Day 40: Land Ho And Onion Cashew Risotto

And beef. The risotto had beef strips too. But more of that later.

Today we made our landfall after crossing the Atlantic. We passed Barbados at a distance of about eighteen miles on our way into the Caribbean Sea. We are now officially out of the Atlantic ocean.
I took the last sun sights of the voyage, as we shall be within sight of land for the remainder of the voyage.


I am rather pleased with my progress in the field of celestial navigation after closing off the navigation across the Atlantic with a difference to the GPS of twelve nautical miles. This due to a counter current during the last forty-eight hours that I did not estimate sufficiently accurate. Still accurate enough, though.

My plot put us twelve miles closer to the island than the GPS, which translates to an hour or two additional sailing. At night the difference would be negligible, as the lights on the island and the aircraft movements would give the direction.


Our freezer is almost empty. Soon we shall switch off the freezer altogether as part of the close  down and clean-up before handover.

Today is my last turn at cooking. It is also the last 16h00-18h00 watch of the voyage for me. Lots of lasts coming through now.

I planned to make a beef korma and reserved the ingredients accordingly. However, I received a request for a last risotto. I inclined to acquiesce, if I may misquote the pirate from the film Pirates of the Caribbean.

Means I said yes.

So I had to come up with a risotto using similar ingredients. Beef strips in an onion and cashew risotto, flavoured with mild spices and coconut milk.


This was a bit of a culinary excursion, perhaps even an adventure, to me. The vagaries of designing end of voyage dishes!

The beef cubes were cut into small strips, then fried in cumin and coriander before being put aside to repose.

We do not have arborio rice on board, so it was brown rice. Somewhat out of the ordinary, even for me, I would venture.

The cashews were roasted in a dry pan, then crushed into crumbs. This got mixed with finely and coarsely (mixed), chopped onions, fried in butter. Add the raw rice, fry a little and you are well on your way to a decent risotto a la The Hungry Sailor.

Ingredients

400 g beef cubes cut into fine strips
1 1/2 cup raw rice
3 onions, finely and coarsely chopped
½ cup raw cashew nuts
1 teaspoon cumin powder
½ teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon fresh chopped garlic
½ cup dried musrooms finely chopped
1 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon garum masala
1 can coconut milk or cream
Salt to taste
3 cups of water as required



Process

Roast the cashews in a dry pan until they go dark. Allow to cool, then crush them in a coffee mug using the back end of a spatula or wooden spoon. That's what we have on board instead of a mortar and pestle, or, even better still, a blender.

Roast the beef strips in a dollop of butter to flavout the pan. Remove from the pan and keep aside once they go brown. Now add the onions and fry them until they go brown, not just translucent. They need to caramelise. Add the cashews, the cumin, coriander and the rice. Stir fry this until the rice goes brown. Add some butter if the pan goes dry.

Now add the white wine and keep stirring until it has been absorbed. Add the soaked mushrooms with the soaking water and keep on stirring, making sure that everything comes off the bottom of the pan. Add some water to make the dish mushy and keep on stirring.



Add the coconut cream towards the end, it will thicken the dish and add some flavour. Add salt to taste. Add the garumm masala towards the end. It serves as garnish.

This dish needs to be mushy, so don't overdo the water. You don't wantto end up with a crunchy soup.

As always, allow the dish to repose. This one will take much longer than anticipated, as it is quite thick and therefore will retain enough heat to make it not immediately edible. Have some wine on the side while you wait for everything to cool down before dishing up.

This dish had all the flavours of the korma, but without the bite.The mushrooms and cocnut milk took it away from the realm of curries and more towards an avant garde risotto.  It came out good enough to warrant a trial at home.

Bon appetit!

Authored by Johan Zietsman

Last updated on 2013-11-03

Day 20: Sunshine, Wind And Chicken Risotto

Today dawned on a beautiful and classic Atlantic ocean day. We had about fifteen to twenty knots of wind, twelve over the deck. The skies cleared towards the middle of the morning and we actually saw a deep blue sea, with white horses happily dancing on the swell.

We have been sailing for long enough that we ran a motor just to charge the batteries. I was on watch from twelve to three, so I slept a good bit into the morning before the sun woke me from my slumbers. A blessing indeed.


I also had the opportunity to get proper sun sights from a clear sun for a change. My last fix was not too far different from the GPS and today I had an even better correlation. Eight nautical miles.
Consider that I don't use the info from the ship's instruments, other than an idea of our speed, We have no log on board, so distance covered since the last fix is calculated by dead reckoning. I make an estimate of both the speed and the direction over ground. And I use my own last fix as a starting point for the dead reckoning.

