Food, Glorious Food

The First Meals on Baruch (including a 2-night back-to-back passage) 

After a week of being in transit and 4 long days of unpacking, setting up and settling in, we’d had enough of eating out so our first on-board dinner ensued.  We ended up eating super late (even by European standards), because we had drinks with a lovely couple from a boat a bit further up the dock who actually ended up joining us for dinner – It got to almost 10pm before I realised I hadn’t even started dinner so I threw together this tried and true dish:  Marinated Chicken with an Asian inspired Vermicelli Noodle Salad.  (see below for recipes)

A note about how I roll in the kitchen with regards to cooking:  Because I’ve learnt to cook by standing alongside the great cooks I’ve been surrounded by, the method I have grown up with is the tasting, adding, tasting again approach so some of my recipes will frustratingly include statements like add a small glug of this,or, now pour in a descent slug of that. Where possible I will try to give an accurate measurement but just so you know…it’s not how I roll.  I will say though, if you’re unsure, add small amounts slowly.  I ‘ve always told my children that you can always add but you can’t take away in cooking so pour / add slowly and use restraint.  The upside of this is that it will develop your palate for flavour and flavour combinations.  

Baking however is different. When I bake I tap into my inner stickler and I go by measurements so all you accuracy-freaks can breathe easier with any of my baking recipes that take your fancy. 

Meal 2 – Miso Marinated Salmon served with leftover Mixed Paella and a shredded Cos Lettuce, Dill, Feta & Pinenut Salad.  No custom build is perfect and no boat ever delivered on the face of the earth was ever handed over totally problem free and Baruch was no different.  A water pump issue that began in only one hull was identified during the shake down sail, but then became an issue in both hulls.  The lovely couple that joined us for our first cooked meal on board put us onto the world’s most patient water pump maintenance guy who spent hours and hours trouble shooting and trying to find a solution to getting them to work correctly. One stint went really late so Glenn joined us late for a hasty dinner at one of the local eateries just opposite the boat on the other side of the dock where I had over-ordered a serve of delicious mixed Paella.  I friggin’ love leftovers and I love being able to re-purpose them to best affect for an additional meal so I went with the seafood theme in the Paella and paired Miso-marinated salmon, cooked sous-vide (more on that below), and a fresh and crunchy Shredded Cos and Dill Salad.  

Miso Marinated Salmon served with leftover Mixed Paella and a shredded Cos Lettuce, Dill, Feta & Pinenut Salad

Now, if there was any doubt about my foodie-obession then this revelation that I have also included a sous-vide stick in my galley fit out will put that to rest.  I can thank my Sister and Brother-in-Law for my introduction to the world of sous-vide cooking which I absolutely love and is now a weekly part of how I cook at home.  A Spanish friend of mine who cooks like a gun himself but is the worst person to actually cook with (super messy and really bossy…), calls sous vide cooking, cheating, but I don’t care.  Call it what you like it’s awesome and among other things can turn a really dodgy or cheap cut of meat into something sublime.  In the galley, it’s a great alternative to having to cook with gas or even having to put the oven on, on a hot day and can happily sit on the bench top taking up very little real estate and get used again and again.  Cooking via sous vide also makes it impossible to overcook anything which means a dish like this salmon is really easy and always, always perfectly cooked.   

Meal 3 and Night 1 of our Gibraltar to Ibiza Passage:

Marinated Skirt Steak and Roast Veggie Salad.  Another family favourite, this salad has been declared by Kalani, our youngest as her favourite salad of all time!  High praise from someone who would only eat salads if she could get away with it.  It’s super easy and is actually a really good go-to in situations where you had a dinner plan but what you were able to find in the store was NOT what you had planned.  It’s perfect as an accompaniment to chicken, beef or lamb, and can totally be pimped up with some additions of a side accompaniment of large mushroom ‘steaks’ or pan fried marinated haloumi for a vegetarian option.  

Marinated Skirt Steak and Roast Veggie Salad.

We’ve had a bit of trouble finding someone to fill our spare gas bottle that feeds the BBQ, the stove and the oven so until we can , I’m trying to be mindful of using the gas to do double duty so while the veggies were roasting I whipped up a batch of my muffins and threw them into the oven at the same time so the kids would have something healthier than packet chips and sugar-loaded biscuits for snacks while underway.   I know people sometimes balk at cooking savoury and sweet together at the same time but whatever…I was trying to be efficient, dammit!  

