Broccoli, chickpeas and tomatoes

 

This is a quick light dinner, ideal for when you come home late, have had sundowners with lots of snacks or simply aren’t feeling very hungry. In spite of its simplicity, it’s really quite delicious: somehow chickpeas and tomatoes are an unbeatable combination

Serves 2

Ingredients

1/2 cup chickpeas, soaked and cooked

1 small head of broccoli broken into florets, stalk trimmed and diced

olive oil

1 medium onion diced

2 cloves garlic, dice

1/2 tsp salt

4 medium tomatoes, quartered

pepper

Method:

• Briefly cook the broccoli until barely softened. Drain and set aside.
• Heat the oil in a frying pan and then add the broccoli stalk, the onion and the garlic and sprinkle over the salt.
• Cook over a moderate heat until softened, but not browned. Cover with a lid to speed things up a little; add a tablespoonful or two of water if it looks like burning.
• Once everything is softened and the onion translucent, tip in the tomatoes and cover once more. Cook for about five minutes on a medium flame until the tomatoes are heated through and starting to soften.
• Gently fold in the broccoli and chickpeas and cook until the broccoli has reached the right consistency. Grind over a generous amount of black pepper and serve hot on warmed plates.

Accompany the meal with thick slices of good bread, to mop up the juices.

Variation:

• You could also serve this over short pasta such as penne, or polenta.

 

 

You will find many more recipes like this here

 

Mushroom matar malai - Mushroom white curry

 

This recipe is so freely adapted from the more authentic ones, that I hardly dare to put it into ‘Curries for Cooks’. However, as it uses one or two spices/herb which only dedicated curry cooks are likely to have on board, that’s how I shall categorise it. (This, of course, assumes that anyone ever looks at the pages on this blog!)

I first made this when I had been ‘off my food’ for a while and unable to face the thought of any Indian food. As I generally adore such recipes, this was a personal tragedy at the time. I had been sent a malai recipe in one of my blog feeds, and it attracted my attention as having not too many spices and looking like something might tempt my appetite. The recipe in question was for paneer, which I can’t obtain locally (and as an aspiring vegan, try to avoid), I looked to see if there were any more recipes on the Internet and came across a mushroom malai, with even fewer spices – perhaps too few - so I took a bit from both recipes.

When I came to look more closely, I discovered that these ‘white’ curries usually contain cashew nuts (this isn’t just a vegan spin on Indian food: a lot of Indian recipes call for cashews), which I don’t include and malai, which means cream, which I also left out. Vegan versions use cashew nut cream; vegetarian versions seem to use cream plus some yoghurt, which I think is because Indian cream is thicker than that which is available in most countries (the UK being – or was! - a notable exception) and sounds more like ‘double cream’. Anyway, this is all irrelevant, because I simply used a goodly amount of nice, thick yoghurt, bearing in mind that cashews might be a bit expensive for small income sailors.  However, if you want to use cashew cream, I give instructions in the Variations.

The onions, garlic and ginger are meant to be ground to a paste in a blender. I couldn’t be bothered (another side effect of the appetite loss) and simply diced them very finely. They certainly didn’t intrude, but the blender instructions are described in Variations.

Matar, by the way, means peas, so they are, strictly, essential. Otherwise it will be simply mushroom malai. I used freeze-dried peas – essential voyagers’ provisions. The curry, even with all my alterations, was incredibly good. I could have scoffed the lot – so obviously it also restored my appetite for Indian food!!

I have made it several times since and it has become one of my favourite ways to eat mushrooms. I’ve been tweaking the spices to keep the curry mellow, but with lots of flavour and, having now got it about right, I feel I can finally post the recipe. If you’re not fond of too much chilli, leave out the chillies and simply use the Kashmiri chilli powder. I have even made this recipe without any cream, yoghurt or cream substitute and it is still delicious. I’m afraid the photos don’t show a white curry: the button mushroom that I buy locally, always turn any sauce brown. Oyster mushrooms would probably produce a lighter-coloured sauce. Use as many mushrooms as you think you can eat: this isn’t a particularly filling meal.  Moreover, as it is spectacularly delicious, it's difficult not to eat the full two servings oneself and I've taken to adding chickpeas to it.

Serves 2

Ingredients

1½ tbsp ghee or oil

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1 small piece mace

1 or 2 green chillies, chopped

1 small onion, finely diced

1/2 tsp ginger paste

2 garlic cloves, finely diced or 1/2 tsp garlic paste

2 green cardamoms, seeds only

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp water

2 cups of white mushrooms quartered

1/2 cup yoghurt, thinned to pouring consistency, if necessary

1/8 tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup freeze-dried peas

1/4 tsp ground white pepper or black, if that’s all you have

1/4 tsp garam masala

1 tbsp kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves)

Method:

• Heat the ghee in a heavy-based saucepan and sizzle the cumin seeds and mace.
• Add the chilli and cook for a few moments.
• Now add the onion, ginger, garlic, cardamom seeds, coriander, chilli powder and salt. Cook for a couple of minutes, lower the heat and add the water. (This is to stop the vegetables browning). Cook until the onions, etc are soft adding a drop more water if necessary.
• Now raise the heat once more, add the mushrooms and cook for a few minutes, ensuring that they are well-covered in the ghee/spice/aromatics mixture.
• When the mushrooms are starting to soften, add the peas.  As my mushrooms never seem to give off any liquid, you might find that more water is needed.  
• Cook for another four or five minutes and then stir in the yoghurt and cinnamon and bring everything to a very gentle boil. Now turn the heat right down until the mixture is barely simmering and add the pepper.
• Put a lid on and simmer until the mushrooms are cooked. Remove the lid so that the sauce can thicken to the consistency you want, then add the methi and garam masala. Cook very gently for another couple of minutes.

