07/02/2009, Bora-Bora
We have been busy enjoying the underwater scenery. Thanks to the great hospitality of Victory Cat, we have pretty well circumnavigated inside of Bora-Bora's barrier reefs. The shallow draft catamaran reigns superior for this task. It was also great fun to hang out with S/V Kena and S/V Terrahomar. As we were swapping jokes and tongue twisters around the grill, we realized what an international group of friends we had aboard. The following countries were represented on this little adventure: Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, and the US. We didn't find the manta rays yesterday, but we sure found some spectacular diving with lots of fish and beautiful coral. Today we will get a few boat chores done and start making some decisions about where to go next. As of today we are looking at a passage to Rarotonga, a Cook Island about 550 miles from here, then back northward to the Samoan Islands. Our main port of call is Pago Pago, American Samoa. It's just a matter of where we will visit along the way. We will be planning on leaving early next week depending upon the weather.
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06/29/2009, Bora-Bora
It's amazing what gets shared around the anchorages at happy hour, or any hour for that matter. Sourdough starter is a popular gift. Cruisers that are the receiving end of this grand gift often ask about how to keep it going. So, I have decided to post this article that I wrote about the care and feeding of sourdough so that anyone interested could have a bit of information. I hope that it's helpful for you.....let me know!
Sourdough
Care and Feeding of your new pet!
If you think of sourdough as a pet, you will find that it's the easiest pet you could have on board. They are living creatures and do have (for a pet) a minimum of requirements to keep them happy. Sourdough starter is composed of a group of little singe celled critters similar to yeast, that love nothing more than to divide and multiply. Housing: Keep your sourdough starter in a glass or crockery type container. If you keep it in contact with metal or plastic; that is what you're your cooked dish will taste like .not a happy thought. Also be aware of the fact that stirring with a metal spoon is fine, but don't leave the spoon in the batter unless you want it metal flavored. To avoid this, my Dad always used a wooden spoon. Your sourdough can live in the harshest of conditions. If you use it at least every week or two, it doesn't need to be refrigerated. This is great because cooler space is always a premium. And yes, even tropical temperatures are fine. A good tight fitting lid will keep your starter from exiting its home to go for a walk when the boat is nicely heeled over. Should you decide to go on vacation you can keep your sourdough in the freezer. If you would like your sourdough in a less liquid form, you can add flour until it is in a stiff ball. I especially like this form if I'm taking it on a plane, or don't want to risk a spill. You can also shrink you sourdough down to a size of your choice if you do travel with it, just leave enough space if it winds up in a warm location to expand to double it's size. I have traveled with a ball of sourdough in a small baby food jar as carry one when I was flying in a small bush plane between Alaska villages. It did freeze in my luggage. I was taking it with me for another teacher who wanted starter. When you are ready to start using the starter again, just remember that you may have to bulk it up for a couple of days before using it.
Cultivating & Harvesting (technically: setting the sponge) Sophisticated chefs call this stage setting the sponge, just in case you were wondering. For everyday use, you need to about double the size of your sourdough. This is not science and exact measurements are not needed. I keep my sourdough in a pint size container. When I'm ready us use a recipe, I'll look at the recipe and find out how much starter is needed for it. For example, if the recipe calls for 1 cup, I know that I will need a total of about 2 cups because I don't want to kill of my all my starter for a one time use. So here's how it works. Just add equal parts of flour and water to your starter to make it grow. Since I keep about 1 cup of starter as my "pet", I'll add =BD a cup of flour and =BD cup of water to the starter and stir it up. I seldom measure this out. Once you see how thick the starter usually is, just add what you need. It saves on dishes and digging out the measuring cups. Use lukewarm water, just like yeast for bread. The sourdough loves to divide and multiple in warm temperatures, but not too hot. The only way to really kill sourdough is heat, or dumping the whole thing into your ingredient bowl. That I have done. If it happens, hopefully you didn't scrape the starter bowl too much and can slowly add water and flour over a period of time, and it will grow back! After you add the water and flour, the starter has to sit for 10-12 hours. I usually do this the night before I want to use it. If for some reason I don't end up making anything the next day, that's OK, just cover it up and use it later. It will be just fine. The sourdough just needs about 10-12 hours do double it's population for that nice rich sourdough flavor. This is also the same procedure if you have shrunk down your starter for some reason, just add equal parts of flour and water until it's the size you want. If you added flour to the starter like mentioned earlier for traveling, just add water to the dough ball until it's back to its usual consistency. If you froze your sourdough, thaw it, and start adding flour and water.
Feeding your Sourdough, and reviving when it gets neglected!
