Breath of the Wild #45: Creamy Meat Soup

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

Description: "This nutritious soup contains serious portions of lightly braised meat and many vegetables."

Much like the last soup, but with meat this time. I've got some leftover pork belly slices, i figured thats kinda chowder-y...? I also want to try for something a bit more flavourful this time, since the previous soup was a bit lacking.

I'll start by "braising" the meat with a bit of oil and some sea salt and pepper. I used a different chopping board that i was gonna wash for the meat, you should always make sure you wash everything after chopping meat, or chop the veggies first.

Im tryign to do this quickly so ill just throw the vegetables in as I chop them, starting with the onions so they get a bit of browning in.

Then the celery and carrots, I guess we dont need those crispy so we can chase it up pretty quickly with the soup part.

I've got a beef stock cube, a teaspoon of umami paste and a tablespoon of oyster sauce. And just enough hot water that its legally declared a soup! If all this doesnt add a savoury meaty flavour, I don't know what will.

Once thats had some time I add the pak choi and a load of cream. Looking at how much is left in this pot, I didn't use very much cream last time. Oops! Once its had time for the leaves to get all soft and floppy I'll serve with a sprinkle of chopped chives.

****

Big improvements on flavour! The secret to good soup is adding lots of pastes. I do think the fatty cut of pork belly is maybe not the best for a light braising, i guess you wanna sear or slowcook it a lot harder else its a mouthful of chewy porky fat. I also think the pak choi is not an appealing soup texture, its gets all stringy.

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?