Day 16: Chilli Con Carne And Cumin Chapattis

I have forgotten what the stars look like. The skipper tells me to relax, there is lot of time left on this voyage to see stars. But I am beginning to have my doubts.




To sum up the situation, we are almost a week out of St Helena island, three weeks into our six week-odd voyage. This means almost halfway. And we have yet to have a cloudless day or night. Interesting, indeed. In fact, the deays have been so cloudy that I on occasion had to time my sun sights to when the sun peeked through the clouds sufficiently to take a sight. I was not able to take noon sights at will.




I shall follow the skipper's advice: Take a deep breath, Count to ten. Then do it again. At least I shall be getting some deep breathing exercises! We can feel that the ambient temperature has gone up. One can now sit outside without a windbreaker. But at night, as I am sitting here writing, there is still a nip in the air.

Last night was my turn at the galley again. I decided on chilli con carne with cumin chapattis. I haven't made chapattis in a long while and decided that it would be a good accompaniment to the meat and beans.




Chapattis are an interesting type of flat bread to make. Almost like the twisters of the Australian outback or stokbrood from the South African culinary tradition. Made with flour, salt and water. In this case I added a teaspoon of vegetable fat and used some leftover self raising flour in the mix. And, to top it off, I added a healthy teaspoon full of cumin seeds as garnish to the mix.




It worked well flavour-wise, but due to the seeds falling out and leaving a hole, the little breads would not all puff up. The flavour, however, was excellent. And the texture quite soft as a result of the vegetable fat.




The chilli con carne was my standard boat recipe, using fresh onions and sweet green peppers. As flavour I used dried coriander seeds and added some black mustard seeds. The dried seeds were roasted, each in turn as they are of different sizes and thus toast at different rates. If they burn, everything thereafter turns out bitter, so having burnt them, you chuck everything overboard and start again. Luckily I had this under control.




The heat in the dish was supplied by two jalapenos and two of the dried St Helena chillies. Everything finely chopped. Of course one would use chillies that are on hand. Take care not to go overboard. These ingredients are fried and the heat may override the other flavours. Rather go less than more. Of course, we do not forget the requisite chopped garlic. The salt in the dish is supplied through the soy sauce, so no additional salt is required. For this dish, the flavours are mostly determined by the process, so take good care in the preparation.




Ingredients for the chilli con carne




400 g lean beef mince

1 can chopped tomatoes

1 can red kidney beans

1 small can baked beans in tomato sauce

1 medium to large onion, chopped

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon black mustard seeds

5 whole black peppercorns

1-2 teaspoons chopped garlic

1-2 hot chillies. (Remember the caveat!)

¼ green sweet pepper

¼ yellow sweet pepper

A dollop of butter for frying

some soy sauce to taste




Process




Toast the coriander seeds in a dry pan. Shake them around that they can toast on all sides. Add the mustard seeds and toast them for about ten seconds, then add the butter. When the butter is melted, add the onions and sweet peppers. Fry these until translucent, then add the chopped garlic, jalapenos and hot chillies. Fry these for thirty seconds, keeping your head out of the way. The oleoresin capsicum will burn your nose and eyes,




Add the meat. Fry the meat until it goes brown, then add the soy sauce to taste. Now add the canned tomatoes and simmer until the tomatoes are cooked though. At this stage one can opt to simmer the dish for fifteen minutes more, or immediately add the beans. The beans will make the sauce thicken and the dish then needs constant attention to prevent burning. Simmering the dish will make the texture more creamy and the meat perchance a bit softer.




Whichever way one chooses to go, after adding the beans, cook the dish through and take it off the heat. Allow it to rest for half an hour to develop flavour before dishing up.




In our case the dish reposed for fifteen minutes only, as we have a bunch of hungry sailors on board!




Ingredients for the chapattis




1 cup self raising flour

1 cup white bread flour

1 teaspoon vegetable fat

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

about 1 cup of water




Process




Mix the flour and salt. Rub the vegetable fat into the flour mix. Now add half the water. Mix thoroughly, then add water a little at a time until the dough has soaked up all the water. Take care not to overdo the water. The dough needs to be kneadable. Turn the dough out onto a floured kneading board and knead for ten minutes. The dough will become elastic and less sticky. Cover to prevent drying out and put the dough aside to rest for fifteen minutes.




Roll the dough into a sausage of about 30mm thick (1 1/4inch) cut a piece of so that you end up with a ball of about30 mm size. Roll this into a round ball, then squash flat and roll out into a thin round disk. This should be about 100-150 mm size. Bake this flat bread in a dry pan, turning after about three minutes. These bubbled a bit and puffed a little. They cook quite fast, so take care not to burn them. There will be caramelised patches all over. These are good.




