Stardew Valley #54: Pale Broth

Ingredients: White Algae

Item Description: A delicate broth with a hint of sulfur.

It's not quite an algae, but i got some lovely mixed mushrooms (mostly pink oyster!) for the white algae fungae, and for the hint of sulphur ive also got a white cabbage, and to round out the flavour i'll add half a sachet of bonito dashi (fish stock) and a single radish that grew in my garden.

Roughly choppped the veg and dumped it all in the pan with the powdered stock. Now we just add boiling water and wait!

Oh this would be a good time to add a pinch of celery salt as well. I always forget I have it. I've let it simmer for about 25 mins.

Now, unlike the green algae soup, this one says its a BROTH so, in spite of the graphic, I want to make a clear strained broth just to mix up my soup game a bit.

Don't worry though! There's no way i'd let these nice vegetables go to waste, i'll keep them and shove them in a stir fry or curry tomorrow.

***

Quite pleasant! It's definitely a delicate broth, you can really taste the mushrooms and cabbage, which doesnt sound that appealing but I actually quite like the flavour of cabbage, and i like oyster and shiitake a lot more than common mushrooms. I think it would make a really good soup base for some noodles. Even on its own though, its very hydrating and refreshing and not earthy like the algae soup.

Stardew Valley #53: Algae Soup

Ingredients: Green Algae

Item Description: It's a little slimy.

Green algae! Thats a bit of a whimsical ingredient, but ive gone on a quest to find the closest ingredients I can that I could reasonably put into a soup. We've got powdered spirulina, which ACTUALLY IS AN ALGAE! but its not really known for being a good standalone soup base, so ive also got some other flavours that I hope will pad out, while still feeling like a slimy algae soup. I got some dried konbu (japanese seaweed), a handful of chopped spinach, a can of green lentils and some cornish dried seaweed to garnish. Pondwater-tastic!

First ill blend the spinach with the lentils, just a bit at a time with a splash of added water, I really want this to blend as much as possible and not have any large chunks.

This is looking like an algae soup already! Once ive done the whole can and all of the spinach it goes in the big soup pot.

Now we can throw that in the hob with the konbu, thats mainly there to add extra flavour kinda like a massive bayleaf.

Next we add the spirulina powder, im adding 2 teaspoons because while this is meant to be the main ingredient, wow its strong stuff! Its gonna dye my stomach green.

That's changed the colour a lot, after its had some time to get warm and simmer and stuff, we can bowl it up and sprinkle on some of the dried seaweed to garnish! And a pinch of salt if it even needs any.

**

This is surprisingly nice for what it is. The lentils and spinach give it an earthy/hearty flavour and its not very bitter. It does taste a little bit like a damp towel though. And the soup has a nice filling thickness, but it texturewise its a little... uh.. powdery? starchy? I'm pleased with my interpretation of the dish, but you and I both know its not really a dream dinner.

Stardew Valley #52: Seafoam Pudding

Ingredients: Flounder, Midnight Carp, Squid Ink

Item Description: This briny pudding will really get you into the maritime mindset!

Right lets get into that maritime mindset! For the flounder we have a real flatfish, technically its a sole but eh flats flat, for midnight carp i just have some leftover tuna, for the squid ink i have cuttlefish ink. Then we got some veggies and spices, and a weird idea for the seafoam, you'll see.

Alright i guess we can just shove these in a a pot and start making a soup.

Got some veggies to fill it out. Just felt like some broccoli and cauliflower, dunno really.

Some seasonings to get in the maritime mindset! I didn't really know what to do with all this, so thought id try a cube of vegetable stock for the soup base, celery salt, cumin seed, and dried parsley. I guess i expect this will taste kinda light and herb-y. The cumin will add something distinctive without turning it too curry-flavoured.

And of course, the ink and some hot water, and stew it until everything looks tender and and it doesnt taste like water I guessss.

Once thats about ready to serve, time for my weird idea! Supposedly if you whisk a bunch of chickpea water, you can make it foam up like a meringue or a mousse? Never tried this before... and nothing said whether i need to add like, flour or anything? Heat it? chill it? no idea man.

To get that wacky green colour from the sprite im also adding a bit of spirulina powder which I acquired next recipe. More on that... next recipe.

Well its not exactly a meringue, like at all, but its frothed up enough that I feel comfortable in calling that "foam". And it wont taste disgusting on a soup, you gotta think about that.

**

Yeah it tastes alright. The flavour is mild and inoffensive. Glad i added the cumin but I wish I had a stronger concept overall. The tuna adds a pleasant meatiness to it. The seafoam and squid ink add absolutely nothing other than making it look like its gonna taste weirder than it does. It's probably very healthy? I don't know what i would have done differently to capture this recipe so im content with it, but we don't really have anything special here, it really is just a plain vegetable soup with fish chunks.

Stardew Valley #51: Triple Shot Espresso

Ingredients: Coffee x 3

Item Description: It's more potent than regular coffee!

