Food For Anycreature

Hey, all! I'm Luke, and I love to cook and to develop recipes. This blog is devoted to recipe suggestions and development for all alterfolk who seek a taste of a different time, place, or life. Feel free to make requests, but please be as specific as possible! All images are described in alt text.

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Instant Smoked Ham

The flavor of smoke always takes me back to my gnoll life, but like any big ol' hunk of meat, it's appropriate for a variety of therianthropic diets, too!

These types of ham shank roasts are usually sold pre-smoked and cooked, at least in America, which makes them a very forgiving roast, especially if you're not comfortable with raw meat. This one is flavored with maple syrup, pineapple, and smoked paprika -- three flavors that may not sound delicious together, but they're amazing together. Cooking it in an electronic pressure cooker helps keep it moist.

Because I can only buy and eat so much ham, I've only tested this for an approximately 6lb non-spiral-cut bone-in ham. A larger ham probably won't fit in an electronic pressure cooker, and may be undercooked; a smaller ham may overcook. Don't substitute the canned pineapple for fresh, as it contains more of the enzyme that softens meat. However, you can substitute it for crushed or chunk canned pineapple in juice instead.

For the sweet gravy, I used Clear-Jel. Often used for canning, this starch is more consistent across temperatures and whisks in more evenly. If you're using the instant-type, you can even skip making the slurry and add it directly. However, corn starch works too.

Ingredients for ham roast

1 non-spiral-cut, bone-in ham, approximately 6 lb

1/2 cup maple syrup

2 20-oz cans pineapple tidbits in juice. Cans in syrup will not work.

2 tbsp smoked paprika

Ingredients to make sweet ham gravy (optional)

5 tbsp Clear-Jel/Sure-Jel, or corn starch

1/4 cup cold water

Special equipment

6 or 8 qt multifunction electronic pressure cooker, such as an Instant Pot

Silicone trivet for Instant Pot

Serves: 6

Directions:

Set pressure cooker to Saute mode and allow it to heat.

Once the pressure cooker has come to heat, sear the ham on each side for about a minute each.

Remove ham from pot. Add canned pineapple, then place the trivet in the pot.

Pat the ham with smoked paprika, then place it on top of the trivet and pour the maple syrup on top.

Pressure cook on high for 17 minutes.

Allow natural pressure release for at least 25 minutes. Longer won't hurt, if you have other things to do in the meantime.

Remove ham.

If making gravy, whisk together clearjel/corn starch and cold water to make a slurry. Clearjel makes a thicker, gooey, clear slurry - this is normal.

Set pressure cooker to Saute again. Add slurry to ham drippings and pineapple, and allow to heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened. The large quantity of pineapple juice leads to a very thick, sweet gravy, good on biscuits.

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Hey all!

If you're wondering why I haven't posted lately, I've developed some health challenges and have had to change what and how I cook. I'm starting to get back into the swing of things, so expect more recipes soon!

I'm currently following a lower-acid, minimal-soy diet. Because of this, expect a reduction in tomato and vinegary dishes and an increase in meat dishes. I also can't advise on any recipes that don't match this right now, outside of maybe pointing you in the right direction. Sorry about that!

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Peachy Refresher

Like most people, I love a cold drink in the summer. Amara, my spirit companion/headmate, loves them even more than I do! This one uses the peach jam from last post, but you can buy peach jam from the store, too.

Ingredients

6 oz sink-hot water (around 130 degrees F, but however hot your sink goes on hot should be fine)

1/4 cup (4 Tbsp/about 2 oz) peach jam or marmalade

Ice, to fill cup (about 6 oz)

1 Tbsp lime juice (optional, recommended if using store bought jam because it is less acidic)

Equipment

No special equipment required!

Servings: 1 16-oz glass; or use a bit less ice for a smaller glass

Directions

Add jam and hot water to a 16 oz glass and stir to combine.

Once the jam and water are fully combined, add ice until cup is full and stir to chill.

Enjoy!

