Moroccan Mouthful

Nick enjoys his cooking, as you well know, and one afternoon on passage from Gib to the Canaries, he announced that he was going to prepare a surprise dish. How exciting!

To port somewhere in the haze we could just make out the mysterious coast of North Africa - Morocco to be precise. Assuming the dark continent had inspired him, I began to imagine dishes of kebabs and couscous, perhaps a hearty meat tajine (the pressure cooker is very adaptable) or a refreshing salad of tabouleh - oh the joys of flavours from around the globe. How inspirational this trip is!

I waited impatiently, listening to the clatter from the galley below and the regular slamming of the starboard locker door. 'Gosh, what a lot of ingredients there are in this secret, sumptuous dish, and how complicated it must be with all the pans he's using!' Lunch had been cancelled as 'the dish' would almost certainly make up for it, and when it finally arrived into the cockpit, paraded proudly by Kika's masterchef, I was Hank (Marvin - Starvin') 'Wow' I breathed, my words muffled in my salivating mouth - 'what is it?' 'Ter-der, jam sponge - delicious!'

Fresh from the pressure cooker