Delicious in Dungeon #33: Risotto With Mushrooms Picked In a Graveyard And Cheese From The Orcs

 What an innocent sounding recipe...

Speaking of innocent, caught this CREATURE trying to get into my cupboards. Let's cook them.

What, no? Ok fine. Cook *FOR* them. Picky picky kitty who only eats beige food. You heard the title text, we got mushrooms from a graveyard and cheese from the orcs. And garlic and rice and other stuff from... looting corpses I guess? Technically.

Starting off with about a tablespoon of butter and some garlic. Maybe I should have used more butter? I was finishing up a packet.

Oh we can throw in the rice already, but before it burns we should add water pretty soon.

While we add the water we can get some mushrooms quickly chopped and lobbed in there as well.

And I saw senshi adding something from a bottle for seasoning, im gonna choose to intepret that as white wine, a classic pairing with garlic and mushrooms.

The rice will take a while to cook on the hob, but we have to keep stirring it. I normally like to just use my steamer for rice so i can forget about it for 30 mins! Anyway we can prepare the cheese while we wait. I've got 2 kinds so ill use a bit of both: sharp cheddar and italian hard cheese.

As the water cooks off I try the rice, if its not fully soft yet I add more water. Hmm, come to think of it im using unsalted butter, I should probably add some salt back in. And some pepper for good measure? 

Once the rice is done I can add the cheese and stir it in until its melted and everything gets all creamy looking.

****

Not bad! I wish I added more cheese, i was surprised how little I tasted it. It mostly tasted like mushrooms with garlic. I really like how creamy and rich a good risotto is, and I think I did a good job of cooking the rice.

Delicious in Dungeon #32: Sweet Dryad

 The last of the fifth floor throwback trilogy!

So what was that creature stalking us? well it was just a damn fool shapeshifter. I shifted its shape flat-wards.

So for sweet dryad, I don't really know exactly what those are... but for me what springs to mind is a fruit-filled cookie! (Well also a greek roxakia but I don't know how to make those.) Cookies! cookies! cookies!

I'm using a simple sugar cookie recipe I found online. Its got flour, a little baking powder, butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla extract!

Ah... I wish I had read ahead... it wanted me to whip the butter and sugar together in my mixer.. and i just filled the big bowl with the dry ingredients... DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME, it was VERY RISKY to mix in a bowl this small, I had to use my advanced super strength gamer grip!

Now we can combine it all together, with an egg and the vanilla extract.

The mixer will turn it into some sort of scary looking crumble, but then you just take the whisks out and get your hands in to knead it back together...

Et voila! We have some good looking cookie dough! Let's put that in the fridge to chill while we do the next part.

So... I know previously we used pumpkin for the dryad fruit. But... I simply had something else in mind. I thought it would be really cool to use some tinned figs. Figs feel like such a medieval fantasy fruit to me, I dunno why. I've started by draining the syrup out, we want a mash thats not going to leak out of the cookie. I can use the syrup in some mixed drinks maybe?

The figs go in my blending cup and we add some SPICES! The obvious answer is still christmas style spices, so i've got ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice.

Success! The figs and spices have blended into a thick jammy paste.

Now we preheat the oven and shape the cookies.

As you can see, I've just sort of shaped them by hand, rolling them into a ball and pressing a bucket shape with my knuckles.

And put a spoonful of the dryad fruit mush in each. Sure it looks pretty good now, but when the cookies heat up... I don't know how much they will melt. I've made them a bit taller than they need to be, but it remains to be seen whether theyll melt into a a mixed up pile or not.

Well that's not too bad! The dough has spread out while the fruit has stayed firmly in place. I could spread it out a little bit with the back of a spoon I guess, but I'm pretty happy with it anyway.

*****

These are delicious! Its sugary, buttery, sweet and festive. It's a combination of pretty standard cookie flavours, but being home-baked makes even the simplest cookie feel special. And its a perfect pairing with a hot cup of tea.

Delicious in Dungeon #31: "The Whole Fifth Floor" Piccata

Part 2 of the 5th floor throwback meal set.

