Pancakes From The Sea

Cephalopods! Part Of This Nutritious Breakfast

Nothing says “good morning” like a plateful of delicious tentacles.Especially if they are PANCAKES!

Visit Nathan Shields blog to see LOTS more pancake art, and to watch a YouTube video showing how he makes these. His method is pretty simple. It doesn't look too hard - maybe you'll want to give it a try yourself!

Bloody Heck!

As spied on Incredible Things. I tracked the source back to Score On Davie, a restaurant/pub in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Silly Canadians.  But, silly like a fox. Because, really, who doesn't love food supported by booze?

This Bloody Mary's 'garnishing' includes an entire chicken. Other drinks on the menu feature 'garnishes' such as deep friend pickles, grilled cheese sandwiches, onion rings, hot wings, hard boiled eggs, bacon, sausage pierogies, Bocconcini cheese, Chorizo sausage, pepperoni and peperoncini peppers.

Yum. and Hic.

Armada Does Leftovers

What's the best part of Thanksgiving?  No, not the football. Cog no, not the football.

It's the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that!  It's all those LEFTOVERS!  This year, Armada's Scoundrel Fleet has decided to skip all the hard work of cooking a Thanksgiving feast and will be jumping DIRECTLY to the leftovers.

If you'd like to enjoy leftovers with the Scoundrel Fleet, come on by after the big day, anytime from November 29th through December 1st. We'll have plank tables out at the "To Hull and Back" bar at Fleet Headquarters, situated on scenic Scarlet Bay in the Blake Sea.

You might even find a plate of your OWN leftovers, iffin you aren't in the habit of locking your windows at night.

ALSO!  Look for Kimika Ying's magnificent trebuchet, free gifts, a walking treasure tour of the island and who knows what else!

*ALERT!!* Sunday at 10am slt, the Scoundrel Fleet will be picking the tables clean. If you want to fight them for the last drumstick, come on by.

November 29th through December 1st, 2013
To Hull and Back Bar, Scoundrel Fleet HQ, Scarlet Bay, Blake Sea
Come by anytime! Enjoy a snack, have some fun, get a gift!

Yummy Yummy Jar of Dirt!

Once again, that Scoundrel Kimika Ying-Dagger has found foodie treasure for us!

It's the most delicious Jar of Dirt Ever! A lovely little foodie blog called Cakecrumbs, written by Rhiannon, an Aussie cook, shows us all how to make Davy Jones' Cheescakes.  How does cheesecake figure with a Jar of Dirt?  Just go see. She 'splains it all and her pictures are ever so charming.

Sorry Jack. You've been one-upped.

CONTEST! - Iron Bay Chef 2

Listen up, ya scurvy lot. With both ears! Oh, um, if yer missin' an ear, come sit closer.

My Kitchen Sister, my Baking Bestie, my Cooking Comrade, my Kneading Kindred, my ... oh, you get the idea. My fellow foodie, Junie Ginsberg, has just made an important announcement on the Babbage Aetheric Reader (or as the Scoundrel Fleet calls it, "Where The Rum Went")

Last year during the air kraken migration the first Iron Bay Chef contest was held; it was intended to be an annual contest, so here we are again! Whether you are an evil genius or a street urchin (the two are not necessarily mutually-exclusive), whether have a kitchen or a secret lab, whether you cook in factory ovens or over campfires, I want YOU to roll up your sleeves, put those fancy-schmancy goggles to good use and whip up some good, old-fashioned, pungent mayhem. Let's find out who is hungry for power and who is just HUNGRY!

Want to know the rules of the contest, what the prizes are, and what the secret ingredient is? Set sail for the full announcement here!

(Click if you'd like that design on a t-shirt!)

Rainbows and Rum - Drink Up!

Intrepid pirate Tamara Lowery has concocted a new drink that's perfect for Summertime. She says: 

"Had a rather successful experiment today. Took a large tumbler and put in several scoops of rainbow sherbet, about an inch or so of Captain Morgan Black Spiced Rum, and topped it with lemon-lime soda. Quite tasty!"

