Breath of the Wild #44: Cream of Mushroom Soup

Ingredients: Any Mushroom, Any Herb, Vegetable, or Flower, Rock Salt, Fresh Milk

Description: "This creamy mushroom-and-vegetable soup is thick and flavorful."

Cream of mushroom? More like cream of dairy. WITH mushroom. Stripping back this time to something quite basic, we have regular boring mushrooms, dried shiitake mushrooms, shallots, garlic, cream (and milk because theres not much cream left), and then rock salt, white pepper, tarragon and a bay leaf to season.

I'll start by rehydrating those dried mushrooms in hot water. I doesn't say how long this takes.... so... i hope its not long. 

As usual, ill start with browning the onions and garlic.

Then in go the rehydrated mushrooms, the sliced mushrooms, and that seasoning I said before. And some water.

And then ill supplement that water with the rest of that cream and top it up with milk. I just realised I could have added a stock cube?? Oh well!

***

It looks so small in this big bowl (i did only serve half of what I made)... Anyway, the shiitake and white pepper somehow made the flavours not that gross. It tastes very light and hydrating. Like a nice starter. I guess I made it "thin and flavourful." 

...I'm going to go get some salami and crisps...

Breath of the Wild #43: Veggie Cream Soup

Ingredients: Any Carrot or Any Pumpkin, Rock Salt, Fresh Milk

Description: "This creamy soup showcases the sweetness of vegetables in a veritable taste explosion."

No, you're not seeing double, there's cream of vegetable soup AND veggie cream soup! No wonder I struggled to unlock all the recipes when I played. Anyway this one's pumpkin or carrot, why not both! And i'm going all in on orange veg, just those and some garden herbs.

It's not pumpkin season so we got butternut squash, same dif! I chopped it in half and peeled the sides of the carrots, we're going to bake them in the oven first to get some nice soft chunks to work with!

Ive sprayed them with olive oil and ground on some of the sea salt as well. An essential for all soups, apparently. I will just check on it every 20 mins until it looks good, and take the carrots out earlier if i need to.

I think they all sat in there happily for like an hour in the end. I did this part earlier in the day so I could let them cool for a bit while I did other stuff. Now, hear me out... im going to blend one half of the pumpkin and chop the other, and chop the carrots but leaving one whole for serving. Talk about making a meal of it...

Time to blend up the herbs with a bit of water. I got a little handful of chives and a sprig of sage in there.

Oh!! i just remembered STOCK CUBES exist. This is literally what they are for. I put that in too with the herbs and some more hot water, thats getting the soup started finally.

The pumpkin is soft enough to scoop out of the skin, and I can blend it in a few rounds. If you have a hand blender you can get the job done faster probably, but this aint bad!

In goes the blended pumpkin, ive added some dried cayenne pepper, turmeric and coriander, and then i can just top it up with more hot water until I like the consistency basically, a nice thick soup but thin enough for the chunks to bob around satisfyingly.

While that brews, I can chop the rest into nice thick chunks, cutting off the skin bits and carrot ends as I go.

Then the chunks can go straight in and half that cup of cream! Its nearly ready!

*****

Hehehe, orange as orange can be. The herbs make it taste surprisingly like a chicken soup, and i love squash and carrots, they're so easy to work with and already have a great flavour as they are. It definitely "showcases the sweetness of vegetables in a veritable taste explosion," not to be dramatic. Filling, delicious, and easy to make in a big batch. Good soup!

Breath of the Wild #42: Cream of Vegetable Soup

Ingredients: Any Herb, Vegetable, or Flower, Rock Salt, Fresh Milk

Description: "Made by simmering vegetables in milk, this healthy dish is as simple as its ingredients."

We've got vegetables: pak choi, shallots, carrots, celery. We've got salt, and for milk im using cream, makes it that little bit thicker. And a little stock, garlic, horseradish and seaweed sprinkles for flavour.

I'll start by frying the garlic and onions a bit while I chop the rest into big chunks.

Then the carrots and celery can go in.

We chase that up with stock cubes, I forgot to get vegetable but chicken is kinda similar. And extra rock salt, though the stock will add salt too.

I still have this wretched drying horseradish in my fridge so im grating a bit of that for extra flavour. If you're not a freak you could just use like mustard or pepper if you want.

Once the harder vegetables have had a bit of time, I throw in the whole leaves of pak choi and umm, how much cream? I don't know. Whatever feels right.

**

It tastes like... celery. and milk. chilling in a hot tub. 5 feet apart. Its fine, just kinda bland. It's probably healthy.

Breath of the Wild #41: Copious Simmered Fruit

Ingredients: Any Four Different Fruit

Description: "The flavors of the various fruits in this simmered dish exist in perfect harmony."

