6 weeks of fun!

The six weeks I have been on the ship in the Aegean Islands has come to an end. It has been a great time, learning and seeing loads of new things, tasting wines, sweets and other delicacies, meeting and working with new people, making new friends, but now it is time to go back home to the family for a while. It is not easy to be away from my loved ones and it is not easy for them, but is is just something we have to do at the time being.

The galley team was fantastic, we had a great time and I was able to implement a couple of new dishes, train the baker and up the standards by a bit.

Then of course I started to write the Blog and it is actually a lot of fun, I had to learn first how everything works, but now I am getting organized and learn more and more about all the things one can do with a blog. Sometimes the blog is published too early and I have to change things and re-publish, sometimes the photos are not the way I like it, then I missed the first comment from a "stranger", wow, how did she find my blog?, but I think it is all slowly coming together.

Here is a photo with my guys in the galley, they are very hard and dedicated workers, 7 days a week, 6 to 10 month without a break. The only time they really can take off is when the ship is in Istanbul as then there is no loading and everybody has a couple of hour time to go out. In Piraeus we have major loadings getting food on board for the 150 guest and 95 crew, for 14 days, that is a lot of food. We usually have a little top up in Rhodes, especially on the way back for the lettuce and berries. It is then as well when we get the local wine on board

The menu is always the same, a 7 day cruise and then one starts again from day one. I am glad that I do it only for 6 weeks, it does get a bit boring after a while and I have started doing specials to keep the cooking interesting.

Then of course I did a lot of bread, mainly because I wanted to get into the baking, but as well to train the baker here with some different bread, not just the pre-mixes which are just not as nice as a proper artisan bread. It was amazing to see how my bread has evolved and how I was able to learn what is happening, what difference it makes if there is a little more water in the dough or less, proving in the cold galley over hours or in the proving cabinet withing 30 minutes, all these little things which make a difference. I am by far not a master baker, but find it very enjoyable to bake fresh bread every day.

My last day here is in Piraeus, loading for another 14 day journey. All the fridges are empty and ready to be packed again, it is three hours of hard labour to get everything in, as the loading is all done by hand. One big truck and a couple of special deliveries. It fits all and will be used over the next 2 weeks, then everything starts from the begin again!!!

I wish you guys all smooth sailing and good luck in the future, it was a pleasure working with you! God Bless!

Now it is off to the airport, flying tonight at 11 PM. Lets see what the airports on the way home have to offer and of course the "delicacies" served on the planes!!!!

What killed the Detox

What do you mean....Detox, for what?

Mmmmmmmmm, maybe to get rid of all that "poison" I fed my body over the past six weeks?

But that is not poison! It is food, glorious food!

Mmmmmmmmm, yes, but what about the countless Danish Pastries, Croissants, Ice Cream, Bread, Desserts, Chocolate, Turkish Delights.........shall I continue?

Oh!

Yes, the pants just feel a little tighter than 6 weeks ago and as a friend of mine does a Detox from time to time, why shouldn't I try?

Because your body is a temple and should be treated with respect, love and care; because you have food smells around you all the time; because it is not that easy and your mind is weak when it comes to food!

Yes maybe, but so far I am doing good, had just fruit for breakfast, some sliced oranges and an apple as a snack.........I got a terrible head ache from not drinking coffee, I am suffering beyond belief when the pastry chef took out 6 trays of freshly baked choc chip cookies and have no idea how I will survive lunch!!!!!! HELP!!!!

Your mind is weak!!!! Food, glorious Food!!!!!!

Oh, I am suffering, maybe I should have visited the Gym more often.

What do you mean more often, you walked past it twice in the past six weeks with no intention of putting a foot in it.

Yes you are right, but YOU said the body is a temple, so why should I hurt it?

LOL!

OK, I agree, a little bit of sport would have been good and honestly, I have no idea how long I will hold through with the Detox, maybe another 10 minutes or another 2 days.......I guess the first one is closer to the truth!

.........