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Grilled Peach Quick Jam

I love fruit preserves. They're practical, tasty, and a good way to punch up a sandwich. Mixed with hot water to form a light, sweet orange-colored drink, it creates a warm punch that's delicious! Although a truly nokol version would likely use dare syrup and not sugar, my peaches were on the verge of going back and I didn't have time to make date syrup!

Grilling the peaches really releases a lot of tasty, warm flavors into this already delicious dish.

Ingredients

6-8 peaches

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup lime juice

2 tbsp corn starch

2 tbsp cold water

Special Equipment

Indoor electric grill (you could also use a griddle pan or outdoor grill)

Small saucepan and stove

A food processor or blender

Serves: About 24 Tbsp servings, but it will depend on the size of your peaches

Directions

Preheat your electric grill, on High if it has a temperature setting, for 5 minutes if it lacks a preheat timer.

Cut peaches in half and discard the pit.

Grill peaches skin-side up for 4-6 minutes.

Add grilled peaches and lime juice to your food processor or blender. Process until pieces of peach skin are no larger than a grain of rice.

Add mixture to saucepan. Add sugar and heat on medium-high heat, stirring frequently to prevent burning.

Prepare cornstarch slurry by adding cold water and cornstarch together in a small cup or bowl and mixing until no clumps remain.

When the peach measure reaches a boil, add corn starch slurry. Continue to stir until the mixture is thick and regains the color it had before adding the slurry. (The slurry will temporarily add white clouds before it cooks in.) Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Keep in the fridge. It should last a couple weeks. Due to the use of corn starch, this recipe will not can well, and it has not been tested for canning safety.

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Cold Oil Spherification

It probably goes without saying that the gnollish people I once belonged to weren't interested in molecular gastronomy. But that doesn't mean it's not a useful tool for a variety of nonhumans. Not only does it give a futuristic vibe that may be comforting to machinekin and those who once lived in more technologically complicated worlds, it's also a good way to recreate soft, jelly-like egg textures for roe and similar dishes.

In my opinion, cold oil spherification is the easiest method, and you will likely be able to find the ingredients at specialty health food stores (or online). It doesn't produce the popping effect of alginate spherification, but the bubbles are still fun to crush with your tongue. They're satisfying to stir around and look at, too!

Fun liquids to spherify include juice or flat soda for a tasty treat, or double strength seaweed broth for a tasty caviar or roe substitute. The liquid must be water based and noncarbonated - oil will not spherify in this method.

A time is not given for this recipe, as it depends on how quickly your eyedropper or syringe drops liquid in. It took me about 40 minutes for a full recipe.

Ingredients

A bottle of canola oil, refrigerated for at least 12 hours. Do not substitute olive oil -- it may not remain thin enough when cold.

120 grams (appx. ½ cup) of liquid to spherify

1.5-2 grams agar agar powder

Equipment

A tall, thin, and ideally clear glass

A kitchen scale, to measure the agar agar powder and liquid

A small saucepan

A fine mesh strainer

A foodsafe syringe or eyedropper

Thermometer (optional)

Instructions

Measure and add liquid and agar to your saucepan. Transfer oil to the freezer.

Bring liquid to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil for a minute. Remove from heat.

If you're using a thermometer, wait for the liquid to reach 120 degrees. This is slightly cooler than the maximum water temperature on most American taps and will take about 10 minutes; if your temperature is too high, the liquid won't spherify correctly, but it will be obvious, and you can always wait longer and try again, so don't worry too much.

Remove the oil from the freezer and pour into the tall glass. Using the syringe or eyedropper, slowly drop little drops of liquid into the oil - do not stream the liquid in. The cold will cause the agar to set, solidifying the spheres and making them sink almost instantly. If they're not sinking, especially after a very gentle shake, return the oil to the freezer and let the liquid cool a bit further.

Drain spheres from the oil and rinse in the mesh strainer.

