Pizza

Pizza must be one of the most popular dishes on the planet and while it is difficult to make it to the standards of the best pizzas ashore, even in a simple galley, you can certainly make something very acceptable and considerably more appetising than some pizzas I have bought. I've found that I get excellent results fromcooking them in my frying pan, which is also a lot more economical on fuel than cooking a pizza in the oven; however, this does limit its size. You also need a first-class quality pan for pizza, because they have to get very hot. I recommend that you used one made of cast metal, ideally with vertical sides, ie a skillet. Cast-iron pans are relatively inexpensive, if you shop around, and often available second hand. Personally, I prefer cast alloy, but they are a considerable investment. If you don’t have an oven, your frying pan will constantly be used as a substitute, so one of good quality is an investment that is well worth while for oven-free cooks.

If you do have an oven, theres no need for any special equipment, although a rolling pin is nice to have. Nor do you to roll out the dough into a perfect circle; indeed, if you simply roll it out to fit your baking sheet, you will be able to make a larger pizza and make best use of your oven.  I can see nothing unattractive in the ‘rustic’ appearance of a near rectangle. Even when I had an oven, I found I got the best results from partly pre-cooking the dough. I'm pleased to be able to report than an Italian sailor I met, told me that his mother always made them like this, so I reckon that I am not alone in finding that it’s simply not possible to have a standard oven retain its heat sufficiently for the sort base that you get at the local pizzeria. If you're fantastical about pizza, I suppose you could a pizza stone to put in your oven, but it would be a nuisance to store safely and I suspect it would be more trouble than it's worth on a boat.  Whether using the oven or a frying pan, I suggest that you pre-cook it and flip it over before adding the topping. That way it both rises and cooks properly.

The following recipe makes a base for a 230 mm (9 in) frying pan. I have to admit that when I make it for myself, I usually manage to get through two-thirds of it, but I’m not a delicate feeder. I prefer not to have too thick a base, but if you are feeding two hearty appetites, you can make more dough for a thicker and more substantial base, make two smaller pizza (cooking the second while eating the first) or invest in a larger frying pan! Just keep the proportions of the dough ingredients the same.

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 tsp olive oil

1/4 cup lukewarm water

pinch of salt

1/2 tsp instant dried yeast

1/2 cup wholemeal flour

• If you’re using an oven, pre-heat it to a moderate heat.
• Put the oil and water into a small mixing bowl and mix them together. You can use seawater, if you prefer, and leave out the salt.
• Add the salt and the yeast and then blend in the flour with a spatula or something similar.
• When the ingredients have combined into a dough, knead this gently for a couple of minutes. You will probably need a little more flour for this.
• Roll the dough out so that it fits your frying pan or baking sheet. Leave it to rise for at least a quarter of an hour, longer is you're very organised. If you are in a cold place, warm the frying pan or put something like a night light in the oven to keep the dough warm.
• Cook over a medium flame on a flame tamer for about 10 minutes, or cook in a moderate oven for the same time. Turn the base over and add the topping.

All sorts of goodies can be used to top pizza, of course, and you probably have your favourites.  If your lockers contain tomatoes, olives and capers, you’re almost there. I can also recommend vegan chorizo salami, but would warn against overloading your pizza with too many different flavours. After all, a pizza Margherita is immensely popular in Italy and as simple as it comes.  The following recipe is a voyaging one, for when you aren't overloaded with fresh vegetables. 

PIZZA TOPPING

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion. diced

1 garlic clove, diced

2 tomatoes, finely chopped

1 tbsp Annie's Mixed Herbs

6 black olives, sliced

optional tomato purée

grated cheese – as you like

• Heat the oil in a pan. Add the onion and garlic and fry until softened.
• Lower the heat and add the tomatoes and mixed herbs. Cook until most of the moisture had evaporated leaving a thick sauce. This depends a lot on your tomatoes - you may need to add some tomato purée to thicken it up. On the other hand, add a little wine or water if the mix looks very dry.
• Throw in the olives.
• Take the half-cooked pizza base, turn it over and spread the sauce over the base, right to the edges, spreading it carefully and as evenly as possible.
• Grate over as much cheese as you want.
• Turn down the heat and put the pizza back to cook (covered, if you’re using a frying pan), until the cheese has melted.

