Houston's Premier Scuba and Dive Shop Oceanic Ventures Inc.

(713) 523-3483 (dive)
5808 Newcastle Drive
Houston, TX 77401

Food

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The Master Liveaboard BBQ Nothing but Fun!

If you watched the email or checked the calendar we has a really fun event. Mark and Alex, from Master Liveaboards, came into Houston for a visit and we all thought it would be fun to have a BBQ party in the backyard! And, that is exactly what we did.

The Menu for the evening included:

  • Indonesian Sambal Chicken,
  • Philippine BBQ Pork,
  • Sambal Tempe
  • fragrant rice,
  • grilled vegetables,
  • Green Beans steamed with with Thai chilies and lemon grass, and
  • Treebeard’s Butter Cake

Steve Jurbala, our own distiller, provided us with dome Boquerón Rum cocktails to go with the dinner menu.

Mark and Alex got the opportunity to tell some stories, talk about diving and invite people to go diving on one of their awesome dive vessels.

Want to see how the party went? Click on the video below…

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Chef Recommends Babas au Rhum

Baba au rhum (also known as rum baba) is a lovely yeast-risen cake studded with dried fruit and soaked in hot rum syrup. Once the darling of French cuisine, it fell out of favor, but it is so good to see it back and as popular as ever. 

This recipe features the delicate flavor of citrus with just a hint of orange and lemon zest. Likewise, a small amount of warm vanilla has been added to the soaking syrup to cut down on the rum’s boldness. The result is a rum baba that’s full of complex layers of flavor while still holding to the traditional French recipe. — Spruce Eats

Ingredients

For the Cake

  • 1 tablespoon dry yeast
  • 3 tablespoons warm water
  • 3 large eggs, beaten
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon orange zest
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 ounces (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened, more for greasing the molds
  • 3/4 cup golden raisins, or dried currants
  • 3 tablespoons dark rum

For the Syrup

  • 3 cups water
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 1/2 to 2/3 cup dark rum, to taste
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 2/3 cup apricot preserves, warmed
  • Vanilla Chantilly cream, for garnish

Method

  • Gather the ingredients.
  • Stir the yeast and the warm water together in a large bowl and allow the yeast to dissolve for 5 minutes. Lightly beat the eggs into the yeast and water.
  • In a small bowl, mix the flour, sugar, citrus zests, and salt together. Stir the mixture into the yeast and eggs.
  • Work the mixture in the bowl with a spatula until it holds together. On a very lightly floured surface, knead the dough with the softened butter until it becomes soft and elastic, about 5 minutes. The dough will be very sticky.
  • Transfer the dough to a large bowl, cover the dough, and allow it to rise until it doubles in size, about 1 hour.
  • Meanwhile, soak the raisins or currants in 3 tablespoons of rum.
  • Once the dough has doubled, fold the rum-soaked fruit into it.
  • Grease the baba molds and divide the dough evenly among them. Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat to 400 F. Cover the molds and allow the dough to rise until the dough has just started to rise above the molds’ edges, 30 to 45 minutes.
  • Uncover the babas and bake them until they turn golden brown and begin to pull away from the sides of the molds, 20 to 25 minutes
  • Immediately remove the babas from the molds and allow them to cool on a wire rack while you make the rum syrup.
  • FOR SYRUP
  • Gather the ingredients.
  • In a medium saucepan set over medium heat, bring the water and sugar to a boil until the syrup has thickened, 5 to 10 minutes.
  • Remove the syrup from the heat and stir the rum and vanilla extract into the mixture.
  • ASSEMBLE THE BABA
  • Place the babas into the hot rum syrup in batches, turning them several times, allowing them to soak up the syrup. They will swell and absorb most of the syrup. Continue to soak the babas until all the syrup is used.
  • Carefully transfer each baba onto a dessert plate and brush with a generous amount of warmed apricot preserves.
  • Garnish the rum babas with vanilla Chantilly cream to serve.

