15/06/2010 - Calamari .vs Chicken

Today was really hot, and I ended up being on galley, we spent the morning preparing the food for lunch as Donald was away on a purchasing trip.  Tammy and I decided on Chicken Curry which should have been easy to make, especially since I had found a freezer bag full of what seemed to be pre-prepared chicken strips.  There was something slightly not right about the chicken and so I asked at least 4 people what they thought,.. .all seemed convinced that it was chicken, so I set it to defrost in a large pail of water in the galley.

Every time I checked it, I tried to ascertain that it was chicken, but until some parts of it were totally defrosted it was impossible.  An hour before lunch was meant to be served a section was sufficiently defrosted for me to check it,.. yep, you guessed it, we had an hour to prepare the chicken curry and I had successfully defrosted a huge bag of calamari!! Unsure as to whether calamari would go with the veggies we had prepared I frantically began ransacking the freezers for pieces of chicken, however I was only able to find quartered chickens, which, as luck would have it, hadn’t defrosted yet so I set about stripping them of any meat I could find and Tammy began braising like never before.. we were 20mins late n the end, which as it happens was fine as another truckload of provisions had arrived and no-one was ready to eat!

It was sweltering on board and the frustration of being able to see the pub from the ship, but being unable to go there was tangible to everyone, so we were consoled with a power shower on deck just before dinner… the evening was topped off with a screening of The Usual Suspects, and another night was spent on the hatch dreaming of my soft hotel bed and cool air conditioning.  Chibley stepped on my face once or twice, but you get used to that after a while!

 

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