Stardew Valley #23: Bread

Ingredients: Wheat Flour

Item Description: A crusty baguette.

A simple bread! how hard can bread be? It's main ingredient is flour, but as usually its a bit of a lie because quite critically you need yeast and a bit of water. And most recipes recommend a pinch of salt and/or sugar.

I'm following a recipe that says to make a sort of yeast slurry first. I've put the yeast and a pinch of sugar in warm water... maybe too warm tbh... uh.. i guess we'll find out.

then we sift in half the flour and the pinch of salt.

Now we're supposed to leave it for a while until its "doubled in size"

Left it for an hour.. uh... has it... gotten bigger? Maybe a little. I know it doesnt look it in the photos. It'll get another while to rise when we've added in the rest of the flour.

Now I can get to use my mixer with the dough hooks!

Alright we have a rough ball of dough. We can leave it to rise some more for a few hours this time. It's kind of a cold day too.. but whatever.

Looks like it's risen a fair bit! It still feels a little denser and lumpier than I think it should... maybe I should check the expiration date on that yeast... ah... yeah it expired 6 months ago. Oops! Well its probably fine.

I've folded it a bit and twisted it into a baguette shape. I still don't think it should look quite this dry and lumpy but maybe it will even out in the oven?

spoiler: It didn't really even out in the oven. Still, its mostly risen and tastes just fine so i'll have it sliced up with a load of cheese I have leftover from the pepper poppers recipe. NICE

**

I mean, bread is bread it tastes good, but its a little tough and chewy. Also just look at it. It's not a very good bread. It looks like a tsuchinoko with a skin condition. I should have cooked it a lil' longer, kneaded it a lil more, and most importantly, checked the expiration date on the yeast. I feel sorta bad as there's obviously nothing wrong with this "recipe" in theory, I just sort of flunked it, but I also don't want to do it again because I can go and buy a plain baguette for like 50p at the shops. So suck my baton de pain, big yeast.

Stardew Valley #22: Pepper Poppers

Ingredients: Hot Pepper, Cheese

Item Description: Spicy breaded peppers filled with cheese.

Hot peppers, hot peppers are you sure? Are you sure I shouldnt get some sweet mixed peppers? Oh well, my funeral. I at least got a pack of chillis that claimed they were "medium" hot.

I'm at least gonna do myself a favour and cut the seeds and pith out, thats the hottest and bitterest part, plus we need to make these little fuckers as hollow as possible to fill with cheese. There's not a lot of room to work with tbh.

Next i'm making a cheese mixture, we've got finely grated mature cheddar, some cream cheese and then a teaspoon of garlic powder to add some extra flavours.

This is quite thicc and holding its shape really well, maybe too well...

Nah perfect, with soem quite thin shallow peppers we're able to practically just stack the cheese on top and its staying in really well. They're not ready to go in the oven just yet though..

We gotta dust the top with some breadcrumbs! OK NOW they can go in the oven.

***

These are hot! The cheese and garlic combo is really nice when you can taste it, and im surprised how much flavour the breadcrumb adds. I definitely recommend this choice of stuffing combination, but I see no reason why not to use a milder pepper so that you can enjoy the sharpness of the cheese more. I should NOT have eaten these on an empty stomach.

Stardew Valley #21: Crispy Bass

Ingredients: Largemouth Bass, Wheat Flour, Oil

Item Description: Wow, the breading is perfect.

I don't have a largemouth bass, but i have a sea bass! thats like almost the same name of fish. In convenient, boneless fillet form. We've got flour, oil and a few more things essential for breadcrumbing a fish.

First we have to release the fish from their surprisingly difficult vaccuum sealed prison. Then pat some flour on to them.

Next we crack an egg, mix it up and dip the fillets in the egg.

Then throw down some breadcrumbs on a plate, and i'm also adding a bit of seasoning with it, just my usual paprika salt and ground pepper.

Now the fish is all bready and ready.

Since oil is a main ingredient, i'm gonna use a generous amount of it so that we are practically deep-frying these.

Heat up the oil and then in they go!

TBH I kinda forgot to acquire any leaf vegetables to serve this with, but I got some dill and some seaweed sprinkles and that just seems like a natural combination for this dish.

****

Is the breading perfect?? uhh... sure. The cookedness and crispyness in general seemed perfect to me, as far as my standards go. The fillet was juicy and boneless and i didnt regret leaving the skin on. I enjoyed it with a big squeeze of lemon juice, and the dill & seaweed salt obviously worked well. Compared to a pre-breaded/battered cod or haddock though..? The bass tasted a little.. earthier. Which meant overall it kinda doesnt seem worth the extra effort to bread your own fish, when its comes out about the same as the cheapest pack of frozen fish fingers at the store. Which is to say, still pretty good.

