Time for a little baking

Here we go again... same ole, same ole.  It’s Friday the 17th and preparations for Christmas are well under way, well by the social committee anyway.  Maybe not in the kitchen just yet. What Christmas means to most commercial operations is either a day or two off due to high operating costs and increased wages, oh and of course the fact that many mums and dads (wait staff) will be producing semi ridged smiles and expending precious goodwill that may better be concentrated  on loved ones gathered around the Christmas tree. Christmas can also mean getting up really early, grabbing a few coffees in between slicing smoked salmon, poaching eggs or rolling out pastry ready for Danishes then feeling your way through a foggy and confusing day of good wishes and warm fuzzies from colleagues,  then high expectations and time critical demands from the consumers. 

I’ve been placed in a rather unique position of having to cater to 73 plus expeditioners (consumers) who, on the flip side, are also the loved ones to whom I’ll stand side by side with whilst gorging on the excesses of the Christmas spirit.  Either way I’ll win right?  So let’s just take it easy and do the menu planning next week.......Hey the social committee needs a draft of the menu so they can get it approved and printed off... and they sorta need it now.?
Well Tony and I merged grey matter and scribbled down in chefs’ hand ( very similar to Doctors handwriting) a simplistic menu of running salads, seafood buffet, old school roasts with accompaniments, dessert table (Christmas pudding included) and a cheese board.

I’ll be able to update the blog with the exact menu after Christmas.  Things can change for any reason down here.

With the first version of the menu now making it’s way around our local intranet I felt a sense of calm and even a little energy.  Baking!!
I love finding time to bake extra goodies for the crew. It gives me a feeling of pride and satisfaction knowing people will soon discover tasty sweet morsels arranged on various platters dotted around the dining room. When I was a little kid I remembered coming home from school and opening the lid on our two toned brown Tupperware cookie container... looking in all I could see was darkness (this thing could act like the TARDIS sometimes).  I knew the jar was empty yesterday, was it still today?  I’d throw my arm up in the air, pull the sleeve up past my elbow and dive down inside. Just as a shag comes popping up from the oceans depths .......so too would my hand. Yes!!  It’s loaded!!  What have I scored?  Fudge.  Hmmmm, I’d have removed that lid at least 3 more times before my sister got home.  Then I was the self-appointed guardian of the jar.  I loved my mother’s baking ,who doesn’t?

Apricot Slice

Well there was nothing holding me back. Armed with a 2006 edition of the Edmonds recipe book, (mini cooks bible... in N.Z anyway), memories of my childhood delicacies and a fully equipped kitchen I set about creating a pantry full of icing and coconut topped treats.

Ginger Crunch

A little baking on Saturday and a lot on Sunday left most of my stock containers in need of a topping up.  Ginger crunch, hedgehog (fudge), jam slice, lemon and apricot slice, coconut brownie, caramel slice ,  Anzac biscuits and toffee apples.  I thought this would last me a week (my mother probably thought the same back then).  As it turned out we had a visit from the Indians on Monday, including their construction workers, and a Chinese delegation made an appearance on Tuesday.  By Wednesday my goodies were all gone.
It still felt nice making them.

Here we go again... same ole, same ole.  It’s Friday the 17th and preparations for Christmas are well under way, well by the social committee anyway.  Maybe not in the kitchen just yet. What Christmas means to most commercial operations is either a day or two off due to high operating costs and increased wages, oh and of course the fact that many mums and dads (wait staff) will be producing semi ridged smiles and expending precious goodwill that may better be concentrated  on loved ones gathered around the Christmas tree. Christmas can also mean getting up really early, grabbing a few coffees in between slicing smoked salmon, poaching eggs or rolling out pastry ready for Danishes then feeling your way through a foggy and confusing day of good wishes and warm fuzzies from colleagues,  then high expectations and time critical demands from the consumers.

I’ve been placed in a rather unique position of having to cater to 73 plus expeditioners (consumers) who, on the flip side, are also the loved ones to whom I’ll stand side by side with whilst gorging on the excesses of the Christmas spirit.  Either way I’ll win right?  So let’s just take it easy and do the menu planning next week.......

