#culinarycosplay

[gummibug]

Made @culinarycosplay ’s BATIM bacon soup today. Delicious!

[sharkmanarcanum]

My Tumblr Crushes:

clockmocker

xelgot

culinarycosplay

masternovice

fyeahygocardart

fysmite

amiable-apparition

foodffs

papillonthepirate

Bout to call bull but I forgot Papillon doesn't upload often. Also unfollowed FYSmite so weird to see them here still

[askfrisk-blog]

* (( Here’s the cinnamon-butterscotch pie I had my house help me make from @culinarycosplay‘s recipe! It was so delicious, I couldn’t get a good picture again before over half of it was gone! ))

* (( We put tiny sugar knives in it : ^ ) ))

[terribletriocreations]

JAKE'S PERFECT SANDWICH

A warning to all who would continue down this road that leads to sandwich perfection...

Abandon hope. Kiss your friends and family goodbye. If you had a social life, give it a merciful death. This sandwich will devour your life, your soul, and everything that remotely resembles free time.  When all was said and done, this amazing, delicious, perfect sandwich took me four hours to make (not including grocery shopping time). It was not easy. It was not quick.

But by god it was delicious. 

In the end it was so enormous that I couldn't close it and make it one sandwich and it ended up being two sandwich halves that everyone got a piece from each one, so that's how I'll be doing the recipe. Still brave enough to push on?

C'mon grab your friends, it's Sandwich Time!

-MJ & K

Ingredients:

1 large loaf of firm bread (french or country loaves work best)

Olive oil

Fresh rosemary

Thyme

1 strip steak

1 7-ounce can flaked lobster meat, drained and flaked

1 sweet yellow onion

1 Tblsp lemon juice

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened

4 Tblsp butter, softened

Dill

Jarred pre-sliced bread & butter pickles

2 hard-boiled eggs

1 chicken breast

White wine (for cooking and drinking)

2 cans chicken broth

1 Japanese cucumber, sliced (you can eat the skin on these, so no need to peel them)

1 Roma tomato, sliced

Salt and pepper

2-6 slices thick-cut bacon

Step 1 - Mood Music

Classical piano. Turn it on.

Step 2 - Steak, Sous-Vide

Cooking steak sous-vide is time consuming but highly rewarding. It does not give your steak a crispy buttery crust on the outside though, so if you want that crust on your steak I suggest patting your steak dry and then giving it a quick sear in a hot cast iron skillet once it's done cooking. 

Place your steak, a few springs of fresh rosemary and the fresh thyme into a large plastic bag and suck all of the air out of it. You don't need any oil or butter - being cooking in a water bath will infuse the steak with the flavor of these herbs. Keep a thermometer clipped to your pot with the temperature tip in the water so that you don't overcook your steak. Place the bag into your hot water and then don't touch it. Don't even look at it. Just keep the water at a constant temperature and set your timer. 

Check out the chart below for cooking times vs the thickness of your steak. Generally an hour is goof for an inch-thick steak. For a medium-rare steak, keep the water temperature at about 131 degrees F. Jake's 134 degrees will give you a slightly more-cooked steak, but everyone has their own preference for steak perfection.

Step 3 - Bread and Lobster Soul

While your steak is cooking away, you can begin to prepare the rest of the sandwich. Slice your loaf of bread in half horizontally and put both halves on a baking sheet. Brush this with a little olive oil and then put it into a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes to get it nice and crispy.

In a large bowl, mix together the lobster meat, a tablespoon of minced yellow onion, lemon juice, cream cheese, chopped dill, and butter. Cry into it a little bit over how many dishes you'll have to do later, but please, no snot. 

When the bread comes out of the oven, give it a few minutes to cool and then spread your lobster cream cheese dip over both halves. Drape pickles over both sides. Reward yourself with a glass of white wine.

Step 4 - Diced Boiled Eggs and Bird From the Window

Let's just call this chicken. Put your chicken breast in a small pot and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour in chicken broth and a splash of white wine until it covers the chicken by an inch or so and bring that sucker to a boil. Skim off any scummy foam that floats to the top. Once it boils, reduce to a simmer, cover the pot, and let the chicken breast simmer for 10 minutes or so until it's opaque in the middle and an instant-read thermometer reads 165 degrees F. Slice the chicken into thin strips. You can also hard-boil your eggs in this if you want to, though I used a separate pot of water for them. Slice those thinly too once they're cool. Set both aside for construction of the sandwich.

Step 5 - Everything Else and Construction

Once your steak finishes cooking and you've decided whether to sear it or not, slice it into thin strips. Cook up those delicious strips of bacon in a shallow pan or bake them! Baking bacon makes it extra crispy and good for crumbling onto your sandwich.