I still hold that the dead reckoning is the most inaccurate part of the calculation, as one has to make some judgement on average speed and direction. The time is derived by direct calculation of the difference in sight times taken to the nearest half hour. I guess that my other estimates are coarser than that, so the error disappears in the third significant digit.


I also get the idea that the errors in my fixes do not compound over the period of the voyage. This from inspection of my fixes and the variation of those from the respective GPS fixes. Perhaps I can persuade some statistician to do a proper ANOVA one day. For now, I have trust in my meagre navigational skills.

It was my turn to cook again. How time flies! I decided on a chicken risotto. Of course, we don't have arborio rice on board so I substituted basmati rice. I also added some fresh vegetables for bulk and some dried shitake mushrooms for flavour.

This dish is perhaps a cross between a paella and a risotto, as I used ingredients from both areas of Europe, as well as the far East to make the dish. Half the onion was chopped in the normal style, the other half chopped lengthwise in Chinese style. Just for texture. I julienned the carrot, also for texture. The chicken stock was made by dissolving 2 liberal teaspoons of chicken stock powder in a cup of hot water.

Again, it is good practice to let the dish repose for ten to fifteen minutes for the flavours to develop and the heat to even out.

　
Ingredients

1 ½ cup basmati rice
250 g chicken breasts, cubed in thumb size cubes
1 onion, chopped as described
¼ yellow sweet pepper
¼ green sweet pepper
½ carrot, julienned
½ cup cabbage, chopped
½ cup dried shitake mushrooms, soaked in boiling water to rehydrate
1 cup chicken stock
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 teaspoon saffron essence
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
¾ cup white wine
3 dessert spoons fresh cream
some salt to taste
3-4 cups water as required
Some butter for frying

　
Process

Roast the coriander seeds in the dry pan until they start smoking. Now add the chicken cubes and fry them until they start sticking to the dry pan, then add some butter. Keep on frying the chicken until it goes brown, then remove from the pan.

Add the butter and all the onions, garlic and green peppers. Fry these until they are nice and brown and begin to pick up the caramelised chicken from the pan. Now add a little more butter and the raw rice. Fry this until the rice start sticking to the dry pan, then add the wine. Keep on stirring and ensure that nothing sticks to the pan. After the wine has been absorbed, add the mushrooms with the soaking water. Then in turn the chicken stock. Keep stirring.

Add water as required. Do not add sufficient water to make the whole dish into a soup, just keep it moist. The rice will absorb the water and the flavours from the pan.

When the rice is halfway done to your taste, add the saffron essence and paprika. You don't want these to cook for too long, else the flavour cooks away. I diluted the saffron in a cup of water which had to go in the pan anyway. You can add the vegetables at this stage. When the rice is almost done, add the cream and the chicken. Check for salt and add as required. Stir through properly.

The dish should now be quite thick in consistency. And quite flavourful.

When the rice is done to your taste, douse the flame and allow the dish to rest for fifteen minutes while you set the table and call the guests to dinner.

Then dish up. Remember, the best part of the dish is the caramelised bits that stick to the pan. Be first to the pan for afters.

Bon appetit!

There wasn't any leftovers for the watch keepers' midnight snack...



　
　
Authored by Johan Zietsman
Last updated on 2013-10-14

3rd Leg Day 9: Final Risotto And Planning For Handover

The contents of our freezer on board are now really on the last legs. About one third of a head of cabbage, the last scraps of the last fenugreek sprouts, mixed with a few leftover mung bean sprouts from a previous harvest, three or four portions of frozen fish and a half portion of frozen chicken breasts.

In the pantry there remains some rice, chicken stock and three dried shitake mushrooms. From the the refrigerator I dug out the last half cup of white wine, all the way from Robertson in the Western Cape. There was also the last of the green masala paste I brought from home.

You guessed it. On my last turn to cook on this voyage, I made a chicken risotto. To the ingredients outlined above, I added a small dried Jamaican chili I obtained from a small grocery on St Maarten.

The Last Risotto

Ingredients

250 g deboned chicken breasts, cubed

1 dessert spoon green masala paste

1 onion, chopped

3 dried shitake mushrooms, redydrated in ½ cup hot water and chopped

1 dessertspoon chicken stock powder

½ cup white wine

1 dried Jamaica chili pepper, finely chopped

1 cup finely sliced cabbage ( as for coleslaw)

1 cup fresh sprouts, I used a mix of fenugreek and mung bean sprouts because that's what was left over in the refrigerator.

