Top Ten Most Usable Galley Tools

Now that we've been living on this boat for more than four years I thought I would do an evaluation of the top galley tools that I use constantly. Most of these are so useful that I wish I had bought multiples of them. If they are still available I have linked to them in the titles. If they are not still available, similar items are out there. So, without further adieu, here's the list that made the cut.

Nordic Ware super small silicone spatula

What it is: A very small silicone spatula that has very fine, sharp edges and a square shape to the bottom with a bamboo handle. It came as one o a set of three. The other two I rarely use, but this one doesn't seem to ever be offered by itself.

Why it works: This spatula is only 1-3/8" x 2" so it's small enough to fit inside most of the small jars that I use on the boat. The super fine, sharp edges completely clean whatever I'm using it on which means that I'm not washing the remnants of whatever jar, skillet, plate, bowl, or leftover container down the drain where they will clog the hose. It has lasted me for four years with multiple times each day use. You can see in the picture that the edges are now starting to chip a bit, but this is not reflection on the quality of the product, only on the extent of use.

Good Quality Ice Pick

What it is: Mine is a 70-year old ice pick handed down to me from my dad. I have no idea where it came from, only that it has served well and is one of the most valuable tools in my galley

Why it works: The key to choosing a usable ice pick is to look for one with the pick securely attached to the handle. Most of the cheaper ones will separate rather quickly. You can sometimes find the ones that the pick and handle are all one piece of stainless. I can't recommend any specific one currently available as I have never had to buy one. We use ours for ice, naturally, but it also comes in handy for poking cakes that you're pouring sauces onto (think Tres Leches Cake), for tenderizing meat (wash carefully after), for aligning screw holes, and would come in handy as a defense mechanism in the event that your boat was boarded by undesirables.

 Chef'n Prep Bowls

What it is: A set of nesting, silicone prep bowls that measure 1/4 cup, 1/3 cup, 1/2 cup, and 1 cup.

Why it works: This set of silicone bowls is one of those I wish I had bought several of. We use them for everything. They measure and have pinchable areas on one side that form a sharp pouring spout. They also make great small bowls for serving dips and appetizers, or for olives or nuts, or just about anything else you can think of. They wash up beautifully, are easy to store, and don't rust. They no longer offer this color scheme, but the bowls seem to be the same.

 Comet Brand Drip Coffee Pot

What it is: My coffee pot is a very old 50s vintage aluminum pot that I inherited from my dad. It has a base with handle, a nesting filter basket, a water container that sits on top and the lid. It makes 4 cups of coffee or 2 large mugs.

Why it works: This pot makes perfect coffee. You boil the water in a tea kettle and pour it into the water container that you stack on top of the filter basket that you stack on top of the base. The water filters through the coffee in the filter basket and then you remove the water container and filter basket and replace the lid on the base. I know there is a tremendous popularity of the French press coffee makers, but I hate cleaning them on the boat because it's difficult to keep the grounds out of the drain and uses a lot of water to clean. This filter basket accepts a standard coffee filter which is easy to toss when you're done. You can still buy these on eBay and other vintage outlets.

GSI Outdoors Silicone Collapsible Java Drip

What it is: A 1-4 cup coffee maker that easily collapses and stores on a boat.

Why it works: If we're only making a single cup or mug of coffee, this is our go-to coffee maker. It sits on top of the cup and accepts a cone coffee filter. You pour hot water directly on the grounds in the filter and allow it to soak down into the cup. It takes very little time to make, cleans up easily, and stows in a very small space.

Any Brand of Parchment Paper

What it is: Parchment paper, if you've never used it before, is a super slippery non-stick paper that allows you to cook without burning or sticking.

Why it works: I simply can't cook on a boat without this stuff. I use it under all of my cookies which allows me to slide the paper off the cookie sheet (I only have one on the boat) and get the next batch going in the oven. I also use it under pizza and place it directly on my baking stones in my oven. I line loaf pans with it when I make banana bread, and roll dough out on it on my counter. It's absolutely essential in boat ovens which are known to have uneven heat. It helps to protect the bottoms of cookies and biscuits and any other baked good from sticking or burning. You can get the Reynolds brand in just about any grocery store, but Big Lots has a brown version that is a fraction of the price. Even most dollar stores carry it.

