Delicious in Dungeon #15: Raspberries

 This one's not really an official recipe, but it is a chapter in the manga. Consider this a bonus one.

In a flashback, Falin likes to pick wild raspberries and offers them to Marcille as a snack. Marcille doesn't seem to know that you can just... do that.

And wouldn't you know it, I was in Somerset in July, the perfect time and place to go to a farm that lets you pick your own berries! They also have some park benches and sell ice cream so you can really enjoy your spoils.

When it comes to raspberries, you have to feel them out.. if they are fully red, soft and delicate to the touch and come off the cone-shaped stem fairly easily with no leaves attached, you're good to go. Check them for bugs before you eat them! Or take them home and wash them in water if you're more like Marcille.

****

Fresh and tasty! Especially with some chocolate ice cream. (After the pic was taken i filled up the rest of the cup with strawberries, I got my moneys worth dont worry) I did see a white larvae crawling around in the cup though after I ate a few, which is a little off-putting.

Delicious in Dungeon #14: Giant Parasite from a Giant Kraken

 Avast! A kraken in the lake!

Aghast! It's riddles with parasites!

Bizarrely, the kraken itself never ends up being cooked in a meal, instead they enjoy the giant lamprey-sized parasites living inside the kraken. I imagine they are supposed to be more like eel, but they talk about squid a bunch and eel is very hard to get so i'm going to make it some grilled squid.

These squids are pretty small, but thats fine. I'm going to butterfly them, score the outer skin and then stick them on skewers to grill.

These are grilled two ways, plain and "kabayaki style" (with sauce). For the plain one I'm still going to season it with some salt and pepper so itll be dry but still have some flavour. I'm not going to barbecue them im just gonna grill em on my grill.

And since im more excited for the sauce, im just doing one dry and going to marinate all the others for a little while. Hopefully they'll pick up some flavour although they are very rubbery.

Skewered up and ready to go! Baldur's Gate 3 called, they want their juicy mind flayer genitals back.

Since there's not much to 'em, im gonna enjoy them with a side of seasoned japanese rice.

**

I don't know why I always think squid is interesting, I feel like at best squid is mid. I was surprised at the lack of difference between the two. They were both salty and chewy, like plain bacon on a stick. Having it with the seasoned seaweed rice was a bit of a mistake, because that was also very salty. Maybe I should have done something like mackerel instead, as it would have absorbed the sauce even better with the flaky texture. It was fine though. I liked that the tentacles got kinda crispy.

Delicious in Dungeon #13: Porridge Made From Grain That Was Just Lying Around

Some adventurers have kicked the bucket, again! I wonder what got 'em? oh well..

May as well not let those grains go to waste...

I originally bought crab sticks for this recipe because I didn't think i'd be getting so damn much mimic meat from my special order.. I also managed to source pearl barley, fresh seaweed salad and trout (merman??) roe! Absolutely decadent haul of premium food that probably would have been for broke peasants in the 1800s but whatever.

I'll wash the barley and let it soak for a few mins, its pearl barley though so apparently that means its already husked... good. I've never cooked barley before... or savory porridge, or... man, have I ever even had PORRIDGE!? I don't remember if I have! I was never from a gruel household, would you believe.

You know what else I've got leftover from last recipe? Some of that water I boiled all the crabs in! Now you're thinking with fridges. I empty out the rinse water and i'm gonna cook it in this boiling stock.

Hmm so we have salty crab water, grain... what else? I'm going to add a bay leaf, some dried seaweed and some black pepper. Oh it looks like dirt water now.

While this cooks for half an hour, that should give us a decent amount of time to extract enough crab meat from all these nasty little limbs!

Well the water has cooked off enough, and these seem... I don't know, soft and grainy enough? And i've managed to get a decent amount of crab meat, even though i still have MORE CRAB BITS LEFT somehow. I'll just bowl up a portion and dress it with all those ingredients.

****

Whoa! I didn't know what to expect, seeing as I've never cooked with most of these things before... and I had no idea what I was doing... (Also it sounded pretty drab)... It's salty, its delicately seafoody, its got a bit of a kick from the dressing in the salad and the fish eggs. The barley and seaweed and are satisfyingly firm and chewy, making it seem very filling. Maybe some lemon juice or garlic would punch it up a bit more... but maybe something mild and unique is nice too. This is probably intensely healthy for a hot dish, its all fiber, iodine and fish oils.

Delicious in Dungeon #12: Boiled Mimic

Yo remember when we used to cook monsters? And not just like.. stealing vegetables and meats off other adventurers, or making bug sorbet..? anyway...

Free treasure?? Don't mind if I do...

Bamboozled! A mimic! Bad news FOR THEM.

I defeated them with a deep freeze spell.. but it turns out there was a lot more of them than I expected... in a huge block of ice. I'm going to have to defrost them, and I'm doing so hastily because... I didn't think that far ahead.

