Breath of the Wild – Page 4

Meat and Rice Bowl

June 20, 2017by Teri Mae14 Comments

While the basics for this recipe are fairly straight-forward it had so much potential for embellishment that I’ve been chomping at the bit to make this one. I decided to spice up Link’s recipe by adding a delicious garlic ginger sauce. I’ve never used fish sauce before so when I found this recipe I was really unsure. But with a little tweaking I was able to get something that I really loved. And it made my house smell amazing for days.

Meat and Rice Bowl

This is the regular old meat and rice bowl so I decided to use sirloin, the easiest and, generally speaking, least expensive cut of steak. But just because it’s less expensive and less tricky doesn’t mean it’s any less delicious when done right. Pan-seared is the easiest and also my new favorite way to cook a steak and it lets me use my cast iron a lot more. Let the steak come to room temperature – it sears a lot easier and cooks more evenly that way.

Start the rice while the steak is warming up. It’ll take the longest to cook and you want it to be ready and hot when your steak is done! Definitely only use traditional Asian sticky rice. I only use sticky rice exclusively for everything because it’s legitimately the only rice worth knowing. I use Calrose Botan rice, but you can use any sticky rice in your market. If you choose to use a rice cooker a nice trick to using sticky rice is to wash it several times before you cook it. Rinse it under warm water, drain the water, and repeat until the drained water starts to look a little more clear. Add water to the rice cooker until it comes up to the first knuckle joint of your index finger when your finger is resting on top of the rice… does that make sense? If not, here’s a photo:

While everything else is cooking/getting ready to cook start chopping the other ingredients. Using frozen ginger seriously makes it 1,000% easier to work so just pop the ginger in the freezer about an hour before you want to use it and it’ll be ready to go! Mince the garlic, measure out the sauces, and grate the ginger using a zester (best option) or the small side of a cheese grater (good enough option). Cut the green onions into 3/4-1 inch pieces and make sure the slab of butter is ready and you’re all set!

When the steak isn’t cold use a paper towel to dry the steak as much as you can and then rub it with rock salt and pepper. Drying the steak is a great trick to making it sear much better. Trust me, it’s worth the extra effort.

Add all the ingredients for the sauce to a pot, whisk thoroughly, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to simmer for about 5-7 minutes. At this point you can start cooking the steak if you feel comfortable. Otherwise let the sauce thicken and blend and remove from the heat. We will heat it back up after the steak is done.

While the steak is marinating for a minute in the salt and pepper, heat up the pan until piping hot (this is where the cast iron comes in handy). When it’s ready add a little oil, but really, make sure it’s just enough to barely coat the bottom of the pan! We don’t want our steaks swimming in oil. It’ll ruin the beautiful sear. Add the steak to the pan, laying it down away from you to prevent any oil splashes and painful burns.

After the steak has seared for a minute or two turn the steak to caramelize the fat by placing them fat-side-down in the pan for a minute or two. Then swap to all the other sides, following the same protocol of searing, turning, searing. Finally lay the steak down flat on the last raw side and let it sear for a few minutes. The remainder of cooking the steak is based on several factors: 1) how thick your steak is and 2) how well done you want it. If your steaks are on the thinner side or you want your steak a little more raw you may be ready to spoon on the butter at this point. If your steaks are thick or you like them well-done alternate cooking them on each of their flat sides until they are medium rare to medium. Add the butter and onions all at once and start spooning the melted butter and cooking onions over the steak. When the steaks are medium (or cooked to your preference, I just prefer medium!) remove them from the pan, cover with foil, and let rest for a few minutes. Continue cooking the onions in the butter until they are done and remove them from the heat.

Phew. Take a deep breath, you’ve finished the most nerve-wracking part of the recipe! Take it a little easy for a minute and, while the steaks are resting, quickly re-heat the sauce. When you slice the steak slice it against the grain. It’ll make a smoother, easier, and much more aesthetically pleasing cut! Spoon out the rice into a bowl, add the steak, drizzle on the sauce, and enjoy!

Link’s Meat and Rice Bowl

- Any raw meat or bird drumstick
- Rock salt
- Hylian rice

Meat and Rice Bowl

Servings: 4
Time: 45 minutes
Difficulty: moderate
Print

Sirloin steak with sticky rice and a garlic ginger sauce

Recipe adapted from Garlic-Ginger Flank Steak by Judy Kim on delish.com

Steak

4 Sirloin steaks, warmed to room temperature
2-3 Green onions, sliced into 1 inch pieces
1-2 tablespoons rock or kosher salt
1-2 teaspoons pepper
1 tablespoon oil
1-2 tablespoons butter
2-3 cups sticky rice
Enough hot water to cover the rice

Sauce

1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons grated ginger
3 medium garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoon fish sauce
1 1/2 tablespoon white vinegar

Directions

Start cooking the rice
Dry the steaks with a paper towel and rub with the rock salt and pepper until well coated.
Add all the sauce ingredients to a sauce pan, whisk thoroughly, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer 5-7 minutes until thickened.
Heat the cast iron pan until piping hot. Add the oil and then add the steaks to the pan, laying it down away from you to prevent any oil splashes.
Allow the steak to sear for a minute or two and then turn the steak on it’s side, fat side down. Allow the steak to sear until the fat is caramelized.
Repeat step 5 on all sides until the steak is completely seared.
If the steak needs more time to cooks due to thickness or how you’d like it cooked, continue turning the steak every few minutes until it is nearly done.
When the steak is nearing completion add the butter and green onions to the pan. Spoon the melted butter over the steaks until they are the appropriate temperature.
Remove the steaks from the pan and cover with foil to let them rest.
Continue cooking the onions until wilted and then remove them from the pan.
Slice the steak into strips against the grain and serve over rice. Drizzle the sauce over the steak and rice and enjoy!