A note on the muffin recipe: It’s ace!  I will post the base recipe as well as the flavour combinations I most commonly use. This muffin recipe has served us as a family equally well at home and on any boat we’ve had (even with much smaller ovens) and they freeze and reheat brilliantly.  (Props to the former manager of my gourmet Deli that I owned for a brief time for the base recipe).

Meal 4, Night 2 of our Gibraltar to Ibiza Passage: 

Chicken Fajitas with trimmings. …or with ‘fixin’s as a Canadian friend recently called it.  I’ll post the full recipe, but for the sake of convenience when I did our large, pre-passage shop I just got some already marinated and chopped chicken breast from the deli at Ramson’s in Gibraltar (great supermarket!) for this meal.  Our kids have been eating this since they could eat solids so be assured as well as being really easy, this meal is loved by all.  My tip would be make a massive batch and freeze the extra for another already cooked meal later on.  

Chicken Fajitas

Hopefully some of these will inspire you to try for yourself either at home or on board.

Recipes for all of the above are below:

Marinated Chicken with Asian Inspired Vermicelli Noodles

The quantities for this dish can be conveniently increased or backed off to whatever you need to feed your crew.  I usually like to serve this accompanied with Roti or other flat bread and chilli flakes so people can add their own heat. 

Ingredients:

Deli bought pre-marinated Chicken (thigh’s or breast)

Vermicelli Noodles

Carrots, thinly julienned

Snow peas, thinly sliced

Red capsicum, deseeded and thinly sliced

Cucumber, halved and thinly sliced (I like to leave the skin on for colour) 

Lots of chopped Coriander, Mint and Thai Basil if you can find it

Lime wedges, roughly chopped cashew nuts, chilli flakes and flat bread to serve

For the dressing:

In a jug or bowl add the following ingredients in small amounts and mix well.  Taste dressing and adjust flavour by adding ingredients until you get the right balance of sweet, sour and salt. 

Mix a good sized glug of light Olive Oil with Sweet Chilli sauce, Rice Wine Vinegar, fresh Lime juice + zest, Ketcap Manis, Mirin Seasoning and a few drops of Sesame Oil. Stir well, taste and adjust the flavour so that it is in balance. 

Method:

Boil the kettle and throw the Vermicelli noodles in a bowl with boiling water for approx. 5 minutes until the noodles have separated and are soft.  Gently stir the noodles every now and then using tongs to help them separate. Once they’re cooked, rinse in a colander / drainer under cold water and set aside to cool. 

In a large bowl, combine chopped carrots, snow peas, red capsicum and cucumber and mix together with the cooled noodles and chopped herbs, reserving a little of the reserved herbs for serving. 

Cook off chicken on a BBQ or pan and slice into chunks if serving separate to the salad with lime wedges and herbs, or slightly thinner strips if serving as part of the salad.

Add enough dressing to wet the ingredients in the bowl, but reserve some for drizzling across the top. Mix the dressing into the salad well. Serve in a lovely large bowl / on a platter and finish with more chopped herbs, and toasted, roughly chopped cashew nuts. 

Plate up accompanied with flat bread or roti, cooked chicken and dried chilli flakes for added heat. 

Miso Marinated Salmon and Shredded Lettuce & Dill Salad   

We served this with the previous night’s leftover Paella to bulk it out and even though Miso and a Spanish Paella might not seem immediately obvious culinary partners, all the flavours worked really well. Some roasted baby potatoes finished with fresh herbs would work just as well as a bulking out accompaniment.  The Shredded Lettuce Salad just added some lovely crisp freshness to the meal. I used the Sous Vide stick to cook our Salmon but the Salmon can be cooked in a pan, on the BBQ or in the oven. 

Ingredients

Salmon fillets (1 per person)

Miso paste

Mirin

Iceberg / Baby Cos lettuce (as much as you need for the number of people you’re serving)

Plenty of chopped, fresh dill

About ½ Cup of toasted Pinenuts

Crumbled marinated Feta

Salt and Pepper & a splash of Olive Oil and Red Wine Vinegar to dress the salad.

Method

Mix together the Salmon Marinade using 

Put the Salmon fillets in a shallow dish and allow them to marinate for at least 2 hours. When ready to cook, place in a zip lock bag and remove the excess air by slowly immersing the bag with the salmon in, being careful not to allow any water to enter the bag.  Zip the bag closed when most of the air has been removed. 

Heat the water bath to 50 degrees and place Salmon into the water for 45 minutes for medium cooked Salmon. Once the Salmon has cooked in the Sous Vide, finish on a hot BBQ or in a pan to colour the outside.

Prepare the Salad by assembling the salad ingredients in a large bowl.  Dress and mix the dressing through the salad when ready to serve the meal. 

