Favorite on the boat meals (simple and ideally fresh out of the water)

the force

the force

Crew Member
Just dreaming about warmer weather here and planning a 5 day boat camping trip. I'll have my jetboil for the quick and easy meals but looking for some additional fav meal ideas to cook on the boat? I'm thinking low prep and can be cooked in a cast iron on a single burner butane stove. Obviously fresh salmon and/or rockfish with butter, kosher and pepper...hopefully some prawns. At this time I am not planning to bring a bbq due to space constraints.

I'm game for a bit of adventure as well, love to fully experience wild food collected from the location (i.e. various invertebrates, sea asparagus?)

Perhaps I'll try to update this top post to keep a consolidated list of ideas.

No cook
- Ceviche
- Oysters

Jet Boil Sides:
- instant mashed potatoes (optional enhancers: cheddar, bacon, sausage crumbles, nutritional yeast)
- couscous (optional enhancers: dehydrated vegetables, cheese powder)
- instant noodles / cup of soup (enhancers: dehdrated veggies, chirozo sausage crumbles, pre-cooked chicken)
- beef broth (for beef dips)

Cast Iron Mains
- baha fish toco's (seasoned fish or prawns, pre-prepared chipotle lime slaw)
- salmon collars (salt, pepper, butter)
- franks breaded fish (fish cubes dredged in franks hot sauce and then flour/cornmeal, fried in butter)
- clams (sautee with white wine, garlic, herbs)
- Chili (pre-made and frozen)
- soup (pre-made and frozen)
- potato & fish stew (add a can of ready to eat clam chowder)
- hasbrowns (costco dehydrated ones)
 
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Making Ceviche is one one of my all-time favorites while on a trip. Bring a bunch of limes, some cilantro and spices and you're set. Prawns, ling, rockfish, all good.

For dried food, I like those hashbrowns from Costco. Add hot water and then fry in a pan. I usally have a few stashed on the boat for emergencies.
 
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Rain City said:
Making Ceviche is one one of my all-time favorites while on a trip. Bring a bunch of limes, some cilantro and spices and you're set. Prawns, ling, rockfish, all good.

For dried food, I like those hashbrowns from Costco. Add hot water and then fry in a pan. I usally have a few stashed on the boat for emergencies.
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Yes, exactly what I was looking for. Agree with you on the hashbrowns.

I have actually never made ceviche but will. I might even go pull a piece of spring out of the freezer now and give it a shot…maybe not as good as fresh but assume frozen will work? I searched up a couple recipes on the forum here and will start with this one from Pippen let me know if you have any fav tricks.
 

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@the force Yes ceviche is always a go to for me and that recipe is so quick and easy to do with great results. When fishing out of Kyuquot or Tofino it is a daily ritual for happy hour.

I agree with others that you can't beat clams, as noted by Brando you do have to let them soak and do their thing to clean out the sand. Just use white wine (NOT chardonnay :p), some garlic, butter, herbs of your choice and you have a great meal in no time. Don't forget some good bread with it too to soak up the leftover broth. ;)
 
Back in the seine boat days, we kept potatoes, eggs, tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, onions, fruit, etc tucked away unrefrigerated. Dehydrated food is for hikers and kayakers.
A meal I often make on one burner when camping is boiled cubed potatoes (set aside), butter fried cubes of fish of the day, one large can of ready to eat clam chowder, re add potatoes to bind it into a wet stew. You could add other veg.
 
Cookie's Cutter said:
I like to make a big pot of chilli or soup before I go and the freeze it in a big container or an ice cream bucket. And then when you leave throw it in the cooler and it will act like a block of ice for 2 or 3 days before you heat it up and eat it.
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Yes, we do this with anything we can freeze including drinking water and meat. Weekends are easy, extend that to a week or two and you're really getting creative.
 
Pippen said:
@the force Yes ceviche is always a go to for me and that recipe is so quick and easy to do with great results. When fishing out of Kyuquot or Tofino it is a daily ritual for happy hour.

I agree with others that you can't beat clams, as noted by Brando you do have to let them soak and do their thing to clean out the sand. Just use white wine (NOT chardonnay :p), some garlic, butter, herbs of your choice and you have a great meal in no time. Don't forget some good bread with it too to soak up the leftover broth. ;)
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Thanks Pippen!

@Brando and others, I’ll be in Winter Harbour in late June, from my reading (Charlie white book), oysters are not very good during that time of year. Is it worth the effort or stick with clams which apparently don’t degrade as much during the summer spawning season?
 
tubber said:
Back in the seine boat days, we kept potatoes, eggs, tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, onions, fruit, etc tucked away unrefrigerated. Dehydrated food is for hikers and kayakers.
A meal I often make on one burner when camping is boiled cubed potatoes (set aside), butter fried cubes of fish of the day, one large can of ready to eat clam chowder, re add potatoes to bind it into a wet stew. You could add other veg.
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I like the easy prep and small storage of dehydrated food, rather not be chopping veggies when I could be fishing!

That said, I will give the potatoes stew a go. We’ve something done similar while ice fishing with instant potatoes, fish, veggies and soup stock, however the can of clam chowder will take this to the next level!
 
To the Ceviche lovers. Do you have any hesitation about using fresh fish due to worms/parasites? I love me some ceviche but have always frozen my fish first to kill anything that might be in there.

The thought of fresh out of the water ceviche is sooooo good though.
 
plunk said:
To the Ceviche lovers. Do you have any hesitation about using fresh fish due to worms/parasites? I love me some ceviche but have always frozen my fish first to kill anything that might be in there.

The thought of fresh out of the water ceviche is sooooo good though.
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I'll usually try and keep the pieces small, and I'll actually soak the fish in a mixture of lime and vinegar to really get it in there. I'll also try and leave it in that for at least 8 hours. Then I dump the juice and re-dress with fresh lime and then add the salt and tomatoes (if I'm using any). I also do a thorough worm check and make sure nobody else sees them all lol.

If you're worried about that, you can always quickly blanch or stream the fish/ prawns before you make it.
 
Get your frying pan heating with a couple tablespoons butter. Toss in diced farmers sausage, onion, garlic and any seafood kicking around. Once they start to brown, toss in one cup of basamati rice, 4 or so tablespoons curry powder, pepper and salt to taste and stir for a few minutes. Add 2 cups water, cover, simmer gently for 15 minutes. Crazy simple, easy cleanup and the kids love it. Stinkiest boat at the dock, guaranteed.
 
plunk said:
To the Ceviche lovers. Do you have any hesitation about using fresh fish due to worms/parasites? I love me some ceviche but have always frozen my fish first to kill anything that might be in there.

The thought of fresh out of the water ceviche is sooooo good though.
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I've been doing it with fresh for years and have not had a problem but as RC stated I do cut it up very fine. I also often bring a ponzu sauce with chopsticks on the boat and will have fresh sashimi to dip in the ponzu.
 
Pippen said:
I've been doing it with fresh for years and have not had a problem but as RC stated I do cut it up very fine. I also often bring a ponzu sauce with chopsticks on the boat and will have fresh sashimi to dip in the ponzu.
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What fish do you generally do the sashimi with?
 
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