Tag Archives: Sailing

Cooking with Local Ingredients, Indonesia, Marlin

Sate Ikan (Fish Satays)

2 Comments

We are back in Indonesia for a month and one of the things we really love about Indonesia is the food! We are moored at Pulau Weh, actually we are moored off a smaller island call Pulau Rubiah. The snorkelling here is fantabulous, as is the food! We have discovered a local delicacy called sate gurita (sate octopus). Delicious and tender, it awoke memories of our time with our boys at Gili Air when we sailed there for Christmas 2014. I cooked sate ikan, using some marlin we caught in Australia. It was part of a feast that I cooked up on the boat for a friend who wanted to film it.

Sate Ikan
Sate Ikan

While anchored off Gili Air (Lombok Indonesia)  with our son’s Jedd, Alex, Kye and two of their girlfriends, we had a visit from Jackie and her son Alexander. Jacqui was interested in filming a short video of us cooking up a storm on Thorfinn.  I hadn’t had time to think about what to cook and therefore had not shopped in Bali before we left. So, before I could decide what to cook, I had to look at what I had on the boat and then I had to go ashore to see what I could purchase on the small island of Gili Air. In the tiny village I found a shop selling some fresh produce and a very limited array of other supermarket goods. I choose some things I love to cook with – limes, ginger, garlic, chillies, galangal – while I gradually formulate an idea of what I would cook.

Shopping for chillies, lime, galangal etc.

Back on the Thorfinn I fine-tuned my proposed menu. When in Indonesia, do as the Indo’s… I decided to cook some Indonesian favourites. Ikan Bakar (grilled fish), sambal and sate ikan (fish satays).

So, while the boys enjoyed the swimming and snorkelling, and the girls chilled out on the sun-beds with a cocktail, Dwayne and I cooked and Jacqui filmed. It was a lot of fun and when it was ready the kids joined us on Thorfinn for a feast. As we sat around Jedd’s surfboard, which had become our makeshift table for the day, we enjoyed the sunset and the company of family and friends… and I think we all privately reflected on how lucky we were.

For the sates …

I grated one onion into a sieve over a bowl. Using a spoon I then pressed down on the grated onion to squeeze out the onion juice. I set aside the the grated onion for using in the peanut sauce.

To the onion juice I added…

  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 finely chopped garlic clove
  • 1 tablespoon of grated ginger
  • 2 teaspoon of palm sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 1 kg of marlin fillet

I mixed it well, covered and refrigerated it until I was ready to skewer the marlin to grill.

For the peanut dipping sauce…

In a small saucepan, I sautéed the reserved grated onion for two minutes with –

  • 1 Tablespoon of olive oil
  • 2 crushed garlic cloves
  • 1/2 teaspoon of sambal olek

I then added…

  • 3 teaspoons ground coriander
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon of ground turmeric
  • 1 Tablespoon of palm sugar

I stirred continually as I cooked for a minute and then added…

  • 1 1/4 cups coconut cream

I gently heated it until almost boiling, then removed the saucepan from the heat and stirred in…

  • 3 Tablespoons of peanut butter

Once the peanut butter was well blended I returned to a gentle heat and cooked for about 5 minutes while stirring and checking it often. (Add water if needed).

To serve

I skewered cubes of marlin onto small skewers and Dwayne cooked them on the BBQ. I then served them with the peanut sauce.

Sate Ikan served with peanut sauce on Jedd's surfboard!
Sate Ikan served with peanut sauce on Jedd’s surfboard!

I loved our Christmas on Gili Air!… and have welcomed the opportunity to reminisce about it. Hope you enjoy the recipe.

Christmas on Gili Air

Want to read about catching the marlin? Click on the photo below!

The Marlin

Sharing is caring! Why not pin this recipe so you can always find it!

Sate Ikan - Indonesian Fish Satays

Cephalopod, Cooking with Local Ingredients, Pork

Pork Stuff Squid Tubes

2 Comments

This is easily one of our favourite squid dishes. I have cooked them a couple of times during our sailing through SE Asia. The first time was in Indonesia when we bought some fresh squid from a local fisherman. The second time was recently in Thailand at a BBQ we put on at PSS Shipyard in Satun.

IMG_2655
Pork stuffed squid served with rice cakes and a simple salad.

Ingredients

25g Rice vermicelli noodles
3 spring onions
3 tablespoon of peanut oil
2 garlic, finely chopped
3cm ginger, peeled and grated
½ cup cabbage, finely shredded
325g pork mince
¼ teaspoon ground star anise
1 Tablespoon fish sauce
Several medium squid or 16 baby squid, cleaned and tentacles reserved

Dipping sauce

1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 small chilli, finely chopped
2 tablespoons soft brown sugar
4 tablespoons fish sauce
Freshly squeezed juice from ½ a lime

Method

To make dipping sauce, mix all ingredients well until sugar has dissolved. Taste and add more lime if needed. Transfer to a dipping bowl.

