Pirate Pat Pattersons Pirate Recipes

Pirate Pat's Burning Skillet

Recipe of the Week!
Eat like the Pirates Do!
(anti-acid not included)

Back to basics. Back to what made your Grandmother's homemade soup the best you ever tasted.

If you are lost at this point, let me give you a clue: IT WAS THE STOCK SHE USED!!!

Okay, now that you have thought about how much you loved your Grandma, you can also think about how much you would like to make that fabulous soup she made. Let's start with a few simple stocks that will help you resurrect your long gone Granny, (God rest her perfect soul).

Let's start with STOCK. What is STOCK?. In the most basic terms, STOCK is the liquid that is derived from the cooking of vegetables, fungus, meat or fish and other flavoring ingredients in water. In other words, STOCK is anything that is flavored WATER. How simple can it be?

So let's make STOCK!! What do you have on hand? Chicken parts? Beef bones? Vegetable trimmings? Mushroom stems? Those things that you thought were garbage are now the basis of the best soup or sauce that you ever tasted!!

I love it when Albertson's puts Southern grown chicken on sale for $.49/lb. I know that I will eat well and very cheaply, AND end up with some really nice chicken stock.

I like to buy Southern grown chicken for two reasons: It has richer flavor than the pearly white Washington variety and it is loaded with fat.

Hence, it cooks up juicier and with more flavor. Okay, so you bought a load of hindquarters at a deep discount. Now what?? Cut the rib portion off the leg-thigh and trim away the guts, usually the liver. NEVER cook liver in your stock pot. It makes the resultant stock bitter. Cook them separately and mush them on pieces of garlic toast(!!!) while you are putting the stock together.

So, you have this big pile of raw chicken trim. First thing you need to do is soak them for a bit in cold water and then rinse thoroughly. By the way, necks and wings are excellent for stock if you normally don't eat those pieces. I just toss them in the freezer until I need them for stock. After rinsing, toss the chicken into a large pot. The bigger, the better.

Now you are going to add some aromatics. This means onion, carrot, celery, garlic (FRESH), bay leaf, FLAT LEAF parsley, whole pepper corns and maybe some fresh thyme. These items are listed in descending order of quantity. I usually use equal quantities of chicken and veggies (onion, carrot, celery) with copious quantities of fresh garlic and a modicum of everything else.

Fill the pot to cover plus 1 inch with COLD water. Bring to a boil and skim the gray foamy yuck-yuck that rises to the surface. Reduce the heat to a simmer and continue to skim the yuck-yuck for at least 11/2 hours. After a few hours of cooking, skimming and eating garlic toast with mushed chicken

livers you will be ready to strain the stock. After straining off the liquid (through cheese cloth or a fine mesh sieve) allow to cool uncovered in the fridge.

This will do two things: It will make the stock cold and it will make what little fat that is present rise to the top and solidify for easy removal. Give the fat to the dog. Give the chicken bones to the stupid cat and hope for the inevitable. Freeze the stock or use it right away.


HOME	Adventures With Seafair Pirates	PORTS O'CALL	PICTURE ALBUM	CANDIDATES APPLY HERE	GUEST BOOK	NEWS, LINKS, SPONSORS	PLUNDER Gift Shop