Stardew Valley #57: Stir Fry

Ingredients: Cave Carrot, Common Mushroom, Kale, Oil

Item Description: Julienned vegetables on a bed of rice.

For cave carrot i'll go with regular carrot, a fairly common mushroom, kale, and for the oil i'm gonna use sesame oil, which has a strong flavour and will contribute to the sauce for this stir fry. I've also got bamboo shoots for extra stir fry crunch, and i'll make a simple sauce from soy sauce, oyster sauce, vinegar and fresh ginger.

Oh and let's not forget the rice! as the description says, we've got a bed of rice which i've steamed already.

Here's a rare step I tend to forget mentioning... washing the vegetables! i typically give them a rinse, one easy way is to just pour some water in the bag, close it up in your hand and shake it around a bit... preferably over the sink though, in case the bag has holes...

I don't think I can or should julienne cut mushrooms, im just gonna slice them normal like.

We can and must julienne the carrots though! And grate some fresh ginger.

I've also cut the bamboo shoots a bit thinner.

And lastly, the kale is already chopped! What it's looking extremely full? don't worry itll shrink down a bit during cooking... i hope..

I already put a bit in the bottom of the pan, but seeing how much veg we got in here i'll add a bit more sesame oil.

Then the soy, oyster, and vinegar sauces. And come to think if it, its all quite a bitter and sour selection of vegetables, so im going to add a teaspoon of brown sugar as well. It's very wet, we're gonna have to fry off as much of the liquid as we can.

What did I tell you? The kale would shrink down! Trust the process! Now we can plate up on top of the rice.

***

I'm happy with this! But I do make stir frys all the time, its one of my go-to quick dinners. And this ones quite a simple flavoured one and with mushrooms instead of meat... so its not exactly mind-blowing. But its nice and filling, strongly flavoured by the ginger and sesame making it sour and bitter, but not in a bad way.

Stardew Valley #56: Artichoke Dip

 Ingredients: Artichoke, Milk

Item Description: It's cool and refreshing.

Got some leftover artichokes, just half a can so I will plan to do a relatively small batch. Which is also good because last time I had these artichokes I didn't like em. For the "milk", im being sensible and using sour cream instead, much more dip-appropriate, and cross-referencing a few recipes online with what i already have, ive come up with adding some mayo, dill, celery salt and powdered garlic as well.

I've never made this before, but hopefully chopping/tearing them into small chunks is right? The dip graphic looks chunky.

Thrown it all together, but ah! I just remembered something else from other recipes I was gonna add!

CHEEEESE gromit! Seemingly all kinds of cheeses are used for artichoke dips, but a common one is hard cheese. I got a tiny bit of grana padano left.

Don't cry because you dropped your grater in the dip. Laugh because you dropped your grater in the dip.

Stirred and decanted into a bowl, this is looking like a dip! Now for the last step I wouldnt have guessed.. we bake it in the oven! Glad I looked this up.

****

Alright first off, can't have a dip without the chip!

A personal favourite, some store brand not-chilli-heatwave-doritos. These are already delicious which might be a bit of a cheat, but i think this dip pairs really well and makes for a fun dinner that im sure my doctor wouldn't recommend. I'm not sure if artichoke is redeemed and if i fundamentally like the flavour, but it adds an adventurous je ne sais quoi that makes me glad I tried this and not just a bowl of unbaked sour cream. It does get stuck in your teeth something fierce though.

Stardew Valley #55: Plum Pudding

 Ingredients: Wild Plum, Wheat Flour, Sugar

Item Description: A traditional holiday treat.

The description suggests this is meant to be something like christmas pudding..? But christmas pudding, aka "figgy pudding" is neither made with plums nor is it typically made with figs anymore. You're also supposed to age a christmas pudding for several weeks, I'm not doing all that! I did however, find a recipe for a steamed pudding known as plum duff! Sounds perfect.

First we measure out the dry ingredients, starting with some sifted self-raising flour. Seems its equal parts SR flour, breadcrumbs, dried fruit, suet/fat, and sugar

I don't know the difference between suet and lard so I bought a block of lard. It's so cheap. What could go wrong!? Also we have to grate it, weird.

There we go we have our flour, breadcrumbs, grated lard, dark brown sugar, and I was pleased to use up various ancient packets of dried fruit from the back of my baking cupboard. I didnt' have currants, but i had a bit of dried cranberries, raisins and sultanas. 

Let's not forget the last dry ingredient, a bit of christmassy spice! We've got nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon.

