Cooking aboard or outdoors

Horses get drunk this way and Elephants , they eat rotten apples that ferment in the stomach and then they start to stagger about and pinch ladies bottoms

 

WestVanHan, I keep noticing the changes in your avatar. Is that Nootka art? I think it is great.

Have you ever cooked salmon the traditional way on a cedar plank?

 

Hoyt...I think I have used a Nootka piece,but the vast majority of the art out there is Haida. Google- Haida art,then images. It is great stuff.

I've cedar planked maybe 1000 times,so yes.
Is great with a fire but when I'm up the coast it's on the BBQ on my boat-as bears also enjoy salmon and can smell it from several miles away.
Holding the shotgun and 300 Win Mag while watching for bears kind of ruins the feeling,peaceful ambiance, and enjoyment of sitting around watching dinner cook by a fire.
And it's not fair to tempt the bear either.

Speaking of booze-if you want a good laugh check this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5E5TjkDvU0

 

I wrongly assumed since the Nootka people are from West Vancouver. The Haida people are from farther north, no?

 

Both groups produce beautiful work.

 

I'm stooping to recipe swapping here, instead of sticking strictly to the subject. But I made some excellent potatoes and ham the other day.... maybe if I promise to cook it in the BBQ next time, I can get away with posting the dish anyway?

5 small to medium russet potates: scrubbed but not peeled, quartered the long way, and thin-sliced.

1 to 1 1/2 lb leftover ham, in bite-sized chunks (I didn't weigh it)

Small onion, chopped fine

small bell pepper, chopped fine

10 1/2 oz can condensed cream of mushroom soup

1/4 cup half and half

dash (1/8th tsp?) or more of black pepper

2 tbsp butter

1 1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used 'Mexican-style' four cheese blend)


Spread half the potatoes in a greased 2-qt cooking pan. Spread the ham over them, then cover with the rest of the potatoes.

Stir the bell pepper, onion, soup, half and half and pepper together, and pour over the potatoes. Dot with the butter.

Cover with aluminum foil, and bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour. Uncover, and bake for another 1/2 hour.

Spread the shredded cheese over the top and cook for another 15 minutes, or until the cheese is well-browned.

I basically followed the recipe below, but piled things a little deeper... It was surprising good, for such a simple recipe. Even my wife, who's normally a light eater, came back for heavy seconds.

http://southernfood.about.com/od/scallopedpotatoes/r/bl30204v.htm

 

Um-west coast of Vancouver island. Yes, Haida are from further north.

Also what's good is to smoke the salmon-the traditional way to cut into strips and hang over a smoky fire.
But once again,I do it on my boat in a smoker for wildlife reasons.

I have about 30 pounds of candied smoked salmon in storage as well.

 

Smoked mullet is popular down here, but avoid hair spray.

 

To read the recipe, though rather busy with ingredients, sounds rather delicious.

With the weather here still appallingly cold in spite of it being near enough to mid October, I'll give this a go over the weekend.

 

Not really that many ingredients, in my opinion. I think the list reads longer than it really is....

The original recipe just specified chopping the onion and bell pepper. But basically mincing them instead worked out very nicely.... instead of just forming a layer on top, they worked down into the potatoes and ham along with the mushroom soup.

 

Not entirely sure where my head is at, as that is what I intended to say/mean.

 

I was rather disappointed with a packet of god-aweful chewy gnocchi purchased from my local supermarket.

Reading the ingredient list I discovered all kinds of things that would make an Italian cry foul.

So I decided to try and make my own from instant mash potato flakes and plain flour. Honestly, these where even better than I've had recently at well regarded Italian restaurants.

Your locally available brands may require different ratios, but I combined 1 cup of instant mash with 2 cups of boiled/hot water. Stirred to combine and let cool. I then added half a cup of plain flour and worked into a dough.

Divide into 8 equal portions (if galley space is limited). I prepared mine at the navigation station, as is my prerogative.

Roll each portion with flat of hands into lengths 1cm thick. Cut each into 1cm lengths and then flatten each slightly with a fork.

Don't get suckered into thinking gnocchi needs eggs or other ingredients. Gnocchi is potato and flour, nothing else. The secret is the amount of flour. Too little and the gnocchi will fall apart when boiled. Too much and the gnocchi with be chewy.

Add gnocchi to boiling water and remove with a slotted spoon when they float to the surface.

Serves two generously.

I am pining for summer so I made a sauce of garlic, olive oil, flat leaf parsley and a squeeze of lemon.

 

An interesting question if I may ask it.

Dried pasta and rice are mentioned often on various cruising couples blogs when discussing food and recipes. Semolina and polenta don't seem to get much of a mention, in spite of being a dry starch just as cheap and convenient to store as dried pasta or rice. Dried beans too, don't seem to get the attention they deserve.

Can anyone offer some reason to explain this?

I was asked what could be slow cooked for about 3~4 hours (typical life of an alcohol burning hob), that was already lit for the purpose of heating the cabin of a small yacht, an early model Elan 210 located in England.

I have a mind to prepare a slow braised lesser cut of beef or lamb on a bed of polenta with a jus of reduced braising liquid. Done safely within the confines of a pressure cooker.

I kinda suspect she and her husband participate in club races, he more so, while she shivers below.

Any number of British stew variants and Hungarian gulyás and paprikás dishes seem the obvious choices off hand, but I'd care to offer something with a little more "fine dining" appeal, even if it is a one-pot dish... Ok a second pot will be needed to prepare the polenta.

So, is it just a matter of haters, dissing semolina and polenta, or is semolina and polenta relatively unknown and therefore avoided?

 

Ask the average American what polenta is, and he won't have a clue. What we have instead is corn meal mush, which is usually ground finer. It's an unfortunate name, because people don't take it seriously....

I love it for breakfast, with fried spicy pork sausage in it. I carry it around in a huge mug with butter and a little brown sugar swirled into it, along with enough milk to make it drinkable.

Aside from that, I think the only place most people run into it is in scrapple... and even that's regional. And around here, some people make tamale pie by lining a pan with corn meal mush, and adding a layer for a top crust (I make mine with just a top crust, using cornbread batter instead).

Supposedly the Duke of Wellington used to ride around Venice at night in his private gondola, drinking wine and eating slices of polenta warmed between his mistress' breasts. Does that count as cooking aboard?

 

Now, that is a funny thought!

Lets do a count. Boat... Check... Booze... Check. Food, warmed on a hot... Ok, it qualifies, so long as I can have the bimbo's brother for my own unique version of this cooking experience.