Breath of the Wild #7: Copious Meat Skewers

Ingredients: Any four different Meats

Description: "Just shove a bunch of meat onto a skewer, and you're good to go."

Four different meats it says, so four different meats it is! I've got chicken thigh, lamb leg, pork belly, and that tough beef cut again (why am i like this)

Anything thats not already in chunks can get sliced up. I'm not sure how much of this to do... I guess if i dont prepare it now, when will I? I will make a few skewers and then fry the rest in a big pan for leftovers.

That's a lot of meat! It just says shove a bunch of meat on a skewer, no need to make it complicated... but im going to make it complicated.

First ill make a zesty marinade with vinegar, soy sauce, salt, worcestershire sauce, and lots of ginger.

Mix that all up. I also had some leftover ginger paste to finish up so its extra gingery.

Oops! I almost forgot one other thing, olive oil so that it browns nicely.

4 kebabs seems like plenty, oh but we're not done yet!

With all this meat I didnt want a repeat of that boring chewy beef skewer, so I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to make a satay sauce. I think that goes with all kinds of meat.

Half a tin of coconut milk, 2 big tablespoons of peanut butter, a tbsp of sugar, soy sauce, lime juice and gochujang paste should work for an improvised sauce. Heating it up helps all the fatty ingredients mix.

Doesn't that look nice? Now our copious meat doesn't have to be naked.

****

Finally! A good skewer! Even the beef seems less tough this time around. The peanut sauce is fun and flavourful. Despite that, the flavour of each meat is very distinctive. I think the pork belly goes best with the ginger and satay. 2 skewers of meat and the thick sauce though, its a bit rich and sickly. I should start making side salads.

Breath of the Wild #4: Meat Skewer

Ingredients: Any Meat

Description: "A juicy, filling snack made by grilling small chunks of meat on a skewer."

I thought I could get away with combining this recipe with the meat and mushroom skewer, using the same marinade, which was of course my pepper and red wine type... thing.

Assembled an all-beef skewer and put it in the grill with the others.

**

Without the mushrooms its even tougher and less juicy. I guess at least its appropriate for the most basic level foraged meat dish. Next time i'll try to cook it better though. So much chewing, im living proof that all that tiktok mewing stuff doesnt work.

Breath of the Wild #2: Meat and Mushroom Skewer

Ingredients: Any Mushroom, Any Meat

Description: "A filling dish made by grilling various mountain ingredients with meat."

I thought beef and chestnut mushrooms would be a good pairing for this. Like a french stew on a stick. Yeah.(???)

And i'll do a different marinade to the last one, with olive oil, red wine, red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, salt, and plenty of pepper. Like french stew on a stick! (why am i like this)

Just whack that in there and mix it around. Looks like that pepper mix also has plenty of coriander seed. Is that a way to cheap out on the peppercorns? Sounds fine though.

Now I can leave this for 2 hours while I finish work. I was on a tea break honest!

I also thought I could do the all-meat skewer for an upcoming recipe while I was at it. Ended up getting a few portions out of this! Frugal! And fungal.

**

The meat is SO TOUGH. I thought the marinade would soften it a lot more. Skill issue though? i think i overcooked it. The marinade was just ok, it was peppery but its not exactly bourguignon. Filling, sure I guess, mostly a workout for the jaw.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #25: Roast Beef with Horseradish and Cucumbers

We're really in the place to be for a roast beef, horseradish and cucumber sandwich. It's not really a go-to sandwich recipe for me, but maybe it should be...?

We got that traditional german pumpernickel/rye, roast beef, cucumber, a red onion, rocket/arugula, mayo, and I couldn't be bothered to buy a whole jar of horseradish when i have a tube of wasabi, which is basically the same thing!

Like for real, most wasabi in the uk is secretly horseradish dyed green. Anyway is this a good ratio? i have no idea. We'll just find out.

Since I already got that loaf of rye for the smoked salmon one, I figure thats close enough for "seedy wholegrain" bread. It's quite a crumbly and brittle bread for a sandwich though.

 

Now I can just chop a bit of the onion and cucumber for the sandwich. Red onion is a good one to use raw, the brown onions are a bit too.. yknow, oniony.

Like a pair of beef curtains... hmm thats making me extra hungry...

The crunchy veg...

And lastly, the aroogla. irregular. amoogus. leafs.

*****

Damn this is hittin... the dry beef, peppery horseradish and onion, and crunchy vegetables are so perfectly balanced. I think i did this one just right. Even the bitter, seedy bread feels like a good match. This is a good sandwich. 

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #24: Bistro Baguette

 This ones sounds conventional. The first challenge was finding a beef skirt cut, but morrisons came through.

Beef skirt steak looks nice, (its cheap too!) a sweet white onion, tomato, watercress, and since it didn't specify the mustard I thought i'd mix it up a bit with this swedish mustard, which is kind of a wholegrain and ground mix.

I'm caramelising the onions with a bit of olive oil on one side, and cooking the steak with a bit of butter on the other side. I always think butter just kinda adds something with steak, I dunno. Should I have seasoned this? probably but it didn't say to... well maybe ill add the tiniest pinch of salt and pepper.

Chopped the tomato and pulled out the watercress pieces from the mixed salad bag. Yeah I know my leaves. Like a druid.

Chunk of baguettes sliced and ready. I think i'll spread mustard on the top side, so its next to the onion.

Trouble with white onions is I can't really tell when its peeled enough, so it looks like theres some harder bits in there, they become obvious when cooked.

w-cress is in, and ive tried to slice the steak diagonally. There's plenty of it, i think im maxing this sandwich out again. Is the hungry instinct taking over?

Tomatoes and onions are in.. can we squeeze it shut without spilling it everywhere?

***

It's good yeah. The steak really is a nice cut for a sandwich, its lean and not tough or chewy. I liked the mustard and onions with the steak. I dunno, its a bit boring? What if it had some like hot sauce or blue cheese sauce or something.

Delicious in Dungeon #50: Stewed Dullahan's Horse Head

This friggin horseman he got no head (just trust me bro)

I got his horses head definitely real definitely happened.

This ones a weird theoretical recipe, they don't end up cooking it in the manga but I'm going to cook it for them! Well, I can't get real horse head meat... but I have managed to get ox cheek, which comes from the face so I thought that could be a pretty good substitute.

First im gonna sear it with a bit of leftover lard (animal fat) and, again there's no guidelines so ive decided to season it with salt, pepper, a clove and a bit of juniper berries for when we stew it in a sauce.

I should hurry up and add a crushed clove of garlic too before its done searing.

Once its ready to turn the heat way down and go into stew mode, I'm adding red wine, tomato concentrate and worcestershire sauce. 

It's coming along, it smells super garlicky... Now we can just cover it with a lid and leave it for a bit and play some zelda.. right?

Ah no! I checked in on it after like 15min and it had already burned! I guess my smallest hob on the lowest setting was still not low enough. I tried adding more hot water to try and recover some of whats on there... but i don't know, I might have just ruined it. Oh also I was gonna serve it on a bed of mashed potato, ill do that still.

**

Oof I know it looks nuked but actually the meat tasted fine, it was nice and tender and it didnt all taste too burnt. But... in rehydrating it what i managed to do was just burn all the flavourings and wash it off so it ended up just tasting like plain unseasoned beef. I feel like if I had done it right, maybe it would have been 5 stars. Shame.