FREE-SPIRITED OCEAN STIR FRY

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You are looking at the pantry on board of my dads boat: He is the chef on his ship and once a year I am spoilt for

1-2 weeks. He happily lets me sit at the tiller all day, while he works in the "kitchen". He cooks in any weather too, as he does not get sea sick when balancing in front of the gimbaled oven. This gimbaled oven has the advantage that even when the boat leans to one side the stove stays straight!

Below is a short video of the swinging oven. I did try to cook on it once, in big waves and it made my head spin!

Klaus's recipes follow a very simple thread:

a lot of potatoes, sometimes rice, always lots of veggies, a tiny bit of protein (they eat mostly fish, and sometimes pork fillet) and great spices, mainly Indian curry.

This recipe would be great with PLEEF™ (vegan meat, recipe on this blog, click here) made at home, before you set out to sea, or no protein at all. It could be tested with tofu and/or cannellini beans. It's the curry powder that makes it amazing, and pulls all the ingredients together.

The fridge on board works really well and is built in next to the navigation system. You simply lift the wooden top and there is a fridge. Klaus just put the lid back on-

Another surprise this year was to realise how close the engine is to the stove. We had some minor engine problem and Klaus took the cover off the engine to investigate. It is so well soundproofed that I never realised it was right there. Every millimeter gets used on a boat-

Back to my two chefs...

CHOP THE VEGGIES

Here is the masterchef, my dad "Klaus" and my mum "Antje" chopping tons of veggies.

I left the tiller on auto-pilot for a minute to take the photo and quickly went upstairs again. I get sea sick in minutes being down there-

While I am on the tiller, I get the job to remove the skin of yesterdays boiled potatoes. This is a very german way of eating potatoes, in the same way as we have cooked and cooled rice in the fridge for a quick fried rice. The potatoes were boiled for 20 minutes, left to cool and stored in the fridge over night.

To use them we peel off the skin and cut them into bite size pieces.

SLICE THE LEEK

remove the outer layers of the leek and slice, about 1 cm thick
set them aside
as they cook the fastest, they go in last
either a protein and/or the carrots will go in first after they are sliced thinly

FRY IN STAGES

add your preferred cooking oil to the pan or wok, I would use olive oil, Klaus used sunflower oil and did taste amazing. He uses about a 1/3 cup of oil
add 1 TB (tablespoon) of your favourite Indian curry powder, stir to mix
add your protein and fry for a minute or two, depending what you use
add sliced carrots and fry 2-3 minutes
add sliced leek and fry another 3-4 minutes

ADD POTATO PIECES

last, add your potato pieces
stir fry the lot until the potatoes are heated through
adjust seasoning with salt and pepper

LUNCH IS SERVED

we made it into a marina for lunch
the sun cover gets put up
a table goes into the cockpit
and the feast begins

AHOI!

I have not included amounts here as sailors are very hungry and normal servings would never be enough :)
so trust your instinct and start with 1/4 to 1/3 cup of oil with 1 TB of curry powder
you can adjust all the amounts as you like, this is only a guide for a free-spirited ocean stir fry :)