Where's the beef?

I had my first day off in five weeks this past weekend. Saturday night I went out with one of our crew members (the stewy turned decky). We met up with crew from the other yachts, danced to a live reggae band until 1am, then went to a night club and danced some more… A much needed break…

It was 4am when I was standing outside of the nightclub chatting with some other people when the door suddenly opened and out flew our stewy, ejected by two bouncers, missing half of his clothes, his ability to stand - precarious at best. If 40 is the new 30, then 22 is the new 12 – which about describes our stew’s maturity level… When he passed out getting into the dinghy, the engineer and I felt leaving him tied up on the dinghy in the rain behind the yacht, as good a place as any to leave him...

So anyway...

I left the boat early Sunday morning, made some phone calls and went to the beach. After about three hours of sunning and swimming, I ran into a group of yachties that had been out the night before. I joined them for brunch and spent the remainder of the day listening to them tell stories as we worked our way through several bottles of wine… and I learned everything I need to know for finding my next job:

The questions to ask and what to look for:
1. Is the boat anchored or at dock?
2. Does it go on day trips or remain in the same place all season?
3. Is there time off?
4. Is there internet access?
5. Does the boat have a captain?
(Apparently my frustrations about the owner/captain are common among boats where the owner plays captain.)
6. Where does it go next season (preferably the Mediterranean)?
7. Get on the biggest boat possible (but not a cruise ship).

They all work on boats that are docked, they get on land every day, have WiFi internet access on their boats, there are days off, they spend their summers in the Mediterranean and winters in the Caribbean, and the boats are often shipped via container ships to those locations, and the crew is flown in, etc. Also, experienced chefs are in high demand…

So, I may be staging a one girl mutiny aboard the SS Anchovy and we'll see where the road leads... Stay tuned...

All I want for Christmas is a bigger, better yacht to work on. One with WiFi internet access, set days off and nice crew. Is that asking too much?

Another Lousy Day in Paradise...

It’s been a bit busy this week; I hope I haven’t let down my readers by my non-blogging…

So anyway, our decky has gone on vacation and the previous stew has headed back to South Africa. The new steward (Chris) has been temporarily promoted to the deck-hand position and I’ve taken on some of the interior duties. So, I’m now officially Den Mother to a troop of pre-pubescent Boy Scouts; cooking, ironing, vacuuming, dusting, turning down the boss’s bed…

I could complain, but my work load is pretty light right now. We’re anchored out at Corossol and we can’t get into dock until our boom is fixed which probably won’t be until mid-January or February, so the holiday parties have been on hold and I’m basically just cooking for the crew (since the boss is out partying on the other boats most of the time). And besides, there is no “I” in team – at least that’s what I’ll be telling myself over the next few weeks. I take solace in knowing that its 22 degrees and snowing sideways in New York and at 5pm today my mates and I will be jumping in the cool, crystal clear ocean which is about 90 degrees and on Sunday I’ll either be renting a scooter and zooming around St. Barth’s or hooking up with friends in Anguilla.

Life could be worse…

For the bon-voyage dinner for our decky I made middle-eastern:

Lamb Kofta with Lemon-Tahini Sauce
Chickpeas Cooked with Za’atar, Onions and Tomatoes
Fatush Salad

I’d never read or cooked the chickpeas with za’atar before but I thought it would be good – and they came out so delicious, a definite winner.

Za’atar is a Lebanese spice blend of ground thyme, sumac and sesame seeds. My favorite brand is Salloum Bros., from Salaata, Lebanon and is available at Sahadi’s in Brooklyn (on Atlantic Ave., near Court St.) or Kalustyan’s (my all-time favorite spice store in Manhattan on Lexington around 28th St.). This one is a dark brownish-green and has a nice tang to it. There are lighter colored ones that look completely different than this one, but Salloum Bros. is my favorite and that is what my family uses as well.