Hey the social committee needs a draft of the menu so they can get it approved and printed off... and they sorta need it now.?
Well Tony and I merged grey matter and scribbled down in chefs’ hand ( very similar to Doctors handwriting) a simplistic menu of running salads, seafood buffet, old school roasts with accompaniments, dessert table (Christmas pudding included) and a cheese board.

I’ll be able to update the blog with the exact menu after Christmas.  Things can change for any reason down here.

With the first version of the menu now making it’s way around our local intranet I felt a sense of calm and even a little energy.  Baking!!
I love finding time to bake extra goodies for the crew. It gives me a feeling of pride and satisfaction knowing people will soon discover tasty sweet morsels arranged on various platters dotted around the dining room. When I was a little kid I remembered coming home from school and opening the lid on our two toned brown Tupperware cookie container... looking in all I could see was darkness (this thing could act like the TARDIS sometimes).  I knew the jar was empty yesterday, was it still today?  I’d throw my arm up in the air, pull the  sleeve up past my elbow and dive down inside. Just as a shag comes popping up from the oceans depths .......so too would my hand. Yes!!  It’s loaded!!  What have I scored?  Fudge.  Hmmmm, I’d have removed that lid at least 3 more times before my sister got home.  Then I was the self-appointed guardian of the jar.  I loved my mother’s baking ,who doesn’t?

Well there was nothing holding me back. Armed with a 2006 edition of the Edmonds recipe book, (mini cooks bible... in N.Z anyway), memories of my childhood delicacies and a fully equipped kitchen I set about creating a pantry full of icing and coconut topped treats.

A little baking on Saturday and a lot on Sunday left most of my stock containers in need of a topping up.  Ginger crunch, hedgehog (fudge), jam slice, lemon and apricot slice, coconut brownie, caramel slice ,  Anzac biscuits and toffee apples.  I thought this would last me a week (my mother probably thought the same back then).  As it turned out we had a visit from the Indians on Monday, including their construction workers, and a Chinese delegation made an appearance on Tuesday.  By Wednesday my goodies were all gone.

It still felt nice making them.

Photos to follow.

Chocolate Hazelnut Brownies....YUM!

Hazelnut chocolate brownies

(Yield 2 small roasting trays or one normal gastro tray.)

500g melted butter cooled

800g Caster sugar

8 eggs

4 tsp vanilla

180 g flour

4 tsp baking  powder

1 cup cocoa powder

600g choc bits

200g roasted chopped nuts

Whisk butter and sugar.  

Gradually add the eggs and vanilla. 

Fold in the flour and baking powder.

Fold in the chocolate chips, pour into lined tray and bake until done

Fan forced 160 degrees for around 35 minutes.

The skewer should come out cleanish when done maybe with just a little cooked batter left on to ensure they are gorgeous and moist.

Adventures abound and not without being poetic

Friday the tenth day of December............. 

I started work  in the kitchen at around 5:30am. Getting out of bed is becoming increasingly more difficult as my body becomes ever more in tune with the surroundings. I’m sleeping very well these days.......and its always day now. Pulling my curtains deprives about 99.9% of the light from making its way into my little kingdom, and makes for a peaceful rest. I’m still drinking about a litre of water a night...............I may just jimmy up a humidifier to be placed in front of my wall vent........................you know, a chux cloth, container of water and some thumb tacks. 

Anyway, making 10 loaves of wholemeal bread and 24 white rolls kick started my day also with the addition of a double strength long black made fresh from a well maintained ranchillo coffee machine. Breakfast for the station consists of large bowls of fresh tinned fruit, freshly made yogurt, toasted muesli, 11 different cereals , porridge, dried fruits, toast with all the conserves you can think of, plus at least another 10 you can’t.  Basically you can call this a continental breakfast ..............and for chefs .......we live for it. What it means is about ½ an hour of setting up and 10 minutes of putting away, as opposed to a full cooked breakfast which will basically be cooked during the entire length of the scheduled breakfast eating times and slow down the prep  for lunch etc.

