My favorite recipes from all around the world

Fish

Carpaccio from the Mahi Mahi

• Slice frozen piece of Mahi Mahi (or other white ocean fish) with a sharp knife into thin slices and arrange them on a large plate
• Grind salt and pepper over it,
• Add some olive oil,
• Spread according to taste some minced onion and capers and some minced chilli,
• Add a few drops of lemon juice just before serving

Marlin Poke (recipe from Free Spirit via SSB mail)

I love this recipe for Marlin, because it tastes a lot better raw than cooked (The Malin got cooked kind of hard unlike Mahi or other white fish)

• Cut 500 g of fresh or frozen Marlin (or Tuna) into 1 cm cubes
• Grate or cut 1 tsp of ginger and 1 tsp of garlic and fresh chilli according to taste
• Cut 1 little onion into small cubes
• Add 1 tsp of Sesame oil and 2 Tblsp of Soy Sauce,
• Add some salt and pepper
• Mix and enjoy with crackers as an appetizer or with any asian food in combination

Tuna Carpaccio à la Pete

• Cut 350 g fresh or frozen tuna in 1 cm pieces,
• Mince a 1/2 small onion, capers, 3 thin slices of ginger, some chili, parsley.
• Add 1-2 Tblspoons of soy sauce, 2 Tblespoons Olive oil and pepper.
• Add juice of 1/2 lemon just before serving, so that the fish doesn‘t denature too much.
• Serve with/on crackers or with salad or stir-fried veggies

Tuna short fried – Chaud froid du thon au sesame (French Polynesia)

• Cut tuna into large pieces,
• Marinate in soy sauce, minced garlic and pepper
• Turn in sesame seeds
• Fry in olive oil from all sides, just enough to denature the outsides
• Serve with pickled ginger, steamed rice, pickled vegetables

Ceviche (Peru)

• Mince onion, garlic, celery, parsley and or cilantro
• Cut fish (white or tuna) into cubes, mix everything, add lemon juice, salt, pepper to taste and
• let denature to taste
  (in Peru where I learned this recipe the fish was completely denatured, in French Polynesia we learned that they eat the raw tuna really completely raw ;-))

Koko(n)da à la Sylke and Michel (Fiji)

• Cut tuna in cubes of 1-2 cm
• Cut veggies in even smaller cubes (whatever is available cucumber, carrots, onions, even cabbage or green cooked beens)
• Add coconut milk (self made is best)
• Mix everything and add lemon to taste just before serving
• Serve with rice or bread
• Tip: with white fish, marinate first in the lemon juice, then add the coconut milk at the end

Tuna Sashimi

• Steam rice with a bit more water than usually (more than 1.5 times water),
  once well done, press it with a spoon into a square box,
  once it is cold, cut out rice squares with a knife
• Cut veggies like carrot, cucumber or celery into thin stripes
• Mix soy sauce with 1 clove of minced garlic, pepper, some sauce of pickled ginger, serve with ginger and wasabi
• Cut tuna into easy to eat pieces

Seafood

Octopus (from Sikeli in Fulaga, Fiji)

• Beat the octopus until it changes colour
• Cook the whole octopus in the pressure cooker
• Cut it in pieces and take away the slimy bits
• Simmer the in a pan together with 100 ml of cooking water from the first cooking
  3 minced cloves of garlic
  400 ml tomato sauce
  2 Tblsp soy sauce
  1 Tblsp vinegar or lemon juice
  2 Tblsp sugar

Clams and Mussels (from Lisa in Abaiang, Kiribati)

• Collect the clams on the beach, wash them several times with saltwater and fresh water
• Cook in large pot or pressure cooker
• Once cold, take out the meat, cut away the hard/chewy parts
• Rinse well again
• Cook minced onion and garlic in olive oil, add a bit of white wine, salt and pepper and the clams or
  leave away the onion and drink the while wine and put the Olive oil, garlic and clam mixture on the best Spaghetti Alio Oilo e Vongole that you ever had!

Veggies

“Cruiser’s spinach” – Callaloo (Grenada) or Taro leaves (Tonga & Fiji)

• Wash a bundle of Callaloo or Taro leaves (attention – do not eat Taro leaves raw, it will burn in your throat like hell),
• Cut into stripes,
• Fry 1 sliced onion until golden brown, then minced garlic (2 cloves) and ginger (1-2 cm, minced) at low heat,
• Add 1-2 teasp. curry powder and 1 teasp. garam masala for Indian touch or alternatively freshly ground nutmeg
• Add Callaloo until soft or Taro leaves until thoroughly cooked
• Add coconut milk or cream to taste
• Callaloo is great with cooked sweet potatoes and roasted chicken,
  Taro leaves I love with rice and fried paneer

Fried breadfruit (from Grenada to Marshall Islands)

• Peal the fruit off the skin and the inner core,
  when it is very ripe, the slices can be 1-2 cm thick and are very soft
  when it is less ripe, the slices can be very thin and will turn like potato chips
• Heat olive oil and fry the breadfruit on both sides until brown. eat with salt and chilli

Mojo verde (Spain)

