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| photo by ana traina |
Manly Diary entry # 127
January is a cold month. The currents have taken us through the Straits of Gibraltar and beyond. We are now through the Malacca Strait and amidst the Indonesian Islands where the Great Fish has appeared more than once. This is where last we met and eye to eye saw the depths of mankind’s limitless wonder and God’s ultimate power. No matter where it is on earth, on the sea this winter month stands alone as the coldest of all winter days. The loneliness after the Christmas celebrations on land, the lost memory of sitting by warm candle light and holding young ones next to sweet, hot fire in the hearth brings a tear to the cheek of any man. Especially to those of us who spend our days on an unforgiving sea. Especially to those of us who live amongst other men from all continents of the globe for years at a time. January…
So it is in this month I find, in a tale written by some wordsmith long ago, a remedy for a yearning, cold feeling in the heart. The tale, oddly, is written by a woman who also traveled the seven seas in search of Leviathan. Her story is a wondrous one where she left the port of Liverpool to go searching for her betrothed who boarded a ship bound for the East Indies looking for spice and gold. She knew she was not allowed on a vessel bound for hard seas so, she dressed as a man, put her hair back and under a hat and was able to bypass the owner of the ship by deepening her voice and claiming her name as Jack. Luckily her dainty, small hands were stuffed down deep into her pockets. As the story goes, Jack was given the hardest jobs on ship and did excellently well until one day the whaling vessel, on rough sea, on a cold yet shining January day, passed another ship returning from the spectacular beauty of India’s coast and spirited city, Calcutta, off the Bay of Bengal. And as this ship approached, Jack viewed above the ship’s bulwark with mop and pail in hand and looked across to the sailor attached to the bowsprit on the opposite vessel and lo and behold who was it to be but her loving betrothed lost for over a year now. She took off her hat, waved her long luxurious hair and bellowed out his name.
She was found out, obviously, but not until her man rescued her from certain death for the lie she lived. But as the captain of her ship soon saw the courage she displayed he took this opportunity and made her into a hero. For all she went through in order to find her first mate she was honored by both these vessels and so they celebrated the meeting, at last, of this beautiful couple.
So, with great respect of the captain’s gesture she decided to cook a meal that would warm the hearts of all the men aboard both ships. A dish that would remind them of home and at the same time nourish them for days to come as the cold weather was upon them. A dish that would give them Christmas joy without being the holiday itself and a dish that would give them the strength to withstand weather, sweet memory, devastating loss and in the end… the search for the mighty one.
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| photo by ana traina |
Jack’s Very Simple Recipe for Shepard’s Pie
Stew meat (enough to fill the stomach’s of many men)
Olive Oil
Onions
Potatoes
Carrots
Peas
Corn
Garlic
Bay Leaf
Beef Stock
Herbs
Salt and Pepper (lots of it)
And most important… one bottle of The Belgian Beer; Chimay Blue Trappist Ale.
Pre Heat Oven to 375 degrees.
On stove top:
In olive oil, salt and pepper; brown the stew meat in small batches in a very hot iron skillet. Don’t be shy with the heat.
Put it all in a stew pot.
Then chop onions and brown them in the same way, add to the meat.
Very Important step.
In hot skillet pour Chimay and reduce to about half after boiling. Add to meat and onion.
Pour in Beef Stock, put in chopped carrots, peas, corn, crushed garlic, bay leaf, and herbs… salt and pepper. Cover and place in oven for 2 1/2 hours.
On stove boil potatoes, mash and whip with butter and cream. When stew is cooked down most of the way take out and spread potatoes on top. Bump oven to 500, take off cover and cook some more until the potatoes are brown.
There you have it.
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| photo by ana traina |
May all your thoughts be hefty ones and all your desires be fulfill’d.
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