FROM: https://www.thespruceeats.com/classic-french-rum-baba-recipe-1375132

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Chef Recommended – Easy Vegetables

Dive Mom has been asking for more vegetables and fewer desserts in our Chef Recommended posts so being the cooperative person that I am I am posting two very easy vegetable treats.

Steamed Green Beans

This can’t be any easier. Bring home a bag of fresh green beans and trim the ends off (I prefer to do it on a bias with a pair of kitchen scissors). Set up your steamer and boil the water. When you are ready to put them on, add about half a cup of white wine or brandy to the water and then steam your beans. Don’t overcook them, you want them to be crispy. Now put them in a dish and add a little olive oil and salt to taste. This is a great time to try that herbed salt you have up in the cabinet. Cover and let the salt finish its work for about fifteen minutes and then serve.

Spaghetti Squash

Split the lengthwise and remove the seeds (save those for Dive Mom). Lightly apply some Olive oil and salt to the inside of the squash and lay face down on a roasting pan or cookie sheet. Cook for about thirty minutes until the fibers are easy to separate and look like angel hair pasta. Scrape out these fibers into a large serving dish and add butter and freshly grated parmesan cheese to taste. In our house, we like lots of butter and cheese so we tend to layer the butter and cheese to make sure everything gets a good coating. As a hint, use your microplane for the cheese and it will coat better with less cheese (or it will allow you to add more.) Cover for about fifteen minutes and then serve.

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A Christmas Favorite – Aunt Peggy's Rum Balls


The holidays are here and my entire family has begun talking about Aunt Peggy’s Rum Balls.  She used to make the every holiday season and we had to hide them from Jason or no one else would get any.  She is not around any longer but she left us with a lot of love and her recipes.  So, if you feel like adding a little of our holiday traditions to yours, here is the recipe.
Ingredients:

  • 4 Cups          rolled vanilla wafers (finely ground – she used a rolling pin to roll over them)
  • 1 1/2 cups    Finely chopped nuts
  • 1 1/2 tbs        cocoa
  • 2 tbs              white Karo corn syrup
  • 1/2 Cup         Rum (you can add less for a weaker rum ball)
  • 1 Cup            powdered sugar (for coating the balls)

Preparation:

  • Mix all ingredients thoroughly
  • form into small balls.
  • Roll in powdered sugar and wrap in waxed paper
  • You freeze these for up to 3 months (they won’t last that long in our house)

Variation:
My nephew, Austin O’Hara,  who is the Executive Chef for a college in North Dakota, sent me a note about these.   “I add the 1/2 Cup of rum and 1/4 cup of Disaronno (Amaretto) but I like mine strong.  Also, if you can find “snow” dextrose sugar instead of powdered sugar, it won’t dissolve over time.”
After Peggy was gone, Jason’s neighbor, John (an 85 year old retired chef) took up the mantle and started making them and giving them to Jason and the family as a gift.  Of course he had to prepare two batched or we would only get about six of them.  John is now in his 90’s and is not baking as much as he used to so I am going to have to make my own Rum Balls this year.
Having these Rum balls always means the holidays are here and they bring back a lot of fond memories.  Try them and let me know what you think!
 

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Eric's Receipe Challenge – Gougères

Ok, the month has flown by and I have not had time to make the Cannels from the last challenge.  Maybe before the open house I’ll have time for them.  Anyway, I found a new challenge for this week – Gougères or French cheese puffs.  These taste amazing and you can make them ahead of time and bake just what you need straight out of the freezer.  You should try them; they are delicious!  Here is the recipe.  Be sure to leave a comment and let me know how you like them.