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Gnollish Fish Stew

This recipe is very fishy -- it may not be to everyone's taste! But if you do really like fish, it's got a lot going on. The recipe calls for spherified double strength instant kombu broth, but it can easily be omitted or swapped for lumpfish roe (which is more accurate anyways, but outside my budget.) I'll be posting about easy home spherification later. This recipe is based on @aestherians' gnollish life. :)

Many of the other ingredients are uncommon, too, but because they are largely shelf-stable, they can be ordered from a variety of outlets. I like Penzy's Spices for juniper, smoked paprika, and other uncommon spices.

Ingredients:

Two 4-oz cans oil-packed sardines; boneless and skinless will lend a milder flavor and save you the trouble of removing the spines, but regular is fine too

One 14-oz can crushed tomatoes

One 14-oz can diced tomatoes

One small onion

Either 2 tbsp lumpfish roe, 300 mL of instant kombu broth, made at double strength and spherified, or omit.

4 oz precooked rice noodles or cellophane noodles

1 tsp smoked paprika, or substitute 1 tsp regular paprika and a couple drops liquid smoke

2 tsp minced garlic (about 4 cloves)

1/4 tsp juniper, freshly ground, or substitute black pepper

2 tbsp high-temperature oil, such as canola

Salt to taste -- brands of sardines can vary widely in salt level, so it will depend on what you buy.

Equipment:

A high-walled sauté pan, or failing that a wide bottomed soup pot. Don't be like me and use a frying pan - you can see the food barely fits.

A turner/hard plastic spatula.

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Serves: 2-4

Directions:

Finely chop onion. Drain sardines. If your sardines aren't boneless, remove the spine. If using cellophane noodles, cook according to package directions, drain, and set aside - otherwise the flavor will be too tomatoey.

Add oil to your pan or pot and heat on medium-low. Once it's hot, add onion. Cook until it begins to turn transparent, 3-5 minutes.

Add sardines and cook for an additional 3 minutes. As they cook, break them up with your turner.

Add garlic. Cook for an additional 30 seconds, then add juniper and smoked paprika. Cook for an additional 30 seconds.

Add both cans of tomato. Allow to simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Add rice or cellophane noodles. Allow noodles to heat through, 2-3 minutes, then remove from heat, add kombu spheres or roe if using, and serve.

[altercooking]

Cheesy Rice and Chicken Casserole

Although I usually avoid poultry and beef, I got a rotisserie chicken as part of a free promotion when I moved. Not wanting to waste it, I decided to do a spin on a classic chicken casserole. Although the use of a pressure cooker speeds things up, this is a real waste-nothing recipe.

Where we gnolls lived, rice wasn't especially common -- we usually ate millet. Millet is a great swap in this recipe, and cooks in the same amount of time, but my roommate doesn't really love it. So I mixed it up. (Similarly, the cheese here would be more likely to be goat cheese.)

This recipe includes home-making stock and will produce more than is needed for the casserole itself. You can use the extra for a soup or other recipe.

Ingredients for stock

1 rotisserie chicken carcass (bones and skin, and any little bits of whatever -- use the meat below in the casserole)

2 medium carrots

2 stalks celery

A small onion

4 cloves garlic

Ingredients for casserole

Meat from one rotisserie chicken, chopped into bite-sized pieces

2 cups of above stock

4 oz cream cheese or soft goat cheese

4 oz cheddar cheese

2 cups white rice

1/2 small onion

1/2 tsp kosher salt

2 tsp jarred garlic (about 4 cloves)

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp chili flakes (optional)

Special equipment

6 quart electronic pressure cooker, such as an Instant Pot

Silicone trivet that fits in the Instant Pot

Cake tin that fits inside the Instant Pot, at least 7". I use the official Instant Pot one

Fine strainer

Serves: 4, plus additional stock

Prep Time: 5 minutes for stock, 5 minutes for rice

Cook Time: 2 hours 30 minutes for stock, 45 minutes for rice

Directions for stock:

First, make the stock. Remove meat from the rotisserie chicken and set aside.

Chop the onion into quarters and the celery and carrots into 2" pieces.

