Big Meals, Small Boats

 

Blog copyright Janet Groene 2024.

 

Skillet Meal of the Week
    This easy-mix quiche makes its own crust.
Skillet Quiche

6  slices bacon, cut up
Medium onion, diced
1 cup bits of vegetables such as broccoli or cauliflower

1 ½ cups milk
4 eggs
½ teaspoon each salt, pepper, ground nutmeg
½ cup biscuit mix
1 cup grated mild cheese such as Swiss or Gruyere


    In a skillet, fry out bacon, gradually stirring in onion and vegetables until  crisp-tender. When becon bits are crisp, remove skillet from heat. Transfer bacon and vegetables to paper toweling, leaving drippings in the skillet.
    In a bowl whisk eggs, milk and seasonings until light and smooth. Whisk in biscuit mix.    

     Return skillet and bacon drippings to the heat. Pour in the egg mixture. Add bacon bits and vegetables.    Cover skillet and cook over medium heat until quiche is puffy and firm.  Serves 4 to 6.
 

Marina Potluck Recipe of the Week
Quick “Dirty” Rice
    Dirty Rice is a soul food favorite that is traditionally made with giblets such as heart, liver and gizzard. Here is our shortcut version. It’s usually made quite spicy but we prefer to provide hot sauce at the table. This recipe is easily multiplied.

 

2 slices thick bacon, cut up
1 pound boneless chicken, cut in small bits
1 tablespoon  minced garlic
2 ribs celery, diced
Large onion, diced
Medium green  pepper, diced
1 tablespoon powdered chicken bouillon
1 tablespoon dried, crumbled oregano
3 1/4 cups water
3 cups instant white rice

    In a large skillet or saucepan fry out the bacon.  When the fat renders, keep stir-frying as you add the chicken. Keep stir-frying to add garlic, celery, onion and green pepper. Add water and bouillon.
    Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat. Cover and simmer over low heat until chicken bits and vegetables are very tender. Stir  oregano and instant rice into the hot mixture. Cover and set aside to steep according to package directions. Serves 8.
    .
    Cook’s note: To make this a vegetarian dish, omit bacon. Finely chop one or two unpeeled small eggplants and saute briefly in olive oil. Proceed, using vegetable broth or bouillon. The small flecks of eggplant provide the “dirt” in dirty rice.

PANTRY RECIPE OF THE WEEK
Carro-tropic Salad
    Here’s an emergency recipe. All ingredients keep in the pantry for days, even weeks, until you need a fill-in dish in a hurry.  

 

2 cans, 15 ounces each, julienne carrots
2 teaspoons vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar or equivalent
8-ounce can crushed pineapple
1 cup shredded coconut
½ cups raisins
1/4 cup French dressing or other bottled sweet salad dressing

    Drain carrots well and toss with vinegar and sugar.  Drain pineapple. Fold everything together with enough dressing to moisten. Serves 5 to 6.
    Cook’s note: For an adult meal, heat 1/4 cup rum to steaming and pour over raisins. Let soak until cool, then add to this salad.
    
 
Tips for the Boat Cook

    * No rolling and cutting needed. Make biscuits by stirring full-fat sour cream into self-rising flour mixed with a pinch of baking soda. Drop the thick dough on a hot griddle by the heaping tablespoon. Brown one side, flip, brown the other side and flip again until biscuit is no longer doughy in the middle. To bake, set the oven at 425 F.  

* Think of crisp ice cream cups as edible dishes for anything from scrambled eggs and sloppy joe to instant pudding.

* Grease spots in porous  galley surfaces?  Before using a harsh cleaner that could bleach out the color, work in cornstarch with a soft brush. Let it absorb oil, then brush it off. Clean with mild soap solution. Rinse.

* Rehydrate any flavor ramen and drain, saving broth.  Whisk 2 to 4 eggs, stir in ramen and cook as an omelet. Broth can be discarded or thicken it to make a sauce.
                                
* Make a nice pot of creamy polenta and stir in canned chili, black olives, corn kernels, shredded cheese.  Plop on plates for a thick potage that’s easy to serve and eat in heavy weather.


Pantry Recipe of the Week
    No fresh foods are needed in my weekly Pantry Recipe. Food is boating insurance. Stuff happens. Have an ample back-up food supply, even if it’s just for a day sail.

Oat Bannock
    Make these tasty griddle breads with fresh or UHT milk, reconstituted dry milk or diluted evaporated milk.