Notes:

• If you don’t have fresh tomatoes, you can use a couple from a can. Put the rest of the tomatoes into a glass jar and use them the next day (or put them in the fridge). Or you can use some passata, if you have some. If all else fails, just use tomato purée suitably diluted with water.
  
• For vegans, leave off cheese and sprinkle with generous amounts of "Parmegan".  Alternatively, this is one place where vegan 'cheese' is acceptable.  I've heard that there is some excellent vegan cheese around, but have yet to find any in New Zealand.
  

Variations:

• Top with microgreens or rocket (arugula), if you're lucky enough to have some. 
• Pepperdews, mushrooms, or sliced green or red peppers, all go well with the above.
• A great alternative topping is sun-dried tomato pesto.  
• If you don’t have black olives, try green olives instead. The stuffed ones are particularly good.
• Add a tsp capers with the olives.
• If you've got fresh tomatoes with a really good flavour, you can simply slice them quite thickly and lay them out on the pizza dough.  Cook a few mushrooms and a little red pepper and put those on top with some olives and capers, and cheese if you have it.
  
• If you are getting short of inspiration, row ashore and wander along to the nearest pizza parlour. You’ll soon get a whole slew of new ideas!

Pizza made with dairy cheese and topped with microgreens

Aubergine, spinach and tomato casserole

I invented this dish in Trinidad, where one of the shops had a very limited supply of fresh vegetables, but they nearly always included wonderful aubergines and beautiful, local spinach. You had to buy large quantities of both, so I would cook half the spinach in a recipe one day, followed by spinach and aubergine the next day, finishing up with aubergine alone on the third. This is the recipe I invented for day two!

I can’t really give a measurement for spinach. So often you have to buy it as is: by the bunch, already tied up, or by the bag, which frequently doesn’t mention the weight. If it includes the roots, there will be more wastage than, say, baby spinach. Put it this way: a huge amount of spinach disappears into very little. For two people you would probably want as much as would fit in a 3 litre (3 quart) bowl, before it’s washed and chopped. If the spinach still has its roots on, it will want very thorough washing. Sea water is fine for this, as long as it’s clean. Give the spinach a really good shake and wait until the meal is just about cooked before adding any more salt.

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

2 tbsp olive oil

1 aubergine

1 tsp oregano

6 juniper berries

400 g/14 oz can tomatoes

spinach, well washed

grated cheese

• Chop the onion, dice the garlic and fry them in the olive oil for five minutes.
• Meanwhile, chop the aubergine into chunky pieces.
• When the onion is softened, add the aubergine and stir it round until most of it is coated in oil. (Aubergine is like blotting paper, so don’t worry too much about getting it evenly distributed.) Turn down the heat, cover and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the aubergine is soft.
• Add the oregano; crush or chop the juniper berries and add these. Pour in the tomatoes, roughly chopping them with your spoon. Roughly chop the spinach and add this. Cover and cook for a further 5 minutes.
• Take the lid off and stir everything around so that it’s all mixed together. Smooth the top and sprinkle with the grated cheese. Turn the heat right down, insert a flame tamer and cook gently until the cheese has melted.

Serve with pasta or potatoes.

Notes:

• If you can lay hands on it, vegan cheese is fine for this. It’s also good with my 'Parmegan cheese', even though that doesn’t melt. Either put it on before serving, or add it at the table. Or both! 
• A green such as chard would substitute for the spinach, but kale and cabbage would take too much cooking. If you don’t have soft greens, serve a vegetable on the side.