Roll out one at a time, there's enough time to do this while the previous one is cooking. Keep them in a closed container to prevent drying out. I used our small pot.



Dishing up is easy. I arranged three chapattis on a plate and ladled the chilli beans on top.




The chapattis are good to mop up sauce from the plate, so this time it counts as a legal table manners.




Bon appetit!






Authored by Johan Zietsman.




Last updated on 2013-10-11

Day Two: Settling in with Chili con Carne and Chapattis

Sometimes you realise that there is a God and that He looks after you and cares for you. We left Cape Town around 06h30 yesterday morning in misty and rainy weather, expecting nothing better for the next five days. We were, in fact, expecting heavy seas to boot. And what we encountered was beyond our wildest dreams.

The sea was flat calm, no wind to speak of and the visibility was good to very good from about a mile out of the breakwater. We carried on to motor for the rest of the day, dodging the odd big ship, until 23h00 last night. Then the wind came up. We were just past Saldanha Bay on the West Coast at the time. The wind was on the starboard quarter and blowing at a steady 15 knots, about 35 km/h for the land lubbers. It has since picked up to around 20 to 22 knots and we have been able to sail at a steady 6.5 knots since 11h30 this morning.

Talk of a blessing.

Last night we started our experiment with growing sprouts. We chose alfalfa because it apparently grows the easiest. One teaspoon, levelled, of seeds was washed and then soaked overnight in lukewarm water. This morning I washed them and they are now quietly germinating. Hopefully.

Tonight is my turn at galley duty. I am making a chili con carne, served with chapattis. We don't have the right flour to make tortillas, but making chapattis is easy.

Chapattis

These little Indian breads are made without leavening. The ingredients are bread flour, water and salt. And the little vegetable oil or ghee that goes from your hands to the dough during the kneading. For this lot I used white bread flour, but you can use any wholegrain flour.
The salt and one cup of flour is mixed thoroughly, then water is added a little at a time to the maximum of one cup. Smear one hand with oil or ghee, then use that hand to mix the water and flour to make the dough. The dough will become a soft ball after some mixing. If it doesn't, add more flour until it does. The dough should pick up all the flour from the mixing bowl. Once it gets to that state, take it out and knead it on a hard surface. The kneading is done in a very specific way. You flatten the dough ball, then fold the edges inwards, following around the ball. This will capture air bubbles in the dough that will allow it to rise during the baking process. The dough will become increasingly stiff. Carry on kneading for another five minutes, then set the dough aside, cover to prevent drying and leave to rest for at least twenty minutes. I was on duty this morning, so my chapatti dough have rested six hours.

Now take the dough, knead it some more, then roll it into a long cylinder of about 50mm thickness (2 inches). Cut the cylinder into sections of the same as the thickness and roll each section into a ball. Each ball is now rolled out thin, smeared with a little oil, dusted with some dry flour on top, then folded inwards from the edges and rolled out thin again. One outside is then smeared with ghee or vegetable oil and baked in a dry pan until it starts to make bubbles inside. The top is then smear with oil, the chapatti turned over and baked on the other side. When it looks done, the pan is taken off the stove and the chapatti put directly over the open gas flame. This will cause it to puff up and only takes a few seconds. All of the above takes about five minutes, from the rolling out of the dough ball until it is cooked.

Chili con Carne

This recipe is similar to what I have made before. The ingredients are as follows:
1 tin baked beans (450g / 1 lb)
1 can (450 g/1 lb) red kidney beans
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 medium size onion, chopped
½ sweet chili pepper, chopped
half of one hot chili, chopped
1 teaspoon of chopped garlic, else one clove of fresh garlic, chopped. This dish needs chili and garlic.
½ teaspoon of coriander seeds
400 gr beef mince (1lb)
Dash of soya sauce
Some vegetable oil.

The method is easy. Fry the coriander seeds in the oil until the flavour comes out. Then add the chopped onion, sweet chili, garlic and hot chili, Fry these until the onion goes glassy. Then add the mince, Fry until it goes brown, then add a dash of soya sauce. Add the tomatoes, then simmer for ten minutes or so. After that, add the beans and cook until everything is properly hot. Mix thoroughly. Turn off the heat and let it stand for ten minutes to develop flavour. I use the simmer and standing time to cook the chapattis.
That's it; a one pot dish that is easy and tasty. The chapattis make a welcome change from other side dishes and it is fresh bread.