Chickpea’s with Za’atar, Onions and Tomatoes
3 – 4 cups Chickpea’s, cooked
1 med Spanish Onion, sliced
1 28 oz. can Whole Peeled Tomatoes, sliced (reserve the juices separately)
2 tablespoons Za’atar (or to taste, I didn’t really measure it out)
Extra-Virgin Olive Oil (the unfiltered Lebanese brands available at either Kalustyan’s or Sahadi are my favorite)
Chopped parsley for garnish

Sautee the onions in olive until they have sweated out and are just beginning to caramelize. Add the Za’atar and cook until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add the slice tomatoes, cook 5 more minutes, add chickpea’s and some of the liquid from the can of tomatoes. Allow to stew for 15 – 20 minutes or longer (my chickpea’s actually weren’t cooked all the way through so they absorbed a lot of the tomato liquid and were perfectly cooked after about 15 minutes). Season to taste, finish parsley and a little more olive oil (I could bath in good olive-oil, it’s really up to you if you want to garnish with it – but I like the subtly olive taste that comes through). The finished product should have a bit of liquid in it, but it shouldn’t be soupy. Adjust the liquid using the reserved tomato juices and you can add a squeeze of lemon to give it a bit more zing.

All in all, a very satisfying dish. The chickpea’s would probably be good cold but it didn’t last long enough to find out. I’m sure it would warm you to the bone on a cold winter night in New York as well…

If you haven’t discovered the wonders of a pressure cooker yet – run out right now and buy yourself one. I was able to cook dried chickpeas in 20 minutes in the pressure cooker. I covered them by several inches of water, added a bay leaf, an onion and a few cloves of garlic, turned on the heat, started timing when the steam started – and was totally amazed by the end result. I will never go without a pressure cooker again… It’s invaluable. I can’t wait to try meat in it… And on that note, you could probably even make this chickpea dish more substantial by adding some lamb stew meat, the tomatoes, onions and za’atar to the pot with more liquid – and actually making a stew or tagine. I’m sure it’d be great…

So much to fill my dear readers in on - so much tanning to do... I'll have a longer, more detailed post up sometime in the near future...

How to Cook a Five Foot Marlin...

I don’t know how it was that I found myself totally consumed by a horrible case of seasickness, sitting on deck, at the back of the yacht in 10 ft. seas, as the yacht listed from side to side at an almost 40 degree angle, butchering, skinning and filleting a five foot marlin that Dillon had caught (is it even edible?). But somehow, on the third day of our trip, mid-afternoon, that’s exactly what I was doing…

Was this really the job I had signed on for?

I had volunteered to do it, of course, tortured by the thought of the mutilation that would surely occur if the crew had been left to their own devices with this poor, hapless fish. I staggered out on deck, plunked myself down on the ground with a sharp knife and large cutting board and went to work on this beautiful creature. Even through the fog of seasickness, I felt a tinge of sadness as I watched the marlins colors change from sapphire blue and yellow to a dull, flat grey as its life drained from its body.

One foot wedged against the toe bar on deck, my back against a settee, holding myself in position as the boat rocked; I struggled to grasp the marlins wet, slimy body. Waves toppled over me, my brain loose in my skull rolled with the motion of the ocean; my ears ached from the wind and tiny volcanic eruptions bellowed from my stomach. I sunk my boning knife into its back and followed the spine, slicing through the flesh with even strokes, working quickly and doing as best I could given the circumstances. I removed the two long filets, white and mealy. I knew marlin wasn’t a good eating fish, but the boys had already mutilated it with a spear bringing it in, at least I could show a tiny bit of respect for the creature by butchering it properly.

After the water had been thoroughly chummed by the bones, skin, head, tail and innards of this fish (and by the contents of my stomach) I decided that we probably had a good following of sharks and if I were to jump in I would be assured a quick and timely death and my dreaded seasickness would soon be over. But apparently, I had a higher calling as I couldn’t muster the energy to jump overboard. I limped back inside; damp, seasick and smelling of fish. After a battle of wills against myself - fighting my desire to just crawl into bed in my scaly, bloody, fish covered clothes, I managed a hot shower and summarily passed out cold.

