Stardew Valley #48: Dish O' The Sea

Ingredients: Sardine, Hash Browns

Item Description: This'll keep you warm in the cold sea air.

I've already made hashbrowns once, but that was effort so I want to use store bought ones this time! I've also got tinned sardines, that's the easiest way to get em.

Pop these bad triangles in the oven for a bit.

Now to see what we're working with here... These should already be pre-cooked but i want to warm and crisp them up a bit in a saucepan i used to frying bacon earlier today.

These are VERY soft and threaten to fall apart, but I've got a spatula we can do this

Right we got the sards and a side salad, just gotta wait for the hashbrowns to finish in the oven.

Now for the finishing touch!

I wanna get some sauce on this meal.

***

These hashbrowns are great! They pair reasonably well with the sardines, surprisingly, but everything does just kind of seem a bit... incidental. The sardines are good, compared to herring/kippers the tiny bones are much less noticeable so id buy them again, but id probably break it up and mix it into a kedegree or potato salad or something. It'll keep you warm in the cold sea air, but maybe not as much as a stew.

Stardew Valley #47: Survival Burger

Ingredients: Bread, Cave Carrot, Eggplant

Item Description: A convenient snack for the explorer.

It's a burger! Simple enough. You could potentially do a veggie burger for this, but im still in my "vitamin b12 deficiency is no joke" arc so I want to do a beef and vegetable patty. We got lean beef mince, we got the eggplant, we got the carrot, we got some sesame burger buns for the bread.

First of all, lets grate this eggplant.

OK this isnt going well, you dont wanna know how long I tried to grate this thing only to get this far... Lets try something else.

Honestly even the blender is a bit of a pain (that slippery skin and spongy inner really is something huh?) But we got there in the end.

Alright we got our veg mince! Beef mince, an egg and a bit of fine breadcrumbs, this should make it nice and easy to form into a patty. I decided not to add onion, as its already like 30% vegetable and I thought itd be cool to let it have its own subtle flavour.

That said, lets add some survival spices! I think some chilli powder, salt, pepper and paprika should do it. I don't know why I have mild chilli powder but nows a good time to use a bunch of it.

Mashed it up with a fork, stand by while I get my hands really greasy and cold.

These are looking quite alright! I mean ok they sort of look like zombie diseased patties but we know they arent so shut up. I was going to fry these but you know what, I've got a grill, ive got time. 

Did you think I forgot about the cave carrot? Nuh-uh! I thought itd be fun to use the carrot as part of the burger garnish actually.

like this! 

The carrots very raw and wet, so i wanna crisp it with the patties (which are mostly cooked now). Is this something? Is this cooking?

Alright these look done, toasting the bun as well.

I want to pick some sauce. For some reason I was feeling bbq and mayo... theres something about smoky bbq sauce that reminds me of caves. You get what I mean right? 

Also sorry advance warning I kinda burned the back of the bun, agh. Pretend I didnt. ;)

***

It's an adequate burger. Good, even. I like the crunchy bite the carrot brings. It tasted kinda healthy and cheap, like a low fat burger with extra vegetables. The eggplant doesnt really bring in much contrast, so I kinda think I should have added onion or some garlic. And a fattier mince. And pickles! And maybe not overcooked it a bit. 

Is it a convenient snack for an explorer? Uhh I guess, i mean not as convenient as a sandwich tbh. Or a pasty. Or packet of crisps... loaf cake... bento... tesco fried chicken wrap meal deal... sorry what? Oh! Time to publish!

Stardew Valley #46: Farmer's Lunch

Ingredients: Omelet, Parsnip

Item Description: This'll keep you going.

Omelets! Parsnips! Some other stuff!

I'm going to start with doing parsnips my favourite way, which is honey roasted. Gotta make a mess peeling them.

Then im just gonna chop them into good sized chunks

A nice big tablespoon of honey, some olive oil, black pepper, paprika and salt. Ideally you should probably mix the ingredients up, but just tossing the parsnips around till its roughly mixed is fine by me. I'm also gonna add a tablespoon of water, to keep the parsnips from drying out too much since we didn't blanche them or anything.

Now just shove them in the oven till they look all... yknow, delicious. Everything else will cook quite quickly so we can take a break and come back.

