Breath of the Wild #54: Vegetable Curry

Ingredients: Any Carrot or Any Pumpkin, Hylian Rice, Goron Spice

Description: "This healthy curry is popular for its mild flavor and moderate spiciness." 

I thought i'd try another curry paste I bought to mix things up a bit. It's another thai style yellow curry type. Just thought this would go nicely with veg. I've already given the "pumpkin" (butternut squash) a bit of baking in the oven to soften it up, and then we've got a big onion, courgette, tomatoes, and some chives. Oh and not pictured is some jasmine rice in the steamer.

First I'll fry the onions, medium sized chunks I guess i'd call that, in a tiny bit of veg oil.

I want to have some vegetables on the top like in the graphic, so ill chop some bigger and some smaller pieces, and take a few out once they've cooked in the pan before adding the curry.

Same deal with the tomatoes.

And the pumpkin, I guess just half of the thing will be plenty, cutting off the peel and chopping it into cubes, with some half-ring slices for the top.

Hello yello! I guess this is designed for chicken but... well, you gotta try stuff.

In goes the whole thingy of curry paste and a can of coconut milk. It says use half a can and hot water but I don't want half a can sitting in my fridge... very thoughtful of me I know.

Then I leave that to stew for a while, looks good enough to eat. Oh, I will serve it with rice and sprinkle the chopped chives on top.

****

Mild and creamy yet with a subtle spicy aftertaste. The vegetables on top don't really add anything, I guess if I did this again without the oddly specific vegetable choices i'd have used some more fitting ingredients, like... coriander and bamboo shoots or something. The tomato goes surprisingly well though. 

Breath of the Wild #12: Steamed Fish

Ingredients: Any Fish, Any Vegetable, Flower, or Herb

Description: "A refined dish made by wrapping a fresh fish in fragrant wild greens and cooking it."

Oooh look at that, i bought boneless fish fillets! Good on me! For steamed fish i decided to go for a fairly iconic dish that sprung to mind, thai style sea bass.

I place the fish fillets in the steam bowl with a pinch of sugar, lemongrass, and a dash of soy sauce and rice vinegar.

And then i finely mince garlic, coriander, chillies and cut some lime wedges. I also have some frozen chopped spring onions.

And ive just thrown it all on top. Is that too much seasoning? well its gotta be fresh, fragrant and wild. 

Unlike the meat im gonna cover this up with a silicon lid so it doesnt get too much added water as i steam it, i don't wanna turn it into a broth.

***

A "refined dish" it says, well.. it doesn't look as much like the graphic this way, but its much easier to eat. The fish is light and satisfying, but its all a little too bitter, i think i used too much lime juice. Or the limes i bought weren't that good. I definitely recommend doing something a bit like this, but more garlic, salt and sugar, less lime, and maybe just pan fry or grill it on a tray.

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.

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.

Stardew Valley #79: Tropical Curry

Ingredients: Coconut, Pineapple, Hot Pepper

Item Description: An exotic, fragrant curry served in a pineapple bowl.

Soo, this is the recipe I'm most excited for on this entire list. I love a thai style curry, I love sweet and sour, and I love the aesthetics of fruit. I've got a pineapple (which I got free with a voucher!), some massaman curry paste, coconut milk, hot pepper, bell pepper, spring onion, bamboo shoot, prawns, coriander, and jasmine rice.

I had to figure out how to get into this sewn up cloth bag lol... shove some rice in the steamer while we make everything else.

I already had some chopped vegetables from my freezer but I wanted to chop these up a bit more. And the chilli too.

Thats the spring onion, bell pepper, hot pepper and bamboo shoots. I want to try and get this to brown a bit in the pan before we fill it with sauce.

Now!!! Intimidating part... I've never cut a pineapple before, especially not into a bowl shape! It smells nice and ripe so that's a good start.

Whoa... that actually went well. I just cut around the insides and dug under it with a spoon, and then scraped out the rest. Just like a pumpkin, maybe even easier? Is this going to be watertight enough?

I read somewhere that you cut out the hard middle part, so I did that. slice up the soft bits and im just going to put some of it, about 1/3 of 1/2 of the pineapple in with those veggies I was browning.

I don't think these will ever get that crispy but they are looking nicely cooked, and just BEHOLD how tropical this already looks. 

Time to put in half the jar of curry and the whole can of coconut milk... and TRY NOT TO SPILL ANY OF IT DOWN THE SIDE WHICH YOULL HAVE TO CLEAN UP LATER WHEN THE HOB IS COOLED DOWN AND ITS COOKED ONTO THE SURFACE

The prawns are pre-cooked so we can put these in near the end after letting the curry stew for a little while.

And the chopped coriander too, and cook till its heated up again after dumping in all those frozen prawns.

I wasn't sure how to present the rice, but... there's actually quite a lot of space in this pineapple, so we can totally just line the bottom with it, might help keep it watertight as well.

Fruity curry is looking done, time to grab the ladle.

*****

It's divine! It was everything I hoped it would be. Fun to prepare and easier than I expected. Sweet and tangy but not overpoweringly pineapple-y, a good kick of heat but you could also taste the hints of clove and cardamom from the curry sauce. "Exotic and fragrant" for sure.