International Cat Day

Today, August 8, 2013, is International Cat Day!

 

Cinnamon and Gunpowder

This tempting novel was discovered by our own Scoundrel, Magdalena Kamenev. I couldn't wait to share the adventure and deliciousness onward to you!



Buy the Indie Book, "Cinnamon and Gunpowder"

A gripping adventure, a seaborne romance, and a twist on the tale of Scheherazade—with the best food ever served aboard a pirate’s ship

The year is 1819, and the renowned chef Owen Wedgwood has been kidnapped by the ruthless pirate Mad Hannah Mabbot. He will be spared, she tells him, as long as he puts exquisite food in front of her every Sunday without fail.

To appease the red-haired captain, Wedgwood gets cracking with the meager supplies on board. His first triumph at sea is actual bread, made from a sourdough starter that he leavens in a tin under his shirt throughout a roaring battle, as men are cutlassed all around him. Soon he’s making tea-smoked eel and brewing pineapple-banana cider.

But Mabbot—who exerts a curious draw on the chef—is under siege. Hunted by a deadly privateer and plagued by a saboteur hidden on her ship, she pushes her crew past exhaustion in her search for the notorious Brass Fox. As Wedgwood begins to sense a method to Mabbot’s madness, he must rely on the bizarre crewmembers he once feared: Mr. Apples, the fearsome giant who loves to knit; Feng and Bai, martial arts masters sworn to defend their captain; and Joshua, the deaf cabin boy who becomes the son Wedgwood never had.

Cinnamon and Gunpowder is a swashbuckling epicure’s adventure simmered over a surprisingly touching love story—with a dash of the strangest, most delightful cookbook never written. Eli Brown has crafted a uniquely entertaining novel full of adventure: the Scheherazade story turned on its head, at sea, with food.

Arrrrrrr-yum!

I like me breakfast like I like me captured ships.

Over easy.

Guac the Plank!

A wonderful treasure, found by Scoundrel Qwis Greenwood.

Today's t-shirt at ShirtWoot! is cleverly titled "Guac The Plank"

 You just have to pinch a wallet with $12 bucks in it, and it can be yours! 

Here is the shirt description from the website:

Other sailors would recoil from the S.S. Avocado when the ship went zipping by on the search for El Dorado.

Somewhere off the coast of Tortuga they gathered, in the back room of a small Mexican restaurant named El Chalupa. They entered shamelessly, parking as they wished, with no regard for the soccer moms and bachelorette parties who had long-standing reservations. They were pirates, and they took what they wished. And what they wished today was the "green gold" of the South: guacamole.

Dread Paul used the free chips and laughed as he finished the bowl. Lady Mary Keelhaul spread it across her burrito but waved her cutlass at any man who asked her for a bite. Sir Leslie Windsor took tiny spoonfuls and smiled across his Letter of Marque while Freeman Seaman lit candles with his beard and cried YOUR HOTTEST SALSA IS WEAK LIKE A GOVERNOR'S DAUGHTER!

The bill was reasonable. And they helped themselves to the mints next to the register as they left.

Soup: Not For The Timid

Our intrepid Scoundrel, Kimika Ying, discovered the above comic while on a recipe raiding mission. Well done, Kimika!

Credit for the comic itself goes to the brilliantly strange mind behind Qoana.  Go, be amused by the many other comics he's somehow warped into existence.

Pirate or Crab?

• Did you know that a crab's teeth are in their stomachs? Just like a pirate, after a good fist fight.

• A crab is one quarter meat, and three quarters crusty exterior. Just like yer Captain, arrrr.

• Crabs walk sideways, and so do pirates (the really drunk ones).

•  Crabs tend to be aggressive towards each another and males often fight to gain access to females. Need I point out the obvious correlation?

• Crabs can live on land as long as they can keep their gills moist with sea water. Pirates can live on land as long as they keep their livers moist with rum.

