SV Gallant Fox

Guaymas Gumbo

We have been in the Sea of Cortez since November 1, enjoying the fine winter weather.  It had been a great cruse, and we met some real interesting people.  The problem was the bottom kept getting foul.  I was cleaning it every six weeks, then every four, and now every three.  It was a mess down there, being two years since our last haul out.

 

“Let’s sail over to San Carlos and do the bottom paint"  we said, so off we went.

We arrived in late in March, and hung around the anchorage waiting for about 10 days for the tides to turn so we could get into the Marina Seca boatyard.  This was not a problem, since it took us 7 days just to get the paint.  We hauled and everything went fine.  Marina Seca is a great place to do work – you can pour acetone on the ground and sand to your heart’s content.  We splashed and came over to Marina Singular in Guaymas, with the intention of taking the train north through Copper Canyon

Two days after we got here Marianne got the call that her mother was real sick, and it was time to come home.  Well, Jeffie had been real sick for a long time, so this was a little expected.  MS jumped a flight out of San Carlos to Phoenix then rode with her brother down to El Paso

Three days later Jeffie died.  A sad time for all.  But she lived a long 88 years, overcame a lot of medical adversities to live independently for most of it, and seemed very satisfied with her place in the world.  She seemed very contented , and had many activities and friends.  We are all going to go sometime, and this was her time.

 So now, three weeks later, MS is still in El Paso.  There is a lot of stuff to go through -  49 years of belongings in one house, and sort out what the family was going to do.  Also, since she is in the states, we turned this into our yearly buying binge, so naturally, you are waiting for supplies to show up – then there is the doctor’s appointment.  She won’t be back until May 2.

 I think my point is that cruising is not what most people think it is.  It’s just like the life in the states, without all of the conveniences.  You need paint you have to sail a hundred miles.  You wait a week for tides.   People get sick and you have to go and its planes and automobiles to get there.  Being full time people on board we carry our life and all of its complications  with us.

We are in a real good spot though – the marina at Singular Guaymas is great – nice town to be in, good provisioning, etc.  It’s just not like being out at anchor, fishing, swimming, and beach walking.  Also – I am alone on the boat, which lets me tear it up and do things, but there was not that much to do so I am about polishing the stainless again.  I made this great soup the other day….

The view at Singular - they all look alike.

Guaymas Gumbo

 Guaymas is famous for its shrimp.  The shrimping fleet is huge in the harbor here, but most of it is in mothballs.  Still, you can go down to the market and get a kilo of large shrimp for about $10. Here is the recipie:

 1 qt Chicken Stock

1 cooked chicken breast - shredded

1 chorizo Espanol – sliced –  this is a dried Spanish sausage

8 - 12 oz clean shrimp, split

1 tomato - chopped

1/2 squash- chopped in ¼ inch bites

1 red pepper - sliced

5 pickled yellow peppers – chopped with the seeds removed

1 lime - juiced

¼ cup chopped cilantro

My trusty crockpot - five years old and still cooking away

 

 

Chicken Stock

Roast the leftover carcass’ of two chicken in the oven for about 45 minutes until brown at about 425.  This step makes a huge difference in how the stock tastes.  Usually I am lazy and throw the raw bones in the crock pot – but, I’ve got all this time on my hands…..

 

Combine the bones, ½ onion, 1 carrot and 1 stalk celery, 4 bay leaves, and 1 clove garlic, 5 black peppercorns in the crockpot and let simmer for 8 hours.  Alternatively, use a pressure cooker for 20 minutes on high – 15 psi.  Chill the stock and skim the fat off.

 

Into the stock, add all of the ingredients except the shrimp and the cilantro.  Bring to a boil for about 3-5 minutes.  Add the shrimp and cilantro and turn the heat off, cover for a couple of minutes.

 

I though this was real tasty – it’s quite easy to do.  The slow part is the stock, but I am always making stock in my trusty crock pot, so no problem.

 

Enjoy – another original recipe by the propane chef

 

 

Tomato Paste

You can’t get tomato paste in Mexico - or at least the parts of Mexico I have been to. There are a lot of tomato products in the store, but they all seem to be “puree of tomato with a lot of salt added”. You can get canned tomatoes, but they are very expensive - like $3.50 per 24 oz can or so.

MX cuisine does not have a lot of call for tomato paste - but I use a lot of it in making soups stews, and sauces. So I decided to make my own.