So on this Friday I prepared a lunch of beef stroganoff, rice, penne pasta with sundried tomatoes, tuna bake, chicken satay, spinach and vegetable soup, full lunch salad buffet and various condiments..............oh, then I decided to make one of the most delicious hazelnut chocolate brownies in the world for my much loved extended family............... and as it turned out the brownies ended up topping off another unique and surreal day down here in the Antarctic.

As Australia has 5 main stations during summer, so does it also have five main chefs. From time to time we chat with each other or email requests etc.  With science and personnel flights between stations occurring at various times throughout the summer period opportunities are seized and equipment and or supplies’ are transferred where necessary. I just happened to be able to fulfil another request from the Mawson Chef Maria for supplies of differing meats and cuts and also rolled oats, juice and a few other odds ands ends. In return I asked for some candles (to make special occasions more so), spray oil (as our supply has run out and the AAD are fazing it out) and a sieve to replace the usual semi rusty and hole-ridden ones found in most kitchens around the world.  As DSL I was asked to make a return flight to Mawson and make a transfer of special cargo. As the chef I was stoked to be able accompany Maria's supplies and hand deliver it to her................and of course put a face to the emails and phone calls.

So at around 1230 I grabbed a quick three minute shower (we are on water restrictions at the moment anyway), packed a survival  bag (needed on all flights around the Antarctic), donned my Antarctic field gear and grabbed the camera and all the bits and bobs that go with it.  I met up with one of the fly boys in front of the LQ at around 1300, jumped into a golf buggy and proceeded to make our way over the ice to the skiway and the awaiting plane. As it turned out I managed to experience a little rain on my face as we neared the Casa. First of all rain down here in the Antarctic is virtually unheard of ................maybe a few times a year if you're lucky, and secondly Casa is the type of plane leased by the AAD for summers. The one I’m about to fly on  is a C212 call sign Snowbird 2, operated by skytraders Pty Ltd.

I was given a  safety briefing and a small rundown of what to expect during take off......for instance the cockpit stall warning alarm will come on during the take off due to altitude being needed before speed.  Cool.... so now I sign a piece of paper of understanding or basically allowing the pilots to bypass some of the protocols enforced in Australia.  Hey we are all down here to do the best job we can with the best equipment and brains around. The Antarctic poses a few challenges for most....you can just imagine what these flyboys come up against.

Well I was very comfortable with the level of professionalism shown by the crew and had no problems giving my john hancock.

The engines roared and noise cancelling headsets were donned (expensive Bose ones), pre-flight checks carried out by the pilots, location, destination and route were radioed to Davis comms.........then woosh.....we were off skidding over ice for about what seemed only 20-30 metres before the alarms sounded as we became airborne. The forward thrust kicked in and we began to ascend into a cloud filled sky. The alarms stopped and all that could be heard was the distant roar of the engines outside and the humming vibrations of the interior. Soon enough we were at six thousand feet and  levelling off . The noises eased and communications were established by all on board.... and when I say communication I mean school boy banter.... and boy are those guys witty.

So there I was cruising at 6 thousand feet, listening to wise cracks between the pilots and staring out of the window in absolute awe of the world below.... surreal again. The cloud cleared about half an hour into the journey revealing some stunning landscapes of crushed ice and weathered rock. Soon enough we were over the ocean and looking down at various stages of ice development and deterioration. As far as the eye could see were blocks of ice slowly bumping one another and all the time shaping themselves into various  geometrics so as to give the impression of a jigsaw being recently tipped out onto a dark blue table. Dotted amongst these seemingly repetitious ice fields were ice bergs. Gigantic when close these great floating chunks of ancient ice seemed only to impress me with there sharp and out of place shadows, and by the deep aqua shades of blue given out by the caves and crevices adorning them and not by their relative size. 

Unlike the helicopter ride last week to India and China, I was now seeing the Antarctic from a very special position, high above all else that resides down here and in the comfort of a heated plane cabin. I couldn’t help but just stare out of the window in amazement.... "If you could see what I see".  A still or video camera  would have a hard time capturing the images that were crawling beneath the plane and the complexity of emotions that come from seeing first hand these sights.  Unbelievable!!!