  

2 cups milk
1 raw egg or equivalent
2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal flakes
½ teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

    Whisk egg and milk. Heat to like warm and stir in oat flakes.  Let stand while oatmeal softens, then stir in salt and baking soda. Drop by tablespoons on a hot, greased griddle. Cook as for pancakes.

 

 

    Canned and packaged foods are good boating insurance. Even a day sail can turn into a longer-than-planned, hungry and even life-threatening adventure. For a book on provisioning a boat with familiar, affordable pantry foods from the supermarket see Survival Food Handbook, published by International Marine division of McGraw-Hill.   http://amzn.to/1WdYqbe

 

 

    
    
Galley Recipe of the Week

With 14 to 16 ounces of economical surimi you can create this tasty, colorful, seafood main dish for eight. Serve it warm,  at “room” temperature or chilled on beds of shredded lettuce.

Surimi Salad 

 

1 each red and green bell pepper, trimmed and sliced in slivers
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Medium cauliflower, chopped
7- to 10-ounce can mushroom pieces, drained
1 cup sliced black olives, drained
10-ounce jar salad olives with pimento, drained
15-ounce jar tiny pickled onions, drained
14-ounce bottle ketchup
16-ounce package shredded Alaska Surimi (imitation crab)
15-ounce can whole green beans, drained
10-ounce jar tiny sweet pickles, drained

    In a big skillet or wok, stir-fry  peppers in hot oil, gradually stirring in the cauliflower and mushrooms. When the cauliflower is crisp-tender, stir in olives, onions with their juice and ketchup. Keep stirring over medium heat while adding surimi, green beans and pickles.
        Bring on bread sticks, then complete the meal with pound cake slices spread with lemon flavor yogurt.  

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Let's Eat on the Boat! Big Recipes, Small Boats

 Copyright Janet Groene 2024. To ask about placing your ad on all six Groene sites for one year, one small price, email janetgroene@yahoo.com

 

Galley Recipe of the Week
Deep Sea Steamed Dumplings
    One burner and one pot to wash! Add puffy dumplings to a soup meal and you have a  feast. 

    
3 cans condensed Manhattan style clam chowder
3 cans water
Small can V8 juice AND/OR
Small bottle clam juice
1 ½ cups biscuit mix
½ teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
Milk or water
Small can clams, picked over to remove any shell bits

    In a large saucepan mix soup, water and juice including juice from canned clams. Bring to an active simmer, not a hard boil. Mix paprika and parsley flakes into biscuit mix and add milk or water to make a thick dough.  Fold in drained clams.  
    Drop dough by teaspoons into simmering chowder and cook 10 minutes uncovered, then 10 minutes tightly covered.  Serve at once. Makes 5 to 6 portions. 

 

SURVIVAL FOOD HANDBOOK is a guide to survival when you're Out There and out of fresh provisions.  It's written just for sailors and campers who have limited storage space.

 Whether it's fridge failure, or you're broke,  or quarantined or weathered in, stuff happens. See provisioning information, lists, tips and recipes made solely with stowed foods from supermarkets (not those expensive  doomsday rations) .  Create a three-day standby pantry for your home, boat, cabin or camper with familiar, affordable staples.

Kindle or paperback, it's a great gift idea for yourself or a friend.  https://amzn.to/3mIfryC 

 

 BONUS RECIPE
Creamy Baked Fish

6 portions fish fillets
1 cup sour cream
½ teaspoon each salt and hot sauce
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 to ½ cup fine cracker crumbs
½ stick butter, melted

     Preheat the oven to 350 F. Arrange a layer of fillets in a generously buttered baking pan. Whisk sour cream, hot sauce, paprika and Parmesan and spread over fillets. Sprinkle with  cracker crumbs and drizzle with melted butter. Bake 20-30 minutes until fish flakes nicely. (Time depends on thickness of the fillets.) Serves 6. 

 

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    For news, views and cues about all things boating, cruising, cooking aboard and living aboard see https://farleyhalladay.com   Farley is the salty  Yacht Yenta, a fictional sailor, now widowed, who solves mysteries ashore and lives vicariously at sea through her online charterboat booking business.

Tips for the Galley Chef

    * Toss 2 cups of cauliflower “rice” with 2 tablespoons flour and ½ t. salt. Add 1  beaten egg. Fry as for pancakes. Serves two.

