Recipes

Cookbook...

with wisdom

By Leanne Vogel

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Salmon, spinach and orange butter sauce

Salmon

2 x 175g salmon free of skin and bone
flour
10g butter
1tsp olive oil

Heat the oil and the butter in a heavy frying pan. Dust the top of the salmon fillet with the flour. Place the floured side into the smoking pan and fry for three minutes. Turn over, reduce the heat and fry for a further four minutes. Remove the salmon from the pan and keep warm.

Spinach

250g fresh leaf spinach washed thoroughly and drained
salt, pepper, nutmeg
50g butter

Place the seasoned spinach in a glass bowl with the butter covering with gladwrap and place on full power in a microwave for 30 seconds until the leaves begin to wilt. Toss in the butter.

Orange butter sauce

125ml orange juice
1 small glass white wine
2 shallots, finely chopped
1dsp double cream
125g unsalted butter
chopped chives

Boil the shallots in the liquid
Bring the orange juice, the wine and the shallots to the boil. When reduced to half the volume, strain into a clean pan, return to the heat.

Add the cream and butter
Add the cream, return to the boil. Add the chilled butter, stirring until the sauce has amalgamated and of a shiny appearance. Finish with chopped chives and orange segments.

Assemble the dish
Place the salmon fillet on top of the wilted spinach, surround with the orange butter sauce and serve with a chilled Chablis or Muscadet Sur Lie.

Warm & Cheesy Dip

This recipe came from Debby. We met Debby and her partner Scott in Bermuda. These Aussies sail a 34 foot Austrian made boat called Expedition. After Bermuda we headed for the US east coast and they hopped across to Portugal and Spain for the northern hemisphere summer. I made this quite frequently as it was warming on those crisp Maine & New England nights.

Ingredients

·      Cream Cheese

·      Can of black frijole beans

·      Jar of chunky salsa (juice drained off)

·      Grated cheddar cheese

Method

Layer the ingredients in an oven proof dish in the order listed, i.e. cheddar cheese on top. Bake until warmed through. Serve with corn chips. Yum.

Special Note:

Drain the salsa well as all the juice will collect on the bottom of the dish and make it sloppy.

Another Special Note.

This dish does not look appetizing once people start to dig their corn chips in. So keep the lights low.

Note from Debby. This is not Debby’s recipe, she stole it from someone else.

After the US east coast we returned to the Caribbean as did Expedition. Here is Debby on Perigee in Sint Maarten proudly displaying her one litre Portuguese red wine in a tetra pack that cost her 99 EUR cents. She loves a bargain.

 

Nancy’s Rum Punch

Even though this is a fairly well known recipe, I attribute it to Nancy as she is the one that shared it with me. Nancy sails on SV Larus with her partner Tim. They are both very experienced sailors with years of experience in the charter industry where Nancy worked as cook and hostess. We met Larus on the Southern New England rally in July 2017. Like us they head up to Maine but we never saw them as they where always a week or two ahead of us.

Our tracks crossed just outside the entrance channel to St Georges, Bermuda in November 2017. They were heading in after 3 days of heavy weather sailing and we were headed out, bound for Antigua. We spoke briefly on the VHF radio. Finally in December we caught up in Antigua. It was in Antigua where Nancy shared this recipe and the little rhyme to help remember the ingredients.

1 of sour

2 of sweet

3 of strong &

4 of weak

a dash of bitters and a grate of nutmeg.

Sour = lime juice

Sweet = sugar syrup (2:1)

Strong = rum

Weak = water

Here we are at Shirley Heights overlooking English and Falmouth Harbours in Antigua enjoying a rum punch at sunset.