I’m still stoked as I’m writing this blog entry about the opportunity that was given to me and the memories I now have burned permanently into my brain..............Once in a lifetime!!!

Anyway as part of the flight we made a detour to capture images and do a rough head count of any penguins living on or near to two monoliths. The first monolith Murray (had to be an Aussie who came up with that one) was a huge piece of rock forced out and up thousands of years ago.  It definitely gave the appearance of something to be respected.............I’m not sure what it was......size, shape, location? I’m sure though that had there been any tribal people living in this environment...............Murray would have been declared a sacred place. We flew slowly around cameras clicking away.......the pilots taking advantage of their retractable windows and poking their lenses right out into the frigid air. Bird count around 50ish Adelie penguins.  Next we flew on to Scullin Monolith.............whose presence seemed to mirror Murray's both in size and in spiritual reverence.  The plane gracefully tacked its way around and over the wind polished and ice carved chunk of rock.  This was another surreal moment, for want of a better word.  Bird count, Adelies 50-100, Snow Petrels hundreds.

From here we flew on to Mawson arriving around just before 3pm, making the flight time just over 2 and a half hours.

There was a small greeting party gathered beside two very shiny looking Haggs at the end of the make shift ski way.  Only 5-600 meters from the station we exchanged goods including the food provisions which Maria got to thank me for in person. I said a quick g’day to the crew which I knew half of already, took a couple of happy snaps, soaked up some of the unfiltered sun and then proceeded to strap myself into my allocated seat in preparation for our departure.  In total 10 minutes were spent on the ground.  Boy I hope another opportunity presents itself for me to come back to Mawson cause the asthetics of the 360 degrees surrounding the station offer another kind of wonder.  Having the station juxtaposed against a picture perfect mountain rage flowing seamlessly into the melted marshmallow-looking glacier would not easily grow old in my book.

The ice seemed even different again as we flew back, the sun coming from another direction gave colours and shapes not seen on the flight in.  I grew a little tired  as the heater beside me kicked in.......... then all of a sudden a choking sound was heard in the cabin.  It was me.........I had woken myself up by snoring! Luckily only about 25 minutes had passed.  As it turned out the guys up the front were getting ready for a little snack (care package) Maria had made us. So I gratefully accepted a strong brew of java’s finest, a ham and cheese sandwich .........................and a brownie.

The next thing you know the guys flying this tin can were singing the praises of Maria's chocolate delight. Now don’t get me wrong it was very nice, and I very much enjoyed every mouthful but hey could I let it go?  Nup.  The next thing you know I was big upping my very own creation waiting back at Davis and guaranteeing it's superiority against any other. This is what we chefs do sometimes. LOL. The boys promised to compare and offer a non biased judgement (yeah right, they were about to try my creation in my kitchen and offer a non biased opinion?)...... I had just guaranteed myself the icing on what has been another uniquely special day. As it turned out just 10 minutes or so after this conversation we spotted a whale next to the ice on the left hand side of the plane.  I was sitting on the left so quickly grabbed my camera and snapped a few shots.  From eight thousand feet we could just make out the shape and markings of an orca. Now that was the icing on the cake............

Chocolate Hazelnut Brownie recipe to follow.

Recipes galore

I admit I have slipped since I made the promise to try a new recipe every week so today, in a bid to make up for my lack of effort, I tried two.  After installing Mum at the market in what can only be described as really crappy weather, I came home and made a large pot of Minestrone using fresh ingredients from my garden.  I returned to the market in the afternoon, in the rain, to pack everything up and we came home, opened a bottle of bubbly and got to work decorating the Christmas tree.  I started to feel a little sad that I wasn't doing it with Justin this year but pushed that right back on down and kept going until we had a beautiful tree, adorned with all the decorations that we have collected on our travels including the tapa angel on the top of the tree from Tonga, the moose from Helsinki, matryoshka dolls from Russia and a tiki from New Zealand.  