½ cup milk. I did not have cream, so I used milk.

2-3 cups hot water

dollop of cooking oil

300 ml uncooked rice. I used long grain rice obtained from the grocer in St Maarten. This one has more starch than the South African version.

Process

Marinate thye chicken cubes in the msala paste for thirty minutes. Fry the chicken and mushrooms in a lightly oiled frying pan or wok. The chicken must start to stick to the wok. Remove from the wok and keep it warm.

Add the chopped onion and chili to the wok and fry until the onion goes brown, then add the fresh cabbage and sprouts. Stir fry this until the vegetables go soft, then add the dry rice. Stir fry the rice until it starts to pick up a colour, then add some water. Keep on frying the rice until the water has been soaked up. Then add in sequence the chicken stock dissolved in some water, then the wine, then water as required. Keep on stirring the dish to ensure nothing sticks to the bottom of the wok and burns.

Keep stirring and adding water as required. When the rice is almost done, add the chicken and mushroom back to the dish and simmer until done. Add the milk towards the end and stir it through properly. Add more water if required.

Bon appetit!

We sat around the oat today, cleaning up messes and planning the rest of the spit & polish work. We want to have the boat as clean as possible before we get alongside at Fort Lauderdale. This will alleviate our task in the marina. We shall then be doing the bulk of the work here at sea, where there is a breeze or two to cool you down. As opposed to the oppressive, sweltereing heat of a basically inlnd marina. Our destination marina is about two odd miles inland, so there won't be any sea breeze to cool you in your labours

The various schemes that we think up not to do work in a hot marina are quite hilarious. Overtly, all these schemes are aimed at not to have to work in the marina. But underlying to all of this is a desire not to work at all and have a decent weekend before the final handover and the flight back home.

As the situation stands at present, we are about three hundred odd nautical miles from our final destination. This should take about three days. But we are getting almost hysterical about this planning. We have misjudged the sailing conditions by a wide margin for the last four or five days. We had counter currents and a lack wind, resulting in some anxious calculations on fuel reserves. We went so far as to dip both the diesel tanks, as both fuel gauges have now stuck in the three quarter full position. Never to reset again. Your mind does strange things to you when things like these happen. There is a roller-coaster of emotions going through your head.

These accentuate the feeling that we have had enough of these weird failures. We need to get some psychological rest. It is not nice to sit in fear of the next breakage, even if you are resourceful. And this on a brand new boat.

At least the wind is playing along and for the third day in a row we are sailing at over six knots average. This goes a long way in soothing the nerves, let alone eating away at the miles remaining. Hopefully we shall have currents with us after passing through the Bahama Channel, which will work like a slingshot to end our voyage.

We are now just fifty miles away from entering the Bahama Channel, so here's to the hope that there is no more counter currents and that we have fair winds for the rest of our voyage.

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

2nd Leg Day 30: Anticipation And Risotto

We sailed through the moonlit night continuing our Caribbean welcome. The wind was fair, light in the lee of the islands, fresh in the straits between. A large sailing catamaran passed us like a ghost in the night. Or perhaps like a large swan on the wind, under full sail. Quite romantic in the bright silvery moonlight.

It is almost light enough to read. Certainly to make coffee without having any lights on. Tonight we shall have almost no darkness, as the moon is almost full. You get the feeling that you have travelled through a dream into the pages of Lord of the Rings. The yacht passing us in the night certainly added to the atmosphere.


You can feel the anticipation on board. St Maarten is maddeningly close. Two hours by car on land. Cape Town to Langebaan. Pretoria to Dullstroom. Johannesburg to Kroonstad. Interesting how one's perspective of distance changes when travelling on the water. And it feels like time is standing still. And then we found the mast is loose in its fittings. Well, that is the best description that we can come up with. Hopefully the last of our woes, after the water in the diesel two days ago. The loose mast put and end to our sailing, let alone using the mainsail in these close to optimal sailing conditions.

Now is the time to dig into the inner self and find the now, the essence of life. Then live in it. This is widely described. Eckhard Tolle has written a whole book: The Power of Now. All about suppressing your ego and allowing your self to enjoy the now. Feel the glow. It hurts to suppress your ego. But the result is an experience of a peace beyond one's wildest expectations. Zen Buddhism also has it. Something to nurture.

And to carry one through these trying times.

 It's as if some force of darkness wants to keep us from completing our set task by casting obstacles in our way. Well, we have around forty miles left to go on this leg of the voyage. That will bring our distance logged on this voyage up to 5630 nautical miles. Just under a quarter of the way around the globe.

