I once wrote a book entitled "Voyaging on a Small Income" and the parts about provisioning and cooking proved very popular. "The Voyaging Vegetarian" would have followed, but so few people were then vegetarians that I thought no-one would publish it. Now many more people realise that eating dead animals is unkind and bad for the planet. I hope a blog, which I can update with new recipes, will work better than a book for liveaboards and aspiring voyagers, and those living simply in small spaces.
Back in the 80s, I wrote a book called "Voyaging on a Small Income", which was published and sold astonishingly well. It’s become almost a “classic” and is probably why you’ve found this site!
I’ve been living aboard and sailing since the 70s. Nine different boats have been home, sometimes for several months, sometimes for many years. I love the way of life, the small footprint and being close to Nature. I’m a great fan of junk rig and having extensive experience with both gaff and bermudian rig, I wouldn’t have any other sail on my boat. It’s ideal as a voyaging rig, but also perfect for the coastal sailing that I now do. I’d rather stay in New Zealand, not having to keep saying goodbye to friends, than go voyaging, these days.
Between 2015 and 2021, I built the 26ft "FanShi", the boat I now call home. For the last 45 years or so, my diet of choice has been vegetarian and is now almost vegan. I love cooking and particularly enjoy having only myself to please. I am combining all these interests (apart, perhaps, from junk rig!) in this blog. I hope you enjoy it. I also have other blogs: www.anniehill.blogspot.com and http://fanshiwanderingandwondering.wordpress.com
Traditional Scots Broth is made with mutton, or at least a mutton bone. However, it is quintessential peasant food, making use of cheap and readily available ingredients. I rather suspect that there were many crofts and cottages that rarely saw meat and that my version isn't too far from the original. This is a great meal for those on a small income.
The soup made from dried and winter vegetables. Leeks are often used, as are 'neeps', better known as swede (or rutabaga in USA). Kale or cabbage can be added and often are, but they tend to make the soup smell a bit sulphorous by day two, so if you feel that you might be eating this soup for a while, I would suggest chopping and wilting some and stirring it into the bowl as you serve, on the first day. Cabbage is worse for this, so you might be happy just adding the kale towards the end, so that it still has some texture. The rest of the vegetables should be thoroughly softened.
Although it's called a broth, this is actually a pretty substantial soup and the starches will thicken it up overnight. You will undoubtedly need to water it down the next day. I use white pepper in this recipe. This is the pepper that was generally used in Britain until the late 70s when black peppercorns and grinders became popular. It is quite different from ground black pepper, with more pungency and less savour. I think it seems the right one to use, but use black if you prefer or if that's all you have. Don't go overboard with herbs - there wouldn't be many available in a cottage garden in the colder months in Scotland. But I suspect dried thyme would be readily available.
If your seawater is clean, use 1/3 to 2/3 fresh water. Don't add any more salt until you've cooked the soup and tasted it.
Soak the whole peas in the usual manner in your pressure cooker.
When you're ready to make the soup, add the oil. Then add the onion and cook for a few minutes with the peas, together with 1/2 tsp salt and mix well.
Add the carrots, parsnips, potato and celery seed. Sprinkle over another 1/2 tsp of salt and stir everything together. Cover with a cup of water.
Mix in the stock powder and then add the split peas, lentils and barley. Stir well.
Now add another 2 cups water, if your pressure cooker can take it. The split peas and lentils are inclined to foam up and block the vent, although the oil should prevent this, so don't overfill the pan.
Spoon in the thyme and the pepper, cover the pan and bring up to pressure.
Cook for 7 minutes and let the pressure come down gradually.
Once you can remove the lid, taste the soup and add more salt, pepper and thyme if you think it needs it. Take out some grains of barley and a couple of peas to check that they are cooked through. If not, cover and give the soup another couple of minutes under pressure, letting the pressure down gradually.
If the soup seems too thick, thin it with more hot water and taste again. It should be generously seasoned with salt and pepper
If you have such a thing on board, chop some fresh parsley and add it to the soup. Stir it all again and let it stand for a few minutes.
Serve hot, with fresh bread - or on its own. This is definitely a meal in a bowl.
Note:
Ensure that your root vegetables are all cut to about the same size so that they will cook evenly.
Variations:
Vegan ghee is a good alternative to oil, especially if you only have olive oil.
Add some shredded cabbage or kale.
Use a small turnip or swede instead of parsnip. Alternatively, you can use less carrot and parsnip and add turnip and/or swede. Or double the recipe and use them all (but you will need a large pressure cooker).
You can add replace the onion with a leek or use both, but beware of overloading the pan!
Use a different stock powder, or leave it out altogether. There will still be plenty of flavour.
Chana dal can be used in place of yellow split peas, which is what I do, because I always have them on board.
Edit I made this the other night and found it rather bland, so
decided to alter the recipe. However, I then thought that this is
actually a very good introductory curry for people who don't like their
food too 'hot' or are a bit cautious about the whole concept of curry.
Therefore, I've decided to insert the additional ingredients in italics, so that you can decide whether or not to add them yourself. The only really 'hot' addition would be chilli powder.
Chana dal are split white chickpeas and
look very similar to yellow split peas. I've seen various ways of
cooking this curry, some of which appear to have the chana dal served
very firm. This one cooks them to a tender state; because it uses a
pressure cooker, it also requires less time and fuel. This is a good
curry for someone who wants to start out with ‛authentic’
curries, because there aren’t many spices and the only one that you're unlikely already to have in your lockers is asafoetida; on the other hand, you're not likely to find the recipe in most Western food blogs.
