This is part two of our post about cooking on the boat. It’s only taken six months for us to:
- acclimatise to working within a confined and movable space (sorry monohull cruisers but it is still small compared to our land-kitchen and does rock n’ roll, albeit a little)
- calculate quantities: if I want 500g minced steak, how many lbs and ozs is that?
- appreciate different names: coriander is cilantro and very similar to shadow benny
- make food we’ve always bought commercially, eg: yoghurt and mayo. This is for two reasons: 1) We are trying to lower our sugar and preservatives intake and both these products commercially have higher levels of sugar and additives than we need, and 2), they aren’t always available when we go shopping which can be trĆ©s frustrating!
Retirement is good – I’m enjoying the time I have to experiment in the galley even when it’s a bit rocky and rolly! Mal doesn’t do much of the cooking, except on the barbie, as his skills are better utilised elsewhere on the boat and I know I got the better deal!
One experiment has been learning to cook with new and different ingredients. A vegetable I’ve loved in local restaurants is callaloo. It’s a little like spinach and I have now made callaloo soup and callaloo fritters. Both are Mal favourites! Callaloo, also known as amaranth, is a large leafy green vegetable available readily and cheaply. You commence by washing it and then de-veining the stork from the leaf. I then slice it and saute in coconut oil with onion and garlic, always a good start! If I’m making soup I then add stock, salt and pepper and either a carrot or potato. Traditional callaloo soup includes okra but I haven’t tried this yet. When this is cooked, I remove from heat, process with a stick blender and fold through coconut milk. If I’m making the fritters, once the callaloo, onion and garlic are sauteed, I add that mixture to flour, egg, salt and pepper. Callaloo fritters often have saltfish included but I haven’t gone there yet as Mal doesn’t like it! I did add some crab meat the other day but it didn’t make a huge difference so I won’t bother next time. I’ll slip some saltfish in one day and see if he notices.
I purchased some kale the other day which was different to the type I’ve bought in Australia, but it tasted the same and my kale chips were a success! The leaves weren’t curly but more elongated and easier to work with. I ripped these into bite-size pieces, drizzled them with coconut oil and sprinkled them with sesame seeds and a spice mix of cumin, coriander, turmeric, chilli flakes, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. I then baked them until crispy and we devoured them with a Bloody Mary. Seriously good!
As you may have realised I’m hooked on coconut oil, use it in just about everything and feel very lucky that we have good locally made choices here! Superb! This graphic is obviously from the cooler climes as we don’t have to worry about coconut oil hardening here but it reflects my passion for it š
This segues very nicely into one of my mishaps. Not all products are available each week at the local IGA and, of course, some products only have a certain shelf life, even fridge life. Thus, when I couldn’t get my Natural (no flavouring) yoghurt that is a must on my morning muesli, or a mayo that didn’t have a host of ingredients I couldn’t even pronounce, then it was time to have some fun! I’ve mastered the yoghurt making now which I will touch on later but the mayonnaise is where my mishap occurred. With my love for coconut oil, I gaily added it ever so slowly to the egg yolk and dijon mustard mix and it emulsified exactly as my NomNom Paleo app said it would. [See previous post for details about this app.] Everything went like a dream and I decanted it into a glass jar and immediately used it on coleslaw and it was delicious. I was so proud until I went to the fridge to spread it on my turkey wrap the next day. Hard as a rock and, of course, it separated when I warmed it albeit slightly. I then made a batch with almond oil and it worked a treat! It lasted in the fridge for a week and was so worth it. Bad luck about the coconut oil because it gave it a lovely flavour!
Breakfast is one of our favourite meals of the day and we both enjoy making chia puddings. Again, it isn’t always available so I’ve done this with sago too but I bought up big when we saw chia recently. Soak the chia overnight in coconut milk and in the morning place some in a glass, a bowl or mason jar. We use whatever fruit we have on hand so these photos show some added mango and sliced dates, topped with some shredded coconut (preferably unsweetened), more fresh fruit like bananas, passionfruit and sprinkled with pepitas and/or sunflower seeds. I also drizzle a few more drops of coconut milk over the top. It is so refreshing and has a good dose of protein to keep you going.
Speaking of breakfast, I’ve probably been making my own yoghurt now for about three months. I started off with a small amount from the commercial pot I had bought (Natural, full-fat). Mostly we use long-life milk here and I’d been advised by Nikki, from s/v Iza, that it may not work well. So I purchased full cream powdered milk, Kerry Gold from NZ, and made up a litre. I then added 4 tbsps of the yoghurt to it, poured it into clean glass jars, wrapped it in a towel and put in an insulated bag for 9 hours. I found it a little runny so I’m now adding 6 tbsps and it seems to be fine. I always make a small jar as my starter for the next batch. I’m not sure why but I really like making my own yoghurt. š
Friends Gagi and Rudy tease me about how much I use coconut, either fresh, dried or oil. What can I say, I’m my mother’s daughter! Anyway, I normally add shredded coconut to muffins which I like to bake often but both Mal and I got so frustrated cleaning the tray that we decided to go silicon! Gagi wanted one too so we purchased them via Amazon – that’s another story which I won’t go into today – and we’re all super happy with the trays. They clean up beautifully and they brown the muffins, which was my major concern. Now I’m baking banana, coconut and choc chip, mango, coconut and passionfruit, and pawpaw, coconut and walnut. Delish! Whatever fruit is in season, I’m using it! I did have one minor hiccup the other day when I used fresh coconut – nothing browned and they were more like little puddings. Mal still loved them though!
Mal and I try to watch what we eat and over here we’re loving the lifestyle and the fresh, local foods we can use. We have cut down our sugar intake considerably although we didn’t add much sugar to our diets before, there’s so much hidden in products that we were taking it in unknowingly. I read the ingredients list on every product we now buy and the rule of thumb is if it has more than five ingredients, I usually don’t buy it. The arthritis in my big toe has all but gone and we’ve both dropped a size in clothing. Of course the weather andĀ exercise plays a part, but we both feel a whole lot better.
I modify most recipes that include sugar and I don’t use white sugar. I use Organic Coconut Palm Sugar which is still not particularly good for us but it’s better than white and some of the other substitutes. If you’re interested in finding out more about coconut sugar read this article from the I Quit Sugar team. I use their website alot. http://iquitsugar.com/whats-deal-coconut-sugar/
I’m very happy to share any recipes so just let me know in the comments section of this post or via Facebook if we’re connected there. I’m also keen to receive any good hints/recipes so please forward if you think I’d be interested. Cheers and happy eating, Sue and Mal. xx
Two Aussies and a Kat in a spicy blue Sea 
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