Serve with roti, brown basmati rice, or cumin rice if you prefer.  

Notes:

• This recipe would be a good one for voyagers who make their own yoghurt.
• Whole mace, unlike the ground variety, has a surprisingly intense flavour. If you’re not used to using it, be careful how much you add. I broke off a piece about the size of a small cardamom pod.

Variations:

• If you want to end up with a smoother sauce, add the onion, ginger, garlic, and green chilli to a blender or food processor and blend to make a rough paste.  Add this paste to the pan, after you've fried the cumin and mace.
• Use cashew cream instead of yoghurt.  To make cashew cream, put 1/4 cup of cashews in a blender and grind them to a powder.  Than add 1/4 cup of water and blend until you have a smooth liquid.  I usually find I need to add more water after adding the peas, so you rinse out the blender with a couple of tbsp water and add that to the pot.  
• For a more filling meal, add ½ cup chickpeas or white beans, soaked, cooked and drained. Or a can.  
• This is quite a quick meal to make because you can just add everything in order, stirring to ensure that it’s all mixed as you don’t want the fried vegetables and spices to turn brown. 

 You will find more recipes like this here

 

Cornish pasties

Pasties originate in Cornwall, so perhaps it’s not surprising that I associate them with Falmouth.  Known locally as ‘Oggies’ for some obscure reason, they were a neatly packaged lunch for men working in the tin mines.  The story goes that they were savoury at one end and that the other end was filled with jam. Nowadays, they’re usually made with meat, but of course they were originally vegetarian – miners couldn’t afford meat for lunch. Rowes, in Falmouth, used to make (and probably still do!) probably the best vegetarian pasty that I’ve ever eaten.  However, they used flaky pastry, which is far from authentic and so awkward to make, that I don’t suggest it for any of my recipes, in spite of which, the following recipe is an attempt to replicate Rowes' masterpiece.

 

Ideally, pasties are made in an oven, but if you don’t have one, they can be ‘dry’ fried in a heavy frying pan and are almost as good. To do this, put the frying pan over a flame tamer and a low flame. When you’ve made the pasties, put them in the pan. Their semi-circular shape makes this quite straightforward. After about 10 minutes, carefully turn them over, using a fish slice and/or tongs. Cook the other side. The pastry should brown nicely where it’s in contact with the pan and the rest should cook through to become opaque. Turn them again for another 5 minutes each side if they don’t seem quite done. If you have a well-vented lid to let the steam out, (so that they don’t end up soggy) you can cover them to speed things up a little.

 

Makes 2 pasties

 

Ingredients

 

1 portion of pastry

1 potato

1 carrot

1 small swede or turnip - about the size of a tennis ball

1 onion

a good pinch each of rosemary, thyme and sage

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp white pepper

 

Method:

• If you are using it, pre-heat the oven to Fairly Hot. 
• Thinly slice the potato, carrot, swede and onion, then put them into a pan of lightly salted water, bring to the boil and cook for 5 minutes.
• Add the herbs, salt and the white pepper. Half a tsp might seem a lot, but in my opinion, good pasties are always quite peppery and cook abit longer, until tender – about ten minutes. Drain and cool, trying not to break up the slices.  
• Make the pastry and roll out; cut out two discs about the diameter of your frying pan or about 200mm/8 in across, if you're cooking in the oven.
• Pile the filling carefully in the centre of each disc. 
• Now moisten the edges with water: a 12 mm (1/2 inch) paintbrush is ideal for this, or just use your finger. Fold each disc in two and pinch the edges together. The easiest way tends to be to start from the middle and work to the ends. Poke back any of the filling that tries to drop out. When the pasty is sealed, fold the seam back over on itself, at 12 mm/1/2 in intervals, to double seal the edge and pinch it between finger and thumb. This should result in a highly professional looking crimped effect.
• Bake in a Fairly Hot oven for 20 – 25 minutes. Or dry fry them in a heavy frying pan (see introduction to recipe). Eat hot or cold.
• 
  

Notes:

• If you don’t have white pepper, use black, but the white pepper is what is traditionally used and adds a different sort of ‘heat’ from black.
• If you are confident about the pan/flame tamer arrangement, add a little oil to the pan before adding the pasties. This will ensure a delightful golden crust, but if the pan is too hot you could easily burn the pastry.

