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chuck ‘em in the reefer. Okay. It’s time to cook! Did I mention, you’ve all started drinking the “good” rum by now? Get the salsa fresca (in English, that’s fresh sauce) out of the refrigerator. It’s also in a Ziploc. You made a batch up as part of your provisioning list the night before you left the dock.
SALSA FRESCA 3 medium ripe tomatoes (diced small) 1 medium, sweet onion (diced small) 2 tablespoons fresh garlic paste (rounded tsp. of salt included)* 1/2 cup finely chopped parsley 1/2 cup basil 3/4 tsp. black pepper 3/4 shot glass of olive oil (Eyeball this and keep the shot glass clean for the rum.) The juice (4ounces) of one ripe Florida citrus fruit. You choose. They all work well. Lemon, lime, orange, even grapefruit-particularly ruby red. Have some fun changing the flavor of your salsa right here. You might even try a combination of two or more. Toss all the ingredients together in a clean bowl. Transfer to an air-tight Ziploc and you have a neatly packed, well-preserved sauce/condiment on hand. Kept cold, it will last 10 days easily. * To make the garlic paste, pull off three nice big cloves from a bulb. With the palm of your hand, press and crack the skin. It should peel off easily if you are assertive enough. Then with the garlic peeled, hold the chef’s knife with the flat of the blade over one clove and smack it with your fist (not so hard that it splatters all over, but hard enough that it
crushes it flat). Do this to all three cloves. Pull the garlic meat together on the board and cover with the salt. With the sharp edge away from you, use the flat of your blade again. Start scraping (toward you) the salt into the meat of the garlic. Alternate chopping, scraping and pulling together until you have a smooth paste. When you get the hang of this, it goes really fast.
NOW FOR THE ENTREE! Get a saute pan (big enough to hold the fillets — cut them in half if you need to) ripping hot on your stove top. Add three cups of salsa fresca to the pan. It should dance and bubble and spit and make all kinds of noise. In other words, sear the sauce. Let it bubble until it starts to get out of control. This is your cue to add the fish. Lay them on top of the sauce. If you have these on hand, toss in a handful each of chopped Italian or Greek olives and marinated artichoke hearts. I like to keep marinated veggies on hand. It’s the easiest way to have access to vegetables while cruising. A lot of companies are packaging them in plastic now, and that makes it easy to store on board, or you can make your own ahead of time, like the salsa. I’ll write more about that in a future article. Add a 1/2 cup of dry white wine (serve the rest with dinner), give the pan a shake or two, cover it tightly, and turn the heat down to simmer for five minutes. Meantime, you have a quart of water boiling with a teaspoon of olive oil and a shake of salt in a pot on the other burner. We’ve got a two-burner alcohol stove on our boat and nothing else. It hasn’t stopped us from having a good meal yet. You’ve also added three handfuls or so of dry orzo (tiny riceshaped pasta) to that water, and you’ve been stirring it occasionally until it is al dente. While the fish is simmering, you can drain the pasta (reserve the liquid if you want to make that fish stock). Keep the orzo in the pot and add a 1/4 stick of soft butter. Coat it nice and even. By now, you’ve talked one of the crew into making the salad, and it’s on the table, which is set. It’s time to plate up. Use a dinner plate with a bit of a lip or a shallow soup bowl. Spoon the orzo into the center of the plate. Then place a nice hunk of fish on top. At last, spoon the sauce over the top of everything and serve! Catching, cooking and sharing a good meal with good friends and great laughs while sailing on the west coast of Florida. Life doesn’t get much better than this. Celeste Dorage and partner Diane Parker keep their Islander 36-foot sailing sloop on the Intracoastal Waterway in Cortez, FL. They are presently offering sailing charter/cooking excursions on and around the Gulf Coast of Florida. For more information on cooking/sailing packages call: (941) 795-2338 or email at dparker9@tampabay.rr.com Celeste and Diane are also the owners of Anchovies in Boston, MA. They have owned and operated this bustling hot little neighborhood spot for over 13 years. Between them they can boast over 50 years’ experience in the food and beverage industry. Their resume includes awards and critical acclaim from well known publications — Bon Appetite, Gourmet, The Boston Globe, Boston, Rolling Stone and a spotlight on the t v Food Network. Anchovies is located at: 433 Columbus Ave. Boston, MA. (617) 266-5088. Any comments or thoughts about this article, or the subject matter? Southwinds would like to hear from you. E-mail letters to the editor: editor@southwindssailing.com
LOCAL NEWS FOR SOUTHERN SAILORS
Southwinds
October 2003
47