Monday, April 30, 2018

Revisiting Rations, Part 9: Gnome

Revisiting Rations, Part 9:  Gnome


What's this?  Looks like some sort of chicken nugget plate or something.  But hey, it's Monday, so it's time to get down to brass tacks.  Today, we discuss a ration fit for the diminutive folks with the pointy hats and fishing poles (okay, not really).  It's Gnomic food day!

What we have is a bowl full of what I'm calling pierogi roulette with some dilled cheddar cheese, an herbed mustard dipping sauce, and some mint schnapps.  Prost!

Pierogi


Let's start off with getting a fact straight:  pierogi is a plural word.  It's the plural form of pierog.  You don't order three pierogis, but rather three pierogi.  So what are they?

Well, they're little mini hand pies, basically.  They are a national dish of Poland and really quite good.  They can be filled with, well, almost anything, and these kind of are.  After making the pies/dumplings/ravioli/whatever you want to call them, you boil them, then fry them in butter and onions.  Traditionally, they are served with onions and sour cream, but we went a little different here (because I don't trust sour cream to last at all).

So, here, we have a pork, bacon, and leek pierog:

A potato, farmhouse cheese, and leek pierog (it's hard to get just a few leeks):

A mushroom and sauerkraut pierog:

A gingered sweet potato pierog:

And even a blueberry pie pierog.  This one has some cranberry and mulberry added as well:

These make handy, portable food, and while they are better fresh and hot, they can be munched on later.  The dough makes a handy barrier to keep everything nice and safe from any nastiness, and boiling and frying them helps to preserve said dough as well.

I should point out that these are seriously delicious.  This was a fun little ration to work on.

Herbed Mustard Sauce


Pierogi can be a somewhat dry experience.  There is a lot of dough and not a whole lot of moisture inside the delicious little dumplings, and as such they are nearly always served (in my experience) with sour cream (and sometimes applesauce).  However, we are focusing on rations and as such, I needed a sauce that would survive a day or so at room temperature.  Hence, this herbed mustard.  Chives, dill (of course), and a little bit of parsley were blended into one of my standard mustard recipes with just a little bit of honey for sweetening.  In case it's not obvious, someone (and I won't name who!) sampled a bit before shooting.

Dilled Cheddar Cheese


Disaster struck most of my cheese in the form of some weird bug that got into the waxed cheeses, causing them to spoil.  Oddly, the unwaxed cheeses came out fantastic and weren't touched by insects, so hey, there's an advantage.  In the future, any waxed cheeses are going to be sealed with plastic to prevent that from happening.  Lesson learned.  So, this dilled farmhouse cheddar is still going strong after months of aging.  It's hard, it's dry, it's crumbly, and it's delicious.

Mint Schnapps


It's the return of the cute little bottle!  Hint:  it's a Patron single-serving bottle, but it works wonders for showcasing liquers.  This is a neutral grain spirit that's been soaking up sugar and mint for a few months.  It definitely freshens your breath after a mustardy bite of pierogi, and it packs quite a punch, too.

How Long Will it Last?

Good question!  Here, the acidic mustard, the dried cheese, and the spirits aren't going anywhere as long as you keep them dry, cool-ish, and away from bugs.  The pierogi, of course, don't have quite the same shelf life, but they should easily last several days if one is careful not to break them open.  If you want to freshen them up, reheat with some butter and/or lard and they're delicious several days later.  Believe me, I've tried.

Also, oh my gosh I have my very first follower on this blog!  Thanks so much, and you know who you are!

Monday, April 23, 2018

Revisiting Rations, Part 8: Orc

Revisiting Rations, Part 8:  Orc




Did you miss me?  I missed you!  Sorry about the lack of an update last week--between an illness (everyone is fine) and a car accident (everyone is fine), I really didn't have the time or the energy to get around to doing some fun cooking.

Oh!  And I got a new phone as well, so hopefully the pictures look better.

So, this little ration is focusing on those befanged greenskins themselves.  It's important to realize that Orcs, like every other species, need a functioning society to be able to survive.  They can't always be raiding and eating the dead, or else they would have been wiped out a long time ago.  Therefore, I have created a ration that, I think, meets them pretty well.

My inspiration here was to take Texas barbecue and give it a little Indian spin.  Orcs seem like the type to enjoy spicy food, and this is no exception.  Plus, in any sort of warrior society, those too old or injured to fight would, of course, be in charge of cooking.  Orcs love smoked pork, potatoes, rice, and cabbage--all easy to prepare and farm and capable of providing nutrition and (most importantly) calories.

