Chicken, Leek and Tarragon Casserole. For sea.

It's hard to imagine that in one weeks time I will no longer be sitting cross legged upon my lovely double bed with the view all flat and stationary out of the window. We will be all at sea, slowly discovering our sea legs and adjusting to the routine of watches and life aboard. As the ships cook, I  only have the one 3 hour watch to do, usually after dinner and the rest of my time will be spent preparing meals for the crew. Now if the weather is fine and the seas are calm then, to be frank, it's a pretty cushty job. But if the weather is not so favourable, the responsibility to feed the crew lies with me alone as nobody else on board would volunteer.

I've been pre-cooking these last few days at the house and taking the prepared dishes down to the boat to stuff in my tiny-wee, little freezer. These are my rough weather dishes. If it all starts to get a bit gnarly out there, then I am prepared for it. Take out a frozen meal and slap it in the oven. Easy. Otherwise it can take literally hours to make the most simple of dishes and it's exhausting.

Mariquita has been transformed from her stripped winter maintenance bareness, to her fully geared and accessorised passage coat. Complete with life rafts, passage sails and stanchions. Ooh , it's all starting to get very exciting. That feeling of impending change. A journey is afoot!

Now, before I start getting all poetic on you, let me give you a little recipe. It's a little recipe but with the potential to feed lots of hungry mouths and tastes delicious, is simple and economic, hearty yet elegant. Its the tarragon you see. Its a clever little herb that has an air of sophistication. It's grace can turn any run-of-the-mill dish into a charmer. Even a frozen chicken and leek casserole, emancipated from its tin foil and bunged in a gimballed oven swinging willy-nilly in a stuffy galley that's bucking like a bronco, will taste like it's heaven sent and all because (I reckon) of that most debonair of herbs; tarragon.

A great family sized dish served with mash, or rice or pasta! And will freeze splendidly. 

For Chicken, Leek and Tarragon casserole to serve 6 you will need;

8-10 chicken portions, a mix of thigh and breast.
6 large leeks, washed and sliced but not too thinly 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
4 stalks of celery, washed and roughly chopped
1 large bunch of fresh tarragon, the leaves stripped from the stalks and chopped
500ml white wine
500ml chicken stock
2 tbsp plain flour
1/2 tbsp clear honey or sugar

Method;

• Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4. In your largest nonstick frying pan, fry the chicken pieces in some oil so that they are a gentle golden brown on both sides. This might take a few batches. Place the browned chicken into an oven proof casserole dish with a lid.

• Once the chicken is browned and resting in its dish, add a little more oil to the frying pan and start to saute the leeks and celery. This shouldn't take too long, around 5 minutes, before adding the garlic and half of the chopped tarragon. Add the honey or sugar and saute for another couple of minutes, stirring frequently. The honey balances out the acidity of the wine.

• Add the leeks to the chicken pieces in your casserole dish.

•  Add a little more oil or butter to the pan and use a wooden spatula to stir and loosen any remaining leeky, garlicy goodness from the pans bottom before adding the flour. Over a very gentle heat stir the flour in to make a roux, which will look like a paste. Take the roux off the heat and begin to very slowly add the stock and wine, stirring well between additions to get rid of any lumps before adding more of the liquid.

• Once all the liquid has been added, let the sauce come to a gentle simmer then season with salt and pepper before tipping into the casserole dish with the chicken and leeks.

• Add  the remaining tarragon, give it all a good stir and pop into the oven for 1 hour 20 minutes. Check the seasoning before serving.

This is delicious served with mashed potatoes but also goes beautifully with pasta or rice, so it can suit any taste,  occasion or weather condition and angle at which you are serving it. Handy.

If the wind we have at the moment dies down a little, tomorrow we go out for our first sail of the year.
It’ll be a learning curve for everybody with such a new crew and it feels like its been ages since the last race at St Tropez! 

Hope I remember how it all works...
Thanks for reading,
Cheers!

