let everything simmer for a few more minutes. In about 20 minutes tops I had fresh and delicious soup, healthy too, besides the bouillon I guess. Ideally I would have used a classic mirepoix, 50% onion, 25% carrot, and 25% celerey. Not having an onion onboard, and me being on anchor a few hundred yards from shore, I decided not to worry about it. It also gets me inside that I’m sitting here eating freshly made soup with a silver spoon (seriously, whoops musta came from a former workplace) while most people in boats anchored beside me are probably eating canned soup with a plastic spoon.
notice the swing of the stove as i bob on anchor.
serrano pepper jam and cream cheese canapes that claire made!
Aquachiles
“Aquachile is essentially a very spicy version of ceviche typically made with shrimp (camarones in Spanish). Aguachile is best served cold.”
butteryfly and clean shrimp. in a blender mix serranos, onion, cilantro, limes, salt, pepper, and maybe a little water. strain that over your shrimp and let them marinate until opaque. serve with tostada chips and avocado.
whole wheat, oats, and flaxseed yogurt. so good.
fresh brownie and icecream of course.
We bake our own bread. It’s tastier and we get to know the exact ingredients we are devouring. Plus it’s super easy. We have 2 recipes. One is a basic lean dough recipe I got from google. My culinary books from school are all in exact, to the gram, measurement. Also, huge yields for many loaves. This recipe makes one perfect loaf.
Lean Dough
5 ⅓ cup AP flour
2tsp. Salt
2tsp. Dry active yeast (we have a huge costco peanut butter jar full of this stuff)
2 ¼ cup lukewarm water
First off, we usually start making this right after breakfast. One, so it has time to rise all day in good humidity. Two, we use our leftover teapot water as the lukewarm water. Mix the yeast into the lukewarm water. Do this in a container big enough to dump your flour into also. Stir around gently and let sit for a little while so it can literally make love. If you see it get foamy and smell like delicious beer or fresh bread, thats good. Add the salt whenever. Then mix in your flour. I use a fork. Stir around like the hook attachment on a Kitchen-Aid. This comes together into a sticky blob. Dump that blob onto a clean surface. Wood is ideal. A clean counter top or stainless steal table also works. With bread (and pasta/gnocchi) you always need extra flour than a recipe calls for. Sprinkle flour as kneaded (how many times has that pun been used?wow) well, just sprinkle flour and knead the dough over itself and I do circular motions as I go. Now that you have this blob you want it to elastic. When you poke it, it should be firm, yet slowly bounce back. That is gluten. (if you know my feelings towards “gluten free” people, laugh hard now). Take that blob and gently smother it with cooking oil. Now put that in a well greased bread pan or shape into a ball or a loaf. Put that inside of a plastic grocery or trash bag. It’s like a little green house. Now depending on humidity and how well you worked the dough it can be anywhere from and hour all the way to overnight for it to rise. If we make it after breakfast, its usually risen by the mid afternoon and we can bake it when we make dinner. I wont give you a temperature to bake it at because my oven only does ON…just bake it till its golden brown, smells great, and is so soft you want to cradle it. Timing works out great with all of this because the oven heats up our cosy little home at night, plus we get to wake up to fresh toast and eggs!
One day I will post the saltwater bread recipe! (yes it uses the water that which we travel upon)
Ham and Turkey Melt
Pretty simple. I took the bread we make. Sliced it. Smeared goat cheese on one side and those little baby bells on the other side. Seared my ham and turkey in leftover bacon fat. Caramelized a red onion. Then proceeded to put all of this stacked together in a skillet with butter. Butter and bacon fat? You’re a fool if you think thats bad for you. Its totally natural and it’s what humans have eaten on a regular basis since the beginning of time because nothing else was invented…(think about that). And a piece of advice I have in the kitchen…”does it make you happy?” [yes] “ok, well then it’s healthy.”
strawberry yogurt, fresh local kiwi, granola, almonds, and raisons.
Oh God Mac
I’ll keep this short and simple. Large elbow mac. Crema (the mexican sour cream that isnt sour). A baby bell. 2 spoonfulls of goat cheese. ⅓ a can of Campbell’s cream of mushroom. Garlic powder. Salt. Pepper. Parsley. Tiny splash of water.
Our eggs down here in Baja
First of all they are not refrigerated at any store, not even the big chain grocery stores. They are sold on the 5×6 pallets that restaurants use in the U.S. (30eggs). You can take off and buy however many you want though. I do not trust them to be washed, as they would be heavily sanitized in the states. My sister and Johnny would know about all this more than me because his family has chicken coops and produces their own eggs. I’m not sure what they do or did, but this is what we do. We wash them in water with a tiny touch of bleach. Dry them clean and white with a paper towel. Then they go into our sweet little egg holders and into our ice chest. i don’t mind that they are not stored cold in the store, and we probably would just leave them out. But on the boat it’s wise to have them protected in their little cases and tucked in the icebox.