Tomatoes are pretty cheap in Sinaloa - tomato capital of Mexico. I can get a kilo of plum tomatoes in Mazatlan for about $1.25. So, here is the recipie.

Take 1.5 kilo of plum tomatoes, blanch them in boiling water for a minute and take the skins off. Be sure to score the bottom of the tomato before blanching - this helps the skins come off easy. Skin them, cut them into quarters and take the seeds and centers out. Throw the whole mess into a crock pot and cook it down for about three hours, let cool, then whip it up in the blender into a puree. Add a pinch of salt but not too much, since it will really concentrate down. Cook down for another 8 hours. I ended up with about 20 oz of puree. It's thick and sticks to the back of a spoon when done. Bag it in 5 oz portions and put it into the freezer.

Tomatoes have some natural preservative qualities, so the will keep in the freezer - and they don‘t take up much room at all. This paste turned out really good, but I used up all of my tomatoes - so I have to go to the store and get another kilo before I can get some great sauce going. Here is my tomato sauce recipe.

1 kilo to fresh tomatoes, skinned and seeded

½ onion

2 cloves garlic

2 TBS oregeno,

1 tbs basil

½ tbs rosemary

1 carrot, 1 stalk celery grated

Red wine or chicken stock or water - whatever is around

5 oz homemade paste

Sautee the veggies and throw it all into a crock pot, cook down for about 8 hours, mashing to tomatoes up for country style, or using a blender to make a smooth sauce for pizza.

And if all else fails, get a good friend to bring you a case of tomato paste from the North!

gb

Chicozapotes

While GB collects his thoughts for ever-so-many posts, here's The Iron Palate with a swell discovery of a new-to-us tropical fruit:  the fabulous chicozapote.  I finally took a flyer on these fuzzy-skinned, oblong, brown fruit objects I’ve been seeing in the sooper mart for a while. I had no clue what they were or how to eat them, so I Googled a little bit. Here’s what I found.

Purdue University’s horticulture department describes chicozapotes as the fruit product of the Sapodilla tree, presumed native to Mexico.  Grows well in poor soil and adapts to a broad range of elevations and temperature/moisture levels. Cultivated into many varieties, the fruit comes in different shapes and sizes with varying numbers of seeds inside. The chicozapote fruit sold in the Mazatlan market of my choice are oblong with one long, black, shiny seed inside. Very pretty, that seed. When ripe and ready to eat, the fruits are quite soft, and have the slightly grainy texture of a baked apple with a flavor very much like brown sugar. It is Really Good, I’m here to tell you. Purdue says you can either eat the fruit by simply spooning it out of the skin or using it in a fruit salad; or you can stew it with lime and/or ginger; or mix the mashed pulp it into pancake batter, bread dough, and egg custards. The Propane Chef is hankering to mix it with chili and lime and whatever, and use it as a glaze for pork or chicken. So it’s a versatile little fruit.

Three drawbacks to chicozapotes. The Sapodilla tree is a latex tree whose sap is used to make chewing gum, and its unripe fruit is very heavy in this sap and tannin, making it inedible with extreme prejudice. The tannin sucks all the moisture out of your mouth and you have to stick your head under a faucet to rinse out the nastiness. Ask me; I know. The skin retains some tannin even after the fruit is ripe, so although it looks like the skin of a kiwi fruit it is not edible like the skin of a kiwi fruit. And the very pretty seeds are toxic; Purdue says eating more than 6 can cause abdominal cramping and vomiting. I certainly won’t eat them after reading that, but I’ve decided to save the pretty seeds & make primitive art or jewelry out of them. Because it’s something I’ve never had any talent for and I want to frighten GB with Bad Craft Projects. Heh.

m

The Iron Palate

I deviate somewhat from my typical chronological posting pattern* to address the issue of how I eat when The Propane Chef is not on site.  (At present he is crew on a 40-foot boat he and a professional delivery captain are taking back up Baja to the Los Angeles area.  More on that, later.)  The Propane Chef always takes very good care of me and when he knows he will be away he does his best to supply me with wholesome, nutritious food choices - for at least the first few days of his absence.  (Too bad he expects to be gone 2 weeks or more on this delivery.)

If you ask him why he goes to such effort, GB would just shrug and say, "It's my job."

How delicate.