Variations:

• Cook a small diced potato, small carrot, small onion and 1/4 cup split peas in a small saucepan. Season with a few herbs, salt and pepper and, when it’s cooled, pile onto the pastry. Complete and cook as above.
• Leftover stewor hotpot can also be used. Ensure it’s well drained before putting it on the pastry.
• Add freeze-dried peas to the filling.
• Any of the fillings for empanadas can be used to make a savoury pasty.
• Pasties are good hot, as a main meal, with a green vegetable such as Brussels sprouts. I dare say some people would like to add a gravy or sauce of some description, too.

 

'Chicken' seitan and spinach in Indian creamy sauce - Malai palak

This is one of those insanely good Indian recipes that I find irresistable.  Malai means cream, Palak is spinach and this is a loosely adapted recipe from Vegan Richa. In her recipe, she uses soy curls to replace chicken, which are then cooked in a delectable creamy spicy sauce. I’m not even sure if you can buy soy curls in New Zealand and can’t imagine them being commonly available around the world, so it strikes me as a much better idea to use seitan.  Seitan also produces a nice 'meaty' result.

In the original, the soy curls are marinaded and then baked. I think marinades are unseamanlike underway, as well as being wasteful. Certainly, I don’t find it makes much difference to seitan and in fact you get infinitely better results from incorporating the flavours into the seitan in the first place. This is what I’ve done in this recipe. As for baking - I assume many small income voyagers stil lsail without ovens and even those who do, will probabaly avoid using them because of the cost - and the fact that they heat up the cabin.

 

I use ginger paste and garlic paste in my ‛Indian’ cooking. If you prefer to use finely minced ginger and garlic, go ahead.  I'm not sure that this is really a Curry For Cooks, in spite the use of ingredients being pretty authentic: most boats would probably have them on board.  The only exception is the methi and if you don't have it you can leave it out.

Serves 2

Ingredients

For the ‟marinaded chicken”

6 slightly rounded tbsp vital wheat gluten

2 tbsp gram flour

2 tsp nutritional yeast

1/2 tsp mushroom stock powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp onion powder

        1/4 tsp garlic granules

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/4 cup water

1 tbsp soya sauce

For the sauce:

1 tsp oil

1 (Indian) bay leaf

1 whole clove

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 tsp garlic paste

1/2 tsp ginger paste

1 small green chilli, diced

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/8 tsp cayenne OR 1/4 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder

pinch ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp black pepper

*200 ml/7 oz ounce can of full fat coconut milk

2 tbsp vegan yoghurt

1/4 cup water or milk

125 g/4 oz spinach, washed and roughly chopped

1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves, kasuri methi

garam masala

chilli flakes

Method:

• Seitan: In a bowl, mix vital wheat gluten, gram flour, nutritional yeast, mushroom stock powder, salt, onion powder, garlic granules, ground coriander and ground cumin.
• In a small jug, mix the water and soya sauce and add them to the bowl.
• Mix into a soft dough, starting with a knife or spatula and ending with your hand. If the mix seems a little bit dry, add a little more water, a teaspoonful at a time. Use the dough to clean your bowl thoroughly, otherwise the dried seitan will need to be soaked off.
• Put the dough on a board and flatten down. You will be cutting it into bite-sized chunks, so it wants to be a suitable thickness.
• Put the trivet into your pressure cooker, along with 1/2 cup water. Place the seitan on the trivet, and bring up to pressure for 5 minutes. Let the pressure go down naturally.
• When you can take the lid off, take out the seitan and cut it up – or tear it for a more ‛authentic’ appearance.
• If you want to, you can now fry the chunks in some oil so that they are crisp on the outside. On odds, I think I prefer them soft.

For the sauce:

• Heat a pan over medium high heat and add some oil.
• Now add the bay leaf, clove, onion, garlic paste, ginger paste, green chilli salt. Cook stirring occasionally until onion is golden.
• Turn down the heat and add coriander, ground cumin, cayenne or Kashmiri chilli, cinnamon and black pepper
• Throw in the seitan pieces and turn for a few minutes so that they are well mixed in and covered in the spices.
• Then add in the milk, yoghurt, water and spinach and mix in. Reduce heat to medium low, cover and cook for 12-15 mins, checking that it’s not drying out. Add some more water, if necessary.
• Add the kasuri methi, check salt and flavour and carry on cooking until you get a rich creamy sauce.

Garnish with garam masala and chilli pepper flakes if you like, and serve with rice, roti or even good quality bread.

Variations:

• Use two or three leaves of Swiss chard instead of spinach.
• Replace the seitan with half a cup of chickpeas or beans, cooked and drained, putting them in with the spinach
• Add some quartered mushrooms, with the onions, etc.
• If you don’t have yoghurt, use more milk/water. If you have a lot of coconut yoghurt, you can just thin that down to suit. You need around 300 ml liquid. You may need to simmer for more or less time to achieve the consistency you want.

Notes:

• * Coconut milk tends to come in an odd assortment of sizes. Just use a can closest to the size in the recipe. If you’re fortunate to find dried, genuine coconut milk, mix that according to the instructions on the container.