Our neighbour's great niece, Julie who is visiting from the Netherlands, came over to use the internet and book some flights from Brisbane to Sydney on Xmas Day and stayed for a while sharing in our bubbly and nibbles while I made a batch of fresh pesto from the basil which is growing with great vigor.  It is the second time that I have made pesto and neither time have I ended up with that bright, rich green of recipe book photos... more of a muddy colour but I am sure that over-roasting the pinenuts wouldn't have helped!

My Minestrone (serves 6)

2 tsps olive oil

1 medium brown or red onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed
8 slices bacon, cooked 

(the actual recipe said proscuitto)

1 celery stalk, trimmed and finely chopped

1 medim carrot, finely chopped

1 medium courgette, finely chopped

2 x 400g tins crushed tomatoes

1.5 litres chicken stock

1 medium potato, chopped finely

1 cup small pasta (shells or macaroni)

1 cup finely chopped cabbage

1 tin cannellini beans - drained and rinsed

1 cup mixed leafy greens (I used bok choy and silverbeet from my garden)

1 tablespoon finely shredded basil

1/2 grated parmesan

Heat oil in large saucepan.  Cook onion and garlic, stirring until onion softens.

Add bacon, celery, carrot and courgette.  Cook, stirring, 5mins.  Stir in tomatoes and stock.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, simmer uncovered, 30mins.

Stir in potato and simmer uncovered, 15mins.

Add pasta, simmer uncovered about 10mins or until pasta is tender.

Just before serving stir in cabbage, beans, greens and basil.  

Serve in bowls with cracked black pepper, a teaspoonful of pesto, a sprinke of grated parmesan and a side of toasted Turkish bread.

The second new recipe was communicated via facebook this week and is extremely dangerous... I mean, chocolate cake in approximately 5 mins!  Called Chocolate Mug Cake... that's right, mug not mud, the ingredients are all put in to a coffee mug, mixed in there and then put in to the microwave.  And it is not too shabby!  We had it with vanilla icecream but I think that cream would have been the winner.

So hey, the weather may be really crappy and Noosa may be super sleepy but we are eating really well here!!

Meanwhile back in sleepy Noosa

The rain has been around for about two weeks now, which coincided great with me not feeling so crash hot,  but after two days of great weather, I got stuck in to some much needed work around home.  The floors are clean, the lawns are mowed, I have done some minor rearranging - the ugly arm chair from the lounge is now safely installed in the garage next door (and I took theirs to the dump) and the house in general is looking great. 

There have been a few spits of rain in the air today but I decided that that was not going to put a dampener on my Pimms afternoon.   So I got stuck in and made mini cheese and chutney scones, roast beef and horseradish sandwiches and cucumber sandwiches ready for the ladies to arrive at 3pm. 

We were soooooo lucky with the weather - it held off until everyone left and I shot around the block with Mr Bear only for it to really start as we walked back down the driveway! You couldn't ask for better than that.

The Pimms looked great and went down a treat. 
(I stuck with a weakish mix so the drivers could enjoy a couple.) 

My recipe consisted of:

200ml Pimms No.1

1.25 litre bottle lemonade - chilled

1 sliced orange

1/2 sliced cucumber

mint sprigs picked fresh from my garden

Put all on top of a heap of ice in a large jug and serve.  

We got 3 large jugfuls from the one bottle of Pimms and I still have a little left to enjoy on a quiet afternoon on my own.

Thanks Jenny, Janette, Deb, Tess, Dor, Julie, Julie and of course, my Mum for making time to sit around on a lovely afternoon when everyone is crazy in the lead up til Christmas.

A day of many nations

"Friday the 3^rd of December turned out to be one of the biggest days so far for me. I was asked to accompany a small delegation (as DSL) from Davis to visit the Indian station being built down the road, then fly on to the Chinese station for a catch up. Well I did a stint in the kitchen 5:30-11:30am took a brief shower, grabbed my camera and a few warm clothes and headed off to the heli hut. Having never been in a helicopter before I was quite excited.  I was also excited by the prospect of meeting other people who call Antarctica their home. The flight from Davis took around 40mins. I was still very tired from the field training the day before and managed to squeeze out around 1000 yawns before touching down on a Russian supply ship......... so there you have it, just because you yawn doesn’t mean your neurons aren’t running around as fast as they can. 