Our four different fruits: pear, orange, blueberries and pineapple. I thought to add a little complexity but be different from the previous one, we'd add a touch of ginger, star anise and lemon juice. And then of course extra syrup, to taste.

Time to peel anything peelable, and remove as much of the orange pith as I can be bothered. Don't want it getting too bitter.

Shoving everything in my big cast iron pot, a couple tablespoons of extra water and let's just see what happens!

After about 15 mins its already looking transformed! Shout out to blueberries for adding a bit of colour. I think i'll just serve myself a little bowl of it for now, I want something savoury with dinner as well.

****

Harmonious! The simple bits of ginger, lemon and star anise add a noticeable complexity, while every fruit flavour stands out. It's surprisingly wine-like, it reminds me a lot of sangria, I think pears really trick me somehow into thinking there's an alcohol taste. Some of the textures are better stewed than others. The pineapple maintains a nice crunch, but the orange slices are fibrous and mushy. Great thing to try if you're bored of fresh fruit, or you have a lot of slightly blander/underripe fruits to use up.

Breath of the Wild #40: Simmered Fruit

Ingredients: Any Fruit

Description: "This sweet dish is made by heaping tasty fruits into a pan and simmering until tender."

For this we're just starting with ONE fruit, there's a 4-fruit version coming up. When I think "simmered" I think pears for some reason. So pears its gonna be! I picked some bold pairings with this bold flavour: white wine, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. And syrup for that extra sweetness.

Damn i see why people call pears "juicy". It's like peeling a wet bar of soap.

Next I chop them into quarters and get rid of all the hard bits, seeds and stems and that.

And in a pot they go with the white wine, cinnamon, nutmeg and a few cloves. It's gonna be festive! I also have a tiny sprig of purple sage to garnish.

****

Yep, the flavours were fun and worked really well. A nice idea for such a simple dish. One thing I don't like about pears though, is that weird mealy texture, and the ground spices kinda enhance that for an extra-fine grittyness. I guess now I see the point in buying whole spices to infuse for things like this. 

Breath of the Wild #39: Fruit and Mushroom Mix

Ingredients: Any Fruit, Any Mushroom

Description: "This dish contrasts the sweetness of fruit with the savoriness of mushrooms."

OK so last time I combined mushrooms with fruit (orange?) it was kinda gross, but im feeling good about this one. I have decided to stew some mushrooms and plums together.

First, let's rinse the mushrooms. They're going in whole.

So, I figured... maybe we can accessorise this dish with lots of savoury items to offset all the fruit. I'm chopping some shallots, and then ill add some beef stock, strong flavoured herbs, tomato puree, and some other stuff as I think of it.

I chose some plums that were a bit underripe, so theyll be a bit sour and less sweet. Nice colours though.

I'll just dry fry those for a bit and then add in the rest.

In goes the mushrooms, beef stock cube, chopped rosemary and thyme, a bay leaf, and a bit of hot water to make it a stew.

Hmm to lean into the plummyness, how about a tiny bit of wine, tomato puree and soy sauce?

It looks not bad, I suppose. Are we going to be ok? I think i'll get a bread roll to eat it with too.

**

First mouthful I was like wow! Ive created a really nice umami flavour. The plum, mushroom, wine and herbs really did contrast the flavours nicely. But after a while, the bitterness sunk in, and then i had to eat big wet mouthfuls of slimy mushroom and plum. It seems like it would make a really nice gravy to pour over something else. But gravy isn't a meal. Maybe i'll blend the leftovers and use it as a meat sauce base?

Breath of the Wild #38: Salmon Meuniere

 Ingredients: Hearty Salmon, Tabantha Wheat, Goat Butter

Description: "The crispy skin of this fried hearty salmon puts its texture in a class all its own."

This one's clear! Salmon it is. Same as last times with the flour and butter and the leftover butter-sauce mix, and rocket and tomato to garnish.

This one, i wonder if we can bend it into shape to make it look like the slice in the picture... maybe not... I know there's two fillets but im just going to have one I think. That big monkfish slice last time was overkill.

Speaking of last time, ive made sure the pan is nice and clean and ill try and cook it faster to avoid the butter and flour burning... its still a lot thicker than those hake fillets though.

Once its done, i turn the flame off and just quickly melt the butter sauce with the parsley and capers.

****

(i bent it in half to try and look more like the graphic, but... looks more like i broke it on accident) Obviously with the flavour of salmon, a fish that works quite well even on its own, it was bound to be better than the last one! But, i still struggled not to blacken the flour a bit... Overall I see why sole meuniere is the traditional choice, the thin white fish that cooks fast and absorbs lots of lemon juice is a clear winner. Oh also my raw tomato to everything else ratio was getting out of hand.