On occasion (more than it seems), the sourdough starter hasn't been used in quite awhile, or has been neglected for a long time. This happens a lot. When you open your container and see that the starter has separated with yellow clear liquid on the top and flour on the bottom, that's OK it happens all the time. Just stir it up. If after you add flour and water to the starter and it doesn't bubble like it used to, it needs some richer food. Just add some sugar and some yeast to the starter and it will thank you by bubbling away. How much? Well, it doesn't take much to get it bubbling again. I add about a teaspoon of sugar and =BD teaspoon of yeast. You don't have to measure, just add a little on occasion of each. If I haven't made anything sourdough in awhile, I just add it bit of both. Think of it as giving your pet a treat now and again. If you forgot that you even own sourdough and find it in the far back corner, don't despair. Open up the container, it it's separated but with dark, almost black liquid on the top that's OK. Pour off that stuff. On the bottom is the thicker flour part. Put a couple of tablespoons of it in a separate bowl. This will be your new starter. There will be some living sourdough cells in it. Toss everything else, and add flour and water, and just a pinch of yeast and sugar. Keep increasing this amount (doubling it) until you are back to your usual sourdough amount. See, you can't kill it unless you heat it up or eat it!
Recipes:
Remember, you can always google recipes and find web sites that have tons of free recipes for anything, including sourdough. So if you are looking for new ideas, go there and it won't cost you anything but some time on-line!
Sourdough Bread (makes 2 loaves)
1 cup Sourdough Starter (at room temperature)
5 ½ to 6 cups all-purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
1 ½ cups water
1teaspoon lemon juice (optional but really give the bread better texture. When I have lemon juice, I add this to all my bread recipes, old family secret!!)
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons olive oil (whatever is on hand is fine...butter, veggie oil ect.)
½ teaspoon baking soda
Follow any white bread recipe directions for this. I sometime will add ½ cup of oats, bran, or even whole wheat flour. Just add this first then start adding the regular flour. Other versions:
Raisin/fruit: After the dough is kneaded, and I want something for morning, I'll add some raisins or dried fruit (about ½ cup or so) for raisin bread. Knead it in just before setting it out to rise. There are lots of variations you can do to spice up the regular recipe. Don't be afraid to experiment. The only warning is be careful with spices as some will inhibit yeast growth such as cinnamon. Adding extra yeast will help compensate.
Italian version: add a tablespoon of Italian Seasoning and use extra virgin olive oil for the oil listed above. For added fun, dice up some black olives and add about ½ cup worth.
Baking: 375 degrees, 30-35 minutes
Jalapeño Bread:
Add ½ of corn meal as part of your flour, and small can of drained, diced Jalapenos. (about ¼ cup)
Pancakes (waffles)
1 ½ cups (or about) of sourdough starter
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons cooking oil
All purpose flour...may have to add to thicken batter to your taste.
½ teaspoon baking soda (add this last just before ladeling batter onto griddle or into waffle iron)
Stir in everything except baking soda. You may have to add more or less flour depending on how thick you like your pancakes. I like thick fluffy ones so I add enough flour to about cake batter consistency. If after everything is stirred it seems thin...add more flour or if it's too thick, add a bit more water. When it's all added, then add the baking soda. This will really give your batter that sourdough flavor. The drawback is that it tends to kill sourdough so add it last.
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07/02/2009 | nadja (adjuntas att web dott de)
thank you for this wonderful explanation! We are getting ready to go cruising on our tayana 37 too and I love following your journey! Take care!!!
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06/27/2009, Bora-Bora
I've been working on updating the photo albums. I still don't have all the captions completed. To see the albums, click on the icon of the camera to the right of this post. The new albums are: Manihi Part 2, Tahiti, Moorea, and Underwater. We sure hope you enjoy them. I also added photos to previous posts so check them out as well!
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06/26/2009, Bora-Bora
After consulting the weather reports, we decided that it was time to push onward to Bora-Bora. A weather system is approaching and it looks like 20-30 knot winds for the next week. We have only a couple of weeks left on our French Polynesia VISA, and it would be very sad to miss this famous island. We left Huahini at dusk and rounded the north end of Bora-Bora around 4 this morning. We did not go through the pass until daylight. The wind whipped up and we ended up clawing our way back to the pass. It was still better than entering a strange reef fringed island in the dark. We are now all tucked in on a mooring ball at the Bora-Bora Yacht Club. We are buddy boating with Victory Cat and they arrived this afternoon. We will spend a week or more here enjoying our last French Polynesian port of call and preparing for the passage to the Cook Islands.
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