Courgettes/zucchini can sometimes
present a problem for voyagers. In places where they’re grown, you
are likely to be offered them frequently. When they're very fresh,
they'll keep for days or even a fortnight without refrigeration, which
is just as well, because a generous gift of courgettes will take up a
lot of room in any fridge. I have on occasion, been swamped with them
and I like this recipe, because you can use up your surplus of
courgettes without requiring other vegetables for the recipe. If you are really swamped with them, you can make a courgette curry, without the dal and just use as many courgettes as you think will suffice for a full, main course! Chana
dal goes very well with the courgette: the different textures
complement one another. If you're trying to use up your
courgettes, you can add more than is recommended in the recipe, but
remember that they produce a lot of moisture, so use the minimum with
your dal when you cook it (ie 2:1 water to dal by volume). The end
result is an attractively colourful dal, with the green courgette and
the red tomatoes a pretty contrast to the yellow dal. However, if you
don’t want to use fresh tomatoes, or part of a tin, you can add purée to get the
flavour.
Serves 2
Ingredients
1/2 cup chana dal
1 cup water
1/8 tsp ground turmeric
1 medium courgette, cut
into half moons
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder or 1/8 tsp cayenne
1 tbsp oil/ghee/coconut oil
1/4 tsp cumin
seeds
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
pinch asafoetida (omit
if GF)
1/2 tsp garlic paste
1/2 tsp ginger paste
1
green chilli, minced
1 small onion, finely
chopped
1 medium tomato, chopped (or I whole canned)
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp dried fenugreek
leaves
Method:
Put the chanadal in
the pressure cooker, together with the water and
turmeric, bring up to pressure and cook for 7 minutes. Reduce
pressure naturally.
Once you can take the lid off, add
the courgette and salt. If the dal is very dry, add a
couple of tablespoons of water.
Cover the cooker and put it over a low flame and gently simmer the dal and courgette
until the latter starts to soften, at which stage you can remove the lid, because by then the courgettes will have exuded their juices. Now add the chilli powder. Keep an eye on it so that it
doesn’t overcook – you still want a bit of texture in it. Add
more water, if you think it needs it, but usually the courgettes let
out a lot of moisture. (If you want the courgette to be a bit softer, just replace the lid and bring the cooker back up to pressure. Immediately remove it from the heat and let it lose pressure naturally.)
Make the tempering. Put a small frying pan over a medium heat and
add a glug of oil
or a scoop of ghee or coconut oil.
When the oil is hot, add the cumin and mustard
seeds and let them sizzle for a few seconds. (If you’re not sure
the oil is sufficiently hot, just put a few in the pan first.)
Now add the asafoetida and
the onion - don’t let the
asafoetida burn.
Cook for about a minute and then
add the ginger, garlic and greenchilli.
Cook until the onion becomes translucent.
Now add the chopped tomato andcoriander
and cook for a further couple of minutes.
By
now the courgette should have softened. Check the texture, taste to
see there is sufficient salt and then pour in the tempering. Add the driedfenugreek leaves.
Carefully, mix everything, ensuring you neither mash the chana nor break up the courgette, and simmer for a further 5
minutes.
Traditionally, this curry is served
with roti or naan, but you can serve it with rice if you’d
rather.
Notes:
If you don't have chana dal, then yellowsplitpeas will work
fine. They may cook a little more quickly, so it’s probably worth
letting the pressure off after 5 minutes and checking them.
Use 1
clove garlic, finelychopped instead of the paste
Use 1/2
tsp ginger, grated instead of paste.
Use a few
cherry tomatoes, halved, instead of the chopped tomato, or, as suggested in the intro, 1 tbsp tomato purée.
Split
peas are more a cool climate food because for some reason, they don’t
keep well in the tropics: after being on board for about a year, they
completely refuse to soften, even with pre-soaking and cooked in a
pressure cooker. Chana or toor dal might keep better, but I’ve
never tried. However, they would work well in this recipe, which,
while pretty much the same as lentil soup, tastes completely
different and makes a pleasant change when you’re eating a lot of
soup.
Use
1/3 seawater to 2/3 fresh, if the sea is clean, and leave out the
salt.
Serves
4 to 6 as a starter, 2 for a main course
Ingredients
1
tbsp olive oil OR butter
1
onion
1
cup split peas
4
cups water
2
tbsp lemon juice
salt
and pepper
Method:
Heat
the oil
in a large saucepan or pressure cooker. Chop the onion
and cook it for about 5 minutes until it has started to brown.
Stir
in the split peas. Add the water and bring to the boil. If
you’re using the pressure cooker, cook for 5 minutes; if cooking
conventionally, simmer for about 20 minutes.
Reduce
pressure naturally. Using a potato masher, or stick blender, purée
the soup. Add the lemon
juice and season with salt
and plenty of black pepper.
Serve very hot, with warm bread and butter.
Variations:
Dal
Soup is a warming alternative. Chop 1 garlic clove and
some fresh ginger and fry it with the onion.Stir in
1/2 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp coriander and 1 tsp cumin.
Add 1/4-1/2 tsp chilli, if you want a soup with a bit of
zing. Cook as above. Add 2 tbsp lemon juice just before
serving with bread or chapatis.