 

Vegan "scrambled eggs'

 

No tofu; no chickpea flour

Blender Alert (but there is a possible suggestion in the Notes if you don’t have one).

I really love scrambled eggs for breakfast, and since I became vegan, they are something I miss.  However, there are many reasons for the ethical vegetarian not to eat eggs, so I rarely buy them.  I have been working on this recipe for scramblers for some time.  What I wanted to achieve is something with a similar appearance, colour and texture as the Real Thing, which to my mind is soft and barely set.  All the vegan recipes I’ve tried produce a very dry, rather rubbery result.  I’ve never tried making it with silky tofu – I can’t buy it locally, and when I get to a larger town where it’s available, it comes in packs that are too big for me to use.  I’m prepared to eat a lot of failed experiments in search of the Ideal Recipe, but I’m not prepared to waste food!  Besides, how many voyagers are going easily to be able to buy silky tofu or are likely to have it on board? This recipe comes from ingredients that you are likely to have in your lockers.

Veganism is still a fringe way of living, especially away from the Western world (although of course many people are vegan without even thinking about it!), so in all these recipes, I am trying to avoid branded or really weird ingredients, which might well be expensive and/or unavailable to the average voyager.  If you’re interested, see the notes below for a discussion as to how and why I’ve chosen these particular ingredients and some substitutes.  I am sure this recipe can be improved, so please leave a comment if you have a suggestion.

 

I can see an argument for mixing all the dry ingredients together in quantity and keeping a supply in a jar, so that you can make this more quickly: just add water!

Serves 2

1/2 cup blanched peanuts

1 cup water, divided

4 tsp tapioca flour

2 tsp nutritional yeast

1/4 tsp black salt

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp garlic granules OR 1 large clove, roughly chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

• Put the peanuts into the blender and whizz them into a coarse meal. 
• Now add 1/2 cup water, the flour, nutritional yeast, black salt, turmeric, garlic and olive oil.   
• Blend quickly - you don’t want to pulverise the peanuts: this gives the scramblers some texture.
• Scrape the contents into a small saucepan and rinse out the blender with another 1/2 cup of water (put it back together and give it a good shake) and pour this into the pan. This is the easiest way to make sure everything goes in the pan!
• Heat the mixture over a moderate flame and stir regularly until the mix is hot and starting to thicken. Turn the heat right down, continue stirring occasionally, taste and season with a generous amount of black pepper and more salt if you think it needs it.    Add some more water if it is getting too thick.

Serve hot on fried bread or toast, or with fried tomatoes, mushrooms, etc as part of a cooked breakfast.

Notes:

• Blanched peanuts are cheap; they are also better for both workers and the planet than cashews, which would be most people’s choice.  Peanuts require much less water than most nuts, they are nitrogen-fixing and their preparation doesn’t generally exploit low wage-people working in poor conditions.  I don’t understand why they aren’t used more often. However, use cashews if you prefer them or can’t get peanuts.
• Tapioca flour doesn’t seem to need cooking the same way as cornflour, once it starts to thicken, which is why I suggest it.  Uncooked cornflour has a definite taste and sensation to it.  Using a little flour creates a more convincing texture as does the slight ‘stretchiness’ of the tapioca flour.
• The small amount of nutritional yeast does, I think, improve the flavour, but you could leave it out if you don’t have any.
• The black salt is to give the sulphur scent that eggs have.  Don’t use it with a heavy hand and if you like your scramblers more salty than the recipe, add some more normal salt. Again, you could leave it out, but the result will be a less convincing substitute for eggs.
• The turmeric is necessary for colour: again, use a light touch – it’s a powerful dye! This amount makes the scramblers a light yellow.
• I love a little bit of garlic in my scramblers. Leave it out or substitute 1/2 tsp onion powder if you can’t face garlic at breakfast. Neither is crucial.
• If you don’t have a blender, this might work with 1/2 cup ground almonds, but they have a much stronger flavour than peanuts.