Authored by Johan Zietsman
Last updated on 2012-12-12

Chili con carne en navigasielesse

2011-12-12 23h58


Ek het vanmiddag uitgevind hoekom daar 'n afset is tussen my navigasie en die GPS. Dis omdat ek 'n konsekwente fout gemaak het tussen my berekeninge en die plot. Ek sal netnou dit oordoen, dan behoort die fout weg te wees. Ek kon nie verstaan waar die konstante verskil inkom tussen die GPS en my berekeninge nie, toe vra ek vir Drikus om te help. Die fout spring toe uit die oomblik wat hy die berekening op sy eie herhaal.

Dis interessant hoe baie ons geleer het uit daardie uur se saamwerk. Ons het ook 'n noen-meting opgestel, voorberei en geneem. Dit gee 'n mens se breedtegraad, omdat jy spesifiek die meting se tyd kies om die son op sy hoogste te kry, wat regbo jou is. Die lesing gee 'n lyn van posisie op die kaart, wat parallel is met die breedtegraad. Eenvoudig, as jy verstaan wat jy doen.

Ek het vandag heeldag sonder 'n hemp geloop. Ek het met hom aan geslaap en toe vanoggend om 06h00 hom uitgetrek toe ek aan diens kom. Ek het hom weer aangetrek vir aandete, daarna hom uitgetrek. Dis gewoon te warm. More sal ek die blik Game oopmaak, dat 'n mens iets kan drink wat jou koud maak en rehidreer.

Ek het vandag weer kos gemaak. Eers skottelgoed gewas op my diensbeurt van 06h00-09h00, toe kos gemaak op die volgende skof van 15h00-18h00.

Chile con carne

Bestanddele
1 blik botterbone
1 blik rooi bone
1 blik tamaties
1 koevert tamatiepasta
1 ui, gekap
2 brandrissies, gekap
skeut sojasous
½ teelepel varsgemaalde swart peper
sout na smaak
500 g maalvleis
1 teelepel knoffel
1 koppie rys/ 1-1 ½ koppie bruin rys
Ek het botter gebruik in plaas van olie om die vleis, uie en knoffel in te braai.

Metode

Braai die vleis alleen, sonder sout of ander geurmiddels, in 'n pan tot bruin. Botter maak dit mooi bruin. Voeg 'n skeut sojasous by, verwyder van die hitte en laat rus eenkant.

Braai nou die knoffel, uie en brandrissie tot dit begin bruin word. Voeg die tamaties, al die bone en die tamatiepasta by. Kook deur en voeg dan weer die uitgeruste vleis by die pan. Kook deur en skakel dan die stoof af of verwyder die pan van die hitte, sodat die hele dis kan rus. Voeg die gemaalde swart peper by en bevestig die soutinhoud.

Wag tot die rys gaar is en dien op.

Renier het gewetensbesware teen geblikte bone van enige aard. Blykbaar bang vir die winde. Hy het gesmul aan die dis. Hierdie dis gee nie vir jou winde nie. Maar dit moet die manne maar self uitvind. Interessant, Drikus weet te vertel dat die bone nogal lae GI is. Ek het dit nie geweet nie, maar dis iets om te koester en te onthou. Veral as daar 'n storm dreig en jy weet daar gaan vir 'n lang tyd nie behoorlike kans wees vir kosmaak nie. Die dis is maklik en werk ook oor 'n sny brood.


Dit is nou na 00h00, dus die 13e. Aan die einde van hierdie dag is ons amptelik op die helfte van die beplande tyd vir die reis. Dan is daar nog drie weke oor. Dis half nostalgies om daaraan te dink. Oor drie weke gee ons die boot af, vlieg terug huis toe en spat uitmekaar. Wel, hopelik tot die volgende aflewering. Vir my lê daar nog eers 'n kursus voor by Sail Due South vir Yachtmaster Offshore alvorens ek die volgende aflewering aanpak. Die volgende aflewering is darem teen betaling van sakgeld en die reis terug.


Ek sien nogal uit daarna om weer so aflewering te doen. Die wye oseaan het sy bekoring in die eie-tyd tot jou beskikking. Daarbenewens is mens nogal besig aan boord, hoewel nie te fisies uitputtend nie. 'n Lekker soort van luilekker aftree-joppie. Dit help geweldig baie om nie ledig te wees nie. Ek het myself besig gehou met die navigasie-studies. Die ander manne praat van 'n taal aanleer. Daar is gewis genoeg tyd daarvoor. Dit hou mens se verstand ook besig. Ek lag lekker in my mou. Dit kom uit dat die ander manne ook lekker aan die spoke besweer is. Smaak my dis 'n ding wat jou gryp so in die allenigheid, veral in die nag.


Authored by Johan Zietsman
Last updated on 2012-12-12