Are These Smuggled Goods? - Star Wars: The Ultimate Cookbook
Suddenly finding themself employed on a high-class spaceship, our intrepid multiverse-traveling chef Aurum Leuci prepares a traditional dish from the fungal forest planet of Narqui— along with some questionably-sourced side dishes.
Tonight’s menu: sourced from the Star Wars Ultimate Cookbook
Appetizer: Cantonican Cactus Bites, pg 163
Main Course: Narquois Rolls, pg 45
Dessert: Kullgroon Drops, pg 95
Full review under the cut!
Aurum Leuci’s Log:
[Begin recording.] Hey, uh, Chef Aurum here. Sorry I’m late. I think I must have miscalibrated my dimensional portal generator, because I absolutely did NOT intend to wind up on a Neimoidian ship orbiting some random colony world— Narq, I think?— much less in a kitchen full of apparently-smuggled Kullgroon fruit and Cantonican vegetation. Luckily, I can handle myself in a kitchen— so let’s hope for my sake the politicians on this ship don’t know their kitchen staff by name. I can at least make some kind of fancy dinner for them before I find a safe place to reactivate the portal. And besides— I want to try that smuggled produce.
I’ll check in with you after the next jump, once it’s safe. Aurum Leuci out. [End log.]
The Feast Your Eyes Recipe Rating Scale
In this series, I’ll be rating each recipe based on five factors, each of which can receive up to five points. These reviews will be written out-of-character, detailing my (AJ) opinions and experiences with the recipes detailed in the post. I eat almost entirely plant-based, so any substitutions related to animal products will be denoted in the descriptions of dishes. The rating scale is as follows:
Difficulty: How easy or hard was this recipe to follow? Harder recipes will score lower in this category, while easier recipes will score higher.
Ingredients: How easy or hard were ingredients to source? This category will be scored similarly to Difficulty, and any substitutions made will be denoted in the recipe’s section.
Immersion: How well does this recipe fit the universe or world that it’s from? High scores in this category mean high immersion, while low scores mean that it’s not particularly immersive.
Time: How much time did this take? Recipes that take less time will score higher in this category.
End Result: With the recipe followed as closely as possible (according to my dietary restrictions/ingredient sourcing capability), how did the final dish turn out? Higher scores in this category denote a better final dish.
Side Dish: Cantonican Cactus Bites
RATING:
Difficulty: 5/5
Ingredients: 5/5
Immersion: 3/5
Time: 3/5
End Result: 3/5
TOTAL RATING: 19/25
I came into this recipe REALLY wanting to give it a perfect rating. I love roasted brussels sprouts, and really, really wanted to like this recipe. It was straightforward to prepare, you could buy the ingredients at any grocery store, and it seemed like it would turn out really tasty. I was willing to put aside the fact that it’s just roasted brussels sprouts (not a terribly Star Wars-y dish) and was really hoping the taste would blow me away. Unfortunately, these turned out somewhat underwhelming. Despite following the recipe exactly, as you can see in the photo, these sprouts (and all of the tasty vegetables cooked with them, including fresh shallots and garlic) burned a little in the oven. This recipe definitely has potential- but as written in the cookbook, it’s somewhat middling.
Main Course: Narquois Rolls
RATING:
Difficulty: 5/5
Ingredients: 3/5
Immersion: 5/5
Time: 5/5
End Result: 5/5
TOTAL RATING: 23/25
This recipe was AWESOME, and a hit with my family. It only loses points on the sad fact that I wasn’t able to source enoki mushrooms (the main ingredient of the dish) and had to substitute in a mix of other mushrooms. Having done some research on the planet of Narq (also known as Narqui?), I don’t think this was terribly immersion breaking, since it’s a foresty, swampy planet with… large fungal forests! I would love to make it again with actual enoki mushrooms to see how those would have affected the taste and texture— these were delicious.
Dessert: Kullgroon Drops
RATING:
Difficulty: 5/5
Ingredients: 5/5
Immersion: 5/5
Time: 5/5
End Result: 5/5
TOTAL RATING: A perfect 25/25!
I was really skeptical about this recipe— it’s literally just frozen grapes and Jell-O dust. Surprisingly, this is my highest-rated dish from this review! Super easy, super quick (the only time sink is letting them freeze) and they come out delicious, chilly, and beautifully alien! They’d be a believable find in a snow-covered environment like Kullgroon, and they were absolutely delicious.
Tune in this Friday (6/7/24) for another fandom cookbook review!
i’m going to be busy this summer, but mostly with trying to bring you guys some cool content and post more regularly.
over the entire summer, i’m going to be working on a second issue of Feast Your Eyes!, my culinary fantasy zine, mainly focused on Minecraft (that’s what I’m most into right now) but i’ll probably incorporate some other fandoms as well.
while i won’t post everything from the second issue of Feast Your Eyes to the blog (you’ll have to read the finished zine if you want recipes and articles), I will also be doing a series of fandom cookbook recipe reviews, which I plan to release twice a week!
i’ll also make an effort to post more fanart and other various neat stuff. but that starts next week!
this weekend i’m crashing and taking a long-needed rest. hope you’re all doing well! stay hydrated :)
favorite fandom cookbook i own? (just curious what you guys think!)
[Begin recording.] Hey there. Back at this weird pizza… mall… thing with the robots. For some reason it’s always night when I show up here? Not sure why. I bet it’s awesome when it’s actually open, but time seems to move weirdly while I’m here. The robots seem pretty cool with me being here, as long as I’m cooking. I don’t mind— since they can eat (for some reason?) they’re a pretty good audience. I’ll probably head back to the weird computer world soon… but later. The robots want me to go bowling. See you! [End log.]
Please see this post for my full review scale!
