Galley Guys

alt For ages, a few smart cruisers have used a pressure cooker onboard their boats, but for many of us, a pressure cooker seems like more of a joke; a throwback to our mom’s or even our grandmother’s kitchen as kids.

We've all heard the stories of a pressure cooker exploding and spewing dinner far and wide, but things have really changed.

Pressure cookers now are virtually all stainless steel construction with much better pressure valves and far better cooking control.

alt Grand summer meals on board should be light, colourful, easy to prepare, sumptuous and most importantly, best served with great friends around your table!

For years, my family has savoured over summer meals of mouth-watering flank steak, the long lean muscle taken from the under belly side of a cow. There was a time not that long ago when flank steak was considered a lesser, inexpensive choice of meat and much underrated, but this misconception has changed in recent years as fancier restaurants have increasingly slipped it on to their menus and marinating recipes have become easily accessible on the Internet.

alt Teach him to fish and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

It could have been during the cocktail hour at The Bitter End Yacht Club, or maybe it was later at the bar at Leverick Bay…my memory is a little fuzzy, but it was definitely the British Virgin Islands and only a few weeks ago, but I do remember Sandy and Elinor Marr of Nutmeg Charters describing how they always drag a fishing line when they are cruising and often their dinners come in right over the transom. One of their favourite delicacies is landing a tuna, then cutting in into strips and hanging it with clothes pegs on the stern lifeline for a few days to dry. On the flight home, I began thinking how few of us take advantage of the savoury delights that lay just beneath our boats.

alt In the ongoing and fabled fight for truth, justice and a better life for yachtsmen, Galley Guys recently had the opportunity to be in St. Maarten and to enjoy a great culinary delight – a catered dinner aboard a Swan 48, in one of the nicest settings imaginable.

The word “catered” on one hand – implies that the food is prepared, packed up, and delivered warm or cold, to a social engagement, more often than not – a bit of a compromise. This would however be a catered event with a difference. And while we were guests on the Dutch side of the island, it would take a decidedly French twist.

alt In our quest to encourage boaters to dine and entertain with fun and flare, the Galley Guys showed up at the Halifax Boat Show this past Valentine’s Day, February 14th to join in the “Cooking Onboard” presentations being made by Michele Stevens at the show.

Michele is a 4th generation sailmaker and her loft, called Michele Stevens Sail Loft in Second Peninsula, Nova Scotia is the official sailmaker to the Bluenose II. With her all-woman team, they produce sails as well as upholstery, cushions, sail bags and custom work.

alt That famous east coast hospitality opened its arms to the Galley Guys last month during a trip to Nova Scotia.

We were visiting some of the Nova Scotia Boat Builders: Covey Island Boat Works in Lunenburg, North Atlantic Yachts in Halifax and Big Pond Boat Shop on Cape Breton Island on Bras d’Or Lake.

After spending the day onboard the latest 42-foot trawler from the Big Pond Boat Shop, boat builders Pat and Keith Nelder said,