Thankfully, my seasickness did not fully grip me until our third day of our trip when my body decided to completely rebel against the motion of the boat. I spent a solid 24 hours lying on the couch in the pilot house. But the captain needed his food too and I didn’t want to let him down. So, I bribed one of the crew with my secret stash of Scharffenberger Dark Chocolate to bring the captain lunch. Dinner, much to the surprise of the captain, I decided to do on my own. In an act of mercy, he said that he would be fine taking it cold – so cold lasagna it was… As thankful for that as I was, it didn’t make the trip to the galley any easier. I had to close the covers on the port holes in the kitchen, as watching the sea race buy only added to the ill feeling…

At 6am the next morning I woke from a wretched half-sleep with a stiff neck, sore back and a volcanic irruption taking place in the pit of my stomach, to witness first hand a magnificent Caribbean sunrise – Anguilla in the distance behind us, St. Maarteen to our starboard side and that distinct mountainous outline of St. Barth’s ahead. Absolutely glorious, and almost enough to make me forget how awful I felt. Almost…

We sailed into Corossol at 8am on Tuesday, December 6th. I made everyone a big breakfast of bacon, fried eggs and toast and within an hour we were all bustling around scrubbing and cleaning every inch of the boat, inside and out, from stern to bow…

Next stop, the port of Gustavia…

(p.s. I have lots of pictures and will get them up in the next few days - I have to download some from my crewmates camera as well... All in good time..)

The Princess and the Pea...

December 4, 2005

My Kitchen at Sea


My Backyard


Day three of our passage and the seas are very calm. We’re cruising along at about 10 knots with the head sail open and expect to hit the Caribbean by late Sunday or early Monday. We’re making extremely good time…

Another successful day of meals has come and gone although last night as I attempted to warm up some lamb curry for the captain, we hit a roller, the curry went flying in the microwave and must’ve gotten into the electronics because the microwave zapped, sparked and smoked and then went dead… Sadly, we now have no microwave.

As I’ve explained before, everything on a boat has a place and everything needs to be tucked away for a crossing because anything that can go flying will. Before we set sail on Friday, I went through my pantry and took any glass items out and stowed them away in lockers, the non-breakables in the lockers went into the pantry… Nothing, as of yet, has been broken and even if we hit bad weather, I think I’ve packed things away pretty safely. But it will all need to be re-organized once we arrive at our destination.

I have a small book cubby in my bunk where I had tucked away stacks of cookbooks. But when we were hit by the storm coming from New York, I was thrown out of bed twice and my cookbooks clobbered me when I hit the floor… The new home for my cookbooks is now under my mattress. I feel like ‘The Princess and the Pea’, only I have 12 cookbooks under my mattress…

On the first leg of the journey I didn’t have nearly enough food prepared in advance, hardly any in fact. Although I had the right intentions, there was so much shopping to do, we were in a hurry to leave, and the crew eats like a pack of pachyderms, so I didn’t have time to get everything done. The few things that I had made for the crossing the crew begged and pleaded to eat and was gone before we even lifted anchor. No such mistakes this time. I hid things around the kitchen and the crew was warned that if they touched anything they’d lose a finger.

When we left New York, I didn’t anticipate cooking at sea to be such a challenge even in calm weather and then of course we were hit by the storm… But now I know what to plan for and it’s really not so bad; challenging in fact, bordering on fun…

I’ve just learned that we were in the Bermuda triangle when we hit the storm and incurred all our damage <>. Our engineer says that the storm we hit was one of the worst storms he’s been in, this gives me hope. Have I paid my dues yet?

Our time on the boat crossing the ocean are mostly spent napping, reading books, and snacking, napping and reading books.

I’ve just finished Jeffrey Steingarten’s “The Man Who Ate Everything”, an absolutely hysterical tale of his forays in the kitchen, researching, cooking and eating strange and unusual foods from all around the world as the food writer for Vogue… He’s touched on almost every conceivable topic, ethnicity and technique of food, cooking and eating except for cooking on a boat… I can’t help but laugh to myself and wonder how he would do with limited ingredients, the supply of fresh, seasonal produce completely stymied and of course, the motion of the sea. Steingarten, comically, has taken kitchen disasters to a new level making a marvelous mess of almost every kitchen he walks into including Marcella Hazan’s kitchen in Venice, the P&G kitchens and of course his own many times over…

On a boat, there is no room for mess. It’s too small a space and you’re constantly under threat of something tipping, sliding away, splattering or spilling. And when you spill, it goes in four different directions simultaneously (which his messes seem to miraculously do even without the motion of the sea)…

To cook on a boat you must throw every romantic notion that you have about cooking out the window. You have to be organized, practical, and adaptable and be able to make due… There’s no bodega if you run out of milk, no neighbor to barrow a cup of sugar from, no farmers markets...

