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.

Breath of the Wild #6: Seafood Skewer

Ingredients: Any Snail or Crab

Description: ""A skewer of delicious roasted fish and shellfish."

Curiously, the ingredients don't say a fish has to be included, but we've got plenty of those sardines so, another round of those. I wanted to get some other seafood resembling the crab and snail, but uhhh.. i dont think i can get any that fit easily on a skewer for one thing. I did how ever get some crab sticks and small squids, so im defrosting some of that. It's seafood!

I've gutted the sardines, i'll also be doing the "copious fish skewers" recipe at the same time as this one so i'll throw more fish chunks on top.

For the seasoning, I dunno, there's only so much that goes with fish and seafood so i'm just gonna do a remix of some of the stuff I already have. More of that horseradish root, lots of garlic, a bit of lemongrass paste, chilli flakes, salt, olive oil, and plenty of fresh lemon juice.

Grated, sprinkled, splashed and tumbled it together. I also got in there and stuffed extra garlic and seasonings into the fish cavities.

Grill ready! Think it looks enough like the reference?

**

Crab sticks work surprisingly well on the grill, they look even more like real food this way. The seasoning was very strong and spicy and a little woody. Not bad for surviving the wilderness I guess, but for home cooking eh... it sure is some edible creatures on a stick.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #14: Spicy Crab-Salad Sandwich

Time for crab!

We have a tin of good quality crab meat, garlic, red chillies, spring onion, lime, sesame oil and some type of cabbage called "sweetheart" cabbage. It looks like a gnome hat.

I get no hints from the label if the crab meat is cooked or raw... i expected cooked when i bought it but.. well i dunno. I think ill give this a little sautee. Drained off the excess water of course.

Honestly, i think garlic, onion and chillies are all best with a little sear so let's just toss these all together with some sesame oil IN A HOT PAN

They are cooking in toasted sesame oil which also acts as a dressing, and we get to add some salt as well.

Will this be it? will this finally be the recipe where i learn to hold back on overstuffing the sandwich with too much greens? I think so.

Oh! I forgot to show what bread I acquired. I really wanted to find any type of non-crusty baguette or soft roll. Lidl was out of almost everything except these brioche buns, but you know what? Not the first time ive heard of crab/lobster in brioche rolls, I think its kind of a thing around here. Anyway look away while I do some unethical fire hazard things to lightly toast the bread.

I think the crap looks reasonably cooked?? Sits nicely in there.

Some cabbage on top and squeezing the mini lime wedges, and we're good!

****

Quite nice, fresh tasting, the lime adds a lot. There's some grit in there though, maybe I needed to rinse the crab? Not all that spicy, I didn't need to hold back on those pretty mild chillies. It's nice but its not amazing or anything.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #10: Asian Shrimp and Vegetable Wrap

Ooh a wrap eh? How exotic. What's next, a hot dog?

Got a delivery from further out so I could get some proper shiitake mushrooms. We got some frozen prawns (shrimp), beansprouts (i think thats what they mean by mung beans?), pak choi, and plenty of sesame oil and soy sauce. Oh and some wheat tortillas for the wraps!

Chopping up the veggies and sauteeing them with the sesame oil. If you're working with raw shrimps you should start with them first probably, but mine are frozen and pre-cooked so we will do 'em at the end.

So for the soy sauce... i have all kinds. Im actually gonna mix some of my good dark stuff with light soy sauce and a bit of sugar and mirin as well, just to add a more complex flavour since this and the sesame oil is all the seasoning we've got!

adding the prawns and the leafy half of the pak choi.

Ok... this is starting to become less of a crispy sautee and more of a stew... I guess i can drain it off and itll be fine?

Draining it into a bowl, im going to save all the liquid for later since itll probably make a great stock for noodles!

I haven't forgotten the recipe said to cut the prawns in half... i couldnt do it when they were frozen... honestly they arent that big now so this is kind of a pointless step imo.

Here's all the ingredients layered in, ah but theres just one more thing!

It says to add "soy-laced mayo" but it smells plenty soy'ed up so ill add a bit of this kewpie mayo.

***

Quite nice! I don't know what the trick is, especially with beansprouts, to sear them nicely without drawing all the water out and turning everything super wet. Cook everything less long I guess? If you don't mind the slimyness of everything, the flavours are well balanced making the most of the components and even the wrap and mayo add a little something extra. The unique flavour of shiitake mushrooms is highlighted, along with the prawns. Light and nutritious. Perfect if you like seafood, mushrooms, mayo and beansprouts... ok thats quite a hard sell for a lot of people I suppose.