Garp Chowder

Garp Chowder recipe! Credit goes to my friend Trisha Luft, who determined what kinds of ingredients would be most likely to be available to the people of Kimera, created the recipe, cooked the chowder, and shared some with me! I can confirm that it is, indeed, very yummy!!!

This is the recipe that she shared with me:

(At least the best and yummiest approximation that I, Oskar N. Reteep, could glean from the various tavern cooks in Kimera)

2 chunks of butter are melted in a pan, to which is added a scoop of minced garlic and 1 finely chopped onion to cook until the onion is translucent and lightly caramelized. The smell is absolutely delightful! My mouth was watering already as I observed this portion of the cookery. Next, the cook gathered about 4 carrots, chopped them into rather small pieces and threw them into something she called a stockpot. She then chopped 4 smallish red-skinned totatoes into rather miniscule cubes and added them to the pot with the carrots. At this point, the garlic and onion mix was well cooked, so she added that into the stockpot as well.

Now, Kimerans don't really have a place in which to raise hens, so henmeat broth is hard to come by unless one is able to obtain it through infrequent trading with Dugtown. In place of henmeat broth, Kimerans usually simply use sea water from the Dark Sea and do not salt the stew. This particular cook has some sort of a secret supply chain and was able to obtain henmeat broth, which I can tell you, made all the difference in Aerwiar. She poured a "container and a half" of broth into the stockpot, added in a few pinches of dried parsley, and set it to boiling.

The cook next added something called olive oil to the frying pan she had used for the onions and garlic and allowed it to heat up. She had about 4 fillets of *garp which she salted and peppered and added to the frying pan. She fried the fish until it was thoroughly whitish in color (uncooked garp is rather clearish when raw). She then, and rather violently I might add, chopped the fish into smallish pieces and tossed it into the boiling stockpot. She cooked it until the vegetables were soft, approximately 15 minutes by my reckoning. It could well have been slightly less or more, as I was distracted by the smell of a wonderous new spice to which the cook introduced me. I couldn't stop smelling it! The cook called it "Old Bay", and it was a garden of herbs mixed with the most delectable seafood essences - truly a strange, neat and yummy thing all wrapped up in one small crock.

I must mention again the limited availability of certain food items to Kimerans, which my cook friend has been able to overcome. Fresh cream is a luxury item here, so most garp chowders end once the seasonings have been added and the vegetables cooked. This particular cook had a cup of fresh (heavy!) cream, very nicely chilled in an ice room, into which she whisked 1/4 of a cup of flour and added this to her boiling stockpot of chowder. Once I boiled again and thickened, she declared the chowder ready for consumption.

Now, it is very difficult to attempt to write a description of the scrumptiousness issuing forth from that cook's stockpot of chowder. And that aroma was matched only by the heavenly taste of that chowder (which word does not even do it justice!) It was so delectable that I almost forgot this was the 9th meal in as many days for which I had eaten garp chowder.

*Podo tells me that in some parts of the Green Hollows, fishermen who go out into the Dark Sea have discovered a fish called "cod". He claims to have had a similar chowder made with this particular fish which tastes remarkable similar to garp chowder.