Delicious in Dungeon #55: Barometz Soup

Damn this barometz is.. a heaving chonker... must be ripe

Another new but simple recipe for a familiar monster.

Last time we had tomatoes and vegan fake-lamb as our ingredients for barometz, and this time we're doing something very similar. This time I got some kebab spiced soya protein, and some fresh tomatoes.

I'm just gonna start blending these tomatoes with the clove of garlic and some leaves of basil.

I'll fry this kebab with some vegetable oil until its looking brown. Hopefully simmering it with the soup won't ruin the texture, but I don't really know.

Then we can add the cups of puree'd tomato and basil and try to fry them up as well. They're quite light in colour, i guess very watery tomatoes.

Adding the spices, i've got a teaspoon of sugar, a whole load of moroccan style spice mix (to lean into the kebab flavour!) and some celery salt.

once its probably cooked nicely i'll add a couple cups of water and just let it simmer for a while.

***

No action shot of me pouring the soup because I don't have 3 hands but you get the idea. It was pleasant, fortunately I was in the mood for something kind of light and hydrating because it was definitely more fresh tomato than a classic reduced and full-flavoured tomato. It had a nice warmth to the spice and you could really taste the basil. I think if you're having a very simple tomato soup maybe you'd prefer it very smooth and creamy... this was meaty and lumpy. Maybe the vegan kebab is a pointless addition, but its probably healthy with all that protein.

Delicious in Dungeon #36: Barometz Balut (Or Barometz Chops)

Barometz is a weird one... a plant that grows a lamb-like fruit. An unusually peaceful monster, but its a little unsettling somehow.

So this recipes another misleadingly named one. It's only "balut" in the sense that its meant to be a kind of embrionic lamb... really what this dish is, is lamb chops in tomato sauce.

Since its actually a plant with the appearance of a beast, I thought it be cool to source some imitation lamb made from plants! Big tesco had just what I needed, I guess this country aint so bad sometimes... Anyway for the sprouts garnish we also got some bean sprouts, for the fruit innards we have chopped tomatoes, and then we've got garlic, wine, and salt & pepper seasonings.

First im frying up the lamb steaks and sprouts... they were in the freezer so we're gonna need to thaw them then cook off all that excess water. Im also gonna cook the in this lime & avocado oil, add a little bit more flavour to the sprouts especially.

Meanwhile, since I bought tinned tomatoes theres not really much other work to do! Just peel some cloves of garlic to crush.

While its cooking i can add some salt and pepper, and then ill add a bit more to the tomato sauce as well.

That's looking nicely browned and dry! We can put these to one side and cook the rest of the stuff.

In goes the chopped tomatoes, garlic and red wine.

And then we cook it until... I dunno really? I guess its just a bit thicker and the tomato and garlic smells cooked?

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I liked how easy it was to make... Did the barometz taste like crab? No! It tasted more like... soy mince with mint and parsley, the real reason why its been labelled as imitation lamb! But the minty herb flavourings do go well with the tomato and garlic, giving it a vaguely moroccan/greek style flavour. It tasted good, but not quite peak, maybe a more enhanced tomato sauce with more complexity would have added more?