Cooking with Windom

Cruising on a boat, we've discovered that many items we took for granted in our large home groceries and health-food stores are either unavailable or pricy outside the US. These are not too difficult to make, and the home-made versions taste better than store-bought, too! 

Ilana's awesome boat granola

 Mix oil and honey in a large nonstick frying pan over medium heat. (Rather than measuring the oil, I fill a ¼ cup measure about ¾ full of oil, swirl it around before pouring it into the skillet, then fill it with honey and pour that. The oil keeps the honey from sticking to the cup.) When the liquid starts to boil, add the oats, and add a little spice if desired. Stir constantly over medium heat until oats are medium-light brown, about 5-8 minutes. The mixture will still be soft, but will harden as it cools. Remove from heat and allow to cool. When cool and hard, mix in nuts and dried fruit to taste (we like lots!) I usually make two batches each time; if you have a bigger pan you can probably make more at once. This is an original recipe based on an oven-baked granola recipe from a cookbook called Quick and Easy, edited by Shelly Melvin.

Boat yogurt

Heat water to 112°-118° and pour into insulated (e.g. Thermos) bottle. Add dry milk and mix well, add starter and mix well, cover and leave in warm place for 5 hours to overnight. Warmer weather requires less time. I use an insulated French press coffeemaker with a kitchen towel folded over the uninsulated lid. Powdered whole milk (hard to find in the US) sets more solidly than nonfat dry milk; I usually use about half of each kind. This recipe originally credited to "Nancy on Lonesome Dove"; I got it from Penelope on Odyssey.

Gravlax

This preserved fish is traditionally made with salmon, but we use tail filets of mahi-mahi as suggested in Michael Greenwald's The Cruising Chef Cookbook, which is the source of this recipe. The exact amounts of the ingredients to use depend on the number and size of filets used, but the basic mix is 2 parts salt to 1 part sugar, with dill and black pepper to taste (a teaspoon or so of each, to each half cup of mix). Pat the filets thickly with the mixture and place two similarly-sized filets against each other in a Ziploc type bag and seal. Put bags in fridge under a weight such as cans of vegetables on top of a board -- something to press and flatten the fish. Every few hours, drain the liquid out of the bag. In 48 hours the gravlax is ready to eat; pat off salt with paper towels, slice thinly and serve with mustard sauce, or mayonnaise or yogurt mixed with a little lemon and dill, on crackers or bread. It is very salty. Gravlax keeps in the fridge for six weeks or more.

Ginger fizz (10-liter batch)

Put ginger in plastic bag and hit with hammer to smush it (or use garlic press). Add ginger and cloves to1½ liter of water, and boil for 20-30 minutes. Reduce heat and add sugar, stirring until it's all dissolved. White sugar makes a pale brew, light brown crystalized sugar (e.g. "sugar in the raw" which is common in the Caribbean) is more amber; you can also use up to 1 cup of commercial US-style brown sugar in combination with white to make a fairly dark amber. Pour into large container -- we use a 6-gallon jerry jug. Add remaining ingredients, cap container, and shake well. In 2 days when you open it, you should hear gas escaping, and the surface should be all bubbly -- if not, let it sit another day or so. Bottle in plastic bottles which have held fizzy drinks (and are therefore strong enough to hold up under the pressure which will develop). Shake well before bottling. Don't refrigerate for at least 2 days, as refrigeration retards the bubblizing process, but after that the brew is ready to drink. Watch bottles for stretch marks, which may signal imminent explosion -- drink or release pressure within 3 weeks.

We got the original recipe from Aaron and Colleen on Redwings. We modified it by cutting the batch size in half (because otherwise we'd make too much and it would all explode!), translating from metric (except for liters, since it's easy to use an empty liter bottle as a measuring tool), adding the cloves, and using a little more sugar and a lot more ginger. Friends on another boat killed their starter by mistake and started over with a teaspoon of baking yeast, and it worked just fine, although the first batch had a little more "yeasty" taste. I have made it without tartaric acid, using another ¼ cup lemon juice, and it worked well and tasted good.

I made a "microbatch" of experimental lemon-lime soda in a 2-liter bottle (1 cup sugar, ½ cup lemon juice, ¼ cup lime juice, no tartaric acid, about 6 raisins, and the dregs of a bottle of ginger fizz) and it was tasty, although it took more days than I expected to come up to full fizzy pressure. A full batch of lime soda using 4½ cups of lime juice was a little on the sour side but still good. I also made a microbatch of grapefruit soda using 1 cup of sweetened "ruby red" grapefruit juice plus ¼ cup lemon juice, and it was a little overly sweet -- I think less sugar than 1 cup to every 2 liters of water should be used, when using sweetened juice.  I tried it again with half a cup and it was good.

Triggerfish Sausage

Grind fish in meat grinder or food processor.  We find that three medium triggerfish = three cups.  Mix seasonings together, then mix into fish until evenly distributed.  Shape fish mixture into patties.  Thinly coat a teflon skillet with vegetable oil and cook the patties on one side until edges turn white, then flip them over and cook until done.

This recipe is originally credited to "Nancy on Lonesome Dove"; I got it from Penelope on Odyssey and the only change I've made is to double the chili powder).  It's amazing how sausage-y these taste - you won't believe your mouth. The uncooked sausage will keep for several days in the fridge (I think the salt helps preserve it, but as it's not processed it won't last like smoked sausage does) and you can also cut leftover cooked sausage into little pieces and eat it as an appetizer or lunch meat.  Needless to say, this is very low-fat and high-protein.  I imagine any firm white fish would work well in this recipe.

[updated 5/10/2005]back to home | back to articles