Main Dish: Bonnie’s Buddha Bowl
RATING:
Difficulty: 5/5
Ingredients: 5/5
Immersion: 4/5
Time: 5/5
End Result: 5/5
TOTAL RATING: 24/25
This dish was delicious, if not totally immersive to FNAF (though I could see this being served at the Pizzaplex, since it’s more akin to a Dave and Buster’s than a Chuck-e-Cheese). Since my family is plant-based, I decided to give it a shot, since this is one of the few recipes in the cookbook that needs no substitutions. It was a lot of work— between all of the vegetables and frying the tofu and roasting the chickpeas, I did all of it manually. But it was SO worth it. I didn’t include the broccoli (because I don’t care for it and had already chopped up 5 radishes, a red onion, and a zucchini) but it wasn’t missed. Solid meal, and it was fun to prepare!
Dessert: Superstar Daycare Strawberry Shake
RATING:
Difficulty: 5/5
Ingredients: 5/5
Immersion: 5/5
Time: 5/5
End Result: 5/5
TOTAL RATING: 25/25
Fresh strawberries, a couple scoops of ice cream, and whipped cream with sprinkles. Really, impossible to go wrong with. And it didn’t go wrong here! I don’t have much to say about this shake, really— it was delicious and really, really easy to prep. My only complaint is that it called for chia seeds…. 1 tablespoon of chia seeds…
We now have a… very large… bag of chia seeds. Please give me suggestions for foods you can make with chia seeds. I think we’ll be working through that bag for awhile. I’m not even sure what it even added to the shake… but honestly, it definitely fits with the Pizzaplex vibe. Chia seeds are just… they sound healthy while not really adding much in terms of taste.
Seriously, though. I need chia seed use ideas.
Tune in next Wednesday (7/3/24) for another fandom cookbook review!
I could not find a Wizard of Oz cookbook that wasn't solely based on the movie. Well, guess it's time for me to make my own recipes... when I'm comfortable with writing my own recipes. I'm still learning after all.
I definitely think my Strawburst Cookies would belong in Quadling Country
Stowing Away Again - Star Wars: The Ultimate Cookbook
Tonight's menu: sourced from the Star Wars Ultimate Cookbook
Main Dish: Bastatha Blend, pg 70
Side Dish: Jogan Fruit Greens, pg 167
BONUS Side Dish: Balo Mushrooms, pg 22
Full review under the cut!
Aurum Leuci’s Log:
[Begin recording.] Aurum Leuci here, stowing away in yet another spaceship’s kitchen. This time it was intentional, though— I’m with some smugglers I’m familiar with, who offered me some ingredients in exchange for cooking for the crew for a short while. As always, I’m documenting the dishes, as is my duty as a multiverse-traveling chef. When we eventually reach Batuu, I’ll be sending along more documentation, but for now, here’s my rations for the night. I’ll be in touch. Aurum Leuci out. [End log.]
Please see this post for my full review scale!
Main Dish: Bastatha Blend
RATING:
Difficulty: 4/5
Ingredients: 5/5
Immersion: 5/5
Time: 5/5
End Result: 5/5
TOTAL RATING: 24/25
To preface this review: I don’t like gazpacho. This is just gazpacho. Despite the fact that I don’t like gazpacho, I like this soup. I cut SO MANY vegetables for this soup. It was worth cutting vegetables for. It loses points for making me dice tomatoes before proceeding to blend those tomatoes, rendering the dicing irrelevant. Otherwise, I love the theming of this— it makes perfect sense that people living on a desert planet would prefer a cold soup, and the idea of chilling it in a subterranean cave system is super cool. Great recipe. :)
Side Dish: Jogan Fruit Greens
RATING:
Difficulty: 5/5
Ingredients: 4/5
Immersion: 4/5
Time: 5/5
End Result: 4/5
TOTAL RATING: 22/25
I admit, I chose this recipe since Jenny Nicholson mentioned jogan fruits in her recent Star Wars video, and I was like “oooh, I get that reference!” I also needed to use the last of the vegan feta from last week’s dinner, so it was kind of a shoo-in. In “ingredients”, it loses points for celery seed being stupidly hard to find; in “immersion”, it loses points for not really feeling all that alien; and on “end result”, it only loses points for the blackberries being really overpowering. I think if I make it again, I’ll use a little less blackberry, and chop them smaller rather than putting them in whole. The blackberries were full of seeds that kept getting stuck in my teeth, though that might just be bad luck regarding the berries we got at the store. Overall, though; a pretty good salad!
Side Dish: Balo Mushrooms
RATING:
Difficulty: 5/5
Ingredients: 5/5
Immersion: 5/5
Time: 5/5
End Result: 5/5
TOTAL RATING: 25/25
These were really fun to make. Yet again, I don’t usually care for mushrooms, but this recipe was simple, it was easy, and had really good lore. It’s just mushrooms roasted in butter and herbs, but they were delicious. I recommend serving them right out of the oven, because they’re not as flavorful once cooled— but that was on me. The recipe itself was great! As a note: cremini mushrooms are most often sold as “baby bella” mushrooms, so… yeah, I don’t know. Rebranding a type of mushroom is strange, grocery stores. Stop that.
Tune in this Friday (6/21/24) for another fandom cookbook review!
I’m posting to announce my upcoming series of recipe reviews, which will be posted to this blog twice a week, starting TODAY (Wednesdays and Fridays)!
Since I’m reviewing recipes from various fandom cookbooks (Star Wars, Minecraft, FNaF, Avatar: Pandora), I figured that I’d write a story to go along with it— so, tune in twice-weekly to hear about the adventures of Aurum Leuci, the multiverse-traveling chef-turned-adventurer!
I’ll also be accepting in-character asks for Aurum, so feel free to hop into the ask box. :) You can also send me recipes from other fandoms— I’d love to try some.