Glacier ice formations

The chopper flight was awe inspiring, flying over all sorts of rock and ice formations and colours not easily replicated on a paint palate. I finally saw the enormity of my surroundings..................absolutely astounding.  Large ice fields as far as the eye can see were dwarfed only by the magnificent Amery Ice shelf in the distance as we made our way closer to the Indians.

Landing on the Russian Ship

We landed on the back of the Ivan Papanin supply ship, disembarked the chopper, met up with the Indian station leader and made our way to the front of the ship and into a small meeting room. Once in the meeting room we were asked to sit around some tables facing outwards from the walls. There were chairs placed around the rest of the room facing us. It defiantly felt and looked like a political briefing or maybe the meeting of two prize fighters before a match, then the big cameras came out and I was almost ready to say “no comment”....................LOL.

We chatted amongst ourselves for about half an hour....................as the awkward pauses presented themselves more frequently it was decided to get off the ship and have a look around the Indian station (construction site). The station is set to be operational by the end of next summer. Wow, there is a lot of work to do. The Engineer of the project explained to us his vision and time lines for the base. It all seemed very impressive and looking at the sketch of the finished product, very pleasing on the eye (unlike a lot of buildings around the Antarctic).

From on the ice next to the ship we said our goodbyes and took off in the helis headed for Zhongshan only ten minutes away.

As we landed a couple of the Chinese expeditioners came to greet us and show us to their meeting room. The station leader came in and introduced himself to all of us .................we then sat down at a table ready to go through the motions all over again. A mass of people then entered the dining room across the hall from us. It was a Russian delegation from Prospect station (which is only one kilometre away from the Chinese). 

New Chinese Living Quarters

Well from then on the mood was lifted and everybody became a little more social. A couple of the Chinese team gave us a tour of their station. There are a lot of new buildings being finished to modern standards......their new LQ (living quarters) is fantastic and very large .....I believe it is able to accommodate up to 150 people. It has a bank of offices up stairs, an extremely large kitchen with dining, wash up and storage all separate and a basket ball court just metres from all this. The kitchen the chef is using at the moment is about the size of my bedroom here...................not very big at all ...............poor bastard. When you watch the movies set in small villages or tight little back ally dwellings in china.............the camera always seems to pan around and into a tight little kitchen with one or maybe two people surrounded by woks, oil, food and 20 years of grime..............well this is the movie set for all those shots.

Chef, Justin and Chinese DSL

Anyway after our tour of the station which took in the power house, Met building, the new atmospheric building and various other facilities we went back into the dining room ready for a late lunch.........early dinner (5:30pm). The food was laid out in chafing dishes inside the kitchen pass, and a table was filled with drinks in nice neat rows, Chinese red and white wine, Chinese rice wine, rice liquor (which smells and tastes like bile), sprite, coke, orange juice and of course, vodka. Speeches were made, gifts were handed out and food was consumed. We ate fresh omelette spring rolls, battered prawns with chilli sauce, a toasted sesame salad of rice noodles and bean shoots (the bean shoots are grown from seed in various jars around the kitchen and then cut when needed, these looked like pea shoots), roast duck, grilled corn and rice, pork dumpling and finally a non descript sweet savoury sort of mini pasty thingy. All very nice, I was starving so I went up for thirds...............just as well cause when I was on my way back to the table a couple of Russians pulled me to the side and asked me if I wanted a vodka...........................well?  Hey you can’t say no for more than just diplomatic reasons, and so down the hatch it went. Two more glasses later I was feeling very good about my situation. The Russians drink orange juice slowly after they down a vodka in one hit. It’s not the vodka orange I’m used to but when in Rome.   

Saying Goodbye

By then end of our visit I had managed to down more vodka in two hours than I had in two years, also I had managed to drink a fermented rice paddy, half a bottle of rough red and two cups of coke (I needed something for the toasts and it’s all I could see), made friends with the DSL, Chef and a Chinese guy who was having his birthday on this very special day, danced in  a circle with arms on shoulders shouting oye, oye, oye in a Cossack kind of chant while some guy screamed into the karaoke machine, and taken away a lot of very surreal memories.