    * Make a different icebox pie each time. Make crumbs from different cookies, wafers, graham crackers, pretzels. To  2 cups crumbs add 1/4 cup each melted butter and brown sugar.  each. Press into pie plate and chill. Add filling o your choice. Chill.   

    * Before rolling out pizza dough, gently knead in grated cheese, finely chopped pepperoni, finely chopped hazelnuts, minced fresh basil and/ or shredded coconut (for ham and pineapple pizza)  just until well distributed.

    * Make Thai-style Red Chicken. Whisk together 1 cup water, 1/4 cup each ketchup, soy sauce and Worcestershire and 1 tablespoon each sugar and Tabasco sauce. Pour over browned chicken parts. Cover, braise until chicken is tender. 

 

APRIL SHOWERS BRING 

MYSTERY MURDERS
     Curl up in your bunk tonight with book 4 in the Yacht Yenta “cozy” mystery series, April Avenger  by widow Farley Halladay. Once a sailor, Farley now operates an online boat booking business that lets her sail virtually all over the world. She shares her shortcut galley recipes throughout the books. As a grieving widow she is also a cook, caregiver and kickass crime solver. For Kindle, Nook, Google Play and most other ebook formats.   https://amzn.to/3EKgaoP   

 

Pantry Recipe of the Week
Mixed Bean Soup
    Gourmet? No, but our Pantry Recipe feature is a way to make a real  meal in a short-term emergency such as fridge failure, quarantine or mandatory evacuation, using only shelf-stable supplies. Let these recipes inspire your provisioning list for a stand-by pantry.   

 

 
2 cans different beans (such as kidney, navy, pinto, lima, etc., drained and rinsed
1 can mixed vegetables
2 cups water
1/4 cup dried diced onions
14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 bouillon cubes (beef chicken or vegetable)
Small can chunk ham, chicken or turkey, broken up
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Optional: 1/4 cup rice and/or 1 can evaporated milk

    Bring everything but the evaporated milk to a low boil. Cover and simmer over reduced heat until everything is tender. Turn off heat and add evaporated milk if using.  If soup is too thick, add water or broth. If it’s too thin, stir in potato flakes over medium heat,  one tablespoon at a time, allowing a minute or two for thickening before adding more. 

 

Check out Janet Groene's featherweight Thumbnail Recipe of the Week each Friday. You put some stuff in a little plastic bag, take it to the boat,  add fire and more stuff, and it's a whole meal https://campandrvcook.blogspot.com

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Skillet Meal of the Week
Fajita & Rice Skillet

One burner, one big meal.  

 

 
12 to 16 ounces beef or chicken  for fajitas
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Medium onion, diced
Medium green pepper, diced
1 cup water
1 teaspoon or 1 cube beef bouillon
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 cups ready-to-serve rice

15-ounce can red beans or pinto beans, drained and rinsed
Garnishes: sour cream. grated cheese, diced avocado, minced cilantro or sliced scallions

    Brown the meat in hot oil, gradually stirring in onion and pepper. Add remaining ingredients, stirring to mix well and dissolve bouillon. Bring to a boil until  liquid is absorbed. Serve with one or more garnishes. Serves 4 to 6.

City Chicken Drumsticks

    Serve them hot from the skillet or or oven, or make these finger-lickin’ chicken treats ahead and wrap each in foil for easy warm-up later. See instructions for oven or fry pan cooking. I wear disposable kitchen gloves for mixing messy ingredients job like these.

 

2  pounds ground chicken
1 egg
Small onion, chopped fine
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
10-ounce jar of apricot preserves

About 2 cups seasoned bread crumbs
16  6-inch wood skewers or popsicle sticks
Oil for frying or pan spray for baking

    Thoroughly mix chicken, egg, onion, garlic, mustard and apricot preserves. Divide into 16 portions. Mold each portion around the end of a  skewer or popsicle stick to create a drumstick.
    Holding the bare end of the stick,  roll  in bread crumbs, pressing crumbs to adhere.  Fry in hot oil until firm and crusty. For oven baking, arrange on nonstick foil, spray with pan spray and bake at 400 degrees until chicken is firm and crusty. (For food safety, ground chicken should be cooked to a temperature of 165-170 F.) Serve two or three per person.

BONUS RECIPE
Recovery Sauce
    To adapt an old joke, it’s said that doctors bury their mistakes and boat cooks cover theirs with mayonnaise. Here is a warm, tangy and showy sauce that can turn a so-so omelet, over-cooked vegetable or dry chop into a gourmet dish.

