I made this for a cute little contest on Reddit
(Image Text and Bonus Gathering Notes below)
Credulous Craw Curry
Imagine, Child. Imagine the ferocity of the flavor. It calls to those who seek it. Warmth. It waits, fleeting though…
This staple meal warms the spirits and fills the bellies of those below the Citadel. Among the pilgrims the rumour sticks, it claims that those who walk the gilded halls cannot stand the heat. As such, this recipe remains truly in the hands and hearts of those pilgrims and adventurers who walk the oft treacherous paths of lower Pharloom.
Ingredients :
1lb Craw Meat
6 Mossberries
¼ cup Crustnut (crushed)
3 tbsp Pale Oil
2 White Flowers
4tbsp White Flower Pollen
¼ cup Tarmite Excretions
4 Volt Filaments
3tbsp Pollip Powder (crushed pollips)
1-2 cups of Thin Green Vines
Cook :
Optionally, Cook over the heat of at least three bound Wisps, as their irritation imparts a notable umami flavor.
Remove Craw meat from the shell and devein, then place aside.
Heat 2 tbsp of Pale Oil over the flames until shimmering.
Season the meat lightly with a combination of Crustnut and Pollip powder, and then sear for 60 seconds on each side to achieve a nice golden coloration. Remove the meat from heat.
Crush Mossberries in a separate bowl. Add the entire bowl to the pan, deglaze the fond leftover by the meat, and reduce the liquid by about a third.
Return the meat to the pan.
In another pot bring water to a rolling boil, add Thin Green Vines and cook until al dente texture. Remove Vines immediately and mix with the remaining Pale Oil and 2 tbsp of White Flower Pollen.
Season your curry mixture. First add in the rest of the Pollip and Crustnut seasonings, then the remaining White Flower Pollen. Once incorporated, slowly and carefully add the Tarmite Excretions to the sauce, this will kick up the heat and thicken the dish. Finally, add in the petals of your White Flowers, and 2 Volt Filaments. Mix well. Allow 15 minutes to simmer together.
Serve the curry with the Green Vine noodles on the side. Garnish the curry with the remaining volt filaments.
Get creative, serve in the leftover Craw shell for a professional looking touch!
Gathering Notes :
This dish requires an act of wayfaring unless you are well supplied, I offer here a concise recollection of the journey I have often taken myself in pursuit of this culinary delight. Most ingredients may be collected at your leisure and stored, though Mossberries are best used within a week of harvest, and Tarmite Excretions require constant temperature maintenance if not used rapidly. I would recommend only gathering the tar substance when needed, as storage is often more trouble than it’s worth.
I enjoy taking the journey as a long ascending path followed by a great descent. For thematic purposes. Moss Grotto or Mosshome proper are both fine areas to begin the quest forward. Assuming you are an experienced traveler, the entirety of the trip should only encompass an afternoon.
Mossberries seem like a simple ingredient, as many can be found growing naturally in the mossy regions. However, you may find that cutting down another bug as they attempt to hoard the juicy fruit provides an extra dose of flavor to your meal. Or not, maybe you are a well adjusted young bug. Regardless, slice the Mossberries from whichever vine or claw clutches it within and make haste upward before another greedy bug comes for your wares.
That was the first and the most simple of trials on your quest for flavor. Well done, young bug. Let us ascend.
You may find Green Vine of various thicknesses throughout the mosslands, this ingredient can be collected whenever you encounter vines that are of a suitable girth for your preferences. I often find thinner Vines in the Shellwood region, which make for a fine side dish and cook more rapidly than larger ones.
Shellwood is the next stop, vine or no. This area contains the White Flowers and, obviously, their pollen. Fortunately, you don’t have to wander far from a Bell Beast stop to find this ingredient.
Note : Pollen can be extracted from floating Phacia creatures, but the petals you want should be sourced from only non-sentient flowers. Simply lop off a handful of White Flowers and add them to your satchel. If harvesting pollen from Phacia proves too difficult, collecting at least twelve White Flowers should provide a suitable amount as well.
Don’t worry, your ingredients will survive all manner of jumping and backflipping.
Don’t forget to grab Pollips before leaving Shellwood! They can be hard to find elsewhere in Pharloom, so it’s best to get them now and avoid needless backtracking. Be careful handling them, despite their delightful flavor, getting too much of the liquified poison in the seams of your husk could prove problematic, so keep them in a sealed container within your pack.
Move on from the wetland and into the arid Steps, and embark through the sharp shells of Karak to lop down as many Crustnuts as we can carry. Crustnut has numerous culinary uses, so it’s always a good idea to keep well supplied! Avoid the hungry critters on your way out, and make your way to Greymoor for the heart of the dish.
Any small Craw creature will be sufficient for the meal, but if you’re serving a large party the optimal choice is a Squatcraw of course. Once your bounty is bagged, I’d suggest a quick ride back to your bellhome for storage. Trust me, you only make the mistake of traveling with that much extra weight once.
The next task will be to either loot areas around the Citadel for their stores of Pale Oil, or hunt down the rare and elusive Slyphean Slug and extract the bile gland. Quite a challenge, worthy of a true adventurer!
It’s not important how I got the oil, but I wanted to remind you that I am a renowned adventurer regardless of what you may have heard.
With the Pale Oil acquired, next we ascend once more into Memorium. Volt Filaments are an absolute requirement for the meal. It is worth it, even if you get shocked several dozen times. Though I’m sure you won’t get shocked several dozen times, as that has never happened to me.
Once sufficiently charged, it is finally time for the great descent. Down in the Deep Docks is where the Tarmites reside, but despite the long ride this is a simple and straightforward final step. Simply collect a bucket worth of the tar that these creatures expel, but make haste to keep it in a viscous state! Scoop it up and immediately return to your kitchen to begin the meal prep. Slower travelers may want to take steps toward maintaining the temperature of the molten material on their journey back home.
After the adventure, ending an evening with a shell filled with hot, delicious, spice is the ultimate reward. Perhaps the only thing better is knowing there are leftovers for tomorrow.