• Crabs are talkative. They 'speak' by drumming their claws or flapping their pincers. This is very much like the body language of a pirate telling an adventure story in a pub.

• Crabs are omnivorous, meaning they eat plants as well as animals. Really, they'll eat just about anything. Pirates ain't too picky either, just look at previous entries in this blog, fer example!

• On rocky beaches, crabs will often fight over crevices in the rocks to use for hiding places. Pirates fight over hammocks, coils of rope, rowboats, or any other place useful for sleeping off the rum.

A pirate walks in to a restaurant and says,
“Do you serve crabs here?”

The hostess replies,
“We serve everyone.  Have a seat.”

January 17th is National Hot Buttered Rum Day

And if January 17th is National Hot Buttered Rum Day, then for the Scoundrel Fleet every day of the year must be January 17th.

Did you know this snuggly drink first appeared in New England in the 1650's?  Toddies and Nogs were already popular, but as distilleries started to spring up, colonists started splashing some rum into their hot drinks, and the rest is warm, spicy, boozy history.

You can make your own hot buttered rum batter quite easily!  I like this recipe, myself.  Yum yum. 

Everything Octopus!

I stumbled across this delightful blog tonight and just wanted to share.

Everything Octopus

Enjoy! 

Ye Want Me Ta Punch Ya?

Artillery Punch. Even the name promises to deliver with a bang. There are many variations on this famous old recipe out there - poke around and made a bowl (or a barrel) full of the one you like the best. But yer a pirate and you've got a busy schedule already, so I'll share two popular versions right here!

Original Chatham Artillery Punch

8 lemons
1 pound superfine sugar
750-milliliter bottle bourbon or rye
750-milliliter bottle Cognac
750-milliliter bottle dark Jamaican rum
3 bottles Champagne or other sparkling wine
Nutmeg

1. Squeeze and strain the lemons to make 16 ounces of juice. Peel the lemons and muddle the peels with the sugar. Let the peels and sugar sit for an hour, then muddle again. Add the lemon juice and stir until sugar has dissolved. Strain out the peels.

2.Fill a 2 to 3-gallon bucket or bowl with crushed ice or ice cubes. Add the lemon-sugar mixture and the bourbon, Cognac and rum. Stir and add the Champagne. Taste and adjust for sweetness. Grate nutmeg over the top and serve.

Yield: About 25 drinks for normal landlubbers.   Or ONE drink for a pirate.

And here's another variation. Actually, this one is much closer to the recipe I'd always heard of, as it includes tea. Because we are all about the social niceties, now, aren't we?

1 quart strong black tea
1 quart rye whiskey
1 bottle red wine
1 pint Jamaican dark rum
1/2 pint brandy
1 jigger benedictine herbal liqueur
1 pint orange juice
1/2 pint lemon juice

Combine all the ingredients in a large punch bowl with a block of ice. If found too dry, sugar syrup may be added. Decorate with twists of lemon peel.

There are many variations on this famous old recipe out there - poke around and made a bowl (or a barrel) full of the one you like the best.

And now a bonus recipe! Just today I learned of Verity Holloway's delightful blog. I will be reading more of it soon. For now though, here's what drew me in.

"I have a Christmas treat to share with you: Mama Frances Rossetti’s recipe for a frightfully boozy rum punch!"

Pirate Coffee, Armadan Style

Now, the official drink of Armada is of course RUM! but sometimes ye might want something to crack yer eyes open wider, or perhaps you crave a hot strong substance to stir rum into on a chilly evening.  In either case, you need to brew some coffee.

Landlubbers swear you need to have a fancy pot and special water and grinders but the average ship's galley doesn't have room for silly things like that. Doesn't mean you can't brew up a fine cuppa joe, though. You just need to get a bit inventive.

First, you need to make a fire, cause you want your coffee hot, right?  The ships cook probably doesn't want you bothering him while he's cookin' yer dinner, so the polite thing to do is start a fire somewhere else on the ship.  A bucket will work. Fill it full of belaying pins and bits of rags (or yer bunkmates old pants, you don't want to be smelling them another night anyway) and set a match to it.

