Stardew Valley #68: Chowder

Ingredients: Clam, Milk

Item Description: A perfect way to warm yourself after a cold night at sea.

Chowder? You mean clam chowder specifically, right? Well its got clams in the ingredients so that its gonna be! We've got a big bag of frozen clams, double cream instead of milk (cause i feel like it), potatoes, a massive onion, some worse for wear looking carrots, and a bit of bacon.

Right lets start with the important bit... this pack seems to say the clams are pre-cooked already so... im not sure about making stock..? But i should try i guess? Ill douse them quickly in hot water till the shells open up, and then ill see if i have to filter the grit out of the stock or if these are all clean or whatever... not sure if ive ever done this before either. But we get that a lot :)

So ive poured the clam stock into a clear bowl to... take STOCK of it, heh, and yeah... looks like theres some grit at the bottom. Time to use some foolhardy makeshift filtering device...

Behold! The colander, paper towel and bucket that is kind of too small but we can make it work if we just...

If we like... prop it up diagonally with a plastic jug and put it in the sink in case of spills... and fill the jug with water to counterweight the colander as it gets full of stuff. Alright that was a lot of work for some vaguely clam flavoured water. 

Alright we've chopped up that massive onion, and once peeled the carrots and potatoes are looking just fine. Now we can chop a bit of the bacon (always cut your raw meat last if you're reusing the cutting board!)

In the pot, which ive RINSED ANY GRITTY CLAM RESIDUE FROM I'm gonna dry-fry up the bacon and onions so they get nice and browned.

once thats done we can start re-adding everything else back in, starting with the clam juice!

Just in case its not picked up much flavour, and frankly because I want to... ive added my secret weapon... some bonito flavoured noodle stock! This will add to the fishy flavour.

Next i'm removing the clam meat out of the shells and putting them as it cooks. Some people like to put the whole shells in, or so i hear, but im not a big fan of surprise rocks in my soup.

Next we can pour in the cream... i didnt even measure i just poured in whatever looked right. Thats the magic of cooking that SOMETIMES works!

While it simmers (or... whatever its doing, looks kinda crazy back there) I picked what kinda seasonings I felt like... some ground pepper and some sage leaves from my garden!

Looking good... many recipes say to use flour to thicken this up, but with the fairly concentrated stock, double cream and potato chunks I think its fine as-is.

*****

It's so flavourful and delicious! Its creamy, a little salty from the bacon, and deeply savoury from the seafood stock. It's not "fishy" or "oceany", apart from the literal fruits de mer, the clam meat. The potatoes really make it for me, they pair perfectly with a creamy stew and soak up so much flavour.

Stardew Valley #67: Poppyseed Muffin

Ingredients: Poppy, Wheat Flour, Sugar

Item Description: It has a soothing effect.

Muffins! I looked up a typical recipe and im copying that prettymuch. We got our poppyseeds, we got flour and sugar, we got all that other.. cake stuff.

gotta sieve the flour, are you even baking if you havent lightly dusted the whole kitchen?

All the dry stuff together: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, a hint of salt, and im adding slightly more poppyseeds than the recipe recommends, because what else am I going to do with this bag of poppyseeds? Lets make the poppyseediest muffin we can. I want to fail a drug test for opiates.

In go the wets... to me a muffin means vegetable oil whereas cupcakes are butter. Did I make that up? This recipe had butter and milk, but im cutting the butter with 1/2 oil. in goes that melted butter and oil and milk, and 1 egg.

Lastly, most people tend to add a secondary flavour, and its typically lemon. Sounds good! I'm adding in both some lemon juice and some grated zest as well.

Batters all mixed up, looks good.

Got some cute cupcake liners for extra swag.

First batch goes in the oven for like 15min. Good thing I definitely... remembered... to heat the oven...

This first batch looks promising, but they're actually kind of small, I should put more batter in the next ones so that they can puff up out of the case. Like a mushroom that actually tastes good.

****

Nice! Light and zesty. I don't really know if poppy seeds alter the flavour much or if that's just the lemon zest... I don't make plain lemon muffins very much. These had a nice crispy outer layer and a fluffy inside. Now I have like 2 dozen of these fuckers.