Truth is, after decades of tolerating my eccentricities peaceful coexistence, GB is very familiar with how I eat when left to my own devices - and my cast-iron palate still horrifies him. I'm sure my usual breakfast of "one-egg-plus-one-egg-white, scrambled" with corn tortillas gets a bit boring to look at day after day, I don't know.  Or maybe it's my habit of defining "lunch" as tuna eaten straight out of the foil pouch, chased by a nice banana or some Saltines.  A meal of clean protein and carbs, you betcha.  I use a fork to eat the tuna so I don't see what's so heinous.

Regardless of how I offend his silver-palate sensibilities, pre-departure The Chef usually brews up some homemade chicken stock for me to use to cook the brown rice I love so much; grills some beef and chicken for a variety of hot and cold meals; and reminds me how to turn on the stove and use a knife.  This time was no exception.  Bonus:  the fridge was full of quality leftovers for me to graze through - such delicacies as one store-bought tamale, a pineapple, avocados and many other veggies.  Too many, as it happens:  as much as I love avocados, four are a bit much for one human (even one as...ermmm...robust as myself) to consume.  Spinach is nice, but here in the tropics in August, it only stays good for, oh, about as long as it takes you to get it home.  And so on.  My job was to eat as much as I could before it went bad, all the while making nice, healthy meals.**

I believe I succeeded, though my product in no way approaches the quality or visual appeal of The Chef's output.  Here now, as proof to The Propane Chef and all of cyberspace that I can actually prepare food that's good and good for me, are samples of a few meals I've made all by myself since my man's been gone:

Over here on the left we have that leftover store-bought tamale mentioned above, paired with a wilted spinach salad.  Salad includes 1/2 orange, and some pecan halves toasted in honey, cinnamon and cayenne pepper.

Next up, a very large lunchtime salad to use up most of the veggies before the next grocery trip.  No surprises here - a bit of grilled chicken, lettuce & spinach, 1/2 avocado, carrots, some brown rice, a Roma tomato.  Dressing was balsamic vinegar mixed with honey, fresh nutmeg and red pepper flakes.  Photo's somewhere down over there on the right:

Finally, below, a lovely breakfast omelet (one-egg-plus-one-egg-white) with avocado & spinach.  Corn tortillas & a Roma tomato on the side.  Yes, the omelet broke - thanks for pointing that out, all you eagle-eyed cooking pundits.  Next time I'll just use more butter, eh?

Whew.  I'm exhausted from all this cooking.  So many dishes to wash, too.  A couple more days, & I may be back to the Pouch Tuna Diet.  At least that way, there's only a fork to wash.  Schnort.
 

* the one with a built-in delay of a month or more.  Ahem.

** I really need to start eating clean again.  Need to lose a lot of cruiser-boozer fat.  What a shame there are still some chips & cookies on the boat, and no witnesses to how I dispose of them.  *burp*

m

What's For Lunch 16 Days Out of Port

The Propane Chef stocks The Fox well with all kinds of edibles.  Costco, 99 Ranch Market, Trader Joe's, Comercial Mexicana...whatever the country, the Propane Chef is there.  Not even the smallest of local markets escape his scrutiny.  The durable-food supplies we store in the bilge are extensive and could feed us well for a 3- or 4-week ocean passage.  Of course, the Chef prefers using only fresh ingredients and saves those dried and canned supplies for times our fridge is empty and we can't find any source of fresh food.  Which in Mexico happens, like, never.

When I did the latest food inventory upon leaving Mazatlan a few months back, I pointed out to the Chef that the bilge was still pretty full, and that we had bought some of our more durable food supplies back in Seattle in May.  Of 2007.  I suggested we start rotating out the older canned items and use them up before bringing any more such supplies on board.  The Chef gave me such a stunned look you'd have thought I'd suggested he make a seafood salad by scraping the barnacles and algae off The Fox's nether regions.

"Y-you want me to use...CANNED FOOD?!"

"Well, not exclusively.  Just sort of here and there. Sort of...."

"...."

"...Because we bought the cans to, you know, EAT WHAT'S INSIDE THEM?"

"<harrumph.> <snort.> <sigh.>  OK.  Sure.  Fine."

