Delicious in Dungeon #49: Crispy Mushroom And Egg Sandwich

As you can see, this is a horse-like creature with two horns. It's quite obvious really, but I thought I would just say.

So the bicorn, a kind of bisexual unicorn, their thing is that they only go for badboys and badgirls. And non-badnerys. So we have to lure it over by enjoying a sinful and decadent sandwich.

Got a big round loaf of fresh bread, butter, cockatrice eggs, mandrake leaves, and some dried changeling mushrooms. Doesn't sound all that badnasty. Oh and syrup? Ok maybe a little.

Since we have the butter out, lets cook the egg in butter.

Yeah got my little tiny pan. We wanna have the whites cooked but the yolk slightly runny.

I'm gonna lightly toast the bread, seems right to do that for a sandwich with fried egg and extra butter.

Even on hot toast my butter doesnt spread that well.. anyway we're also adding salt and pepper.

Then the mandrake leaves, which i decided today can be watercress and rocket. And the fried egg, which ive shaved a bit off to fit on the decidedly not-round bread. I tried my best to squish it into a rounder shape!

Now these are interesting. I was originally gonna try and grill/fry some mushrooms to death, but I was gifted this bag of already dried mushrooms! Unlike mushrooms dried for stock, these seem to be freeze-dried or something so they're light and airy. Seems perfect!

And lastly, as mentioned in the manga... they add a bit of syrup on the sandwich as well. I'm just adding a light drizzle, because it sounds a bit intense.

****

Really tasty! Nicely balanced, savoury with a burst of sweetness, with wet and crispy textures. A good rich sandwich, and none of the unusual ingredients were bad. But I have to ask myself... would I go out of my way to make this again? Probably not. I think the bar for sandwiches is very high, you can make a lot of good things with bread and butter and eggs.

Delicious in Dungeon #48: Hamburg Steak With Changeling Sauce

Is it me... or are dungeon mushrooms getting bigger these days?

The popular japan-german dish is back! It's a dungeon twist on the HANBAGU or Hamburg Steak which we seem to have visited quite a few times in other challenges.

This time we've got the monstrous ingredients of mixed leftover griffin/hippogriff (im using a beef&pork mince mix) and a changeling-based sauce with a bit of mandrake and frog skin.

Big load of mince, nice. And then i'm adding onion chopped as finely as I can manage, breadcrumbs, and an egg.

It says I can add whatever seasoning I want, so im adding my trusty paprika salt, pepper, mild chilli powder and ginger powder.

Now for the messy part... theres no way around it i have to knead it with my hands. Its cold and getting pork fat off your hands is SO WEIRDLY DIFFICULT. The mince seemed slightly dry and crumbly so I decided to add another egg as I went.

Now I can bust out my new MEGA ULTRA DELUXE FRYING PAN!! I could make paella in this someday.. hmm.. anyway, throw in a slightly generous portion of butter because we'll use the rest for the sauce.

These brown quite fast, so we might have to turn my overpowered hob off and on again to cook it slower. I'm not taking any chances with pork mince.

For the mandrake... in the past its been parsnips or ginger... its really whatever root vegetable we need? but i saw some whimsical looking radishes that I thought would be perfect. they come in 2 kinds!

What a nice pink and purple, very changeling.

For the changelings, I got a mix with 2 types of mushroom: shiitake and oyster, and can chop them up roughly.

For the "frog skin".. well, i don't have frog skin. but I was wondering... whats it there for? Is it to add brothy, collagen-y flavours and thicken up the sauce maybe? So I thought a good substitute would be a concentrated chicken stock.

These are getting somewhere, a bit longer and then I take the patties out and use all that oily meat juice as the sauce base..

Adding in the mushrooms and stock.

It says I can use whatever seasonings I want... so as a nod to the hanbagu recipes i've done in the past, im adding a bit of sake and soy sauce.

At the end I sprinkle in the grated radish as well. I was hoping it might add a pink sparkle, but it just looks brown and oily.

*****

Delicious! I think this came out perfectly. The mushrooms go really well with the beef and pork, and the oilyness of the sauce balances out the dryness of the mince. It's hearty and satisfying.