Nothing say's daddy is home from sea likes a pot of hot oil on the stove and warm donuts on the table.
Crewmember Todd Dussault enjoyed these doughnuts when I prepared them at sea and asked for the recipe so he could make them at home with his children.
I start the dough like I start my dinner bread, and that is:
Reserve 1 cup cooked old fashion oats from breakfast and add 3/4 cup water and 2 Tablespoon dry yeast. Make sure the oat mixture isn't over 110 degrees F so as not to harm the yeast.
Cover with plastic wrap and prick a small hole in the top so gas can escape. Let this sit at room temperature for at least four hours.
Next, mix in a large mixing bowl , the oat mixture, four large eggs, ½ cup plain yogurt, ½ cup sugar, one cup milk, ½ cup melted butter, one teaspoon salt and seven cups unbleached white flour.
Mix and kneed for five minutes.Should make a soft sticky dough.
Cover and refrigerate four hour or over night. But keep in mind that the dough wants to rise out of its container until it is chilled.
When you are ready to fry, pull the dough out of the refrigerator and roll out on a well-floured (about one cup) counter to about 3/8 of an inch.
Have your fryer pot with canola oil heating up to 375 degrees. Make sure pot handles or electric fryer cords are safely tucked away from an accidental grab and spill!
Have ready a sheet pan with paper towels to drain cooked doughnut and a round holed chef's spoon to turn the doughnuts.
I can never keep a doughnut cutter around when I need one, so I use a 3 inch biscuit cutter and when I pick the disk up I stick my thumb through the middle and rub thumb and fore finger together as I move the doughnut-disk to the oil, making the hole.
Carefully drop the doughnut into the oil. Turn after a couple of minutes lift out after a couple more minutes and place to drain on paper towels. Drop a few more into the oil and glaze the ones you have previously cooked. While hot, drop them in a bowl of vanilla-lemon yogurt icing to glaze the tops.
To make the icing: In a shallow bowl use ½ cup powdered sugar 3 Tablespoons plain yogurt ½ teaspoon vanilla extract, ½ teaspoon lemon extract. Mix with a fork
How I learned to cook Taiwanese food in the alleys of Kaohsiung
By Jay Erickson
seajaycook.com
Oyster omelet, coffin bread, stinky tofu, spring roll, salty rice pudding, braised pork rice, steamed buns, shrimp roll. These are just a few of the comfort foods I need to master to be a good ship's cook in Taiwan.
There are a few simple rules every ship's cook worth his salt has to embrace. Two of them are: To prepare a meal that reminds your patrons of home, no matter where they are from. Similarly, to stock your pantry with ingredients from that region.
I had a series of jobs coming up that required me to cook for twenty-two crewmembers from various parts of the United States and twenty-three Taiwanese scientists, a combination of sailors, researchers, grad students, and technicians, aboard an oceanographic research vessel. Our first cruise would be adding instruments that would update the buoys by sending the collected data to a satellite.
I met the research ship Roger Revelle (belonging to Scripps Institute of Oceanography and University of California, San Diego), in the major southern Taiwanese port of Kaohsiung, on its arrival from working near New Zealand.
Kaohsiung and its 1.5 million people are known recently for hosting the World Games in 2009. But earlier in the 1950s and 1960s Kaohsiung was known around the globe for ship breaking, an industry that salvaged derelict ships from the world's oceans and produce recycled steel for Taiwan and for export. Air pollution from burning materials that could not be recycled, and water pollution caused by oil leaks from the ships, raised havoc on the port. Blame from the shroud of smog that encases most of the eighty-five floors of the Tuntex Skytower some mornings, making it an eerie sight. The smog, it's said, is blowing in from across the Taiwan Straight from Mainland China.
If I wanted to be true to my basic philosophy, then I would have to hit the streets to learn the style of cooking by watching and trying to imitate the masters. I could do this within a seven block walk from the ship, which was docked at Fisherman's Wharf, an old warehouse turned tourist hub for the 2009 World Games.
I waited until ten o'clock in the morning for the street cooks on Chi Hsien 3rd. Road in Kaohsiung to emerge from behind steel roll-down doors and start setting out their gas fired cook-pots on the sidewalk with their soup ingredients sitting near their woks. Small piles of dark red beef riddled with a tangled mass of white streaky sinew, vegetables and simmering organ meat. It wasn't long before the streets had a wonderful noodle soup aroma wafting in the air.
