Breath of the Wild #65: Prime Meat Stew

Ingredients: Raw Prime Meat, Goat Butter, Fresh Milk, Tabantha Wheat

Description: "Letting the large portions of choice cuts of meat simmer brought out their savoriness."

We need a slightly better meat than last time... I've got diced beef instead of minced, and then this time I thought we could get a bit more bourguignon inspired and add a bit of wine, tomato and fresh thyme.

We can start with the beef, onions, and i've got some crushed garlic and grated ginger too.

Once thats about sealed, I'll add the carrots. A good amount of salt and pepper too.

Then we can add the water, a beef stock cube, the last of that umami paste and a nice big bay leaf.

And the red wine and some tomato concentrate too. I'll let that stew for like 45min.

Then I can make the bechdel sauce... erm... bechamel. It's a hot day so the butters nice and melty.

That and the stripped thyme leaves go in, looks really nice there!

****

I think it's a bit like the previous stew honestly. Well, I think its a better and stronger flavour broth. It's solid, but.. I guess it doesn't seem that original at this point. Maybe if it had more types of vegetables it'd be more exciting. Like some starchy potatoes or sweet peas.

Breath of the Wild #38: Salmon Meuniere

 Ingredients: Hearty Salmon, Tabantha Wheat, Goat Butter

Description: "The crispy skin of this fried hearty salmon puts its texture in a class all its own."

This one's clear! Salmon it is. Same as last times with the flour and butter and the leftover butter-sauce mix, and rocket and tomato to garnish.

This one, i wonder if we can bend it into shape to make it look like the slice in the picture... maybe not... I know there's two fillets but im just going to have one I think. That big monkfish slice last time was overkill.

Speaking of last time, ive made sure the pan is nice and clean and ill try and cook it faster to avoid the butter and flour burning... its still a lot thicker than those hake fillets though.

Once its done, i turn the flame off and just quickly melt the butter sauce with the parsley and capers.

****

(i bent it in half to try and look more like the graphic, but... looks more like i broke it on accident) Obviously with the flavour of salmon, a fish that works quite well even on its own, it was bound to be better than the last one! But, i still struggled not to blacken the flour a bit... Overall I see why sole meuniere is the traditional choice, the thin white fish that cooks fast and absorbs lots of lemon juice is a clear winner. Oh also my raw tomato to everything else ratio was getting out of hand. 

Breath of the Wild #37: Porgy Meuniere

 Ingredients: Armored Porgy or Mighty Porgy, Tabantha Wheat, Goat Butter

Description: "Popular among residents of coastal regions, this juicy porgy is a delish dish."

I guess a porgy is a real fish, but... I thought it would be fun to go for something a bit more distinct from the regular whitefish fillets I used last time. I found a monkfish tail on sale! Then we have the leftover meuniere "sauce" from last time and more wheat flour and butter.

I've never cooked monkfish before, i think ive heard its texturally kinda different. Taking it out I realise it still has bones in! I can feel a massive great bone  in the middle. Well, we've had many a bone-in fish before its probably fine. Once its floured up like last time ill fry it in the pan with plenty of butter.

It feels so much thicker and denser, so im trying to cook it slower and lower... but I think im starting to burn the flour and butter and make gritty charred bits in the pan, ugh. 

Yeah it doesn't look as good as last time but i think its cooked all the way through. Also does it... not have smaller bones throughout it? It has just one big cartillage bone? Well thats something. Lastly we will quickly heat up some of that butter sauce and pour it over.

**

Wow yep that meat really is different. Maybe I just cooked it poorly, but its a little rubbery and more bland. Just doesn't go with the flavours as well. And it didn't crisp up as well, its too wet. I think my frugal attempts to upcycle the ingredients have backfired, it just isn't looking as fresh, is it? You get a lot of meat in a fillet I'll give it that. I think maybe some other recipes would use monkfish well, like i dunno..  green curry? battered nuggets? But this ain't it.

Breath of the Wild #36: Seafood Meuniere

 Ingredients: Any Seafood excluding Hearty Salmon and Porgy, Tabantha Wheat, Goat Butter

Description: "Rich butter flanks fresh seafood. The secret ingredient is lots and lots of love."

Another 3-tier recipe, so I'll start with a pretty cheap and typical white fish fillet. I had to look up a recipe because i'm not familliar with meuniere (i was even calling it meniuere for a while) seems like the wheat takes the form of flour for coating and then the butter is the sauce! Then I got lemon juice, fresh parsley and capers. And a tiny bit of salad stuff for garnish.

I'll get the chopping out of the way and then i can use the chopping board for a bit of "dredging"

There's actually 4 small fillets in this pack, wow value! I think i'll try and use 2 stuck together for some nice volume. I'll pat them dry with some paper towel first....

How's my dredging? Hakers gonna hake.

Now i'll just fry it in the pan with a bit of that butter until the fish is all cooked through, try not to destroy it... 

Once thats on the plate we make the sauce! I'm adding a bunch more butter, capers, and lemon juice. This is what they mean by flanking it with butter.

Once the butters browned a bit I take it off the heat and mix in the chopped parsley. I've tried to make a good amount so that I can save the rest and use it for the next 2 recipes... I might need to add more butter though by the looks of it.