 

You will find many more recipeslike this, here, here and here 

 

 

Lentil lasagne

Lasagne is generally served up sizzling hot from the oven, with a crisp top, and often crunchy bits of lasagne sticking out. I’ve read that some Italians prefer to pop it into the oven for only about a quarter of an hour and to eat it moist and soft. That being so, I think we’ll go for the latter ‘gourmet’ version, which means that instead of using an oven, we can use the pressure cooker. However, be warned that this may not work in a cheap pan because it’s likely to stick. (If your pressure cooker is a bit on the thin side, what you’ll have to do is to put the lasagne into something like a cake tin, that will fit in your pressure cooker. Put half a pint of water in the bottom of the cooker, with the tin on the trivet, loosely covered with greaseproof paper or foil. It can then be cooked at high pressure for 10 minutes.)

I specify ‘no-cook’ lasagne, but in fact I believe that nearly all lasagne sheets can be used without pre-cooking.  If you can find the right pasta, this recipe can be gluten free.

Serves 2

Ingredients

6 pieces ‘no-cook’ lasagne

1/2 cup whole lentils

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, diced

1 red or green pepper, chopped

400 g/14 oz can chopped tomatoes

1/2 tsp sage

1/2 tsp basil

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp chilli flakes

salt and pepper

cheese sauce, mixed more thickly, as shown in the Variations on that post

Method:

• Cook the soaked lentils as usual and set aside.
• Heat the olive oil in a saucepan. Add the onion, garlic and pepper and fry until the onion is golden.
• Add the tomatoes and mix in the sage, basil, oregano, cinnamon, chilli flakes, salt and pepper.
• When everything is mixed together and heated through, add the lentils. Cook gently for ten minutes or so to let all the flavours combine. Taste and check the seasoning.
• Pour half the sauce into the bottom of the pressure cooker. Add half the lasagne sheets. Unfortunately, these will not fit very neatly, but you will have to do your best. Now add the rest of the sauce and the remaining lasagne. Cover with the cheese sauce, pouring carefully, to ensure that all the lasagne is covered.
• On a medium heat, bring the pressure cooker up to pressure. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes and reduce pressure at room temperature. Ideally, leave it for a further five minutes so that if the lasagne has caught at all, it will lift easily from the pan. It’s impossible to serve this dish at all elegantly, but if you spoon it carefully from the pan, the layers should remain more or less intact.

Serve with a cooked green vegetable or salad.

Variations:

• Use 4 or 5 fresh tomatoes and 1/4 cup red wine in the sauce.
• Add extra grated cheese or "Parmegan"

Alternative cooking:

• Arrange the lasagne in a shallow oven-proof dish and cook it in a moderate oven for a quarter of an hour or so. I don’t find it needs the 45 minutes that most cookbooks recommend. In this case, you can substitute the cheese and yoghurt sauce for cheese sauce. It’s quicker and easier to make, and probably more nutritious, but due to the yoghurt, it might separate in the pressure cooker.
• Layer the lasagne into a deep frying pan, or wide saucepan. Heat over a low heat, using a flame tamer if necessary, to ensure it doesn’t catch and get burnt. Cover and cook for about 15 minutes, checking every now and then to see if the sauce has cooked, by which time it will be quite firm. In this case you can also use the cheese and yoghurt sauce.

 

 

You will find many more recipes for pasta on the page:  Main-course recipes - pasta based

 

 

Paella

 

Paella is Spain’s version of pulau or pilaf - as you can guess from the name.    Although everyone associates it with shellfish, oddly enough, seafood isn’t always included, and Valencians apparently consider it quite wrong.  But on the other hand meat is - and so are snails(!) - so this version could hardly be described as authentic.    However, I have tried to use the traditional method and seasoning.    Paella can contain a number of different vegetables such as green beans or fresh broad beans.    A lot of veg~an cooks add artichokes, but I can always taste the vinegar that has been added to the jars and I feel this would not improve the flavour.   However, apparently they were included in winter, when (flat) green beans were unavailable.  Many paella include Lima beans (very popular in Spain), so I've included them, but broad, cannellini, haricot or any white bean would all work well and might be easier to get hold of.    You can leave them out altogether if you want: I do when the weather is really hot and I have less appetite.   

One of the ways in which paella is similar to Persian pilaf is that it is cooked in such a way that the rice at the bottom of the pan forms a crust, know as socarrat.    This is full of flavour and adds to this already delicious dish.     All the cookery books tell you that this crust won’t form if you use a non-stick frying pan: that may well be correct if you have one coated in Teflon, but my Spanish Valira frying pan/skillet apparently has a multi-layer non-stick surface made from titanium (!) and this certainly allows for the socarrat to develop.   I reckon you need to be reasonably generous with the olive oil, but, more importantly, once you’ve added the water, don’t stir it.    If you do, you’ll lift up the rice that’s at the bottom of the pan and the socarrat will have to start all over again.    However, don’t worry it it doesn't form: the paella will still be yummy.

As a reality check, for voyagers who don’t want to make or buy sausage of some description, I’ve tried leaving out the sausage. It still tastes fantastic. In fact, I’m often too lazy to make chorizo, and the photo shows an alternative with no sausage and with chick peas instead of white beans.  Indeed, apparently all hell was let loose in Valencia, when Jamie Oliver (no less!) suggested using chorizo in his recipe.  Apparently this was absolute heresy! However, beans are authentic.  In truth, I suspect that the recipe has become less flexible than it was originally, when it was cooked by labourers out of doors, with whatever was to hand.

