Breath of the Wild #54: Vegetable Curry

Ingredients: Any Carrot or Any Pumpkin, Hylian Rice, Goron Spice

Description: "This healthy curry is popular for its mild flavor and moderate spiciness." 

I thought i'd try another curry paste I bought to mix things up a bit. It's another thai style yellow curry type. Just thought this would go nicely with veg. I've already given the "pumpkin" (butternut squash) a bit of baking in the oven to soften it up, and then we've got a big onion, courgette, tomatoes, and some chives. Oh and not pictured is some jasmine rice in the steamer.

First I'll fry the onions, medium sized chunks I guess i'd call that, in a tiny bit of veg oil.

I want to have some vegetables on the top like in the graphic, so ill chop some bigger and some smaller pieces, and take a few out once they've cooked in the pan before adding the curry.

Same deal with the tomatoes.

And the pumpkin, I guess just half of the thing will be plenty, cutting off the peel and chopping it into cubes, with some half-ring slices for the top.

Hello yello! I guess this is designed for chicken but... well, you gotta try stuff.

In goes the whole thingy of curry paste and a can of coconut milk. It says use half a can and hot water but I don't want half a can sitting in my fridge... very thoughtful of me I know.

Then I leave that to stew for a while, looks good enough to eat. Oh, I will serve it with rice and sprinkle the chopped chives on top.

****

Mild and creamy yet with a subtle spicy aftertaste. The vegetables on top don't really add anything, I guess if I did this again without the oddly specific vegetable choices i'd have used some more fitting ingredients, like... coriander and bamboo shoots or something. The tomato goes surprisingly well though. 

Breath of the Wild #53: Curry Rice

 Ingredients: Hylian Rice, Goron Spice

Description: "A favorite all over Hyrule, this simple dish has a flavor you just won't get tired of."

A favourite to me too, is the classic japanese stewed curry. There's about to be a looooot of curry recipes, but this ones supposedly just rice and spice... im at least going to use some chunky vegetables though! 

The rice is already steaming away, I got some japanese short-grain rice again. Might as well go all out.

I'll start off by browning the onions a bit in the bottom of the pot with some cooking oil.

That won't take long, so lets quicky get everything else chopped, the potato chunks will need a good while to soften. Im coming down with some sort of flu so im very tired today, i want to relax and have dinner asap! At least this is nice and easy.

I use half the packet of curry blocks with the recommended 660ml  of hot water!

And quickly chop the carrots to put them in straight after.

Try not to doze off on the sofa while I wait... this will fix me though!

When its nearly ready we can plate up the rice and add a little extra flair! I have some seaweed & salt seasoning for the rice, and its traditional to have a little bit of pickles on the side, but I don't have any, just this jar of chilli pineapple relish.. I think that will go well!

*****

I'm often coming back to this simple recipe (well, instant curry) because its such a banger! I think each curry has a different strength, some go well with seafood or lamb... this one's strength I think is vegetables. Sure it goes well with most meats, but it really brings out the best in those carrots and potatoes. The relish added a nice sweet and spicy kick as well.

Breath of the Wild #52: Glazed Seafood

Ingredients: Any Seafood, Courser Bee Honey

Description: "A seafood dish that you can actually wolf down whole!"

This ones fresh and will be nice and easy to pan fry. I got plenty of salmon, which seems like the obvious choice to me. (ill just use 2 fillets for this) and ill be mixing the honey with garlic, lime juice, gochujang and soy sauce.

The fish won't take long to cook so ill mix up the sauce first. We've got a generous dollop of honey, one clove of crushed garlic, uh... roughly a tablespoon of gochujang?? a couple tablespoons of soy sauce, and just a little tiny splash of lime juice. Don't want it too bitter.

Swirl it all up, perfect!

Just a dash of cooking oil and two nice looking fresh fillets. I'll make sure they are at least halfway cooked before I add the glaze.

I'll try to sear all the sides gently without breaking the fillet up... ugh its so tempting to move them around lots though..

Now we can throw on the sauce! I want to cook it a bit but ill try not to burn it... We can add a tiny bit of water if it gets too dry?

*****

I think i've finally made a proper glazed meal! It's sweet and sticky like a nice bbq or teriyaki. The skin is crispy and the meat goes great with the nicely balanced sauce. Good job, me.

Breath of the Wild #51: Glazed Meat

Ingredients: Any Meat, Courser Bee Honey

Description: "The sweetness of the honey permeates the meat, giving it a complex taste profile."

Based on the wobbly fatty looking meat, I thought pork belly would be good for this! But it looks like... i picked up a pork loin joint instead! Oh well, I like that too! Then i've got honey, soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds, miso paste and one (slightly old) chilli.

A bit of everything and ill blend it together!