*****

Delish! The simple but strong flavours of the lemon, parsley and capers go so well with the fish, which was juicy but with the light crispyness of the coating. Its quite quick to make as well, i'll definitely remember this, I feel like its a nice easy one to impress friends visiting for really cheap. I don't think the secret ingredient was lots of love though, I think its butter.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #30: Banana and Fromage Blanc Grilled Cheese

 Last one! Lets end it on a sweet treat.

I got a cinnamon & raisin bread (is a fruit loaf the same thing?), i dont know what the closest thing to fromage blanc is but I got ricotta cheese, and then we got a banana, vanilla extract and icing sugar.

I've actually never had ricotta before. I thought it would be lumpy and sour like cottage cheese tbh but I guess its more like mascarpone? Thats nice. I'll mix up 3 tablespoons with a little bit of sugar and vanilla.

This is quite a small banana so ill just use it all.

Gently folding the banana chunks into the creems cheems. Could deffos use a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg but thats what the breads for i guess!

Bread! Its quite small but dense, and we're to butter just the outside!?

Once again, im using my tamagoyaki pan for crimes. This is how much I think I can fit into the sandwich, ill have to eat the rest.

Oh my goddd the leftover cream cheese and banana mix is soo good! I should just have a bowl of this for breakfast. Ok its probably toasted enough time to take a weirdly closeup photo.

****

Well im sold on sweetened ricotta and banana, thats very nice. I'll be honest with you though... I think maybe I liked the chilled leftover filling more than the warmed sandwich. Somehow the heat made it seem a bit... blander? I do like all the components though, its easy to like.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #24: Bistro Baguette

 This ones sounds conventional. The first challenge was finding a beef skirt cut, but morrisons came through.

Beef skirt steak looks nice, (its cheap too!) a sweet white onion, tomato, watercress, and since it didn't specify the mustard I thought i'd mix it up a bit with this swedish mustard, which is kind of a wholegrain and ground mix.

I'm caramelising the onions with a bit of olive oil on one side, and cooking the steak with a bit of butter on the other side. I always think butter just kinda adds something with steak, I dunno. Should I have seasoned this? probably but it didn't say to... well maybe ill add the tiniest pinch of salt and pepper.

Chopped the tomato and pulled out the watercress pieces from the mixed salad bag. Yeah I know my leaves. Like a druid.

Chunk of baguettes sliced and ready. I think i'll spread mustard on the top side, so its next to the onion.

Trouble with white onions is I can't really tell when its peeled enough, so it looks like theres some harder bits in there, they become obvious when cooked.

w-cress is in, and ive tried to slice the steak diagonally. There's plenty of it, i think im maxing this sandwich out again. Is the hungry instinct taking over?

Tomatoes and onions are in.. can we squeeze it shut without spilling it everywhere?

***

It's good yeah. The steak really is a nice cut for a sandwich, its lean and not tough or chewy. I liked the mustard and onions with the steak. I dunno, its a bit boring? What if it had some like hot sauce or blue cheese sauce or something.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #20: Pork Sandwich with Red-Onion Relish

 After that slightly sad processed turkey in the thanksgiving sandwich, I felt like maybe i haven't been putting in as much effort, and getting more sliced ham instead of a proper roast pork wouldn't do for this one.

So I am going... for it!!! I bought a whole-ass roasting pork joint. only £7.50 actually, pork has gotten really cheap here. It's a workday so I sneakily pop this in the oven a couple hours before I finish work, one of the many perks of work from home eh. Bit of red valkyrie lore for ya.

Still, it would be a crime to do all this and not give it some season. I've got a drizzle of olive oil, a splash of red wine vinegar (more on that later), paprika salt (mostly just salt at this point) and some chilli flakes. And then some fresh sage leaves from my herb planter!

A couple hours later and I've finished up at work, time to complete the dinner... I've got a big loaf of sourdough bread, red onions, olive oil and red wine vinegar, and some... ketchup for this? really?

I'll thinly slice 2 onions, thatll probably make me plenty.

I've already done a later recipe where i had to caramelise onions, and i cooked them too hard and fast and burned them a bit, so now im gonna try really hard to do it low and slow. They're sauteeing in some olive oil and then when they've softened I add in the red wine vinegar.

A nice chunky slice of the sourdough will do. I think sourdough is a bit overrated, this bread looks a little dense and cakey. Never seemed worth the hassle to maintain all that starter stuff, just to make a slightly worse and more sour bread than yeast can do. Still better than any bread ive ever made.

These are looking much better! And as for the pork?

That's looking great! I've tried to slice it as thin as I can.

Nicely proportioned and smells so good.

The onion relish goes on top, there'll be plenty of both for leftovers.

And lastly. perhaps controversially.. I must admit, even as a big ketchup kid this wasn't my first thought to pair with pork and onions! But i love sauce on my sandwiches, i couldn't help but want to try it. Is that a good idea though...?

*****

This is sooo good. It's mainly the roast pork that tastes soooo goooood. It pairs surprisingly well with the sourdough, and the ketchup really doesn't clash with the vinegary onions after all. I should definitely make roast pork loin more often, sandwich or otherwise.