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...

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #17: Turkish Lamb Pocket

 Pittas, doners, gyros, kebabs, souvlakis, shawarmas,.. they're all kinda similar to me i don't really know what the difference is but ill tell ya ive never had one i didn't like.

Got some lamb mince, onions, garlic, pitta bread, tomatoes, lettuce, and greek yogurt and seasonings ill specify later.

I'll start frying up some diced onions and crushed garlic. I guess since we dont need to make them into patties or meatballs it doesnt matter if we use too much or too little.

The lamb mince can go in too. Looks quite finely minced so ill have to mash it around a bit with the spatula.

We get to add some spices to this one! Cinnamon, coriander, cumin, and salt & pepper.

I normally cut these things in half and then it naturally forms a pocket, but im gonna try doing a whole one but cutting along one side and toasting it whole. The heat should open the pocket up so i recommend lightly toasting.

That worked!

The mince looks brown and good to go.

I'll chop the tomatoes quite small and shred the lettuce too.

ill put a bit of salad in the back actually, then plenty of the mince, and then more salad on top. 

Oh! I almost forgot, a squeeze of lemon was mentioned also, fortunately i still had some in the fridge. And a dollop of the plain greek yogurt.

*****

Perfect just the way it is! I often make something similar to this but ill add tzatziki, chilli sauce, or whatever sauce i have handy. I didn't expect the greek yogurt and the lemon juice to be enough but with that and the spiced up mince and tomatoes, it was full of flavour.

Super Paper Mario: Saffron & Dyllis Super Show #92: Heavy Meal

 Heavy Meal is made from HONEY JAR and HONEY CANDY

So double honey, and it just looks like a layered pile of wiggly drippy.... yes ive got it! Baclava!

Ive got all sorts of nuts in my cupboard: pistachios, walnuts, and a mixed bag with more walnuts, cashews and hazelnuts. I'm taking a handful of each and chopping them up into nice little crumbs!

Now to get that wiggly edge i'm going to attempt to cut this store bought filo pastry with a cookie cutter- easier said than done as it is NOT made for this, the pastry is extremely paper-like.

it says to butter in between every other thin layer of the pastry? is that necessary for pre-made stuff? I dunno but we'll find out, its a heavy meal anyway. I have some butter i melted in the microwave for a few seconds.

we layer in lots of filo sheets and nuts and a drizzle of honey in each nut layer... the sheet cutting is very rough but honestly? it wont matter that much as it just has to look all wobbly slobbly

then we put them in the oven to bake! it says 20min on high and 30min on low or something, ill just take them out when they look brown and crispy. Meanwhile we need MORE syrup to drizzle on top after cooking. Normally in baclava you make a typical middle-eastern sweet flavour with orange blossom, cardamom etc but i happen to have some gingerbread syrup (for drinks) handy, so i mix the remainder of the honey with the rest of the melted butter and water it down with the gingerbread syrup!

It's brown and crispy! On goes the syrup and then we let it cool, and HOPEFULLY in spite of being mega sticky, itll come out of this silicone muffin mould just fine...?

spoiler: it did! and heres a nice cross-section because i think its turned out rather well.

*****

I made a big baclava! This stuff is normally meant to be in smaller pieces so what ive done is made... a real heavy meal!! The gingerbread syrup worked great adding that complexity of flavour, while being slightly different from the traditional recipe. Really like this, i think it tastes fresher than store-bought too.

I Dream of Tagine

Mode: 2-3 Player
Hardware: Pans
Accessories: Orange Juice

I'm trying to write this up while watching The Goonies for the first time, and I'm not sure if I can do this because it turns out The Goonies is completely INSANE. Have you seen this film? It's like watching an improv class with like 5 kids who are all considered 'the mental kid' in their group of friends. Anyway, food, yes.

To finish up that other half of the instant Moroccan couscous, I decided to make a lamb tagine. Now, tagine is actually the name of the cooking pot I think, so it's not really a tagine because I don't have one.. of those... but... who cares? Here are the spices I put in it.

So I picked up some lamb for this right, man, lamb is EXPENSIVE these days! Like way more expensive than beef, what's even up with that?

I fried some onion, lamb and pine nuts together in the spices. MMMM And then I added tomato puree and frozen peas.

The couscous is pretty instant, so I just put that in hot water for like 5 mins while the frying was finishing.

Post-Mortem: ***** REALLY good actually.  Spicy and aromatic and stuff. Worth the overpriced shell out for some lamb chunks? mmmaybe. Also the goonies is still insane it's like a film made out of outtakes its blowing my mind.

Just Cous.

Mode: 2 Player
Hardware: Oven
Accessories: Water

 I got given some moroccan style couscous mix for my birthday. TRUE STORY. Let's make something cool with it becouscouscouscouscouscous I can.

1:1 ratio of vegetables to meat. That's the westerners way.

I put the couscous in a pan with boiled water to cook. It won't take long at all so I better hurry up and prepare everything else!

Pink plastic bowl is trippy.

Mixed and egg, lemon juice and some parsley chopped as finely as I could.

Yeah my kitchens that messy today.

This is the best way to make breadcrumbs. Get a really stale old piece of bread that somehow isn't mouldy (possibly ask a wizard) and grate it with a cheese grater. I butterfly the chicken fillets and coat them in the egg/lemon/parsley mix and then cover them in breadcrumbs. It's kinda like as a kid when you'd put pritt stick across a piece of paper and then bathe it in glitter and then you'd just have this hideous sparkly mess on a piece of paper that you thought was neato.

Your cous is cooked! Nyahaaaar

By this time the couscous mix is ready, so I cut the pepper in half, remove the seedy bit and cram them full of cous. Then I bung both the chicken and the stuffed peppers in the oven for 25mins

Dear family: Still not too old for ketchup on everything.

Post-Mortem: ***** This was great! People should really stuff vegetables more, it looks really classy and it's incredibly easy. Literally all you do is take a food and put it in another food and suddenly you feel like Gordon Ramsay but less face surgery.

Fruity Chicken Curry

Mode: 2-4 Player
Hardware: Steamer, Pan.
Accessories: Cool glass of lemonade.

Ok, this time, no pre-made curry sauce. I can do this stuff if I wanted to, see? And I'm going to make an exotic and fruity flavoursome curry, even! So there T-square.

I started by steaming the white rice and some peeled potatoes, I put in a bayleef and some cardamom with the rice.

Now, I need a big ol' army of spices for this. A generous helping (about a tablespoon?) of mild curry and mango spice blend, and a small pinch of ginger, coriander, cumin, nutmeg and black pepper.

I diced some red onions as finely as I could (while wearing my 3d glasses) as well as some old raisins from my baking cupboard, and fried them all up with the spices and a beef stock cube in plenty of vegetable oil. That's right, beef stock in a chicken dish CALL THE COPS I DON'T GIVE A FUCK.

On goes some chopped up chicken and red pepper. Fry them thoroughly in the spices cause they be raw dogg.

I added a bit of water and also some ketchup, to make it more... saucy. When the potatoes were done I chopped them up and put them in, too.

Post-mortem: *** I think the sauce tasted really nice, but it wasn't nearly strong and saucy enough. I think there was too much potato and somewhat overcooked rice that it blanded out my delicious fruity paste. I'm not even sure why I decided it needed potatoes. Kinda blanking on that decision. Diced raisins and dried mango in curry though, are infact a good idea.