Add rotisserie chicken carcass, celery, 4 cloves garlic, and carrots to your Instant Pot. Fill to 1/2 mark on the Instant Pot.

Set Instant Pot to cook on high for 1 hour 30 minutes. It will take a while to come up to pressure, so the real time will be longer.

Allow natural pressure to release for at least half an hour, after which you can release any remaining pressure.

Directions for casserole:

Finely mince onion

Add pepper, salt, rice, stock, chili flakes (if using), and minced onion to the 7" cake tin.

Add 1 cup of water to the Instant Pot. Put the trivet in the Instant Pot, then put the rice-filled cake tin on the trivet.

Close the Instant Pot. Pressure cook on high for 13 minutes, ensuring Keep Warm is turned off.

Let pressure release naturally for at least 10 minutes. Quick release any remaining pressure.

Add rotisserie chicken meat and cream or goat cheese to rice and stir until it becomes creamy.

Add cheddar cheese to rice and stir to melt.

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Applesauce with Cinnamon and Dates - a gnollish treat!

Applesauce: it's easy, it's tasty, and a quick Google tells me it dates back to the middle ages. Who knew? For me, though, it's a nostalgic memory -- both of my human and nonhuman childhoods.

The gnoll version of this dish is made with dried apples, reconstituted with hot water and mashed, since the apple-like fruits we used didn't grow where we lived. That's changed -- now it's easier for me to get fresh apples than dried ones. Cheaper, too! There's nothing wrong with adjusting an old favorite of yours to match with what's available to you now. Plenty of foods we miss are full of ingredients not present on Earth, but that doesn't mean we can't try to relive those memories, just a little bit.

This applesauce is sweetened with dates instead of granulated sugar, which lends it an earthy note. Because of this, it requires a blender. However, you can swap the dates for about 3 tbsp sugar added at the end -- if you do, it'll mash easily with a wooden spoon or potato masher.

Ingredients

4 apples - most varieties should be fine, but stay away from ones that are particularly bland, like Red Delicious. There's no need to spend the big bucks on Honeycrisp, and apples with some blemishes will work just as well as a picture perfect one.

4 dates, pits removed

1/4 cup sink-hot water

1/4 cup sink-cold water

A pinch of cinnamon (optional)

Special equipment:

Large pot with lid

Blender, although see notes above -- with some adjustments you can avoid using one

Apple peeler (optional)

Prep Time: 5-10 minutes, more if you choose to peel your apples

Cook time: 40 minutes

If your blender can't handle hot foods, cooling time will be needed.

Serves: 4

Directions:

Optionally, peel the apples. You can also remove the peels from the cooked apple mash later, or blend them into the applesauce.

Cut apples into quarters and remove the seeds and stems. Chop dates.

Add hot water, apples, and dates to a pot. Cover with a lid and cook on medium heat for 40 minutes. Towards the end, you will want to check occasionally to see if all the water has boiled away -- if so, add a little more hot water to prevent the apples from burning.

After 40 minutes, add 1/4 cup sink-cold water.

If your blender doesn't support blending hot, or if you'd like to pick the peels out by hand, allow the apple mixture to cool. Pick peels out, if desired.

Blend the mixture until smooth. You may need to use a tamp, or stop the blender and stir on occasion.

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Any-Flavor Pound Cake

The alterhuman community is wonderful and diverse -- full of people, human and nonhuman, whose experiences show the splendor of the world. It's not possible to boil all of that down into one cake, but it got me thinking about how many of us chase some memory, food-related or otherwise.

So I created this pound cake recipe to be easily modified and easy to make. If you're a hummingbird and you remember a life enjoying sweet flowers, you can make this as a lavender pound cake. If you're a bear and you miss sweet berries in the spring, this could easily be a blackberry-flavor pound cake.

Experimenting in cooking is super fun -- and a wonderful way to connect with the past.