By the time we flew out I was ready for bed. 

From the chopper

Home Sweet Home

The flight home was even better than the flight there.  I didn’t yawn and managed to get in a couple of happy snaps. Hope you enjoy them."

Field training

"As I write this it’s currently -2 deg and snowing with a 10-15 knot wind.

So after a very busy week again I was looking forward to 2 days off..................well........... to be able to venture out into the field everybody must be field trained. This is done by a Field Training Officer (maybe one of the best jobs in the world.......other than mine).  So I needed to be trained. There goes the down time I needed to sort the ever growing pile of clothes and dust in my room.

 First of all a small group of us was kitted out with the essentials like rucksack, bivvy bag, foam mat, sleeping bag, liner, pee bottle, chocolate, compass, map set, signal mirror, micro spikes, ice axe, and trow bag.  At Kingston we were issued with clothing and to do this training we needed to bring our thermals, fleece, windproof jacket, beanie, neck gaiter, walking boots, sun hat, sunglasses, and lots of sunblock................in addition to this I also packed a camera, toothbrush (that never got used,) a small measure of Jack Daniels, tinned pies for the troops and some pancakes for brekkie along with some maple syrup.

German Basler

The day we left a plane landed carrying some German scientists doing studies around the Antarctic. The plane is a Polar 5 AWI Basler.... it’s an old turbo-charged DC3......I took a quick snap before we left.

Justin on quad taking photos

Our objectives were to ride out on quad bikes to Platcha Hut and spend a night there then proceed with field training for the rest of the day.  All rugged up we took off from Davis riding over the sea ice on our quads.  The scenery was spectacular, icebergs frozen, for a time trapped in metre thick ice just waiting to continue their journeys when the thaw comes.  Fat slug-like seals could be seen every now and then sunning themselves on frozen snow under a cloudy sky, the fat’s there for a reason. We didn’t see any penguins on the first day but wow some of the ice and rock formations  were just as cool.  We arrived at our destination within two hours, went inside the hut and made ourselves a brew, warmed up a little then went back outside to unload the quads.  Next we got busy with a little training,  field rations, aka dehydes. Using our portable gas stove we proceeded to follow the instructions on things like Beef and black bean, Grilled beef stew, Himalayan chicken, Lamb and pasta etc....

The wind was blowing a bit so it took some time for the snow to melt in order to add boiling water to our culinary delights. The stew I had was just fine and I could quite happily survive on it for a time. For most chefs, often in our down time food is only fuel in order to achieve the simple domestics in life.  I must say though the cheese cake was a bit average....................I tried my best to jazz it up with half a packed of crushed shortbreads on top. The crew seemed to like this.

A few wines with dinner and some pre-sleep fun of sliding down the icy snow was undertaken by all.

An icy coffin

We dug ourselves into the snow........I dug a coffin shape about a foot deep. There we slept/stayed overnight by ourselves inside our bivvys.  I must say I was warm enough inside my sleeping bag, but all the condensation from my breath formed ice inside over everything.  As the wind picked up early morning it began to snow inside my bivvy. The tug by the wind on the canvas outer made all the iced up condensation above me fall like heavy snow. This lasted for about only 4-5 hours...............well until I got up.

The sun did set for about an hour but the sky never really darkens. Sleeping out like this is very interesting......well trying to block it out ended up being so.  First I tried my neck gaiter, then a beanie, then a t-shirt (that became stiff with ice about midnight.....) finally I just got so tired I couldn’t give a rats about the light.

In the morning I heated up the pancakes for everybody and passed around the maple syrup. I think everybody was expecting to eat 2 minute noodles or some thing............so they were all very happy.

For the rest of the day we did various training involving both field equipment and quads.

Its fair to say I was very sore and tired when we finally got back to Davis at 7pm that night...........Yay, work in the morning."

Watch this space.  An update coming about Justin's helicopter day out to an Indian vessel and then on the the Chinese Antarctic base.

