Breath of the Wild #74: Gourmet Poultry Pilaf

Ingredients: Raw Whole Bird, Hylian Rice, Goat Butter, Bird Egg

Description: "Made with the highest-quality poultry, every bite of this pilaf floods your mouth with flavor."

Alright we need the gourmet-est poultry and the most elaborate pilaf! Whats the biggest fanciest bird I can get... how about... ostrich!!? I think this will go well with a classic middle-eastern type spicy and fruity pilaf. We've got jasmine rice, butter, an egg, onion, chilli, peas, mint, chicken stock, raisins, almonds, and a whole bunch of spices, lets see... 

I still wanna take it easy and just steam my rice, but ill mix it with loads of flavours and stir it halfway through. So lets see... plenty of turmeric, a bit of paprika, garam masala, dried coriander, cumin, cardamom pods, star anise, and some torn up mint leaves. Is that enough? Is this... golden rice...?

I chop up the onion and chillies real small, we need lots of colourful stuff and junk in the rice.

Here's how it looks part way through, fair to say we have just enough turmeric. Stirring it around a bit should hopefully help release the cardamom and anise flavours.

When the rice is nearly done we can start frying up the veg with a bit of butter.

And chop up one of the ostrich steaks to have in the mix. They're pre-cooked so no worries! I guess we could also add some salt and pepper at this point, I didn't add any to the rice.

Oh right, raisins! I don't really like getting a big sweet raisin in my rice or salad, but i like a little bit of more dispersed sweetness, so im chopping these up smaller.

In go some raisins and peas...

I still don't know what to do with eggs and pilaf, so I ill scramble it and therell be chunks througout the dish.

Ok its heated and ready for all that rice! I may have made a lot... ill throw in a good chunk of butter, and add more if it dries out too much.

And lastly, the almonds! For that extra nutty crunch. I had a bit more mint leaves so ill throw them on as well. I just keep stirring that up and take it off the heat. Now to find a container for a mountain of hot rice... oh, and one last thing...

Heating the other ostrich steak to go on top! Now thats decadence. Unfortunately though, I DID forget to get tomatoes and greens for the garnish. IM SORRY!!! (who cares)

*****

It's a flood of flavour! Theres so many different flavours, and lots of satisfying crunchy bits. The ostrich steak is sooo nice, its like a lean flavourful red meat with a slight smokyness to it, so its a fun match with all the earthy and aromatic spices. I only ate half of whats on the plate but i just know ill be craving those leftovers. I probably committed like 10 pilaf sins a restaurant wouldn't accept, but im just... a gamer.

Breath of the Wild #73: Prime Poultry Pilaf

Ingredients: Raw Bird Thigh, Hylian Rice, Goat Butter, Bird Egg

Description: "The rice permeates the savory taste of the poultry in this Gerudo-region favorite."

Pilaf part deux! I've mixed it up a bit, instead of corn and carrot we have onion and pomegranate. Chicken breast instead of drumstick, mint instead of chives, and a few more spices. Going for kind of a mediterranean/middle eastern thing

This time we got the chicken stock, turmeric and garam masala again, but adding salt and pepper, star anise, cardamom pods, cumin seed and a bay leaf. Classy!

Again, will stir it around in hot water first to dissolve everything and mix it more evenly before I steam it.

Now, time to rip in to this pomegranate! I haven't had a whole pomegranate for years and years. It's actually easier than I remember I guess, just a bit annoying picking out all that pith for a fruit that I don't think really tastes all that good.

They look a bit pale, maybe underripe, well they are going in rice.

I'll fry up the whole breast chunks and finely diced onion in plenty of butter first. I'm keeping a whole breast in tact for presentation, and ill chop the other 3 once they are cooked to toss in the rice.

stripped off the best leaves of some big stalks of mint.

there's the rice looking done! just like last time I figured I can just make plenty of it.

Ah right, egg is also involved somehow. I'll do like last time, but I think one egg will be plenty.