I just find it an entertaining and funny thought how some people might handle it, but then I have 96 hours of undisturbed time on my hands and nothing around me but hundreds upon hundreds of miles of ocean… Maybe I’m getting a little loopy.

I want to make a batch of oatmeal, orange and almond cookies. But my stomach is feeling a bit queasy today… I think I’ll take a nap instead.

A Successful First Meal at Sea...

We set off on the second leg of our voyage, departing St. George, Bermuda at 3:30 p.m. Friday, December 2nd. The skies clear and the seas calm…

As we hit the open sea the water went from vermilion to a deep sapphire blue, unlike any ocean I’ve ever seen before. Absolutely stunning.

Slow moving 3 to 5 foot swells coming from stern to bow eased us along. In gentle rhythm we rose up one side of a swell and slid down the other. A choreographed ballet as opposed to the frantic, free-style, rock opera we were being tossed about in a week ago.

With Tom gone, I was now on watch and DM chose me as his watch partner so that he would be fed, and as captain and chef, we had the best watch – 8:00 to 12:00 AM and PM.

I successfully served my first meal at sea, but even in what are considered “calm” seas, our meals were still a challenge. I held the refrigerator door with one hand because as we rode up one side of a swell, the door slammed in on me and as we slid down the other side, the door flew away from me. With the other hand I removed the meatloaf and mac’n’cheese which were parked on top of the lasagna but when I set them on the counter they slid away from me and risked being thrown on the floor. After five minutes of trying to figure out how I would get what I needed and secured what I had without making a mess or breaking something in the process, I finally called for backup and Chris came and held the refrigerator door. Next I had to get two microwaveable containers with covers and portion DM’s and my food into them. Sounds relatively simple, but in my first attempt, one of the containers slid away from me and came to an abrupt halt against a wall leaving a Jackson Pollack in sauce in it’s wake… With the coffee pot put away, I found that I could use the space in the coffee maker (which is below the microwave) as a cubby hole to hold my containers while I worked. Fifteen minutes later I had successfully microwaved dinner for two…

I then had to fill two water bottles with water from a 2 ½ gallon dispenser. This required lifting the dispenser out of it’s safety of the sink and placing it on the counter, holding it steady between my arm and my body, centering the opening of the water bottle under the spigot, opening the spigot and keeping the water bottle and water dispenser steady enough to fill the bottle without getting water all over the kitchen floor. A much more challenging task than it may seem. With two bottles of water, forks and napkins tucked into the pockets of my shorts and two (covered) warm containers of food in my hands I made my way to the pilot house to serve the captain his supper and to enjoy my own as well. Of course, he asked for seconds…

By the second time around I felt like an old hand and come this morning I had a pot of coffee made, found two travel mugs with spill proof lids and rubberized bottoms and was able to offer El Capitan his daily dose of caffeine before he even got comfy in the pilot house. I made myself a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich and brought the captain some fresh fruit.

Two meals down, fourteen to go…

When we left New York a few weeks ago, dolphins jumped along side us as we sailed out of the harbor. Flying fish skimmed the surface of the waters as we left Bermuda…

Feeling fully indoctrinated into the world of seasickness and sailing through a storm, fairly confident that the worst is behind us, and modestly comfortable functioning in a kitchen at sea – I am once again filled with excitement about the journey ahead…

If the seas and the weather are in our favor, we expect to arrive in St. Maarteen sometime between the December 6th and the 8th.

I look forward, as does everyone else, to having a day off. I haven’t had a day free since November 14th, unless you count the four days I spent clinging to the toilet and praying to God for dear life…

The last supper (in Bermuda)...

The view out my kitchen window...

