Breath of the Wild #78: Seafood Fried Rice

Ingredients: Any Porgy, Hylian Rice, Rock Salt

Description: "Various seafood has been sauteed with rice. The stronger the flame, the tastier the dish!"

Porgy means a different thing every day, today it means some big prawns where the packaging broke in transit, so lets do this recipe! I have some short-grain rice, chopped yellow pepper, peas, salt and yknow, a bunch of other scrounged stuff that goes well in fried rice.

Let's start with the seafood , crushed garlic and chillies to sear them a bit before we pile on everything else.

I'll mix salt, soy sauce, rice vinegar and sesame oil in with the rice. It doesn't say this recipe has egg, but I have some, so why not...?

Yknow... I made too much rice... I should have saved half of this, my ratios are gonna be off and crowd the pan, but its TOO LATE ive mixed the raw egg in now, lets just go for it.

Im cooking and cooking... im mashing this into a creamy risotto instead of a crispy fried rice I fear... lets serve it up before I turn it into mochi.

***

Got a bit sloppy with this one, i've definitely made better fried rice. I didn't leave the rice overnight, i overcrowded the pan, and I probably should have cooked the frozen veg separate so they didnt add more moisture. You have to admit though... it kinda looks more like the graphic this way...? Its a little blander than it looks, I guess the stronger the flame, the tastier the dish as they say! But yknow what, a not-great fried rice is still a pretty satisfying meal.

Breath of the Wild #76: Curry Pilaf

 Ingredients: Goron Spice, Goat Butter, Hylian Rice

Description: "The Goron spice used in this pilaf has given it a rich, spicy aroma."

Not unlike the poultry pilaf I guess, but no call for meat and eggs. Just good ol' curry spices. I decided to get spring onions, peas and sultanas, and some sort of african style curry powder this time! 

In with the rice goes chicken stock, a bay leaf, salt, plenty of that curry powder and a touch of shredded mint.

Looks like there's plenty of turmeric in that mix eh. Mixed it around in hot water so the stock cube dissolves and then in the steamer again.

I'll chop up some chives for garnish and put them to one side.

Got some nice chunky onions from the fancy grocery store. For this i'll just use the white bits and save the greens for an upcoming recipe actually... i could use a bunch of the greener bits for that.

Since its curry themed, I'll fry them with a good amount of ghee. How do they get that butter smelling so floral and aromatic? It's a mystery to me?

Once the onions are nice and soft i'll throw in the frozen peas and a handful of sultanas. 

In goes the cooked rice and a bit of extra ghee on top. Without the meats and eggs its a much simpler and quicker one.

****

A bit mild, a nice gentle aromatic flavour. I could have added chillies or more curry spices (or garlic/ginger/etc). It works quite well as a light lunch or an elaborate side. You could elevate it by throwing a load of nuts in there... or stuffing a pepper or aubergine with it? 

Breath of the Wild #61: Seafood Curry

Ingredients: Any Porgy or Snail, Hylian Rice, Goron Spice

Description: "This dish brims with treasures from the sea. Its spice packs a kick, so it's not for kids."

I'm cheaping out a bit on this one. I'm out of crab claws, I just got plenty of penang curry paste & coconut milk, a load of leftover mixed seafood and some leftover vegetables to use up. Also jasmine rice and some seaweed salt for garnish.

The rice can go in the steamer while we boil up the rest of this.

I'm even out of onions, but sometimes its nice to keep it simple. We've just got boiled carrots and potatoes to go with the seafood.

A generous scoop of the curry paste, and ill boil the vegetables in some hot water to soften them up.

They are looking soft, we've left plenty of room for a whole can of coconut milk and those sea "treasures".

In goes the coconut milk and seafood! I can add a bit of water if it gets a bit too thick.

Hmm, its tasting a little bit sour and unbalanced... I have some of this in the fridge, lets bring in this secret weapon, a teaspoon or two of this!

***

The spice definitely packs a delicious kick, but I dunno it tastes a little funny? Is one of the ingredients a bit aged...? or maybe its just got a strong clammy flavour from the mussels. I had the leftover seafood chowder for lunch so maybe im just sick of seafood!? Wellll it tastes pretty good with the rice still.

Breath of the Wild #52: Glazed Seafood

Ingredients: Any Seafood, Courser Bee Honey

Description: "A seafood dish that you can actually wolf down whole!"

This ones fresh and will be nice and easy to pan fry. I got plenty of salmon, which seems like the obvious choice to me. (ill just use 2 fillets for this) and ill be mixing the honey with garlic, lime juice, gochujang and soy sauce.

