Part 3- Jimmy's tips on eating well underway
Since I am the cook of the family unit it's probably best I take this one. Preparing meals while under way is more challenging especially if the seas are big. Rocking back and forth and bracing yourself in the galley while preparing food is a talent in itself. Knowing this and from our past passage cooking adventures I have three items that help out during overnighters or extended passages.
First though a little story from our first overnight trip with Utopia from Clearwater to Shell Point. Because I love to cook and wanted to test our galley out during an overnight passage I challenged myself in making a Moroccan Stew on our rough passage. Lots of ingredients, lots of vegetable chopping and lots of stirring over the stove. I distinctly remember having all of the vegetables up in the cockpit in pretty bumpy conditions while wielding a sharp knife and chopping up all the items. The stew was successful but a bit overambitious for an overnighter. If I was to make this again I would have either made it before leaving or at least do all the vegetable chopping before shoving off.
What I did learn and recommend is as follows:
Make one or two meals ahead of time before you leave. This is a great ideal especially if you want something warm and tasty that first day but don't want to hangout downstairs while getting your sea legs. For our trip from Shell Point to St. Pete in January I made a sweet potato Ginger stew with Lentils and Kale ahead of time that warmed up quite quickly in the microwave and was nice and warm and tasty on that first cold evening.
Have lots of snacks (fruit, granola bars, nuts) on hand and in a easy to reach place at all times so you can run down stairs and grab something quickly while on watch so you won't wake the sleeping one. I kind of blew it on the last trip since I bought all the snacks and put them in a place I knew about but I didn't brief Sondra well on 1) what we had and 2) exactly where everything was. Lessoned learned.
We have a full galley with a gas stove top/oven on a gimbal, microwave and freezer/fridge so we have the ability to make whatever a normal kitchen can produce. Having said that, if you are going to cook underway, make it something that can be prepared easily and made in a single pot while underway. Also, sandwiches and chips and quickly prepared items are also a good thing to minimize cook down-below time.
One last item is cooking is pretty important to me so it's critical that our galley functions as any other kitchen (albeit more compact). Some people assume that the meals on Utopia will be just one step above camping. This isn't accurate and I want the ability to prepare what ever I want without the galley holding me back. So far this has been a success.
I'm sure I will share some cooking adventures and successful boat recipes in the future so stay tuned.
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