Gourmet Galley

Provisioning for the sail between St Lucia and Columbia was constrained by what could reasonably be transported by ‘blue trolley and dinghy’, availability of supplies and space in the ‘hole-in-the-counter’ fridge.

I have Shaughna (crew and galley-girl for Entre Nous – the only motorboat) to thank, for her recommendation to try Gourmet Massy supermarket, in the mall at Rodney Bay, and as consequence, for the range of fresh supper ingredients on board as we set off.

I have found that with careful planning I can eke out fresh (rather than tinned) main ingredients to last between 6-8 days.  We start the journey eating like kings (or at least minor royals, maybe D list celebs) and we end up eating anything that remotely goes together and doesn’t have mould on it.

Day One – with St Lucia still in sight (just) and the parasailor flying beautifully we dined on marlin steaks, marinated in soy sauce, lime juice and pan fried in a pale green St Lucian garlic and onion compote.  We were too excited and hungry to take photos.

This week’s Monday (Day Three) menu recipe is chicken, with yellow pepper and red onion served with a crunchy salad and roast potatoes.  Followed by fresh pineapple and passion fruit, served with ‘rum custard’.

When creating this menu my intention was to conjure up a Sunday roast lunch with the flavour of Caribbean sunshine and warmth.  Pirates eat your heart out.

Main Course

Chicken thighs seasoned with paprika, mustard powder, celery seed, black pepper, bay leaves, cloves and coriander seed.

Yellow pepper.

Red onion – sliced in wedges.

The above ingredients were lightly coated in vegetable oil and roasted in a hot oven until the chicken skin was brown and crispy.   The onboard oven certainly gets hot – on the outside as well as the inside.  Dodging the oven door as the cooker swings on its’ gimbal is a good test of speed of reaction – it reminds me of the psychology experiments which measure memory and response to a stimulus (Skinner and rats; Palov and dogs; Ranganath and the hippocampus, 2024).

No more distractions – on with the menu.

Potatoes were parboiled and lightly covered in veg oil and, I confess to using a ready-made seasoning mix (Schwartz Chip Seasoning) to add va va voom to the roasties.   Roasties had their turn in the oven (which is small) while the chicken was resting under foil.  They could have been crispier, but no one complained.

Crispy salad – ingredients: crisp white cabbage and red cabbage sliced thinly; a stick of celery sliced; alpha alpha sprouts; a tomato cut into chunks; pumpkin seeds and crushed walnuts.   Seasoned with salt and pepper and a liberal dose of honey and mustard dressing.

Dessert

Half a fresh pineapple cut into segments.

A large passion fruit – juice and seeds.

‘Rum custard’ – take one tub of vanilla dessert (something like Angel Delight – but a Waitrose version).  Add two large tablespoons of crème fraiche and… (piece de resistance… think Keith Floyd, again) a large splish, splash, splosh of Chairman’s Reserve rum (which found its way into the saloon table supplies, thanks to friend, Sharon).

Maybe you might try this at home. Or maybe you might decide a visit to St Lucia is necessary in order to procure the Chairman’s Reserve rum, an appealing thought, I’m guessing, in grim, grey January.

Enjoy…