Ohhhhh, I crumbled! I crumbled into little pieces like a scrumptious apple crumble with a little vanilla bean, still warm with a touch of whipped cream......Professional habit, I have to taste what goes out to the guest........ that just killed the Detox.

Turkish Cheese

Yes I am a Cheese Lover......Wine, Bread, Sweets you name it I love it. Anything to do with food. And I like to share it with everybody. Food is such an interesting thing, everybody has their own taste, their own opinion how something should be done, it is a never ending topic. I guess a food blog is a little bit like a food channel on TV, just without the moving and sound, but one can travel with the blog while sitting at home in the arm chair, looking at the photos, and then trying out the one or the other recipe in the kitchen. I think the tomato tart already found some fans, according to Face Book, which I really enjoy, again, food for me is all about sharing, there are no secrets......nearly none.

Now, back to the cheese; on the spice market in Istanbul is a section where the tourists go a bit less, it is just outside the market, along the wall, where there are a whole lot of stands selling dried fruit, nuts, vegetables, fish, meat and of course cheese. I was very intrigued to see this funny looking cheese, looking similar to roughly shredded chicken. Of course I was able to taste and it is actually a bit like Mozzarella, just a bit more sour, but still very nice. Then they had this hard cheese next to it, looked delicious, tasted delicious. It had a similar sour hint, but then a nice pepperyness and nuttiness, lovely. Of course I had to buy some to bring back to the ship and share and for 10 Turkish Lira per KG, which is about $7.50, one can't complain that it is expensive!
That's the two cheeses I bought, The one on the left is called "Low Fat Cheese from Erzurum" The one on the left an extra strong "Cheddar from Ezmi"

But of course, like I said, it is all about sharing, so we had a little "Cheese Tasting" that night with a couple of friends. Some nice wine, home made nut bread and a little beef carpaccio to start.

Greek Wine

I love wine, I love tasting new wines and I love tasting unusual and local varieties, even if it is not always the greatest wine. Being in Greece I just have to taste the local wines, so I went out in Rhodes to one of the bigger estates to try the local delicacies.......not all of them bowled me over I have to admit. In Greece the white wine production is bigger than the red wine and generally I prefer the whites here. Even most of the reds tasted are rather light bodied and often served chilled like a white wine.

I think the most well known wine is the Retsina. Here in Rhodes it is made from the local grape variety Athiri and then Pine resin is added during the fermentation. This has been done since 2000 years. It is amazing just the smell in the glass is overpowering with Pine and Eucalyptus flavours. It is a flavour one has to get used to, if one really wants of course. I just had to get a bottle to take home and for 3 Euro one can't complain.

Then of course they make a lot of sweet wines, red and white. I am a sucker for sweet wines, especially noble late harvests and botrytis infected wines, but here they were just sweet, a little one dimensional. I guess I have to try the VinSanto on Santorini, they are well known for that.

I was able to join a tour of Rhodes and part of the tour was the tasting. Yes I liked the historic part of the tour, the palace of the knights, the fortified walls, the history, but to be honest, this time I joined more for the wine tasting than anything else.....and the tasting was not what I expected. We went to a big Coop named Cair and two big tour buses just left the tasting area, so I knew that there wouldn't be an in depth tasting, but what we received was more a "why do you bother us" attitude, the wine was poured so fast that we struggled to taste a wine before the glass was re-filled with the next wine (I guess one could literally call it a blend!)

But somehow I could make out what I drunk and then after the lady behind the counter poured 8 wines in a time frame of 5 minutes she walked away to be ready for us to storm to her other counter and buy wine......yes right. So we could take a bit more time to taste the wines, read the labels and make up our own story where the wine was grown, and, and, and.

Oh, by the way, the six bottles in the photo are now in my suitcase and will come with me to South Africa.....no idea if they will arrive the way I hope they will, but that is just me!!! I will be hopelessly overweight and will have to schmooze again big time at the airport to get them all through. OK, the seaman's book helps, I can travel with 40 kg, but still till the moment the suit cases are checked in I will be a tiny bit nervous.....OK, a bit more than a tiny bit.