At this point you can decide what goes on which half of the sandwich, but here's a breakdown of how I ended up building it - 

SANDWICH HALF 1:

Bread - lobster cream cheese dip - pickles - steak - crumbled crispy bacon - hard-boiled eggs

SANDWICH HALF 2:

Bread - lobster cream cheese dip - pickles - sliced Roma tomatoes - sweet yellow onion - Japanese cucumbers - crumbled crispy bacon - sliced chicken breast 

Step 6 - Feast

You earned it, you master sandwich-maker. Share it with your friends! Or not. We know you want it all to yourself and we understand.

[terribletriocreations]

Potato Pie Powerup

You know bluepeepswhiteydragon, I've actually played Dark Cloud 2. But considering this was back in the day when you could run down to your local mini mart and rent PlayStation games, it was quite a long time ago. Honestly, I had completely forgotten about it until you made this request.

It had been bothering me for years, I couldn't even tell if it was a real game or a very detailed dream, much less it's name! All I could recall was an oddly-scaled boy with a large wrench and a camera. I think I took a picture of a trachcan when I first got it. My gameplay wasn't long-lived, as I think I quit when I ventured down into the tunnels under the city. As a 10-year old, I didn't have a firm grasp of game-play mechanics or...uh, patience, actually. 

No wonder I never got past the swamp level with all the sentient washing machines in Banjo-Kazooie. 

Either way, Sweet Potatoes! If it's a Potato Pie, you can be sure I'm not using russets, but don't scoff the sweet potato. I didn't like them either until a few years ago when I discovered how decadent my Mom's sweet potato casserole she makes on Thanksgiving is. So after a devastating experience with the Sweet Potato Pie from Sam's, I decided that I could do way better, and use a similar twist to my Mom's casserole. Trust me, when you take your first bite, you're never gong back to pumpkin. I'm sure not. Maybe that's why it's a powerup, because it's elevated itself to a level towering over the generic pumpkin pie. The recipe is under the cut.

-MJ & K

Frozen pie crust

¾ cup sugar

½ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp ground cloves

½ tsp nutmeg

2T orange juice

1T orange zest

2 eggs

1 very large Jewel Sweet Potato (about 16-20 oz) 

1 (12 oz) can sweetened condensed milk

roasted pecans (for garnish)

To make sweet potato puree: take a very large jewel sweet potato, peel it, and chop it into 1-inch pieces. Set pieces in a medium pot and fill with water. Bring the water to a boil, and let the potatoes cook for about 10 minutes, or until soft when stabbed with a fork. Drain the potatoes, return to the pot, and mash with a potato masher (You can also use a food mill if you have one, it doesn’t make much of a difference). 

Preheat your oven to 435° F.

Beat the eggs in an electric mixer. In a small bowl combine the sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, gloves, and nutmeg. Add the spice mixture, zest, juice, and sweet potatoes to the eggs. Beat until thoroughly combined. While mixer is turning on low, slowly pour in the sweetened condensed milk. One combined, pour into the shell.

Bake for 15 minutes at 425°, reduce the temperature to 350° F, and bake for 40-50 more minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool before serving.  

[terribletriocreations]

BLUE MANA POTION

Boy tw1ndestr0yer, I'm just handing you the short end of the submit-stick with my inability to take good pictures of drinks lately, huh?

I’m going to use Kingdom Hearts as an example. In Kingdom Hearts you have two different categories of potions to drink- health and magic. While there are variation of each (such as high potions, mega ethers, elixers, and tents), if one is very good then they can usually rely on their own wits and skill to keep themselves alive and avoid pulling a potion.

I am not always so skilled, and have to chomp down the occasional high-potion (No thanks to Donald).

It can be easy to claim that beating HK1 is easy, but I have yet to meet a person that hasn’t screamed at Ansem during the final battle. It’s a fun replay until them. His battle, the end of the game, is where you can go all out and drown yourself in magical tonics and sparkly cubes to send his time-traveling butt back into oblivion. 

Donald is also not a very good mage, I find myself swapping him with guest characters at any opportunity. He always runs out of magic and never manages to heal you in time. This means that you have to waste your precious magic reserves replenishing your health bar rather than summoning lighting from nowhere with an oversized key. Wow, that makes no sense when I write it down.

But once you’re feeling top-notch again, you’re left with all health and no magic. An ether is all you can drink at this point, but when you open your bag you’re quick to notice that you have way more health potions that ethers. Synthesis and chests are the places you mostly find them and you can’t even buy them. How awful. It’s like you’re being punished for noticing your mage companion’s second-rate skill.  But I want this magic potion to be cheap and easy to make, unlike in Kingdom hearts. It’s not even saturated with alcohol, I imagine that soda fizz is more magical than alcohol buzz.

This is a contrast to the Red Health Potion MJ posted a few months ago.