Stardew Valley #20: Fish Taco

Ingredients: Tuna, Tortilla, Red Cabbage, Mayonnaise

Item Description: It smells delicious.

Actually took me ages to find some taco shells, and when I found some in waitrose they had ALL THE OPTIONS including soft taco shells, hell yeah. It's also a good idea because fun fact i had a tooth extracted a week and a bit ago and its still healing. Another reason it took me a while. We've also got tuna, red cabbage, mayonnaise, as well as coriander and some various sauces I thought would pair well. Kinda winging this one.

So I'm a bit fussy when it comes to tuna, I was never a fan of it growing up and the idea of tinned tuna and mayo makes my stomach churn a bit, so I thought i'd treat myself to some tuna steak for this! I'll cook 3 chunks from frozen on the hob (in a slightly dirty pan i used to cook gyoza for lunch) while we prep everything else.

I thought I would try the julienne mode on my peeler to "grate" the red cabbage. I don't know what im doing and its making a huge mess, but its working..? and its actually kinda easy on my shoulder compared to grating or chopping. My hands are turning purple though.

Hadn't really planned ahead, but I suddenly thought... wouldn't I like to use the mayo with the cabbage to make kind of a slaw? makes it a little easier to assemble, plus a bit of vinegar and lemon juice will break down the cabbage and make it easier on my increasingly sensitive intestines. So i've got mayo, other mayo (i forgot i had a cheaper one lol), jalapeno sauce, cider vinegar, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Also don't worry, ill clean all this up later i PROMISE.

This tuna is looking mighty appetising like this I gotta say! 

Now I'm gonna heat the tortillas a bit, in my slightly-too-moist pan... itll... be fine.. probably...

Now we can fill it! Coriander, slaw...

...some big slabs of tuna and chimichurri sauce! Now uh, um... how do I uh... how am I gonna photograph this...?

*****

This is fantastic. I think I like tuna now? Well I already know I love slaw, coriander and chimichurri, and the tuna is a perfect match. I'm actually not sure ive ever had fish tacos before, I usually have the standard beef mince/tomato/cheese type. These are so different, and sooo worth doing!

Stardew Valley #19: Salmon Dinner

Ingredients: Salmon, Amaranth, Kale

Item Description: The lemon spritz makes it special.

We have some salmon, dried amaranth grain (nice one waitrose), and fresh kale from my very own herb planters!

I wanna keep this pretty simple. Just gonna fry these up with some olive oil, one for now and one for later.

I've never made amaranth before, but it seems like it's prettymuch the same deal as couscous. Put in some hot water, boil, simmer, and wait for it to absorb the water. Here it is cooked btw.

Now the description mentions a "lemon spritz" I don't know what that is, but ive got a spray bottle and a lemon, I'll squeeze the juice out and spray it on the dinner. This is something, right?

Juiced up and ready to go

Next I want to fry up the kale just a little bit, throw it around in the remains of the oil and fish flakes.

I hadn't really come up with much beyond "lemon juice" for seasoning, so ill add a bit of salt and pepper to everything as I plate up.

***

Tastes healthy. I wish I'd gone harder on the lemon spritz, and maybe added some herbs or stock to the amaranth as it has no flavour of its own. The salmon, especially the crispy bits of skin did most of the work in terms of flavour. Nice, but MORE seasoning next time!! more!!

Stardew Valley #18: Pancakes

Ingredients: Wheat Flour, Egg

Item Description: A double stack of fluffy, soft pancakes.

So I made up this pancake batter for recipe #8 Complete Breakfast, and used the rest of this batter for this recipe the next day. So here it is! For american style "fluffy" pancakes you have to include a raising agent, unlike crepes, so we've got self raising flour AND a bit of baking powder to boost it further. And a tablespoon of sugar to give it a little starting sweetness.

Then we add the wets, which is egg, melted butter and about as much milk as there is flour!

Now here's where we initially used the batter for complete breakfast, and as you may recall I felt the pancakes were a little bit dry in that... so when i got the rest of the batter out this morning, I figured id add a little bit of extra milk and see if that helps!

These pancakes are already spreading a little wider than the old ones, but they're cooking well.

Double stack, I assume that means 2, and let's not forget some syrup and butter. Yes I still didn't get maple, it's actually only been a day.

*****

Success! These have indeed come out less dry than the ones I made for complete breakfast, so I guess i'll have to give 'em full marks. They're not my tidiest pancakes but they're my tastiest. And maybe better alone than with hashbrowns and eggs. Although, with some fruit...?