A short but sweet update

Yesterday was the first day since Justin arrived on base that we didn't get to talk on the phone.  He was just too busy.  Not just with the everyday cooking but plans are afoot for a big Christmas day that the boys need to start working on now.  And for his two days off Justin is doing field training which means heading out on Quad bikes and sleeping in bivvy shelters under the stars and of course, eating dehydrated food, yum - and probably not a lot of sleep since there is only about two hours of darkness per night.  

Justin is also getting the opportunity to be flown by helicopter over to the Chinese base on Friday.  I don't know a lot of the details but a small group have been invited.  The base is Zhong Shan, established in 1989.


Details of Justin's visit  to the base will be published as they come to hand.

In the meantime, here is a photo of Justin and the 2009/10 chef, Kim, discussing the handover in the dining room on base. Kim was on the departing vessel last Saturday, returning to Australia.

Saturday night in Antarctica

"Saturday night went well...........

Tony (Summering/sous chef and all round nice guy) and I spent the whole day getting ready for dinner with little interruptions such as breakfast, smoko and lunch getting in the way.

The dining room was converted into a restaurant style eatery. Blackout boards where put up to stop the sun coming through. White tablecloths, wine glasses, frilled napkins, candles, small cheese boards, mini bread rolls, butter and a whole lot of thought where placed upon the tables.

The kitchen was in full swing right up to and including the first half hour of dinner. Fillet of beef with peppered prawns, chicken stuffed with bacon and camembert , pumpkin risotto with pine nuts, parmesan and truffle oil, steamed asparagus with hollandaise, duchess potatoes and carrots filled the bain marie. Next to the hot food came mixed berry and chocolate mousse served in old school sundae glasses, mixed fruit sponge balls dipped in white chocolate encrusted with coconut and one of the best lemon meringue pies tasted on this earth.

Before the expeditioners tasted all this they had predinner drinks with nibbles (peanuts in the shell, corn chips etc....), so by the time dinner was in full swing ..............so were most peoples equilibriums. A good night was had by all............and well into the next morning.

I started today (Sunday) by making 100 english muffins ready for tomorrows smoko. Then I went on to make ham and cheese quiche, Spanish omelette, chicken filo pie, Moroccan bbq leg of lamb, beef stew, roast potatoes, fruit and herb cous cous, cauliflower, potato and leek soup (without the leek......none down here.............though it still tasted great) chocolate self saucing pudding and jelly. I also did confit of duck ready for Monday. 

It was the first time I have made English muffins..... I was very stoked with the results. I’ll post a recipe as soon as I tweek it to what I’m gonna use for the rest of the year.

Its about 12 percent humidity inside the station....very dry............................great for meringue, bad for skin. I have done a couple of washes now and hung the clothes up in my room (donga), this has halved the amount of water I’m drinking at night. Now its only about 750mls."

Justin's first Antarctic outing

Another big day

"The weather fined up and made the view from the dining room very pleasant indeed.

Part of my duties as chef on station is to maintain stock levels of essentials in the communal area such as breakfast cereals, preserves, coffee, biscuits, milk powder, spreads etc....
In order to get these items, trips around the station to different containers are made once or twice a day. When the sky is blue and not a breeze blows these little outings can be a much needed energy boost.........trudging through ice or freshly laid snow, staring at ice bergs in the distance........all this for a box of apples...........yeah!!

Another essential to the expeditioners’ experience is having fresh bread baked for them every day.  Different loaves and rolls are baked every day to varying recipes.  This one is for a basic bread. If you want nuts, seeds or grains just add them. Also this recipe is for 12 loaves..........so if you only want one.....divide by 12."

Antarctic Bread

65g yeast
250g sugar
3 litres blood temp water  ..................combine all three and put aside to ferment.

Then add
5kg flour
200g gluten
30g salt
450g oil

Place all ingredients in a mixing machine with a dough paddle...........put on a slowish speed for 10 minutes.
Clingfilm the bowl and allow dough to double in size.
Knock bag and shape into:
Rolls 120g
Burger buns 150g
Loaves 750g

Bake rolls for 15 mins at around 185 deg c.
Loaves for 30 mins at the same temperature.

Note: Gluten makes the bread stronger.........more elastic.........this recipe can be made without it.