A Week of Passage Menus

 

I've written about provisioning and provided a few recipes along the way, but I've never offered the types of menus I rely on when we're on passages. Much depends on the weather we're experiencing. Are we on a heel? Is it really cold? Is it calm or stormy? Baking is best done when it's calmer and very comforting when it's cold. We bake less as we get into warmer climates. One pot meals are best when the ride is bumpy. We adapt to the conditions, but try to have at least one hot meal a day. Here's a week of menus I use regularly on Nine of Cups.

Day 1

Breakfast – Hot oatmeal with milk and brown sugar Lunch – Grilled cheese sandwiches with chips and pickles Dinner – Lemay Special with crackers and cheese Night Watch - Leftover Lemay Special Snacks – Chocolate cupcakes from a mix; granola bars

Day 2

Breakfast – Yogurt with home-made granola Lunch – Fried egg sandwiches with home fries Dinner – Tuna and Mac (You can make this meal with any kind of pasta and substitute chicken for tuna. We find that penne, shells or macaroni work best. It's another one-pot meal.) Night Watch – Cupcakes and hot tea Snack – Crackers and cheese; sliced oranges

  Day 3

Breakfast – Cheese omelet with toast Lunch – Ramen noodles with crackers and cheese Dinner – Franks and beans (see notes below) Night Watch – Brownies and tea Snack – Apples; Brownies

Day 4

Breakfast – Pancakes with maple syrup Lunch – Rice Salad with smoked chicken Dinner – White chili with corn muffins Night Watch – Left over white chili Snack – Shared chocolate bar; popcorn

Day 5

Breakfast - Crazy mixed up eggs with toast; coffee and tea Lunch: Corn Chowdah (if there's fish, it's fish chowdah) Dinner – Cottage Pie Night Watch –Reheated chowder Snack - Peanuts and raisins; chocolate pudding

Crazy Mixed Up Eggs

Recipe Type: Breakfast (or dinner)

Author: Marcie Connelly Lynn

I was brought up in a meat and potatoes family. We had potatoes at every meal and there were always leftover boiled potatoes in the fridge. My mom named this conglomeration of eggs, leftover boiled potatoes and onions.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 3 cups previously boiled potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces
• ½ onion, diced fine
• 1 Tbsp oil
• 1 Tbsp butter/margarine
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Cook onions in oil till tender. Add butter and when melted, add potatoes. Stir and heat through. Add eggs one at a time and stir till all are cooked and “mixed up” with the potatoes. Serve hot with toast.

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Day 6 Breakfast – English muffins with blueberry jam; coffee and tea Lunch – Tuna wraps with cole slaw Dinner – Terriyaki chicken with veggies (carrots, onions, cabbage) served over rice Night Watch – Leftover Terriyaki chicken Snack – Carrot sticks with honey dijon dip; mixed nuts

Honey Dijon Dip 1 cup (250gr) mayo 1 Tbsp (15 ml) honey 1 Tbsp (15 ml) Dijon mustard

Blend ingredients till smooth. Use as a veggie dip or salad dressing.

Day 7 Breakfast – Yogurt with canned peaches and a granola bar Lunch – Chicken salad sandwiches with carrot sticks Dinner – Spaghetti with mushroom and sundried tomato sauce and grated Parmesan Night Watch – Left over pasta Snack – Pretzels (edible knots); orange slices

Notes:

• With a little imagination and creativity, these menus can be modified, recycled or mixed and matched every week or so.
• One pot meals are easiest on the first days of a passage. For franks and beans, for instance, I cut the franks into bite size pieces and cook them in a saucepan. Once cooked, I add the beans on top and heat till piping hot.
• If we anticipate bad weather, I usually whip up a kettle of soup in advance.
• Unless it's raining or stormy, we eat most every meal in the cockpit. I tend to serve meals in our wooden bowls. They're sturdy, don't conduct heat when holding the bowl in our laps and the bowl helps to keep food contained rather than letting it blow away or slop over.
• Because we only use a fridge and not a freezer, I rely on canned (preserved) chicken after our first week at sea.
• Menus shown are for a week after the fresh meats are gone.
• I make up a large batch of granola before we leave and store it in a plastic canister. I also make up basic coffee cake/pancake mix and muffin mixes before I leave. I mark and store them in big ziplocs. I just add liquid ingredients when I'm ready to use them.
• I've included meals (usually leftovers) for night watches as we always have the munchies during the night. With night watch in mind, I many times make extra for dinner.
• We sail dry, so no alcoholic beverages are served. I stock UHT milk, coffee, tea, juices and sparkling water. We drink lots of water on passage.
• If David catches a fish, the whole menu changes.