In goes the chopped chicken and pomegranate, and what else...

Ah! peas!

That's looking respectable, but slightly dry, nothing another lump of butter can't fix. This has to be PRIME.

****

Hmm yeah its about as good as the last one. The spices add more complex flavours. The pomegranate and mint add very little actually. The chicken breast is a little better I guess, it's not too dry. Also i garnished it with basil leaves because i forgot about greens. I guess i'm knocking off a point because we used more and fancier ingredients and it doesn't really seem like its better than the last one. Also I did the next recipe a while before these so observe me talking like i've never made a poultry pilaf before.

Breath of the Wild #72: Poultry Pilaf

Ingredients: Raw Bird Drumstick, Hylian Rice, Goat Butter, Bird Egg

Description: "Sauteed Hylian rice steamed in poultry broth. Cook on low heat until the rice is fluffy."

Conveniently, I've got some boneless drumstick meat. I've got basmati rice, butter, egg, chicken broth and spices, carrot, peas and corn. Let's make the basic version of a poultry pilaf!

Here's a chicken stock cube, turmeric and garam masala.

I'll pour in hot water and mix it around until the stock has dissolved before I steam it.

Meanwhile I guess I can cook the chicken in butter with a bit of salt and pepper.

I'll dice the carrot into small cubes and add that too.

I didn't buy any greens for garnish, but then I remembered there's a bunch of stuff growing in my planters. I've got a bit of chives and some sort of long gangly chard stem? I can pick the leaves off and use those.

The rice looks good!

I guess this isn't egg fried rice, but we have eggs in the recipe somewhere... so ill fry them as little scrambled eggy bits (with more butter) and then mix them in with the rice.

And i'll mix in the rice and sizzle it a bit. I hope this comes out good because i'm accidentally making quite a lot of it.

Lastly we can heat up the frozen peas and corn in there too.

I daresay that's looking rather respectable? Well maybe the chicken could be a bit browner, but it's cooked through.

*****

Honestly with those cheap ingredients its kinda giving... like a budget ready meal or school dinner...? But you know what, even though it's kinda basic, its very moreish and perfect comfort food. Why not cook a big batch of fluffy golden chicken rice sometime?

Breath of the Wild #71: Crab Risotto

Ingredients: Any Crab, Hylian Rice, Goat Butter, Rock Salt

Description: "An everyday staple of seaside villages, the secret to its delicious flavor lies in crab fat."

If you'll remember way back in recipe 21, I bought and boiled a small heap of crabs. This is the day after I did all that, to use that fresh(ish) boiled crabmeat in this risotto. We have our arborio rice, butter and rock salt as per the recipe, and i'll also be flavouring it with veg stock, sweetcorn, garlic, parsley, white wine, lemongrass and lime. I thought i was gonna keep it simple!

I'll melt the butter and brown the crushed garlic. Everything else is cooked I guess, so it can go in near the end. Do i need more butter? I guess i can add more if it needs it..

Next ive added hot water and mixed in the stock cube, and then ill add the risotto rice.

I suppose I should put those misc seasonings in too... plenty of the rock salt, and a little bit of white wine and the lemongrass. Its just there because i want to finish up that old jar thats been in my fridge for ages tbh.

OK while the rice is cooking time to deconstruct this crab! I'll save a couple claws for garnish, and ill use half of the crab meat now and freeze half to use in the crab omurice for recipe 79!

I need to keep stirring the rice and topping it up with water as I go along.

In goes the crab meat, sweetcorn, chopped parsley and that lime wedge.

***

It's fine. The rice is still a little bit undercooked, my bad. This is the trouble with always winging it. It tastes a bit like.. garden? I think its the garlic and parsley. I kinda actually wish i used something to enhance the crab flavour, like seafood stock or crab sticks. I guess they said the secret ingredient was crab fat, I didn't have any crab fat. Do crabs really have fat?