Marinated Skirt Steak and Roast Veggie Salad

This salad is made extra delicious because of the liberal use of Tuscan Seasoning when roasting off the vegies.  I have a large jar of Tuscan Seasoning at home, on the boat and at our holiday house andI have even been known to pack a jar when I travel.   

Ingredients

Marinated Steak – enough to feed the number of people you’re catering for

Tuscan Seasoning

Baby potatoes, cut into chunks

Carrots, cut into chunks roughly the same size as the potatoes

Zucchini, cut into fat slices

Red onion, cut into thick wedges

Red capsicum, cut into thick slices

Whatever mix of lettuce you like (I like to include some raddichio in there for colour and some bitterness)

Lots of fresh chopped basil & parsley

Salt & Pepper, Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar for the dressing

Crumbled Feta, toasted Sesame Seeds / toasted Pinenuts to serve

Method

First, throw the cut baby potatoes and carrots into a roasting pan with a good glug of olive oil, plenty of Tuscan seasoning and Salt and Pepper. Toss to mix through and place in a hot oven for around 20 minutes.  Take the pan out of the oven and then add the zucchini, red onion and red capsicum, add a little more olive oil if it’s looking a little dry and some more Tuscan Seasoning, mix and return to the oven until the veggies are nicely roasted. Once cooked, remove the veggies from the oven for around 10 minutes before you want to serve it because you don’t want the veggies to be piping hot when adding them to the lettuce. 

Throw the mixed lettuce you’re using into a nice big shallow bowl and lightly dress the lettuce.  Add the mixed roast veggies and gently mix them into the lettuce as well.  Add the toasted sesame seeds / pinenuts, crumbled feta and chopped herbs and serve. 

Towards the end of the cooking time of the veggies, cook the steak on the BBQ or in a pan and cut into thick chunks and place on top of some wild baby rocket or watercress to serve with Colemans Mustard and Lemon slices.

Chicken Fajitas with all the fixin’s

This is a super easy recipe and works brilliantly if you make double the quantity of the chicken and freeze it for another ready-made meal.  

Ingredients

Chicken breasts cut into chunks / fat strips (I factor on 500g chicken for 4 people so do your catering Maths on that)

Olive Oil

Tuscan seasoning

1 jar of milk salsa

Worcestershire Sauce

Balsamic vinegar

Salt & Pepper

Fajitas 

Plenty of chopped coriander

Greek yoghurt and dried chilli flakes to serve

For the Fixin’s:

Chopped grape tomatoes, placed in a bowl with chopped fresh basil, a drizzle of olive oil & some Salt & Pepper

Shredded iceberg lettuce

Chopped avocado, mixed with a squeeze of lemon juice to prevent it from discolouring

Corn, cooked on the cob, then lightly burntover an open flame, chopped and placed in a bowl mixed with fresh chopped coriander and salt & pepper

Method

In a frypan drizzled with olive oil, lightly cook the chopped onion and then cook the chicken in batches. Pour in the jar of salsa and mix through so all the chicken is coated.  Add a glug of the Worcestershire Sauce and Balsamic Vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.  Let it simmer on low for around 10 minutes. 

Prepare all the fixin’s.

Serve the chicken in a serving bowl sprinkled liberally with chopped fresh coriander alongside the remaining ‘fixin’s, the Greek Yogurt, fajitas and dried chilli flakes.

 Base Muffin Recipe

Ingredients

220g Self Raising Flour

¼ Cup Brown Sugar

¼ Cup Custard Powder

½ tsp Baking Soda

¾ Cup Buttermilk

2/3 Cup Rice Bran Oil (or you can substitute with Coconut Oil)

1 egg

Shredded coconut and maple syrup to top each muffin

First cut squares of baking paper and press them into shape using the base of a glass shoved into the muffin tray with the baking paper. Preheat oven to 180°C.

Place all dry ingredients in a bowl

Place all wet ingredients in a jug and mix to combine

Add your choice of flavour ingredients to the above mix, adding dry to dry and wet to wet

Mix all the ingredients together gently, resisting the urge to overmix the batter – that results in tough muffins.  Using a large spoon, hold one muffin wrapper at a time in your other hand a let the mix kind of dollop into the wrapper.  Place each filled muffin wrapper into the muffin tray.  Mix the shredded coconut and a glug of maple syrup together in a small bowl and top each muffin with a spoonful. 

Cook in the oven for around 20 minutes or until the muffins are nicely golden brown on top.

Favourite Flavour Combinations:

Banana & Dark Choc Chip

Raspberry & White Chocolate

Grated apple & Cinnamon