Aubergine, with pesto and pasta

Gluten free with the appropriate pasta

 

This recipe is very freely adapted from one of Jamie Oliver’s. Firstly I tweaked it so that it just made one serving, then I tweaked it again for this blog to serve two, and then I adapted it for a voyaging locker, which probably doesn’t include fresh basil, but might and, I now believe should, include a jar of pesto.

Before going any further, not all jars of pesto are created equal. Some contain a ghastly green puree, while others look like something you’d be quite proud to make yourself and have a delightful texture, just like the Real Thing. When I first came across jars of pesto, I was inclined to believe what it said on the label about having to be kept refrigerated. However, my local supermarket sells small jars at a very reasonable price and as I wanted to try out different recipes for calzone, I thought I’d probably get through the jar quite quickly, anyway. I used most of it and then out of curiosity, left the near-empty jar in my locker. it kept for months.

I was also surprised how good it tasted: the one that looked the best value, “Pam’s” is not an expensive brand, so therefore there wasn’t much chance of it being made with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, pine nuts or Pecorino cheese - all of which would be found in a traditional pesto. In fact the ingredients were canola oil, 35% basil, sunflower seeds, cheese (unspecified), garlic, sugar :-(, salt and natural flavours, so it’s rather surprising that it does taste so good, which implies that the best part of the pesto is the basil. My “Pam’s” Pesto also included three e-numbers in the ingredient list: E202 - potassium sorbate, E270 - lactic acid and E300 - ascorbic acid, and I thought that before suggesting that others put it in their lockers, I should see what these were. I had a look online and even the most hysterical of ‘health-food’ sites seemed pretty chilled about lactic and ascorbic acid. There was a bit more tooth sucking about potassium sorbate, although it is derived from sorbic acid, which occurs naturally in rowan berries. It is very commonly used in all sorts of food production and the worst that anyone had to say about it was that if it is consumed in high doses during pregnancy, it might effect the DNA. Personally, I feel quite happy about my jar of pesto: my only genuine reservation is that it contains cheese, and I prefer to eat a vegan diet. The reason I’m rabbiting on about this is because fresh basil doesn’t keep well at all - even if you have a fridge and for something like this recipe, you wouldn’t want more than a quarter of a cup, which wouldn’t use up a whole bunch. However, by all means make your own pesto if you prefer!

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 large or 2 small aubergine

olive oil

salt

4 tbsp pesto

Pecorino cheese or "Parmegan"

pasta spirals or similar

6 cherry tomatoes

black pepper

• Cut the aubergine in half. Rub it – particularly the flesh, with oil and put it on a well-oiled baking sheet. Roast it at 180° for 35 mins. Or cook it in the pressure cooker until it’s tender, cut it in half and briefly fry it in a little oil so that the flesh is lightly browned.
• While it’s cooking, cut the tomatoes in half. The original recipe says to remove the seeds, but I don’t bother. Then cut them into fine dice.
• When the aubergine is thoroughly soft, let it cool and scoop out the flesh. Chop it all up, put it into a bowl and keep warm.
• Pour the pesto over the aubergine and mix it all up. Add olive oil for taste and texture.
• Now add a little bit of cheese.
• As soon as the pasta is ready, add some of the water to the aubergines so that you have a saucy consistency.
• Mix in the tomatoes.  Grind plenty of black pepper over it.
  
• Tip in the drained pasta and serve.

Pass round extra cheese, and maybe pine nuts, chopped almonds - or sunflower seeds at the table.

Notes:

• If you have fresh basil, some leaves would be a lovely addition when the pasta is served.
• I like aubergine skin, so I generally just dice the aubergine and mix it with the pesto.
• This isn’t particularly filling, so you might want to increase the pasta from what you normally would cook, or serve it with bread, or maybe even add some cooked white beans or chickpeas to the aubergine sauce.

