Diary of a Deckhand

Ok, firstly let me explain about quantities.  I tend to use amounts such as “a bit” “a load”, a “smidge”.  This is not cookery for people who feel the need to weigh out everything to the perfect gram, follow the recipe like they are walking along a tightrope terrified to fall or follow a diving computer convinced that if they do what the numbers tell them they will never get bent…..

 

All my meals can be buggered about with. 

All my meals cheat whenever possible. 

All my meals tend to leave out salt and pepper unless totally essential – you can add it, I cannot take it out. 

I am also paranoid about cleanliness, so if you want to follow my little weirdnesses too, feel free, I promise the skin will grow back on your hands in a few days…. 

All quantities are for 12 meat eating non allergic to anything divers who tend to eat a little more than they would normally do.

 

Soups.

 

Brilliant for a diving holiday, it will keep for several days if kept in a clean container in the fridge.  Make sure your Tupperware is totally clean, any dirt lurking in the lid will make your soup off far quicker than you think.  If in doubt, run boiling water round the lid – it makes the sodding thing easier to get on and off too.

 

Tomato and anything you fancy soup.

 

5 tins of plum tomatoes

4-6 stock cubes.  Chicken is best.

Fresh basil.

Lentils or butternut squash or potato or rice.

2 big onions

A bit of garlic

Cream if you want.

 

Chop up your onions and bung them in the pan with a dob of oil, fry until they start to turn transparent, then add some garlic (add it earlier than this and it risks burning).  Cook for another 30 seconds or so, then add your tins of tomatoes.  Chuck in the stock cubes, basil which can be torn up, don’t bother to chop it totally, but if you want it to look posh save a bit back and finely chop to sprinkle on the top. 

 

Now, you can bung lots of other things in with this to make it yummy.  What you need to think about is thickening it, because without anything else it will be a bit runny so….

 

Butternut squash

 

Brilliant veggie.  If you are worried about having an undeclared vegetarian in a group get one of these in.  Substitute it for meat and it picks up the flavour of whatever you are cooking so well.  Anyhoo, peel it, chop it up and chuck it in.  Chop the bits into ½ inch thick chunks, throw away the seeds.

 

Lentils

 

Lentils are great.  When you buy them, check they don’t need soaking overnight or anything daft like that (beware of dried peas – they do need soaking).  Chuck them in the pan with the tomatoes etc and add at least 2 litres of water.  It is essential you go back and stir lentils about 5-10 minutes after they have been added.  They do this weird thing when they look uncooked, uncooked, uncooked and FOOM they expand, cook, stick to the bottom of the pan and boil over all over your cooker.  So ignore them at your peril!  They are cooked when they no longer look like small hard orange disks and start going all mushy.

 

Rice. 

 

Rice?  What are you on about woman?  Yes, you can bung rice in with this soup.  Its nice and starchy and will thicken it up nicely.  Can act similarly to lentils, so never trust it and give it a stir fairly often.

 

Potato. 

 

Works the same way as butternut squash, cut it into smallish cubes and bung it in.

 

Once the soup is cooked, give it a whizz with a blender or beat the hell out of it with a potato masher.  Add your cream if you want and sprinkle the saved basil over the top.

Leek and potato soup.

A classic soup with a clear stock, very easy to make and wonderfully filling.

1kg potatoes, washed but not peeled, chopped into small chunks around 1cm square.  You can cheat by using a mandolin or JML Nicer Dicer (about £30 from JML, do a google search - I love mine to bits)

1kg leeks, chopped and washed

Butter for frying

Chicken stock cubes - 6 is probably about right.

A little bit of lemon thyme if you can get it.  If not normal thyme will do, or parsley or chives or whatever you can lay your hands on.

A small amount of garlic

Cream if you like.

Fry the leeks and garlic in the butter until they are soft but not soggy and then add the stock up to around the 2 litre mark, also adding the herbs to your taste.  Chuck in the spud cubes and this will give you an idea of the consisteny and quantity of soup you will be making.  Add more water until it looks right and then simmer slowly for about 45 minutes.

Add the cream last and remove the soup from the heat.  If you have good heavy pans then it will stay hot for a long time for serving.

 

Shepherds Pie

 

2kg Minced lamb, beef or Venison

3- 4kg spuds

Oxo cubes (three or four)

Worcestershire sauce (as much as you like – to taste)

Onion (one big one or a couple of small ones)

Garlic (fresh or dried)

Something to thicken it with.

 

Brown off the mince, bung in at least two oxo cubes, chop up the onion and chuck that in too.  Add about a mug full of water and allow the mince to simmer on a low heat for about 45 minutes to an hour to allow the onion etc to cook.  If you are doing venison or fancy poshing up the beef, I found that the following added makes a really good stock:

Red wine.

Shallots

Fresh rosemary

Balsamic vinegar

Caramelised onions

Mushroom ketchup (if you can find it)

 

While the mince is simmering you can peel and cook the spuds.  Cut them up small so they cook quickly, it will take around 45 minutes for the water to come to the boil and for that quantity of spuds to cook, so don’t forget to factor this in.

 

Once the mince is cooked and the spuds are soft it is up to you how you do it from here.  You can if you like use a cream cheese to thicken the spuds instead of butter and milk, or cream if you have some too although milk and butter are fine too.  Whatever you use, you don’t want them really thick otherwise it is a pain to spoon over the mince – too runny and it is yuck.

 

Make sure the mince is simmering and thicken it using either bisto powder (make it up in a mug with a little bit of cold water first and stir like hell when you pour it in to prevent lumps), cornflower, bisto granules or best is a coleman sauce mix for shepherds pie or similar – it thickens it and adds flavour too.  You need your mince to be nice and thick or the potato will sink into it and it will be a nightmare to do!

 

Pour the mince into the bottom of two large oven proof dishes so it is halved between them, ideally at least an inch from the top of the dish.

 

Once the spud is mashed up, spoon it over the top and even it out.  Start in the middle and work your way out, being careful not to dollop too much on at once or it will push the mince out of the way.

 

Once it is nice and even, sprinkle on the top any of the following:

 

Cheese

Fresh rosemary

Fried leek shreds

Red onion slivers

 

Bung the lot in a medium hot oven for about 20 minutes to heat it all through and melt any cheese.

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 26th, 2009 at 4:35 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.