Sea Dog Sailing's Favorite Recipes

"It's gonna be a long beat--- You gotta EAT!." EASY CHEESY ONION BACON BREAKFAST FRITTATA

Great to serve on the morning before a long beat when getting into the galley will test the best of sailors' mettles! A good solid breakfast, and easy to make. You can cook the bacon/etc, the night before if you like to save time in the morning

Cheese, bacon (if desired), dozen eggs, butter, onions, seasonings, cream cheese, tomatoes, potatoes (if des.)

Quantities: Use whatever you have on hand!

Feeds Crew of 6-8, or use less eggs, for smaller version.

Pre-heat oven to 375 deg. Grease large casserole dish with butter. Grate about a cup of hard cheese, set aside. Fry bacon, drain, set aside. Sauté one large onion until soft in some bacon drippings (reserve a couple of thin slices for garnish). Place cooked onions in bottom of casserole dish, layer with bacon, then top with grated cheese. In large bowl, lightly whisk a dozen eggs, seasoning with salt/pepper/pinch cayenne pepper/crazy salt, etc. to taste. Pour over mixture in casserole. Decorate with thin slices of onion rings. Place dollops of cream cheese on top of mixture (one per crew member). Bake until done (about 35-40 min).

Open oven occasionally to tilt pan and lift edges of frittata to allow uncooked liquid to move to edges.

Serve immediately with toast and marmelade! Enjoy!

55 KNOT MUSSESLS

Appropriately named after riding out a gale in New Zealand. We had one of the best meals of our trip right there on board in full foul weather gear...lots of beer and white wine with these makes it a perfect meal. This one recipe serves about 8 people.

10 kilos New Zealand Green Lip Mussels (if you can't find these then use regular black shells at 14-15 kilos) Cook slowly in water; reserve the liquor/stock.

Marinere Sauce:
3 cans diced tomatoes with garlic and basil
4 cloves of garlic
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 heaping glass of white wine
2 cups of mussel stock (save it as you cook mussels)
1 pinch of sugar
salt, pepper to taste
heaping tablespoons of dried basil and oregano
Saute the onion and garlic.Then mix it with the above ingredients and slowly cook bringing out all the flavors.

Garlic White Wine Sauce:
2 sticks of butter
1 cup of stock
2 cups of white wine or more to taste
4 cloves of garlic
2 heaping teaspoons of parsley (fresh if you have it)
1 large yellow onion
salt/pepper to taste
white pepper
Sautee the onion and garlic till soft. Add more butter and melt then add the white wine and the stock. Cook slowly adding the parsley and other seasonings to taste. White pepper is essential.

After both sauces are prepared then then hold them to the side and keep them warm. Heat up some fresh garlic bread for dipping; this is important! Now take the mussels and place them into two piles in the center of the table (using big pots or cookie sheets, etc...). Now take one sauce and pour it over once pile and take the other and pour it over the other pile. Garnish with lemons and lots of fresh parsley. Dig in! Use that bread for dipping! Enjoy!

EASY MARMALADE & Toast

Great with fresh oranges.

Zest of Oranges, orange juice, sugar

Peel entire Zest of Oranges into long strips. Cut up orange sections very small. In medium saucepan, bring 1 cup orange juice, 1 cup sugar and orange sections and zest to boil, reducing until syrup becomes sticky (about 15 minutes). Pour over over Easy Toast and serve immediately.

EASY TOAST
Butter both sides of bread (works great with your stale bread). Place in frying pan over medium heat. Turn until browned both sides.

ELEGANT- "but-looked-like you-slaved-all- day!" POACHED PEARS

Your crew will think you slaved in the galley all day! Simple version takes about 20 minutes! And the main salon will smell wondrous.
Can be made ahead and served chilled as well. Then there is the version for when you are stuck at anchor or feeling mighty creative!

INGREDIENTS
4-6 approx. same-size ripe, firm *BOSC* pears (other pears don't compare!)
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 cup red wine (Port or Sauterne, or any you have on board)
Cinnamon Sticks (if available, or ground- if desired)
Generous Pinch salt
2 whole lemons, juiced, then entire lemons cut in pieces

THE SIMPLE, EASY VERSION:

1. Peel pears, leaving stems intact. Cut a thin slice off bottom of each pear so they will stand flat. Set aside.

2. In medium saucepan, add remaining ingredients. Bring mixture to a boil. Add pears and arrange standing with stems pointing up. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, 15-20 minutes or until pears are fork-tender. (Make sure to use Bosc pears-- other pears get mushy!)