Continuing on my way near the harbor, I passed small store fronts woven in the fabric of the streets and alleys with specialized items from past days of ship demolition. I saw a shop for large pipe valves, and another shop for electric motors, and another with every size of pump, next to a store with glazed Peking duck hanging on display. I had to sidestep a sidewalk chef and step over a mechanic working under a Vespa motor scooter in a cluster of parked scooters before I could pause in front of a produce stand to view their selection.
I could smell the sweetness before I saw the Brunswick bowling pin size papayas, beautifully ripe, yellow with a dark orange huge and light green speckles. Pear shaped wax apples, a translucent mahogany, so juicy and thirst quenching -- the original natural bottled water. Also, long grassy stocks of weeping dark green morning glory with long slender leaves and a hollow stem, similar looking to infant bamboo, and long, thick stocked chay sin, the stem about an inch around with eyes on the stem from where the large, paper thin elliptical shaped leaves were taken off, except for the top remaining leaves. And freshly cut baby boc choy, such a vibrant lime green and tender looking. I need to watch for ways to include these fruits and vegetables into my menu.
I was disappointed to find out that mangos wouldn't be in season until June, a two-month wait before I can satisfy my mango cravings. Although, I did see a family peeling green, golf ball size mangos to be made into a sweet pickle preserve.
I had wandered about a mile away from the ship when I could hear the bellowing combustion of propane burners sitting under large steel woks and the crisp pop and crackle of the hot oil as I came to a kitchen that was setup on the sidewalk of Sinle street. It looked a little more established, with two woks against the back wall and a steam table in front and offered four separate vegetables; stir-fries, whole fried fish, pork belly and a beef dish to choose from. A large deep rice cooker sat in the corner.
Two tables stood in the parking area of the street and four tables stood inside a small room. All were adorned with plastic red-checkered table cloths, a container with chop sticks, a liter of soy sauce and red chili sauce with fermented white beans. In the back was a little space for storage. I saw green onions and morning glory brimming out of boxes on the shelves. On the steam table my eye caught the dishes made up of the items I previously saw at the produce stand. Chay sin, with its stem peeled and sliced lengthwise and cut on the diagonal in half-round pieces sitting in a light garlic sauce. Another dish had slender inch long slices of eggplant, cooked in a dark and slightly sweetened soy sauce with fresh, thin slices of spicy red chili. And just out of the wok, bright green two inch cut stems of morning glory.
I pointed to those selections to sample and with a bowl of rice I had dinner and a clear idea of how to prepare three dishes. I paid my bill of $90 N.T. or about $3.00 U.S.
I made my way back to the ship and gave the chandler my add--on produce order so he could deliver it the next day. The chandler is the local person in charge of gathering all the items that are necessary to do our jobs in the deck, engine room, bridge and galley departments like, cleaning supplies, stationary, machine parts and food provisions.
"All available hands are needed to help with stores" is the announcement over the public address system when my provisions arrive by truck the following day. My provisions, usually on pallets, need to be put in a cargo net, and brought on board ship with the ship's crane. The crew use a pellet jack to wheel them inside where the boxes are hand stacked in the elevator and sent down three decks to where my walk--in freezer, walk--in refrigerator, and dry stores are.
The chief Scientist Ren Chiett Lien, or RC, needed to get his equipment on board the ship as well. Three new weather buoys that looked like eight foot round doughnuts with a ten--foot stainless steal tower on top to host the array of instruments. Also lifted onto the ship were stacks of railroad train wheels used for anchoring the buoys. Line to reach thousands of feet to the anchors. Wooden crates and metal boxes came on board packed with the instruments that would read and send back the data such as, air temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, solar radiation, wind direction and speed, water temperature, conductivity, (which gives salinity) water pressure, water current direction and water current velocity. But when it was time to bring the ice cream on board the loading operation came to a halt and yielded to the prized perishable cargo.
Ahsha, at five--foot one--inch tall she has short dark hair and broad shoulders, with a constant craving for potato burritos. She's my able assistant and holds the marine cook position, and recently, she came back from three months in Japan studying Japanese food. So this was a great opportunity for her to continue working with some interesting Asian ingredients.
Kate, a Taiwanese scientist with a pleasing smile and a brown and black colored bandana wrapped around her head most the time, would volunteer to help in the galley, when she wasn't busy incubating phytoplankton in varying amounts of sunlight to measure the effects of prolonged overcast days during typhoon season. I showed her my sour dough bread starter and told her " I'm a scientist too" and we both laughed.
