Freshies

With The Dash now gone the mood on base has mellowed slightly, we now have 65 people who need regular meals and with 3 chefs to cope it is still a challenge given the fact that we are short of two ovens, one which was taken out and replaced for a much needed Bratt Pan and one state of the art combination oven that is only just one year old waiting for a part, which will be coming in on the shackleton on April 4th. 

Another piece of equipment that has died on us is the bread prover, which is a major problem with the amount of dough that we make, at the moment we are trying to find warm enough places in order to prove the bread sufficiently and in time. We have found the best place is the pump room where the boilers are kept and as long as we do the days bread the night before we can stay ahead of the game, just!

Hopefully i will have the combination oven and the prover in good working order for my winter, fingers crossed.

The new combi oven, now waiting for a much needed

 part. Luckily we still had the old oven that is now being used

The old solid top stove is removed to be replaced by

a Bratt Pan

The new Bratt Pan is unwrapped and ready to be installed

Lewis standing in front of the prover, surrounded by

bread

Rob making naan breads for an Indian 

themed Saturday night, proving it's not

just loaves that we need the prover for

Naan breads and puppodums ready for

the Indian night

Making pizzas another dough for the prover

Vicky pilots the new Bratt Pan and seals meat for a casserole,

this was her day on gash duty before her season finished.

We also had a few problems with fresh food deliveries from Punta through the season, with the Dash having problems and not being able to take the payload of fresh ingredients that had been requested. We actually lost a few hundred kg of fresh food and so at times we had to limit what we actually served, thankfully it all came good in the end and we managed to stock up a bit for the winter.

The Dash that came in from Punta, before it left brought in 1200 kg of freshies, so once it had been unloaded, carried to the kitchen and all put away a note was put on the notice board in the dining room for incoming winter volunteers to help with peeling, slicing, chopping and dicing. This was so that i could freeze and preserve any ingredients for my winter, in order to be able to bring out fresh flavours when there would be none available. It was nice having everyone involved in food prep, It will be them eating it after all and we had fun doing it.  

The Dash 7 being unloaded of freshies.

The only problem being the Elephant seals on the bridge

blocking the route to the kitchen.

It's always exciting to receive fresh ingredients 

Especially mangoes, I did not expect to get

The avocados are great from Chile

A few fresh smells in the fridge lifts the spirit

Rob organising the freezer in order to make space

for my freshly frozen produce

Boxes of freshies being stacked in the 

fridge, with eggs on the top shelf

All boxes of ingredients in the dining room waiting

for the gang to turn up and start prepping

Boards and knives out for everyone, time for a cup 

of tea while i wait to show them what i want

First volunteers arrive and get started

Now we are in the groove, peeling, chopping, bagging

While they chop i lay the prepared stuff onto 

trays in order to freeze separately before bagging

so it doesn't freeze in a clump

Here we have cherry tomatoes and Bananas. The Bananas 

will be ideal for banoffee pie, Banana bread and desserts

Boxes emptied and ready for recycling

All fresh herbs, garlic and ginger are frozen in 

tubs and boxes, they give a great fresh flavour

to any dish

Onions and leeks are peeled and cut into quarters

then frozen in black sacks

The Avocados are peeled, stoned and put into water

with lots of lemon juice to prevent them going brown

They are then drained and mashed

with more lemon juice and olive oil

They are then placed into zip lock bags

Laid flat and frozen before being put into boxes.

When needed a bag can be defrosted and any other

ingredients can be added to make guacamole or any

other dish such as baked avocado and camembert

The picked cauliflower with courgette, cucumber,

onion, and celery I used to make Piccalilli

Poached peaches in a stock syrup

Fresh Plums in a stock syrup

The Mangoes where peeled and the fleshy bits frozen

All other bits of the mango i chopped and 

made into a fresh mango chutney

Cooking the mango with herbs and spices 

A jar of my completed chutney

The fruit and veg I have prepped and preserved so far for the winter is; Mango chutney, dill pickled cucumber, piccalilli, pickled red cabbage and pickled beetroot. The fruit and veg so far prepped and frozen is; Cauliflower, onions, courgettes, beetroot, red, green and yellow peppers, pumpkin, butternut squash, aubergine, broccoli, garlic, chilli, ginger, fresh herbs, tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, apples, pineapples, mangoes, plums, peaches, bananas and avocados.

There are still a few more things i would like to do before Lewis and Rob leave on the Shackleton, for example I would like to dry some fruit and veg as this will give me more options when planning menus plus more ingredients to play with, helping to keep me excited while i cook as well as those eating. 

The Shack is due in for last call around 4th April and will be bringing 2000 kg of freshies, mainly root veg such as potatoes, onions, carrots, cabbage, swede etc. I have found it is not worth ordering salad stuff from the Falklands as it is normally not at it's best by the time it arrives at Rothera due to being sat on the ship for a while. The root veg is normally pretty good and this will keep us going for quite a while before we have to break into the frozen ingredients that we have prepared. 

All in all i feel we have a great start in the way of decent ingredients, especially with the foods that i managed to get from all the visiting ships, i can already sense a couple of good theme nights ahead.

With only 3 weeks or so until the last call, not only do the last 43 leave, but i get one more attempt at getting something special off the ship to be used for the mid winters meal. Then i will be able to relax a little and start to plan my meals around the food i have to work with.  

Time to get EXCITED! 

Last Dash North

I cannot believe the summer season is nearly over. Saturday 11th March saw all 3 twin otters leave Rothera heading for Calgary on their way home, each one with a pilot and co-pilot which meant 6 less for dinner that evening. They all went very early in the morning due to the weather coming in and preventing them from going anywhere later in the day.

I was sorry to see them go, they were my work colleagues and had been my companions and friends for nearly six months. There were a few of us standing outside Admirals to wave them off, only the Dash to go now and that was to be the following Monday.  

 Vicky takes off with Jen as co-pilot

 One last wave as she takes to the sky

 She tips her wing as if to wave

 On her way, next stop Punta Arenas

 Next to go is Al Howland, who takes off, goes round

 and comes back along the runway to do a flyby

 Al tips his wings right and left to wave at us

 Then off into the distance

 The skies look grey as the Otter climbs into the clouds

 With all 3 Otters now off base, the fire cover can

stand down

And so can the cover boat out in North bay

The Last Dash North

It's Monday morning and the only passenger due out with the Dash is Reid, our weather forecaster. With no planes on station and no more planes on Antarctica due to come through Rothera, there is no need for a forecaster so Reid is out on the last Dash heading back to the UK where he will return to the MET office. Reid heads out with two pilots and an air mechanic as they take the Dash back to Calgary in Canada. This means 4 less on base, leaving us with 65 until the ship arrives in April, where 43 will be leaving us.

 We go out to wave the Dash off

She starts her engines and waits while all checks are 

being done

 With the all clear given she starts to moves off

 She turns to face us and makes her way down to the

south end of the runway

They taxi into position and turn into the wind

waiting for ops to give the word

 Rescue boat in place at the north end of the runway

 The engines start to roar as they start their run

 We are all at the side of the runway to wave goodbye

 Some stand on top of the containers for a better view

Full throttle as she increases speed

 She starts to lift as everyone waves 

 I love the colour of the planes against the ice cliffs

As she cruises effortlessly into the sky

 We watch in silence as the last plane goes north for

 the last time this season

 It feels strange as she gets smaller on her way to Punta

Goodbye guys, see you next season

With the plane gone the boat can now return to base.

 So among the people that have now gone home, is the Station Leader, the Field operations manager and some very strong characters who have just finished their winter and will be missed. It will be interesting to see how the dynamics change without them being here. Roll on my winter!