Whew.  The Chef was not happy.  But the longer we stayed out at various anchorages, the more he needed to resort to canned products anyway.  So it was all good.  And when The Propane Chef cracks open a can, here's the kind of lunch he makes.  He whipped up this chile-chicken cream soup with chile biscuits one afternoon when we had gone 16 days since having been in a port with access to fresh food.  That's more than two weeks, people:

The chicken breast that went in the soup was the last bit we had in our tiny freezer compartment in the galley's fridge.  The soup's cream base came from a can of Carnation evaporated milk - jalapeno flavor* - that I'd bought for the Chef in Mazatlan one day on a lark.**  The evaporated milk was spicy but not unpleasantly so (those used to eating spicy foods might describe the effect as "a pleasant tingle"); and to enhance the soup's texture and color the Chef mixed in a small can of corn and used a larger can of mild-tasting poblano chiles for both the soup and the biscuits he baked on the side.  He had previously dried his own cilantro, and that's what's in the glass jar on the right in that picture over there.  This is the only kind of hand-dried leafy green herb we keep in small glass jars - we don't get out much.  The dried cilantro was sprinkled generously on top of the soup as a fine, fragrant garnish.

When all was said and done, The Chef had used 3 cans out of the bilge which stopped the purser's nagging.  I got a very nice lunch in return.  Bonus:  The Chef liked the chile-infused evaporated milk so much, he said he''ll be cooking with it again.

*  Carnation evaporated milk, sold in Mexico, comes in Original Flavor plus some other flavors, like jalapeno, poblano or cilantro.  Wild.

**  Sometimes I play "stump-the-Chef" and get some sort of unusual fresh or canned food, just to see what Gary can make with it.  I'm rarely disappointed.

GB here:  My kind wife made more out of this meal than it truly was - I had bought the condensed milk flavored with jalapeno chiles when we first got into Mexico.  [O RLY? ms] The canned poblanos were a real find - a large can of very nice chiles.  You need the foresight to dry some cilantro - it goes real fast in the oven or a 110 degree cockpit.  Here is the soup recipe.

1 chicken breast cubed

1/2 onion chopped

i clove garlic

1 bay leaf

1/4 can or 1 cup chopped poblano chili

1 small can corn

dried cilantro

1 can evaporated milk with jalapeno flavoring

Saute the cubed chicken in a bit of olive oil until browned, add the onion and toss, add the chopped garlic - add 2 cups water, the bay leaf, cover and simmer for 20 minutes - you are making a stock.  You could have added carrot, celery, or fresh peppers at this point - but we dd not have any of that stuff.  After simmering, add the chopped chile, corn, and the poblano peppers - simmer for five minutes.  Add the can of evaporated milk and return to a very gentle boil - don't overcook the milk cause it could separate.  Serve with chopped cilantro and pickled jalapenos on the top.

MS here again...perhaps one day the Chef will discuss his biscuit recipe - but it's easy enough to mix in the rest of the canned poblano chiles - diced - into your own favorite biscuit (or cornbread) mixture...

m (& g)

From This...To This

GB fishes.  From the mother ship, The Fox.  From the dinghy, Grey Fox.  Underway.  At anchor.  Even when all I want to do is get from The Fox to the nearest stinkin' beach for a short walk, he's all about, "Do you mind if I dip a hook?"

"..."

[clenched teeth] "Why, no, my sweet, go right ahead - for the 40 feet we have to the beach...."

So from my perspective I am impelled to spend a lot of time and energy - more than I would prefer - dealing with fishly things.  But GB and I have come to an understanding, that I identify whatever he catches (to satisfy my Amateur Biology Geek urges), and he cooks and we eat whatever I pronounce from my analysis as Not Toxic.  He enjoys (as do I) the peace that comes from him reef-fishing for 3 hours 'most every morning in the dinghy by himself -- and it's hard to argue with the results.  Feast your eyes upon these before-and-after photos:

To the left we have two spotted sea bass, and a larger goldspotted bass that GB caught off one of the entrance points to San Juanico, (between Loreto and Santa Rosalia on the eastern shore of the Baja peninsula).  GB honored them by pan-frying them stovetop, accompanied by rice with roasted garlic & poblano chile mixed in, and a side of chopped nopales* (poached to draw off some of the cactus-snot, then pan-fried in oil & garlic & lime).  Here's what the fishies looked like when GB plated them.  The chopped nopales are at 9 o'clock on the plate:

* Prickly pear catcus pads.  Cheap veggie.  Highly nutritious & full o' antioxidants.  Sold almost everywhere in any Mexican market, large or small, most of them with the spines already removed for your convenient eating enjoyment.  Tend to give off an okra-like slime that can be controlled with cooking technique.