1 packet country gravy mix
2 cups cold water or milk
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons prepared horseradish

    Prepare country gravy according to package directions and stir in Worcestershire sauce and horseradish. Spoon warm sauce over almost any bland dish.


   

 

Rafts of Recipes for the Boat Cook

Blog copyright Janet Groene 2024.  This site has had more than 89,000 views. To ask about placing your ad on all six Groene sites for one year, one low rate, email janetgroene at yahoo.com

 

 

Galley  Recipe of the Month
Perfect Pan-Seared Mahi-Mahi

 

4 portions mahi-mahi-, 4 to 6 ounces each
Seasoned flour (salt, pepper, thyme ad lib)

2 large Persian limes
½ stick butter, divided
1 tablespoon minced garlic

Small can eggplant caponata

2 cups cooked rice

2/3 cup white wine

    Pat fish dry. Juice  one lime and cut remaining lime into wedges. Dredge fish in seasoned flour. Heat half the butter and brown fish on both sides, drizzling with lime juice along the way. Continue cooking and turning fish, gradually stirring in garlic and adding a little more butter if needed. 

        Stir caponata into cooked rice and mound some atop each piece of fish. Cover and cook  until mahi is done and rice is heated through. Remove to plates. Add remaining butter to the pan with the wine. Bring to a boil, then drizzle over fish. Serve with lime wedges.

Cook's note:  It's unconventional, but I like Vermouth as the wine used here. 

 

 
    How to make a meal when you’re at sea and out of fresh food? How to provision the pantry with shelf-stable foods for extended cruising, convenience or emergencies? See Survival Food Handbook (International Marine Publishing) , a guide to stocking a boat or camper with familiar, affordable supermarket staples.  https://amzn.to/1WdYqbe

 

TIPS FOR THE GALLEY CHEF
            
    * Instead of cookie crumb layers in your next parfaits, use honey nut oat cereal. 
    
    * Add a spaghetti claw to your galley. It serves pasta, sauerkraut, spaghetti squash, shredded cabbage and other stringy foods. It’s also the best way to lift eggs or potatoes out of boiling water.

* Beer marinade for 3-4 pounds of meat, fish or poultry:  12-oz. can beer. 1 T. minced garlic, 1 t. ea. salt, pepper, 2 sliced onions, 3 bay leaves, 2 c. ketchup, 1 T. Liquid Smoke.. Refrigerate overnight. 

* When a recipe calls for bread crumbs, try cheese cracker crumbs instead.


MASTER RECIPE OF THE WEEK
    For the ideal lunch in the cockpit, make a different version of this main dish salad recipe every day. 

 

 

 

Grains-as-Mains Salad

3 cups cooked and cooled rice, quinoa,  ferro, barley, wild rice or other hearty grain
2 cups chopped raw vegetables (red and green pepper, celery, sweet onion, asparagus tips, sliced scallions, etc.)
1/3 cup bottled dressing

 2 cups cut up cooked meat, fish, chicken, hard-boiled eggs, drained and rinsed kidney beans or diced tofu
½ cup sesame seeds, sunflower “nuts” or sliced almonds
Chopped fresh basil, parsley, cilantro, tarragon, thyme or other herb
Grated cheese ad lib

Additional dressing to taste

    Cook the grain, drain and cool it and fold in vegetables, protein and fresh herbs.  Sprinkle with seeds or nuts and  grated cheese. Serves 4 to 6.
    Optional:  serve the salad on a bed of shredded lettuce or in lettuce cups.

MAKE AHEAD RECIPE OF THE WEEK
    Make a big batch, then portion and package for the freezer in right-size portions for your crew. These meatballs come with a LOT of sauce.

 

Fruit-Sauced Meatballs
2 pounds lean ground beef
1 pound lean ground pork
½ cup bread crumbs
2 beaten eggs
1 teaspoon each salt, pepper, mixed Italian seasoning

    Mix well and form into golf ball-size meatballs. Arrange on a rimmed baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees until browned. Internal temperature should reach a minimum of 160 degrees. Set aside to cool.

Sauce:
Pan juices
14- to 16-ounce jar apricot or pineapple preserves
8-ounce jar Grey Poupon mustard
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 cup brown sugar
20-ounce can crushed pineapple, undrained

    Drain pan juices from the meatballs into a saucepan and spoon off excess fat. Add preserves, mustard, curry powder, brown sugar and pineapple. Bring to a boil, stirring  to dissolve sugar. Remove from heat and cool.
    Put meatballs in freezer bags, allowing 3 to 4 meatballs per serving. Divide cooled sauce among packages. Freeze. To serve, thaw and heat to serve over rice or noodles, crisp chow mein noodles or steamed, crisp-tender French-cut green beans. 