 

When I first created this recipe, I reckoned it was the sort of thing I'd cook for a Special Occasion, but the more I cook it, the more I realise that it is really very easy.  I've also come to realise that it's a lot more flexible than I had first thought, so although the following recipe is as I originally devised it, I strongly suggest you look at the Variations below to see if what you have on board can be substituted for what is shown in the ingredient list.  More than anything else, I strongly advise you to try this recipe, it is simply sooo good!  Just don't offer it to a Valencian!

Serves 2

 

Ingredients

1/2 tsp saffron threads, crumbled

1 tbsp white wine or water

1/4 cup freeze-dried peas

2 veg~an Italian sausages or 1/2 Chorizo, thickly sliced

olive oil

1 small onion, diced

1 small red bell pepper, cut into strips

2 cloves garlic, chopped, minced or crushed

 a handful of green beans cut into 30 mm lengths

1 medium tomato, diced

1 tbsp capers

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika

1/2 tsp thyme OR rosemary

 1/4 tsp cayenne

3/4 cups Spanish or arborio rice

1 1/2 cups water

 1/2 cup of cooked Lima beans

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp mushroom stock powder 

black pepper to taste

fresh parsley

Method:

• Put the water or white wine into a bowl.    If it’s cold, try and warm it a little to help infuse the saffron.    Add the crumbled strands to the bowl and set aside.
• In a small saucepan, add the peas to ¼ cup lightly-salted water, cover, bring to the boil and turn off the heat.    Set aside. Or pour boiling water over the pea and add a little salt.
• Before starting on the paella itself, and assuming you only have one large frying pan or skillet, cook the slices of sausage in this now, in some olive oil.    Fry both sides until slightly crisp and then remove them from the pan onto a plate.    An additional advantage of doing this now is that the remaining oil adds additional flavour to the paella.
• Heat a little more oil in a the pan, over a medium heat. Once heated, add the onions and peppers. Sauté until softened and lightly browned, about 3-5 minutes.
• Add the garlic and sauté for a further minute.
• If you are using them, add the green beans.
• Now add the tomato, capers, smoked paprika, sweet paprika and thyme. Sauté for a couple of minutes.
• Put a little more oil in the pan and add the rice.    Stir everything thoroughly so that everything is well mixed and all the grains of rice coated with the various seasonings. Lightly toast the rice for a minute or so until it’s just starting to stick.
• Now add the water, salt, pepper, mushroom stock, saffron plus its water and the cannellini beans.    Now add your sausage pieces and stir quickly to ensure everything is evenly distributed.    Bring to a slow boil.
• Turn the heat down and keep an eye on the pan for a few minutes.    You want the liquid to be just moving, but not boiling.    The rice should take about 20 minutes to cook.    If all the liquid is absorbed at 15 minutes, carefully add another ¼ cup of water.   
• After 20 minutes, all the water should be absorbed and the rice should be cooked – this rice is not as soft as risotto, but certainly you don’t want it al dente.
• By now you should be able to hear a gentle crackling as the socarrat forms and there should be a nice toasty smell.    If it doesn’t happen, well it doesn’t happen.    With luck, practice will make perfect.    The problem with this sort of recipe is that it does rather depend on variables like how absorbent the rice is, how hot your burner is and the quality of the frying pan.    But if there is no lovely, crusty rice, the paella will still be very good.
• When you are sure that the rice is cooked, turn the heat down as low as it can go (and/or put the pan on a flame-tamer).    This will allow the crust to keep on forming. Take out a teaspoon or so of paella and check the salt.    If it needs more, sprinkle some over the whole pan – there’s still time for it to be absorbed.
• Spread the drained peas over the top of the rice (don't mix in). Cover the pan and and let the paella stand for 5 minutes or so.    If there’s the slightest smell of burning, turn off the flame.   
• Once the peas are heated through, turn off the flame and sprinkle chopped, fresh parsley over everything, should you be lucky enough to have some.    Grind some more black pepper over the top and then serve on hot plates.

Notes: 

• If you don’t have mushroom stock powder, leave it out.    The mushroom adds a nice earthy taste you won’t get from other stock powders.
• Don't be mean with the olive oil, as long as the one you have has a good flavour.  
• I am convinced that the reason this recipe tastes so good is because of the herbs and spices.  I nearly always use thyme, but apparently rosemary is more traditional.  You may find the cayenne is a bit overpowering if you don't like 'hot' food.  Cut it down or leave it out altogether if you wish, but please try to use both types of paprika and the black pepper.
• This would be a splendid dish for entertaining; unfortunately you would need a very large frying pan to cook it for four people. 

