Delicious in Dungeon #19: Tentacle Gnocci

 First tentacles, now giant tentacle-proof frogs!

With gross tongues...

I strongly considered ordering some actual frogs legs, but I think they'll be difficult to use for the purpose of the upcoming recipes so we've got chicken thigh as a nice replacement for frog thigh, so its still a bit more dark meat-y and interesting. I also didn't want to get plantain flour and make gnocchi from scratch, so instead im just getting some regular potato gnocchi and adding sautee'd plantain chunks to the mix.

The main flavour is gonna come from from a decent amount of chopped garlic and red chilli. This and some olive oil will effectively be our "sauce".

Here's the tentacles, chopped into quarter disks.

That was a big pack of thighs, im just chopping 4 small fillets from that, though its already quite a bit I guess.

And im just banging it all in the pan! You probably shouldn't crowd a pan like this but uhh im lazy and I don't care.

We can add a bit of salt as well, nothing in here so far is especially salty.

Boiled and drained the pre-made gnocchi, it only needs a couple minutes. It was so fast I almost forgot to photograph it, hence why its all steamy in my colander.

Once everythings cooked im tossing in the gnocchi to mix with the flavours, add a splash of extra oil, and hope maybe i can sear it a little bit without mashing it up too much...

*****

As you can see I did bludgeon the gnocchi and plantain a lot and didnt manage to sear much as it was sticking to the pan constantly. I should have used one of my better pans but it was in the wash... Presentation aside its super tasty. Hard to go wrong with chicken, garlic, pasta and plantain, thats 4 ingredients that go with almost anything. It has a light and comforting flavour. Its also pleasantly hot.

Delicious in Dungeon #18: Tentacle and Kelpie Stew, Prepared with Undine

Typical... I go to get some water and there's an undine in the basin instead...

It's not much on its own, but we've built up a good amount of resources to combine with this.

We've got some leftover kelpie meat, tentacles, and the bottled undine... and then some stew regulars: onion, carrot and potato. And some "brown sauce" I wanted to add a bit of a caribbean twist to go with the plantains because the meat won't make for much of a gravy, so i got some reggae reggae (jerk bbq) sauce.

Chopping up the tentacles, i'll cook them with the meat first. I think a crispy outer layer will help when they get stewed.

Chopping all the vegetables and putting them to one side for now..

The meats a bit of a pain... theres odd shaped bones in it with bits of meat firmly attached, so ive split it into chunks but then im going to stew the bone bits in as well... i must remember to take them out at the end..

Once the meat (which i've seasoned with seaweed salt- because its kelpie!) and plantains have started to seal we should probably brown the onions too...

Oh, and it says to sautee the carrots as well. At this rate everythings gonna be all mushy except the potatoes... as you can see the meat is dry as hell, theres no jus to make gravy, so good thing we had....

Our flavourful bbq sauce! 

And some added salt & pepper since its on the recipe.

Finally, we can add the potatoes and the undine - it tastes subtly different from my tap water... I guess it's got more mana?

And we can leave it to STEW DOWN for like 40 mins until the potatoes are tender. Oh, and I won't forget to take out those bones!

*****

It's amazing. Autumn is really setting in so a stew like this really hits the spot. The flavour of the bbq sauce, the meaty kelpie and the fruity sweet tentacles go together so well. Jerk is quite cinnamon-y so it might not be to everyones stew tastes... but if you like one thats a bit different.. its fruity and sweet but not excessively, its sour and got a very warming kick to it. This will recover your mana and your mood.

Delicious in Dungeon #17: Tentacles with Vinegar

 Watch out for tentacles, they'll sting ya!

We'll have to carefully chop some chunks off and let them ripen...

Oooh don't these look good? They're not bananas btw, I decided to do something a bit more interesting and order some plantains from an indian grocery. These look huge, and because they are tougher and starchier than bananas, you actually want them to look at least this brown and patchy before you use them.

Senshi says to score them like this to help peel them.. it doesnt really help much, but they arent that hard to peel.

And now for the bit I didn't really wanna do but I got to... ive made a salt & vinegar mix and will brush them with it... its to get rid of the tentacle's sting...

**

It's perfectly ripe and tastes great!!! But... it would be better without the salt and vinegar. And cooking it will REALLY bring out the flavour...

