Breath of the Wild #78: Seafood Fried Rice

Ingredients: Any Porgy, Hylian Rice, Rock Salt

Description: "Various seafood has been sauteed with rice. The stronger the flame, the tastier the dish!"

Porgy means a different thing every day, today it means some big prawns where the packaging broke in transit, so lets do this recipe! I have some short-grain rice, chopped yellow pepper, peas, salt and yknow, a bunch of other scrounged stuff that goes well in fried rice.

Let's start with the seafood , crushed garlic and chillies to sear them a bit before we pile on everything else.

I'll mix salt, soy sauce, rice vinegar and sesame oil in with the rice. It doesn't say this recipe has egg, but I have some, so why not...?

Yknow... I made too much rice... I should have saved half of this, my ratios are gonna be off and crowd the pan, but its TOO LATE ive mixed the raw egg in now, lets just go for it.

Im cooking and cooking... im mashing this into a creamy risotto instead of a crispy fried rice I fear... lets serve it up before I turn it into mochi.

***

Got a bit sloppy with this one, i've definitely made better fried rice. I didn't leave the rice overnight, i overcrowded the pan, and I probably should have cooked the frozen veg separate so they didnt add more moisture. You have to admit though... it kinda looks more like the graphic this way...? Its a little blander than it looks, I guess the stronger the flame, the tastier the dish as they say! But yknow what, a not-great fried rice is still a pretty satisfying meal.

Breath of the Wild #75: Seafood Paella

Ingredients: Armored Porgy or Mighty Porgy, Razorclaw Crab or Ironshell Crab, Rock Salt, Goat Butter, Hylian Rice

Description: "No fisherman's birthday bash would be complete without this top-shelf seafood dish."

I'm just gonna go ahead and make a paella based on a few cursory glances at paella recipes online. I think i've made a few not-that-authentic paellas before. We've got some seafood mix and some extra whole squid im hastily defrosting, proper paella rice, sweet peppers, onion, garlic, thyme, tinned tomatoes, etc.

Onions and garlic can start frying first in a bit of olive oil. Looking at the ingredients now, i forgot i was gonna use a good amount of butter! Oh well.

Once they're a bit browned i add the chicken stock, pepper cut into strips, rice and a bit of water, and we can keep adding water as we go.

Seasoned with salt and pepper, and plenty of smoked paprika and turmeric! Was that too much? We'll see. 

The tin of tomatoes go in next... Oh, and I guess ill add some white wine. i dont know when to add that. I should have looked at the instructions not just the ingredients list but im busy now. I'll use my cooking instincts!

While that cooks I'll cut up the squid into more rings (and tentacles i guess?)

When the rice is about halfway there I guess I can stir the mixed seafood and squid.

When its nearly done (looking nice and vibrant!) I'll add some lemon juice and the fresh thyme. Then i can arrange it on a plate with those jalapenos, they were the closest thing to small green peppers i could find.

****

It tastes like tomatoes, peppers, and cheap seafood. That's pretty good! its not exactly taking me back to the streets of barcelona but I think its a success for the price of budget grocery store seafood. I thought the rice was soft but it seemed sliiightly undercooked actually. The spicy kick from the jalapenos was a really nice touch. A nice mix of flavours.

Breath of the Wild #71: Crab Risotto

Ingredients: Any Crab, Hylian Rice, Goat Butter, Rock Salt

Description: "An everyday staple of seaside villages, the secret to its delicious flavor lies in crab fat."

If you'll remember way back in recipe 21, I bought and boiled a small heap of crabs. This is the day after I did all that, to use that fresh(ish) boiled crabmeat in this risotto. We have our arborio rice, butter and rock salt as per the recipe, and i'll also be flavouring it with veg stock, sweetcorn, garlic, parsley, white wine, lemongrass and lime. I thought i was gonna keep it simple!

I'll melt the butter and brown the crushed garlic. Everything else is cooked I guess, so it can go in near the end. Do i need more butter? I guess i can add more if it needs it..

Next ive added hot water and mixed in the stock cube, and then ill add the risotto rice.

I suppose I should put those misc seasonings in too... plenty of the rock salt, and a little bit of white wine and the lemongrass. Its just there because i want to finish up that old jar thats been in my fridge for ages tbh.

OK while the rice is cooking time to deconstruct this crab! I'll save a couple claws for garnish, and ill use half of the crab meat now and freeze half to use in the crab omurice for recipe 79!

I need to keep stirring the rice and topping it up with water as I go along.

In goes the crab meat, sweetcorn, chopped parsley and that lime wedge.