Handful of beans with the stalk ends clipped...

Once the parsnips are half cooked we can just throw these in.

Right, time to make the omelette! I could just reuse the parsnips bowl, whats it gonna do... season my eggs? oh no!

I also thinly sliced some cheddar to add to the omelette. Why? Well part because i love it, but also because "Farmers Lunch" reminds me of the "Ploughman's Lunch" dish we have in the UK, which traditionally has big chunks of sharp cheddar.

My favourite omelette pan is rectangular, so im gonna make it a rectangular one! But folded over and not a tamagoyaki roll.

Hell yeah! Lets check on the vegetables next..

Also hell yeah!

*****

Square plate, square pans... sorry all my kitchenware is so square. Anyway this was great! These might be the best parsnips i've ever had, let alone made myself! The sweet vegetables paired so well with the tangy cheese omelette, making this feel like some gourmet recipe. The beans were a little tough, but i still prefer that to mushy overboiled ones. I thought I might add some sauce if it was a bit plain, but it really wasnt!

Stardew Valley #45: Stuffing

Ingredients: Bread, Cranberries, Hazelnut

Item Description: Ahh... the smell of warm bread and sage.

Alright I'm ready! I've got some bread slices I left to go stale, cranberries (dried this time! much more sweet and fun), hazelnuts (roasted), onions, garlic, celery, sage and butter. I've never made stuffing this way before, and I wanted a recipe that assured me I can use dried cranberries, so im following a betty crocker recipe I found on the American Internet. (the regular internet)

First we chop the stale bread into little crouton cubes, and only some of them explode into crumbs and fly all across my kitchen. Is this the american way?

Bowl of bread, get.

Next I dice up the onion, celery and garlic... the recipe says to fry it (well, skillet cook). Won't it get cooked in the oven...? Oh well, we do like a good frying.

And using a very generous amount of butter! After all, I think we want the hot butter to moisten up the rest of the dry mix as well surely.

While that fries up I can sprinkle on the dried cranberries and find a way to smash up the hazelnuts... I chose violence. A bag and a meat tenderizer, to be precise.

I realise so far we've only got sage and garlic for herbs, and thats cool, but stuffing is all about the christmas herbs so lets get some dried thyme in there too, and some salt and pepper.

Makes sense to throw them in with the vegetables. Time to pre-heat the oven as well.

Once thats looking cooked and lightly browned, we can throw our hots in with the colds. This still seems.... so dry. Like theres no chicken broth or anything. Its like a museli... will this really work? To be safe and delicious im going to drizzle just a bit of olive oil on it too. I might have been stingy with the butter.

*****

Wow this is great!! Out of shot i sneakily made a chunky pan-fried chicken breast to go with it...

And its such a delicious combo! You could definitely take it to another level with some gravy, but just on its own I ended up not needing any extra sauce, it was like eating a super crunchy caesar salad, with extra fruity herby nutty savoury flavours. I was very unsure about the hazelnuts, when I first put them in they seemed overpowering with that dessert-like smell.. but in the end they balanced really well with the strong flavours of sage and cranberry. I've never had stuffing like this before, ive always had it more like a sorta... herby.. oaty... sausagemeat falafel... Is this... "American Style Stuffing"?

Stardew Valley #44: Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients: Cranberries, Sugar

Item Description: A festive treat.

Planning ahead, that's what I'm all about. When my mum said she'd make cranberry sauce for christmas dinner I said ooh! Let me get in on that. So we've time travelled back to christmas for this, after all, it is "a festive treat".

The ingredients are cranberries (from frozen if you like), a good amount of sugar, and we've added some orange peel for a little extra sumethn'

Now you just heat and stir, heat and stir, until it becomes a sauce.

Simple as that!?

Or is it... looks like someones mixed in a bit of port as well.

Here's a cheeky pic of the whole christmas dinner. Obviously this is rated ******!

***

Don't get me wrong, my mums cranberry sauce is the best of the best. But cranberry sauce is just pretty good at its best. It comes and goes and I don't really miss it most of the year. It's bitter, astringent and sour, goes alright with turkey, pork, potatoes and cheese. But usually I still prefer ketchup or chutney.