It always starts in Huvudskär - 20-21 May 2017

Well, it was not supposed to start there for this weekend. After the two previous weekends freezing cold in Belisama, our ambition for this weekend was not going that far. Especially because this was the date of the Lindingö runt, which is always a nice opportunity to come across interesting boats.

Fresh-sous vide vegetables, an oxymoron - 16 May 2017?

As for vegetable, so far I am testing with potatoes and green beans. Potatoes require to be sous-vide cooked at 85°C for two  hours. First peal them, wash them, dice them, and put them in a sous-vide vacuumed bag marked with content and date, for a dish for two or more, as needed.

Put the bag at 85°C for two hours, then freeze in cold water, before storing in the fridge for up to a goo month, as 85° ensures full pasteurisation of the potatoes. Store on the boat fridge. for future use after a long night watching for boats in the North Sea...

More vegies?

Sous-vide chicken - 16 May 2017

This post is about traditional chicken legs prepared sous-vide for consumption on the boat. Chicken legs are not so difficult to prepare on board, but they require appropriate cooking time, which is always more than expected, and after having eaten a couple of undercooked unhealthy chicken, I considered pre-cocking them sous-vide for easing their preparation. With great success...

No surprise, these are the ingredients. Add whatever seasoning you like, ans olive oil for the cooking. Ready?

French sailor's blanquette - 16 May 2017

La blanquette de veau is probably the most traditional French dish, which requires usually hours of attended cooking using a receipt transmitted in the matriarcal line in French families. For having lived abroad for many years, the "blanquette" becomes a reminder of the homeland. After having mastered the receipt on land, the question was how to make sure that once in a while we can have the blanquette on board of Belisama without jeopardising a full day of sailing. After a few trials, I found the solution, which I am presenting here, associating slow cooking at home, sous-vide packaging, and on board pre-serving arrangements. This changed our sailor's lives!

Here are the ingredients. From bottom up and left to right, 25 cl of cooking white wine, 2 kg of fresh veal filet (planning quite a few meals for friends), three garlic pieces, a dozen champignons cut in small pieces, fresh parsley, laurel leaves, thym, two big oignon (should be yellow ones...), four sliced carrots and two cooking bouillons... For the sauce step, you will need 150 grams butter, 4 spoons of white flour, one egg yolk, 500 gr. of crème fraiche, plus some salt and pepper according to taste. 

Ready?

Sailing to Grinda - 12 - 14 May

Following the snow storms of last weekend, we decided not to go too far this time. Destination Grinda, one of the most touristic place in the archipelago as it is a real archipelago island, but located two hours by ferry from Stockholm, therefore quite popular for short term visitors wanting to have an archipelago experience.