Im getting closer to the creature... comen to kik its ass

We have GOT cockatrice breast meat, i know it says snake side but... its got such shapely fillets I wanna just use chicken breast. like sorry but snakes dont have breasts??? We've got harpy eggs, some other stuff, and the leftover "sauerkraut" thats actually just non-fermented cabbage salad.

So, I looked piccata up and its supposed to actually be in a lemon, caper & butter sauce? Those ingredients arent really sourced here, so what im gonna do instead is add some seasoning mixes to the egg, with dried lemon (swahili lemon pepper and thyme, lemon & bay salt) and a little splash of white wine. This should give it the slight acidic and peppery flavour.

Using a decent amount of butter for this, enough that itll probably cook dry but add a noticeable butteryness.

The fillets are dipped in the egg & seasoning mix... the fillets are a bit wet from defrosting, hopefully the egg still sticks, maybe I should have patted them dry..

And then im just patting some flour on them as well. Messy business, I probably should have used a bigger plate.

I say this every time, I probably shouldnt crowd the pan, but.... I wanna... and I pour the remaining egg mix in over the top.

The fillets are so thick, we're gonna want to cook it low and slow and try not to lose too much moisture.

Checked and they're still not done in the middle, if they come out really brown then so be it. It'll still taste good.

*****

These are great! The seasoning has a nice lemony peppery flavour, but it doesnt really matter because the vinegary mustardy cabbage really overpowers it all, but I think it tastes really nice and goes great with chicken anyway. The chicken is cooked all the way through but still fresh and juicy. I don't really think this is a "piccata" though. It's more like... pan fried eggy chicken.

Delicious in Dungeon #30: "Memories of the Fifth Floor" Pilaf

 There's something lurking in the corridor.. tricking us into using up our leftovers..

So... unlike some of the previous grouped up meals, I really want to split these next 3 recipes up. They just seem complex and standalone enough to do each one justice.

I've got some leftover rice (its sushi rice actually with a little seasoning already), some grated mandrake and chopped mushrooms from the freezer, and cockatrice - but wait, its not breast meat this time, its from the snake part! I can't get snakemeat but I got tuna steak.

I guess i'm allowed to do what I want with the spices. I wanna do something that says "pilaf" but not just curry rice... I'm following my heart and using star anise, cardamom, dried coriander, salt & pepper. And some butter to cook it all in. No garlic!? That's right, no garlic or onion, I want to try letting these other flavours shine instead.

Once the cockatrice snake (tuna) is starting to cook I'll add the veg. I think I was too hasty though, I should have defrosted the tuna  and cooked it patiently as its actually taking a while to cook and im just stabbing it into pieces with my spatula instead of letting it flake naturally, while my frozen veg are cooking fast.

Oh I just had a thought!? I've not added any heat really. I don't want it to be "a spicy dish" so ill just dump in some mild chilli powder, ive got loads of this stuff.

I'm adding warm water occasionally as its browning a little too well on the outside, we need the tuna to be fully cooked and then we can add the rice at the end.

As you can see, the rice is picking up all the spices well. My arm is getting tired from stirring it around!

*****

It's so comforting, spicy and woody. I went and selected flavours based on what I was craving that day, and it really hit the spot! I'm not normally a fan of mushrooms but even though they made a big impact on the flavour, the way they paired with the anise and coriander and tuna just really worked.

Delicious in Dungeon #29: Rolled Harpy-Egg Omelet

Well well well, if it isn't tamagoyaki again.

What are you doing up there you strange, naked lady bird thing?

I raided a nest of their eggs haha!

I've got my tamagoyaki pan and a fancy spritzer, could I be any more prepared?

It says add seasonings, but I wanted to keep it minimal so we've just got salt, pepper and that mirin again that we used on the last recipe.

Mixing it up simple style with chopsticks.

I accidentally got a bit of a heavy sear at the start... it looks tasty like that but its kinda wobbly. Looks like a crepe. Also i never know which direction to roll it in with the pan.. am I doing it backwards? I feel like it was better when I did it the other way.

***

Hmm nice enough but still not my best work, but im getting better having a thin layer and rolling it. Flavour wise all I was getting from the mirin was an added sweetness... it somehow wasnt peppery enough. I wish I had used rice vinegar and soy sauce... or even just cheese, cheese really makes an omelette.