Kaimusailing

The marsala chicken was not a total disaster. I was trying to do everything in my small cast iron skillet and almost succeeded. First I fried two unskinned chicken thighs in a couple tablespoons of Irish butter and Carapelli olive oil, 5 minutes on a side, at the same time microwaving a potato, 5 minutes per side, handy timer there.
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The thighs were overdone. They were set aside to rest while the potato was cut in half and placed in the pan face down. While they were getting a nice brown crisp I prepped a small box of mushrooms, a red onion, and a couple garlic cloves. The potatoes came out and covered with thin sliced parmesan, placed back in the microwave for one minute, and the onion was added to the pan.
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I sauteed the onion for 8 minutes, added the garlic, dusted with some flour, added the mushrooms a few minutes later, then gave the pan a shot of Taylor generic sherry wine and a dab of Better than Bouillon Beef Base. I continued scraping the bottom of the pan and mixing the roux. Maybe a half cup of water was added a little at a time to keep the flour mixture loose and smooth.
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The chicken thighs went back in and simmered in the marsala sauce for about 10 minutes, turning over once.
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I ate one thigh and overcooked potato half and put the others in a zip lok bag in the fridge.
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The next day I was on the phone and got nothing done. I microwaved the remaining potato half and chicken thigh. I could make it better, don’t burn the chicken, don’t overcook the potato. Maybe it will come out better next time.
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I noticed the boatyard had unloaded all the dinghies on the dinghy dock, including my D4. Geoff, the chemist, was going through the yard and we chatted about politics and the future of the world. I asked around and they were moving the dinghy dock and mooring work boats of Atlas Marine in its place.
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I had noticed a dinghy or sailboat out on the river with red sails. It turned out that I met the owner, builder, and sailor of that dinghy. It is a pram from Chesapeake Light Craft, maybe Passagemaker. I spoke briefly with the owner that I had used the CLC study plans to get the seat shapes that I ended up using. It was obvious looking at both dinghies how similar the seat shape was. He seemed to ignore me.
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Now I was finding out that they would put the dinghies on the dinghy dock after they moved it, or did I want my dinghy at my catamaran. Yes, I was wondering how to get it over there, row it over and pull it out, beg Komputer Ken to drive his electric utility vehicle and bring it that way, or just put it on a hand truck and bring it. Now they moved it and I was very happy.
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I made the Chicken Paprika and avoided the pitfalls that I had run into with the marsala dish. It was controlling the flame under the skillet that made the difference. The chicken thighs were sauteed in olive oil and Irish butter for about 5 minutes a side and set aside.
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The onion was cooked on this same low heat for quite a while, maybe 8 minutes, then a couple cloves of thin sliced garlic went in. When the aroma of the garlic hits you, it’s time to do something.
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With garlic you have to act quickly to capture its essence. Most flavors are soluble in oil or water, usually not both. The garlic needs to be hit with water to capture its essence. You’ve been sauteing in oil and butter and the water will go off, but adding some water or liquid that includes water, like wine, will capture that flavor.
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I had put about 3 heaping teaspoons of flour on the mess in the skillet and kept moving it around and breaking it up. I knew I had to go about 3 minutes to allow the flour to lose its uncooked flavor. I kept chopping and scraping, tasting until the uncooked flour flavor wasn’t there anymore.
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I added a can of diced tomatoes, which immediately made a strange paste in the pan. I kept chopping and scraping. I forgot to add the sour cream, which when added made the sauce a nice consistency.
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The chicken thighs went back in, except there was no room in the little skillet for all this stuff, half the concoction was ladled into a zip lok bag along with a par-cooked chicken thigh, the other went into the pan and it got cooked a bit more, along with half the microwaved potato that was now cut into thin slices.
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The chicken and potato leftovers were put in the fridge. I ate the batch in the skillet. Not bad. You could make this for a crowd.
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My attention now turned to making the sailing rig for the dinghy. The plans for the D4 are a pdf file and some of the measurements are illegible. The sprit sail had a couple of questionable dimensions. Is that a 6 or an 8? I was able to find a legible plan of the sail from “Mother of all Maritime Links”. The sail can be cut from a 6’X9’ tarp, one of which is on sale at Harbor Freight. It features 1400X1400 denier and 14 oz. Weight of fabric. Perfect. The centerboard and rudder can be made of a half sheet of 3/8” ply. The ply is good on one side, so the rudder and centerboard are made of two layers, good side out, bad side in. I may have enough ply on hand to make it, otherwise I will be at Lowe’s to get new.
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I was planning on putting stays on the mast, but after reading accounts of builders who actually sailed this design, an unstayed mast would probably be OK. I could always retrofit.
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The image is of the sprit rig plan from the pdf dinghy plan file.