The Queens Diamond Jubilee Pageant and Me

The big move onto the boat has started. Out of the crew house with its multiple bathrooms and copious water flow; its double bed and wardrobe space and onto the boat with - none of the above. Whoopee, she cries.

If you've followed my blog for it's first baby year afloat on the world-wide-web, then you'll be very aware of my feelings when faced with this transition. They're not filled with enthusiasm I'll admit and 'normally' I might have a bit of a moan about it all.

However, this year I have very good reason to be excited. Here's a little story;

35 years ago on a sunny day in June, 1977, a little girl was born. A bit early but perhaps she was keen to get going. Her Majesty The Queen's Silver Jubilee was taking place and the Great British Public were also keen, as mustard in fact, to celebrate. They were baking and hanging bunting and closing the streets for village parties as we Brits are pretty good at doing. You can just imagine the waft of Victoria sponges and sausage rolls, the shrieking children, overloaded with sugar and E numbers, still relatively allowed in them days and all that excitement hanging in the air.

Just as the baby sheets were doing, used as flags to hang from the hospital windows. So the baby girl, newly born and peachy, was laid upon a Terry Toweling nappy in her cot instead of the usual soft, cotton sheet which wafted around with a higher purpose out of the window.

Babies in those days were put on their tummy's to sleep. So this wee little thing as she turned her head from side to side, slowly and successfully removed the many layers of brand new skin from her nose against the harsh threads of the toweling makeshift sheet whilst the real cotton sheets fluttered in the early June breeze.

I came out of hospital with a massive scab on my snoz basically. My brand new, little nose rubbed raw in aid of the Queen's Silver Jubilee. What a sacrifice I made in my first few days.

Well my nasal epidermis sacrifice must have paid off because Mariquita has been invited to attend the Queen's pageant on the Thames for her Diamond Jubilee! We will sail up to the Thames on the 1st of June and on the 3rd of June, my 35th Birthday, we will be there to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee. How exciting! Mariquita on the Thames. She will look awsome.

I've decided such an event deserves a cake; and I really don't mind baking my own Birthday cake if it's to be shared with the Queen. It's no skin off my nose.

I am therefore in the next few months, going to be designing the ultimate Jubilee/Birthday cake. The crew will , I'm sure, be up to the task of tasting the results of my inventions and I commend their commitment to the cause.

So as you can see, I am pretty excited about the move onto the boat this year and our sailing trip to the UK. It's going to be a cracker. I'm sure the Queen will approve of all our hard winter maintenance work. And Mariquita will be proudly gleaming in all her glory. There'll be a few of you watching on the telly too apparently. I'll wave.

Stay tuned therefore, for inside information, stories and cake and all things Diamond Jubilee and we'll see you on the Thames!

Thanks for reading.

Spiced Red Plum and Redcurrent Relish

By Jove I do believe I have a little sunburn upon my arms. Sanding on a deck that is high in the sky, a quaint breeze hiding the true heat of the sun and before you know it, milky white skin has turned an un-attractive pink. Oops.

But we are enjoying the sunshine and the longer evenings, smelling of mown lawns and the approaching season. We set sail in a few weeks so I am busy coming up with menu plans, provisioning lists and ideas for rough weather cooking.

I’ve discovered a little beauty. I made it for a picnic the other day and if I make a few more jars then simple cheese and ham lunches in big seas will be easy to cobble together with a nice little home made touch and the crew will think I’m very brave and dedicated to their stomachs, working hard down below in my dark and dingy galley.  

I got the idea for the plum, red-current and chilli chutney from the Ottolenghi, 'The Cook Book' (brilliant for inspiration when cooking for lots of people), as an accompaniment to some lamb I was roasting for friends. The original recipe in the book called for rhubarb, which I couldn’t find here in France this time of year but it was easy to substitute the rhubarb for redcurrents. And as the recipe rightfully says, you can experiment with whatever fruits are in season and pair nicely with what you’re serving it with. A burst of spice and tart, this goes exceptionally well with a good, French tangy goats cheese, some warm fresh homemade spelt bread and a glass of rosé like you wouldn’t believe.