Stardew Valley #66: Fiddlehead Risotto

Ingredients: Oil, Fiddlehead Fern, Garlic

Item Description: A creamy rice dish served with sauteed fern heads. It's a little bland.

I've got risotto rice! Thats probably a good idea for this dish. Butter (i forgot the recipe said oil!!! i forgot!!), sliced mushrooms, garlic, and some asparagus tips for the "fiddlehead fern. Probably some other flavourings as well.

To save time because its a busy weekday, im going to start the rice off in the steamer. We can sautee it in some butter and the other stuff later. I'll cook it with some crumbled up vegetable stock though. And water obviously.

After about 30 mins its nice and soft, dont worry that the stock hasnt mixed much since we'll be mixing it all up and cooking it more in a pan.

A generous chunk of butter and some crushed garlic go in the pan.

Once the garlics browned, sliced mushrooms and the rice can go in.

Ok so I have an idea right... to make the asparagus look more fern-like, im going to peel it with a peeler and twirl it a bit around my finger to make it all.. twirled... like a fern. I don't know if this will hold up but yeah.

I mean, sorta... right?

Oh! and I found some other great stuff to add. Fresh chives and some grated hard cheese. This should enhance the subtle, nutty, foresty flavour.

***

A very pleasant and wholesome creamy rice dish. Is it "a little bland"? Maybe bland isn't the right word... its light and subtle but it has a variety of flavours with the garlic, mushroom, veg stock and cheese. It smells very aromatic and garlicky. Maybe I should have used some white wine or truffle oil to give it more of an edge? Also long thin strips probably isnt the optimal way to eat asparagus, its very fibrous.

Stardew Valley #65: Coleslaw

Ingredients: Red Cabbage, Vinegar, Mayonnaise

Item Description: It's light, fresh and very healthy.

Hrrgh conflicted... the sprite shows green cabbage but the ingredients says red cabbage... I picked red cabbage in the end. We've also got the mayo, vinegar, and some carrot and onion.

Slicing the onion into very thin strips. I probably dont reccommend using a cheap brown cooking onion, probably better to use a milder variety BUT OH WELL.

Peeling the carrots and a couple outer leaves of the cabbage and then we can go to town with a julienne peeler.

Good amount of carrot.

Oh got the cabbage is so hard and takes ages... is this enough? I hope its enough. I got purple everywhere.

Next we can add the sludge and seasonings. Mayo, cider vinegar, salt, pepper, and some dried parsley. I had some mustard I could add as well but... with all that raw onion and pepper I think it will be fiery enough as it is.

Now just mix it around and its ready to go!

***

It's alright. I like coleslaw quite a bit but its not the best one I've made. I think I should have used more mayo, cut the carrots and onions shorter, used spring onions, etc. I feel like my stomach might punish me later for all that raw cabbage, onion and vinegar.. so much for "light, fresh and very healthy".

Stardew Valley #64: Bruschetta

Ingredients: Bread, Oil, Tomato

Item Description: Roasted tomatoes on a crisp white bread.

We've got a baguette, not homemade this time fortunately, that I've already had a bit of for lunch... We've got some vine tomatoes, oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, basil, chives and hard cheese.

First we cut the bread into diagonal sloices and put them on a baking tray... its kind of a thin bread i hope we can keep the toppings on ok

Next for the oil, olive oil is probably the norm but I got this fancy lavender infused cooking oil which is very french, it might add a slight bitter floral taste but i think thatll go alright.  And I've mixed that up with some crushed garlic

Now we spread the oil/garlic mix on the bread, BOTH SIDES

Now most recipes are saying you make a kind of diced tomato/etc salsa and have it raw on bruschetta... but the description clearly says "roasted tomatoes on crisp white bread"so i'm slicing the tomatoes up and roasting them in the oven on the bread! Sounds fine to me. I'm also drizzling a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar on each one.

After about 10-15mins its looking crisp and brown! I push them closer together and season with fresh chives, salt and pepper. But there's still more raw toppings to add after that!

Each slice also gets a piece of basil and some flaked hard cheese. (Like parmesan or whatever, i used grana padano again cause im cheap) This is looking really rather good!

*****

It's a nice warm sunny day, perfect for something fresh, simple and... antipasto-y. Tastes like a gourmet garlic bread.