Stardew Valley #55: Plum Pudding

 Ingredients: Wild Plum, Wheat Flour, Sugar

Item Description: A traditional holiday treat.

The description suggests this is meant to be something like christmas pudding..? But christmas pudding, aka "figgy pudding" is neither made with plums nor is it typically made with figs anymore. You're also supposed to age a christmas pudding for several weeks, I'm not doing all that! I did however, find a recipe for a steamed pudding known as plum duff! Sounds perfect.

First we measure out the dry ingredients, starting with some sifted self-raising flour. Seems its equal parts SR flour, breadcrumbs, dried fruit, suet/fat, and sugar

I don't know the difference between suet and lard so I bought a block of lard. It's so cheap. What could go wrong!? Also we have to grate it, weird.

There we go we have our flour, breadcrumbs, grated lard, dark brown sugar, and I was pleased to use up various ancient packets of dried fruit from the back of my baking cupboard. I didnt' have currants, but i had a bit of dried cranberries, raisins and sultanas. 

Let's not forget the last dry ingredient, a bit of christmassy spice! We've got nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon.

And now for the plums! This might be another unorthodox choice, but I saw a big jar of sweet plums in syrup which seemed both convenient and easy. With a small knife ill just dice up about 220g of them. I don't mind a bit of fruit chunk in my pud.

Next we also add the juice of an orange, and grate the peel (with our sticky lard grater) for the zest. I'll go easy on the juice because the plums are already a bit wet.

And even more wets, 2 eggs and a couple tbsp of spiced rum.

Time to mix it all around. It's starting to smell nice actually! My arms are tired... why didn't I use my cake mixer for this..??

Next we actually have to slop it up even more with 200ml of milk! Does this look right? How should i know? Whos even heard of plum duff!?

Now i grease up some containers with a bit more of that lard. I was planning on making mini puddings, but ive got literally so much batter than im gonna have to do one mega one as well!

I hope these are tasty... Now to cover them up and uh, find a way to fit them all in my steamer...

I'm nothing if not an innovater. I'm steampunk.  Anyway now these gotta steam for THREE WHOLE HOURS

Well, I gave the small ones a bit less time to cook and the big one a bit more time... Heres what its looking like cooked, maybe a slight raw patch in the middle but I think ill finish each portion when I reheat them in the microwave as I eat them. I have a lot to get through by the looks of it.

Alright moment of truth!!

*****

(BTW it came out the pot just fine and unbroken I just thought this pic looks way better even for the comparison shot.) Thank fuck this is nice!! Because its so dense and there's so much of it. It's a little like a christmas pudding but its less fruity/nutty/boozy and more mild and spongey. Definitely what I imagine an old-fashioned british dessert to be like. Definitely best to serve hot. Would be improved with some cream or custard.

Stardew Valley #54: Pale Broth

Ingredients: White Algae

Item Description: A delicate broth with a hint of sulfur.

It's not quite an algae, but i got some lovely mixed mushrooms (mostly pink oyster!) for the white algae fungae, and for the hint of sulphur ive also got a white cabbage, and to round out the flavour i'll add half a sachet of bonito dashi (fish stock) and a single radish that grew in my garden.

Roughly choppped the veg and dumped it all in the pan with the powdered stock. Now we just add boiling water and wait!

Oh this would be a good time to add a pinch of celery salt as well. I always forget I have it. I've let it simmer for about 25 mins.

Now, unlike the green algae soup, this one says its a BROTH so, in spite of the graphic, I want to make a clear strained broth just to mix up my soup game a bit.

Don't worry though! There's no way i'd let these nice vegetables go to waste, i'll keep them and shove them in a stir fry or curry tomorrow.

***

Quite pleasant! It's definitely a delicate broth, you can really taste the mushrooms and cabbage, which doesnt sound that appealing but I actually quite like the flavour of cabbage, and i like oyster and shiitake a lot more than common mushrooms. I think it would make a really good soup base for some noodles. Even on its own though, its very hydrating and refreshing and not earthy like the algae soup.

Stardew Valley #53: Algae Soup

Ingredients: Green Algae

Item Description: It's a little slimy.

Green algae! Thats a bit of a whimsical ingredient, but ive gone on a quest to find the closest ingredients I can that I could reasonably put into a soup. We've got powdered spirulina, which ACTUALLY IS AN ALGAE! but its not really known for being a good standalone soup base, so ive also got some other flavours that I hope will pad out, while still feeling like a slimy algae soup. I got some dried konbu (japanese seaweed), a handful of chopped spinach, a can of green lentils and some cornish dried seaweed to garnish. Pondwater-tastic!