 Small Water-tight locking-lid containers

What they are: These two examples are very small, but I have many versions on the boat, many of them much larger. Any brand of waterproof, locking-lid container is fine but I use these two very small ones the most. The round one is about 3" and holds 1/2 cup and the rectangle one is about 3x5 and holds 1 cup.

Why they work: Top-loading boat refrigerators are extremely difficult to organize. Things topple over, get squished, and the lids of regular containers get popped off, spilling the contents everywhere. The only thing worse than organizing a marine top-loading fridge is cleaning one. In addition, things get forgotten in the bowels of these refrigerators and these airtight containers keep the spoilage in and also any resulting odor. The round ones pictured here I found at Big Lots, and the rectangle ones I bought at Aldi on one of their weekly special. This small container was one of a set of three nesting ones. The larger ones I use to store pasta, flour, pancake mix, nuts, brown sugar, etc. The rubber gasket keeps everything out and I have never had bugs infiltrate any food item stored in these.

Old School Potato Masher

What it is: A readily available and extremely cheap potato masher.

Why it works: Aside from the obvious potato mashing when you don't have an electric mixer on board or don't want to use the inverter, this tool is great for mashing up the butter and sugars in cookie dough. There are two kinds, those with the s-turn bars and those like this one with the plate design. The ones with the s-turn bars are also good for retrieving lost halyards.

Digital Laser Infrared Thermometer

What it is: A fairly inexpensive, digital readout, infrared thermometer designed to test the temperature of engines and other miscellaneous heat-producing machinery.

Why it works: This thermometer gets used on our boat a ton. It gets used to read the temperature of the engine, but it gets used much more as a check-the-liquid-ingredients-for-bread-making tool. It's precise, and I have never had a yeast dough fail due to excessively hot or cold temps since I started using it. Also works great to check the temperature of the oven.

Large Pressure Cooker 
(But not why you think)

What it is: A six quart Presto Pressure cooker, circa 1975

Why it works: Yes, I do use my pressure cooker to actually cook the things in it you're supposed to - meat, stews, etc. But the primary use of our pressure cooker is two-fold. First, we make really terrific popcorn in it. It holds a big batch, doesn't burn it because the bottom is so heavy, and if you leave the rocker off the top it vents the steam nicely without letting the kernels fly all over the galley. Second, I use it to raise bread. If you put the lid on but not the rocker and set it in the dodger in the sun, it raises the bread dough beautifully and very quickly. Just oil the cooker a bit before putting your dough in there. One of the chief reasons for yeast dough failure is the rising dough sitting in a draft and, seriously, where is there not a draft on a sailboat???? I even use this method when we're up north in colder weather and the sun sufficiently warms the pot to raise the bread even if the air temperature is cool. I haven't tried this method to make yogurt yet, but I believe it's going to be about the correct temperature for that as well.

So that's my list, and while it's not completely inclusive, it does get my absolute tools that I can't do without. How does your list look?

Homemade Thin Crust Pizza

I'm a sucker for a good thin crust pizza. The problem is the "good" part of that sentence. It's pretty hard to find anything exceptional in the land of pre-fab carboard box pizzas. That was until my daughter moved in with us more than a year ago. Along with her came her subscription to Cooks Illustrated, and the first and probably my favorite recipe, the one for the pizza crust. She practiced on us over a few months, perfecting the recipe into something you can only dream about. Crispy, delicate crust with a flavor to die for. So give it a try - it's worth it I promise, but don't expect to master it in one try.  It may take you a month or two of consistent attempts, but I promise your family will be grateful.

This recipe makes 3 large pizzas that will feed 4 adults and 3 very hungry kids. I generally cut it in half for the two of us and we have one largish medium one for dinner and one for lunch the next day. If you absolutely must you can substitute all-purpose flour for the bread flour, but you will not get the crispy crust. You need the high protein content of bread flour to get that crispy wonderfulness.

Ingredients:

    1/2 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
    1 envelope (2 1/4 teaspoons) rapid-rise yeast
    1-1/4cups water at room temperature
    2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
    4 cups (20 ounces) bread flour , plus more for dusting work surfaces and hands
    1-1/2teaspoons salt
    Olive oil or nonstick cooking spray for oiling the bowl

Instructions:

Measure the warm water into a 2-cup measuring cup. Sprinkle in the yeast and let stand until the yeast dissolves and swells, about 5 minutes.

