Yes, i have limitations, all of which have to do with the small space i have to work in. I actually only have a one burner stove top and a portable camp oven that i can set up in the cockpit as needed.
It is like living and cooking in a tiny house, only smaller. We live on a 29 foot converted sailboat. There is an enormous amount of storage, although never enough. It is almost all sadly inconveniently place under or behind at least three things. So you learn to plan, and hopefully remember where you put that thing-a-bob that is essential for today's project.
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| Just bottled! |
We brew cider, off all sorts and flavors, i make my own kimchi, note the two small jars fermenting behind last night's dirty dish bonzana. Sadly although we have repeatedly attempted to get our ship's cat, Magellan to do dishes for us he remains uninterested.
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| Does hes look ready to do dishes to you? |
I have learned over the time we have spent aboard that there are many things we regularly over cook, as in pretty much anything you cook by boiling in water, say rice, potatoes, pasta. Most starches will cook just fine utilising residual heat, bring to a boil, simmer for five minutes instead of say the traditional 10-20, cover and voila, its done. Freeing up that one burner to finish up the sauce, meat, whatever you had started earlier. Not to mention saving on precious non-renewable energy sources. Okay, so not alot, but every little bit helps.
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| Magellan, its time! |
Yes, meals like last night's chili rellenos take a good long while to put together. Which would be true whether you have four burners, or one. I simply had to stagger the process out over the afternoon. Which was okay as we were here and not all of it needed constant attention.
I was intrigued by a varition on the traditional chili relleno that i had read about. The author suggested using anchos, the dried form of the traditional poblano. Nice! Very nice.
Not only did this cut down on active time as all i had to do was soak the chilis in very hot water for an hour, omitting the tedious roasting and peeling. But oh my, the deeper, earthier, slightly sweeter taste of the ancho added such an amazing layer of flavor.
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| Ready to stuff |
I did make my own refried beans, using canned black beans as a shortcut, as i really find traditional canned refried beans way to high in fat and salt and who knows what else. Maybe a half an hour of gentle simmering on the stove with occasional stirring and smashing.
Next up a very simple tomato sauce, made of pureed onion, garlic and already pureed tomatos, cooked with additional water until the onions no longer tasted or smelled raw.
The most difficult part of this whole affair was beating the batter to sufficient thickness, which i don't feel i accomplished. The original article i saw talked about using a stand mixer with a balloon attachment for 3-5 minutes to get soft peaks. I do not have either a stand or hand mixer, i do have an immersion blender, which i used, but i don't feel i got to where i needed to be. Next time i will go back to my wire whisk.
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| Okay the batter slid around a little |
I was please to discover the asserrtion that the stuffed chilis would close themselves if you pressed the skin together. My first thought on intial reading was, yea, right! But it worked beautifully.
Do Not over stuff! I used maybe two big spoonfuls of beans and the same amount of grated mozzarella cheese. Next time i think i will use a goat cheese for a little extra flavor. I also plan on rolling the stuffed peppers in corn starch before dipping them in the egg batter, as i think the batter will cling better that way. All in all an absolutely lovely Meatless Monday dinner that i will make again; not very often though as it is deep fried.
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| Yummy! |
More later,
gail
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