Now you need a pot for yer coffee.  Got another bucket?  Good enough.  Fill it with water, NOT from the sea. Trust me on that, I won't make that mistake more than, oh, four times. Set that bucket into the flaming bucket and cross yer fingers.  With luck, you'll have boiling water soon.

While your waiting, ponder the beans. Check the haul from yer last raid, I'm betting there's a bag of coffee beans in there somewhere.  Take big handful of them out and hit them with something hard, like the blunt end of your knife or a small anchor. When they're all busted up, scoop them up and throw them in the pot of trying-to-boil water.

Have a cup of rum while you watch the black mess bubble and roll. Ponder how you're going to steal a few eggs from the cook.  Yes really.  Now go do it.

Got yer eggs?  Great!  Crack 'em into the pot. Throw the shells in for good measure.  Most of the grounds will cling to the eggs as they cook and you can scoop them out. Don't eat them unless you like crunchy eggs.

Now!  Take yer ladle... wait, I didn't tell you to steal a ladle from the cook, did I?  Go do that.  Stop givin' me that look. And find a mug, too! I'll wait.

Oh, good, ye'r back.  No, I don't know how your rum bottle got empty, it musta evaporated while you were gone. Anyway, ladle up some coffee into yer mug, and enjoy! 

Oh, I forgot to tell ye to put the fire out, didn't I? Funny how buckets melt after a time, isn't it?

Shiver Me Timbers Pirate Pie Pops

Pirates are scurvy, dirty creatures.  Pirates are fearsome, and should be avoided at ALL costs!

.... now that's just silly. Pirates are adorable. Really we are. Don't bother knotting those purse strings, just come on over and sit a spell. We'll have herbal tea and discuss the latest in doily patterns.

Okay, maybe that's absurd in the opposite extreme, but really, Pirates Are Cute! And I bring ye proof positive. Cause the proof isn't in the pudding, as the saying goes, the proof is in the PIE.

Shiver Me Timbers Pirate Pie Pops

Thanks to Bubble and Sweet's creator, Linda of Australia,  for teaching us how to make these!  If you want to learn how to make more goodies on a stick, she's got herself a cookbook ye can buy!

Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go!

Thanks to Kimika Ying of Armada's Scoundrel Fleet for this discovery! 

Dire Times Menus

New Babbage Commodore Jedburgh Dagger didn't become the formidable power that she is simply by looking good in a uniform (which she does) or only on her brilliant tactical mind (which she has).  Sometimes it comes down to yer belly (She's got one of those too), and trying to keep it sated during hard times. On the high seas, sometimes you make do with what you have.

MILLER STEW

• 6 to8 good sized Millers
• 2 lg onions, chopped
• 7 cups water
• 4 cups canned tomatoes
• 6 med.potatoes, peeled and diced
• 2 cups whole kernel corn
• 2 Tablespoon butter
• 5 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons pepper

Instructions

1. Cook millers until done in water. Remove millers from broth, separate meat from bones and shred meat.
2. Dip off as much fat from the broth as possible.
3. Simmer potatoes in 1 cup of broth in covered saucepan until done, do not drain. Mash potatoes slightly, keeping them lumpy.
4. Add corn, onions, salt, and pepper to broth.
5. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
6. Add potatoes and millers and simmer slowly with lid off for at least 45 minutes.
7. Right before serving, stir in butter and let it melt.

 In case you are curious now, during the great ‘Age of Sail’, seamen tired of eating the standard ship’s fare of hardtack and salted meat were known to catch and eat ship's rats. Rats were referred to as "millers" as they were often found dusted with flour from the ship's stores.

Occasionally, the situation calls for even more drastic measures.


