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?

Breath of the Wild #47: Snail/Clam Chowder

Ingredients: Sneaky River Snail, Goat Butter, Fresh Milk, Tabantha Wheat

Description: "The pleasant texture and flavor of snails combine with butter and milk in a rich soup."

Alright, this ones a bit different from the other soups. That all said, im starting with a foundation of making it quite similar to the other soups: shallots, celery, carrots and cream. But this time we've got to add butter, and for the wheat ill add a tablespoon of flour? And since its a chowder, ill add in potatoes, and flavour it with garlic and parsley and stock, and a few other things based on a glace at a clam chowder recipe. And lastly for the snails? I got a seafood mix and im going to pick out the mussels meat and use that. Mussels, snails, they're both molluscs right? Close enough?

"The pleasant texture and flavour of snails" said no one ever??? Almost giving myself frostbite picking frozen mussels out from a bunch of frozen seafood. I didnt get all of them but this should be plenty.

I've crushed 4 cloves of garlic, chopped a bit of celery and shallots, and im frying them in a tablespoon or butter. Is that enough butter to count?

When ive chopped big chunks of potato and carrot, i throw them in with hot water and the chicken stock cube.

Next i picked out some extra flavourings to make it more chowder-y... worcester sauce, sriracha, celery salt and white pepper. Is sriracha the millennial's tabasco?

With those in i guess maybe nows a fine time to stir in a tablespoon of flour? With all the potatoes and cream im really not sure this needs flour, but... lets see what happens eh.

Since the mussels are already cooked ill put them in when the potatoes are starting to soften.

Then lastly I can take it off the heat, pour in some cream and chopped parsley. The flour seems to have done a fine job without turning it into too thick of a stew. Lets face it, you can always add more water!

****

I find it difficult to believe mussels are anyone's favourite texture or flavour, but the garlic and parsley was really working with it, making a thick and flavourful soup that'll be a pretty great way to use clams, mussels or even snails if you got 'em.

Breath of the Wild #46: Creamy Seafood Soup

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

Description: "Thick-cut chunks of seafood and stock provide a satisfying savoriness."

We've got our thick-cut chunks of "seafood" (fish): leftover white fish fillets and a tuna steak. Again with the shallots, carrots, celery, chives and pak choi. And this time i've got a bonito-based stock and a big fistful of parsley. 

In go the shallots, celery and carrots as I chop them, just getting them started on a low heat and adding the rock salt.

Then the fish and stock can go in, and hot water till it feels right.

Adding the finely chopped chives and parsley, with a bit of the chives held back for garnish.

When thats had time to brew and the fish looks fully cooked (it basically just breaks into little flakes anyway) I add the cream and pak choi and leave them till they go floppy.

****

I suppose its satisfyingly savoury. Plenty of fish and the vegetables were fresh and crunchy. Probably very lean and healthy. Not quite as tantalizingly umami as the meat one, but it has its own herby charm, I think the green vegetables made more sense flavour wise.

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!