Ok i know it looks really nasty and the strong miso smell is a lot, but it also smells like its gonna be goooddd

I think ill use my nice pumpkin pot to roast this! Itll just about fit, i will keep rotating it around periodically as it cooks, otherwise itll probably be dry on one side and wet on the other.

After about 2 hours its looking good!

And on the inside too, we can chop off some big chunks to serve. I think ill make some peas to have on the side.

*****

The miso and sesame does a lot, making it very umami. It's mildly sweet and salty, i didn't over do it with the honey or soy sauce. Very rich and flavourful, and now I have plenty of roast meat!

Breath of the Wild #50: Glazed Mushrooms

Ingredients: Any Mushroom, Courser Bee Honey

Description: "The honey in this mushroom dish gives it a sweet, complex taste and a savory finish."

I thought that strong earthy flavour of shiitake just seemed like a good match for this one. I liked the chinese 5-spice and soy sauce with the vegetables so we'll do that again, and of course, the honey.

Straight in the pan with a bit of oil, it wont need long so ill already grind in the salt and dry spices.

Once its almost there a splash of soy sauce and a big drizzle of honey.

****

It's sweet, complex and delicious! The shiitake was a good shout, it tastes a bit like chicken this way. Points deducted for barely being a side dish, this is more like a topping. Damn near a garnish! I'll have a second course of crisps and a muffin.

Breath of the Wild #49: Glazed Veggies

Ingredients: Any Vegetable, Flower, or Herb, Courser Bee Honey.

Description: "Don't like the taste of vegetables? Simply saute them in honey for a salty-sweet flavor!"

Looks like we're all souped out, into the honey era! I've got some leftover swede from... I don't even remember when... A pak choi, a sweet potato, some chives. Now for the honey, i figure i can mix in whatever I want with that, to compliment the sweet honey with some more savoury and spicy flavours.

I know from experience the swede takes ages to cook and stays quite hard, so this time im going to boil it before I fry it! Same with the sweet potato, which i've peeled and chopped here.

Oh... I left this boiling for ages, the swede feels just right but the sweet potato... its waaaay soft. Like wow, I thought it took a long time to boil like potatoes?

The sweet potato has totally disintegrated and turned to mash! Oh well. I sautee these all in a bit of oil and generously sprinkle on chilli flakes, salt, chinese 5 spice, dollops of umami paste and a big drizzle of honey! Oh and before I serve, ill chop up a bunch of the chives and throw them in as well.

****

Im learning new things about vegetable cooking times... I really thought sweet potato would be tougher and need that boiling... Well! Consistency aside, the umami and chinese 5-spice flavours really pop off. I dont think the trio of textures is particularly appealing, but if you just did the swede/squash with the honey chilli 5-spice and chives that makes a great go-to side dish

Breath of the Wild #48: Creamy Heart Soup

Ingredients: Hearty Radish, Hydromelon, Voltfruit, Fresh Milk

Description: "Enjoying this sweet soup with another person will bring you both close together."

Curious one, this. I'm choosing to take it quite literally though. We've got radishes, "hydro" melon, frozen dragonfruit/pitaya for the voltfruit, fresh cream... and then some green grapes and sugar syrup to round out the recipe. What could go wrong? 

Yes, radishes. The vegetable. I don't think i want them hard and crunchy, so im going to nip the stem and roots off and boil them in a bit of hot water.

I don't know how much waters in the other fruits yet so ill be stingy with the hot water.

Now, to remember how the juicer attachment for my blender works... Perhaps i should have let this frozen dragon fruit thaw, but... I don't know, will it turn brown if i do that? im just going to add a splash of hot water and blend it, see what happens. 

Ok, not as much liquid as I expected. Its turned into a nice looking smooth slush in the middle, maybe ill just dump the whole thing in after all? The seeds will be good for me.

Yeah this looks fine. Boiling the radishes ironically turns them white, but theres plenty of pink to go around.

I was really struggling with if we should add any kind of herbs or spices, but I dunno. Lets make like a fruit cocktail and add loads of sugar instead! 

Handful of grapes... gotta boil those grapes. (what am i doing)

Once its nearly ready i add in the cream... uhoh... I didn't think about it possibly of it curdling. Is this something a bit of heat and a good whisking can fix?

Whoa, it kinda helped! It smells kinda bad though. It smells like cream thats been in my fridge a bit too long, and dragonfruit thats been in my freezer way too long... Im starting to feel queasy.

I also wanted to get a whole melon to cut a big heart with it, but they were all out (its mid spring as i write this!) so I got these slices... still, this will do for making a heart shape right?

*

Somehow, its not as bad as I expected. It feels a lot like consuming a soup for some sort of weird ritual. The radishes are crisply boiled. The hot grapes... are nothing. Grapes are not better hot. It's sweet and creamy, and probably full of fiber. Would I make this again? Absolutely not. It's pointless. But... the experience brought us together?