Boat Provisioning - Top Tips

Boat Provisioning – Top Tips

As the end of the year is fast approaching and the long trips out on the boat that we all long for come closer and closer, we share some of our top tips for food provisioning.

Fresh Vegetables

We all know a bag of mescaline or loose fresh lettuce won’t last very long before going brown, getting squashed or wilting, because of this we recommend using Iceberb and Cos lettuce for your first week away and then cabbages. Cabbages have a longer shelf life and you don’t have to worry about stacking things on top of them in the fridge!

Shelley shares her tip of purchasing a small planter box and planting lettuces (and herbs) at different stages of their lives so you can get pick and eat as they ripen! What an ingenious idea.

Breads and Carbs

We cannot rave about having a bread maker onboard enough. Turn it on in the morning and in 45 minutes you have a fresh loaf of bread without barely lifting a finger, an absolute game changer! Keep your yeast in the fridge to keep it fresh.

Not enough space for a bread maker? Stick to longer lasting carbs such as wraps, pita pockets, rice (the boil in bag are perfect for no mess rice) and pastas. When buying wraps and pitas, look for vacuum sealed options as these have a much longer shelf life. Any option to avoid taking up valuable freezer space with bread.

Milk Products

You have a few options for milk on board, long lasting milk being the most popular option, with a shelf life of approx. 6 months out of the fridge. There is also alternate milks, such as almond, coconut, oat etc. which have a long shelf life before being opened.

Herbs 

The fantastic little on the bench fresh herbs from the supermarket are ace but if you can’t keep these alive for the duration of a trip, buy dried for your cooking and freeze it for your drinks! Fill your ice cubes with water and add mint, lemon and lime for a perfect addition to your gin and tonic! Easiest to make a couple of trays and store them in a snaplock bag in the freezer.

Other Tips 

Duck in a can! Yes you read that right. Gourmet Duck Confit – You can buy this from the supermarket, it is the perfect keep in stock meal for when you have guests coming aboard and no fresh fish to cook up.

Curry Pastes – Asian curry pastes make a quick easy delicious meal, mix with cans of coconut milk and cream and your choice of meat for an epic meal sure to impress any guest.

Stock Cubes, don’t have the space to take liquid stock? Buy the OVO stock cubes, mix with water and your away cooking! A great space saving alternative.

A seasoning which is often overlooked aboard is Cajun seasoning – this epic spice goes so well with most seafood but we 100% recommend adding this to your Kingfish for the most beautiful combination of flavours.

Large Ice Cubes, you can buy these extra-large ice trays from kmart or the supermarket, these are perfect for drinks as you only need one cube! Alternately, you can also purchase ‘whiskey rocks’ which are reusable ice cubes, a cold drink without water dilution from the melting ice!

Small Portions – purchase small bags of supplies such as sugar, bread crumbs, brown sugar, flour etc.  It’s much easier to store and use multiple bags of each item than trying to deal with a 5kg bag of flour.

Add cornflour to your shopping list for coating your fish! It’s lighter, gluten free and has a similar affect as flour without the starching flour flavour.

If anybody has any tips to share with the Riviera Family, email them through to Chelsea at marketing@riviera.co.nz