San Juanico has lots of reefs, hence lots of reef fish, hence GB was floatin' in the dinghy a lot between 0730 and 1100.   He nabbed quite a variety of reef fish another morning:  an orangeside triggerfish, 2 good-size burrito grunts,  a spotted sea bass, a yellow snapper,  and another as-yet-unidentified snapper-like critter**:

Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of what GB made from all this fish - but it was a lot of food, 2 big meals for the 2 of us, plus dinner for 4 on another night; about 4 pounds of fillet all told - from multi-course dinners to lunchtime tacos.

The Propane Chef was on a roll.  So when we anchored at Playa Santispac in Bahia de Concepcion he did what now comes natural for him:  he went fishin' in the dinghy.  This time with good friend Geoff from Curare, who happened to have beaten us into the anchorage by like 10 minutes.  Both boys did well and came home with spotted rose snappers - Geoff nabbed the bigger one, GB, being in a Japanese mood, took the 2 smaller ones.   He had some sushi rice he'd bought in La Paz, some nori he'd kept safe since Seattle, and some fresh carrots, cabbage and cucumber (all of which last fairly long on a cruising boat), plus some mushrooms in one of those shelf-stable boxlike cartons, and his usual array of soy sauce and other condiments...and he came up with this meal - 10 days after his last onshore provisioning of any kind:

Here we have sushi - both vegetarian (with mushrooms reduced in mirin (sweet sake), a bit of honey, and soy sauce) and fishly (the other group of sushi rolls with the cucumber and pink centers - that's the fish); chopped spicy sashimi (chopped fish with a red Thai sriracha sauce you can get at any Asian market), a spicy Thai-style cabbage slaw (rice vinegar, dash of sugar, hot pepper flakes & a touch of both olive and sesame oil), and poached carrots marinated in vinegar & hot pepper flakes.   Wasabi and soy sauce for dipping on the side.  Yes; The Propane Chef has these items on board the boat.  Always has.  The condiments are all kept in the galley cabinets, and the other stuff (rice, nori, etc.) keeps for a bazillion years if properly sealed in Ziploc bags.

** all you wildlife biologists and fisherfolk out there?  Help a girl out - what's a snapper that has the rosy coloration, gold-olive tinge on the dorsal side, and the blue streaks along the body?  Like this guy below the orangeside triggerfish?  And while you're at it - the little guy at the bottom of the spotted rose snapper pic above?  He was too injured to release, but we don't know what he was.  Oragne spots on body and dorsal fins, orange streaks around face...who is he???

m

The Propane Chef Stays Busy

So, GB has not posted much of his exploits as The Propane Chef recently, but he wants all of cyberspace to know he has not given up The Good Work.  He surveys all the local markets for the freshest ingredients.  Here he is, exploring all the finest crustaceans the Mazatlan Fish Ladies offer.

Even when he's not actually buying provisions, he's closely examining the local merchants' wares and finding the best of all products - like this very hip butcher in the old market of Culiacan (a city a couple hours north of Mazatlan), who sells such good pork products (and is so photogenic) he insisted on having his photograph taken WITH them.

The Propane Chef has also taken out the Fox's B-Q to keep it in fine working form and review its propane output:

And even when he's just slapping together a quick lunch, he does a torta (sandwich) with half-frozen Mexican flank steak sliced across the grain in 1/8"-thick strips, marinated in lime juice, 1 tsp. Worchestershire sauce (called "salsa Inglesa" in these parts), and 1 tsp. soy sauce, sauteed with a few green onions and diced roasted pasilla chiles, then all chopped into small bits the way the Mexicans do for most tortas or tacos al pastor.  The Propane Chef tossed in some avocado slices and slapped it into the local white-bread rolls we love the most, and this was the result:

In short, The Propane Chef has kept busy but is having so much fun falling in love with the flavors of Mexico, he simply has no time yet to post thereof.  But some day soon he may regale you with tales of the tortas ahogadas of Guadalajara, or the best-tasting tacos that are almost always found at the lunch counters upstairs in the centuries-old markets in almost any Mexican city.  Stay linked, Gentle Readers.