Barbequed Ribs with Tamarind BBQ Sauce
Blue Cheese Cole Slaw
Curried Sweet Potato Fries

We had an ‘04 Blanco Nieva Sauvignon Blanc with dinner tonight. It’s a nice little Spanish wine – 100% Sauvignon Blanc, clean, crisp and really nice floral tones. It went perfect with the cool Bermudan night, ribs with sweet and sour tamarind bbq sauce, blue cheese cole slaw and curried sweet potatoes. Ok, the perfect meal for the wine actually would have been those little bait fish swimming around in the waters here – scooped up, dredged in flour, fried in hot oil, a sprinkle of lemon and eaten like French fries; maybe a nice fennel and citrus salad to accompany them; good company and some Edith Piaf playing in the background... But the crispness and acidity played well against the sweet and sour of the barbeque sauce, the crew and I behaved like a bunch of four year olds (per usual) and all in all it was a great wine, and a great dinner…

When I came on board the boat, I was told that I couldn’t bring too much in the way of clothing and belongings, so I opted on a backpack full of clothes, and a case of wine and five pair of shoes (a girls has to have her priorities). I have three drawers and a half of a teeny, tiny closet for all of everything I own. So basically, my clothes are serving as buffers between the bottles… When I’ve worked my way through my stash, it’s going to be difficult to have to pay full-price for wine again; I’m hoping my wine friends in New York will still hook me up and ship to the Caribbean! I hear that wine is reasonably priced in the Caribbean… But I’m preferential towards Oregon, Spanish and Italian wines at the moment and from what I can gather, those Caribbean-ers drinks mostly French, but I guess if I have to go back to French --- it’s a sacrifice I’ll just have to make for the betterment of mankind…

But anyway, I digress (get used to it)…

I didn’t have a recipe to make the tamarind barbeque sauce that I had in mind so I just winged it and it came out tasty and delicious. I started out by caramelizing sugar in a pan, when I had achieved a nice, dark color I added tamarind concentrate then added some hoisin, ketchup, brown sugar and rice wine vinegar (just a touch) and cooked it for a good, long while. What’s not to like about hoisin? Tamarind is the fruit of a tree native to Africa, South American and Tropical climates. Ripe tamarind is tart and tangy, the quality it added to my barbeque sauce. In Mexico, tamarind is used to flavor drinks and candies. In Indian cooking it’s used as a counter-point to the sweetness of dates in tamarind-date chutney, Caribbean cooking it’s used a lot in sauces, and is found throughout Asian cuisine…

The engineer, who fancies himself a grill-master, and I had a debate about par-boiling the ribs and DM came by and threw his two cents in – which was that I should go ahead and boil them. Against my better judgment (but since I’d never tried it before), I par-boiled the ribs in water with bay leaves, oregano, marjoram, thyme and black peppercorns for about an hour. They came out anemic and grey, but tender. I tossed them in the bbq sauce before grilling. They were tasty but I think that par-boiling leached out at all that porky goodness and left it behind in the pot and in the time it took me to par-boil three substantial racks of ribs, I could have had them going in a slow oven, basting them and treating them with loving care to coax out all their delicious flavor – and then finishing them on the gas grill… My friend Vincent, from Mississippi, will surely string me up by my toes when he reads that I boiled the ribs. I say never leave decisions about barbequing to a non-American, and an American that can’t cook (the captain). Vincent would say never leave barbequing to a Northerner…

The sweet potatoes I cut into fat wedges, tossed in oil, dusted with curry powder, salt and pepper and stuck in a 425 oven until they were golden brown. And the cole slaw I made with shredded cabbage, carrots, apples, raisins and homemade blue cheese and gorgonzola dressing – quite tasty. But I’m sure any purist would have an opinion on that too…

I actually cooked for my friend Vincent and Melissa’s engagement party this past summer. Vincent’s family is all southern and it was requested that I make pulled pork. Marinating over night and six hours on the grill, the pork won accolades from the people that would know… For that I also made the blue cheese cole slaw, and found curried, pickled green tomatoes in a gourmet store (Rick’s Pick’s – excellent pickles of all kinds); with some nice, soft buns, they made the best New York version of a pulled pork sandwich…

At least now I can say with conviction that I’ll never par-boil ribs again…

Gorilla's In The Mist...