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Fatu Hiva in The Marquesas (#7)

21 June – Fatu Hiva, Marquesas 10° 27S / 138°29W

Yesterday, we awoke to find the dinghy upside down with our small, 2HP motor in the water. The wind gusts coming down from the mountains are not to be believed. Five dinghies were flipped. Lots of flushing of outboards going on yesterday. Happily we noticed ours quickly and didn’t have any damage from saltwater. We didn’t go to shore in the morning because we simply would not have made it against the winds and chop. It was amazing. In the afternoon, the winds slacked enough that we could go to shore to pick up the bread we had ordered.
The “bakery” is a small wooden shack next to a small house. Flour and other ingredients are mixed in long wooden troughs and the lumpy, round loaves are baked in an ancient looking stone oven. Order a day in advance and pick it up the next afternoon. Unfortunately, the lady had forgotten to write down our order the day before so no bread for us.
We did have a nice time wandering around the small town and visiting with the locals. I carried a nice supply of Chiclets gum and had a great time surprising kids with a small gift. These types of treats are not generally available, word spread quickly through the town and I was constantly approached by shy, smiling children. In a few cases the parents also were delighted by the gum.
I had taken photos on our previous visit and gave a few prints to people we especially enjoyed. Several cruisers have digital cameras and color printers these days and you see prints proudly displayed on walls in houses.
Woodcarvings and tapa cloth prints are much higher priced than in years passed. Cruisers, and tourists in Tahiti, have bid up the prices over the years. We passed on the $150 carved tikis and the $180 manta rays since they looked like something you could buy at Pier One Imports. However we did get hooked on tapa art. Tapa is made by stripping tender young pieces of bark from trees – banyan and mulberry are popular. The pieces are laid on stone and pounded with a wooden mallet to form a thin, fabric looking rectangle. A black ink, made from a local plant, is used to draw very intricate art. Only a small number of ladies create this laborious art these days and now only on a couple of the Marquesan islands. We asked ladies on the street, chased rumors, approached several houses with our best Marquesan “kaoha” and finally found a lady with nice art and very reasonable prices. We bought a couple of her pieces and are delighted with our finds.

22 June – Tahuata, Marquesas 9° 55 S / 139°06 W

The winds died overnight and we were anxious to escape the windy anchorage so we sailed the few miles to Tahuata. It as tempting to anchor in Resolution Bay, named after Captain James Cook’s second ship, but our guide book showed a more protected bay a few miles further north. We joined a few other boats at Hana Moe Noa (Long Sleep).
Our two day stay was spent harvesting coconuts and limes from an abandoned grove, an evening fire on the pristine sand beach and diving on the boat bottom to scrape a few goose barnacles picked up crossing the Pacific.

Breadfruit

Pamelo also known as pamplemousse

Our new culinary treats are breadfruit and pamplemousse. Breadfruit is supposed to be treated like a potato. We made thin, salted fried chips from ours. It was interesting but I would hate to live off the stuff. Pamplemousse on the other hand is wonderful. This is a very large, sweet grapefruit growing all over the Marquesas. Delightful!

A few Recipes from the Enchanté Galley

Breadfruit Omelet

  • 1 c ground meat, ham, or sausage 1/2 c green onion, chopped
  • 2 c breadfruit, cooked and cubed 1 tomato, chopped
  • 2 eggs salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed

Saute the garlic, onions and tomato in oil. Add breadfruit and meat. Cook until meat and breadfruit are done.
Beat eggs well and add to the breadfruit mixture. Pour into pan. When one side is cooked, turn and cook the other side until done. serve hot.

Cream of Taro or Breadfruit Soup

  • 1T margarine 3/4 c cream
  • 1 T flour 1/2 t salt
  • 1/2 t onion, minced 1/16 t pepper
  • 3/4 c taro, cooked and mashed 11/2 c water
  • 1/2 c celery, chopped fine

Saute onion in butter. Blend in flour and add water while stirring constantly. Cook over medium heat until thick. Add taro and mix well. Cook for 5 minutes. Pour cream into the mixture and season. Serve hot. Can substitute breadfruit for taro.