Author: Ning Xue

04/09/2020

For lunch, I made some spring rolls with the stuffing left over from bun making last night. At first I put too much stuffing making the rolls too big so juice was leaking from inside and making splatter in oil. Practice makes perfect. I did better and better and finally making beautiful spring rolls.

In the afternoon, we went to Bob’s place, because he said he wanted to talk to us. We were worried that he was going to tell us that he sold Mustang to another person while we were away. Later we found out it was just the depth sounder on the boat was not working and he bought a new one to replace. Then we had a good chat till sunset and we invited him to come to our boat for dinner tomorrow.

Back to our boat I made the best lemongrass chicken ever.

Ingredients:

4 pieces of chicken thigh, half onion, lemon

Marinade sauce:

Two spoons of light soy sauce, one spoon of dark soy sauce, two spoons of lemongrass powder, lemongrass pieces and juice, mirin, sesame oil, fish sauce, ginger powder, a little bit of turmeric powder, garlic powder, pepper, ginger, lemon peel, a spoonful of cornstarch

Dipping sauce:

Water, lemon grass pieces, mirin, light soy sauce, fish sauce, dried chilli

Cook:

Cut chicken thighs into pieces along the grain, mix with marinade sauce, after 30mins, pick out lemongrass pieces. Add a little bit of oil to heated pan, add onions and fry until soft, add chicken fillet and fry until slightly charred. Squeeze some lemon juice on top and enjoy it with dipping sauce.

03/09/2020

In the morning, we went to the laundry to wash a pile of clothes. While waiting, we had a large cup of dragon fruit smoothie and ate potato scallops. Returned to the boat at noon to have sardine and cheese on toast. In the afternoon, I had been researching how to make steam buns. After consulting my auntie on the phone, I started them from scratch. I began to make the dough at 3pm and ended up eating at 8pm, the taste was very rewarding and it made me feel all the effort was worthwhile. We only have high-gluten bread flour on the boat, I thought it would make very chewy buns, but the result was very gratifying. The texture of bun skin was very soft and spongy, and the inside layer was full of juice. Thanks to the warm temperature here making perfect dough.

In case I couldn’t keep the standard next time, I’d better write down the recipe and process:

 DOUGH

 Flour: 2cups (about 300g)

 Warm water: slightly less than 1 cup (half the amount of flour)

 Yeast: slightly more than 1tb (about 3g)

 Sugar: 1 table spoons

Add yeast and sugar to warm water, stir well, slowly pour it into flour, knead roughly, rest for 10 minutes, then knead to a smoother dough, cover it for an hour and a half. Then press the air out. Make to donut shape, separate to 12 small doughs, use rolling pin to make bun skin with thinner edge.

 STUFFING

 250g pork

 Some wombok (chopped up and add salt to squeeze out water)

 A little bit vermicelli (soaked in hot water and cut into pieces)

 Half onion

 Some dried shiitake mushrooms (soaked well)

 Some spring onions

 A little bit ginger

 Some Soy sauce, cooking wine, sesame oil, chilli powder, garlic powder, mirin

Add oil to heated pan, chop onion and fry until fragrant, add half of the pork and mushrooms and half of the seasoning, stir fry slightly, turn off heat, stir in the raw meat, cabbage, vermicelli, the remaining seasoning, and mix well

 STEAM

After making buns, set for half an hour without covering, put the buns in steamer when water is still cool, put baking paper underneath each bun, medium heat time for 15 minutes after the water is boiled, turn off the heat cover for 5 minutes, open the lid and enjoy.

02/09/2020

Before 11am we set off for Airlie Beach. J pulled the anchor up and only unfurled the jib. It won’t make much difference if we raise the main sail. It might only blanket the wind of the jib. Since the tide reached the highest point and it rose by about 3 meters, we took the shortcut that was usually too shallow to take, at a speed of 4 to 5 knots.

When we turn into the open area, the boat starts to roll a bit, but it is still very enjoyable.

At noon, wind dropped a bit near the North Molle Island. When it was less rolly, I got into the cabin to make lunch, it was a repeat of yesterday’s lunch, I called it ‘Chinese-Italian Friendship Tomato and Egg Noodles’ (I used Italian passata).

As soon as we finished the noodles, wind came in, and it got stronger and stronger. We only have half jib up and the speed could reach to 7 knots. There was a smaller boat sailing with us to the same direction. I found out that J had been racing with it, although we were overtaken halfway.

Arrived at Airlie beach at 2:30pm, finally we could take a hot shower!

Tonight, it was time to let others cook for us.