Tip: if you freeze meatballs in boilable bags, you can heat in the same pan with boil-in-the-bag rice.

 

 

 

 

In June Jeopardy, #6 in the Yacht Yenta e-book mystery series,  salty widow Farley Halladay finds some possible answers to her husband’s death in a fall from the mainmast of their ketch.  Many questions remain, however, as she struggles to manage her online charterboat booking company, care for her husband’s elderly Navy mentor and manage her wacky sister.    https://amzn.to/3wcf6ao
 

 BONUS RECIPE    

MEXICAN "STREET CORN" RICE

2 tablespoons lard or vegetable oil
Medium onion, diced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
Medium green pepper, cut in thin strips
14.5-ounce can whole kernel corn, drained
3 cups cooked rice
1 cup sour cream
Shredded Mexican blend cheese ad lib
Minced cilantro
Lime wedges

 

 Heat fat in a large skillet and sizzle onion and garlic, gradually stirring in green pepper. Drain corn and save liquid. Continue stir-frying while adding rice and corn. To moisten to taste, add a little liquid from the corn. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Fold in sour cream and about a cup of grated cheese. Cover and heat through. Sprinkle with minced cilantro. To serve, pass more grated cheese and a plate of lime wedges.

          

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Boating Recipes for the Small Galley

 

Blog copyright Janet Groene 2024. To ask about placing your ad on all six Groene sites for one year, one low rate, contact janetgroene@yahoo.com/

 

Tote to the Boat Recipe of the Week
Shanghai Spaghetti Salad
    Make this easy recipe a day or two ahead, keep it chilled and serve it cold on a hot summer day at anchor. (Don’t forget to bring a spaghetti claw for easier serving.) 

Dressing:
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon each brown sugar and dry mustard powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil

6 servings spaghetti, linguini or fettuccine
3 cups diced, cooked chicken, ham or tuna
1 bunch scallions, sliced thin
2 cups thin-sliced celery
½ cup minced parsley, cilantro or mixture
Garnish:
Toasted sesame seeds

    Whisk dressing ingredients and set aside. Cook and drain pasta according to package directions. Lightly toss with dressing and remaining ingredients. Chill. Sprinkle with sesame seeds just before serving. 

 
    Canned and packaged foods are good boating insurance. Even a day sail can turn into a longer-than-planned, hungry and even life-threatening adventure. For a book on provisioning a boat with familiar, affordable pantry foods from the supermarket see Survival Food Handbook, published by International Marine division of McGraw-Hill.   http://amzn.to/1WdYqbe

 

 

 

Pantry Recipe of the Week
    Whether you are provisioning your boat or prepping at home for the next power outage, it’s wise to have a pantry filled with shelf-stable foods plus  recipes to make the best of them. Come back each week for a new recipe that requires no fresh ingredients.

Brazil Nut Rice Pilaf
    Bold, meaty and toothsome, Brazil nuts add a new dimension to the same ol’ rice pilaf. The rice can be brown or white, cooked from scratch or from a ready-serve pouch.

 

 1 packet orange Emergen-C
½ cup water
2 tablespoons dried onion bits
½ cup golden raisins
1 cup (or more to taste) coarsely chopped Brazil nuts
3 cups cooked rice
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ teaspoon each celery salt and crumbled, dried rosemary

    Dissolve Emergen-C in the half cup of water and soak the raisins and onion bits.
In a large skillet, heat oil. Frazzle nuts in hot oil until they are fragrant. Stir in rice, celery salt and rosemary to heat through. Stir in soaked onion and raisins with any remaining liquid. Cover and cook over low heat until everything is heated through. Serves 6 to 8 as a side dish, 3 to 5 as a main dish.  

Do you keep a pocketful of comforting snacks when you’re on night watch or spending long hours on the flybridge? See recipes for healthy, homemade gorp, some sweet and some savory at https://createagorp.blogspot.com/  

Tips for the Galley Chef

* To remove corn silk, wear rubber gloves or run a damp paper towel over the ear.
       
    * Parboil wursts and sausages 6 to 8 minutes. Excess fat will float away and the sausages won’t crack when grilled.