 

 

Variations: 

• 
  Saffron gives the paella its distinct flavour and colour.    Well, certainly the colour: with ingredients like sausage and tomato, the flavour doesn’t always come through. I suspect real paella has a greater proportion of rice than in this recipe. However, you can’t be mean with it, if you want to be able to taste it.    Saffron also happens to be a shocking price and some would say a very wasteful crop, seeing that only the stamens are taken from a zillion crocuses.    (However, the fields must look gorgeous when they flower!)    If either of these reasons puts you off using saffron, substitute a ¼ tsp turmeric, which will give you a similar, lovely colour.    Bear in mind that the flavour is not only different, but quite noticeable, so only use as much as you need to colour the rice.
• This recipe really needs freeze-dried peas (or, I suppose, if you are voyaging on a rather larger income, frozen).    These are readily available in many countries and, as long as the locker doesn’t get too hot, keep well for several years. Apparently they still retain a lot of their nutrients, so are more than just a pretty addition.  If you don’t have them, try and add something else green, to keep the paella looking attractive.  You could substitute half the red pepper for green and add some diced carrot, if you don’t have anything beyond the normal vegetables on board.
• However, I've come to the conclusion that peas aren't really necessary and I think that they detract from the appearance of the paella, because you can't really mix them in.  They do however add a nice flavour.  An attractive alternative is to use very small florets of broccoli instead. 
• Leave out the sausage/chorizo if you don't have it or your can't be bothered to make it. The paella tastes as good as it does because of the seasonings.
• The green beans are a traditional addition but not always easy for sailors to find.  I have successfully used thinly-sliced carrots to add to the variety.
• If you have no fresh tomato, you can use one from a tin, or ¼ cup diced tomatoes from a can, or some tomato purée (in which case, add it with the water).
• Mushrooms can be used instead of the white beans if you don’t want the paella to be too filling, but I personally don’t feel that they really go too well with everything else in this instance.  
• Chick peas substitute well for white beans, and are, of course, very popular in Spain.
• Swiss chard is also a good addition and can stand in for the peas and/or beans if necessary. I realise that it’s far from being a voyaging vegetable, but it will keep up to a week if bought very fresh and treated with care.

(Edited 3rd February 2026)

You will find many more rice recipes here 

Chickpeas with mushrooms and rice

Sharp-eyed observers may notice a family resemblance to one or two other recipes on this blog.  I make no apologies. Mushrooms and chickpeas were made for each other and are complemented superbly by tarragon and green peppercorns. 

 

Mushrooms, a sublime gift from a benign Providence, are becoming more and more easily available to cruising people. Because of this, I include them rather more often than I would have done had I written this blog 15 years ago - if there were blogs, 15 years ago. While canned mushrooms are a sad travesty of the real thing, ‘freeze-dried’ ones are a very acceptable substitute and, where available, are not outrageously expensive. While they don’t need pre-soaking, it does them no harm. If you're cooking the chickpeas from scratch, rather than using a tin, put the dried mushrooms in at the same time. Half a cup of mushrooms would need about the same water. You can of course buy such exotics as porcini or Chinese dried mushrooms, although I find the latter rather too chewy and, particularly the dark ones, slightly overpowering unless diced quite small. On the other hand, those packets of Chinese, dried 'white' mushrooms are wonderfully versatile and have a lovely flavour profile.

Serves 2

 

Ingredients 

1/2 cup chick peas, soaked

3/4 cup rice

2½ cups water

2 tbsp olive oil

6 or 8 fresh mushrooms OR 1/3 cup freeze dried mushrooms

1 onion, chopped

1 clove of garlic, chopped

1 tsp tarragon

2 tsp green peppercorns, crushed

salt

 

Method:

• Put the rice and chick peas in the pressure cooker and cook for 15 minutes. If you are using dried mushrooms, put these in at the same time and add an extra 1/2 cup of water.
• While these are cooking, heat the oil in another saucepan, slice the mushrooms and chop up the onion and garlic. Put them all into the pan and cook over a medium heat, turning frequently to prevent them from burning. Be gentle – you don’t want to break up the mushroom slices.
• Using a pestle and mortar, crush the peppercorns and grind the tarragon in with them. (If you don’t have a pestle, crush the peppercorns in a shallow bowl with the back of a spoon. Be careful, they tend to fly about a bit.) Add these to the vegetables and stir to mix everything together. Lower the heat to a minimum.
• When the chickpeas, etc have finished cooking, reduce pressure gradually and then empty the contents of the pressure cooker into the saucepan. Mix carefully, and leave for a few minutes so that the flavours mingle before serving the food.

Variations: 

• If you’re not fond of ‘spicy’ food, you may find 2 tsp of green peppercorns a bit much. In that case, reduce the amount to 1 tsp.
• If you substitute 1/4 cup wild rice for brown rice, you get a luxurious version, which you can happily serve to any guests.
• If you don't happen to have green peppercorns aboard, use black
• Thyme can be substituted for tarragon: it goes well with mushrooms, but will, of course, impart a completely different flavour to the dish.

 

You will find many more rice recipes here 

Swiss chard with white beans

 

 

It is often difficult to lay hands on the actual beans called for in a recipe, so I'm trying to remember  to use the phrase 'white beans' in the title, while suggesting what would be ideal, in the text.

