Suggestions for nosh when you ai'nt got a fridge.

KristiferColumbus

KristiferColumbus

N/A
Joined
22 Apr 2009
Messages
6,820
Location
Just driftin
Visit site
Suggestions for nosh when you ai\'nt got a fridge.

I am getting thougherly sick & tired of ASDA beef stew mixed with mulligatawny soup.Irish stew & Royal game soup combination's/hot dog sausages & noodles etc.It is becoming a real problem now when I go away for more than one or two days.
What do the rest of you live on,have you got any suggestions?
 
Re: Suggestions for nosh when you ai\'nt got a fridge.

We always have some of those rice-in-a-bag meals on board, they keep for ages, along with tinned curry/sweet 'n' sour chicken/Irish stew for a meal for two.
The other thing we do is to cook a one pot meal, lemon chicken is a favourite, freeze it in an ice cream carton and take it away as the ice pack in a cool bag for the following evening.
If you're feeling adventurous, even in this weather fresh veg doesn't need to be kept in a fridge. Nor do eggs, so a tin of fish and an onion and you have a seafood omelette (sp?).
 
Re: Suggestions for nosh when you ai\'nt got a fridge.

Like you I am finding it all a bit limiting but some of the Sainsbury's tins are not bad. The sweet and sour chicken slipped down well and their canned curries are edible.

But I think we are sometimes over cautious. Our grandparents didn't have a fridge but kept food in a cool larder for fairly lengthy periods. A cool box with a couple of frozen bottles of water would keep fresh meat sufficiently cool for two or three days, although I might be a bit leery of pork or chicken. Vacuum packs of meat (duck breasts come to mind), mussels and fresh pasta should keep alright and so long as they are well cooked shouldn't harbour any nasties. Eggs keep well without any cooling as do many fruits. And bacon and ham (ahh those cooked breakfasts) will keep ok in a coolbox for several days. However I am not a professional and, whilst I am happy to experiment on myself, these ideas are not a recommendation.

I have a small boat with only a two burner spirit stove so cooking vegetables can be a bit of a pain. I am considering getting a steamer but lack of storage space is a limiting factor.

Canned fish are generally good and full of that omega stuff so pass muster with SWMBO. And for light winds days plenty of beans!

Michael
 
Re: Suggestions for nosh when you ai\'nt got a fridge.

Tinned tuna, pasta, tinned tomatoes, lots of herbs
Corned beef
Savoury rice
Catch some mackeral!
Tinned curry, plus some tinned veg and extra spices.
Cheese!
Fruit, fresh and tinned. Dried apricots too!


We tend to buy fresh or frozen in local shops. Frozen will keep 36hrs ok in our cold box, we tend to buy bags of ice cubes when we can.
Our style of cruising tends to involve going to places most nights, so it's not usually a problem. But its always good to have the tins and packets in reserve.
Never resorted to Fray Bentos pies yet!
If we freeze a chilli at home it takes 2 days to thaw, next to some frozen mineral water bottles and the tonic water.
Sort out a well insulated coolbox. Build it in with 4 inch min insulation.
 
Re: Suggestions for nosh when you ai\'nt got a fridge.

Perhaps a pressure cooker will help, then go onto Google for recipes!
You can keep a Tupperware small box of different herbs and spices tucked away in a corner.

I find that you are only limited by your imagination.

Vacuum packed breads, hams, bacon, and cured salami are very tasty too.

Onions keep for weeks, so do eggs.

But best invest in a Thermos cool bag, ours is a soft one. Works well for the weekend.
 
Re: Suggestions for nosh when you ai\'nt got a fridge.

As others have said, vac-pak is good, especially for par-baked bread which lasts for ages.
I make up curry at home and take it on board in a half-litre Kilner jar, which goes into the pressure cooker with an inch of water to heat up. The Kilner will keep food safe for up to a week.
The pressure cooker is a good place to store dry stuff as well.
Milk is a big problem as I don't like the taste of UHT and powdered and at this time of year fresh stuff won't last a day without a fridge.
Beer, on the other hand, stays good and cool in the bilges, so I might forgo the tea.
 
Re: Suggestions for nosh when you ai\'nt got a fridge.

I used to have this problem - until I got my compressor coolbox, and never looked back. Still, that doesn't answer your question, so here are some suggestions...

Tuna stir fry - tinned tuna, noodles, and stir fried mushrooms, onions, pepper, courgette and throw in some soy sauce.

Those very dry suausage things from Spain, don't know what they are called, always referred to them as donkey's dicks. Anyway, one of them with pasta and tomatoe/herb sauce.

Some tinned salmon, knock up a white parsley sauce, throw in some tinned shrimps, with spuds and veg.

Sheep's pie - a sort of vegetarian shepheard's pie, but with lentils and various other vegetables - sweetcorn, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and some cheese on the top. Melt cheese with a grill if you don't have an onion. Or a blowtorch if you don't have a grill.

Stuffed peppers with rice and tinned anchovies. Fry up some onions and mushrroms, throw in rice and water and as many anchovies as you can take, stuff half peppers and then bake. Can also be steamed if no oven.

How's that to start with?
 
Re: Suggestions for nosh when you ai\'nt got a fridge.

[ QUOTE ]

Those very dry suausage things from Spain, don't know what they are called, always referred to them as donkey's dicks. Anyway, one of them with pasta and tomatoe/herb sauce.


[/ QUOTE ]

Enough to make Marco cry - you mean Chorizo (which is probably spanish for donkeys dicks)
 
Re: Suggestions for nosh when you ai\'nt got a fridge.

Click here I really like these, and they last a long time and can be heated in the bag...i get them in our local co-op so they should be available in an asda /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Re: Suggestions for nosh when you ai\'nt got a fridge.