3. Remove pears from saucepan with slotted spoon. Cool.

4. SIMPLE sauce: Continue to cook liquid on low until reduced to 3/4 cup, about 15 minutes. Serve pears drizzled with sauce.

Other great sauces:

RASPBERRY Coulée: Spoon raspberry (or apricot) JAM into a small saucepan. Heat until jam melts. (You can also add some Grand Marnier or other liquor at the last minute before drizzling, if you like.) Arrange pears on a platter. Drizzle swirls of raspberry sauce over pears. Garnish with lemon zest, or mint leaf, if you have that on board!

CHOCOLATE sauce:
Purchase dark chocolate syrup and pour into a baggie, or melt chocolate and heavy cream in a baggie in a pot of hot water. With oven mitts (pouches will be hot), snip a tiny corner off the baggie.....voila! instant pastry bag....and swirl chocolate lacings over the platter (or the hatch board covered with foil if you have no platter!!!).....Place pears over the chocolate and swirl more chocolate on pears. Serve with Tia Maria if you like!

THE MORE COMPLICATED VERSION!
The "If-you-want-to-get-CRAZY" cooking pears!:

The "It-is-pouring-outside-the-boat;-you-are-at-anchor-at-a-safe-anchorage;-you-have-a lot-of-time,-and-are-in-the-mood-to-cook" Pears! Of course, this involves wrapping and baking your poached pears in a puff pastry! Either make your own pastry (ha!), or buy some pre-made pastry sheets in a frozen food section when you provision! (I actually found some in a tiny hole-in-the wall grocery in Greece by drawing pictures and hand signs, since I did not speak Greek, and the prop. did not speak English!)

Make an egg wash (this acts like a glue and makes the dough shiny: one egg yolk, lightly beaten, with a tablespoon of cold water.) Roll out pastry sheets using last night's wine bottle (or drink a bottle, then roll -- your choice) (Also-- throw a little flour on the galley counter first. if you don't have a pastry cloth- and who does?)! With long sharp knife, gently indent pastry enough to cut in four squares (without cutting the counter!) Prick a tiny hole in the center of dough and place over stem of poached pear. Pull dough down around pear, dipping your hand in the egg wash and sealing dough, completely covering fruit. Fold excess dough under bottom. Repeat for all pears. If you are especially creative, you can carve leaves out of the remaining dough, and attach under pear stem with egg wash. The leaves look spectacular when finished! Bake at 350 deg. until golden brown and the pastry has puffed.

THE REALLY COMPLICATED VERSION!
You can stuff the pears, too if you like. After poaching and completely cooling pears, cut in half horizontally, scoop out flesh, fill with Nutella® (hazelnut chocolate), raspberries, nougat candy, etc. Put halves back together, and wrap with puff pastry as above.

Prepare platter with drizzled sauce of choice. Place warm pears on platter, more drizzle, Enjoy!

PIRATE COFFEE (aka: “Oh-no!-We-broke-the-coffee-pot!” Coffee) and other coffee musings

What’s the crew to do? When beating one day, the French press rolled out of the galley, then onto the floor...then our French Press was no more.

This actually makes great coffee, but is a little messy to make!
When you "gotta have coffee", and you broke the coffee pot on a WINDY day with a particularly lumpy sea -you GOTTA have coffee!

BOIL water in medium saucepan (or a couple of pans, depending on how much coffee your crew drinks). Turn off flame when rolling boil. Throw your coffee right into the water. Let steep for at least 5 minutes. (Coffee will puff up.) **Do not stir!**

After steeping, tap all around rim of pan with a heavy spoon.
Coffee grounds will sink to bottom of pan. VOILA!

There will be a “foam” on top of coffee. Now you can either just pour coffee into a pitcher (making sure to stop pouring when you reach the grounds), or place a coffee filter or paper towel over mouth of pitcher to strain foam (holding paper very carefully).

It works! Guaranteed! Better than French Press, crew said!

CINNAMON COFFEE
Throw a heaping teaspoon (not too much, or it will taste powdery) of ground cinnamon or cardamom over coffee before water runs over it. Great for breakfast.

CAN OF WHIPPED CREAM
This is a great item to have on board. Number One: It’s fun and it’s a treat! But more importantly, it does not spill when the boat is heeling! There is nothing worse than sour spilled milk/cream in your galley fridge to have to clean up. A can of whipped cream solves this problem. No more crying over spilt milk!