Turkish Delight

Last day in Istanbul, so firstly I wanted to see the Hagia Sofia. It is amazing to be there, the Hagia Sofia is opposite the Blue Mosque, they look similar to heach other, just that the Hagia Sofia is good 1000 years older, finished in 536 AD. Unbelievable what they built then, at the time the biggest Christian church. Then 1540 about the Ottoman Empire cam and the Hagia Sofia was converted into a mosque till 1938 when Ataturk declared it to be a museum. 1500 years old and still standing, this is awesome and when standing inside the church one is humbled.

Then on the way back I wanted to do some shopping, I needed to try some of the traditional desserts, the Turkish delight. Now of course what happened in the shop was that I got side tracked by this funny looking rolls, they are still Turkish Delights but called Sultans Delight or "Sultan Muzlu" They are, what else would I expect, as sweet and a little chewy like the normal Turkish Delight.

I just went into this lovely little pastry shop, full of Baklava, Turkish delights, Cakes, Fistik Sarma, a Pistachio roll, just with enough Fyllo pastry around to hold the sweet paste together, and chatted away to the two guys there, with very little English, as my Turkish in non existent, they told me what the different desserts are, and I even got some small tasters, especially when they found out that I am a chef of one of the cruise ships, so of course I had to take as well a business card from the shop, just in case I would need a whole lot more of these delightful dainties.

Recipe

4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups cornstarch
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
4 1/4 cups water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons rosewater
1 cup confectioners sugar
Vegetable oil or shortening

Preparation:In a 9 inch baking pan, grease the sides and bottom with vegetable oil or shortening. Line with wax paper and grease the wax paper.

In a saucepan, combine lemon juice, sugar and 1 1/2 cups water on medium heat. Stir constantly until sugar dissolves. Allow mixture to boil. Reduce heat to low and allow to simmer, until the mixture reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat and set aside.

Combine cream of tartar, 1 cup corn starch and remaining water in saucepan over medium heat. Stir until all lumps are gone and the mixture begins to boil. Stop stirring when the mixture has a glue like consistency.

Stir in the lemon juice, water and sugar mixture. Stir constantly for about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low, Allow to simmer for 1 hour, stirring frequently. Once the mixture has become a golden color, stir in rosewater.

Pour mixture into wax paper lined pan. Spread evenly and allow to cool overnight.

Once it has cooled overnight, sift together confectioners sugar and remaining cornstarch. Turn over baking pan containing Turkish delight onto clean counter or table and cut with oiled knife into one inch pieces.

Coat with confectioners sugar mixture. Serve or store in airtight container in layers separated with wax or parchment paper.

Tomato Tarte Tatin

I think this is one of my all time favoured starters. I lost count how many I have made of there scrumptious little tarts already, but never got tired of it. So I feel it needs a space on my Blog. The beauty is that it combines the tartness of goats cheese with the slight bitterness off the rocket and the sweetness of the Sherry vinegar scented caramel. Yes it is not my recipe, but most chefs get their ideas from somewhere, I think there are just a handful of chefs who really invent new food, them being mainly Ferran Adria, Heston Blumenthal and other chef in the same line of "Molecular cooking".

I think as a chef one shouldn't just take a recipe strait from someone else, but use it as a base and change it to ones own liking.

So here is the recipe for 10 tartlets.

5 ea Roma Tomatoes

20 ea Garlic gloves, peeled

20 ea Pearl Onions, peeled

30 ea Black olives, de-piped

Olive Oil, EV

100 g Sugar

25 ml Sherry Vinegar

Puff Pastry

50 g Fresh Goats Cheese

50 g Cream Cheese

Rocket leaves

Firstly make a confit with the peeled shallots and garlic. This is simply done by simmering them very slowly in olive oil with a twig of thyme and rosemary, some pepper corns, bay leaf and lemon zests. When the onions and garlic are soft cool them in the olive oil. Like this they can be kept easily for a week or two.

Then cut the tomatoes in quarters, put them on a baking tray, sprinkle with sea salt and coarse pepper, then roast in the oven for 2 to 3 hours at around 80 o C.

