Delicious in Dungeon #26: Eisbein-Style Cockatrice With Sauerkraut-Style Dryad Buds

 Basilisk? No way, that's a cockatrice! They're totally different colours!

So, I was somewhat torn between seeing if I could actually get a proper Eisbein pork knuckle, or if I should salt "preserve" some turkey meat instead, since cockatrice is all... poultry-ish.

The universe made that decision for me because I missed my chance to get the pork on alpen week at my local store. Turkey it is!

So, I lack the equipment, expertise and desire to actually properly try and salt cure some meat.  Instead what i'm going to do is essentially more like a marinade, im just going to kinda pickle the meat in very salty water for a day instead. I've also added a few things for flavour: spiced coconut vinegar, dried chillies, fennel seeds and a bay leaf. Not sure how effective that is but it feels right. We can swish it around a bit.

Alright its now the evening, we've got our... waterlogged cockatrice, dryad bud and depetrification herb.

Senshi says we boil the meat... Not my typical method for poultry but I guess maybe itll leech some of the salt back out... As you can see its already turned kind of white from the vinegar or something, but don't be deceived we need to heat this through.

The herbs are grilled, so im gonna season them with a bit of paprika salt & pepper, a spritz of oil and put them in the oven.

Now to really make the germans cry... sorry but im a big hater of fermented vegetables, and so is my stomach...its very vocal about it..  so instead of getting sauerkraut im just gonna be mixing some raw grated cabbage with vinegar and hoping for the best.

And making a big mess again...

Oops this came out less like shredded cabbage and more like cabbage flour. Well, maybe the more broken down the better?

I thought itd be nice to flavour this up some, so im adding cider vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar, and german mustard. And mixing it all up.

And its going into a jar... well a jug. A jur.

Meat check, sliced it into smaller bits and it looks cooked through. It looks unseasoned but it actually smells quite aromatic.

The herbs are done, ready to plate up! I should probably pair this something not fizzy or sour to drink.. Um.. coffee??

****

Tasty! It's very cooling and sour (and didn't taste like seawater!), like a light lunch you could put in a sandwich or salad. Despite being as wet as humanly possible, the cockatrice seemed sort of dry in a way...? I guess from a lack of fat. Feels like a needlessly inefficient use of extra salt and its hardly authentic. But I like the flavours, I'd probably do similar combo with the mustardy cabbage again someday, maybe in a sandwich.

Delicious in Dungeon #25: Jack-O'-Lantern Potage and Dryad Bud Sauté With Cheese Sauce

 Bloody dryads, get out of my swamp.

What the hell is this? Horrible. Also I forgot to take a horizontal photo. Lets eat it.

We got a good vegetable haul from the dryads domain. Dryad fruit, dryad buds, mandrakes, mushrooms, and I have some cheese as well, I don't remember how.

We should be able to just cut into the pumpkin like this and lift the top off..

Voila! That went pretty smooth. Now, instead of trying to carve into it while its still tough, and risk slipping and making holes into it, im going to roast the whole thing. It'll become soft enough to scoop out with a spoon!

Don't look at me like that!

Oops! I guess its getting a bit scorched in there so I'll take it out. It smells amazing and its so tender inside. I'll scoop the seeds out first and then start collecting the flesh to use for the soup.

Aah noo! Disaster! My structural integrity! I guess maybe roasting it wasn't the smart move after all.. The inside got nice and soft but the outside got a lot softer than I expected too.

I'll keep it together in a bowl while i continue scooping, maybe we can gently get it out of the bowl and stick it back together when its cooled down.. Also, getting LOTS of delicious pumpkin flesh that smells amazing. I'm going to use half of it now and stick a tub of the other half in the freezer for future recipes.

The stuff we are using I stuck in the blender and it easily turned into the most amazing looking paste. I LOVE pumpkin. It's so bright, so smooth, aromatic, sweet and savoury. It's MAJESTIC.

What else goes in the soup? You can add a soup stock if you want or wahtever, but I'm going to add a bit of miso paste, pickled garlic, grated ginger, salt, pepper, and single cream.

Then we'll need to add some hot water cause its like a concentrated paste and stir it all up, you can add as much as you want really based on your preferred soup consistency! I like it pretty thick.