This recipe is quick to make and when eaten with bread as intended, would make a substantial starter for four, or a good lunch or light dinner for two. If you use canned beans, which speeds the whole process up substantially, it would also make a good snack with something like large crackers or Melba toast, to give to visitors who have lingered until sundowners.  The combination of bread, beans and Swiss chard make for a pretty well-rounded meal nutritionally.

 

I first made this when I had no appetite and little enthusiasm for cooking, but had a large bunch of chard looking at me.  As it soon yellows, it had be to be eaten up!  I slightly altered the recipe to what is shown below, and ate it on the previous day's naan bread (= ½ cup flour), reheated on the toaster, rather than the recommended sourdough.  It was still was surprisingly good; indeed, I ate more of it than I'd anticipated.  Although the original called for cannelini beans, I can only buy them canned and as I prefer to cook my own legumes, I used haricot beans. However, using canned beans would make this meal almost ‘instant’.

 

Although the stems are a little more sturdy, the leaves of chard tend to disappear like spinach, when heated, so you will want at least six large leaves of chard and possibly more.

 

Serves 4 as a substantial starter or two for lunch or a light dinner.

 

Ingredients

 

1/2 cup haricot beans, soaked and cooked in the usual way.

1 large bunch of chard (any type) 

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

5 large cloves of garlic, sliced

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp sage

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp wine vinegar 

generous grind of pepper

Method

• Cook the beans and set aside.
• Cut off the stems from the chard and chop them into smallish pieces.  Set aside.
• Cut the leaves into strips lengthways and then across into manageable-sized strips - remember you're going to be piling this on bread!
• Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add  the chopped garlic and cook for 2 minutes, making sure it doesn't burn.
• Add the chopped chard stems and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently until they start to soften.  Sprinkle over the salt.
• Add the leaves, toss well and cook until they start to wilt. 
• Season with sage and red pepper flakes.
• Tip in in the cooked, drained beans. Gently mix together and continue to cook for 4-5 minutes, until the beans are hot.
• Add the vinegar.  Mix gently to ensure the flavours are all spread around and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes.  Grind over plenty of black pepper.
• Serve hot over thick slices of sourdough bread, or home-made bread, or even flat bread if that’s all you have. Put it on a big plate as most of the topping will try to fall off! 

It truly tastes much better than you might anticipate from the few ingredients, used.

 

Note:

• I really recommend the vinegar, it adds a je ne sais quoi that you wouldn't get from lemon juice.

Variations:

• If you retain the liquid from the can, or use a little stock to moisten the mix, it would make a more filling meal over polenta, short pasta or mixed in with rice, pilau-style.
• Spinach could be used instead of chard, as could any sort of softer green, such as mustard greens or spring cabbage.
  

Mushroom and barley soup

 

For the past several weeks I have had no appetite to speak of.  This isn't a good thing for a food blogger, but it is a miserable state of affairs for someone who usually wakes up in the morning, anticipating eating a very hearty breakfast and already wondering what to cook for dinner.  Admittedly I have lost quite a bit of weight, but I am one of those rare and lucky people who actually quite likes my body the size and the shape it is.  (At my age, this is a sane and sensible place to be!)  Apart from fruit and yogurt, at the moment the thought of any Indian food, which I usually eat several times a week, appalls me; the idea of pasta makes me feel squeamish and the only things which seem slightly appealing are bread and potatoes, preferably fried.  Sometimes I can face a few florets of broccoli, but an aubergine I bought nearly a month ago - one of my absolute favourite foods - will probably have to be thrown out.  If you knew my views about throwing food out, you would realise how bad I am.

However, a couple of weeks ago, I reckoned I could probably fancy some soup.  To be appealing it had to be thick, not to have too many ingredients, be very lightly flavoured and not too colourful.  I tried a simple lentil soup and that was a success.  I ate a whole bowl of it without any problem, which felt like quite an achievement.  None of my other recipes seemed at all tempting, so I decided to try and make something which would fit the bill, and this is the result.  The barley I buy here in New Zealand is hulled, but not 'pearl and is perfect comfort food.  I actually found the soup really enjoyable and again ate a whole bowl without difficulty.  It's obviously the perfect soup for an 'invalid'!!

Serves 2

Ingredients

1/4 cup gram flour

2 cups water

5 mushrooms, diced

1/2 cup barley 

1 tsp dried onion powder

1/4 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp za'atar or 1/4 tsp thyme

1 tsp Annie's mushroom stock powder

salt and pepper 

•  Put the gram flour into your pressure cooker and add about 1/4 cup of water.  Mix very, very thoroughly to remove all the lumps, adding more water as you go.  Gram flour doesn't tend to form lumps while it's heating in the way the wheat and cornflour do, but any lumps remaining in the original mixture are hard to get rid of.
• Now add the mushrooms, barley, dried onion powder ground coriander, za'atar/thyme, salt and pepper.  Add the stock powder, too, if you have any.
• Bring to the boil stirring pretty often to make sure the flour paste doesn't stick to the pan - it will thicken as you go.  The 2 cups of water should be enough for the gram flour and the barley.
• Put on the lid, bring up to pressure and cook for 10 minutes, to thoroughly soften the barley.
• Let the pressure reduce at room temperature, remove the lid and stir the soup.  If it seems too thick, add more water - I wanted a very thick soup.
•  Serve as is, or with bread.