First ill blend the spinach with the lentils, just a bit at a time with a splash of added water, I really want this to blend as much as possible and not have any large chunks.

This is looking like an algae soup already! Once ive done the whole can and all of the spinach it goes in the big soup pot.

Now we can throw that in the hob with the konbu, thats mainly there to add extra flavour kinda like a massive bayleaf.

Next we add the spirulina powder, im adding 2 teaspoons because while this is meant to be the main ingredient, wow its strong stuff! Its gonna dye my stomach green.

That's changed the colour a lot, after its had some time to get warm and simmer and stuff, we can bowl it up and sprinkle on some of the dried seaweed to garnish! And a pinch of salt if it even needs any.

**

This is surprisingly nice for what it is. The lentils and spinach give it an earthy/hearty flavour and its not very bitter. It does taste a little bit like a damp towel though. And the soup has a nice filling thickness, but it texturewise its a little... uh.. powdery? starchy? I'm pleased with my interpretation of the dish, but you and I both know its not really a dream dinner.

Stardew Valley #52: Seafoam Pudding

Ingredients: Flounder, Midnight Carp, Squid Ink

Item Description: This briny pudding will really get you into the maritime mindset!

Right lets get into that maritime mindset! For the flounder we have a real flatfish, technically its a sole but eh flats flat, for midnight carp i just have some leftover tuna, for the squid ink i have cuttlefish ink. Then we got some veggies and spices, and a weird idea for the seafoam, you'll see.

Alright i guess we can just shove these in a a pot and start making a soup.

Got some veggies to fill it out. Just felt like some broccoli and cauliflower, dunno really.

Some seasonings to get in the maritime mindset! I didn't really know what to do with all this, so thought id try a cube of vegetable stock for the soup base, celery salt, cumin seed, and dried parsley. I guess i expect this will taste kinda light and herb-y. The cumin will add something distinctive without turning it too curry-flavoured.

And of course, the ink and some hot water, and stew it until everything looks tender and and it doesnt taste like water I guessss.

Once thats about ready to serve, time for my weird idea! Supposedly if you whisk a bunch of chickpea water, you can make it foam up like a meringue or a mousse? Never tried this before... and nothing said whether i need to add like, flour or anything? Heat it? chill it? no idea man.

To get that wacky green colour from the sprite im also adding a bit of spirulina powder which I acquired next recipe. More on that... next recipe.

Well its not exactly a meringue, like at all, but its frothed up enough that I feel comfortable in calling that "foam". And it wont taste disgusting on a soup, you gotta think about that.

**

Yeah it tastes alright. The flavour is mild and inoffensive. Glad i added the cumin but I wish I had a stronger concept overall. The tuna adds a pleasant meatiness to it. The seafoam and squid ink add absolutely nothing other than making it look like its gonna taste weirder than it does. It's probably very healthy? I don't know what i would have done differently to capture this recipe so im content with it, but we don't really have anything special here, it really is just a plain vegetable soup with fish chunks.

Stardew Valley #51: Triple Shot Espresso

Ingredients: Coffee x 3

Item Description: It's more potent than regular coffee!

It's been a few weeks, because I insist on doing these in order. I was just going to make a strong filter coffee, but my family were due to visit me and I know for a fact they have surplus of these classic italian stovetop espresso makers, aka the Moka Pot! So I offered to look after one. They also brought me a brick of fine ground espresso coffee, but they all drink decaf so its decaf. Sorry. I don't really notice the difference anyway.

First things first, its probably been gathering dust for a while so lets make sure its clean... looks like it actually is very clean already. Thanks mum!

Next, I looked up how to use it... they recommend actually starting with hot water, which seems efficient as a heavy electric-kettle user. We fill it up to just below the valve.

Then we pop on the filter section and fill it up with coffee. It's hot so im also going to use oven gloves to screw the top half on tight. And to the stove!

Oh, don't mind me, im just casually making some delicious thai red curry on the side while I do this recipe... oops is it clearly quite deliberately framed in the shot? how careless and modest

Once it starts "gurgling" its apparently good to go. But wait... this recipe doesn't say SINGLE shot espresso now does it?

****

Normally I like my coffee all milked up, but for this recipe im going to attempt to enjoy it all puritanical style. It's bitter. But... also very flavourful and dark-chocolate-y. I'm of the opinion that the best coffee comes from moka pots and for a first try this feels pretty consistent with that. It would have probably got 5/5 if I put milk and sugar in it. And it would probably be "more potent than regular coffee"... if i didn't use decaf.

Red curry! what are you doing here!? Stop flexing your deliciousness!