WPSU

Friday, August 31, 2018

Boat Gourmet Cooks Sustainably

You asked for more tips from Boat Gourmet. Sustainability is a theme of our travels, so this installment of Boat Gourmet covers hacks that help you

  • save water;
  • save fuel (i.e., propane for the stove); and
  • reduce waste and pollution

Tip # 1: Scrape before you wash


A rubber scraper is your best friend. Scrape residue into the trash before you do dishes. (Or, train the crew to lick their plates clean.) You'll need less wash water to get them clean.

Plus, you won't pollute the water in your anchorage. Did you know that the sink on a boat drains right into the water? Yup.

No one wants to see your leftover breakfast Cheerios floating away on the current.

Food waste in the water is more than unsightly. Those excess nutrients in an anchorage or marina can cause algal blooms.

Tip # 2 Use Only What You Need


Making coffee? Measure your coffee water into the kettle. (We make four cups of java every morning.)

Think about it. How many mornings have you dumped the stale water from the kettle before starting fresh? That's a waste!

Measuring your coffee water also means you don't use extra propane to boil more water than you need! Which leads me to . . .

Tip # 3  Conserve Fuel


We make sun tea--no boiling water
needed! Small flask fits in small fridge
Beyond the desire to use fossil fuel sparingly, getting your propane tank filled can be a hassle.

You can't always find a place close to the boat dock. And those tanks are heavy to carry!

So plan meals that don't take forever to cook. (The bonus to this strategy--you don't make your boat even hotter on a summer day.)

Beyond the obvious (sandwiches and salads) you have plenty of options.

Thai red curry! On rice, but rice noodles are also delish.


Angel hair pasta cooks in 5 minutes (compared to 11 minutes for heartier pasta substrates).

Even better are couscous and rice noodles. Just boil water, pour over, let sit.

A little protein, some veggies, some seasonings . . . so many possibilities!

Or use a heat source other than your stove. If you're lucky, you're docked in a place where there's a picnic area, with barbecue grills!

In the photo below, Cap shows how he used convenient engine room spare parts to grill in the rain. That's half of a length of some kind of ventilation pipe keeping our nice little steaks dry!




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