Add the room-temperature water and oil and stir to combine.

Combine the salt and half the flour in a deep bowl.

Add the liquid ingredients and use a wooden spoon to combine. Add the remaining flour, stirring until a cohesive mass forms.

Turn the dough only a lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth and elastic, 7 to 8 minutes, using as little dusting flour as possible while kneading.

 

Form the dough into a ball, put it in a deep oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.Find a warm place to rise your dough. When we're at our house, I use one of those microwave heating pads and set it next to the dough inside the microwave. When we're on the boat I usually set it in the sun. The one most common error new yeast bakers do is to set their dough where there is a draft. A draft will cause the yeast not to raise.Let it rise until doubled in size, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. (Sorry about the blurry image. It is a boat, and it's on water with power boat wake.)

While the dough is rising, get your topping ingredients ready. We like bacon and pepperoni and parmesan so that's what you see here.

When you dough has nearly doubled in size, preheat your oven to 500°.











Use either a pizza stone or a few unglazed terra cotta tiles. Be sure that the tiles you get are lead-free.

Cut the dough into however many pizzas you want to make and begin to shape it.

Place the shaped dough on a square or round of parchment paper. Do not use anything else but parchment paper or you will not ever get a delicate crispy crust.  Trust me on this! Place the parchment paper on a pizza paddle or an inverted cookie sheet.

Add the sauce being careful not to use too much. Add your toppings, again not using too much as this will soften the crust. Slide the parchment paper off the paddle or cookie sheet directly onto the pizza stone or tiles.

Bake at500° for 6-8 minutes,  watching carefully as it will go from perfect to burned in less than 30 seconds. Use the paddle or cookie sheet to remove it from the oven.  Enjoy!

Galley Flow

One of the things I've found to be most important in making your galley a workable place to produce nourishment for the crew is to be sure that the "flow" of the galley is natural.  What I mean by this is if you find that you are constantly reaching in the wrong place for something or if you have to move 20 things to get to something, then a change needs to be made so that the flow of your movements is more natural and, as a result, you become more productive and efficient, something that is extremely important in such a small space.

We spent this past winter working to improve the flow of my galley, adding little things here and there that have dramatically improved the experience for this particular galley chef.  A happy chef means a happy crew.

One of the things that was causing me some grief in my galley was the lack of proper lighting.  It was difficult to do dishes especially since there was no light over the sink.  I happen to be fortunate enough to have a really really deep sink in this boat, one big enough to do cookie sheets in, which is a real blessing.  But trying to do them in the dark meant re-doing them in the morning many times because of stuff I'd missed. We added an LED bar light over the sink so I can now see all the food stuck on the pans.  It made an unbelievable difference in the galley, making it seem nearly twice as big at night and offering some light to the salon as well.


Early in the winter we removed our totally useless nav seat and built a bench seat with an openable lid and storage inside with a cushion on top.  This provided the space I was missing for cookie sheets, pans, and a collapsible strainer, all of which used to reside inside the oven and had to be removed to the salon seat while I baked.

Over the last week we added a spice rack behind my refrigerator - a really big spice rack - which will empty my glasses rack and allow room for more glasses. It also puts my spices within easy reach instead of crammed at the back of a cabinet. It takes the place of 3 really hideously ugly placards that I hated having in my face all the time and which have since taken up residence on the front of the companionway stairs where they are a bit less obtrusive.

Sorry for the lousy picture - I never seem to get around to these posts till after dark...

A few months ago while perusing the ads for other Tartan 42s to see if they had any cool stuff in their pictures that we could adopt, we saw that we were missing a piece of counter that went over the stove and stored behind the stove when not in use.  A couple days' work, a few dollars of scrap corian countertop and some teak and we had that piece replaced, only better.  Now I have a place to knead bread and cut veggies without damaging our countertop.

Pulled over the stove

Stored behind the stove

There was the addition of the hinge for the fridge lid which you had to hold perilously while trying to get things from the bottom basket...


and fixing the small counter that comes up from the side of the sink so it sits level and doesn't let stuff slide on it.