For the next two weeks Ahsha and I would make stir fries with different combinations of tofu, eggplant, curries, greens and fish, to the delight of our Taiwanese scientist guests. For the grand final dinner Asha wanted to do Peking duck with dumplings. Kate helped prepare the perogi style dumplings, filled with leftover adobo chicken. Ahsha boiled and then fried the dumplings.
To prepare the ducks, we bathed twelve ducks, one at a time, in a simmering solution of water, ginger, cornstarch, honey and apple cider vinegar. The recipe asked for the ducks to be air--dried. It was quite the sight to have the ducks in the walk--in cooler, stacked in milk crates five high to air--dry with the chill box fan. Asha roasted the ducks to perfection. I made the batter for the pancakes and Kate poured them on the griddle. Little four--inch round crepe like pancakes to wrap de boned duck meat with sliced scallions and hoisin sauce. It turned out fantastic.
We had a couple of days remaining and we were becoming anxious to get back to port as the weather started to pick up. I just finished grilling some eggplant with garlic, red chili and a touch of hoisin sauce, when I was told that we were going back to the first buoy to fix the piece of equipment that transmits data to its satellite. So a couple of science technicians went out by our small workboat to bring the instrument back to the ship to be worked on. We should have sent out rodeo cowboys to do the work the way that buoy was bobbing and spinning, making it very difficult to unbolt the transmitter--about the size of two large coffee cans put end to end-- while the technicians were holding on tight and turning three shades of green.
With time running out to get the work finished, and a cost of over twenty-thousand dollars a day for the ship time, It took two days before the weather calmed down enough to let the technicians get back out to install the unit.
In that kind of weather it makes it hard to work in the galley as well. Some days you just have to put together some North American comfort food like hearty beef barley soup with Macaroni and cheese and fresh baked sourdough bread, and let the local Taiwanese dream of getting back home for stinky tofu and salty rice pudding.
SOUR DOUGH WITH WOOD FIRED BARBECUE By Jay Erickson
The next best thing to having a wood-fired brick oven for baking bread is having the use of a Primo Junior charred-wood burning barbecue. I have wanted a wood fired brick oven for some time, but haven’t gotten around to building one, so I thought the primo Junior would be a good substitute for my dream oven. First, I’ll describe the procedure for harvesting natural sour dough and a technique for baking it. Second, a more versatile commercial yeast oat bread using leftover oats from breakfast. The sourdough starter I use evolves with time. My measuring system is the sense of sight, touch and smell. I use a ceramic bowl that holds about a gallon. I find a fry pan lid that fits the bowl. You could also use a glass or plastic container. However, I would not recommend using a metal container. To begin, place 1-cup organic rye flour, 1-cup organic whole-wheat flour,1/8 teaspoon ground cumin,1-Tablespoon whole milk and 3 cups water in your bowl, stir and set aside covered in a warm out of the way area for 48 hours. The yeast you want to cultivate is naturally in this slurry. After 48 hours discard half of your mixture and replenish with another cup of organic rye and another cup of organic whole-wheat flour and three cups water and returning it to it’s warm secluded area. After twenty-four hours the procedure changes a little. For the next six to eight days, discard two cups of the mixture and replenish with one cup unbleached white flour and one cup water and return the bowl to it’s sanctuary each day. After this stage, your starter should be very active with fermentation after each feeding. Now we are ready to put together bread dough. I like to use a large stainless steel mixing bowl. With half of your starter in the bowl (don’t forget to replace one cup flour and one cup water to your starter to keep it working for another use.) Also in your bowl add two tablespoons olive oil, and1/2 cup water and three cups unbleached white flour with one-tablespoon sea salt. The dough will undoubtedly need adjusting to form a soft ball that holds its shape using either water or flour. Your dough should be a little sticky requiring a dusting of flour as you knead the dough for eight to ten minutes. You should feel the dough become pliable and elicit as you work the glutens. I place the dough in a pie tin and generously oil and cover with plastic wrap. Let it sit out at room temperature for six to eight hours then place the dough in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning cut the dough in half and on a floured surface (I use a rye and whole-wheat mixture) shape the loaves by rolling and causing tension on the outer surface but not disturbing the gas bubbles that have formed inside the dough. Place the loaves on an upside down sheet pan that is generously covered with corn meal. This aids in sliding the loaves onto the hot bricks described latter. Let the loaves rise in a warm location until they double in size. (The loaves size also need to fit within the perimeter of the fire bricks.) With a scoring blade or a sharp serrated knife score the top of your loaves. A sprinkle of flour may help the scores stay open.