It was my last turn at the galley tonight. I made the last risotto for this leg.

Chicken Risotto Number 3

Ingredients

250 gram deboned chicken breasts, cubed into thumb size cubes

1 cup rice

1 onion, chopped

¼ teaspoon coriander seeds (dhania)

¼ teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera) I know this is not Italian, but what the heck, add some exotic flavour

½ hot chili, chopped

½ teaspoon chopped garlic

½ carrot, finely chopped

¼ cup fresh cream

½ cup white wine

½ cup vegetable or chicken stock. I used chicken stock.

3 dried mushrooms, rehydrated in hot water, thinly sliced. Use the hot water afterwards for the chicken stock.

Dollop of cooking oil

½ cup of frozen stir fry vegetables

1 teaspoon salt

freshly ground black pepper to taste

1-2 cups hot water, as required

Process

Fry the coriander seeds in a dry pan until the flavour comes out, then add the cooking oil. Add the chicken and mushrooms as soon as the oil is hot enough. Fry these until the chicken is nice and brown and begins to stick to the frying pan. Remove the chicken and mushroom from the pan, add a little more oil, the onion, carrots and chili and fry until the onion goes brown. Add the uncooked rice. Keep on stirring and add the chicken stock. When the stock has been absorbed, add the wine. When the wine has been absorbed, add hot water a little at a time. When the rice is almost done, add the frozen peas and the rest of the stir fry vegetables, You will not be stir frying them this time around, the vegetables are there for some flavour and texture. Lastly, add the cream. Stir continuously to ensure that nothing sticks to the frying pan and burns.

Add salt and pepper to taste and dish up.

Bon appetit!

Authored by Johan Zietsman

Last updated on 2013-05-07

Day 8: An Overcast Monday, Wind and Risotto

We found the wind at last. Or rather, the wind found us. The wind picked up yesterday around midday and have not subsided. In fact, it freshened and we are sailing merrily along at just on six knots. The weather is mostly overcast and cloudy, with a high pressure. Exactly what we want. The wind is subsiding a bit towards late afternoon, but picks up again in the morning.

In the field of navigation we are seeing exactly what leeway entails. The boat is drifting away from the wind at right angles to our set course. This is visible on the sight reduction plotting sheets and can also be derived from the GPS display of the boat. The leeway would have put us several tens of nautical miles north of St Helena Island. Which means downwind of the island, a most uneconomical and uncomfortable position to be in. It will cost lots of diesel to get back upwind to the island, never mind the splashing into the swell. We adjusted course and now have some 'money in the bag,' in a manner of speaking. Sailing theory applied. Some of the yachtmaster course material did stay stuck after all.

My potato crisp wrapper lures continue to be a source of merriment, but they work extremely well. To date we have caught no less than five snoek on those. Problem is that the lure only lasts for one snoek, due to the snoek's razor teeth. A huge success, no less.

Our after dinner card league is now getting into full swing. We play a game called Uno. Quite hilarious, the emotions and expressions that come out during the game. Renier keeps score and it becomes a wailing wall, so to speak.

The Super 15 rugby scores of the weekend came through by text. Another source of light hearted rivalry. Some favourite teams lost badly, but South Africa will have a team in the finals.

There is a definite lifting of the spirits on board ever since the wind came up. Both the skipper and me were getting jittery about the diesel consumption and our jittery-ness was beginning to leave a trail of bad vibes on board. Now, after sailing non-stop for more than 36 hours at an average of just under six knots, the vibes on board are much more positive and a happy mood has descended on our little boat.

Today was my turn at galley duty. Dinner was a risotto with chicken and mushrooms, a simple dish made in one saucepan. In our case the saucepan is the wok. Our cooking utensils consist of a wok, a small pot and a medium size pot. Whatever food we cook is made in one or more of these. These go with a small two burner stove, where the medium size pot and the wok do not fit together on top. It makes you think twice before starting a dish.

This risotto was made with normal parboiled long grain rice. Not the best choice, but this is what we have on board. Renier, our skipper, had three helpings. Dawid, the crew, had two helpings, while I had one. Renier scraped out the wok. Tough on the one who had ideas of a late night snack on leftovers while on watch. But a compliment to the cook, with requests for another one later on.

It pays to do some experiments before a trip.

Risotto Ingredients

1 cup rice

250 grams deboned chicken, cubed.

1 can mushrooms

3 dried shitake/Chinese mushrooms

1 onion

¼ sweet pepper

½ teaspoon garlic

½ hot chili

1 cup chicken or vegetable stock

1 cup dry white wine

½ cup of fresh cream

some grated parme3san cheese

2-3 cups warm water as required

1 dessert spoon cooking oil

Salt and pepper as required.