Do excuse me, my mouth is watering.

Also, it lasts so well in the fridge and the flavours improve with age (like me). I will certainly be making a batch or two for my ships stores. But will continue to pray for calm seas! 

For a fabulous jar of easy-to-make chutney you will need;

6-8 red plums

1 red chilli, halved and seeded

2 cinnamon sticks

1 star anise

100ml red wine vinegar

200g castor sugar

1 punnet of redcurrants removed from their stems

1 small knob of fresh ginger, peeled and very finely sliced and cut into wee strips

Method

• Stone and cut the plums into quarters and put in a heavy based saucepan with the redcurrants, cinnamon, star anise, ginger, vinegar and sugar. Stir and bring to the boil. Then turn down to a gentle simmer and whilst keeping an eye on it, stirring occasionally and enjoying the aroma, cook gently for 25 to 30 minutes or until the fruit has a jam-like consistency (pleasingly gooey). It may need more or less depending on your stove.

• When you have the desired consistency, remove the chilli and transfer to a jar and leave to cool. This will store in the fridge for 2-3 weeks (mine is still great or better after a month in the fridge but do keep an eye on it). Serve as you wish with a roast joint or with a cheeky little French cheese the next day on the beach with some homemade bread. They’ll love you for it.

See; dead easy! And dead great!

Thanks for reading, back soon with loads of pre-delivery cooking recipes and menu ideas for long passages at sea. See you then.

Cheers!

 

On a boat on the hard.... not my favourite thing.

Mariquita Comes Out of the Water

The yearly anti-foul requires Mariquita to be lifted out of the water in a couple of giant slings. Before the big crossing to the UK it is good to do this and this year there will also be a shaft check. It's always quite an exciting but strange thing to see your place of work and home taken out of its natural environment like this. Plucked from its soft, secure bed of water into the air and placed on 'stands'. It never feels right to be on a boat out of the water and I can't say that I enjoy it hugely.

We remove the boom from the mast when we do this because the boom overhangs the back of the boat by about 5 meters which adds slightly more to the bill. So with pullies and strops and knots and a winch or two, approximately a tons worth of boom is lowered slowly and safely to the deck by us lot - the crew. 

 

Hauled out on a jaunty angle. I was a little nervous about the coffee machine at this point having remembered I hadn't strapped it in place...

 

She is now parked next to Moonbeam 3, the boat on the left in the scoffolding.

And now we live and work out of our container. The kettle and a fridge have been installed and lunch has become daily visits to the sandwich shop.

And the really exciting news... George and I are home to the UK tonight to move into our new house this weekend! If you think you are more excited than me about anything I dare you to challenge me to a 'who's-more-excited-off'.

But I will win.

Thanks for reading,

Cheers!

Mariquita's New Season; Here We Go Again!

Isn’t it nice to feel wanted? Having avoided blogging for a whole month due to lets say - Life - I feel it's time to return to the keyboard and once again divulge recipes and classic boat adventures, spurred on by popular demand.

When I say popular demand I mean my Mum asked me when I was going to blog again so I thought I’d best get on it.

I was pondering on the metaphor of a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis as Mariquita is freed from her winter state in preparation for the new season ahead. But then I thought that was all a bit flouncy for the roughty-toughty sailor that I am so instead I’ll just tell you how good she is starting to look as we take off her protective deck covers and cap-wrap. Her cap rail has been sanded and has a lovely new coat of varnish. George and Billy have been re-rigging and once again the mast base is maze of freshly varnished and leathered blocks awaiting halyards and jiggers. Our hands have suffered from sanding and sewing leather and now that the sun is more out then in we have had to dig out the sunscreen from the bilges for regular application.