As for the mandrake root... I decided to do something a bit fun for myself, since the soup had a kind of lumpy texture in the manga, I thought i'd dice into small cubes and sautee the mandrake separately (like with the omelette!) and then stir them back in at the end.

Meanwhile the pumpkin cooled down so I thought i could see if we can transfer it back to a plate or a clear tub...? NEVERMIND ABORT ABORT, ITS FALLING TO PIECES, I GUESS IT STAYS IN THE BOWL. Damn. I screwed this one up, annoying. I could have sworn ive done this before with a roasted pumpkin and it didnt collapse like this, but whatever.

Agh now I burned the mandrakes while I was trying to reassemble the pumpkin! Its all going to shit right now.

Oh well, on to the next. Now for the dryad buds, it would maybe make more sense to do something all layer-y like an onion or a napa cabbage... but, well, the scoop on me is that my stomachs been kinda sensitive to cabbage and allium types and i've already had a lot this week... so my first idea that sounded good was celeriac root...but they didn't have that, instead they had a big ol' bunch of swede turnips in season. So... swedes it is!

I'm frying them in plenty of butter, and once they've had a head start a couple of those mushrooms sliced can go in as well.

Now we need that cheese sauce!! It's getting hectic as hell in here, heres some grated cheese.

I'm mixing it with some more of that cream. 

And adding my go-to cheese sauce seasonings as well.. nutmeg and black pepper! Now to collect all these tortured components and assemble them into.. well, something.

****

It tastes fucking phenomenal damn it. I am definitely making roast pumpkin soup and turnips with cheese and mushrooms again. But... rrgh, i'm still giving it 4/5 because I messed up so many things. The pumpkins been shredded, and I also should have roasted the turnip slices instead of sautee'd them, because they are very al dente in the middle. Which is fine, you can literally eat them raw, but if they were all tender with that cheese sauce it would have been sublime, peak even. The recipe is top tier, but my execution... lacking.

Delicious in Dungeon #24: Travel Rations Set For Adventurers

This adventurer has packed some sensible camping tools, and is enjoying some cosy respite with his party... 

MUST BE NICE, because some of us have to sample the austere pickings of the standard dungeoneer's travelling rations today. How sobering. Well, except the wine.

I got the perfect groceries for the job. Some leftover wine, an artisanal part-bake roll, a big hunk of dry--cured tyrolean speck (fancy ham), and I got a few packets of different nuts and trail mix to get closest to appearance in the manga. Is that overkill? well sure, but these are also like banger ingredients and now i have a fancy ham and a massive bag of cashews to put in all my curries and stir fries for weeks.

Consistent with my ability to have shockingly appropriate bullshit already in my house (i swear i dont have THAT much junk) i have a little canvas travelling drink flask, however i dont actually wanna fill it with red wine (and probably spill it everywhere) so im gonna just fill it with water and have a glass of wine offscreen ok.

Arranged my nuts (thats what he said) in a desirable ratio. Happy november.

A nice slammin blab of fat wham

The bread roll went in the oven for 5-10 mins to finish baking so I could enjoy some fresh hot bread. Ah! caught me cooking on a no-cook recipe, sue me.

****

Senshi complains that this isnt a very balanced meal, but I felt kinda healthy eating this idk. All the ingredients are tasty, I enjoyed the faintly peppery flavour of the ham. Without butter or cheese though, its all a bit dry and plain. And ham cut that thick was very hard to chew.

Delicious in Dungeon #23: Orc Medicine

Hmm I need a pick-me-up after all that dragon battling... perhaps i need some medicine...Orc Medicine!

Dr. Roy M.D. has got us some secret special ingredients.. or just random junk, not sure.

Gonna grate a bit of the ginger, obviously not the whole thing. My concept for this was sort of like a ginger shot and a greens smoothie all rolled into one. A shootie. (hmm needs work)

So yeah dont worry its all edible, its sunflower seeds, spinach leafs, ginger, spirulina powder and a pinch of turmeric.

And a dash of water! so that it... actually blends.

That was fast, looks ready to go I guess. Lok-Tar Ogar!

*

It's giving wet leaves... with a side of choking hazard (bits of seeds) and a fiery aftertaste. I hope this is good for me. Emotionally speaking it is not. In the future I might stick to tea and vitamins.