Process

Rehydrate the shitake mushrooms in 1 cup of hot water, then chop them reasonably fine. Use the water that they soaked in to make the stock. Fry the chicken in the oil until brown, then remove it from the saucepan.

Now fry the onions and sweet peppers in the oil and juices left by the chicken. When the onions become glassy, add the hot chili and the garlic and fry for another minute or two. Add the uncooked rice and fry it in the onion mix. Keep on stirring the mixture to ensure that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Add all the white wine and keep on stirring, making sure the rice absorbs the juices. After the wine has been absorbed, add the chicken or vegetable stock and continue to stir. Add more water as required, keeping the dish mushy. Test the rice frequently to check that it does not overcook. When the rice get to an al dente stage, add back the chicken and all the mushrooms. Keep on stirring to make sure the dish doesn't burn, else you will start from scratch. At the end, add half a cup of fresh cream and garnish with spring onions and some grated parmesan cheese. Turn off the heat, add salt and pepper to taste, rest the dish for ten minutes, then dish up.

Bon appetit!

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

Bootkos: Risotto met Hoender en Wilde Sampioene

Hierdie is die volgende eksperiment wat gewerk het: 'n dis wat in een pot of pan gekook word. Hierdie gereg is dan ook een van daardie wat min gas of krag gebruik en wat maklik is om te maak.

Veral aan boord van 'n klein vaartuig op die oop see.

Hierdie spesifieke resep is eintlik 'n versameling van idees. Risotto is normaalweg 'n pot-pourri van bestanddele en bestaan uit uie, rys en dan groente en vleis na jou eie vindingrykheid. Of die oorskiet in die yskas. Jy sal die oorskiet nie herken nie.

Die rys word geroerbraai in die sappe van die vleis, daarna aangevul met 'n skeut of wat droeë witwyn en/of sjerrie. Verdere vog is groente of hoenderaftreksel, daarna warm water. Die dis word deurgaans geroer tot die rys die vog opgeneem het, waarna die vog weer aangevul word. Dis rys moet so pappery wees.

Die voorbereidingstyd vir hierdie dis is in die omgewing van 20-30 minute, dan eet jy.

Bestanddele vir 4 etes

1 mediumgrootte ui

1 prei

3 halms sprietuie vir garnering

2-3 huisies vars knoffel, gekap en fyngedruk

½ brandrissie

1 koppie rys. Die resepte op die internet vereis arborio-rys. Ek het jasmynrys gebruik. Die “sticky rice” wat vir sushi gebruik word is waarskynlik die beste. Jy soek rys met baie stysel en wat maklik pap kook.

250g ontbeende hoender in blokkies of repies gesny

300g sampioene. Ek het vars Pine Rings ( Lactarius deliciosus) gebruik. Jy kan ook gewone sampioene gebruik.

50 g gerasperde Parmesankaas

½ koppie room

½ koppie droeë witwyn

1 koppie hoenderaftreksel

2-3 koppies water, soos nodig

Skeut kookolie

sout en peper

Metode:

Braai die hoender en sampioene tot die hoender mooi bruin is. Verwyder dit uit die pan en hou dit eenkant. Hou die sappe in die pan. Voeg die gekapte ui en prei by en roerbraai dit tot die ui deurskynend is. Voeg dan die knoffel en brandrissie by en braai dit nog vir 'n minuut of twee. Voeg nou die rou rys by die pan en roerbraai dit tot dit die sappe geabsorbeer het. Voeg dan die witwyn by en hou aan roer tot dit ook geabsorbeer is. Voeg nou die hoenderaftreksel by terwyl jy aanhou om die dis te roer. Die rys moenie vasbrand nie, dan kan jy maar oor begin. Voeg daarna die water bietjie vir bietjie by en toets gereeld die rys vir gaarheid.

Wanneer die rys begin sag kook, sit die hoender en sampioene weer terug in die pan en roer steeds. Toets dan vir sout. Die dis sal nou begin dik raak soos die rys die water absorbeeer en die stysel loskom. Garneer die dis met die gekapte sprietuie en skakel die hitte af wanneer die rys gaar is na smaak. Sit die deksel op die pan en laat die dis rus vir so 10 minute. Strooi die gerasperde kaas oor die dis net voor jy opdien, of roer dit deur voor die dis rus. Die keuses is legio.

Ons het sommer uit die pan opgedis. Hierdie gereg werk goed saam met 'n droeë witwyn. 

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