Delicious in Dungeon #16: Grilled Kelpie

Kelpie, huh.... The horse of the sea. But not a sea horse... its very confusing.

Looks something like this, definitely not a pokemon. Anyway we have to grill and eat its liver speficially.

Horse meat is somewhat taboo in this country, but I managed to get some lamb liver which is perfect, and they cook a whole array of cuts but i don't want to get into allll that so heres just some more regular lamb meat. I guess its loin meat, which is the lower back. Since its a very seaweed-y animal, ive got some kaiso salad for the mane and im going to be seasoning it all with some dried seaweed flakes!

Got some veggies too! I'm going to lightly cook them while i heat up my oven's grill.

OK that was a bad idea, I guess cabbage cooks kinda unevenly. Should have just boiled or sautee'd it i guess? I don't want to eat it raw though.

 I'm chopping up the liver to try and get it in thin strips, its like a bunch of odd shapes though. And then I'm seasoning them with a spritz of cooking oil and some salt & dried seaweed mix, to make it more... aquatic. Also I guess it doesn't smell as bad as beef kidney, thats nice.

It's coming along in the grill, onions still taking forever though. I know this dish is more designed to do on like a tabletop barbecue, but... i dont have that and I don't wanna.

Same as the kidneys, ive chopped the lamb chops into smaller strips, and seasoned with seaweed, and with the bone bit separated it's kinda like having a big range of cuts i guess. Once its all done we can plate up!

**

It's... its just ok. It looks quite appetising, and the loin meat is delicious and juicy. The livers are ok, the flavour is fine and the meat has a dryer, gamier texture. The plain unseasoned onion and burnt cabbage were boring and the kaiso (seaweed salad) is nice on its own but it didn't pair well with anything else. I wanted to have a dip, but i didn't know what to have so i tried a few things: mayo, sriracha, brown sauce... eh, nothing really stuck. I wish i had like a chinese style peanut or sesame dip?

Delicious in Dungeon #15: Raspberries

 This one's not really an official recipe, but it is a chapter in the manga. Consider this a bonus one.

In a flashback, Falin likes to pick wild raspberries and offers them to Marcille as a snack. Marcille doesn't seem to know that you can just... do that.

And wouldn't you know it, I was in Somerset in July, the perfect time and place to go to a farm that lets you pick your own berries! They also have some park benches and sell ice cream so you can really enjoy your spoils.

When it comes to raspberries, you have to feel them out.. if they are fully red, soft and delicate to the touch and come off the cone-shaped stem fairly easily with no leaves attached, you're good to go. Check them for bugs before you eat them! Or take them home and wash them in water if you're more like Marcille.

****

Fresh and tasty! Especially with some chocolate ice cream. (After the pic was taken i filled up the rest of the cup with strawberries, I got my moneys worth dont worry) I did see a white larvae crawling around in the cup though after I ate a few, which is a little off-putting.

Delicious in Dungeon #14: Giant Parasite from a Giant Kraken

 Avast! A kraken in the lake!

Aghast! It's riddles with parasites!

Bizarrely, the kraken itself never ends up being cooked in a meal, instead they enjoy the giant lamprey-sized parasites living inside the kraken. I imagine they are supposed to be more like eel, but they talk about squid a bunch and eel is very hard to get so i'm going to make it some grilled squid.

These squids are pretty small, but thats fine. I'm going to butterfly them, score the outer skin and then stick them on skewers to grill.

These are grilled two ways, plain and "kabayaki style" (with sauce). For the plain one I'm still going to season it with some salt and pepper so itll be dry but still have some flavour. I'm not going to barbecue them im just gonna grill em on my grill.

And since im more excited for the sauce, im just doing one dry and going to marinate all the others for a little while. Hopefully they'll pick up some flavour although they are very rubbery.

Skewered up and ready to go! Baldur's Gate 3 called, they want their juicy mind flayer genitals back.

Since there's not much to 'em, im gonna enjoy them with a side of seasoned japanese rice.

**

I don't know why I always think squid is interesting, I feel like at best squid is mid. I was surprised at the lack of difference between the two. They were both salty and chewy, like plain bacon on a stick. Having it with the seasoned seaweed rice was a bit of a mistake, because that was also very salty. Maybe I should have done something like mackerel instead, as it would have absorbed the sauce even better with the flaky texture. It was fine though. I liked that the tentacles got kinda crispy.