The Trauma When a Foodie Goes Liveaboard

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by Vasco

There's no need to change your eating habits once you move aboard. Just prepare your meals as you always do. Sometimes you have to be a bit flexible and make some changes. We had a 12 pound turkey for Christmas but we had to take the breastbone out to make it fit in our small oven. No big deal. The bird was just as delicious. And there was a lot more stuffing too

Exactly. You make accommodations for what you have to hand. The upside of a less-than-deluxe kitchen is that the kitchen sails directly to where the interesting food comes from.

[Mithril Bham]

I ran 300 week-long charters and organized many more. My favorites were the many people who said food was insignificant to them and then raved about the food in follow-up correspondence. A great meal is critical to my enjoyment of cruising but there are tricks.
Where are you located?
In the PNW we have lots of great seafood. You can catch it yourself or buy it fresh on the docks.
Bouillabaisse is something I do a lot. Make base in advance and feed six people a good meal with a single burner and oven. Warm bread in oven, make salad & add fresh seafood. Crab crepes with Aunt Penny's white sauce & cheese for sauce. So easy.
I find a crab cooker comes in handy to have a powerful burner capable of boiling lots of water fast or other things. I prefer a toaster oven over a microwave if you want to get fancy. Also a Coleman stove for a couple of more burners. Barbecues onshore are great.
Don't listen to the nea-sayers. Good meals are important in so many ways. Feel sorry for those who haven't discovered that.

[leftbrainstuff]

Pressure cooker, magma bbq, french press, good gas oven and a nice small galley. This is cooking bliss.

We have no AC appliances. They are power hogs and take up way too much space. The one exception is pureeing. Crucial for good curries. Havent found a decent 12v unit yet. A mortar and pestle comes close but is time consuming.

It aint the gadgets that make good food. Good food existed long before all the gadget crapware appeared.

We use our pressure cooker extensively. It's a German Fissler half height unit which fits under the stove. We also bake and go fresh whenever possible.

Roasts, bbqs, curries, salads, mexican, french, greek, etc. None require gadgets to enjoy.

We aint camping.

[Mithril Bham]

Love food threads. Sort of like climate change. Brings out some passion. I think it was Chichester who had a barrel of mush lashed to his mast. That and 100 bottles of whiskey got him around the world. Met two young French guys in Antigua who made the crossing with a big bag of rice and lots of water in a 23' sloop. Caught fish on the way. Maybe when I was 23 but not at 70.
Each to their own.

[TrentePieds]

Contrary to common modern belief, cooking isn't done with appliances. It's done with knowledge, some few basic ingredients and a very, very few basic utensils which have all been mentioned already in this thread. Indeed, many have been mentioned that you can do without, though they are nice to have.

The Scowegians among us consider "stegt ål" - fried eel (Anguilla anguilla) a great delicacy. All that's required by way of utensils is a "black frier" - and of course a chefs' knife. The stodge to accompany the pure proteine furnished by the eel is, traditionally, scalloped potatoes. All of that is simplicity itself. The only "difficult" part is the milk for the potatoes. Canned condensed milk will do, as will milk powder, both of which are easily stowed even in a rather primitive thirty footer. And it has to be a tiny, tiny cruiser that can't find room for a potted parsley plant!

D'ye want to go further afield? Does Kedgeree count as being fit for a "foodie"? Mine does. So sez a "T"shirt sent to me long ago from Grand Bahama as thanks for a a week's crooze'n'learn in the Salish Sea. Rice, hard boiled eggs, local fish, curry sauce and, optionally, local fruits and veggies. Nothing to it.

While we are in that department, how about Channa Masala? Mit roti, of course. The standard chappati makes up in minutes from Atta flour, and if you don't have that - which I don't bother to carry in TrentePieds - then whole wheat flour, useful also for many other things, will do. Flat-breads are okay to cook while underway, but I stay away from the various deep fried kinds of naan for fairly obvious reasons.

I have the great advantage over many of those who are forty years younger than I of having grown up in a place that was economically poor and technologically - uhm... behind the times. The cargo I carry is therefore one of knowledge of the basics, of adaptability and of a certain disdain for the cornucopia of "devices" that Madison Avenue seems to have convinced many is absolutely essential to the "good life".

In a cruiser's galley what is wanted, IMO, is not such "modern conveniences" - not even a fridge - but proper and adequate stowage for non-perishable ingredients that make delicious meals if you know how to use them.

TrentePieds

[Island Time O25]

To paraphrase a trite saying - "It's all about the ingredients, stupid".

No fancy-shmancy restaurant made bouillabaisse can compare to the simple sea food mix soup made from just caught fish, crabs, mollusks and whatnot. Fresh out of the water is the key. Just keep on hand the right spices and condiments in your galley.