Notes: 

• use diced onion, if you prefer: I couldn't face it!

 

 

Breakfast avocado

Smashed avocado on toast is a very popular breakfast/brunch/snack.  This is really a variation on it that I dreamt up while trying to create an acceptable substitute for scrambled eggs.  There isn't one, in my opinion, although I've achieved a passable result using peanuts, but this avocado recipe is very good in its own right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't tolerate rubbery, dried out scrambled eggs, but as this is how they are generally served, I assume that other people think differently.  To be fair, it is very difficult to keep scramblers in that lovely, soft, curdy state, because they carry on cooking in their own heat, so have to be put on a plate the moment they're ready.  The advantage of this avocado 'substitute' is that the avocado doesn't soften with heating: the drawback is that the avocado has to be at the perfect stage of ripeness for the recipe to work and it won't work if the avocado is too firm, nor if it has started to go stringy.  I am lucky to live somewhere where I can buy avocados very cheaply, so it isn't a disaster if I cut one open and it's the wrong stage of ripeness.  However, if that happens, you can always resort to smashed avocado on toast, after all.

 

 Ingredients

 

1 ripe avocado

olive oil

1/4 tsp garlic granules or 1 finely minced clove of garlic

2 tbsp water/yoghurt/cream

1/8 tsp chilli flakes - optional

salt and pepper

Method:

• Cut the avocado in half, remove the stone and peel it.  If the peel is very stiff, as it so often is with Hass avocado, cut the fruit into quarters; it should then be easy to peel.
  
• Carefully chop the avocado into chunks. 
• Heat a little olive oil in a small saucepan;  move it carefully around in the pan until it starts to get warm.
• Now add the water/yoghurt/cream and garlic.  Turn down the heat and stir the avocado very gently so that some of it gets mixed into, and thickens the liquid.  You don't want to mash it into a purée.  
• Season with salt and pepper and some chilli flakes if you like them.  Gently stir them in.
  
• While the avocado is heating, slice a couple of pieces of bread and toast it.  Put it onto a warmed plate and tip the avocado mix over it.  Serve hot.

Notes:

• The avocado needs to be properly ripe - a firm one won't produce the desired effect.
• Instead of, or as well as, the olive oil, you might like to add chilli oil.  In this case, omit the chilli flakes.
  

Broccoli sauce with walnuts and lemon

Blender alert (see Note)

This creamy broccoli sauce is perfect for pasta, and so easy to make. Whizzed together with walnuts and seasonings, it is both surprisingly satisfying and creamy. The first time I cooked it, my reaction was that it was hard to believe that it was dairy free.  Broccoli is by no means a voyaging vegetable, because it keeps so poorly, but it is readily available in many places. This recipe is a particularly good way of using up broccoli, when has started to turn yellow and it's great if you haven't been able to use up the stalk.

I like to serve it with spaghetti, but I think it would go well with most varieties of pasta.  Use a gluten free pasta, if you are avoiding gluten.

 

Serves 2 

 

Ingredients

 

1/2 broccoli

1/3 cup walnuts

1 clove garlic

1/2 tsp onion powder

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 tbsp nutritionalyeast

1/4 tsp chilli flakes

1 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

 

Instructions:

• Add about half a cup of water to a saucepan and bring it to the boil.
• Cut the broccoli into florets, and cut off the woody end. Peel the thick skin from the stalk and slice the stalk. (You can use a peeler, if you wish, but I find that you can loosen the skin from the base of the stalk and simply tear it off with your knife blade.) Boil the broccoli and stalk for 4-5 minutes until just soft.
• Remove from the pan, reserving the cooking water, and tip it into a blender or food processor.
• Add the walnuts, garlic, onion powder, lemon and olive oil to the blender with the broccoli and whizz them together until they form a smooth paste.
• Season generously with salt and pepper, then add a little of the cooking water, whizz again, and continue adding more water until it reaches a sauce-like consistency.  If it’s still too thick after you’ve used up all the cooking water, wait until the pasta is cooked and then use water from that pan too thin the sauce further.
  
• Check the seasoning. 
• In the meantime, cook your pasta of choice according to the instructions on the package.  If the sauce has thickened again, you can use some of the pasta water in the sauce to thin it to the correct consistency, if necessary.

Drain the spaghetti and mix in the sauce. Serve piping hot, with more black pepper ground over it.

 

Notes:

• If you don’t have a blender, you can still make this into a delicious sauce, but of course it won’t be as creamy. 

Variations:

• Leave out the salt and/or lemon juice and add some salted lemon at the blender stage.
• Add freshly-grated nutmeg just before serving.
• instead of blending in the walnuts, chop them, to add additional texture to the sauce.
• Instead of using onion powder, chop a small onion and cook it with the broccoli.
• Rather than using this as a pasta sauce, pour it over vegetables or any main course dish. 
   
  You will find many more pasta based recipes, here: 
   
   
  Edited 22/7/25