Day 5: Cajun Style Snoek and a Rye Loaf

The day dawned breathless yet again. But what a sight! Pastel blue and pink skies in the west, with a hint of stripey clouds, somewhat hazy. A balm to the soul.

We motored the whole day in basically windless conditions. A lazy zephyr every now and then. Navigation instructions for getting to St Helena island from Cape Town appears to be: sail north along the west coast of Africa till you get to the town of Luderitz, then turn a bit left if there is wind. Else, go further north till you find wind, then turn left. If you bump into Africa far north, you have gone too far.

I know this is not accurate, but it gives an idea of the navigation decisions to be made. And it is relatively easy to explain to those not deeply involved in navigation.

Today was the day of baking bread. The first experiment with the gas oven proved to be a bit beyond me. I removed the grid in favour of putting the baking tin directly on the plate. This gave me some more height in the small oven for the bread to rise. Wrong idea. The silicone baking tin did not like the heat from below and burned. Luckily the bread wasn't spoilt. In fact, it was consumed at such a pace that I hardly had time to take a photograph before it was finished.!

The bread, however, did not rise as expected.

...Read More...



Authored by Johan Zietsman.

Reposted from The Hungry Sailor on 2013-08-05

Day 4: Headwinds and Making Bread

Thursday 19 July dawned with a light headwind that soon freshened. The skipper did a twenty degree turn to starboard, enough to use the breeze and so save on fuel. We need the fuel for the doldrums later in the voyage.

I was on duty 09h00 to 12h00. The sourdough starter that I made yesterday sat quietly fermenting in the cold oven. It was smelling quite delicious, a bit sour, but not ugly. I added a cup and a bit of white bread flour and mixed it thoroughly, adding a dash of salt. After some decent kneading, helped along by having to use my kneading hand as a prop due to the choppy swell, the dough was put in a lukewarm oven to rise.

Towards the end of my watch the dough had risen to double its size, so I promptly kneaded it down. Then the dough was folded and flattened for about five minutes or so. Then it went back in the cold oven to rest until tomorrow, when we shall bake it in our gas oven. A first for me, no less. I have never used a gas oven before. Now I do it on a heaving boat in the middle of the ocean.



...Read More...






Authored by Johan Zietsman.


Reposted from The Hungry Sailor on 2013-08-05

Day Three: Endless Summer and Sourdough

Day three dawned on a magnificent blue ocean, hardly any swell and an open sky. Not a cloud in sight. The barometer showed 1020 hPa, a high pressure. The wind was on our bow, so we are motoring. We are just west of Port Nolloth, a small harbour on the west coast of the Namaqualand region of South Africa. What a change from the misty drab grey skies of Cape Town when we left.

Our sprout growing experiment seems to be bearing fruit, literally. All the seeds have sprouted. Now we wait for them to grow a bit bit bigger before we shall consume them. Perhaps with two minute noodles and some canned tuna. Perhaps we may even catch a tuna, we have the lines out. Then we can have fresh tuna mayonnaise and sprouts with the noodles. Or perhaps just sashimi with soy sauce and wasabi. Till it runs out of our ears. Whatever the case, it is really reassuring to know that we can have fresh vegetables every day.

I also started a rye sponge to bake bread in the morning. This looks likely to be another success. The rye sourdough that I brought from home appears to be quite happy to sit in the bottom of the cupboard where it is relatively cool. It has slowed down on fermentation, but hasn't gone into hibernation, so to speak.


...Read More...



Authored by Johan Zietsman

Reposted from The Hungry Sailor on 2013-08-05

Day Two: Settling in with Chili con Carne and Chapattis

Sometimes you realise that there is a God and that He looks after you and cares for you. We left Cape Town around 06h30 yesterday morning in misty and rainy weather, expecting nothing better for the next five days. We were, in fact, expecting heavy seas to boot. And what we encountered was beyond our wildest dreams.

The sea was flat calm, no wind to speak of and the visibility was good to very good from about a mile out of the breakwater. We carried on to motor for the rest of the day, dodging the odd big ship, until 23h00 last night. Then the wind came up.


...Read More...



Authored by Johan Zietsman.

Reposted from The Hungry Sailor on 2013-08-05

Wholewheat bread with potato sourdough

This is another experiment in making bread with a wild yeast that went right. After throwing away a perfectly good potato yeast, I did some more yeastspotting on the internet at http://www.wildyeastblog.com, http://www.wildyeastblog.com/category/yeastspotting and at http://www.alaska.net/~logjam/Sourdough.html, and found that I forgot a step in the sourdough yeast process.

One calls it experience. That little voice in the back of your head that tells you you have made a mistake. Again.


...Read more...

Authored by Johan Zietsman.

Reposted from The Hungry Sailor on 2013-08-05

Ciabatta with wild yeast

This blog is in English to accommodate our friends in the English speaking world.
My bread-making experiments have now grown to include the making of my own yeast. None of this instant yeast stuff anymore!

The rye sourdough that started it all

The recipes here is a concoction of material that I found in various places on the internet, with the blog at http://www.wildyeastblog.com and http://www.wildyeastblog.com/category/yeastspotting/ being specifically helpful, especially with the yeast spotting part.

This specific recipe is not suited for making aboard a small vessel, as one needs an oven. If your boat has such, you are halfway there. The effort is not much and the results outstanding. Making small loaves perhaps helps with the handling of the loaves afterwards.


... Read more...



Authored by Johan Zietsman.

Reposted from The Hungry Sailor on 2013-08-05

Daaglikse brood 2: Rogbrood

Hierdie resep is vir 'n brood met 'n bietjie rogmeel. Ek het die meelmengsel aangepas vanaf my eerste poging omdat die deeg toegeslaan het. Daar was te veel growwe meel in die mengsel. Die brood het 'n soet smaak is is swaar. Dit sal deurgaan vir 'n lae GI brood omdat daar semels en heelkorrel rogmeel in is.

Ek kon net gebreekte rogmeel kry. Dit is erg grof, toe sit ek dit deur die koffiemeul vir so 20 sekondes. Die koffiemeul werk soos 'n versapper, so mens kry nog steeds growwe stukkies. Maar daar is darem genoeg fyn rogmeel om prakties bruikbaar te wees.


... Lees Meer...


Authored by Johan Zietsman.

Reposted from The Hungry Sailor on 2013-08-05