• Take a heap of fresh coriander/cilantro and or parsley (I like it both either mixed or separate),
• a few garlic cloves,
• Coarse sea salt,
• Olive oil
• Mix in blender or crunch in a mortar, keep under olive oil in a glass in the fridge.
• Perfectly fitting to some potatoes and/or white fish fillet
• Attention: since coarse parsley keeps too much air it has to be either eaten or frozen within a few days, while the cilantro in this method keeps well in the fridge for weeks

Olives with garlic, chilli and oregano (Italy)

• When your olives are very salty, cut them 2 times with a knife and water them for a few hours to make them less salty
• If you happen to be able to harvest fresh black olives – cut each of them 3 times with a knife, water them for 7 days, changing the water 3 times a day, then, when they are not bitter any more, drain the water, salt them with coarse salt and
• Season olives with crushed garlic, minced chili and oregano

Eggplant – Tomato Ratatouille sauce (Italy)
– optionally with zucchini, capsicum or minced beef

• Fry minced onions, garlic, ev. minced meat, add diced tomatoes
• Add eggplants cut in 3 cm cubes, oregano and some fresh or ground dried chili, let it cook until aubergines are soft, but not too soft
• I fill it hot into clean, sterilized glasses, turn them around while cooling down, when vacuum has built up they keep up to several months in the fridge (ideal for passage preparation, the crossing of the Panama Channel or just for keeping the veggies from decay)

Roka salad (Turkey)

• Fresh roka salad (similar to rocket) topped with tomato cubes, onions, olive oil, fresh lemon and salt – nothing else!
• Together with some white cheese and bread it makes a full meal

From the oven

Carole’s Stove top cake (a dear friend from US gave me this recipe to me in Cabo Verde)

• Mix
  1.5 cup flour
  1 cup sugar (less if you use fruit juice as liquid)
  1/4 teaspoon salt
  1 teaspoon baking soda
• Then add
  0.5 cup oil
  1 cup liquid (milk, water, fruit juice)
• Add according to availability and taste cocoa and/or fruits or coconut or whatever is nice
• Mix everything
• Add 1 tablespoon of vinegar (just before baking)
• Can be cooked in a pan with a lid on very low heat
  or in the oven approx 45min (no preheating necessary)
• Tip: if you use fruit juice or any other acid, then add in the baking soda just before the vinegar

Sour dough bread (Germany)

• Add to a bowl
  400 g sourdough * (preparation see below)
  250 ml water
  2 teasp salt
  180 g wholemeal wheat flour
  320 g wheat flour
• Make a hole in the flour, mix
  1 teasp of sugar
  1 teasp of yeast with a bit of water
• Let stand for 15 min,
• Add line seed, sunflower seed, pumpkin seed and walnuts according to taste and availability
  then mix the dough thoroughly, let stand for 2 hours,
• Put into a cake form or onto a sheet and let stand for another hour
• Bake for 45 min (no preheating necessary)
• For sourdough*:
  200 g rye or spelt wholemeal flour
  200 ml water
  Mix well, let it stand covered with a cloth or plate depending on temperature but approx. 24 hours until the dough makes bubbles and tastes a bit sour, stir occasionally

Here a more detailed version of this recipe in German (you can translate with the Google translater in the left sidebar or at the bottom): Sauerteigbrot einfach selber machen

French baguette (France)

• Add to a bowl and mix with a wooden spoon/your washed hands
  500 g wheat flour
  330 ml water
  1 teasp salt
  1 teasp yeast
• Let go for 15 min, then carefully lift up the dough, fold the corners 4 times in and let go for another 15min, repeat 3 times
• Put the dough on a cutting board, cut into 3 pieces and form 3 long “baguettes”, let go for another 30 min
• Bake in the oven for 45 minutes until crispy on the outside
• Enjoy with real butter and what ever else you like

Pretzels (Bavaria)

• Add to a bowl 250 ml water, 1 tsp sugar and 1 tsp yeast and mix
• add 500 g wheat flour and 20 g butter, mix
• at the end add 2 heaped tsp fine salt (coarse salt will bother you in the  forming of the shape), mix/knead with your washed hands
• After 1 hour cut into pieces, roll into long “sausages” (the ends should be a bit thinner) and form into the shape of a pretzel
• Dip both sides of each pretzel into a 3 % caustic solution – Attention, use gloves, apron and protective glasses as caustic is aggressive (baking soda also works but not as well) and place the pretzels on a baking sheet, sprinkle with coarse salt
• Bake in the oven for 45 minutes until brown and crispy on the outside
• Enjoy with real butter or if available Weisswurst, sweet mustard and wheat beer 😉

To preserve

Dried fish

• Cut tuna into 2 cm thick pieces,
• Marinate in soy sauce, minced garlic and pepper and a lot of sea salt for 24 hours
• Put onto a fishing silk and hang into shade for 10 hours (when sun is shining)
• Keeps well in fridge for a few weeks, especially when vacuum packed
• Serve in thin slices -tastes like Bündner Fleisch 🙂

Dried fruit

• Surplus fruit I slice and dry in the sun, turn around every day,
• Store inside during the night.
• After 2-3 days put it in plastic bags or vacuum seal it – keeps for weeks unless eaten…