For the caramel brown the sugar in a pan till light brown. Take the pan off the heat and carefully add water and sherry vinegar. If you add only sherry vinegar then it will burn as the caramel is too hot. If you like to have a bit more acid in the caramel, add a bit more vinegar later. Put the pan back on the stove and boil the caramel for a minute or two, till all the sugar is completely dissolved.

Mix goats cheese and cream cheese together till smooth, season to taste.

Use tartlet forms with about 5 cm diameter and pour a little caramel on the bottom. The left over caramel is used for the dressing. Then layer first the tomatoes, then Onions, garlic and olives. Make sure you use a good quality olives, Kalamata or similar.

Then top the tartlet with puff pastry and bake in the oven till golden brown. Turn the tartlet over, use the remaining juice in the dressing.

Plate the rocket, then the tartlet on top and garnish with a dollop of goats cheese. Drizzle with the Sherry-Caramel dressing and get the praise, lol!!!!!

Kusadasi Fishmarket

We needed some fresh fish, so off we went to look for a little fish market. In the past few ports the fish markets weren't great if there were any, but Kusadasi has a market in walking distance to the ship. It is not too big, but I was amazed by the variety of fish available, Seabream, Dorado, Sardines, Mackerels but then as well a couple of beautiful John Dory, Gurnard, Monkfish and Red Mullet. There were loads of Prawns as well, but I wasn't so sure if they were frozen before, as it often happens, or fresh, even so i was assured that everything is very fresh......yes freshly defrosted! But still I was in heaven, the fresh black mussels looked already delicious and I couldn't wait starting to cook them........then the big shock came when I enquired about the price. I know I look like a tourist and working on one of the cruise ships doesn't make things cheaper, but I nearly had to sit down, 10 US$ per kg mussels was the very cheapest I could get. The Mackerels and Sardines were around 16 US$ and John Dory and Red Mullet were up there in the late twenties and early thirties. Usually in Rhodes I get a delivery of fresh fish, Seabream and Dorado for an average of US$ 8.50 and the Mussels I get for US$ 6.
So here on the fish market we started off with drinking some tea, exchanging some words about how business is going and then we started to handle about the fish, how much...what is your best price...OK, but I need 2 kg of this fish, what is your best price on that......no that is too much, all I am prepared to pay is......and so it goes on. I am not a good negotiator, usually (especially in the Far East) I would think (or even say) Oh Wow, that is so cheap!!!! But here I have to be tough.....I think when I walked out of the fish market I didn't get a good deal but at least I could negotiate the price down by quite a bit. I am sure so that the shop owner has a good laugh thinking that there goes an other tourist and I was able to take the money out of his pockets.

The fish was absolutely beautiful, totally fresh, nice tasting, firm and just lovely. I only got some Sea Bream and Dorado, the only fish that was more or less in my budget, but yes I could have gone wild!

BBQ: Gas, Coal or Wood?

We had a lovely BBQ last night. The weather was just perfect, no wind at all, lovely coal and the backdrop of Bodrum and the castle. Usually there is a bit of wind and at least one of us gets smoked during the evening, feeling like a smoked ham by the time the BBQ is finished. We usually use a char coal grill and prepare the meat and lobster tails for about 150 people. Now of course the big question is, which is the best to use for a proper BBQ, gas, coal or wood? I am personally a total wood fan, not just because it is nice to sit around the fire, but if one has good wood, the coal will be good as well. On top of that, it usually takes a bit longer till the coal is ready, so the whole BBQ or Braai in South Africa will be nice and relaxed. I wonder what other peoples preference is.

I guess for 150 people a BBQ is not that relaxed anymore as there is a lot of food going out. So we usually pre cook the meat a bit to make sure nobody has to wait too long. Our usual selection is Pork Spare Ribs, Lamb Chops, Marinated Chicken and Lobster Tails, then a little carving with a Suckling Pig and one of my favorites: grilled Flank Steak, finished off with a can of local beer to stop the cooking process....mmmmm

Of course there are the salads as well, starters and bread. I am not even starting with the desserts......