The Primo Junior is a double walled ceramic barbecue/ smoker that retains heat and burns chard wood instead of charcoal briquettes, increasing its health value by limiting carcinogens I ignite the charred wood with a stovepipe type starter with a little kindling and newspaper. Once burning I dump the coals in to the Primo bed and add plenty of charred wood so as to last an hour. You may need to add more between multiple baking. Replacing the grill racks, I lay firebricks across the top (although a pizza stone would be ideal,) insuring the lid of the cooker closes properly. By using the top and bottom air vents to control the temperature, heat the cooker to 450 degrees for fifteen minutes. You are now ready to slide your bread loaf/ loaves off the sheet pan and directly onto the firebricks. After doing so open the lid every thirty seconds and spray a mist of water from a spray bottle to insure a nice crust, repeating four times. Leave the lid closed and bring the temperature back up to 450 degrees for twenty minutes then check your bread, it may need rotating. Close and bake another ten to fifteen minutes, making sure the flue vent doesn’t close on you after opening the lid and causing your temperature to lower. I like to see three shades of brown on the top of the loaves with the cut edges developing a dark brown. Your loaves are finished when they sound hollow with the thumping of their under side with your finger.
If sourdough sounds like too much of an undertaking, try this oat bread. The steps can fit into a person’s routine making it seem effortless. The night prior in a three quart bowl, make a slurry with one cup unbleached white flour, one tablespoon dry yeast and a cup of water, stir. Let set out during the night and when you make oatmeal in the morning cook enough to ensure having one and a half cups cooked oats extra. When your oats cool, add to the slurry and stir. It is best to leave this slurry for several hours. After which you start your bread dough by placing the slurry into a large mixing bowl and adding ¼ cup olive oil 1cup water, 3 cups unbleached white flour with 1 1/2 tablespoon sea salt. Adjust the flour and water to make soft dough that holds its shape. Knead for eight to ten minutes on a floured surface. Wet hands aid in handling sticky dough. Let the dough rise a couple of more hours. Knock the dough down, cut in half and shape. Score tops and let rise until doubled. Bake in Primo Junior or a hot 450-degree oven for thirty minutes with the water spray method. Now I can enjoy fresh fire baked bread as I decide where to build my permanent wood fired brick oven.
This morning is another typical winter’s morning at the Orcas hotel located near the Orcas Island ferry landing, in Washington State. With people bustling, they order an early morning cup of coffee and pastry before loading onto the first ferry of the island or red eye as the locals call it.
As the ferry pulls away, the winter’s day calm is restored and I have a chance to enjoy the scenery and a cup of coffee. Sitting next to me is Eric, a long time island resident. Eric stands about six foot tall with light brown hair neatly cut and a front cowlick that arches to the left.
Eric has aged well, looking ten to twelve years younger than his fifty-two years. Eric has a relaxed demeanor and directs an occasional deep stare toward the horizon, the type of stare a person acquires when living in desolate parts of the world or being at sea for long periods of time.
I hadn’t seen Eric around the islands lately but I had heard stories about his leaving to work as a cook in places such as Antarctica, at a science research station and Siberia, along the Kamchatka Peninsula on the eastern coast of Russia during winter on a fisheries supply cargo ship.
I was curious to find out, so I asked him. “Eric, where have you been working lately?”
Eric took a sip of coffee and looked out the window toward the ferry landing while wiping his mustache with a napkin as if to gather his thoughts.
“I’ve been cooking on the research vessel Roger Revelle. The ship, crew and science party have been off the coast of the north island of New Zealand doing some fascinating studies that will help them understand the climate changes thousand of years ago.”
Eric began to explain, “The chief scientist, Dr. Liz Sikes, from Rutgers University and her crew of scientist with graduate students from New Zealand and the USA, relies on a crew of technicians to work a device called a piston corer, to collect a twenty foot long core sample of mud from the ocean floor. Some samples are from depths of eight thousand feet.”
As Eric describes the piston corer to me I imagine a long ballpoint pen with a large eraser or weight at the top. When on the ocean floor suspended by a cable, the piston inside the pen would be drawn up creating a vacuum, similar to when someone drinks an extra thick milk shake. Fingers, the like of daisy petals pointing back inside the tube keeps the mud from spilling out when the samples get pulled to the surface.
The results are a core sample when sliced in half long wise, and viewed by an expert’s eye can divulge the past record of climate change.
From the array of layers some dark blue-gray, typically the sediment from zooplankton. To the gritty, lighter in color, sand like layers consisting of volcanic ash from terrestrial eruptions. Under sea eruptions show as sooty black sand streaks. Dr. Sikes takes samples of the creature deposits on both sides of the ash. Dr. Sikes told Eric that the calcium carbonate from the shells of the zooplankton could be carbon dated. Carbon 13 will reveal past temperature and carbon 14 will date the material.
