Revisiting Rations, Part 4: Half-Elf

Revisiting Rations, Part 4:  Half-Elf

It's that time again!  And yes, that's a crab.  What the heck am I doing this time?  Well, let me begin by discussing how I view Half-Elves.

Your typical Half-Elf is going to be raised by Humans or by Elves, of course, and will likely mirror the culture they were raised in.  In cases of an actual Half-Elven community, the people are largely traders living in warm coastal areas.  As such, I have chosen a mixture of various coastal foods with a decent shelf life (but not as long as some of the others, so be careful here!).

Half-Elves also have a tendency towards lots of little dishes rather than one big thing.  After all, variety is important, as is hospitality.  It's sad that some of the best eating you'll ever do is in the company of Half-Elves.

We have soy-fermented blue crab, kimchi, rice, bolinhos de bacalhau, toasted bread with tomato and onion chutney, ginger beer, and, for dessert, chocolate salami!  Yes, this ration includes chocolate as well.  Aren't Half-Elves lucky?

Soy-Fermented Blue Crab with Kimchi and Rice

Look at this little guy.  Isn't he adorable?  Cleaned blue crabs were marinated in soy sauce with ginger, garlic, and several other spices for about 6 days.  Historically, they could be marinated at months at room temperature.  The meat is then served without any heating.  It is dark, somewhat gelatinous, and nice and spicy, meaning you're going to use a lot of rice with this dish.  The kimchi is a mixture of daikon, cabbage, green and yellow onions, and various spices left to ferment in the fridge for several weeks.  The rice is rice.

Inspiration for this dish came from Maangchi's cooking YouTube channel, which can be found HERE.

Note:  if kept stored in jars, the crab will last quite a while and kimchi is virtually indestructible in my experience.  Rice will go stale in a day or two and could well mold, but if you're going to have a pot and some fire, you can always cook it fresh.

Bolinhos de Bacalhau

One of my good friends lives in Portugal and told me I needed to use this in one of these.  Bacalhau is Portugese for salt cod and I'm assuming bolinho  means "little balls" or something.  Basically, these are a mixture of potatoes, salt cod, onions, and parsley, rolled into ping-pong balls, then breaded and fried.  They are seriously good and pretty darned simple to make as well!

I have to mention that my dogs went crazy over these.  You can't tell, but one of the bolinhos has a bite taken out of it!

Open them up and they're full of fluffy white goodness and yes, my camera was sucking today.  I'm sorry!

Tomato and Onion Chutney

This is one of those things that's perfect for adding a little bit of exotic flavor to your meal without taking a lot of effort.  Heirloom tomatoes were cooked down with vinegar and onions and a lot of spices to make something that tastes rather like a tikka masala sauce.  Spread on a piece of toasted bread, it's surprisingly good.  Also, it appears my Half-Elves like a lot of starch.  Huh.

Ginger Beer

I've been on a brewing kick lately, and ginger beer seemed like a wonderful way to counter all of the spice in most of these little dishes.  I made a ginger bug (see HERE for how!) and then fermented my own ginger beer from it.  The result is pretty strongly ginger and will really clean your palate between bites of crab and chutney.

Chocolate Salami

Wait, what?  Chocolate sausage?  This isn't actually salami, but it is chocolate.  Semisweet chocolate is mixed with chopped walnuts and crushed cookies, then rolled into a log shape and sliced.  It looks like salami, kinda (especially when dusted with powdered sugar, but that's too messy for my taste) and provides a sweet after-meal dessert.

How Long Will it Last?

Well, in this case, we're dealing with quite a bit of seafood so we need to be careful.  The salt cod will keep quite a bit, but the bolinhos are going to be better if they're eaten relatively quickly.  The crab, if kept stored in the marinade, likewise will last, but still it's shellfish and it scares me a little, so I'd try to eat it in a day or two.  If the chocolate is kept cool, it'll last as long as needed (which won't be long--it's chocolate).  Basically, this meal, properly kept, could be expected to be good for tomorrow's dinner, but I wouldn't push it far past that unless you know a lot more about food preservation than I do.