[Scott Berg]

After re-reading this some clear patterns appear:
--Most of us, even former restaurant folks like me, cook MORE when cruising and enjoy it more
--There are a few common suggestions
----Cast Iron Skillet(s)
----Stick Blender
----Pressure Cooker
----Vacuum Bagger
----A few GOOD knives (as opposed to a lot of average ones)

From there it's local ingredients, lots of spices, good grains, and a lot of love.
As I noted earlier, we find that sous vide cooking with an immersion circulator (in a Yeti cooler usually) is a good, low power consumption, flexible means of protein prep. Modernist cuisine isn't for everyone but we've had great luck with some modern techniques and find the necessary equipment takes up little space (we already have the cooler(s) and vacuum bagger). We also find that a high end BBQ is great; we can smoke on it, even bake bread when it's too hot below. That and a large stock pot (lives in a locker filled with stuff till called upon for crabs, lobsters, or a bunch of pot luck bound chili!
Oh, and IF you have a freezer getting proteins cut in squared off shapes, vac bagged, and HARD frozen (-20F) means more fit in the freezer and you can be defrosting steaks two weeks out to celebrate the 'half way point of a crossing. Any 'foodie' should LOVE the idea of cooking on a boat in new places trying new foods, spices and techniques. Go for it!

[Mithril Bham]

Originally Posted by Island Time O25

To paraphrase a trite saying - "It's all about the ingredients, stupid".

No fancy-shmancy restaurant made bouillabaisse can compare to the simple sea food mix soup made from just caught fish, crabs, mollusks and whatnot. Fresh out of the water is the key. Just keep on hand the right spices and condiments in your galley.

Same thing just different name. Bouillabaisse originated with poor fisherment who threw the leftovers in a pot. Fish soup may be less offensive to those who don't like expensive restaurants. I love expensive restaurants as long as someone else is paying.

[Ironman162]

There is seriiously no need to live a Spartan life aboard a boat.

I use a food processor, a blender and a Thermomix in addition to a pressure cooker and enjoy entertaining friends occasionally.

It just depends on your passion ... create it the way you want it to be.

[Mithril Bham]

Originally Posted by magellanyachts

Same thing just different name. Bouillabaisse originated with poor fishermen who threw the leftovers in a pot. Fish soup may be less offensive to those who don't like expensive restaurants. I love expensive restaurants as long as someone else is paying.

p.s. Saffron & fennel is the key. Get saffron at 1/10th the price if you know where to look.

[Sunsetrider]

I am the "eating foodie" and my wife is the "cooking foodie" - but she ain't gonna be voyaging with me. Consequently, the tips and hints in this thread are of marginal use to me without first embarking on significant further exploration. For example, I have never used, nor seen used, a pressure cooker, other than watching my uncle make whisky when I was a lad. Grandma was enraged. I will be working with an alcohol stovetop and a pushpit BBQ, maybe fridge and maybe not. But I had better start getting some practice in!

As for a vacuum bagger, I have been using the "immerse zip-lock bag in water and roll-up" method, which works well for me. Does a "real" one work significantly better?

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by Caribbeachbum

My only point of stress is the stand mixer! I love making bread and pasta from scratch, and hate kneading and rolling by hand. But the space it takes up ...oof. It probably doesn't get to come along when we cut the lines for good.

check out "Artisan Bread in only 5 minutes a day." No kneading. Just started doing it. Tastes great. Less work. More filling.

[Scott Berg]

[QUOTE=

As for a vacuum bagger, I have been using the "immerse zip-lock bag in water and roll-up" method, which works well for me. Does a "real" one work significantly better?[/QUOTE]

The answer it 'it depends.' For seafood and low temp cooking where you don't want the tight vacuum it works fine; for infusing and for higher temps I prefer knowing the exact makeup of the plastics I'm sealing in. Ziplock bags (the real ones) are probably OK; Purpose designed sous vide bags are for sure.

There is a LOT of this on the Modernist Cuisine Website.

Is It Safe to Cook with Plastic? | Modernist Cuisine

[TheThunderbird]

A few Pans, but the best you can afford! Ittala, Hackman, Barazzoni, Alessi,..

A Wok ! And a terracotta pot (red ones, the best, from portugal).

A casserole in pure iron, type of Le Creuset, with a heavy lid it is oven-like and Cooks poultry at best.

Knives? Buy the best of best you can afford... By Zwilling and the likes....(it is an entry level to serious cooks).

I find no limits at cooking onboard, including confiture, bain-marie, etc except Flambee , wwhich is dangerous

[Sunsetrider]

Scott - so I've been checking out sous vide cooking - seems like a good idea for cruising. They (the immersion circulators) seem to run 8-900 watts and I wonder how you power it.