Stardew Valley #25: Trout Soup

Ingredients: Rainbow Trout, Green Algae

Item Description: Pretty salty.

I don't really know what kind of soup to make. Chunky and salty. I wanna do something thats sort of slightly chowder-y, so im going to use smoked trout- whats that?? it says salmon on the packet? Look i'll level with ya... they had like a fancy slab of smoked trout for like £7 or a bucket of salmon flakes, perfect for souping, for like half that price. And they basically taste the same smoked? On top of that I got onion, potatoes, bonito flavoured soup stock, cream, and some spirulina powder for the green algae!

Gonna chop up the onions and fry them in the pot first, I should probably do a bit of garlic too! 

While that browns I can chop and throw in the potatoes...

Then some hot water, bonito dashi stock, fish flakes and spirulina...

Then we can just let it stew for some time while the potatoes soften and the flavours... get all flavoury... and the entire kitchen smells like fish...

Mmm! I guess we knew it would come out a weird olive colour. But we're not done yet! We still need to add cream, and then see if it needs any other flavouring.

On a taste test, it's not very salty yet so i'll add some salt. Just enough to fit the description!

****

It's comforting and quite nice, as long as you like very fishy flavoured soups. Oh and you don't mind it looking like some sort of evil olive green gruel with grey lumps. The vegetables, cream and bonito make a nice flavourful backdrop really allowing the smoky fish flavour to be the main event. I have no idea what was intended for this dish but i'm really pleased with my take on it.

Stardew Valley #24: Tom Kha Soup

Ingredients: Coconut, shrimp, Common Mushroom

Item Description: These flavors are incredible!

Looking forward to this one, ngl. I'm pretty prepared! I've looked at a bunch of recipes to cobble together something hopefully good enough. For the coconut we've got coconut milk, for shrimp we've got some frozen pre-cooked king prawns, for the common mushroom we have dried shiitake mushrooms. Then we've got onion, garlic, fish sauce, thai red curry paste, coconut sugar, chillies, and I found a jar of galangal paste! Yes! But I didn't get lemongrass or lime, hopefully a lemon will do, plus there's lemongrass in the curry paste.

Gonna start by browning the onions, garlic, and a chopped chilli.

Been looking for an excuse to use up these dried mushrooms truth be told. I'm slicing them up to hopefully make them hydrate and infuse faster. This is a weekday soup after all.

This lidl coconut milk is so insanely thick. This seems like pure cream to me, crazy. I'll top it up with plenty of water too, and we can just throw in all the dry things now as well.

In goes the fish sauce, coconut sugar, mushrooms, 2 generous tablespoons of red curry paste (because it looks kinda thin and unconcentrated to me)... and 2 big teaspoons of galangal because i bought it specially for this so we BETTER make it count!

Now we let it simmer for ages, topping it up with water if needed. The prawns can go in in the last 10mins or so because they're pre-cooked and we dont want them to get rubbery.

Prawns are looking thawed and everythings looking kinda tasty. I quickly checked my herb garden to see if I had coriander, but it turns out I didnt actually, so i picked a bit of parsley to garnish. Close nuff.

*****

Y'know at first spoonful I felt a little oversold by its description. I was like its a tad weak, its just fine... but as i kept eating the flavour really grew on me, it has a really pleasant heat that never gets too spicy but feels perfect to warm you up and clear your sinuses. And that wonderful sour, fruity flavour comes through the more you eat. Maybe I could have gotten more depth with some extra stock and that lime and coriander... but as it is this is still easily a great soup that id happily make again.

Stardew Valley #23: Bread

Ingredients: Wheat Flour

Item Description: A crusty baguette.

A simple bread! how hard can bread be? It's main ingredient is flour, but as usually its a bit of a lie because quite critically you need yeast and a bit of water. And most recipes recommend a pinch of salt and/or sugar.

I'm following a recipe that says to make a sort of yeast slurry first. I've put the yeast and a pinch of sugar in warm water... maybe too warm tbh... uh.. i guess we'll find out.

then we sift in half the flour and the pinch of salt.

Now we're supposed to leave it for a while until its "doubled in size"

Left it for an hour.. uh... has it... gotten bigger? Maybe a little. I know it doesnt look it in the photos. It'll get another while to rise when we've added in the rest of the flour.

Now I can get to use my mixer with the dough hooks!

Alright we have a rough ball of dough. We can leave it to rise some more for a few hours this time. It's kind of a cold day too.. but whatever.

Looks like it's risen a fair bit! It still feels a little denser and lumpier than I think it should... maybe I should check the expiration date on that yeast... ah... yeah it expired 6 months ago. Oops! Well its probably fine.

I've folded it a bit and twisted it into a baguette shape. I still don't think it should look quite this dry and lumpy but maybe it will even out in the oven?

spoiler: It didn't really even out in the oven. Still, its mostly risen and tastes just fine so i'll have it sliced up with a load of cheese I have leftover from the pepper poppers recipe. NICE

**

I mean, bread is bread it tastes good, but its a little tough and chewy. Also just look at it. It's not a very good bread. It looks like a tsuchinoko with a skin condition. I should have cooked it a lil' longer, kneaded it a lil more, and most importantly, checked the expiration date on the yeast. I feel sorta bad as there's obviously nothing wrong with this "recipe" in theory, I just sort of flunked it, but I also don't want to do it again because I can go and buy a plain baguette for like 50p at the shops. So suck my baton de pain, big yeast.