m

3 Essential Items for Mexico Cruising

Beer.  Tortilla press.  Lime juicer.  (Cerveza.  Prensa de tortillas.  Exprimidor de limones.)  All can be purchased at any Mexican city's grocery store for a fraction (US $12 for the press, US $5 for the juicer) of what one would pay in US stores or by ordering these items online.  The lime juicer must be seen in action to be believed - fast, efficient, wastes no lime; one merely cuts off the stem end of the lime, inserts the rest of the critter - whole - into the juicer, gives a vigorous squeeze, and within a second ALL the juice is extracted either into a beverage or to be drizzled over a vegetable, fruit or meat dish.  No wastage whatsoever.  Awesome.

Our advice:  do not buy these items until you have checked in to Mexico - only then, get your fine self to the nearest grocery store and buy these products.  Your days will be happy.

m

The Night of Round Food

Propane Chief - Provisioning in the Broughton’s

Well - here we are in the lower Broughton’s - we were in the upper Broughton’s the middle and now in the South. The last time we actually brought some real food on the boat was at Harriet Bay - about 100 miles south of this position and almost four weeks ago.

I suppose it does not really count to talk about provisioning - we finally added up all the food we bought in Seattle and it came to about $1,400 - that may seem like a lot and it is - but remember we have not really shopped for about two months. That Seattle shopping spree happened in late April - now it is June 25 - boy - time does fly when you are having fun.

Anyway - this post is about provisioning, and I must say it has been a bit more difficult than one would think for this gourmet caught up in the wilderness - I mean there is nothing to buy north of Harriet Bay. Echo bay had lost its generation station to fire and had no provisioning. Lagoon Cove had no store. Sullivan had a few things but at 3 times the normal price. (Which in BC is twice the cost of WA). We came up Johnston Straight and turned right into the Broughton’s, and have been there for three weeks. This is a really great place for wilderness. I mean - I have backpacked a lot of places and this is just as remote - there are no trails, no place to get off the boat, just steep sided islands, deep channels and lots of rain. We are lucky to have been up here in early June - the place is just now starting to get really busy with boats - I can’t imagine what it is like in August - just no place to be - we are really looking forward to going around Cape Scott and starting down the western side - which will be a different experience - and maybe we can sail the boat.

Yes - Sail the Boat - what does that mean? We have been a powerboat for the last three months - did not even take off the sail cover - there is no way around it - the winds are fickle, the current fierce - yes, you can sail - but you cannot get anywhere…..

OK - so what’s for dinner tonight - remember - we last provisioned with anything fresh almost four weeks ago. I picked up a head of cauliflower, butter, and lettuce in Sullivan Bay - but when a cauliflower costs $5.00 - I can do without my vegetables.

lunch the other day was Pesole and fresh tortilla -

Pesole

4 chicken thighs

¼ onion

1 clove garlic

1 tb olive oil

1 can hominy

1 can roasted green peppers

½ cup shredded cabbage

1 tbs dried oregano

Sauté the chicken in the olive oil until it is nicely browned - about 10 minutes - add the garlic and onion for five minutes - add about three cups of water to make a stock - throw in a bay leaf, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes- I also added some sliced carrots at this time - remember you are making a stock - so if you have other good stock making things around like a bit of celery or parsley - throw it in...

Add a can of hominy , the chills, and simmer for about 10 minutes. Spoon into bowls with a top of shredded cabbage, some dried oregano and a bit of pickled jalapeño.

A few Days later….

For tonight - it is German and Mexican Night - a bit incompatible - but we had some limes going bad so we spent the afternoon drinking tequila - and had a red cabbage - so…

German Meatballs

My last pound of ground beef is mixed up with ¼ cup of browned onion, ½ cup dried bread crumbs, paprika, and one egg. Make two inch meatballs and boil in the stock. This is a mixture of Knor beef stock and water - boil for 15 minutes. This stock will be reduced with a bit or red wine and then made into a gravy with another Knor product. Well - even I have to take a shortcut ever now and then for the sake of a good gravy.

Larry’s potato dumplings

Boil four or so potatoes until cooked - cool and then rice through strainer - toss with 2 tbs of potato starch and a bit of bread crumbs, mix into balls and boil for 10 minutes - refry in a bit of oil to brown. Top with bread crumbs fried in a bit of butter.

