Stock and Stow

Tasty Thursday, edition 7

WHAT THE HECK?

YOU SEE: A complete mess

I SEE: pressure canned chicken, the cleanup from a tipped over cayenne pepper container (still sneezing, BTW), and the joys of a well-stocked pantry that includes refills of the spices we use all the time.

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The supply ship came in on Monday, bringing with it our SIPAC order. SIPAC is kind of like an online grocery store of sorts, and they’ll put your order on the ship. I keep describing it like InstaCart (but there’s only one store) or a COSTCO online store (but the prices are . . . not Costco). In any case, this was the very first time we’ve placed an order and there were some glitches on the front end that had us thinking we had a 50-50 chance of actually getting anything at all. Happily our worries were for nothing.

While usually we’re content with buying supplies from the local stores, fresh vegetables that are long lasting can be problematic. The last time the supply ship came in, I managed to get a cabbage but missed out on carrots by about 5 minutes. Given that we’ll go from here through the Tuamotus before getting back to easy provisioning in Tahiti, I wanted to ensure we had those staples without worrying about jostling locals for the slim supply. (We supplement with local tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, and fruits if at all possible!) We’d ordered hardy vegetables (cabbage, carrots, sweet potatoes, and limes), a couple of bottles of wine, some feta cheese, and 3 kilos of frozen chicken breasts.

One of our easy lunches is curried chicken salad, served on crackers. We’ve been out of chicken for a while and chick peas work pretty well as a substitute, but sometimes it’s nice to just be able to mix up the proteins. A good portion of that 3 kilos of chicken is destined to be turned into canned chicken, a task I’d meant to do when we were in an airbnb in Tahiti for Christmas. Funny how family time took priority . . .

prepping chicken for canning

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My friend Rebecca last week asked about my storage situation aboard. Our boat is small but loaded with storage. It’s not an exaggeration to say we can easily carry food for 3-4 months, especially when supplemented by fresh stuff every now and then.

Our water tanks are in the bilge. This frees up every bit of under-settee storage for food (tools and spares are in the forepeak and in the lazarette); in addition, there’s a fairly large two-tiered space right in the galley we call the pantry - and the amount of stuff that fits in there is extensive. The vast majority of the 85 pounds (not a typo) of nuts and coffee, oats and masa harina that our family brought in at Christmas, for example, is stored in the lower level of that two-tiered pantry, each package double bagged into a ziplock bag and squished into space.

I consider the “deep pantry” to be overflow storage, where there’s excess of whatever - and the “every day” use is in an easier-to-access space either on the top level in the pantry or in one of the under settee lockers. As an example, we’re just about through a bag of masa harina (corn tortilla “flour”), so I dug out a new one from the deep pantry. While I was in there, I grabbed a pint of maple syrup since we just opened the last one in the baking locker (port side, middle) and the remaining 2 bags of coffee from Panama (starboard side, forward). At least I think they’re the last 2 bags. We’ll see the next time I totally empty out that space for a reinventory, probably right before we clear into Tonga. Don’t worry, though. There are I think 10 bags of the Panama coffee in that easier-to-get-at space, and then we’re onto the supply that came in from the US in December.

Photo from 2009-2010 cruise with the kids. Starboard side.

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You might have noticed the lockers are loosely organized by the kinds of food that they hold. This means there’s no thinking required when we buy something (flour, pasta, rice, canned spinach) as to where it will go. It’s also very easy to reach in and grab what I need, since I don’t have to think about where it might be.

Side note: there are times when the “where does it go” question is answered by “wherever you can shove it fast because we need to get moving” or “I don’t care just get it off the floor”. Then later I unpack it all and put it where it “belongs”, a task I tackled a bit today.

Our boat is small enough that this organization tactic works gorgeously. I do have a diagram of what goes where, and a spreadsheet of how much of any given thing I have, but I’ll confess that spreadsheet is usually only updated right after a big provisioning run and checked right before said run. This is one way I figure out how much of a given thing I use.

Calypso’s storage diagram

On a larger boat with more varied storage areas, a diagram and meticulously updated spreadsheet will help a lot.

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Dinner last night was chicken marinated in fig jam, garlic, lime juice, ginger, finely chopped lemongrass, and a splash of soy sauce. Served this with rice and an asian-inspired slaw. If I’d found lettuce and tomatoes at the store, we’d have had salad with a vinaigrette and the marinade might have leaned less on the asian flavors and more towards a tarragon or herbes de provence, perhaps with a splash of cream and some sautéed onions. As it was, I had a stalk of lemongrass and a few leaves of mint to use up, and we love the combination of sweet and salty that fig jam (or lime marmalade) with soy sauce brings. It’s ideal when done on a grill - you get that caramelized sticky crunchy edge thing going - but alas no grill here. Marine grills are overpriced for lackluster performance; we keep threatening to get a Weber BabyQ but the reality is we rarely have meat to grill. Maybe when we’re in New Zealand with easier access to regular stores this equation will shift. Meanwhile, though? Make do with what we have.

We are not starving here.

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Favorite marinade for chicken or pork, especially when grilling!

Makes enough for 2-3 lbs meat

• 1/4 c olive oil

• 2 TBS lime juice

• 2 TBS soy sauce

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 inch piece of ginger, minced

• 1/4 c fig jam or lime marmalade (or orange. Or apricot. Not raspberry or strawberry and god no, please not grape jelly)

Mix marinade ingredients together well (a whisk is ideal) in a bowl. Add in meat and toss to coat. Alternatively, mix marinade ingredients in a large Ziploc bag to which you can add the meat – squish the mix together well instead of whisking it!

Marinade for 2-6 hours, in the fridge please, then grill or cook as required. Yum.

Gambiers sunset, March 4, 2026