For the stuffing, pour boiling water over the noodles and allow to stand for 5 minutes until soft. Drain well, chop them into smaller pieces and place in a large bowl.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a fry pan and gently cook the garlic, ginger and spring onion until soft. Remove from heat and add to the bowl. Chop the squid tentacles and add to the bowl along with the pork, cabbage, star anise and fish sauce. Mix well.

Cooking Spicy Stuffed Squid
Cooking the stuffed squid

Stuff the squid tubes with the stuffing. Make sure to leave a little room at the top and close the top of the tube with a toothpick.

Heat the remaining oil in a fry pan and cook the tube for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned and cooked through.

Pork Stuffed Squid
Slice the squid into rings with a sharp knife.

Slice the squid and serve with the dipping sauce.

Pork Stuffed Squid
Pork Stuffed Squid

At the PSS Shipyard, while painting and varnishing our boat for six weeks, we cooked a goat BBQ. For entree I served my stuffed squid. Dwayne built a four layer BBQ to cook all the food for the 23 people that were to join in on the feast. I used two different types of squid, which I bought from the local fish market down the road. In my opinion the squid are not as yummy when grilled on the BBQ, but everyone still enjoyed them. If you were to cook them on a BBQ use a hot plate instead of a grill.

IMG_2208
Dwayne’s four layer cooking contraption – squid cooked over the coals and there are potatoes cooking under the coals.
Cocktails

Thorfinn’s Punch Cocktail

Leave a comment

I made this delicious cocktail when I wanted to use up the left over juice in our fridge. We were anchored in Telaga, Langkawi and were preparing to leave for Thailand the next day. We were getting the chores done and it was hot. This refreshing cocktail was just perfect at the end of the day.

Thorfinn's Punch Cocktail, guava juice, apple juice, lime and vodka
Thorfinn’s Punch Cocktail

For two cocktails I mixed 1 cup of Guava juice with 1/2cup of apple juice, 2 tablespoons of fresh squeezed lime juice and 3 shots of vodka.

I poured it over ice cubes and lime slices and topped with soda water.

 

Cephalopod, Cooking with Local Ingredients, Crustacean, Fish, Indonesia

Dwayne’s Chilli Seafood

1 Comment

While cruising Indonesia we were lucky enough to visit a tiny fishing village on the island of Panebangan. The people were exceptionally friendly and welcomed us with huge smiles and a large bunch of bananas! It was at this village, the following morning, that we were invited onto a fishing boat for breakfast. Dwayne watched how the fisherman made chilli fish and it has since become Dwayne’s signature dish! This is great for when I don’t feel like cooking…. i.e. “I’d really love your chilli fish for dinner tonight Dwayne!”

Dwayne has made this a couple of times for dinner. Once he used fish and squid and the other time he used crayfish.

It’s simple and tasty. This is how he does it…

  • fresh chillies, chopped
  • fresh garlic, chopped
  • asian shallots, chopped
  • salt

Dwayne preparing his chilli fish

Blend all the above ingredients with the mortar and pestle.

Blending up the chilli and other ingredients

Add oil to a pan and heat.
Add the spice mix, fry until fragrant.
Add the seafood (fish or what ever you want) and fry it for a while.
Then add some water and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasional.
Season with salt as needed.

Serve with steamed rice.

Fish and squid with chilli sauce

Crayfish and roe in Dwayne's chilli sauce

For the full story of Panebangan check out “Karamata and Surrounding Islands“

Dwayne with his chilli crayfish

Guess what we are having for dinner tonight!

Cocktails, From the galley

Purple Dragon

Leave a comment

This dragon fruit cocktail was made for sundowners one afternoon as we sat at anchor in Telaga, Langkawi. Having just returned from duty-free shopping (they have the cheapest alcohol), I decided to make cocktails using the tropical fruit I had handy, and a few of the many differing alcoholic beverages we bought!

Purple Dragon Cocktail!, vodka, tequilla, dragon fruit, cointreau, lime

Anyhow, this is what I did to make two cocktails…

Ingredients

2 shots vodka
2 shots tequila
2 shots Cointreau
1 dragonfruit
Juice of one lime
Lime slices for garnish
Ice

In a blender, I blended the flesh of red dragon fruit with ice, vodka, tequila, Cointreau and the juice of one lime, and garnished with sliced lime.

Delicious!

Like this recipe? Share with family and friends or pin using the image below, thank you!

Cocktail with red dragonfruit #tequila #vodka #cointreau #lime #dragonfruit #cocktail #drink #alcohol

Cephalopod, Cooking with Local Ingredients

Stuffed Squid in a Rich Tomato Sauce

2 Comments

As we sailed amongst the islands off the west coast of Borneo, we were able to purchase fish and squid from the fisherman that visit us, when we drop anchor for the night. The squid, used for this recipe, we bought off a fisherman at Pulau Bawal and the fish I use to stuff the squid was a mackerel we traded a mobile phone and a pair of sunnies for, when anchored off Pulau Genting.