Courgette curry

I find it hard to get excited about courgettes. Baby ones, fried in good olive oil and garlic are delicious, but that’s largely because of the olive oil and the garlic. They sop up the flavours well.    They are also good in ratatouille, especially with cannellini beans, for the same reason and indeed, can be used in all sorts of soups and stews; however when there’s a glut of them, it isn’t usually the time of year that you want to eat soup and stew.  Now I realise, that to many people, curry is not only similar to a stew, but because of the chilli and warming spices, might seem even less appealing in hot weather, but I adore curry and can eat it any time and in any weather. so to me it is a perfect way of using a bounty of courgettes.  I already have a recipe for courgette with chana dal, however this recipe is is quite different and more of a side dish than a main one, althoughI have some suggestions for using it as a main course.  However, you can add as many courgettes as you want (maybe up the spices a litle) to make it into a full main course, without any extra additions, if you want to use them up. This is a pretty straightforward recipe and I think most people would be happy to tackle it, but because it uses non-standard ingredients, I'll call it a Curry for Cooks.

This recipe is based on one of Swasthi's recipes and I think it’s a great way to cook courgettes.    The coconut milk makes it rich and substantial and all it needs is some rice to go with it, but of course a pan of dal would turn it into a generous meal. Alternatively, you can serve it with quinoa, whose protein will turn this into a fully-nutritious meal. I confess to finding quinoa worthy, but dull, particularly compared to brown basmati rice. However, if you're concerned about your protein intake, it's a good choice.

Even though this is made with Kashmiri chilli powder, rather than chilli flakes or cayenne, it packs quite a zing. If you don’t like too much heat in your curry, reduce the amount of chilli powder.

Serves 2 for a main course, 4 as a side dish

Ingredients 

1 tbsp coconut oil 

1/8 tsp mustard seeds 

1/2 tsp cumin seeds 

1 green chilli pepper, minced 

1 tsp ginger paste 

1 tsp salted lime or lemon, finely diced

1 medium onion, finely diced 

3/4 tsp garam masala 

3/4 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder 

1/2 tsp salt 

1/4 tsp turmeric 

1 large courgette or equivalent, chopped into chunky pieces 

2 tomatoes, finely diced 

1/4 cup freeze-dried peas*

1/2 cup coconut milk 

1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves 

 

Method:

• Heat the oil in a saucepan and when it’s hot, add the mustard and cumin seeds
• When the mustard starts to sputter, add the green chilli and cook for 30 seconds.
• Add the chopped onions and ginger and cook for several minutes until the onions start to turn gold.    If you are using salted lime, (or lemon) add this now.
• Lower the heat and add the garam masala, chilli powder, salt and turmeric.
• Now add the tomato and courgette and fry for a few minutes, stirring from time to time.
• Add the peas and the coconut milk and bring to the boil. Mix well and turn the heat low.
•  Cook the courgette until its soft enough to suit your taste. 
• Just before the curry is ready, add the fenugreek leaves and mix them in.
• Taste and add more salt or garam masala if required.

Serve with rice, quinoa or flatbread.

Notes: 

• *Freeze-dried ‟Surprise” peas are very useful to have on a boat.    Substitute with fresh or frozen if you have such a thing.  Or perhaps 1/2 cup cooked dried, green peas, which would make this recipe much more substantial.  Or maybe some diced carrot.
• If you don’t have a green chilli leave it out (try to buy pickled ones, if you think you'll be making a lot of curry). 
• Substitute 1/4 tsp cayenne or chilli flakes for the Kashmiri chilli powder.
• Substitute 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds if you don’t have the leaves; add them with the other spices.
• Use less coconut milk, or leave it out for a drier curry.
• Add cooked chick peas or other beans to turn this into a main course meal, if you feel it doesn't look very filling.
  

Chana dal with courgettes

 

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 chana dal 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 green chilli. Cook until the onion becomes translucent.
• Now add the chopped tomato and coriander 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 dried fenugreek 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 yellow split peas 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, finely chopped 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.