Breath of the Wild #35: Pepper Seafood

 Ingredients: Spicy Pepper, Any Seafood or Fish

Description: "The pepper seeds grilled with this seafood draw out its taste and pleasant aroma."

Yknow what im DONE with whole, unfilletted, ungutted fish. I got a nice big butterflied mackerel fillet. And i got some chillies that are not that hot so we can use plenty of them.

Added some veg oil, salt and plenty of mixed peppercorns, and a whole chilli's worth of sliced chillies with the seeds in. And I guess it says grilled, so we grillin'.

****

Nice toasty mackerel, and honestly... these chillies really are a bit mild. I can taste a bit of heat off them, but its actully not as hot and peppery as I expected. I keep overestimating chillies it seems. Its really just a plate of simple mildly seasoned fish. A proper sauce/dressing and some salad, grains or bread would do a lot.

Breath of the Wild #31: Salt-Grilled Crab

Ingredients: Rock Salt, Any Crab

Description: "Nine out of ten fishermen agree crab is best enjoyed grilled and with just a bit of salt."

Mind that time we bought a load of frozen crab parts? I also made this on the day I made that crab stir fry. Had a lot of crabmeat that day.

These are going to be grilled straight from raw instead of boiled! I'll spritz it with a bit of cooking oil and grind some rock salt on it. I should put more salt on at the end I guess, I dont really know what the salts got to stick to since its all inside a shell..

It's looking a little brown and crisped, ill add more salt and I think a lemon wedge wouldnt hurt either!

**

Simple crab! The salt and lemon goes really nicely with it. Its got a nice strong flavour, meaty and seafoody... but i dunno... sometimes it tastes a little bit like.. uh.. like.. gym shoes? Hopefully im not poisoned. It's probably just that ocean fresh is best. The grilling instead of boiling makes the shell brittle, which doesnt really help but neither does boiling it which fills it with pockets of hot crabwater. Nine out of ten fishermen can go yell it at the sea because I don't give a crab.

Breath of the Wild #30: Salt-Grilled Fish

Ingredients: Rock Salt, Any Fish

Description: "A simple dish made by rolling a whole fish in natural rock salt before grilling it."

After those sardines I was sooo done with whole fish, so instead I have a big ol' boneless (mostly) filleted mackerel for grilling. Super simple, just fish and rock salt.

Oh, I do actually have a crinkly old lemon in my fridge still, lets get a bit of lemon juice and a spritz of cooking oil on there. Cheats.

 

****

The grilled mackerel has a great standalone flavour, goes particularly well with being crisped on the grill or in a pan imo. Having a big portion of fish on its own though, gives me fish oil flavoured hiccups for the rest of the evening.

Breath of the Wild #28: Salt-Grilled Prime Meat

 Ingredients: Rock Salt, Raw Prime Meat or Raw Bird Thigh

Description: "A simple yet exquisite dish made by grilling high-quality meat on top of rock salt."

I know it says red meat or thigh, but I thought for this one it'd be nice to do a chicken breast for once, that seems like a simple but quality cut. I even got a slightly more premium one. Also yes the lemon "wedge" looks weird its a bit wilted and I cut it weird.

These are certainly nice and plump, i'll score them, brush them with oil, and add sea salt and lemon juice.

***

Nice enough chicken, salt and lemony flavour. Surprisingly tough, though... maybe I should have butterflied and tenderized it? Or maybe the meat wasn't so high-quality and exquisite after all... 

Breath of the Wild #27: Salt-Grilled Meat

Ingredients: Rock Salt, Raw Meat or Raw Bird Drumstick

Description: "Short on ingredients? Just rub some meat in salt and cook it for a simple, tasty dish."

It says meat OR drumstick so im just going to do ONE MEAT for today. I just mostly decide stuff like this on vibes ok. Actually, im gonna have a side of waffle fries with it too.

I'll put a little spritz of cooking oil i guess and plenty of salt, even though pork is already salty. at least its shoulder meat and not gammon/bacon thats extra salty. Whys it kinda look like a human heart here?

**

I DO feel a little short on ingredients. The pork tastes fine its nothing special, the lemon helps cut through the salt... please ignore that i overcooked the waffle fries. Kinda feels like something you'd cook in your first year at university.

