Galley secrets

Mitch Tonks of Rockfish fame is an acclaimed restauranteur, chef and author. As well as an ambassador for sustainable seafood, he is also an avid sailor. He explains how you can cook delicious fresh food on board without compromising...

With some careful planning, it's easy to cook some wonderful fresh dishes, despite the confined space of a galley. It helps to keep things simple.

Personally, I like raw fish so I always keep ponzu sauce on board which you can buy in most stores now. It’s a mix of light soy and yuzu which is a Japanese citrus fruit, delicious on a freshly filleted raw mackerel, or indeed any thinly sliced fish. I make a pre-mix of sake, mirin (a Japanese sweet rice wine), soy sauce and sugar and keep it in a bottle for when I am lucky enough to catch a mackerel. Just pan fry your fish, add a good glug of the sauce, spooning it over the fish to coat it cook down until nice and sticky. You can also marinade any piece of fish in this same sauce for a few days, then wrap it in some foil and bake it.

For a super quick snack, boil some rice and mix a few tablespoons of kimchi into it, it’s spicy, healthy and full of flavour and has the power to satisfy hunger quickly.

We all love pasta and with this I try to keep everything in one pan; it’s easier for everyone. The basic rule is you take 400g pasta - shells, fusilli, macaroni, penne, even spaghetti - and add to a pan filled with one litre of water, along with a few tins of tomatoes, some garlic cloves, spinach and a handful of kale and cook it all together until your pasta is al dente. To finish, stir through a good bunch of basil, then serve in bowls drizzled with good olive oil and a liberal grating of parmesan.

For bread making, I make simple flatbreads and pizza cooked in a pan. For these I weigh all the ingredients in port - 400g flour, 150g semolina, 7g yeast and 25g salt - and store in zipped food bags. Each one makes one loaf or one flatbread, so all I need to do in the galley is empty it all into a bowl, add 400ml luke warm water, knead, shape into balls and then rest.

For pizzas, I use a small round tin and I roll out the dough to the same size, brush it with my garlic oil, top it with a few tablespoons of passata, grate over some parmesan and mozzarella, put the pan on the stove and wait for the bottom to cook and crisp. When the sides start to rise, pop into the oven for 6-7 minutes until done (that’s how it works in my oven but I know we all have di erent ones, so be ready to adapt).

For me eating and cooking on board is all part of the ride.

Follow Mitch via mitchtonks.co.uk and therockfish.co.uk