My Little Seabiscuit Pie

· 2 pounds of pony meat, trimmed of cell shading, cubed
· 2 medium onions, chopped fine
· 2 carrots, thinly sliced
· 2 bottles of Porter
· 4 to 6 hardtack crackers/pilot bread/sea bicuits

Put meat, onions, and carrots into pot. Pour one bottle of porter into pot, one into cook. Cover remainder of ingredients with water and simmer for one-half hour covered. Open pot and place hardtack on top of mixture to cover. Replace lid on pot, simmer for one and one-half hour.

(this is actually based on another authentic Age of Sail Sea-pie recipe)

Not-So-Great Moments in Buccaneer Foodie History

The first chocolate factories opened in Spain, where the dried fermented beans brought back from the new world by the Spanish treasure fleets were roasted and ground, and by the early 17th century chocolate powder - from which the European version of the drink was made - was being exported to other parts of Europe. The Spanish kept the source of the drink - the beans - a secret for many years, so successfully in fact, that when English buccaneers boarded what they thought was a Spanish 'Treasure Galleon' in 1579, only to find it loaded with what appeared to be 'dried sheep's droppings', they burned the whole ship in frustration.

Found at the History of Chocolate page at Aphrodite Handmade Chocolates.

Chocolate! Rum! And CAKE!

It's a true fact. Pirates LOVE cake.  (Also, they adore cookies, but they are loathe to admit it due to the cute-factor. Cookies, and even the saying of the word 'cookie' is hopelessly cute.)

Cake, however, is a manly dessert. A good, dense, deeply flavored cake is true gentleman's fare. Add a lot of rum to it and it's PIRATE fare! Now add chocolate and no one ever born can or wants to resist!

Pirate's Pleasure Chocolate Rum Cake

Choose yer favorite strong, dark rum for this kitchen adventure.  Of course, ye'll be wanting to have at least twice as much as the recipe calls for, in order to keep the chef well-sauced, too.

CAKE
6 ounces of your favorite hearty chocolate
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1 cup rum
4 eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

SOAKING SAUCE
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter
1/4 cup rum
1/4 cup sugar
PLUS 1/2 cup more black rum

Break up the chocolate and throw it in a large glass bowl.  Add the butter and roughly chop through it a few times.  Slosh in a cup of rum.  Now, either set the bowl over a saucepan of boiled water, or microwave it slowly (20 second pulse) until everything melts.  With a small whisk, blend everything till glossy.

Add the two sugars to the bowl of melted wonderfulness and whisk. Add the eggs and whisk again. There's a lot of whisking, it's good for your muscles.

Find or steal another bowl and sift into it the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt. Add about half of this to the other bowl of moist ingredients. Mix completely, then add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix completely again.

Bake in loaf pans at 350 degrees till done (when a straw or tester comes out clean). A big bread loaf pan will probably need an hour to bake, for a guide.

While the cake is baking, have some rum and gather up more butter and sugar for the soaking sauce. Throw the butter, 1/4 cup of the rum and the sugar into a sauce pan and slowly bring to a boil. Let it roll for a few minutes then take it off the heat.  Whisk in the other half cup of rum. If there's more rum in the bottle still, why not have a celebratory drink for your success in getting this far!

When the cake is done, grab a dagger or a fork or a poking stick and poke holes all over the cake. That's so the soaking sauce can really get in there. Slowly pour the soaking sauce all over the cake, delighting in the sight of it disappearing into the cake.

Now you need to finish any leftover rum cause you need the bottle. Really!  Get another bread pan out and set it right on top of the cake. You're going to want to weigh it down - the intent is to subtly compress the cake.  Take that now-empty rum bottle and fill it with water, set it in the top pan for extra weight.  Yes, you could have used something else but I thought you'd appreciate a valid reason to drink more rum.  You're welcome.

Let the whole mess cool down completely. Take the rum bottle and weighing pan off the cake and turn the cake out onto a serving plate. (Cool trick: Lay the plate upside down on top of the cake pan and then just turn the whole mess over at once, and remove the pan. Viola. Cake on plate. And ye didn't even have to be sober to do it.)  The soaking sauce has now become one with the cake.

Slice, share with your crew, and enjoy!   Perhaps with a mug of rum.