And the last improvement that we did was to add an easily wiped off backsplash that would lighten up a dark corner behind the sink.

The total cost of these improvements was less than $200, and while they did cost a couple days' worth of work for each project, they will, in the end, save many more days of work in the galley, make spending time there more enjoyable, and also a good bit safer underway. So while you're working in your galley, use your imagination to see if you can dome up with some creative ways to improve the flow of your galley.  Your crew will thank you when you produce some freshly made loaves of bread and some coffee on a morning passage...even if it was them that had to do all the work on the projects!

In Search Of The Elusive Perfect Omelet

"Too many cruisers waste too much time learning esoteric things about sailing, such as the relative merits of various brands of chart plotters or watermakers, when what they really need to learn is how to make a good omelet."  

Jim Trefethen, The Cruising Life

I'm asked for my omelet recipe probably more than any other so here is a photo tutorial for you just because I believe what Jim Trefethen said in his book.  I first learned to make this omelet by watching a cooking show back when cooking shows were really meant to teach you how to cook instead of subjecting you to the ego-maniacal rants of a reality show chef.  I practiced religiously and subjected Tim to many failed experiments, but he loves omelets and was ever so patient.  I believe his patience has been rewarded.

We usually make 2 egg omelets, but if you have a large enough pan you can do 3.  Beat the eggs with a fork and add a tsp of water and salt and pepper to taste.  Contrary to many popular recipes, do not use milk here, only water. 

Preheat your good non-stick 9" skillet, spray with your version of non-stick spray.  I use butter-flavored spray (and this is not any endorsement of Wally-World's products, just what I happened to have on hand.) 

Add chopped ham, or sausage, or bacon and chopped onion and peppers if you wish.  Saute them until they're heated through and onions are clear.  Set aside in a small bowl.

Clean your skillet after heating the fillings.  You must start out with a clean skillet.  Spray the skillet with non-stick spray, then add a teaspoon or two of butter and allow to melt over medium-high heat but don't allow it to scorch.

Add egg.  Do  not stir or touch it until you see the edges begin to cook as in the picture at the left.

Using a fork, start at one edge and smoothly push the egg to the other edge.  The liquid egg on top will fill in behind the fork.

Then take the fork and pull the cooked edge in the opposite direction, allowing the uncooked egg to fill in behind the fork.

Once more in the opposite direction, and you can see that there will be just barely enough egg to fill in behind.   At this point, you take your fork and gently scrape all the uncooked egg from the top of the cooked egg and push it toward the low point in the pan.

Add your cheese of choice.  I personally prefer Swiss, but the recipient of this omelet likes American so there you have it.

Add your meat and/or veggies to the other side.  Cover the pan with a lid or foil, and turn the burner off.  Let stand for a few moments to allow the rest of the egg to cook and the cheese to  melt.

Carefully using a spatula, fold the cheese half over the meat half.  The perfectly browned wrinkles are the result of the fork-pushing exercise in the steps above.

Add the toast of your choice (see the previous post on toast) and you have the Perfect Omelet - Enjoy!

Toast

One of our main ideas about cruising is to attempt to be energy self-sufficient.  As a result, we generally make coffee in our on-the-stove drip coffee maker rather than an electric pot, and we don't have a toaster on the boat.  I've tried various camping toast apparatus without any culinary satisfaction and after many different attempts at the perfect piece of toast I came back to the K.I.S.S. principle - I'm now doing toast in a skillet, dry.

For my stove, I set the heat fairly low and put the bread in the pan with no butter or anything.  I have to move them around and flip them every few minutes so they toast evenly because my burners are all very small, but I end up with perfectly toasted bread.  I'm using a non-stick skillet that is the lid of a very old Coleman camping nested pot set.  I keep trying to talk myself into spending $150 on a set of nested stainless, but the fact is, I've been using this pot set since I was married (it was a wedding gift), it works well, it has all the pots I need in it, it fits perfectly in my pot and pan storage bin, and it didn't cost any money.  So for the time being you'll just have to put up with dinged and dented pots in my recipe pictures because they're not going anywhere soon.  Coming soon will be my perfect ham and cheese omelet recipe.  Stay tuned!