    * Add a creamier taste to pancake batter or pumpkin pie. Whisk in 2-3 tablespoons of powdered creamer.       

    * Do your cake layers skate and shift? Quickly add fillings between layers and run a couple of strands of dry spaghetti as “shafts” through the cake to keep layers in place until frosting hardens. Don’t forget to remove them.

        * Cook and drain carrots and fold in a little sugar and horseradish. Butter optional.
  
    * When flouring chicken for frying in hot fat, add some powdered milk to the flour. Chicken will brown faster.
 

Galley Recipe of the Week
    A robust red wine turns this peasant dish into a gourmet vegan meal. If you like, mMake it meatier with cooked, crumbled meat, poultry or meat substitute.  

 

Lentils Burgundy
Large onion, diced
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

14.5-ounce can of sliced or diced carrots, drained
2 cans condensed lentil soup
1 soup can water
1 cup or to taste dry red wine
1 bay leaf
½ teaspoon each dried thyme and dried marjoram
1/4 cup raw rice
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 stick butter or vegan substitute 

    Stir-fry the onion in hot oil. When it’s limp, stir in carrots to brown them. Stir in soup, water, wine and herbs. Bring to a boil. Stir in rice, cover and cook over low heat 20-40  minutes  until rice is tender. In a small skillet, brown bread crumbs in butter and sprinkle over each portion. Serves 4.
    Pressure cooker method: Brown onion in hot oil in a pressure cooker, adding carrots. Add soup, water, wine, bacon bits, seasonings and rice. Bring to full pressure, then remove from the burner until pressure returns to normal. Sprinkle with buttered bread crumbs. 

See more galley-ready recipes at https://campandrvcook.blogspot.com/

SKILLET MEAL OF THE WEEK
Spanish Corned Beef Hash
    If there isn’t a can or two of “bully beef” in your food locker, you aren’t properly provisioned for sea, says this old salt. In a pinch, a can of corned beef can be stretched to feed multitudes. 

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Large onion, diced
Small green pepper, diced
2 to 3 cans diced potatoes, drained and rinsed
12-to -14-ounce can corned beef, trimmed of excess fat
8-ounce can tomato sauce
1 teaspoon adobo seasoning
1/4 cup dry red Spanish wine if you have some
Hot sauce

    Sizzle the onion and pepper in hot oil, gradually adding potatoes to brown them. Add corned beef and keep stir-frying over high heat to break it up. Add tomato sauce, seasoning and wine.  Pass hot sauce at the table.

What's new for the worldwide cruising sailor? See news, views and cues from Farley Halladay, author of the Yacht Yenta e-book mysteries, at https://farleyhalladay.blogspot.com

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The SEA-soned Boat Cook

Blog copyright Janet Groene 2024. To place your ad on all six Groene sites for one year, one low rate, email janetgroene at yahoo.com

See worldwide sailing news, cues and views including the 2024 Scottish Tradiitional Boat Festival in June at https://farleyhalladay.blogspot.com

 

Galley Recipe of the Week

GREEN SEAS HOT DISH

Make this creamy, one-burner  dish with cream of chicken, mushroom or celery soup or a mixture. 

About 18 soft corn 6-inch tortillas

20-ounce package ground beef, pork or turkey

Medium onion, diced

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 cans condensed cream of something soup

13-ounce can evaporated milk

1/3  cup tequila

2 cans diced green chilies, well drained

10-ounce brick of cheese such as Monterey Jack, grated

Hot sauce (Optional)

Stack tortillas and use scissors to cut them in quarters or eighths. Set aside. In a large skillet, brown ground meat with onion and garlic. Cover and let simmer over low heat to soften onion. Spoon away any excess fat. 

In a bowl whisk soups, evaporated milk and tequila. Fold into the meat mixture with the chilies and tortilla pieces. Cover and cook over low-medium heat 10-15 minutes. Fold in part of the cheese until it melts. Save the rest to top the finished dish. Serves 6-8. Pass the hot sauce. 

 
    Canned and packaged foods are good boating insurance. Even a day sail can turn into a longer-than-planned, hungry and even life-threatening adventure. For a book on provisioning a boat with familiar, affordable pantry foods from the supermarket see Survival Food Handbook, published by International Marine division of McGraw-Hill.   http://amzn.to/1WdYqbe

 

Pantry Recipe of the Week

This feature is about recipes made entirely from shelf-stable ingredients. When fresh food supplies are running low or  when you are on a long passage or you arrive broken in a new port,  rely on your pantry to provide provisions that are balanced, nutritious and crew-saving. Gourmet? No, but a well-thought stand-by pantry can fill in before you have to delve into those dreaded doomsday rations in the bilge. 

