Cooking Afloat

Naughty-Cal may be blessed with many good attributes but one area she falls short is cooking facilities.

She is currently fitted with a Plastimo Neptune 2000, 2 burner gas hob and grill. We have never struggled to cook decent meals afloat, last year we managed to cook a christmas dinner for three (on boxing day!!), but there are times when an oven would be useful.

One item we have found invaluable is the square Tefal griddle pan. This gets used for pretty much every meal we make. It acts as a griddle, frying pan and wok all in one, and as it is square you get more cooking space within the pan.

Given the limited cooking facilities we still have a wide and varied selection of meals that we cook and enjoy afloat. Current favourites include, Haggis, neaps and taties, Spag Bol, Chilli wraps, chicken curry, grilled salmon, roast dinners (the meat has to be grilled though) and of course the full English breakfast, the bigger the better and always with black pudding.

Whilst we may complain that Naughty-Cal’s cooking facilities are limited, she is actually one of the few small sports cruisers that have gas cooking facilities. The US brands prefer electric cooking which means to cook meals afloat the boats either have to have the engine running or be plugged into shore power. Not a problem when on your home berth but when out cruising this can be problematic as some of our friends have found out.

Whilst we should be happy with the facilities we have aboard, the galley is one area that we are looking to update and improve. So this winters project is to update the galley to include, a small Smev oven, a 3 burner Smev gas hob with fiddle rail and refit the existing sink and drainer unit all to be fitted into a new cherry wood work surface to match the existing cherry wood cabinetry.

So another little project to keep us entertained over the coming winter months...............