This ration consists of a smoked pork tenderloin with loquat barbecue sauce over safflower-seasoned fried rice, a curried potato salad with cilantro-lime dressing, spinach and cabbage slaw with paneer, blackberry gulab jamun, and beer.

Smoked Pork Loin with Loquat Sauce


Orc Pitmasters have been passing down recipes for generations.  This particular tenderloin was first marinated with papaya and garam masala to tenderize the meat, then it was smoked over mesquite wood for about 6 hours, basting every 90 minutes with a sauce made of pureed loquats, hot peppers, paprika, and more traditional barbecue seasonings.  It's firey and a little sticky and smoked well through.  The fried rice is simple--just old rice fried in butter with safflower and a little garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and rice vinegar.

I should mention that there is a loquat tree nearby, so I figured why not use them for something?  It provides a slightly exotic taste here, but you could easily use a standard spicy barbecue sauce.

Curried Potato Salad


Ask any Texan and they'll tell you that barbecue requires potato salad.  This is a little spin on that.  Potatoes are an easy crop to grow, don't require good soil, and, once harvested, will last a long time.  Perfect for Orcs.  Here, they are paired up with some carrots and peas, then sauteed with your typical curry spices until they're nice and tender.  Cilantro and mint was blended with lime juice and a little olive oil to dress the salad.

Yes, Orcs eat salad sometimes.

Slaw with Paneer


Another simple and hardy crop is the humble cabbage.  I've added some spinach for additional nutrition, then made a simple dressing of some mayonnaise, curry powder, safflower, and homemade paneer, plus a little bit extra vinegar for acidity.  It's nice and crunchy and I'm sure the Orcs would enjoy the side effects of a diet high in cabbage.  Hur, hur, hur...

Blackberry Gulab Jamun


This is going to take a bit of introduction.  Gulab jamun is a traditional Indian dessert which bears a lot of similarities to a donut hole, but is very different.  It is made predominantly from milk solids, which you get from boiling milk down over several hours, then rolled into balls and deep-fried.  Sounds like a perfect thing for a Pitmaster to have going while they're preparing the meat.  After the little balls are fried, they are dunked in a syrup containing rosewater and spices.  Here, we have elected to remove the spices and substitute in blackberry, as blackberry cobbler is a very common dessert had with barbecue.

I didn't take a picture of the beer.  Really, that mug doesn't lend itself to photographing due to the black interior.  It's beer.  It's good for you!

How Long Will it Last?

If stored in the syrup, gulab jamun will last for quite a while, and the pork is heavily smoked and should last for the weekend easily.  The acidity of the potato salad likewise means it's going to be fine for a weekend event.  Here, the issue is the slaw, but if you can pack it in an airtight container, you'll be fine.  If not, eat it first, because I wouldn't trust mayonnaise and fresh cheese to last more than a day or so at room temperature.  Still, that's not bad for an "on the go" meal.

Monday, April 9, 2018

Revisiting Rations, Part 7: Norse

Revisiting Rations, Part 7:  Norse


It was requested that I do a Norse-style ration, and, to be honest, I portray a person of that culture in my LARPing, so this is somewhat near and dear to my heart.  What we have here comes largely from the Ribe Viking Center and some of these recipes are things I've been making since I first starting cooking for my LARPing.

What we have here is a smoked herring and slice of leg of lamb served with honey-dill mustard, "trail bread" with bacon and onions, goat cheese, gjetost (another type of goat cheese, basically), and, of course, mead.

The Meat:  Lamb and Herring


Yes, that's a whole herring (well, okay, it's gutted) and a slice of lamb.  These were salted to help dry them prior to smoking and were very lightly seasoned--after all, we have mustard for them.  These meats are dry and heavily smoked (I used apple wood here) so that they will last the weekend.

Honey-Dill Mustard


I need to get a better camera (and more serving bowls) if I'm going to keep this up.  Stay posted!  This is a whole-grain mustard made with mustard seed, dill, honey, red wine, and red wine vinegar, then ground in a mortar and pestle until it just comes together.  It's quite spicy and rather nice with the plain meats.  I might want to add a dash of horseradish next time, though.

Goat Cheese


This is, effectively, a slightly salted chevre and one I made in preparation for this ration.  It's good, but very distinct from cow's milk cheese.  Note that even though it's a full round, this is a very thin wheel (I didn't get much goat milk) and so it is what it is.