Oil-Free Salad Dressing

When you're out of fresh vegetables, a tangy salad dressing can perk up canned vegetables such as artichokes, hearts of palm, water chestnuts and cut green beans. 

Powdered pectin is a  compact, light weight, natural product and a low-calorie thickener to use in dressings, sauces, smoothies and to make jams and jellies. It’s a good product to carry on board  if you like to make jelly from native fruits found in your travels. 

1 tablespoon powdered pectin

1 tablespoon sugar or equivalent

½ teaspoon each dried, crumbled basil, dried tarragon

1/4 teaspoon garlic salt

6-ounce can V-8 juice, regular or spicy

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1-2 tablespoons pickle relish (optional) 

Stir everything together and let stand one hour. Spoon over hot or cold vegetables, pasta, rice, grilled fish, etc. Leftovers should be refrigerated. 

See more sailing news, cruise views and cues for cruising sailors , liveaboards, charters worldwide at https://farleyHalladay.blogspot.com 

 

Tips for the Galley Chef

* Make a quick loaf of bread in the slow cooker. Whisk 2 eggs with a cup of sour cream, ½ cup sugar, 1 cup milk and a teaspoon or vanilla or orange extract. Fold in  3 cups biscuit mix and ½ cup raisins. Combine well but do not over-beat.  Put in greased cooker. Bake on High 2 hours. 

* The next time you make French toast, make a double batch. Then dice the leftovers to make a breakfast strata the next day.

* Make shortcut stuffed cabbage.  Wrap each limp cabbage leaf around a slice of deli corned beef. Roll up, place in skillet seam side down, cover with marinara sauce and heat until cabbage is tender. Serve over rice. 

  * Bake a batch of moist, fudgy brownies.When they are cool enough, form into balls and dip in melted chocolate to make truffles. 

 

 

APRIL SHOWERS BRING 

MYSTERY MURDERS
 

    Curl up in your camper tonight with book 4 in the Yacht Yenta “cozy” mystery series, April Avenger  by widow Farley Halladay. Once a sailor, Farley now operates an online boat booking business that lets her sail virtually all over the world. She shares her shortcut galley recipes throughout the books. As a grieving widow she is also a cook, caregiver and kickass crime solver. For Kindle, Nook, Google Play and most other ebook formats.   https://amzn.to/3EKgaoP   

    

 

Galley Recipe of the Week

Blue Cheese Tomatoes

Turn tomatoes into a rich side dish or vegetarian main course.

A little sugar aids browning

About 3 pounds of ripe but still quite firm tomatoes

½ cup flour

1 teaspoon each pepper and salt

1 tablespoon packed brown sugar

1 stick butter and more if needed

1 cup heavy cream

4-ounce tub of crumbled blue cheese

Cut thin slices from the top and bottom of the tomatoes and discard. Cut tomatoes into  thick slices. Mix flour, salt, pepper and brown sugar on a plate and dredge tomato slices. In a large skillet, melt some of the butter and fry tomatoes until brown and crusty, adding more butter as needed.  Remove tomatoes to plates. Add any remaining butter to the pan with the cream and blue cheese. Stir just until it begins to boil. Pour over tomatoes. Serves 6 to 8. 

Cruising Cooks and Nautical Notes

Blog copyright Janet Groene 2023 To ask about placing your ad on all six Groene sites for one year, one low rate, email janetgroene at yahoo.com

These recipes are for cruising sailors with a small boat, small galley and small wallet. For ten years I lived on board a 29-foot sloop with a two-burner Primus stove  and a tiny, 110-V reefer for the rare times we were on shore power.  In summer I lived and traveled in a 21-foot RV that had a small fridge, propane stove and small oven. My recipes save space, water, cleanup time and cooking fuel.

 

 
Galley Recipe of the Week
Peachy Baked Oatmeal
    Serve it for breakfast or as a high-fiber dinner dessert that sticks to the ribs well into the night watch.