Breath of the Wild #26: Salt-Grilled Mushrooms

Ingredients: Rock Salt, Any Mushroom

Description: "A basic mushroom dish made by lightly salting mushrooms and grilling them."

After that copious mushroom skewer I had a nice array of mushrooms. I technically only needed one type for this, but its cool that ive got all these for this otherwise basic and boring dish.

Found a foil pan and gave them a spritz of vegetable oil and plenty of the ROCK SALT. Under the grill it goes!

**

I dont like too much salt, but i think its a big improvement and helps them go down a bit easier. The shiitake mushrooms shone here with their much better flavour compared to chestnut mushrooms. Shiitake may taste like dirt but chestnut/closed cup mushrooms taste like soot. The oyster mushrooms pick up a bit too mush salt with their frilly shape, and the king oyster mushrooms are big and wet, they really should get cut up and pan-fried with some sauce like a steak.

Breath of the Wild #25: Salt-Grilled Greens

Ingredients: Rock Salt, Any Herb or Flower

Description: "A health-boosting dish made with leafy greens and a touch of salt."

Remember the fried wild greens from recipe 16? Here's what i did with the rest of them!

This time they're getting "grilled" (in my oven) in a baking pan. I'll spray them with cooking oil and a "touch of salt" or... ok more salt than I usually put on anything. It's the only gimmick!

***

Hmm salty. Quite nice, but I think i preferred the pan-fried version, more balanced in flavours but also more crisp and less floppy. My health is boosted. My sodium is boosted.

Breath of the Wild #20: Gourmet Spiced Meat Skewer

Ingredients: Raw Gourmet Meat, Goron Spice

Description: "The rich aroma and juicy texture of this high-quality meat puts it in a league of its own."

So, we have to somehow out-do steak with something that would be good for a curry skewer...? Well! a roasting lamb leg is quite fancy right...? I wanted to make sure I had enough for 3 skewers so maybe I went a bit overboard.

To distinguish it from the previous recipe, i've also chosen to add some more fresh ingredients. I've got a bit of choppes chillies, and grated ginger and garlic.

I've also got some tomato puree, thats a classic curry base after all. Then similar to last time we've got yogurt, pepper, coriander seed, garam masala, curry powder, cumin seed, turmeric and salt. Since theres chillies and tomatoes, im leaving out the cayenne pepper and lemon this time to be a bit different.

Mixing it all up, its a bit thicker than last time. Is thicker better? I really don't know.

Since theres a big bone in this joint, ill cut a good amount of lean meat off it into cubes(ish). The rest can be used for a nice slow cooked roast in the oven later.

This time I can let it sit for a little while in the sauce. Well ok i took longer than i expected, so like 30minutes. I got plans!

Managed to cut off plenty of meat, enough for 4 skewers instead of 3! That's lunch tomorrow sorted.

****

It's certainly super tender and spicy! A bit too spicy, I maybe went overboard with the chillies and garlic now I cant taste the meat as much. I still nailed it and didnt overcook the meat. But... was the steak one just that tiny bit better and more balanced? ah maybe...

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.

Breath of the Wild #18: Spiced Meat Skewer

Ingredients: Raw Meat, Goron Spice

Description: "A special Goron spice covers up the scent of the meat, allowing its flavor to shine."

This recipe has 3 different versions, for different quality tiers of meat! So I guess I have to come up with 3 "tiers" of meat. For this one... how about some cheap pork sausages?

And for the goron spice, i'm gonna mix up a custom blend of curry spices. I've ground up some cloves, fennel and cumin, and added some powdered garam masala, chilli, coriander and turmeric.

Next i'll slice up a few of the sausages into skewer-friendly chunks. These will so easy to skewer!

And then I just toss them in the dry spice mix.

Done! I also decided to roast some potato discs as a side, and ill grill the sausages on top so any extra pork fat can drip on the potato. Resourceful! Maybe I should have made the skewers shorter though... oh well.

Almost a complete meal!

***

I was worried about undercooking the sausage, since its hard to judge it by colour like this... but instead I overcooked it. Skewers sure cook a lot faster than roasts! It wasnt quite burned but the combination of its dryness with the spices made it... somehow not that flavourful, in spite of being loaded with spices? It was alright though, and its very easy to make. Does kinda look like poop from a butt tho.