Breath of the Wild #26: Salt-Grilled Mushrooms

Ingredients: Rock Salt, Any Mushroom

Description: "A basic mushroom dish made by lightly salting mushrooms and grilling them."

After that copious mushroom skewer I had a nice array of mushrooms. I technically only needed one type for this, but its cool that ive got all these for this otherwise basic and boring dish.

Found a foil pan and gave them a spritz of vegetable oil and plenty of the ROCK SALT. Under the grill it goes!

**

I dont like too much salt, but i think its a big improvement and helps them go down a bit easier. The shiitake mushrooms shone here with their much better flavour compared to chestnut mushrooms. Shiitake may taste like dirt but chestnut/closed cup mushrooms taste like soot. The oyster mushrooms pick up a bit too mush salt with their frilly shape, and the king oyster mushrooms are big and wet, they really should get cut up and pan-fried with some sauce like a steak.

Breath of the Wild #25: Salt-Grilled Greens

Ingredients: Rock Salt, Any Herb or Flower

Description: "A health-boosting dish made with leafy greens and a touch of salt."

Remember the fried wild greens from recipe 16? Here's what i did with the rest of them!

This time they're getting "grilled" (in my oven) in a baking pan. I'll spray them with cooking oil and a "touch of salt" or... ok more salt than I usually put on anything. It's the only gimmick!

***

Hmm salty. Quite nice, but I think i preferred the pan-fried version, more balanced in flavours but also more crisp and less floppy. My health is boosted. My sodium is boosted.

Breath of the Wild #24: Gourmet Meat and Seafood Fry

 Ingredients: Raw Gourmet Meat or Raw Whole Bird, Any Seafood

Description: "A marriage of the choicest cuts of meat and seafood. As delicious as it is filling!"

Omg they're getting married!!! For the gourmet version of this dish I thought beef and tuna steak and some fancy steak sauce would be gourmet enough? So I bought some pre-made peppercorn sauce made with fresh beef jus and brandy and some other stuff.

We can fry them both in butter with a pinch of salt, and then while that's cooking I can heat up the sauce as well.

For some reason I bought shallotts as well, so i'll slice a couple of them thin and fry them up.

Once the shallots are brown and the meat is almost done, I throw in the sauce and just heat it up and mix it together.

The steaks already done, ill give the tuna just a touch more frying and sear the tomatoes as well.

With the sauce heated we can just assemble!

*****

It's so flavourful! And honestly a lot of meat.... an unnecessary amount. But yeah a nice combo of flavours, the thick sauce was sour and peppery and buttery, the tomatoes and rocket pair well with the rich meats, nothing clashed really. I guess this is gourmet!

Breath of the Wild #23: Prime Meat and Seafood Fry

Ingredients: Raw Prime Meat or Raw Bird Thigh, Any Seafood

Description: "This comfort dish is made with choice cuts of meat and seafood."

Time to upgrade our meat and fish... this time we have salmon and chicken thigh!

And a different flavour as well, I thought this time jerk seasoning and a bit of lime would go with these (slightly) darker meat types. I'll give the chicken a headstart and then the salmon can go in after.

Looking toasty! Don't worry I think the jerk mix is supposed to blacken a lot giving it that burnt look

***

S'alright. The jerk seasoning gives it a nice balanced fruity and spicy flavour, but it was a bit boring? I guess a dried spice mix and a pan isn't exactly the real deal compared to a 12 hour fresh marinade and a charcoal bbq. I normally prefer salmon to white fish, but maybe I was craving it with something like sweet soy sauce and rice because it was a bit plain like this. I think i liked the last one better, the lemon juice gave it a real kick, the lime juice not as noticeable.

Breath of the Wild #22: Meat and Seafood Fry

Ingredients: Raw Meat or Raw Bird Drumstick, Any Seafood

Description: "A filling dish made by cooking fresh seafood and meat together."

Another 3-tier meal type like the spiced skewer, so we start with the basic quality.. I'll use chicken drumsticks and some leftover white fish. What was it... hake or something? I'll save the salmon for the next recipe.

Pan-frying drumsticks feels so weird to me... like.. I always grill or bake them? I'll need to cook them slowly to make sure they cook all the way through. I can add a bit of water if they start to brown too fast and put on a lid for most of the time.

but first! We can put in most of the seasoning. I've gone for a simple mediterranian-style thing, I have some salt, paprika, and some kinda potato seasoning mix I dunno. Seems like it has garlic powder. And a big squeeze of lemon juice!