Stardew Valley #22: Pepper Poppers

Ingredients: Hot Pepper, Cheese

Item Description: Spicy breaded peppers filled with cheese.

Hot peppers, hot peppers are you sure? Are you sure I shouldnt get some sweet mixed peppers? Oh well, my funeral. I at least got a pack of chillis that claimed they were "medium" hot.

I'm at least gonna do myself a favour and cut the seeds and pith out, thats the hottest and bitterest part, plus we need to make these little fuckers as hollow as possible to fill with cheese. There's not a lot of room to work with tbh.

Next i'm making a cheese mixture, we've got finely grated mature cheddar, some cream cheese and then a teaspoon of garlic powder to add some extra flavours.

This is quite thicc and holding its shape really well, maybe too well...

Nah perfect, with soem quite thin shallow peppers we're able to practically just stack the cheese on top and its staying in really well. They're not ready to go in the oven just yet though..

We gotta dust the top with some breadcrumbs! OK NOW they can go in the oven.

***

These are hot! The cheese and garlic combo is really nice when you can taste it, and im surprised how much flavour the breadcrumb adds. I definitely recommend this choice of stuffing combination, but I see no reason why not to use a milder pepper so that you can enjoy the sharpness of the cheese more. I should NOT have eaten these on an empty stomach.

Stardew Valley #21: Crispy Bass

Ingredients: Largemouth Bass, Wheat Flour, Oil

Item Description: Wow, the breading is perfect.

I don't have a largemouth bass, but i have a sea bass! thats like almost the same name of fish. In convenient, boneless fillet form. We've got flour, oil and a few more things essential for breadcrumbing a fish.

First we have to release the fish from their surprisingly difficult vaccuum sealed prison. Then pat some flour on to them.

Next we crack an egg, mix it up and dip the fillets in the egg.

Then throw down some breadcrumbs on a plate, and i'm also adding a bit of seasoning with it, just my usual paprika salt and ground pepper.

Now the fish is all bready and ready.

Since oil is a main ingredient, i'm gonna use a generous amount of it so that we are practically deep-frying these.

Heat up the oil and then in they go!

TBH I kinda forgot to acquire any leaf vegetables to serve this with, but I got some dill and some seaweed sprinkles and that just seems like a natural combination for this dish.

****

Is the breading perfect?? uhh... sure. The cookedness and crispyness in general seemed perfect to me, as far as my standards go. The fillet was juicy and boneless and i didnt regret leaving the skin on. I enjoyed it with a big squeeze of lemon juice, and the dill & seaweed salt obviously worked well. Compared to a pre-breaded/battered cod or haddock though..? The bass tasted a little.. earthier. Which meant overall it kinda doesnt seem worth the extra effort to bread your own fish, when its comes out about the same as the cheapest pack of frozen fish fingers at the store. Which is to say, still pretty good.

Stardew Valley #20: Fish Taco

Ingredients: Tuna, Tortilla, Red Cabbage, Mayonnaise

Item Description: It smells delicious.

Actually took me ages to find some taco shells, and when I found some in waitrose they had ALL THE OPTIONS including soft taco shells, hell yeah. It's also a good idea because fun fact i had a tooth extracted a week and a bit ago and its still healing. Another reason it took me a while. We've also got tuna, red cabbage, mayonnaise, as well as coriander and some various sauces I thought would pair well. Kinda winging this one.

So I'm a bit fussy when it comes to tuna, I was never a fan of it growing up and the idea of tinned tuna and mayo makes my stomach churn a bit, so I thought i'd treat myself to some tuna steak for this! I'll cook 3 chunks from frozen on the hob (in a slightly dirty pan i used to cook gyoza for lunch) while we prep everything else.

I thought I would try the julienne mode on my peeler to "grate" the red cabbage. I don't know what im doing and its making a huge mess, but its working..? and its actually kinda easy on my shoulder compared to grating or chopping. My hands are turning purple though.

Hadn't really planned ahead, but I suddenly thought... wouldn't I like to use the mayo with the cabbage to make kind of a slaw? makes it a little easier to assemble, plus a bit of vinegar and lemon juice will break down the cabbage and make it easier on my increasingly sensitive intestines. So i've got mayo, other mayo (i forgot i had a cheaper one lol), jalapeno sauce, cider vinegar, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Also don't worry, ill clean all this up later i PROMISE.

This tuna is looking mighty appetising like this I gotta say! 

Now I'm gonna heat the tortillas a bit, in my slightly-too-moist pan... itll... be fine.. probably...

Now we can fill it! Coriander, slaw...

...some big slabs of tuna and chimichurri sauce! Now uh, um... how do I uh... how am I gonna photograph this...?

*****

This is fantastic. I think I like tuna now? Well I already know I love slaw, coriander and chimichurri, and the tuna is a perfect match. I'm actually not sure ive ever had fish tacos before, I usually have the standard beef mince/tomato/cheese type. These are so different, and sooo worth doing!