Gjetost


Gjetost is also known as Ski Queen cheese, peanut butter cheese, and probably a bunch of other things.  I got very hooked on it when I was hanging with a friend from Norway.  It is, effectively, the cooked-down whey from making goat cheese (if you do it with cow's milk, the result is called mysost).  Because this batch is homemade, it has crystallized somewhat and, as a result, isn't as smooth as the stuff you'll get at the store, but it's still delicious, and besides, you might as well use that whey!

Mead


I know, I know, you can't see the golden deliciousness in that mug.  This particular batch is Bray's One Month Mead, albeit aged for about 6 months now.  It is delicious and slightly sweet still (which is surprising given that this typically brews very dry).  It made a perfect accompaniment to the meal here, although I may have wanted another mug.  Or two.  Or just finish off the gallon and be done with it.

How Long Will it Last?

Okay, in this case, we have both seafood AND dairy to worry about.  Except we really, really don't.  The goat cheese is going to be the first thing to go bad, and that's assuming you let it get hot.  Keep it cool and dry and you'll be good all weekend.

A note on the mead:  if allowed to get hot, there is a VERY good chance that fermentation will restart, meaning that any bottle you keep it in might just become a foamy bomb.  So keep it cool and skol!

Monday, April 2, 2018

Revisiting Rations, Part 6: Hobbit

Revisiting Rations, Part 6:  Hobbit

 


Okay, so I had to play around with images to make things work today.  Bear with me.

It's that time!  Time for another rations post.  This time, I have focused on what a Hobbit might take along the road for a couple days.  Please note, a Hobbit is not a Halfling, no matter what Tolkien might say.  Halflings are more slender, fey, and "wild" compared to the pastoral Hobbits.  But here, we have a good example of a delicious meal that will last several days and includes many things Hobbits are overly fond of.

The ration consists of a sausage wellington roll (that's what I'm calling it), blackberry scone with clotted cream, truffled cheddar cheese, an apple, and blackberry cordial.  Seeing as how Hobbits, described by Tolkien, are incredibly fond of mushrooms and seem to enjoy blackberries, I figure this works well.

Sausage Wellington Roll


This is my take on the traditional sausage roll.  I made a sausage from half pork loin, half bacon, hand-minced, then seasoned with Prague Powder, salt, white and black pepper, nutmeg, mace, and allspice.  This was then stuffed into a casing and smoked for several hours over apple wood.  The resulting sausage was added to a roll along with some mushrooms and shallots.  This provides a portable meal that's savory and really quite good.

And now, for the money shot...


See all that duxelles?  True, I didn't add any pate or parma ham or the like, but I wanted to keep this somewhat simple.  While Hobbits love flavor, their meals (as taken from the Hobbit) don't tend to stand on a lot of fancy preparation.

Blackberry Scone (with Clotted Cream)


It's kind of rare when I'm making one of these rations to come across something that makes me go "You know what?  I'll have another.  And another."  This scone recipe was one of those things.  It's s simple scone dough with the addition of some fresh blackberries, then split and filled with homemade clotted cream.  You could add some jam as well, if you wanted.

Truffled Cheddar Cheese


This is something I'm really quite proud of.  It came out amazingly, although it's super-rich.  I made a standard cheddar cheese, then added a small amount of truffle oil and a goodly portion of dried cremini mushrooms.  The entire cheese smells of mushrooms and tastes wonderfully, but man, it's rich.  I said that already.  This process took about three months and involved me waxing the cheese.  Believe it or not, it's actually really easy to make.

Side note:  you're not getting a pic or statement on the apple.  It's an apple.  It was yummy.

Blackberry Cordial


Just a small portion because this is both strong and sweet.  Equal portions of vodka and sugar are dissolved and then I added a bunch of fresh blackberries and stored for a month or two.  It's...  Not my thing, really.  Too sweet.  Seems like a hangover in a mason jar, honestly, but I'm sure quite a few people will love it!

How Long Will it Last?

Here we only have two components to worry about.  The cheese, being less salted and far more moist than others, will go bad within a few days (particularly because of all the spores in it--eat quickly) and clotted cream needs to be kept sealed and cool to avoid spoiling.  If you can manage those (perhaps don't unwax the cheese before time to eat and keep the cream in a mason jar), you're good to go over a weekend event.