Oats are not my favourite food. I associate their mushy texture and card-boardy taste with stodgy dishes like porridge, vegetarian loaves and other recipes adapted for cholesterol-fighting diets. In fact, many years ago I followed Terry on a cholesterol lowering program, which involved cooking dinner every night from the popular (at the time) 8-Week Cholesterol Cure Cookbook by R.E Kowalski. This combined with a massive amount of daily exercise brought significant health benefits, but did nothing to endear me to oatmeal!
I’ve always had a box or two on the boat though, as an inexpensive standby for when we run out of more palatable options for breakfast. Over the years, I found that with the help of a good dose of brown sugar, cream and cinnamon, porridge could indeed be delicious (not sure however Mr Kowalski would approve of all the trimmings). It wasn’t until my first born was diagnosed with food allergies and we decided to steer away from commercial cereals (amongst many other things!) that oatmeal made it back on the weekly grocery list.
Generally after a period of indulgence, follows a craving for something healthy and simple, yet still tasty. Like this week, when I couldn’t handle the thought of any more meat, sugar or heavy sauces. Not so the kids, who I managed to keep happy with some left over beef curry and rice. But for me, vegetables were calling, zucchinis and capsicums (bell peppers) to be exact. Normally I would have either turned them into some ratatouille-like dish or grilled them on the BBQ. But that would have involved too much for a person who felt like soup or steamed vegies. Then I found the perfect compromise with a Tom Colicchio’s recipe for Zucchini with nicoise olives and burrata. Dainty little cubes of zucchini were stewed in just enough water to cover them and a dash of olive oil to bring out their flavour. I loved that cooking method. I adapted the original recipe to include what I had on hand (red and yellow capsicums, fresh mozzarella, mint) and didn’t worry about the olives and the squash blossom (not a staple in my pantry I’m afraid), cooked some penne for extra sustenance, and voila! The perfect Tuesday night vegetarian dinner, if you ask me.
Cakes and soups. That’s how I will remember October. With a visitor from France as keen on eating as we are, it was the perfect occasion to sample more Mexican food, either during our many excursions (see this post) or in the boat. Tortilla soup,
lime soup,
black beans and chorizos, …
so enthusiastic we girls were about experimenting with local produce that Terry eventually was crying for anything but tacos! Luckily for him, our dear friend, Marie Suzanne had the perfect antidote and stepped in with dutch baking recipes.
It actually started with her daydreaming in the back of the car, while on the road to Merida. We talked about food (what else?) and her project to set up a Dutch Pastry stand at her town’s Christmas Market, and thought nothing better than have her doing a practise run on the boat. Her description of homemade marzipan, speculoos biscuits, and Christmas bread made my mouth water all the way back to P.A and I couldn’t wait to add new pages to my notebook. Marie Suzanne was only too happy to oblige, though found it challenging to start without any of her familiar ingredients available in Mexico. Welcome to my world!
About a month ago, I posted a photo of this cake I made and a few of you asked for more details – it was a coconut layer cake inspired by the 12-Layer Coconut Cake from the Peninsula Grill in Charleston, South Carolina.
Exactly 12 months ago, as we were sailing down the US east coast, we pulled into Charleston Harbour seeking shelter from bad weather brought on by hurricane Sandy. We ended up staying for 9 days, waiting for a good weather window. The city has much to offer and I loved walking around the historic district, mostly eating my way around! I wrote about our Charleston stay here, of particular interest was the culinary tour during which our group sampled southern specialties in handpicked establishments. Some of the town’s most famous restaurants were also pointed out, notably the Peninsula Grill renowned for its decadent coconut cake. Top choice for local brides, highly rated by the likes of Martha Stewart and the New York Times, the advice from our guide was that even if we had dinner somewhere else, at least save room for dessert and walk to the PG just for the cake! Unfortunately we never managed this ( we were always too full to contemplate dessert anywhere), but I did do some research and found a recipe which I kept in my “to-do-one-day” list. The original recipe from the Peninsula Grill not only calls for an incredible amount of butter, sugar and cream, but also involves more time that one is used to bake a cake (unless you’re a pastry chef, then it’s all in a day’s work). The (dare I say) easier version I stumbled upon, while still very rich, didn’t require as much time and precision to put together.
I have just returned from a week end in Merida, taking my girlfriend Marie Suzanne who is visiting from France. Driven by Terry, who has no interest in this city, but who wanted to come along for the ride anyway, we started with a quick tour of Plaza Grande looking for somewhere to have lunch. We were starving, and on a mission to find authentic yucatecan food. There is no shortage of eating places in the Yucatan capital, from the cheap street side vendors to upmarket white linen-clad tables restaurants. After being accosted by a local, advertising his grandfather’s genuine yucatan restaurant a few bocks “that way”, taken to a Mayan’s artisanal store to see “the best hats”, we escaped to the quietness of X’CATIIC, a mid-range restaurant, overlooking the Plaza in full view of the Cathedral on our left and the City Hall on our right. While we waited for our meals, we watched families, couples strolling in the park, horse drawn carriages waiting for tourists (there were virtually none!), old men playing chess…
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