Breath of the Wild #67: Meat-Stuffed Pumpkin

Ingredients: Fortified Pumpkin, Any Meat

Description: "This hollow, meat-filled pumpkin is a local specialty of Kakariko Village."

The bad news is, it's not pumpkin season yet... (well, when i made this, i have a bit of a backlog so idk) The good news is... WHO CARES?? I HAVE A PUMPKIN SHAPED CASSEROLE DISH

First I just throw the whole entire butternut squash in the oven, that'll provide the pumpkin for the filling (we weren't going to NOT have pumpkin in it!) And fry up the mince, starting with diced garlic and onion.

For the meat i've got a mixture of beef & pork mince, mince is a traditional "stuffing" meat and good for a bolognese flavour. I guess while i'm here why not throw in the fresh tomatoes, a bit of chilli paste, and season with salt & pepper.

I thought it might be fun to throw in some cardamom pods as well, just for a lil' something different.

The mince is nice and brown and mixed up.

As you can see, the baked squash is waaaay easier to chop up now. But we have much more than we need, i'll just use as much as I can fit in the dish with the mince...

Oh! And I was going to put in tinned tomato and red wine vinegar and basil as well... uh... i've done it again haven't I? Why can I never not overfill things? It's fine, ill save the rest of the tomato for some pasta or something.

...So, I was just going to bake it for like 30mins or something, but I got called to an emergency, so i turned the oven off and let it slow cook for about 2 hours. That'll be good for a dish like this.

*****

Oh.. it tastes like being a hero after helping someone in the neighbourhood having a medical emergency! Sweet, rich, and meaty. Sort of like a bolognese with pumpkin instead of pasta.

Breath of the Wild #55: Meat Curry

Ingredients: Raw Meat, Hylian Rice, Goron Spice

Description: "The heat from the spice allows you to enjoy the large portion of the meat's savoriness."  

One thing about this game... lots of curries. Being the most basic of the meat curries, I thought i'd try to go the most basic of the basic. Just simple, cheap meat (diced pork), basmati rice, and one of the most cheap and basic curry sauces around here, the mild and popular korma!

Wow huh this meat is a bit cheap huh. I maybe should have drained the extra liquid as its kind added a bit of meat "fluff". I'm cooking it with a tbsp of butter. It's indeed very lean but hopefully stewing it in the curry should soften it a bit?

It's only meat, but half a jar of sauce should be plenty.

Rice looks good at least!

Oh! and we can add a bit of this pineapple relish and the seaweed salt as a nice garnish. This might add significant much-needed flavour.

**

Hmm, yeah, I don't know why I did this. Nobody forced me to get cheap ingredients and not add anything else. The curry sauce is blander than I expected, and the meat is quite tough and dry. I guess its an all-round perfectly edible meal, but the bar has been set for curries and this one... it's a little embarrassing.

Breath of the Wild #51: Glazed Meat

Ingredients: Any Meat, Courser Bee Honey

Description: "The sweetness of the honey permeates the meat, giving it a complex taste profile."

Based on the wobbly fatty looking meat, I thought pork belly would be good for this! But it looks like... i picked up a pork loin joint instead! Oh well, I like that too! Then i've got honey, soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds, miso paste and one (slightly old) chilli.

A bit of everything and ill blend it together!

Ok i know it looks really nasty and the strong miso smell is a lot, but it also smells like its gonna be goooddd

I think ill use my nice pumpkin pot to roast this! Itll just about fit, i will keep rotating it around periodically as it cooks, otherwise itll probably be dry on one side and wet on the other.

After about 2 hours its looking good!

And on the inside too, we can chop off some big chunks to serve. I think ill make some peas to have on the side.

*****

The miso and sesame does a lot, making it very umami. It's mildly sweet and salty, i didn't over do it with the honey or soy sauce. Very rich and flavourful, and now I have plenty of roast meat!

Breath of the Wild #45: Creamy Meat Soup

Ingredients: Any Meat, Any Herb, Vegetable, or Flower, Rock Salt, Fresh Milk

Description: "This nutritious soup contains serious portions of lightly braised meat and many vegetables."

Much like the last soup, but with meat this time. I've got some leftover pork belly slices, i figured thats kinda chowder-y...? I also want to try for something a bit more flavourful this time, since the previous soup was a bit lacking.

I'll start by "braising" the meat with a bit of oil and some sea salt and pepper. I used a different chopping board that i was gonna wash for the meat, you should always make sure you wash everything after chopping meat, or chop the veggies first.

Im tryign to do this quickly so ill just throw the vegetables in as I chop them, starting with the onions so they get a bit of browning in.

Then the celery and carrots, I guess we dont need those crispy so we can chase it up pretty quickly with the soup part.

I've got a beef stock cube, a teaspoon of umami paste and a tablespoon of oyster sauce. And just enough hot water that its legally declared a soup! If all this doesnt add a savoury meaty flavour, I don't know what will.

Once thats had some time I add the pak choi and a load of cream. Looking at how much is left in this pot, I didn't use very much cream last time. Oops! Once its had time for the leaves to get all soft and floppy I'll serve with a sprinkle of chopped chives.

****

Big improvements on flavour! The secret to good soup is adding lots of pastes. I do think the fatty cut of pork belly is maybe not the best for a light braising, i guess you wanna sear or slowcook it a lot harder else its a mouthful of chewy porky fat. I also think the pak choi is not an appealing soup texture, its gets all stringy.

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 #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.

Breath of the Wild #7: Copious Meat Skewers

Ingredients: Any four different Meats

Description: "Just shove a bunch of meat onto a skewer, and you're good to go."

Four different meats it says, so four different meats it is! I've got chicken thigh, lamb leg, pork belly, and that tough beef cut again (why am i like this)

Anything thats not already in chunks can get sliced up. I'm not sure how much of this to do... I guess if i dont prepare it now, when will I? I will make a few skewers and then fry the rest in a big pan for leftovers.

That's a lot of meat! It just says shove a bunch of meat on a skewer, no need to make it complicated... but im going to make it complicated.

First ill make a zesty marinade with vinegar, soy sauce, salt, worcestershire sauce, and lots of ginger.

Mix that all up. I also had some leftover ginger paste to finish up so its extra gingery.

Oops! I almost forgot one other thing, olive oil so that it browns nicely.

4 kebabs seems like plenty, oh but we're not done yet!

With all this meat I didnt want a repeat of that boring chewy beef skewer, so I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to make a satay sauce. I think that goes with all kinds of meat.

Half a tin of coconut milk, 2 big tablespoons of peanut butter, a tbsp of sugar, soy sauce, lime juice and gochujang paste should work for an improvised sauce. Heating it up helps all the fatty ingredients mix.

Doesn't that look nice? Now our copious meat doesn't have to be naked.

****

Finally! A good skewer! Even the beef seems less tough this time around. The peanut sauce is fun and flavourful. Despite that, the flavour of each meat is very distinctive. I think the pork belly goes best with the ginger and satay. 2 skewers of meat and the thick sauce though, its a bit rich and sickly. I should start making side salads.