A good place to start for more information on this sort of thing would be Annie Hill's classic, Voyaging on a Small Income. She is looking at keeping food fresh over multi-week ocean crossings so probably way over what you would need, but should give you some idea of how much stuff you can keep without refigeration.

She is vegetarian and is big into beans, which can be pretty practical with a pressure cooker; as mentioned above most veg will keep well without refrigeration so look at any vegetarian cookbook or google for recipe suggestions.

Where it gets more difficult is keeping fresh meat, but as mentioned you should be able to keep this chilled on ice for a couple of days at least. Beyond that rather than go down the spam route why not look at traditionally preserved meats like chorizo (as I believe the spanish donkeys apendages are correctly called), salamis, air dried hams like parma or serrano and more traditional cures of bacon. All these were developed to keep without refrigeration, and still will do within reason. If you want to be more adventurous you could also look at smoked meats and fishes, and salt cod.

Alternatively skip the question of keeping meat and go for live food and take a few sheep and chickens with you like in the olden days. Or at least try your hand with a fishing rod - if anyone is fond of sushi I can promise you that freshly caught mackerel sashimi far surpassed anything I have eaten in a fancy Tokyo restaurant, and no pans to wash up!

Usual disclaimers apply, as per everyone else on here! I have no food safety qualifications so use your common sense.
 
Re: Suggestions for nosh when you ai\'nt got a fridge.

[ QUOTE ]
Have you considered a Fray Bentos pie?

[/ QUOTE ]

Make sure it is cooked properly - I once had a very unpleasant experience with one, the smell of one now makes me go green!
 
Re: Suggestions for nosh when you ai\'nt got a fridge.

There are two important things:

1. a reserve of food which will keep for years, but can be attractive enough to be incorporated into a regular diet to avoid being thrown away when out of date.

2. otherwise, eat fresh when available.

Two suggestions:

1: a sort of kedgeree

tinned kippers, flaked and mixed with boiled rice, pepper and tinned/reconstituted dried peas. Add onion, turmeric, curry powder, cumin, hard-boiled eggs, parsley as available

2: spaghetti napolitano (authentic recipe)

tinned tomatoes, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper. Cover with olive oil. Simmer till tomatoes break down. Eat with spaghetti or other pasta, red wine, and bread, preferably.
 
Re: Suggestions for nosh when you ai\'nt got a fridge.

We buy army ration packs from Ebay for canoeing trips. The meals are boil in the bag and not at all bad for a few days.
Last year we took all our meals frozen and placed them in the cool box in order that the last days came out last, kept cold by the one above it etc
 
Re: Suggestions for nosh when you ai\'nt got a fridge.

[ QUOTE ]
A good place to start for more information on this sort of thing would be Annie Hill's classic, Voyaging on a Small Income. She is looking at keeping food fresh over multi-week ocean crossings
She is vegetarian and is big into beans.

[/ QUOTE ]




Not sure I would fancy a multi week ocean crossing with someone on this diet.
 
Re: Suggestions for nosh when you ai\'nt got a fridge.

We have a large well stocked fridge but it wasn't always so and there are still times when you need a store cupboard backup.

Corned beef hash works well and is quick to make in one pan. Use tinned corn beef, tinned new potatoes (pat dry, slice and fry) onion (they keep) tin of tomatoes and a tin of button mushrooms. Gourmet version fry an egg to go on top of each plate.

Maryland crab cakes made using tinned white crab meat, also need bread crumbs, bit of onion, bit of celery, egg and mayonaise (Like Hellmans, buy a small jar and ditch unused as it needs refrigerating otherwise.

You could also use tinned crab meat for a crab risotto.

In France we found some long life packs of precooked dishes that you heat up as boil in a bag. They do chinese sweet and sour, chill con carne and spag bol to name but a few and are quite edible. We occasionally use these as 'go along' meals if it's a tad bumpy.

Waitrose and others do long life (like 12 months) breakfasty stuff like sauteed potatoes with bacon and egg, potato rosti and egg bacon an potato. Any or all of these can be done as a meal by adding a fried egg on top.

We also buy tinned foie grass and this can also make for a gourmet quick fry on toast with some sauteed mushrooms (even tinned if you get decent button ones, French are best) and again maybe an egg. The foie grass only takes 30 seconds and one tin does four thick slices, wee have two each.

Then there is an egg curry using boiled eggs and your own choice of curry recipe.

Cheese is useful as you can do things like Pan Haggerty, layers of sliced potato, sliced onion and cheese all done in a good non stick frypan.

You can do a lot with pasta and tins of tuna, or crab, mussels and even prawns.
 
Re: Suggestions for nosh when you ai\'nt got a fridge.

we use the part baked baguettes on the boat, 10 minutes in the oven and its done.
 
Re: Suggestions for nosh when you ai\'nt got a fridge.

Cous-Cous.

Easy peezy and cheap.
 
Re: Suggestions for nosh when you ai\'nt got a fridge.

The larger Sainbury's have got really tasty vacum packed curried dahls, mung and chanas IIRC. They also a vacum packed rosti potatoes. Take a tip put of the Army's book. The water you've heated the things up in can make your tea too.

Christophenes from your local Indian greengrocer will keep for weeks and are good in salads.
 
Re: Suggestions for nosh when you ai\'nt got a fridge.

The Fray Bentos "Baby's Heads" are my favourite.

One slight digression, "NOSH" has taken up a new meaning amongst the young and unwashed in Essex. Perhaps better described in the lounge, I will delicately say it can be best explained as meaning a "BJ". I will leave it to others to define that meaning.

I was somewhat embarrassed in Heybridge Basin after I had said a number of times that "you get great nosh in the top pub, better than here in the Jolly Sailor" and a fit of giggling broke out before it was explained to me by a very nubile young lady /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top