Red Cabbage

Sauté a bit of onion in olive oil until brown , add 2 cups of slice red cabbage, ¼ cup red vinegar and ¼ cup of brown sugar, 1 tbs of caraway seeds. Reduce for one hour on the lowest setting until a glaze develops.

We came up very well provisioned - which is why I can make some cool stuff - but if you come up here expecting to find some fresh veggies in June - well think again

A few thoughts about pressure cookers

In a previous post I have come out strongly against pressure cookers - primarily because I am a slow cooked food advocate -it takes time to make a proper stock or sauce. Also, I had never really tasted a well cooked meal from a pressure cooker. The few I had as boat meals from other cruisers tasted pretty mushy. They typically were stews of some sort - just not a lot of flavor.

Well - I have become a convert - sort of.

I bought a pressure cooker from Amazon.com - it’s a Spanish model by Fagor called a Duo - its a 5.5 quart model with two pressure setting - 8 psi and 15 psi. Its nicely made out of 18/10 stainless, with an aluminum core for sautéing, and cost about $90.

Why do I like this pressure cooker - one reason - propane usage - there is no question that it really cuts down on cooking time. Here are the recipes of the things I have cooked. They are my own recipes - sort of adapted to the things I keep on the boat. We had all of these ingredients on hand after being sailing for about 10 days with no resupply. If there is one thing I hate it’s the sailing cooking pundits that write a lot of recipes in magazine articles - then can’t cook any of that stuff when they are underway because they don‘t have the ingredients.

The Propane Chef tell it as it is - if we are sailing - or at anchor - and I have it - I will cook it. But most important….

“Don’t cook what you bring - Cook what you catch” Lord Bowler from a Briscoe County episode- who cooked a rattlesnake rather than open a can of bean - a TV episode from the 1990’s - Bruce Campbell fans take note….

Carnitas

2 lb pork butt - well trimmed

1 onion

3 cloves garlic

1 stick cinnamon

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp red chili flakes

2 tbs cooking oil

2 bay leaves

Cut the pork into 1-2 inch chunks and sauté up on high heat in small batches until well browned - don’t crowd the pork - this might take up to 20 minutes on a propane stove - use the crock pot to sauté in. Add the onions for 5 minutes, then the garlic for one. Add the chili peppers, bay and cinnamon and about 1-2 cups of water. Cover the cooker and heat till pressure builds at about 15 psi - cook for about 20 minutes.

Once the pressure is released you will have these great pork chunks - I refry them in a bit of oil to make them crispy. Enjoy with tacos, eggs, or make a sauce. Throw away the stock - since it is a bit hard to deal with.

Pinto beans

8 oz pinto beans - soaked overnight

1 clove garlic

½ onion

2 strips bacon

2 Japanese chilies (the little hot dried one that come in small bags in the super mart)

2 bay leaves

Sauté up all of the ingredients but the beans - add the beans and about 2 cups water - cook at 15 psi for about 8 minutes. These beans are soupy. You can dish them out. Or save some of the stock to make refried beans later.

Black Bean soup

8 oz black beans - soaked overnight

Chop the rest of this stuff...

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

2 strips bacon\

2 carrots

2 pieces celery

2 bay leaves

Sauté everything up but the beans - add them and about 2 cups water - you could use some stock for this, but I preferred not to - stock is a valuable commodity when cruising - cook at 15 psi for about 10 minutes.

Vichyssoise - or Potato Leek Soup

4-5 potatoes peeled and quartered

2 leeks - white parts only

1 sweet onion

1 tbs tarragon

2 tbs butter

1 qt chicken stock

8 oz cream

Peel the potatoes. Clean and chop the leaks. Cook the leaks, onions and butter together for about 10 minutes until they get a good sweat up - you are bringing out the sugars. Deglaze with the stock and add the tarragon. Cook at 15 psi for about five minutes. When cooled, blend the soup in you blender. (Yes, we have an inverted, but a food mill would work just as well). Return to the pot and add the cream. Heat gently, but not to boil. This soup works well warm or cold - its gets better as it sit for a few days.

Well - there you have it. There are a lot more recopies I feel I can alter to meet the demands of the pressure cooker. Tonight - I will steam some potatoes for about 5 minutes to make a potato salad, rather then using 20 minutes of propane to boil them. The pressure cooker is not for everything but it does seem to have its uses.