Boating World

Cruising: Galley Gourmet

Boat-cooking experts provide five simple — and delicious — recipes for your boat's galley.

When planning a menu of meals to be prepared on board your boat, you’ll want to choose healthy recipes that are easily executable in the narrow confines of your boat’s galley. Often, onboard cooking is done with only a single burner and a microwave — and if your boat lacks a refrigerator, an additional consideration is that you may be forced to rely on canned goods for these meals. Translation? You’ll have to be creative both with whatever appliances your galley has available and with your list of ingredients.  

How then, you might ask, does one go about preparing a fulfilling meal for their family? Well, it seems you’re in luck, thanks to your good friends here at Boating World. Following is an eclectic list of five boater-friendly recipes, which we’ve compiled from a pair of galley-cooking experts. With any luck, these little concoctions should help transform you from a simple ship’s cook into a sophisticated galley gourmet.
 
stewMUNDOOLIN ROCKS STEW
(serves 2 people)

Ingredients
1 onion
1 potato
2 tablespoons oil for frying
1/3 cup each dehydrated corn, peas, mushrooms
Dash of red wine (optional)
1 small can tomatoes
1 12oz/340g can of meat
1 7oz/200g bottle taco sauce

Preparation
Place tomatoes with juice into a bowl, add all dried vegetables and wine, and then leave them to soak while you chop the onion. Next, peel and thinly slice the potato. Heat the oil, and fry the onion and potato slices until they become soft. Be sure the potato slices are cooked through, then remove them from your pan and put them aside to be added into the stew later. Add vegetables, taco sauce and canned meat to the onions. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes. Add the cooked potato slices and continue to heat through. If available, fresh vegetables and meat may be used and substituted for canned ones. The meal can be extended for more servings by adding a can of drained chic peas or lentils into the stew. Suggested side dishes for this meal include garlic toast with white cheese melted over the top, crackers and a bottle of red wine.

BOATIE’S CHOCOLATE CAKE
(serves 2 or more people)

Ingredients
1 and 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup water

Preparation
Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl, mix all the liquids together. Add the bowl of liquids to the bowl of dry ingredients and then mix together quickly. Pour into a greased and floured round cake pan. Bake on top of the stove in a pre-heated pot with a well-fitting lid on medium heat for approximately 50 minutes. Or, if you have an oven, bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool before removing from pan.
           
Robbie Kirk, creator of “Mundoolin Rocks Stew” and “Boatie’s Chocolate Cake,” is an Australian-born writer and novelist. Her book of boating recipes, Keep It Simple Sailor — Easy Recipes for Small Boats Without a Fridge, is currently available for $20 through e-mail at tardisea@acenet.net.au.

CHEESY CHICKEN MELT
(serves 4 people)

Ingredients
2 7.5oz/190g cans of chicken supreme
1 5oz/125g can of peas (or large 2 oz/62g packet)
1 7oz/175g can of sweet corn
Seasoning to taste
4oz/100g cheddar cheese
1 large packet potato chips

Preparation
Open the cans, drain the vegetables, put them with the chicken into a pan and mix well. If you’re using packet peas, be sure to pre-cook them. Heat slowly, stirring the mixture and slicing the cheese. Then put the hot chicken mixture into a skillet, seasoning it to taste. Next, sprinkle the potato chips over top, crushing as you go. Finally, lay the cheese in slices on top of the potato chips and heat on your burner until the cheese has melted.

PASTA WITH TUNA SAUCE
(serves 4 people)

pasta Ingredients
2 sticks celery
2 onions
2 7oz/198g cans of tuna fish or salmon (or fresh if available)
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon oil
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 5oz/235g carton plain yogurt
Water to mix
Seasoning to taste
Pasta noodles

Preparation
Begin by cooking the pasta. Clean and cut celery into half-inch pieces, and then peel and chop the onions. Next, drain the tuna fish and set aside for later. Proceed to cook the celery and onions in oil until soft. Add the tuna and stir for a moment or two to heat. Add cayenne and stir into the mix. Take the cornflour and mix it with a little water. Add this and the yogurt to the fish mixture and heat gently. Stir until hot and the sauce has thickened, which should take about 3 minutes. Serve at once on the pasta.
  
MALAYAN CURRIED CHICKEN 
(serves 4 people)

rice Ingredients
1 large tin chicken
in water or 4 chicken quarters
1 apple
1 teaspoon curry powder (or to taste)
2 10.5oz/290g tins curry sauce
8oz/225g rice 
Large pinch of chilli powder

Preparation
First, begin by cooking the rice. Then drain and cut up the chicken, removing any bones and reserving the water. Now carefully peel, core and chop the apple. Next, put the chicken, apple and curry sauce into a pan with the curry and chilli powder. If fresh chicken is used, be sure to cook the chicken in the sauce before adding the apple. (This particular dish will be improved if half a cup of coconut milk is added at this stage.) Heat through for about 10 to 12 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally. If the dish seems like it’s too thick, then add some of the reserved chicken water into the mix. Serve on a bed of rice with the side dish or dishes of your choice. Any leftover water from the canned chicken can be saved and used as a base for soups.

Suggested Side Dishes
1 banana, diced (at last minute), 1 dish dried coconut, 1 onion (finely chopped and covered with coconut milk), 1 dish mango or cranberry chutney, half a cucumber (finely chopped and covered with coconut milk), 2 hard boiled eggs (diced), 1 dish of salted peanuts, and/or Prawn crackers.

June Raper — creator of “Cheesy Chicken Melt,” “Pasta With Tuna Sauce,” and “ Malayan Curried Chicken” — is a British writer who’s cruised from the Baltic to the Eastern Mediterranean with her family. Her book, Boat Cuisine — The All-Weather Cookbook, is available for $16.95 at www.wileynautical.com.