Stuffed Squid in a Rich Tomato Sauce
Stuffed Squid in Rich Tomato Sauce

It had been two weeks since we had been able to get fresh fruit and veg and  I used my last fresh tomato for this recipe. At the time we had been eating rice with almost every meal. Every time I cook rice I will cook a cup of rice and I then use the left over to make rice cakes or I heat it up with curry sauce etc. This time I used it to stuff my squid.

OK so this is what I did…

I made a stuffing for the squid with:

  • about 1/2 cup of left over cooked rice
  • a small fillet of mackerel (finely chopped) about 100g
  • 1 large red chilli, chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 tomato, chopped,
  • 5 small asian shallots, finely chopped
  • about 1/2 tsp cumin powder
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Mix it altogether and stuff it into the squid tubes. Close each tube with a toothpick. Cook the squid tubes for 5 mins to brown them slightly and then removed them from the pan

Stuffed Squid in a Rich Tomato Sauce
The prepared stuffed squid tubes

For the sauce…

I heated oil in the fry pan and fried:

  • 1/2 head of garlic (about 6 cloves), chopped
  • 3 small hot chillies, finely chopped
  • 1 large red chilli, chopped
  • 8 small asian shallots, chopped
  • about 80g anchovy fillets
  • 2 Tablespoons capers, chopped
Shallots, garlic, chilli and lots of anchovy!
Shallots, garlic, chilli and lots of anchovy!

I fried this until it was cooked and the garlic and shallots had softened. I then added:

  • 1 can of tomatoes, diced
  • 3 Tbs tomato paste
  • dried italian herbs and black pepper to taste.

I brought it to the boil and then simmered the sauce for about 15 minutes, after which I added the stuffed squid tubes. I then simmered it until the flavours had developed into a rich, spicy, flavoursome sauce and the squid were cooked through (adding water as necessary). I served the squid with rice.

Stuffed Squid in a Rich Tomato Sauce
Stuffed Squid in a Rich Tomato Sauce

The left overs

I used the left over sauce the next day with some mackerel fillets. I cooked the mackerel then added the sauce to the pan with the fish and simmered until heated through. I served it with pasta. Yum!

Cooking Our Catch, Crustacean, Risotto

Spicy Crayfish Risotto

1 Comment

I made this risotto while we were anchored in Darwin Harbour awaiting our visa and paperwork to set sail for Indonesia. The crayfish was caught on our way to Darwin as we cruised the Great Barrier Reef.

SPICY CRAYFISH RISOTTO made with a crayfish caught on the Great Barrier Reef

I have never made a risotto before, so I googled to get some ideas. In the end I combined some of my favourite flavours to make the risotto I had envisioned. Yay!

Ingredients for my crayfish risotto, chorizo, garlic, chilli, mushroom

This is what I did… I melted butter in a large pan and sautéed finely chopped onion and garlic, diced chorizo and sliced chilli until the onion had softened.

SPICY CRAYFISH RISOTTO

Next I added the rice and cooked it for approximately four minutes “toasting it”. This step apparently determines the final texture of the risotto. It heats the outside of the rice quickly thus preventing it from breaking and seals in the starch.

I then added a cup of white wine. On medium heat I cooked it until all the liqud was nearly absorbed. I then began the task of adding 1/4 of a cup of hot fish stock at a time, waiting for each to be absorbed before adding more, all the while stirring. When the rice was nearly done (a taste test will tell you) I added sliced mushroom, heaps of tarragon and the lobster.

SPICY CRAYFISH RISOTTO made with tarragon, chorizo, mushroom, chilli, garlic and crayfish
Spicy Crayfish Risotto

Was so good!

Cooking Our Catch, Marlin, Soup

Marlin Dumplings in a Spicy Broth

Leave a comment

At the moment we are still working our way through the marlin we caught out from South West Rocks, NSW.

photo 3

I’m having a lot of fun thinking up new ways to serve Marlin, and  these marlin dumplings are one of my favourite creations so far and very easy to make.

This is what I did…

In a food processor I blended marlin with some fresh ginger, fish sauce and spring onions, then I mixed in some chives. I made the dumplings using wanton wrappers.

Wonton wrapped dumpling made with marlin

For the broth I use chicken stock, five spice, chilli, and some slices of fresh ginger. I brought the broth to the boil then reduced the heat and simmered for a few minutes.

Simmer the dumplings

I simmered the dumplings in the broth for 3-4 minutes, then they were ready to serve!

Marlin Dumplings in Star Anise Broth

Bon Appetit!

Like this simple meal? Please pin and share with family and friends… thank you!

Chinese style dumpling or wantons made with marlin in a spicy broth

Cooking Our Catch, Marlin

Marlin Skewers on Green Pea Mash

2 Comments

We just had lunch and I had to share it with you guys. This was just so yummy!

P1020442

I barbequed skewers of marlin, mushroom, cherry tomatoes and red onion. I served these with a green pea mash. Simple…. all I did was sauté a clove of garlic and half an onion with olive oil, then I added frozen peas and a 1/4 cup of chicken stock, cooked it for 5 minutes then pureed it.  Al la Marlin Skewers on Green Pea Mash. Yum!

P1020447