Island Tomatoes

As the 80th Round the Island Race kicks off next week, I thought it timely to write about some of the produce from the Isle of Wight.

Despite sailing around the coast of IoW for many years, the interior is a relatively unexplored place for me. However, tomatoes from Brian Morlee's farm in the Arreton Valley have started to filter through to my local greengrocers, so it's not been necessary to catch a bus from Cowes to the interior stock up.

The loose tomatoes, vine tomatoes and cherry tomatoes are burtsing with flavour. Open a bag of Island tomatoes and, unlike many supermarket varieties, they smell of tomatoes. Maybe this is due to all the sunshine and the fresh sea air.

Scandelicious!

One of the challenges for provisioning for a long cruise is how to keep bread on board. One answer is to bake it yourself but an easier way is to buy Scandanavian crispbreads. These originated in northern Sweden and Norway where flour-milling was feasible only in the spring and autumn when the millstreams contained enough water to work the mills. However, storing 6 months of flour was impossible so prompt baking of bread that would keep was essential. The solution was the thin, dry crispbread with its virtually unlimited shelf life.

Crispbreads are ideal for using on board either as a snack or part of a lunch. We're talking actual Scandanavian crispbreads here, which are full of flavour, not Ryvita which in our opinion has as much taste as cardboard. For snacks, eat with a slice of cheese such as HUSHÅLLSOST - a round and mild tasting cheese - or with cream cheese plus a few slices of cucumber. For a more robust lunch, serve with Sill Dill (marinated herrings with dill) and Sill Lok (marinated herrings with onion), boiled new potatoes and sliced beetroot. All these can be sourced from jars or cans.

Alternatively, for a de luxe version, serve with smoked salmon or gradvalax if available. These items are usually vacuum packed which make them ideal for on board. Remember to store in a cool place.

As a special treat, if you are at anchor, a shot of ice cold vodka or aquavit is a superb accompaniment.

Smaklig måltid!

It's Pancake Day!

Or Shrove Tuesday to be more exact. Whatever you like to call it, today is the day for perfect pancakes. Click here for our recipe for the pancake mix. It only takes a few minutes to prepare and the secret is to let the batter stand for about 30 minutes before using.

Our secret weapon is the 'boaty' frying pan which cooks really evenly and makes great rectangular pancakes. Sometimes, I nick this off the boat and bring it home if I want to make pancakes for Beef Wellington as the shape is just right for this dish.

Whatever you add to your pancakes - enjoy.

Pot Noodle: gift of god or spawn of satan?

The Pot Noodle snack first made its appearence in the UK in the early 1970s. It was quite an innovation at the time and the ritual of adding boiling water and seeing it come alive was a big departure from processed cheese sandwiches for lunch. 'Chicken and Mushroom' was the one to go for...probably because that was the only option at the time.

Now, a 90g Pot Noodle is available in 19 different flavours including 'Original Curry', 'Southern Fried Chicken' and 'Christmas flavour'. The 21st century version of 'Chicken and Mushroom' contains: dried glucose syrup, chicken flavouring, E635 (which is 4 times stronger than monosodium glutamate) 4g of salt, another 10 E numbers and a sachet of soy sauce.

On the positive side, they are very light in weight and therefore seem to find their way into the ship's stores of many racing yachts. All you need to do in the middle of the English Channel or Celtic Sea is to boil a kettle, add boiling water and a few minutes later, you can tuck into something hot. A quick survey of my regular sailing buddies revealed nothing good to say about the actual eating experience and the case against the Pot Noodle is as follows:

"the only good thing is the hot water" - Juno
"I had one forkful and had to throw the contents overboard" - Pure Magic
"a pot full of chemicals which has no place onboard" - Freelancer
" good for creating a percusion section during a crew sing-song but little else" - Just for Fun

Special protection for Cornish pasties

Cornish food manufacturers have won a nine-year battle to win special protection for their most famous snack - the Cornish pasty. This means that any products made in Devon, Wales or the rest of Britain are now banned from being called Cornish pasties.

From now on, only products made in Britain's most south-westerly county will be allowed to be called Cornish pasties. As well as this geographical restriction, there are other elements to consider. Products that include carrots and which are crimped on the top – rather than the correct Cornish style of on the side – will be banned too from claiming to be the real deal.

The ruling, issued by the European Union, puts the Cornish pasty in a select group of products including Champagne and Parma Ham, as well as 42 British specialities such Kentish Ale, Melton Mowbray pork pies, Arbroath Smokies and Cornish clotted cream.

We love proper Cornish pasties and always buy some at Rowes Bakery when we're in Falmouth. These are very different from the pale imitations seen in the large supermarkets so hopefully the supermarkets will have to have rethink now and consider buying their supplies from smaller producers who are located in Cornwall.

London Boat Show 2011

Our first publication, 'Recipes from the Little Ship Club Galley' will be on sale on stand C85 at this year's London Boat Show at Excel from 7 to 16 January.

If you are visiting the show, do drop by and say "hello".

Tim Tams and Tea

On a recent sailing trip on Juno, the Aussie bowman introduced us to Tim Tams - a chocolate biscuit from Australia. Apparently, 1 in every 2 households (presumably in Australia) contains a packet of Tim Tams and around 35 million packs are sold each year.


For the non-Aussies on board, at first sight, Tim Tams appeared to be identical to the British McVites's Penguins and indeed the concept is the same. However, Tim Tams are 'double-coated' with chocolate and this could be source of their strength in the Tim Tam Tea challenge. The rules of the game are to bite off each end of the biscuit and then suck hot tea through the centre before the whole thing collapses into the bottom of the mug. The winner is the person who can draw tea through the biscuit in the fastest time. (You don't have to drink all of the tea by the way).

For the next round, we substituted Penguins for Tim Tams and were disappointed to find that they crumbled too quickly and unfortunately weren't up to the job.

So thanks Dutchie for bringing Tim Tams on board and idle moments afloat will never be the same again.