Tribute

So you haven't heard from me in ages, but you'll now hear from me more often,
last week I resigned from my job so, current status: job-hunting!

I am doing free-lance stuff of course, gotta eat, so drop me a message..
But here is a tribute to my last job, cos I never had the chance to mention much.

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We had been working flat-out for two weeks,
and who should be on duty the first day off that we get?
Me, of course.

The yacht is like a baby, she can never be left alone, ever;
therefore we have watching duties.

In the past two weeks I have met some powerful people,
musical legend George Benson, son of the current prime minister,
various family members of the owners of our yacht.

I have stir-fried, steamed, baked, grilled.
Gyoza, vanilla custard cream filled choux puffs, lemon curd tartlets,
beef left stewing in the oven while I caught some much needed shut-eye.

Fettucine carbonara, creamy vegetable soup, hokkien noodles,
devil curry, smoked salmon and egg mayo sandwiches,
roast chicken with root vegetables, nyonya seafood curry.

Exhausted.Doesn't even begin to describe it.
But it has been good, fulfilling.

And today I woke up to the Bee kissing me before he left for work,
I curled my body into a crescent around his hips as he sat on the bed to pull up his socks.
He lifted my face to kiss him. “Again”. Then , “One more” he said.
Then he left and I languished in bed for 10 whole minutes more
then got dressed to take the ferry to my own work.

I arrive at 10am and the day is not scorching as previous ones have been,
Cloudy. The person on yesterday’s watch leaves as soon as I come in,
I have the boat to myself, clean out my cabin, the kitchen,
have Channel V and MTV on to wiggle and sing to.

In my mind I plan my solitary lunch, the first one in many moons,
where I can cook for just me, to my whim alone.

I have a bulb of fennel that I picked up
when we sailed to Port Klang a week or so ago, I slice it thinly,
put it in a bowl of cold water with lemon juice, to crisp up;
I save the feathery fronds.

I chop some onion and soften it in a slick of olive oil and butter
from the refrigerator I take some parmigiano,some portobello mushrooms
that will go off if I don’t cook them;
garlic, basil, butter, a hunk of mature cheddar;

A half full bottle of sauvignon blanc, streaky rashers of bacon,
shelled prawns, squid, a plastic container of prawn stock that I made
from prawn shells 3 days ago.

Into the onions I add a cupful of arborio rice, stir to coat with
an even glaze of buttery oil, It starts to pop; in goes 2 ladlefuls of hot stock
I think of how every risotto recipe tells you to keep stirring,
for 20 minutes and how tiresome it is,
so I don’t keep stirring, I just make sure the rice is level, equally moistened,
every now and again I give it a swill, add the stock when it starts to dry.
I do not do this non-stop stirring thing.

On the other hand I am chopping bacon, tearing basil, scattering them over the portobellos.
Some sea salt sprinkled over, a grinding of black pepper, butter, a drizzle of olive oil

Some chopped garlic, then some grated cheddar, lastly, some breadcrumbs, for that slight crunch.

I pop them in the oven.

When the rice is almost al dente, I zest half a lemon,
except I don’t have a zester so I peel of the skin as thinly as I can with a vegetable peeler then chop it up with my cleaver.

Throw it in to the pot with its juice. A pat more of butter,
shavings of parmigiano, the prawns.
I take it of the heat, then add the squid and fennel fronds,
so the residual heat cooks the squid perfect, tender.
I taste and season with pepper.

The lemon somehow lifts the entire dish, bringing out the flavours.
I get the sliced fennel out of the fridge, drain it.
In a pan I put some chopped bacon, dry fry till browned.
This I scatter over the fennel. I bash four walnuts, scatter scatter.
Drizzle of olive oil, then walnut oil. The top With fleur de sel.
Crack some pepper, et voila!

I sit down with a chilled glass of sauvignon blanc, and have one of the best meals ever.

I watch TV then, read some. Food porn, Nigella, Jamie at home.
TV and books in front of me, all on food.
I get hungry for dessert.

Four strawberries, sliced roughly, drizzle of balsamic, pinch of sugar.
'Macerating' in cook talk.
Swirl in bowl. I slice a leftover banana-choc muffin, then toast it.
I put the slices on a small plate, top with the strawberries.

In the freezer I find a tub of vanilla ice-cream that was meant to be
a custard cream filling for pastry that I made then froze when I didnt use it
I put a scoop on my strawberries, then I put on another scoop,
Baskin Robbins butter pecan, I top this whole confection with some fresh mint.

At 2.30 pm I am thinking of dinner. Should I make my favourite lamb cous cous?
Or should I grill the salmon and have it with steamed potatoes and pea puree?
I make myself coffee.

At 3.30 I bake some frozen calamari rings in the oven.
I have a deep aversion to deep frying so whatever I can oven-bake, I do,
even ‘fried’ chicken.

The rain begins to lash down upon the boat. The sea begins to churn.
I stay in the galley, Astro is out, so a DVD instead.
The security cameras give me 6 angles of the boat,
but every now and again I get up to check for leakages.

I have decided on lamb for dinner.

I follow that with a waffle topped with
maple syrup, butter pecan ice-cream,banana, more walnuts.

The salmon on my next watch, on Monday.
Watch lasts for 24 hours. If it went any longer I’d be the size of a house.