-K

1 cup ginger soda

¼ cup vodka

¼ cup blueberries

2T sugar

Splash of vanilla extract

Blue food coloring (optional)

Muddle the blueberries in the sugar. You can squeeze all the liquid in a cheesecloth, or leave it be. Add this to a large container, and add the vodka, soda, and vanilla. It takes a bit of dye to turn it blue, but otherwise it’ll be purpler. 

[terribletriocreations]

FILET OF ROSEMARY ROASTED MEAT WITH A BOWL OF MUSHROOM AND ASPARAGUS RISOTTO

(Boy that's a mouthful!) 

You have no idea how exuberant I was about spices when I first started playing Guild Wars 2. The ability to have my character hoard food gave me that tiny selfish pleasure of “hehehe I shall be the sugar pumpkin lord”. (Just me? Really?) I remember once when my Charr, Kaylen, sprinted over from Lornar’s pass to join some of my Guildmates (cough*siblings*cough) in the Bloodtide coast. They were perched up in the Marshwatch Haven outpost, awaiting my much needed assistance. As I approached, they leaped from the tower and took off down the coast, but I hung back for a second to harvest some mature herbs. I brandish my Darksteel harvesting sickle at the tiny, flowery plant.  

And my first rosemary sprigs fell into my paws.

…Actually it might have been coriander. Wait shit it WAS coriander. I actually have no idea anymore, I just remember being hella excited about finding a useful spice and then ditching my friends to go craft something. Kaylen was pretty handy with a skillet back them.

But alas, I have become jaded. As I pluck multiple omnomberries from their concealed bushes down in Orr and shove them into my materials bank, I think little of them. Thyme is cute loot, truffles are an avoided bane, and don’t get me started on peppercorn. I collect but neglect to use. That might be why I’m completely full of every metal now.

But fear not, we can us them in real life. Rosemary, thyme, pepper, truffle and all.

(The rosemary filet seemed more appropriate to cook in a wine broth, as risottos are more often paired with ossobucco, veal in wine and broth. Never expect me to cook veal. Not until the Underworld and all its ectoplasm freezes over. Recipe is under the cut.)

-MJ & K

For the Rosemary Pork:

¼ cup whole peppercorns

Bone-in pork shoulder (6-7 lbs., can be multiple shoulders)

1 whole head of garlic

1.5 liter red wine (those cheap huge bottles)

Olive oil

Salt

5 large sprigs of rosemary

1T fresh thyme

If your pork has any skin left on it, cut it off.

Using a mortar and pestle, or any mallet-like object, crush the peppercorns.

Take your park shoulder and cut 20 deep slits into all the sides. Insert a garlic clove into each slit. Pat the sides down with the crushed peppercorns, and set into a large bowl. Pour in the red wine, rosemary, and thyme. Cover and refrigerate for about 3 hours.

Remove the pork shoulder from the fridge and preheat you oven to 300°F. Remove the pork from the marinade and pat dry. In a large Dutch oven, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil and some salt. Sear the pork, fat side down in the pan, until golden-brown. Turn the shoulder over, add the marinade to the pot, and bring to a simmer. Once simmering, deposit the pot into your preheated oven and cook for 5 hours.

*About an hour before the pork is done you should start the risotto.*

After the 5 hours pull the pot out of the oven, and use tongs to start pulling the meat off. (It’ll be so soft you won’t really have to pull, just poke and it falls off) Top the risotto with eh pork, and ladle some of the wine broth over it all. 

For the Risotto: 

(For vegetarian risotto use vegetable broth)

8 cups chicken or vegetable broth

olive oil

1 lb. sliced asparagus

3 minced garlic cloves

2 shallots

½ onion

2 cups Arborio rice

½ cup sake

Salt and pepper

1T truffle oil

2 bay leaves

2 tsp fresh thyme

4T butter

½ cup parmesan

Gently heat the chicken broth in a small pot on your stovetop, but not to boiling. Heat a few splashes of olive oil in a large saucepan or pot, and cook both the mushrooms and asparagus until soft. Remove the vegetables and their liquid and set aside.

Add another tablespoon of olive oil to the pan, and cook the chopped shallots and onions until they are translucent, but not browned. Pour in the rice, and stir to coat with the oil. Cook this for about 2 minutes.

When the rice is golden in color, add the sake, bay leaves, and thyme, then stir until the sake is absorbed. Once the sake is gone, start ladling in scoops of the hot chicken broth, stirring until it is absorbed. Each ladle will take about 1-2 minutes to be absorbed, depending on how hot the broth is. Continue until all the broth is absorbed and the rice (Trust me, it will- I didn’t believe it at first either). To Pour the mushrooms, asparagus, and their liquid to the rice, and mix well. Finally, add the butter, Parmesan, and salt & pepper to the risotto. Stir, and top with the drizzle of truffle oil.