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.

Delicious in Dungeon #57: Head-Hunting Rabbit Curry

We have to make curry. No like, we have to make... LOTS of curry.

Sorry, ominous fantasy world rabbits, but you're going in the soup again.

Maybe I won't make as much as they make in the manga, but I will make a nice big batch, as much as my cookwares can handle. We have rice, potatoes, carrots, onions (not pictured oops), mushrooms, garlic, instant curry, and a big cylinder of rabbit meat.

Let's start by steaming plenty of rice. I guess traditionally they do japanese rice with japanese curry, but I have some thai jasmine rice that I think will be nice with it.

First I will chop the stewing vegetables (potato, carrot, mushroom) into nice chunky pieces and put them to one side.

Then i'm going to slice up the garlic and onions, which I will fry in some butter along with the meat to add a nice flavour base.

Once all the vegetables are good to go I can chop the raw meat last.

I'll just take the whole wadge of it and slice it all up. That's a good amount of rabbit!

Once they are looking lightly cooked its probably fine to add the rest of the vegetables..

OK... I may have overdone this a little... um... hopefully the water will soften them down and stop them from burning, if not maybe we'll get a second pan.

Next we dump in all the curry blocks and plenty of water. You can check the back of the box for the right proportions but tbh I just eyeballed it. We've got a lot of added ingredients to soak.

We can just pop the lid on and trust the process... well occasionally stirring it gently. As you can see its already coming along nicely, once the potatoes are soft its good to go.

*****

I love a nice stewed curry, its mild but well-rounded and comforting and you can pack lots of veggies in there. It's also super easy. Maybe I could have chopped the vegetables up real tiny make it look more like a giant serving? But this process was more authentic.

And it also makes plenty of meals worth!

Stardew Valley #79: Tropical Curry

Ingredients: Coconut, Pineapple, Hot Pepper

Item Description: An exotic, fragrant curry served in a pineapple bowl.

Soo, this is the recipe I'm most excited for on this entire list. I love a thai style curry, I love sweet and sour, and I love the aesthetics of fruit. I've got a pineapple (which I got free with a voucher!), some massaman curry paste, coconut milk, hot pepper, bell pepper, spring onion, bamboo shoot, prawns, coriander, and jasmine rice.

I had to figure out how to get into this sewn up cloth bag lol... shove some rice in the steamer while we make everything else.

I already had some chopped vegetables from my freezer but I wanted to chop these up a bit more. And the chilli too.

Thats the spring onion, bell pepper, hot pepper and bamboo shoots. I want to try and get this to brown a bit in the pan before we fill it with sauce.

Now!!! Intimidating part... I've never cut a pineapple before, especially not into a bowl shape! It smells nice and ripe so that's a good start.

Whoa... that actually went well. I just cut around the insides and dug under it with a spoon, and then scraped out the rest. Just like a pumpkin, maybe even easier? Is this going to be watertight enough?

I read somewhere that you cut out the hard middle part, so I did that. slice up the soft bits and im just going to put some of it, about 1/3 of 1/2 of the pineapple in with those veggies I was browning.

I don't think these will ever get that crispy but they are looking nicely cooked, and just BEHOLD how tropical this already looks. 

Time to put in half the jar of curry and the whole can of coconut milk... and TRY NOT TO SPILL ANY OF IT DOWN THE SIDE WHICH YOULL HAVE TO CLEAN UP LATER WHEN THE HOB IS COOLED DOWN AND ITS COOKED ONTO THE SURFACE

The prawns are pre-cooked so we can put these in near the end after letting the curry stew for a little while.

And the chopped coriander too, and cook till its heated up again after dumping in all those frozen prawns.

I wasn't sure how to present the rice, but... there's actually quite a lot of space in this pineapple, so we can totally just line the bottom with it, might help keep it watertight as well.

Fruity curry is looking done, time to grab the ladle.

*****

It's divine! It was everything I hoped it would be. Fun to prepare and easier than I expected. Sweet and tangy but not overpoweringly pineapple-y, a good kick of heat but you could also taste the hints of clove and cardamom from the curry sauce. "Exotic and fragrant" for sure. 

Stardew Valley #42: Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients: Pumpkin, Milk

Item Description: A seasonal favorite.

WOOSH its February now. Pumpkins are out of season, but you know whats always in, and literally the same thing as a pumpkin? A squash. All pumpkins are squashes, and we just arbitrarily define some squashes as pumpkins based on vibes. Also I have leftover cream so im using that as "milk".

First, i remember/decide im going to do this recipe an hour before i finish work so I can shove it for a 1h cook in the oven while im on a tea break. Gave it a quick brush with olive oil too. Yes the pans dirty i used it to cook some mini kievs.

Thats done its job! smells good and you can just scoop the softened pumpkin out with a spoon.

Now, what else to go in? I've got some garlic and spring onions, and from my herb garden ive got sage and marjoram. Sage is good and distinct, marjoram sucks and i swear it tastes like NOTHING but it survived the winter and continues to flourish so its GOING IN

Roughly chopped all those herbs and stuff, added the pumpkin.. now, will it blend? Also my blender is kinda small so ill have to do it in multiple parts.

With a little help from H2O, looks like we've managed to blend it all. Its looking a little bit greeny-yellow from the spring onion, maybe we can tweak that slightly with...

More spices! Might as well, right? I'm picking celery salt, turmeric, coriander, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and garam masala for a slightly curry-inspired flavour. 

Did I go a bit hard? I should add more water too, we're making soup here not pumpkin concentrate!

And of course, we should add the cream! And I can just let that all cook on low for a bit, bring out the flavours from the garlic and onions.

****

I feel like i've accidentally made curry sauce... Its still very thick and the delicious blend of garlic, onion and spices have come out strong. Have i made a typical pumpkin soup or was I taking it in a weird direction? Whatever it is, its super nice and begging for some bread to dip in it! A naan perhaps?