Galley
The galley in a sailboat may not be large but the role it plays in your boat is very important. This blog will feature various recipes, important features to look for in a cruising galley and provisioning and storage on Phantasia II.
Say cheese
Small communities often don’t have great selection of certain items, including cheese. Cheddar and mozzarella are popular but we like more variety so I decided to try making some on board using a kit that I purchased at a farmer’s market before I left on this year’s voyage. There are many kits available online.
The process was really quite simple and successful. Now I’m back in my land-bound kitchen I am going to try other variations.
We enjoyed this soft herbed cheese with an ale in the cockpit.
1. Kits are available online. This is a simple soft cheese one, great for a first time.
2. The milk is heated to around 150 F. A candy thermometer is useful…do not allow to come to boil. The type/kind of milk affects the type of cheese. Do not use UHT milk and obviously the higher the fat content of your milk the richer the cheese. Some recommend powdered milk which I am going to experiment with.
3. The citric acid is added. It was included in my kit but lemon juice or vinegar can also be used but add their respective flavours. This is something I am going to experiment with. Curds begin to form.
4. Curds have formed. The whey evidently can be used for soups etc but we just don’t have space in our fridge for this kind of storage.
5. Pour into a colander lined with very fine cloth, allow to drain.
6. Add salt and herbs, I used an Herbs de Provence mix.
7. Wrap the cloth up around the cheese and press out the remaining liquid. Allow to sit til it is well drained and has firmed up.
8. Enjoy!
Yogurt is easy
The process for making yogurt isn’t a lot different from making cheese.
You will need a candy thermometer; some high quality, plain yogurt, look for pro-biotic or active cultures; a good thermos.
1. Determine how much your thermos will hold and slowly heat the appropriate amount of milk in a heavy pan. You can use 1/2/or whole milk or even reconstituted powdered milk but avoid UHT. Use low-medium heat so the milk doesn’t come to a boil or get scorched. Heat to about 180F.
2. Remove your milk from the heat and allow to sit until it comes down to 110-115° F. This will take around half an hour to 45 minutes.
3. Add the yogurt, 1 tablespoon for 2 cups of milk, and stir well.
4. Pour into your clean thermos…make sure it is really clean or you will have coffee flavoured yogurt. If this is something you plan on doing regularly a dedicated thermos makes sense. Wrap a T-towel around the thermos and allow sit overnight.
5. It’s ready to sweeten as you wish; my personal favourite is a little maple syrup. You can add a couple of drops of vanilla. Serve garnished with fresh or dried fruit.
Crab Nicoise
While some larger sailboats have more ability to power bigger fridges and even freezers taking advantage of the best local ingredients works best for our galley.
This version of Salad Nicoise is from Newfoundland when crab is in season and crab legs, purchased already cleaned and cooked replaces the traditional tuna.
For each plate, on a bed of torn lettuce arrange very lightly steamed whole green beans. You can substitute with asparagus or yellow beans. Add sliced tomatoes or halved cherry toms and halved pitted-olives. Thin-sliced radish and cucumber can be a nice addition. Around the edge add chunks of firm-cooked potatoes and quartered hard-boiled egg.
The piece-de-resistance…piled high crab legs but this could be shrimp, freshly grilled tuna or salmon, or in a pinch, tinned tuna.
Make vinaigrette and drizzle over top.
Garnish with some fresh parsley or parsley flakes and grinds some extra fresh black pepper over if you wish.
Fresh Berry Galette
We often pack a sealable container when we’re out hiking in late summer for picking wild blueberries and raspberries or depending where you are perhaps partridge berries or bakeapples (cloudberries). But you could use almost any sliced fruit available.
Make a small batch sweet pastry:
• 1 cup all-purpose flour, whisk in 2 tsp sugar
• ½- cup cold butter, cut into small pieces. Add to flour and using pastry blender (or 2 knives) work in butter ‘til crumbly with a pea-like texture.
• ¼-cup cold water. Add gradually mixing with fork ‘til combined but not wet. Gather into a ball, sprinkle flour onto a surface and roll into about a 12” circle, transfer to a cookie sheet, cover and chill.
Filling:
• ¼-cup sugar
• 1 ½-teaspoons cornstarch
Mix into about a pint of fresh berries and let stand ‘til juices begin to form. Add more sugar if your berries are very tart.
Preheat oven to 350. Spoon berries into centre of pastry leaving about 2” to edge. Fold and crimp the pastry edge up and over edge of berries so there will be an open area in the centre. Brush the edge with milk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake 45 minutes ‘til bubbly and crust is golden. Allow to cool before serving.
We often saw people picking cloudberries for the own use and to sell to commercial producers for jam and syrup. This field of berries is at Battle Harbour, Labrador.
Moose Stew
We were given several pounds of frozen moose by a fisherman in Lascie with the advice that moose must be cooked at a low temperature, “long and slow” in order to have a tender result.
I used the pressure cooker at its lowest setting and at a low gas mark for about an hour. At that point I depressurized and opened the cooker and added the vegetables and some water and then continued the process for about another 20 minutes. Red wine would have been a great alternative if you have it to spare.
Enjoy!
Galley Essential with Amanda
We regularly cross paths with John Neal and Amanda Swan Neal at the Toronto Boat Show, and Strictly Sail, Chicago, in 2014. Amanda asked me if I would contribute to her Galley Essentials page in 48º North Magazine published in Seattle.
It is always inspiring to meet up with them and hear about their latest expeditions. Currently they are enroute to Sweden for a refit of their Hallberg Rassy 46. All their 2015 expedition berths are filled and 2016 is starting to booked already.
Before we bought Phantasia II my Christmas gift to Mike was a weekend seminar with them in Annapolis in 2000. We highly recommend their seminars; they are the most experienced sailors and excellent teachers. Amanda and John spend seven months at sea annually. When not at sea, they enjoy winter kayaking from their island home near Victoria.
I was delighted to participate in the Amanda’s “women and cruising” segment at the Chicago boat show in 2014.
http://www.mahina.com/index.html
http://www.mahina.com/galleyessentials.html#may