2 cups rolled oats (not instant, not steel cut)
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Pinch salt
About 3 cups sliced peaches, drained
2 cups milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup to 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Pancake syrup (optional)

    Set the oven to 375 F. Combine dry ingredients in a big bowl and mix well. Grease a 9 X 13-inch baking dish and arrange half the peaches. Sprinkle with half the dry mixture. Add remaining peaches and remaining dry mixture.
    In the same bowl whisk milk, eggs, oil and vanilla and pour slowly and evenly over the oat mixture. Give it a few minutes for liquids to sink in. Sprinkle nuts on top. Bake 40 to 45 minutes at 375 degrees. It should be golden on top and chewy in the center. Serve warm, at “room” temperature or chilled. Serve plain or with pancake syrup. 

See Janet Groene's bio and a list of her books including  Survival Food Handbook, Creating Comfort Afloat and How to Live Board a Boat at https://janetgroene.blogspot.com
   
 Pantry Recipe of the Week
Pronto Paella

 

     To the cruising sailor, freedom means food independence at all times in all situations. Freezers fail. Island supply boats are delayed. Ice melts. Winds die or blow too hard. Funds run out. 

 Here is this week’s recipe using stowed foods from your stand-by locker before you have to delve into those awful  survival rations.

Small can hot and spicy Vienna sausages
2-3 tablespoons diced dried onions

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup rice
10-ounce can chunk chicken
1 or 2 cans shrimp, drained
Small can whole clams with juice
2 cups liquid
Canned mussels in shells (optional)
Dried parsley or chives

    Empty juice from sausages into a small cup and soak dried onions. Slice sausages and sizzle in hot oil in a large, nonstick skillet. Gradually stir in rice to coat. Drain any juice from the chicken and add water to make 2 cups. (If you also use juice from the seafood, strain it to remove bits of shell or cartilage).  Add liquid to the skillet and bring to a boil.
    Cover pan and cook over low heat without stirring until rice is tender. Stir in seafood heat through.
    If you have a can of  mussels in the shell, they make a nice garnish. Arrange them on top, cover and heat. Sprinkle with dried parsley or chives. Serves 4. 

  

 

 

Survival Food Handbook (International Marine Publishing)  is written for sailors and campers who have limited storage space. Using affordable, familiar supermarket staples, you can have an ample pantry of stand-by foods for brief emergencies.  See lists, nutritional information, recipes, storage tips.   Kindle or paperback. http://amzn.to/1WdYqbe

 

 

 

ONE POT RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Rainbow Spanish Rice
    This colorful, one-burner dish combines ethnic ingredients from America’s melting pot to make a main dish for a mixed crowd.  You might also throw in some black or red beans in addition to, or instead of the meat.  Serve it right out of the pot and pass a choice of ethnic hot sauces.  

 

 
24-ounce package Polish kielbasa or other cooked ethnic sausage
2 tablespoons canola oil
12-ounce package frozen onion and pepper mix, thawed and drained
3 cups diced vegetables (carrot, zucchini, jicama, turnip, rutabaga, plantain, what have you)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
5 cups water
28-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 ½ cups long-grain white rice
1 tablespoon sweet or smoked paprika
Small can sliced ripe olives, drained
Canned red or black beans (optional) 

Salt, pepper to taste

Hot sauce

1. Start with a big pot or Dutch oven. Cut kielbasa into small bites and stir-fry it in hot oil over high heat, gradually stirring in vegetables,  garlic and rice to coat.
2. Add water and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Stir in paprika, cover, reduce heat and cook over very low flame 25 to 30 minutes. Do not peek or stir during cooking. . Rice will be tender and liquids absorbed.  
3. Stir in olives (and beans if using). Serve warm. Serves 8 to 12. 

BONUS RECIPE

Corny Crab
    Serve this saucy concoction over cooked rice, pasta or noodles, crisp Asian noodles,  steamed carrot sticks or cabbage wedges,  toaster waffles,  pancakes or corn muffins. 

 
3-4 slices bacon, cut up
Medium onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon dried thyme
16-ounce tub of fresh lump crabmeat, picked over
15-ounce can whole kernel corn*, drained
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2-ounce jar diced pimentos, drained

    Fry out bacon and spoon off excess fat, leaving about 2 tablespoons fat in the pan. Continue stirring over medium-high heat while adding parsley, thyme, crab and corn. Cover and cook over low heat while adding cornstarch to 2/3 cup liquid*. Stir into crab mixture over medium heat until it thickens. Stir in pimentos. Spoon over base of your choice. Serves 4 to 6.

* Water plus juice drained from corn
 

See nautical news, views and cues from Farley Halladay, author of the Yacht Yenta mysteries, at https://farleyhalladay.blogspot.com
 

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