After a good slow while when the chicken looks almost cooked, I add the fish fillet.

Foolishly I insisted on using tongs because of the drumstick, and my dexterity wasnt enough to stop me breaking up the fish every time i tried to flip it. Well whatever. At the end I sprinkle on a bit of fresh thyme leaves as well.

 ****

Not bad at all! The lemon flavour was nice and strong and you could taste the thyme at the end. The chicken and fish weren't even that different, both quite meaty and flaky. The drumsticks were perfectly cooked, and because its a simple dish you can just pick the chicken up and eat it off the bone. Filling? yeah I guess so.

Breath of the Wild #21: Crab Stir-Fry

 Ingredients: Any Crab, Goron Spice

Description: "The Goron spice used in preparing this crab pairs perfectly with the flavor of its meat."

Yoo I went to the asian supermarket and they had the crab bits! This is the closest I can get to affordable whole crab I think.

It comes fast frozen in a big ol' block, so ill let it defrost for most of the day. I just put it on a plastic steamer tray in my sink.

You don't wanna re-freeze or wait too long with the defrosted meat, so im gonna gonna boil almost all of them (except a later grilled crab recipe). I noticed a lot of threads in with the crabs that I took out, maybe they were bits of plastic fishing net? So to be safe im not going to reuse the water i boiled them in for seafood stock.

Alright, heres the rest of the set up! I guess this isnt exactly a stir fry, but I thought for the goron spiced crab it would be cool to make it a whole laksa curry and pop the crab on top! So i've got the laksa curry paste and coconut milk, and to fill it out (since its gonna make a big batch!) ive got udon noodles, beansprouts, a few lotus roots, lots of "crab" sticks (surimi), spring onions, chillies, coriander and the tiniest bit of mint (its not growing so well outside in the middle of winter!)

Wow this packet starts with 1.5l of water before I even add other ingredients... i should have used my even bigger pot... Also this smells like itll be plenty spicy so ive decided to forget about adding extra chillies.

I guess i should put the frozen lotus roots in early, and then I guess i can put in the crab and surimi sticks to flavour it..? Most of these ingredients wont need long to cook at all, the udon is part-cooked and beansprouts only need a few minutes (i learned this today lol, turns out i was always overcooking them)

Oh i should add the coconut milk next...

Argh disaster!! the coconut milk had separated so when i tipped it in liquid behind the the solid chunk just blasted my damn hob! Well... while we're making a mess we might as well admit that we need to separate this curry into 2 pots if we're gonna fit the noodles in...

There we go, the noodles and beansprouts can heat up, and I added the coriander and mint as well... I also scrounged a bit of lime and a basil leaf to garnish it with.

****

The laksa curry broth is soooooooo good!!! It's a great curry flavour to pair with seafood, tofu and white meats. It's so perfectly warming, spicy and fruity. Eating crab this way is a pain though, i ended up taking it out and scraping out all the meat with my hands and dropping it back in the noodle soup. It didn't have to be this way.

Breath of the Wild #20: Gourmet Spiced Meat Skewer

Ingredients: Raw Gourmet Meat, Goron Spice

Description: "The rich aroma and juicy texture of this high-quality meat puts it in a league of its own."

So, we have to somehow out-do steak with something that would be good for a curry skewer...? Well! a roasting lamb leg is quite fancy right...? I wanted to make sure I had enough for 3 skewers so maybe I went a bit overboard.

To distinguish it from the previous recipe, i've also chosen to add some more fresh ingredients. I've got a bit of choppes chillies, and grated ginger and garlic.

I've also got some tomato puree, thats a classic curry base after all. Then similar to last time we've got yogurt, pepper, coriander seed, garam masala, curry powder, cumin seed, turmeric and salt. Since theres chillies and tomatoes, im leaving out the cayenne pepper and lemon this time to be a bit different.

Mixing it all up, its a bit thicker than last time. Is thicker better? I really don't know.

Since theres a big bone in this joint, ill cut a good amount of lean meat off it into cubes(ish). The rest can be used for a nice slow cooked roast in the oven later.

This time I can let it sit for a little while in the sauce. Well ok i took longer than i expected, so like 30minutes. I got plans!

Managed to cut off plenty of meat, enough for 4 skewers instead of 3! That's lunch tomorrow sorted.

****

It's certainly super tender and spicy! A bit too spicy, I maybe went overboard with the chillies and garlic now I cant taste the meat as much. I still nailed it and didnt overcook the meat. But... was the steak one just that tiny bit better and more balanced? ah maybe...