Tip: Rice flour browns more than wheat flour, so the cake may look overdone compared to what you're used to. But it lends an excellent texture!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups white rice flour

1 cup sugar

12 Tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature or they won't mix correctly

1/4 cup flavored coffee or cocktail syrup, such as Torani, Monin, or grenadine; or sub molasses. You can find different drink syrups in the coffee aisle and in the drinks aisle at most groceries, or order online. The sample cake above uses Monin Brown Butter Toffee syrup.

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

4 eggs, ideally room temperature

1/2 tsp flavored extract, such as vanilla, lemon, or orange. The sample above uses imitation vanilla because I'm a cheapass.

Equipment:

Oven

4x8 loaf tin (you can use a different sized baking tin, but it will affect baking time)

Mixing bowl and spatula, or stand mixer (it's easier with a stand mixer, but doable if you put some muscle in.)

Serves: 8-12, depending on how much you like

Prep Time: 15 minutes with a stand mixer; more like 20-25 without

Cook time: 45-55 minutes

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Add rice flour, baking soda, and baking powder to a mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer. Whisk together to mix evenly.

Add butter, eggs, and flavoring extract. Mix on a medium-low speed until a fully incorporated, thick batter forms if using a stand mixer, about a minute. Beat by hand until the same thing happens. If you're beating by hand and having trouble, it may help to put the whole mixing bowl in the microwave for about 20 seconds -- if your eggs were cold, they may be chilling the butter down and making it harder to mix.

Add sugar and flavoring syrup and mix evenly into the batter.

Generously grease your baking tin, especially if it's not nonstick. You can use the wrapper from the butter sticks to do this.

Pour batter into baking tin. Bake for 45-55 minutes. Check doneness with a toothpick or knife -- if it comes out clean, it's ready; otherwise, give it another 5-10 minutes and check again until it comes out clean.

[altercooking]

Bean Salad With Tomatoes

This recipe is tasty, easy, and healthy for most dietary needs. I developed it based on the simple meals we gnolls would eat, but for simplicity's sake I've used canned beans. Amara likes it too!

I might be living a very different life than I did back then, but there's nothing like some bean salad to cheer me up. Those were simpler times, but they weren't always better. Every life has challenges, after all!

Ingredients:

1/2 small onion

1 can chickpeas, drained (or 1 1/2 cups prepared and cooked dry chickpeas)

1 tbsp cooking oil

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tsp minced jarred garlic (or two cloves minced fresh garlic)

1 Roma tomato

Millet or rice for serving

Rich olive oil for serving

Equipment

Frying or sauté pan

Serves: 4 portions,

Cook time: 10 minutes

Directions:

Add cooking oil to frying pan. Heat over medium heat until hot.

Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes.

Add garlic, salt, and black pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, for about a minute.

Add drained beans and cook for another 5 minutes, or until beans are hot.

Remove from heat. Mash bean mixture with a fork or spoon, retaining some full beans while crushing others.

The bean salad will last several days in the fridge, and is easily reheated in the microwave, but the tomatoes will not. So when you're ready to serve, continue.

Cut Roma tomato in half and scoop out the seeds, leaving only the sturdier tomato flesh. Dice.

Serve bean salad over a bed of rice or millet, topped with tomatoes and drizzled with olive oil.

[altercooking]

Hi, all!

My name's Marron, and I'm a home cook who loves thinking about flavors and how they can combine. What started as making adjustments to existing recipes turned into a love of working out my own.

I identify as a hyena-man (colloquially, a gnoll), among other things, and experimenting with food has helped me feel more connected to that life and those experiences. On this blog, I'll share recipes I've worked on relating to other lives -- and also take requests to help others in the same shoes!

If making a request, please be specific about any special dietary restrictions, and what kind of food you'd like. I'm happy to give advice for tweaking existing recipes, making new ones, or finding a recipe that fits your needs. When I can, I'm also happy to work on new recipes for the community!

I'm still setting up. I'm hoping to post at least one fully original recipe a week, but this will be contingent on how much I'm cooking.

Thanks, all. :)