Dating the beginning and the end of the ash sediment is important because the scientist can then find out how long a particular eruption took to settle. This information tells them how slow or fast the oceans were moving during that period.
A slower moving ocean will hold more carbon dioxide to be exchanged into the atmosphere. The bottom layer of ash from this core was estimated at twenty thousand years.
“Eric, it sounds As if you are part of the science party.”
“No I spent plenty of time in the galley cooking for all forty-five people on board.” Eric chuckled.
“Any favorite menu items you can tell me about, Eric?” I asked.
Eric’s food descriptions made me hungry, just listening how Eric prepared a short bill swordfish the crew had caught on the ship. Marinating the fillets in lemon grass, Thai curry and coconut milk and after grilling the fillet gets garnished on top with a fresh mango salsa. To complement the meal and offer an additional meal choice for those people that may not eat fish, Eric served pork tenderloin marinated in hoi sin sauce. Both dishes were cooked on the barbeque and served with rice cooked with coconut milk. A chocolate cookie offered with New Zealand ice cream was the final entry.
We noticed that familiar bustling around us as a ferry was about to dock.
Eric gets up and said, “Here’s my ferry.”
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“I’m flying to Cape Town, South Africa to crew up on the Revelle. We will be doing physical ocean studies on runaway currents that travel around Cape Horn.”
Eric’s last remarks while going out the door to catch the ferry were. “New Places, new spices.”
Eric, have a safe trip and may the wind be to your back. And I will be looking forward to having coffee with you with your return.
Eric’s Recipes: Hot cereal bread Thai marinated fish Mango Salsa Hoi sin Pork Tenderloin Broccoli and bok choy Coconut rice Chocolate chip cookie Measurements are from repetition and memory. Climate and mood may affect the outcome…
HOT CEREAL BREAD: Two cups cooked oatmeal or cream of wheat hot cereal Three cups water ¼ cup sugar Three tablespoons dry yeast Add above ingredients together and let ferment 4-5 hours or while you are at work. In a large bowl finish the dough by adding: Four ounces olive oil 5 pounds unbleached white flour Two tablespoons salt Kneed for 5-8 minutes Dough should be soft but holds it shape. Adjust flour as needed. Proof for half an hour too three hours. Shape into four loaves and let rise until double in size. Bake in a 450-degree oven with a pie tin of water on the bottom shelf for humidity. 30-45 minutes
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES Two pounds butter One-pound brown sugar Two cups white sugar Five eggs Two tablespoons vanilla extract Six cups white flour Two pounds chocolate chips or broken chocolate bits One-tablespoon baking soda Two-teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon Have all the ingredients at room temperature. Beat the butter until light, add both sugars and continue beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla extract. Mix well In a separate bowl place dry ingredients and mix with a hand whip until thoroughly blended. Add flour mix and chocolate pieces and mix just until moistened. Over mixing at this point will create tough cookies. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 8-12 minutes
Elizabeth's Favorite Almond Cookies By Jay Erickson
Taster testers: Sarah Purkey & Caitlin Whales
4 cups sliced almonds 2 pounds butter (room Temperature) 6 eggs (room temperature) 1-pound dark brown sugar 3 c white sugar 8 cups flour 1 Tablespoon baking soda 1-teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon almond extract 350 degrees oven 10 - 12 minutes or until lightly brown.
Toast 3 cups sliced almonds and chop very fine in a food processor. (Save one-cup un- toasted almonds to roll cookie ball in.)
In a mixing bowl beat butter until light and fluffy Add brown sugar and white sugar and continue beating until well mixed Add eggs one at a time Add almond extract Add toasted almonds and mix thourgly In a separate bowl, Wisk together flour, baking soda and salt. If you desire a little cinnamon or nutmeg, now is the time to add it. Add the flour mixture to the butter and almond mixture and beat just until mixed.
Cookie dough does well to sit in the refrigerator for a couple of hours before shaping but you have just created so much dough, your bound to put some away for another use such as the bottom of a 7 layer bar or a chocolate topped almond bar.
With a teaspoon, drop a mound of dough about an inch round in the sliced almonds you have saved. With your three fore fingers press the ball, gently flattening, and pick it up placing it on your baking sheet pan in one easy motion.
My convection oven lightly browned the cookies in seven minutes. But a home standard oven may take ten to twelve minutes to brown at 350 degrees.