Goat and Dill scramble
Pretty simple. Our own bread, skillet toasted in bacon fat and butter. Scramble 3 eggs in a bowl with dill pollen (thanks sister), salt, pepper, and goat cheese. Now that the skillet is ripping hot and greased up from the toast. Dump the egg mixture in and scramble with a heat proof rubber spatula. I had no sticking, you shouldn’t either. Serve with a full cup of black coffee.
Our Dishwasher is a 5 gallon bucket. When we are underway we put all of our dishes in a bucket with saltwater and a splash of bleach. As we slosh around in the sea, so do the dishes. We find that this works as a slow pace dishwasher, by breaking down all the thick stuff. Once we get to an anchorage we wash again in bleachy saltwater and soap. If we’re roughing it, which we usually are, we rinse in saltwater too. You actually can’t tell except in the cups, which need to be wiped real well or there’s salt crystals at the bottom. The water here is clear and clean. No big town run off. Most places we pass by are uninhabited. The water is clear to the sandy bottom. It’s a rare luxury to be at a dock in a marina so we always wash extra well with the hose. For big messes we boil freshwater in the teapot. We have a 40 gallon holding tank in the v-berth for hose water and four 6 gallon jerry jugs for bottle drinking water. We also cook with the saltwater. We have a saltwater bread recipe. We also boil our pasta, shrimp, and lobster in salt water. I was always taught in a professional kitchen “the water should taste that of the sea.” it’s been a couple months of this now and we’re not getting sick. I would definitely never do any of this in populated areas.
The Drunken Sailor Shrimp and Chips (San Jose del Cabo)
The owners are a local male and his wife from santa barbara. They’ve got a sweet place with a good vibe. We were invited to a killer dance party here one night. The DJ was up-to-date and la bomba. Their margaritas damn good too. (I’m becoming a connoisseur) 9 of these big fried shrimp, basket of freshly cut french fries, and three dipping sauces for $65 pesos. That’s about $5.40. That’s expensive for here, but cheap for the states! I got the recipe for that black sauce. I haven’t made it yet, but damn was it good. Burnt chile de arbol?, soy sauce, and lime. I’ll post that when I figure it out. But the breading is what makes it so damn good. I got her secret ingredient after a little persuasion. The breading is panko, sesame seeds, and amaranth. <--click that to read about amaranth. The breading was super crispy crunchy, but not greasy. the shrimp inside were as fresh and soft as could be.
Banana Bread with granola and raisons
Well I had 2 bananas sitting on the counter for well over a week. Knowledge from my mother and grandmother tell me to never throw that away, bake it! Sorry this can’t be a real recipe with measurements but I’m sure you can process it. I took a bowl and plopped those mooshy, sugary bad boys in there. 2 eggs. Some sugar. Some brown sugar. More just add water pancake mix than the sugars. ¼ tsp of baking soda. A handful of raisons and 2 handfuls of granola. I mixed that all up with our new whisk from Auntie Em! Added more pancake mix til I got to a batter consistency. Scraped all that into a greased bread pan and baked til it was done. The battle wound on top is only a side-affect of being in a sloshy anchorage…
I don't think the ships log posts are boring. We're not with you or mind readers, so it's our only way of seeing what's going on, or feeling like we're there. Most of us have never been on/will never go on a trip like this- so that's our only way of finding out.
Hahaha I never heard "add flour as kneaded." good one!
As far as the eggs- they have a natural film on the outside which is supposed to protect the pourous shell from contaminates. Once that film is removed is when it can be a potential for getting sick (hence in the US why they pasteurize the crap out of them b/c they've also washed them tons). What J's mom does is "dry washes" them first, just uses a real fine sandpaper. Then before we want to use them, we usually would just rinse them really well under warm water, you can actually feel the film- it's like a thin mucous feel.
Anyways, people that sell farm eggs usually wash theirs before giving to customers anyways, so no harm. I have a friend that does the same exact you do- a rinse in mild bleach water. I've also read that the same, but with white vinegar works just as well.
Either way, once you crack an egg you're gonna know if it's bad or not immediately by the smell, you know that. It's like milk- there's not really a question, you just know right away that it's bad.
The soup looks really good, wish I could have some now!
Love the pic of the Oh God Mac n Chz with the cat pic! Sounds good, I'll have to try it. But NOT with cream of fungus *gags*
Thanks, Mama, for getting these guys to share some of their scrumptious recipes. =) We'll be trying them SOON since the pictures are killing us. =0
Awesome post but must say I do enjoy all your posts! LOVE a variety to see all you are doing! I figure you guys are our eyes from how the sails work and are tied down, to the night sky, local flowers, birds, and yes this yummy food! Besides sailing with solar and the obvious downsizing required to live on a sailboat, it is so incredible to see how efficient and GREEN you have become. Any busy Mom would truly appreciate the multi-tasking with bacon fat and heated pan prepping the next dish to timing heated living space from oven! Your great grandmothers would be very proud of your down to earth cooking.
PS Your yogurt is my breakfast staple while in Italy!
Miss you much but so proud of you as you stretch your wings and soar~~~~~~~~~~~