Stardew Valley #7: Vegetable Medley

Ingredients: Tomato, Beet

Item Description: This is very nutritious.

This one has an extremely broad description. It has to be vegetables. It has to have more than one vegetable. As far as im aware, "medley" doesnt refer to any particular recipe or cooking style, so we can do what we want. Oh, and it has to have tomatoes and beetroots. I'm going to make a tray of roasted chunky vegetables!

So as you can see I bought cooked beetroot and fresh tomatoes, and for colour i'm also adding courgette, carrots, and a tin of cooked butter beans! Chopped them up into chunks and spread em around and... Ok thats kind of a lot...

Now we have to decide on some flavours! I'm actually not sure what to do... so i just had a dig around for something vaguely Mediterranean..? I got swahili lemon salt & pepper mix, chilli flakes, oregano and basil. Then some olive oil to crisp it up, balsamic vinegar for sourness and pomegranate molasses for sweetness. 

Just sprinkle/drizzle that all on and then im going to CAREFULLY try to mix it up a little bit to get everything coated, and reveal that I do IN FACT have courgette in there somewhere.

ok NOW it can go in the oven for like 15-20min

Its a lil wet, its a lil waterlogged, but I think its like, adequately cooked and im hungry. 

****

Yeah happy with this. The seasonings dont dominate so you can appreciate the different vegetable flavours, but its also not bland at all and each bite is enhanced with balanced seasoning. This is a great, choice for something cheap, easy, filling and hard to hate. And with all those different genres of veg its gotta be VERY NUTRITIOUS.

Stardew Valley #6: Parsnip Soup

Ingredients: Parsnip, Milk, Vinegar

Item Description: It's fresh and hearty.

Good news! Parsnip season has just begun and I got a bag of neeps. I'm a little worried about the other ingredients though... milk and vinegar...? Don't those... yknow.. famously not get along? I've decided to use cream instead, because thats a more common soup ingredient and it might minimise the curdling issue... maybe.

First I peel and chop the parsnips to help them cook faster.

I'm gonna start by baking them with some oil, a little sugar and salt, and even though I want to keep the flavours fairly pure and parsnip-y, I think a little bit of cumin seeds will compliment the flavour nicely.

After about 15-20 mins these are looking tender enough. And they smell great!

Next im going to whizz them in a blender with a bit of water. I don't really have a good idea of how much water to add so im just gonna keep adding water until its thick but not, like, mashed potato thick.

Here it is currently looking mashed potato thick. Nice. Reckon we can add some more hot water.

OK now im going to add in the cream and the cider vinegar. How much? uhhh i dont know. A bunch. 3 tablespoons? Something like that?

***

I think it did actually curdle a bit in the end, but the parsnip is so starchy that it hardly matters. Parsnip has such a unique flavour, and although I think I would make it differently next time, I am quite content with this. It's unusual yet tasty and comforting, would pair very well with some roast chicken or anything curry flavoured.

Stardew Valley #5: Baked Fish

Ingredients: Sunfish, Bream, Wheat Flour

Item Description: Baked fish on a bed of herbs.

This recipe has 2 fish for the ingredients, yet the sprite seems to depict a single whole fish. They're also american river fish that i really doubt i can get easily, and i doubt it matters either... I'm just going to use a cheap whole seabass from my local store. We've got some wheat flour, and for the "bed of herbs" im going to roast those leftover cauliflower leaves, and some parsley i shoved in my freezer because it was starting to get old. Roll out the red carpet for this one eh.

I'm ALSO going to do some steamed potatoes for this dish! The sprite depicts some sort of beige objects next to the cooked fish. It could be lemon, its probably lemon... but its my dinner so we're having both!

We have to bake this fish, might as well bake it with the veg, ive got the greens spread out on some foil and ill season them with a bit of salt and pepper.

Next, what to do with the flour!? Well, this fish came with a seasoning mix, so i thought id mix that (and some dill - more herbs!) with flour and coat the fish with that. Also whoops, i think ive used a bit too much flour, this doesnt look like a great ratio... ah well.

Drizzled the fish with a bit of cooking oil and just caked on the flour. 

Got enough foil to cover it so things dont burn, and in it goes!

Oops! i forgot the lemon slices! Back in it goes.

The potatoes are steamed, and im mixing them up with some butter, fresh chives and more dill! These are looking good, shame they're not the main dish..

*

This smelled great! But then I remembered I hate digging bones out of my food. I really should have fried the fish in the flour or used breadcrumbs because it just ended up all goopy against the moist skin. The cauliflower leaves had a pleasant crunch, but after a while i got sick of the bitter parsley and strong dill flavour. The fishmeat was bland and didn't make up for my poor cooking technique.