***

It's fine. The rice is still a little bit undercooked, my bad. This is the trouble with always winging it. It tastes a bit like.. garden? I think its the garlic and parsley. I kinda actually wish i used something to enhance the crab flavour, like seafood stock or crab sticks. I guess they said the secret ingredient was crab fat, I didn't have any crab fat. Do crabs really have fat?

Breath of the Wild #47: Snail/Clam Chowder

Ingredients: Sneaky River Snail, Goat Butter, Fresh Milk, Tabantha Wheat

Description: "The pleasant texture and flavor of snails combine with butter and milk in a rich soup."

Alright, this ones a bit different from the other soups. That all said, im starting with a foundation of making it quite similar to the other soups: shallots, celery, carrots and cream. But this time we've got to add butter, and for the wheat ill add a tablespoon of flour? And since its a chowder, ill add in potatoes, and flavour it with garlic and parsley and stock, and a few other things based on a glace at a clam chowder recipe. And lastly for the snails? I got a seafood mix and im going to pick out the mussels meat and use that. Mussels, snails, they're both molluscs right? Close enough?

"The pleasant texture and flavour of snails" said no one ever??? Almost giving myself frostbite picking frozen mussels out from a bunch of frozen seafood. I didnt get all of them but this should be plenty.

I've crushed 4 cloves of garlic, chopped a bit of celery and shallots, and im frying them in a tablespoon or butter. Is that enough butter to count?

When ive chopped big chunks of potato and carrot, i throw them in with hot water and the chicken stock cube.

Next i picked out some extra flavourings to make it more chowder-y... worcester sauce, sriracha, celery salt and white pepper. Is sriracha the millennial's tabasco?

With those in i guess maybe nows a fine time to stir in a tablespoon of flour? With all the potatoes and cream im really not sure this needs flour, but... lets see what happens eh.

Since the mussels are already cooked ill put them in when the potatoes are starting to soften.

Then lastly I can take it off the heat, pour in some cream and chopped parsley. The flour seems to have done a fine job without turning it into too thick of a stew. Lets face it, you can always add more water!

****

I find it difficult to believe mussels are anyone's favourite texture or flavour, but the garlic and parsley was really working with it, making a thick and flavourful soup that'll be a pretty great way to use clams, mussels or even snails if you got 'em.

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 #21: Crab Stir-Fry

 Ingredients: Any Crab, Goron Spice

Description: "The Goron spice used in preparing this crab pairs perfectly with the flavor of its meat."

Yoo I went to the asian supermarket and they had the crab bits! This is the closest I can get to affordable whole crab I think.

It comes fast frozen in a big ol' block, so ill let it defrost for most of the day. I just put it on a plastic steamer tray in my sink.

You don't wanna re-freeze or wait too long with the defrosted meat, so im gonna gonna boil almost all of them (except a later grilled crab recipe). I noticed a lot of threads in with the crabs that I took out, maybe they were bits of plastic fishing net? So to be safe im not going to reuse the water i boiled them in for seafood stock.

Alright, heres the rest of the set up! I guess this isnt exactly a stir fry, but I thought for the goron spiced crab it would be cool to make it a whole laksa curry and pop the crab on top! So i've got the laksa curry paste and coconut milk, and to fill it out (since its gonna make a big batch!) ive got udon noodles, beansprouts, a few lotus roots, lots of "crab" sticks (surimi), spring onions, chillies, coriander and the tiniest bit of mint (its not growing so well outside in the middle of winter!)

Wow this packet starts with 1.5l of water before I even add other ingredients... i should have used my even bigger pot... Also this smells like itll be plenty spicy so ive decided to forget about adding extra chillies.

I guess i should put the frozen lotus roots in early, and then I guess i can put in the crab and surimi sticks to flavour it..? Most of these ingredients wont need long to cook at all, the udon is part-cooked and beansprouts only need a few minutes (i learned this today lol, turns out i was always overcooking them)

Oh i should add the coconut milk next...

Argh disaster!! the coconut milk had separated so when i tipped it in liquid behind the the solid chunk just blasted my damn hob! Well... while we're making a mess we might as well admit that we need to separate this curry into 2 pots if we're gonna fit the noodles in...

There we go, the noodles and beansprouts can heat up, and I added the coriander and mint as well... I also scrounged a bit of lime and a basil leaf to garnish it with.

****

The laksa curry broth is soooooooo good!!! It's a great curry flavour to pair with seafood, tofu and white meats. It's so perfectly warming, spicy and fruity. Eating crab this way is a pain though, i ended up taking it out and scraping out all the meat with my hands and dropping it back in the noodle soup. It didn't have to be this way.