The Blue View - Our Daily Bread

One of the first things we run out of when on a long passage is fresh bread. It is also one of the easiest problems to remedy. My night watches are the perfect time for making bread. It helps pass the time, and I can still pop my head up and take a look around every five minutes or so. I make the dough during my 9PM to midnight watch, let it rise while I'm sleeping, then try to time it so that it is hot and just out of the oven at the end of my 3AM to 6AM watch. The smell of the freshly baked bread greets Marcie when she gets up, and we enjoy a slice or two over our morning cuppas while discussing whatever happened (or broke) during the night.

Kalamata olive bread is one of our favorites. This recipe makes one large loaf.

Kalamata Bread

Recipe Type: Bread

Author: David Lynn

Ingredients

• ½ cup (100 ml) warm water
• 1 tsp (3g) dry yeast
• ½ cup (75g) flour
• 1/3 cup (66 ml) warm water
• 1 Tbs (20ml) honey or ½ Tbs (6g) brown sugar
• 2 tsp (6g) dry yeast
• 1 Tbs (5g) rosemary
• 1 Tbs (5g) oregano
• 1/8 cup (30ml) olive oil
• 2-1/2 cup (375g) flour
• 1 cup (200g) kalamata olives, pitted and sliced lengthwise
• 1 tsp (15g) salt
• optional: ½ cup (125g) sunflower and/or pumpkin seeds
• cornmeal as needed

Instructions

1. Starter: Water should be just warm to the touch. If it is too hot, it will kill the yeast. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water, then add the flour and stir until thoroughly mixed. Cover and let it stand 30 minutes.
2. Dough: Combine water, honey or sugar, and yeast, and mix until yeast is dissolved. Add herbs, oil, flour, the starter, olives, and seeds, and mix well. Move to a floured surface, and sprinkle salt over dough. Knead for 5 minutes, adding flour as needed. Put the dough in a greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Transfer to a floured surface, punch it down to get rid of air bubbles, and shape (don't knead again). Grease a cookie sheet and dust with cornmeal, then transfer the dough to the cookie sheet. Let rise in a warm place for two hours. (On my night watch, I let it rise for 3 hours during my off-watch).
3. Preheat oven to 450F (230C). Raise the upper oven rack to the second level above the flame and slide an oven proof pan onto the lower rack. About 5 minutes before putting the bread in the oven, add about 1 cup (250ml) of water to the pan. This produces steam for the first 5-10 minutes of baking. The steam keeps the outer layer of dough soft and flexible for a few more minutes, allowing the yeast to continue rising. The result will be a slightly lighter loaf with a brown crust. Score the top of the loaf with a sharp knife or razor and slide the bread into the oven. Bake at 450 (230C) for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 400F (200C) and continue baking for another 20-30 minutes. Bread is done when you get a slightly hollow sound when the loaf is rapped with a knuckle.

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Recipes for soups, anyone?

I was looking for some new and different soup and curry recipes using local ingredients. It's cold and soups, stews and curries always seem to warm us up from the inside out. The local supermarket, Pic'n'Pay, offers on-line  recipes and I thought I'd copy a few. A couple of issues cropped up immediately.

I'm always bummed when a recipe calls for something that is obviously not a “scratch” item. If they're going to use a pre-packaged soup mix as a main ingredient, why tell me they're providing a soup recipe when it's really only an enhancement to a mix they're talking about? Why not give me the recipe for the darned soup mix in the first place? I whittled down the list of possible soups by checking the ingredients and weeding out any recipe that called for anything other than fresh and/or on-hand ingredients. I ended up with recipes for peanut satay butternut squash soup, an interesting chicken vegetable soup and a mushroom soup. On the curry side, chicken korma caught my interest.

The cooking terminology in a foreign country is always a bit of challenge, not insurmountable, but it definitely causes me to think. Remember, we're talking English here, not actually a foreign language. It's just a different English than I'm accustomed to. Terms like “a glug of oil” and “a knob of ginger” aren't common expressions in an American cookbook. Easy to figure out, but odd to me. I don't have the ability to “blitz” which I assume is done with a blender or food processor, but I can mush, mash and puree things up pretty well manually.

The next issue, of course, is converting metric weight and liquid measurements to cups, teaspoons and tablespoons. Liquid measure is pretty easy, but dry weight measurements differ. A cup of white flour is 125 grams, but a cup of dry, uncooked white rice is 233 grams. Much easier with a volume measurement … a cup is a cup is a cup, no matter what it is. My thinking?  It's soup … how wrong can I go with guesstimating? There is a handy conversion site I use from time to time though.

I haven't tried any of the recipes yet … maybe this week before we leave. In the meantime, anybody out there have any good, hardy soup and/or curry recipes they'd like to share? Remember I don't eat red meat, but if I can substitute chicken for the meat, send it along. Veggie recipes most welcome.