Stardew Valley #4: Cheese Cauliflower

Ingredients: Cauliflower, Cheese

Item Description: It smells great!

Cheese Cauliflower? Don't you mean Cauliflower Cheese? Is this a USA vs UK thing? Anyway we got cheese, we got a cauliflower.  Also ingredients for a white roux/cheese sauce, which is like milk, flour and a bit of butter. Extra criteria for this recipe is that it has to "smell great".

First we disassemble the cauliflower. Just chop the florets off and i might save the leaves for later, as they're apparently about the same as cabbage.

Next we're going to roast the cauliflower for a bit on its own, cause its a tough veg and probably needs longer to cook than some cheese. I'm drizzling it with a cheeky bit of truffle flavoured olive oil and a pinch of salt as well. For FLAVA.

Then grate up the cheese. Is this enough? its probably enough.

Now all the recipes tend to say you make a white sauce with cheese, so we're starting by "melting" some butter and a bit of flour. Dodgy butter tbh, doesnt seem like its melting much does it?

We'll just hope some milk will sort things out. Dumped a bunch of milk in. Just eyeballing this really.

Oop that thickened up quickly, so now its time to dump in most of the cheese, but save a couple handfuls to sprinkle on top for a cheesy crust.

Oooh yeah thats looking good. Thats looking thick.

Well we cant let the sauce dry out, so lets take out the cauliflower and hope its cooked enough. its looking a bit al dente but its getting another 15-20 mins to cook in the sauce so maybe its fine.

Next, im not gonna neglect the spices! I fancy a bit of pepper, paprika and nutmeg. These are the usual suspects when i season a creamy or cheesy dish. You can do whatever you want though. Mustard? rosemary? garlic? go to town.

Now thats looking flavoury, don't forget to sprinkle on the rest of the cheese before shoving it back in the oven. Feel like my veg/sauce ratio could be better, wish id gotten a bigger cauliflower I guess.

Oh damn this DOES smell great!

*****

As someone who's familiar with the concept but never cooked this myself before, damn this is really good! Like ok, its pretty similar to macaroni cheese I guess. But daaaamn. Really pleased with this. Pleased and cheased.

Stardew Valley #3: Salad

Ingredients: Leek, Dandelion, Vinegar

Item Description: A healthy garden salad.

So, the problem with Stardew Valley's recipes is they're very big on seasonal ingredients, but unlike in videogames, a seasons take a whole real life god damn year and whos got time for that? As of when im writing this up, its the middle of summer and there are NO DANDELIONS, but the good news is dandelions are super bitter which is why they dont sell em all year round in bag salad. So we're going to be taking some liberties as usual.

If you ask me, rocket leaves look fairly similar to dandelion leaves and this is all ready to go, no bugs probably, very foragey gardeny type of vibe, very good.

Now I learned my lesson recently that leeks, at least around here, are honestly quite big and tough to eat raw, so im going to opt for some spring onions aka "salad onions" to get a very similar flavour, and some actual herbs from my garden! a pinch of mint and chives. GARDENY

Its gonna look very green (and kinda bitter) compared to the sprite so im adding in some chopped tomatoes and a pinch of sweetcorn. (on top of the chopped onion and herbs)

Now for the "vinegar" dressing. I think cider vinegar is the most crisp and "gardeny" flavoured vinegar to me, and im gonna make more of a proper dressing out of it by mixing it with olive oil and mustard (and ill just crank some pepper straight on the salad)

Here's my secret technique! I have a tiny little jam jar to put all the components in, then i can just shake em up and drizzle em on. cute eh?

****

Hard to mess up a salad. To me the oniony, minty and peppery flavours totally remind me of the flavours of foraging around a simple garden, and then its balanced nicely with the sweetness of the corn and the sourness of the tomato and vinegar. I mean i nailed it, but it's not THAT exciting though.

Stardew Valley #2: Omelet

Ingredients: Egg, Milk

Item Description: It's super fluffy.

Super fluffy eh? We've made plenty of omelets before, but I never use milk when I make em, so lets try that and also try for "super fluffy". Also the graphic looks more like scrambled egg to me, so I guess no big deal if we mess this up.

Ok hear me out-

Super fluffy? what if we take a blender to it and murder this batter into FOAM? what then??

Lets not mess around either, im oiling up my best omelet pan because i dont trust milky foam batter.

Cor, nevermind this is coming out really well actually! SO FOAMY.

*****

Quite pleased with this! I actually wouldn't say the taste or texture was that far off how i normally do an omelet, i guess id say it reminded me more of scrambled eggs somehow, probably due to the added milk. Like the previous recipe, its super basic and maybe uninspiring... but can we fault eggs for being so easy and delicious?