Provisioning Post 3

[tweedle2]

This time of year with all the boats leaving we're often gifted with ships stores that won't last till next year.



Tins are always welcome even if you're not completely sure what's in them. People have been all over before coming here and a bad photo and a description in Arabic isn't all that helpful.

Sometimes you have to google to find out how to use things.

I've been give two big containers of dried onions. I've never used anything like it before but they are coming in handy in the chilli I'm making for the passage down to Trinidad. I used them reconstituted to make onion bhaji for nibbles when we Skipper Tim over for drinks. We seldom have crisps on board, we begrudge the money and calories, but in twenty minutes I can have a plate of bhajis which are worth the calories. The dried onions made a much crispier bhaji that fresh.

Sometimes you can see why it hasn't been used.

Right now, I am eating the WORST muesli I have ever run across, but am compelled to eat it because it's got to be so good for you. It's a five grains muesli but none of those grains have been toasted or drizzled in honey or had tasty plump raisins added. Not quite what my early morning taste buds are yearning for - truly a bowl of bird food. And I never feel the desire to have a second bowl because the first one was so good. Unlike the crunchy granola that I eat at every opportunity until it's gone.

Sometimes you get lucky.

We often have Skipper Tim over for meals when he's in the area. He's getting ready for Stormbird to be hauled out for the summer. This means the freezer needs to be emptied and I offer cook meals there to help use the contents up. (We always have him over for dinner so it's a way he can reciprocate and we still end up with a good meal. I cook but he does the dishes. ;D) When he was listing what was in the freezer, he started with pork chops, minced beef, home-made spaghetti sauce that I could possibly improve on, stewing beef, etc...

Now, I've worked on this boat before and I know very well what might be in the freezer, so I hang on until he gets to 'A bag and a half of large prawns,' before I say, 'I can probably do something with those.'

We haven't had a prawn/shrimp in a very long time. So along with the snow peas, peppers, onions and the easy stir fry sauce recipe I always use it's so good, I fried the prawns in garlic and ginger, then stir-fried the veg and added the sauce. omg. It truly was the best stir-fry I've had in a long time. There was probably enough for six people, but the three of us ate every bit.

Most of the food stuffs on Stormbird is promised to Lance, his day help, and I wouldn't even have begrudged Lance the prawns if I hadn't seen them first. :D

We are now off tomorrow morning, Saturday, and will probably sail straight down to Trinidad in 3 days. We'll only stop briefly if it look like we're going to arrive at Chaguaramas, Trinidad in the dark.

Today, I'm cooking and baking and we're readying ourselves to go a first light. I have a thermos of yoghurt on the go and passion fruits and beautiful mangoes to flavour it with. Yum.

And best of all, I'm picking up a couple of memory sticks with the whole Game of Thrones Season 3 on them this evening at 5 from Don, Tim's scuba instructor. *GLEE*

So we'll see you later. :D

Comments

[laeliacatt.livejournal.com]

Ironically, I used some reconstituted onions (with poppy seeds and coarse salt) as a topping on the soft sandwich rolls I baked yesterday. I love those onions. They come in very handy.

The blackberries are ripe here and we have acres of them. I have the thorns in my hand to prove it! :D It's too hot to do much here so I think I'm going to introduce R to the joys of jelly making. I wish I could send you some! Blueberries are getting ripe too, though our transplants won't have enough this year to even make a cobbler. They shouldn't have produced any berries at all so I guess we're lucky.

Safe journey to Trinidad! I hope the markets are cheap and plentiful. :) And enjoy Game of Thrones!

[itfloats.livejournal.com]

Now that is a good idea! It's pretty hot to bake bread but that's tempting. I wish you could send me some blackberries as well. Gosh it must be summer! I don't have a proper sense of season.

Rhubard is what a really miss.

We only made it as far as Guadelope and are anchored in Deshaies. There would have been a mutiny if Tim hadn't decided that maybe we didn't want to do an overnighter at that. We had the biggest seas we've ever had the misfortune to be sailing into in 35 knot winds ( that's Force 8 on the Beuafort scale and a proper Gale!) it was okay, I mean you'd live, and I'll do it if I have to, but we don't have to, so we aren't. Tomorrow we'll head a little further south either The Saints off the southern tip of Guadelope or carry on for Dominica if it isn't too bad. We've got 2 weeks before we need to be n Trinidad so we'll take our time.

I might save the GofT until we're somewhere for a bit more tIme so I can sprint through them. :). Tim likes them to though so we'll probably watch them together,the first time for him and the second time for me. :D

[itstonedme.livejournal.com]

You'd already left by the time I read this. So I know what you're doing! You're learning about what Jon Snow does with his tongue!

[itfloats.livejournal.com]

Yes we had left but we opted for an easy life and are staying the night in Deshaies, Guadeloupe.

Weather wasnt as good as the forecast lead us to believe. Wild and windy. :D. Very glad to be stopped for the night. We can now eat from plates and not the plastic dog food bowls I have for rough passages. Sailing is SO glamorous, isnt it? Lol.

I haven't even had a peek at dear Jon. I'll need to wait for a time when I won't be interrupted. :D. But I'm very tempted to start right now!

[foxrafer.livejournal.com]

I hope you have a great sail to Trinidad!

Of course, now I can't help imagining an entire pantry filled with nothing but canned food without any labels and every night being 'guess what we're having for dinner' night. :-) But even if that were your reality, knowing you you'd still make something pretty cool with it.