The fish won't take long to cook so ill mix up the sauce first. We've got a generous dollop of honey, one clove of crushed garlic, uh... roughly a tablespoon of gochujang?? a couple tablespoons of soy sauce, and just a little tiny splash of lime juice. Don't want it too bitter.

Swirl it all up, perfect!

Just a dash of cooking oil and two nice looking fresh fillets. I'll make sure they are at least halfway cooked before I add the glaze.

I'll try to sear all the sides gently without breaking the fillet up... ugh its so tempting to move them around lots though..

Now we can throw on the sauce! I want to cook it a bit but ill try not to burn it... We can add a tiny bit of water if it gets too dry?

*****

I think i've finally made a proper glazed meal! It's sweet and sticky like a nice bbq or teriyaki. The skin is crispy and the meat goes great with the nicely balanced sauce. Good job, me.

Breath of the Wild #21: Crab Stir-Fry

 Ingredients: Any Crab, Goron Spice

Description: "The Goron spice used in preparing this crab pairs perfectly with the flavor of its meat."

Yoo I went to the asian supermarket and they had the crab bits! This is the closest I can get to affordable whole crab I think.

It comes fast frozen in a big ol' block, so ill let it defrost for most of the day. I just put it on a plastic steamer tray in my sink.

You don't wanna re-freeze or wait too long with the defrosted meat, so im gonna gonna boil almost all of them (except a later grilled crab recipe). I noticed a lot of threads in with the crabs that I took out, maybe they were bits of plastic fishing net? So to be safe im not going to reuse the water i boiled them in for seafood stock.

Alright, heres the rest of the set up! I guess this isnt exactly a stir fry, but I thought for the goron spiced crab it would be cool to make it a whole laksa curry and pop the crab on top! So i've got the laksa curry paste and coconut milk, and to fill it out (since its gonna make a big batch!) ive got udon noodles, beansprouts, a few lotus roots, lots of "crab" sticks (surimi), spring onions, chillies, coriander and the tiniest bit of mint (its not growing so well outside in the middle of winter!)

Wow this packet starts with 1.5l of water before I even add other ingredients... i should have used my even bigger pot... Also this smells like itll be plenty spicy so ive decided to forget about adding extra chillies.

I guess i should put the frozen lotus roots in early, and then I guess i can put in the crab and surimi sticks to flavour it..? Most of these ingredients wont need long to cook at all, the udon is part-cooked and beansprouts only need a few minutes (i learned this today lol, turns out i was always overcooking them)

Oh i should add the coconut milk next...

Argh disaster!! the coconut milk had separated so when i tipped it in liquid behind the the solid chunk just blasted my damn hob! Well... while we're making a mess we might as well admit that we need to separate this curry into 2 pots if we're gonna fit the noodles in...

There we go, the noodles and beansprouts can heat up, and I added the coriander and mint as well... I also scrounged a bit of lime and a basil leaf to garnish it with.

****

The laksa curry broth is soooooooo good!!! It's a great curry flavour to pair with seafood, tofu and white meats. It's so perfectly warming, spicy and fruity. Eating crab this way is a pain though, i ended up taking it out and scraping out all the meat with my hands and dropping it back in the noodle soup. It didn't have to be this way.

Breath of the Wild #19: Prime Spiced Meat Skewer

Ingredients: Raw Prime Meat, Goron Spice

Description: "The simple preparation of this steak dish belies its complex taste profile.."

So, I was originally going to pick some sort of "intermediate" quality meat for this "prime" quality recipe and use steak for the "gourmet" quality... but then I noticed the description, it clearly says "this steak dish."! Fine, steak it is! I dunno what i'll do for next recipe, lamb i guess?

Last time the spice mix was a bit dry and earthy, so this time i'm tweaking it up for something fancier! I got some plain yogurt, lemon juice, curry powder, cayenne pepper, garam masala, black pepper & coriander seed, cumin seed, and salt.

Mix it all up and itll coat the meat nice and easily! It was looking a little pale so i added an extra pinch of turmeric too actually.

I picked a rump steak because I hoped it would be nice and tender but still meaty.

I think I will have just enough for 2 skewers. Not bad for that price actually!

Yep plenty on there, ready to go in and grill. Let's hope I don't overcook it for once, but at least its fresh beef!

*****

Have I finally done a perfect meat skewer!? after... how many recipes?? I managed to get the meat medium-well I think, keeping it properly grilled but still tender and juicy. The sour yogurt and lemon juice is just what the earthy curry spice needed to give it a more complex flavour. We've set the bar a bit high now, it might be downhill for the gourmet meat. Still, this is the one to do again. And maybe that satay one, that was pretty good.