Breakfast:
Homemade Blueberry muffins
Roasted Pablano, Mushroom, Spinach and Cheddar Frittata

Dinner:
BBQ Ribs with Sweet and Sour Tamarind BBQ Sauce
Cole Slaw
Curried Sweet Potato Fries

The day usually starts around 7am, it’s not as if you can sleep when everyone else is up since we all basically share quarters…

The crew doesn’t like to eat breakfast early. So, I wake up, sit on deck with my coffee and watch the boys as they go about their business. I feel like Sygorney Weaver in “Gorilla’s In The Mist”, a silent observer of men in their natural habitat; fixing things, replacing lines and cables, sanding, painting, lacquering, a little chest pounding and some jumping around and throwing things to defend their place in the male hierarchy. Unlike New York men these men are actually handy, mechanically inclined and don’t require a users manual to screw in a light bulb; and all while wearing clean polo shirts and pressed shorts… There is a God, and she’s a woman!

This morning I made blueberry muffins from the Gourmet cookbook. The recipe called for a crumb topping, which was nice and I found the muffin itself good, moist, nice crumb structure but slightly lacking in flavor and character. The crew loved them and gobbled them up, but next time I think I would add some orange or lemon zest to the batter to give it a little zing… I’ll have to play around with it.

For the frittata I roasted pablanos over the gas flame; peeled, seeded and chopped them. A lot of people will peel and seed roasted peppers under running water but you lose a lot of flavor doing this. I recommend laying the pepper flat on a cutting board, and using a small pairing knife to gently scrape the skins and seeds away. Breakfast is a great way to use up extra ingredients. I had some leeks in the fridge that were on their last legs so I chopped them up and threw them in the pan with some red onion. Sautéed the mushrooms, added the roasted pablanos, a few handfuls of baby spinach and then the eggs; cooked it for a few minutes on the stove top and then threw it in a 350 oven, five minutes before it was finished I sprinkled on some grated cheese. When the cheese was almost melted, it was ready to serve.

I’ve made a lot of frittatas in my day and I have to say that making them thinner and in a wider pan, rather than thick and smaller, yields a much better result. I was debating which pan to use and decided on a 12 in’ non-stick skillet. The frittata was just about an inch thick, no more than that, and took maybe 10 or 12 minutes to cook (using 8 eggs and about ¼ cup of milk). I find that if you make a frittata too thick, the bottom gets over cooked while the top is still loose. This one cooked up just perfect…

There are quite a few boats in the bay here at St. George and like us many of them are heading to the Caribbean. There is a nice rapport among the boat people. Everyone is very friendly and introduces themselves… I met two people in the local coffee shop (which offers internet access) – Greg and Wendy. Wendy is on a catamaran and is sailing down to St. Maarteen for the winter and Greg is transporting his family’s 45 foot sailboat down to Tortola so that they can come down for winter and spring breaks to go diving…

Bermuda has been great. The water is a brilliant aquamarine, loaded with little silvery fish that I’m tempted to scoop up, fry and eat with some fresh lemon and a crisp, cold bottle of white wine… The weather is gorgeous and the people are always smiling and friendly. The island has a real European feel and they even drive on the wrong side of the road here. I’ve dodged a few scooters and busses because I was looking in the wrong direction while crossing the street! With Christmas on its way, I see people outside wrapping Christmas lights around the palm trees and tinsel going up in the shop windows. Unlike New York, nobody paints fake snow on their windows or puts white blankets of cotton batting under the Christmas trees… No reminders of snow. Brilliant! I want to stay!

Tomorrow we set sail for St. Maarteen, in theory at least, as I’m learning in the sailing world – everything is tentative… I don’t know if I’ll be able to post again before we head out.