It's been a few weeks, because I insist on doing these in order. I was just going to make a strong filter coffee, but my family were due to visit me and I know for a fact they have surplus of these classic italian stovetop espresso makers, aka the Moka Pot! So I offered to look after one. They also brought me a brick of fine ground espresso coffee, but they all drink decaf so its decaf. Sorry. I don't really notice the difference anyway.

First things first, its probably been gathering dust for a while so lets make sure its clean... looks like it actually is very clean already. Thanks mum!

Next, I looked up how to use it... they recommend actually starting with hot water, which seems efficient as a heavy electric-kettle user. We fill it up to just below the valve.

Then we pop on the filter section and fill it up with coffee. It's hot so im also going to use oven gloves to screw the top half on tight. And to the stove!

Oh, don't mind me, im just casually making some delicious thai red curry on the side while I do this recipe... oops is it clearly quite deliberately framed in the shot? how careless and modest

Once it starts "gurgling" its apparently good to go. But wait... this recipe doesn't say SINGLE shot espresso now does it?

****

Normally I like my coffee all milked up, but for this recipe im going to attempt to enjoy it all puritanical style. It's bitter. But... also very flavourful and dark-chocolate-y. I'm of the opinion that the best coffee comes from moka pots and for a first try this feels pretty consistent with that. It would have probably got 5/5 if I put milk and sugar in it. And it would probably be "more potent than regular coffee"... if i didn't use decaf.

Red curry! what are you doing here!? Stop flexing your deliciousness!

Stardew Valley #50: Roots Platter

Ingredients: Cave Carrot, Winter Root

Item Description: This'll get you digging for more.

I've gone and got us a selection of cave carrots and winter roots! We've got carrot, celeriac, ginger and parsnip.

This step isn't necessary I guess, but when buying root veg loose from a big supermarket I kinda like to peel them to be on the safe side from all the manhandling and pesticides.

Chopping the carrot, parsnip and celeriac up into big chunks and placing them on a baking tray. Yes it's time for yet another chunky vegetable tray roast! I don't have many ideas for these types of dishes ok.

As for the ginger though, that's a strong flavour thats going to be the main feature of the seasoning! So we grate a good bit of it in our finest grater.

And we mix that in with some other stuff to create a glaze/marinade for our vegetables. I've got lavender infused cooking oil, soy sauce, honey, celery salt, thyme and cayenne pepper.

Then I apply it on all the vegetables with a silicone brush. And shove it in the oven for like, 25 min? I dunno.

Don't forget to flip them halfway through!

***

A pleasant, zesty flavour that goes down easy. But... well, together the vegetables are all a bit samey in flavour. It's already a bit similar to other recipes like vegetable medley, glazed yams, autumns bounty, farmers lunch..
This'll get you digging for more.... side dishes to go with it!

Stardew Valley #49: Miner's Treat

Ingredients: Cave Carrot, Sugar, Milk

Item Description: This should keep your energy up.

Ayo this ones weird, and my track record with candy is not good because I dont want to actually make it proper because its a lot of work and specialised equipment and training and that. But i did see some recipe for candied grapes in boiled sweets that im gonna see what happens if i replicate with.... carrots...?

For "cave carrot" I wanted to get some heritage/rainbow carrots to be a bit more fun but they didnt have any, so ive just got a carrot and a parsnip.

Ok so we are going to make like lollipops, see, with the carrots, and dip them in caramel and then coat with them crushed up rainbow boiled sweets.. you with me? No? Come on.

Ok so the ratio of these sweets is... not amazing either. Doesnt feel like theres a point in doing orange on orange, so i'll just crush 3-4 each of the other colours. Oh also, the only rainbow boiled sweets I managed to find were sherbet filled ones. That'll have to do, probably quite nice actually.

This looks cool! this is happening right? This is something?

Ok since the recipe has sugar in milk, ive got a heap of sugar, a splash of milk and some syrup to hopefully, i dunno, stabilise it? 

To make caramel I think it needs to get up to about 300f, so ive finally cracked out this food thermometer someone got me for xmas the other year. Handy! Also by the time it got up to like 250f it started foaming up so i dunno, this isnt pro quality, maybe its about a good time to start dipping.

OK yeah I dont know. I guess I didnt wanna waste a lot off food, but making a small batch makes it all extra hard to try and apply things to things. Also for some reason I thought the vegetables would be able to cook while i was dipping them, but in reality you dont wanna just hang around deep frying stuff in hot sugar... Also the caramel is failing to stick to the veg as it cools... so its just getting all kind of messy in here. I also gave up on making them different colours and tried to sprinkle a rainbow over them all. Yeah, i've made a mess. I also foolishly decided to try and get this done before going to a party so I ended up rushing it.

**

This is stupid and unweildy and im never gonna make it again.

But................... ok im gonna say it.... the toffee and fruity sherbet actually goes REALLY WELL with the raw carrot and parsnip. I think there's a real potential in carrot and parsnip candies? It's stupid, its messy, it sticks straight to your teeth, but it actually tastes great.