Once they are warmed up im disposing of the water it was frozen in. It might be fine but I dunno, I don't trust it.

Adding in some fresh boiling water and a decent sprinkle of salt. I can save this crab stock for future recipes. TBH when I ordered this, I thought I would get like, 2-4 clusters of crab... and theres like... 12.. lol.

Get boiled idiot!!

Once its nearly done i'm going to make a quick dip... some butter, powdered garlic and dried parsley..

In the microwave for just a few seconds, thats all we really need!

**

God, every time I have crab or lobster I manage to cut my finger somewhere in the process. The crab meat was sweet and flavorful but a bit waterlogged from boiling. The breast(?) had a decent chunk of meat but the legs and claws are so fiddly, you're just working so hard to try and get the tiniest little slivers of meat, its just not worth the hassle, even as someone who rather enjoys picking a chicken carcass clean. It took me so long to eat, it had gone cold by the end of the meal. I guess someones gotta do it, but whole crab like this is even more expensive than just buying a tin of the meat. I'm gonna leave it to the professionals.. with the right tools.... like Chilchuck.

Delicious in Dungeon #11: Court Cuisine Full-Course Meal

 Another crazy huge recipe to tackle, just a total feast of food. I thought about splitting this up in multiple meals, but its not too complicated if we just rely on lots of pre-made elements actually.

Aah, a sumptuous feast committed to paper... don't you wish you could have your own personal banquet?

On a tuesday?

It's more likely than you'd think.

This recipe is sketchy with the methods and details, but it seems deceptively straightforward. We've got roast duck (sliced breast and whole leg) with a side salad, white fish and edamame beans, pumpkin soup, bread, cheese with nuts, and wine. The recipe image also has a fruit bowl and a basket of breads, but im going to leave those out because this is already... so much. 

So for the cooking method on the duck, the packaging actually has some great suggestions that sound good: score the skin with a knife, add seasoning, and then pan fry the fillets for a few minutes until the meat is seared, before wrapping it in foil and roasting in in the oven. For the seasoning i've chosen orange pepper (with salt), garlic powder, chilli powder, and just a dash of balsamic vinegar.

Then searing it with a tiny spritz of oil. I think this seasoning will add a nice rich flavour that goes well with duck, without making it one of the well known typical duck in fruit sauce dishes which might overpower the rest of the meal.

Once the breasts are looking fine as hell, I do the same with the duck legs. I got more than I need, but ill cook em all now and keep the rest for leftovers.

Once these are nicely seared, they can go in the oven for about 10-20mins. They are pretty thick so theyll be pretty raw on the inside if we served them now. Hence ROAST duck.

Once the pan is free we can sautee the fish next. The duck fat and seasonings will already add some flavour, but im going to add a different seasonins as well, some lemon, thyme, bay & salt mix. Once the fish has cooked off a lot of the water we can add a couple handfuls of the edamame beans as well.

Looks like the duck breast is ready! ill give the legs a little bit longer because they are bigger and denser. We can plate these up on some of the new plates i got for my birthday. The breast is sliced and arranged around a bagged salad mix I got of spinach, watercress and rocket. Then the graphic appears to have some sort of dollop on the salad, so im using salad cream which is like a mix of mayo, mustard and vinegar I think?

Here's the legs looking ready to go as well, anyway we gotta quickly finish everything else!

The fish and edamame are sauteed and ready to plate up...

Alas, I wasn't able to get pumpkin soup... I couldn't even find squash soup! Nothing! So we're settling for the final orange soup option, carrot and coriander. I'll just pour a little bowl and microwave it, cause again, we have so much food.

The wine is poured! I don't know anything about wine I just picked a cheap one that sounded sweet.

The fish fell apart when I tried to arrange it.. we had to make a weird fish circle anyway. It looks tasty.

I wanted to get a rustic looking white loaf for this, but they didn't have ANY!!! So we just have this weird dark brown nut loaf, thats all they had. Feels weirdly hard, its probably a bit stale... oh well. We can dip it in the soup. I do like nuts though.

Cheese is unwrapped! I think ill just cut a wedge off and keep the rest in the fridge. And I got a packet of almonds to arrange on the plate with it. 

OK ARE YOU READY!?

*****

What a feast! Every element went surprisingly well together. The brie paired great with the nutty bread, duck, greens and wine what an obvious combination, the light fish and beans countering the heavy meat and bread, and the spiced soup complements everything too.

I think I managed to polish off quite a lot... but there's plenty of leftovers (with more duck, cheese and soup in the fridge) that can make a variety of smaller meals for the next few days. And in the end, it wasn't that much work, a simple matter of frying a couple things and roasting in the oven. After all, we already made bread once, and we'll be making pumpkin soup in the future...