[itfloats.livejournal.com]

The sail didn't go quite as expected. lol. Many more stops and way too much wind and sea for most of it. The last bit was wonderful though.

I write what's what on the top of tins in permanent marker so if the labels get wet or come adrift we can still make dinner. And so they're easier to find when looking at the top of the tin.

[layne67.livejournal.com]

Those prawns sound absolutely delicious. Was the sauce from a bottle and if so, what sauce was it? Or did you make it? I love prawns and I'd love to try new ways to cook them.

[itfloats.livejournal.com]

Oh they were. :) This is the recipe I use, but I do change it a little. I use chilli flakes or fresh chilli if I've got rather than tabasco and I used a very little of my tamarind paste instead of the lime juice for the sour. and I don't bother with the salt because of the soy sauce.

Basic Stir Fry Sauce
Ingredients:
1 1/ 2 tsp. sesame oil
1/ 2 tsp. minced garlic
1/ 2 tsp. minced ginger
1/ 2 cup chicken broth
1 Tbs. soy sauce
1 Tbs. brown sugar
1/ 8 tsp. Tabasco
1/ 2 tsp. salt
1/ 4 tsp. pepper
1 1/ 2 tsp. lemon or lime juice
1 1/ 2 tsp.cornstarch
1 Tbs. rice wine or sherry

Directions:
Heat the sesame oil in a small saucepan. Add the ginger and garlic and stir-fry 15-30 second over medium heat to bring out the flavor. Add the chicken broth, soy sauce, brown sugar, Tabasco, salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Bring just to a boil, stirring. Dissolve the cornstarch in the wine and whisk into the sauce. Heat until sauce thickens and reaches a full boil. Simmer for 30 seconds. Remove from the heat and set aside.

[layne67.livejournal.com]

*drooooooooools*

I did one that's almost similar to that but minus the chicken broth, ginger, cornstarch and wine. I used butter instead of oil and added curry leaves, shallots, turmeric powder and chopped bird chillies. From this recipe.

I must try your recipe soon, sesame oil will ceratinly add the ZING to the prawns!

[itfloats.livejournal.com]

It is so interesting the different seasonings used. My recipe is very Chinese-y. You put an South East Asian twist to it and I will try that if I can get things like curry leaves. Our friends Bev and Greg from Australia did the same thing with salads and gave them a very Indonesian flavour. I'm learning so much.

Butter. lol. I never expect that to be used to such an extent in Asian cooking but we watched a UK cooking program on India last night and they were deep frying in butter! (I'm forgetting ghee, I guess) I was so surprised. And now I find that you do as well.

Live and learn. :D

[layne67.livejournal.com]

Health-wise, I really shouldn't be using butter but it makes the prawns a lot tastier! Sometimes I just add a little butter to olive oil.

I want to try butter prawns next but the making the egg floss is a huge challenge. I've tried it before but it never turned up like the ones at the restaurants.

[itfloats.livejournal.com]

I have never heard of Butter Prawns with Egg Floss but I've done some serious googling and O.O looks great.

http://tiaracloud.blogspot.com/2013/02/egg-floss-butter-prawn.html - I'd love to know what her tips are, only the odd word is in English.

Don't know when I'll be trying. Maybe the next time I get a free bag of prawns. We're on quite a strict budget and things are expensive here so that might well be a birthday or holiday meal.

In fact, we went out for my b'day this year and although it was nice, I'd rather have had a big bag of prawns and cooked myself. :D Tim still doesn't quite believe that 'special' cooking, isn't work at all. I never need a break from special cooking.

[layne67.livejournal.com]

*g*

Here goes:

Tiara's tips for egg floss:
Before curah egg yolk dalam kuali make sure minyak panas betul2. Pastu letak butter dlm minyak tu and then the moment u nak letak beaten egg yolk, kena curah tinggi2 and AT THE SAME TIME kena kacau kuali dengan senduk. Senduk tu yang macam mangkuk tahu? bukan yang leper buat nasi goreng tu. Kacau laju2 in circular motion. Bila dia macam berbuih kira jadi la kut. Bace doa sikit haha. Both hands play important role simultaneously i tell u. Ha paham ke? Tak paham kita buat scramble egg jela ye.

Before pouring in the egg yolk, make sure that the oil is smoking hot. Add in the butter to the oil. Pour the egg yolk from a height and AT THE SAME TIME stir it with a ladle. Bowl-shaped ladle, you know? Not the flat one. Stir very fast in a circular motion. It should get bubbly. Say a little prayer haha. Both hands play important role simultaneously i tell u. Ha understand? If not, just make scrambled egg.

I've seen on youtube before where a chef used a pair of chopsticks to make the egg floss. I've tried before ( with various utensils ) but it usually turns out like what she said, like scrambled eggs.

It should look something like this.

[itfloats.livejournal.com]

:D. Thank you for the translation and the link. It looks gorgeous but I don't think it'll be something to try in my little galley. I think the chopsticks make sense and sound safer than a ladel. I suspect a helper to either stir or pour would be useful. A little scary whisking all that hot oil around but that could just be me visualising doing it on board.

[itfloats.livejournal.com]

Am trying this for dinner tonight with mystery fish.... http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/indonesian-style-fish-tamarind-turmeric-sauce. I'm missing some of the ingredients but we'll wing it. :)

[layne67.livejournal.com]

That looks extremely yummy. Good luck!!