New crew! We have had quite a crew change for the season ahead so a big ‘Hi’ please to Adam, Pippa, Catherina and Martha! Yesterday they all had the mildly frightening introduction to the Mariquita Crew Manual; an instruction guide to their racing positions which when read through on dry land can seem somewhat overwhelming. But even so we are all getting pretty excited about the up and coming season ahead and putting some sails up.

We are UK bound. We plan to set sail from here in Cogolin in the South of France, April 12^th.  The journey will take us through the Gibraltar straights, into Atlantic waters up past Portugal, Spain, a hop (we hope) across the infamous Bay of Biscay and into English waters heading for home. In the next few weeks I shall be stocking up and provisioning, pre-cooking and praying for flat seas; the memories of cooking dinner whilst off the coast of Portugal in 40 knots of breeze, the fruit bowl (and me) flying across the galley whilst Mariquita slammed into huge waves, are still reasonably vivid.

Then whilst in the UK we have very busy schedule training and racing and getting involved with all sorts of exciting ‘events’. More of which I shall let on when I’ve been given the go ahead from the Captain, but suffice to say I’m sure you’ll want to stay tuned for ‘hot off the press’, inside info.

It’s all so exciting!

33 Degrees will be a year old in a few days. I was just looking over some of last years blogs and it is great to read and remember the adventures and food and experiences we had.

Here’s to more of the same.

Thanks for reading, I’ll be back shortly with recipes, rigging and reflections on life aboard a beautiful classic sailing yacht preparing for the long sail home.

Cheers!

 

The Drive.

On Sunday George decided we should go for an 'off-roading' session in his beloved Landrover in the snow and explore the tracks and trails around the hills of the Cogolin area and beyond. Being a bit of a snow-freak I of course thought this was a splendid idea so with snow chains attached, we set off.

With the dependable grunt of the Landy in chains, a force to be reckoned with, we climbed up and above the village of La Garde Freinet and into the narrow tracks of the snowy hills. This is an area more suited to bathing in the famous Cote D'Azure sunshine which teases and tickles the lavender and vineyards and olive trees into flower and fruit. But as we drove, we passed by many a fallen olive bough, the burden of cold snow too much to carry for some.

We continued to climb and twist and turn, the view opening up over the white valleys of the French Riviera on one side, the other side stretching for miles towards the distant piercing-white of the Southern Alps busy catching some rays. The views were paused in their tracks as we slowly ambled through the darkened tunnels of trees, hooded heavily with snow and silence.

 George stopped the car occasionally so I could take photos and it seemed that the stillness the snow had brought with it had effected him somehow. He was very quiet.

But he's like that when he's deep in thought so I left him to it and continued to admire my beautiful view. Lucky old me.

Then after a while George decided to stop to show me a path that led to a view apparently worth photographing. I smiled inwardly thinking how sweet it was for him to indulge my love for my camera and a good view.

We sat on a rock under an olive tree and took in the stillness and the amazing view of the snowy valleys in front of us.

And then he got down on his knee and asked me to marry him.

Oh and I said 'Yes'.

Our Rock.

Now Thats What I'm Talking About!

Oops, was that me? They do say be careful what you wish for but this is what I'm talking about! Snow falling in La Garde Freinet is a very rare event indeed but in the course of an evening I think we've had six inches already and it's still floating down like a billion angry feathers.

I love it!

I think a snow boarding trip could be imminent.

Unfortunatley George has a Landrover and the snow chains to go with it, so trying to blag a day off work tomorrow to build snowmen and take millions of pretty white photos could be tricky. Oh well, more sanding it probably is then. And I'll stick with 'probably', because you never know...

Trying to move Billy's car. Good sign for tomorrow...?

The crew house

Here I am in winter maintenance mode... glamerous no?

Oh look! I'm sanding.

Tim and Joe trying to keep warm in the forepeak

If you made it all the way down to the bottom by the way, it's still snowing.