Sushi Party in Bermuda

Tuesdays Menu:
Sesame Soba Noodles
Wakame & Bonito Salad
Salmon Teriyaki
Spicy Tuna Rolls
Do-It-Yourself Maki Rolls

The crew had been having a hankering for sushi and considering how hard they’ve been working, I feel compelled to treat them to the things they like…

Danger Mouse and crew all seem to love Asian food and when I arrived on the boat there was a well-worn copy of Ming Tsai’s Blue Ginger in the cabinet. I’m glad I brought Simply Ming instead of Blue Ginger since it’s already here… I’ve decided to cook my way through both books…

Blue Ginger has great recipes, is a great intro to Asian ingredients and the recipes work really well. The recipe for salmon teriyaki was perfect. I was a little slow in pulling the fish out of the freezer to defrost it so I didn’t have the full hour to marinate the salmon. In order to make up for the shortened time, I cut the salmon into 1 ½ inch by 1 ½ inch cubes so that they would soak up the marinade, and would also look cool on the plates. I broiled it in the oven for just a few minutes, basting the salmon a couple of times along the way and a final time at the end. As the marinade reduced, it made a perfectly lacquered, caramel-y glaze on the salmon and came out perfect.

There was a recipe for hijiki salad which I had started to make but since I was already doing sesame soba noodles and the hijiki recipe called for sesame, I decided to modify it and make it a bit more like oshitashi – one of my favorite salads I order whenever I go out for sushi - only I substituted wakame for spinach. Wakame is a type of seaweed and can be found dried in China town and at Japanese grocery stores. When reconstituted, the leaves are wide, slightly rippled and jewel green and has more of briny, sea flavor and a slippery texture compared to the more well known hijiki seaweed which is dark brown/ burgundy in color, has a more toothy texture and is nutty, woody and slightly sweet in flavor. The vinaigrette was simple; rice wine vinegar, sugar and a few drops of soy sauce and then sprinkling of bonito flakes on the salad just before serving.

For the spicy tuna inside-out rolls I diced up the tuna then added a small amount of mayo (sacrilege that I would put mayo with Grade A ahi-tuna, I know, but that’s how spicy tuna is really made!), chili powder and the minced whites of scallions. This was definitely a winning combination.

For the sushi rice, the recipe in Blue Ginger worked out perfectly. After repeatedly swishing and rinsing the rice until the water runs clear, lay the palm of your hand flat on top of the rice and add water just ‘til it hits the big knuckle on your middle finger (it’s called the “Mt. Fuji” method), covered bring it to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes, let stand for 30 minutes then fold in a mixture of rice vinegar, mirin and sugar, cover with a damp towel until ready to use. I spread the rice out on a sheet of nori then sprinkled it with black and white sesame seeds, flipped it over and put the spicy tuna on the nori side and rolled it up in the sushi mat. If you attempt to make sushi, wetting your hands when working with the rice keeps it from sticking to you (keep a bowl of water at your work area), and use a very sharp knife keeping it wet, slice – but don’t apply too much pressure or you’ll squish your rolls!

I then sliced up some tuna, cucumber, avocado, scallions and enoki mushrooms, cut a bunch of nori sheets into fourths, put out the bowl of sushi rice at the table and let the crew make their own hand-rolls.

Everyone had fun…

The leftover sushi rice was converted into shrimp fried rice on Wednesday. I sautéed the shrimp with some chili paste and set them aside. In a wok I added smoked bacon, garlic, and ginger then the sushi rice, soy sauce, two eggs and scallions and just before serving I through the shrimp in and tossed it all together.

For the veggies I made a quick stir-fry of shredded napa cabbage, celery, red peppers, mushrooms, chili-paste, lime and thai basil leaves.

Two meals well received…

Now that I have the crew sufficiently under my culinary spell, I’ll have to figure out just how I can manipulate and use them to my benefit… ;o)

It looks like we will be leaving Friday to continue on our journey to the Caribbean. This time I am much more prepared for the crossing. I’ve made five dishes which the crew now knows that if they touch before we set sail, they are likely to lose a finger or three…

The passage food includes, by popular demand, the lamb curry (which I made back in New York and which got eaten before the last sail because the crew begged and pleaded. This time, their pleading will get them nowhere!); chicken and corn chowder; macaroni and cheese; pork meatloaf with sweet and spicy barbeque sauce; and three-cheese veggie lasagna. All easy to warm up and eat.

The first time that I made the lamb curry, I used taro root instead of potatoes. I learned that taro doesn’t freeze well. After thawing the curry and reheating it, the taro had completely disintegrated but the benefit of that was the curry was nice and thick.

Let’s hope for a little less excitement for the second leg of the journey…