And now for the plums! This might be another unorthodox choice, but I saw a big jar of sweet plums in syrup which seemed both convenient and easy. With a small knife ill just dice up about 220g of them. I don't mind a bit of fruit chunk in my pud.

Next we also add the juice of an orange, and grate the peel (with our sticky lard grater) for the zest. I'll go easy on the juice because the plums are already a bit wet.

And even more wets, 2 eggs and a couple tbsp of spiced rum.

Time to mix it all around. It's starting to smell nice actually! My arms are tired... why didn't I use my cake mixer for this..??

Next we actually have to slop it up even more with 200ml of milk! Does this look right? How should i know? Whos even heard of plum duff!?

Now i grease up some containers with a bit more of that lard. I was planning on making mini puddings, but ive got literally so much batter than im gonna have to do one mega one as well!

I hope these are tasty... Now to cover them up and uh, find a way to fit them all in my steamer...

I'm nothing if not an innovater. I'm steampunk.  Anyway now these gotta steam for THREE WHOLE HOURS

Well, I gave the small ones a bit less time to cook and the big one a bit more time... Heres what its looking like cooked, maybe a slight raw patch in the middle but I think ill finish each portion when I reheat them in the microwave as I eat them. I have a lot to get through by the looks of it.

Alright moment of truth!!

*****

(BTW it came out the pot just fine and unbroken I just thought this pic looks way better even for the comparison shot.) Thank fuck this is nice!! Because its so dense and there's so much of it. It's a little like a christmas pudding but its less fruity/nutty/boozy and more mild and spongey. Definitely what I imagine an old-fashioned british dessert to be like. Definitely best to serve hot. Would be improved with some cream or custard.

Stardew Valley #54: Pale Broth

Ingredients: White Algae

Item Description: A delicate broth with a hint of sulfur.

It's not quite an algae, but i got some lovely mixed mushrooms (mostly pink oyster!) for the white algae fungae, and for the hint of sulphur ive also got a white cabbage, and to round out the flavour i'll add half a sachet of bonito dashi (fish stock) and a single radish that grew in my garden.

Roughly choppped the veg and dumped it all in the pan with the powdered stock. Now we just add boiling water and wait!

Oh this would be a good time to add a pinch of celery salt as well. I always forget I have it. I've let it simmer for about 25 mins.

Now, unlike the green algae soup, this one says its a BROTH so, in spite of the graphic, I want to make a clear strained broth just to mix up my soup game a bit.

Don't worry though! There's no way i'd let these nice vegetables go to waste, i'll keep them and shove them in a stir fry or curry tomorrow.

***

Quite pleasant! It's definitely a delicate broth, you can really taste the mushrooms and cabbage, which doesnt sound that appealing but I actually quite like the flavour of cabbage, and i like oyster and shiitake a lot more than common mushrooms. I think it would make a really good soup base for some noodles. Even on its own though, its very hydrating and refreshing and not earthy like the algae soup.

Stardew Valley #53: Algae Soup

Ingredients: Green Algae

Item Description: It's a little slimy.

Green algae! Thats a bit of a whimsical ingredient, but ive gone on a quest to find the closest ingredients I can that I could reasonably put into a soup. We've got powdered spirulina, which ACTUALLY IS AN ALGAE! but its not really known for being a good standalone soup base, so ive also got some other flavours that I hope will pad out, while still feeling like a slimy algae soup. I got some dried konbu (japanese seaweed), a handful of chopped spinach, a can of green lentils and some cornish dried seaweed to garnish. Pondwater-tastic!

First ill blend the spinach with the lentils, just a bit at a time with a splash of added water, I really want this to blend as much as possible and not have any large chunks.

This is looking like an algae soup already! Once ive done the whole can and all of the spinach it goes in the big soup pot.

Now we can throw that in the hob with the konbu, thats mainly there to add extra flavour kinda like a massive bayleaf.

Next we add the spirulina powder, im adding 2 teaspoons because while this is meant to be the main ingredient, wow its strong stuff! Its gonna dye my stomach green.

That's changed the colour a lot, after its had some time to get warm and simmer and stuff, we can bowl it up and sprinkle on some of the dried seaweed to garnish! And a pinch of salt if it even needs any.

**

This is surprisingly nice for what it is. The lentils and spinach give it an earthy/hearty flavour and its not very bitter. It does taste a little bit like a damp towel though. And the soup has a nice filling thickness, but it texturewise its a little... uh.. powdery? starchy? I'm pleased with my interpretation of the dish, but you and I both know its not really a dream dinner.