Recipe Polls

It’s Poll Day!

June 19, 2017June 19, 2017by Teri MaeLeave a Comment

Last week’s poll got more votes than I anticipated, which felt really amazing! So here’s next week’s poll! I’m in a dessert mood, so let’s make that happen. Happy voting!

Thursday Thoughts

Thursday Thoughts: E3 Edition

June 15, 2017by Teri Mae4 Comments

With E3 slowly winding down and coming to a close I wanted to join the hundreds of people expressing their feelings on the turn out this year. I know quite a few of my fellow gamer-bloggers have been live-blogging E3 this year. I appreciate their stamina and insight, particularly because it allowed me to skip a lot of it due to other conflicts. If you want a really good exploration of a lot of the showcases I highly recommend Adventure Rules. His posts made me laugh and were pretty good at capturing the feel of the presentations.

Bethesda: Let’s start with one I didn’t watch. Thanks to Ian, my little brother, and my brother-in-law I got a pretty good idea of what happened. It made me feel very lucky that I didn’t stay up for it… Nothing was announced that sparked my interest, including Skyrim for Switch, because, frankly, that guy stealing Link’s stuff was just weird to me.

Microsoft: I don’t own an Xbox and I probably won’t ever own an Xbox. But their overwhelming focus on something that’ll be difficult for people to afford utilizing technology hardly anyone can afford painted them into a serious corner. So what if your console has 4K resolution? Are you going to drop $500.00 on a new console only to play it on your TV that’s still 1080P? In order for this truly to work you’ve got to spend the thousands on a new TV, and then buy the console, and then buy only the games that have 4K capability! Am I impressed with the technology they presented? Of course! It’s a huge leap forward. But do I honestly think it’s going to work out for them? I think that’s an obvious no… At least not right now.

Ubisoft: I’m not an Assassin’s Creed fan. I know the stories are pretty interesting, in general, but I think the gameplay is pretty boring. I didn’t even like Black Flag despite the fact that you’re a pirate and pirate’s were in that year. But an ancient Egyptian storyline has so much potential! I think I’ll still feel the same way about the gameplay and, frankly, even with the coolest concepts Ubisoft hasn’t delivered on a storyline I care about. But then there’s Mario + Rabbids. It looked like a mixture of straight-up weird and cool. I couldn’t tell what my feelings were on this one. At first I pushed back, thinking it was something I would never play. But the more I see of it, the more willing I am to give it a chance. It’s a Mario game, after all.

EA: Confession time: I love Star Wars. When I went to my very first Comic Con and saw Dave Prowse I started crying because I was so overwhelmed. He thought that was pretty cool and invited me and my family to dinner with him and Peter Mayhew. Definitely worked out in my favor. So when I see a newer and much, much better Battlefront coming, I get excited. Nothing else really stood out, but Star Wars is always worth it for me.

PlayStation: Every year my brother-in-law throws a PlayStation party where we gamers come together and watch the showcase. This year we even had a game. Each of us wrote down a list of games we thought they’d present and there was a point system and everything. I don’t always play something other than Nintendo, but when I do, I play PlayStation (keep gaming, my friends), so I was pretty interested in what they’d be showing. However, since I don’t play it very often, PlayStation would have to show something incredible to get me excited… But that didn’t happen. I didn’t see anything that blew me away. Even the new Uncharted, a series I actually love, didn’t appeal because I really don’t like Chloe! What surprised me, though, was how little the people around me cared. All the games we had guessed and games we were excited for weren’t discussed and the gameplay didn’t wow. Though I admit, the zombear was pretty awesome. Luckily they closed with Spider-man, which has some serious potential for making the Arkham fanbase happy.

Nintendo: Now for the cream! I don’t know what I was expecting from this but it wasn’t what we got. Other than the weird voice-over for Xenoblade 2 (seriously, what was that?), they blew me away with their animation, titles, color, and excitement. A new Pokemon RPG, a new Metroid, the Breath of the Wild DLC, a new Kirby, an amazing-looking Yoshi, followed up with Super Mario Odyssey. It was like eye candy and happiness had a baby. I’m so excited for nearly every single thing they announced and now I’m anxious for it all to get released! I’m so excited for these games it feels like I’m a kid again.

So who, in my opinion, “won” E3? I think that’s not really a fair question. Everyone has different tastes, opinions, and ideas about what they want from their gaming experience. I am a pretty exclusive Nintendo gamer so Microsoft (obviously) didn’t appeal to me and, while I enjoy PlayStation games and the stories they tell I wasn’t wowed by anything they brought to the table this year. So it’s pretty fair to say Nintendo, with their colors, graphics, lack of mindless intro’s, and announcements of some new heavy hitters was my absolute favorite. But it was last year, too, when the only thing they talked about was Breath of the Wild. I think, based on preferences determined by a quick poll at my laboratory of all the serious gamers there, everyone got pretty excited about something someone was releasing. Which means that, to me, E3 itself was the winner, bringing another year of excellent games to excellent platforms that appeal to a wide audience of gamers.

So what did you guys think? Any games you’re super excited to play?

Recipes

Creamy Heart Soup

June 13, 2017by Teri Mae8 Comments

This recipe was hard.

There were several issues with it right from the get-go. First: voltfruit, hydromelon, and that giant version of a radish don’t exist in the real world. Second: The obvious substitutes, based on what the BotW equivalents look like, were a very strange assortment of flavors. And third: Fruit soup is something I am not a fan of. Ever. So finagling a recipe utilizing fruit and a random vegetable was a major challenge to me.

This recipe morphed from an attempted appetizer to a definite dessert soup. Apparently that’s a real thing – I checked. Frankly, I didn’t go crazy for any of the combinations I tried, but, as mentioned earlier, I was pretty limited by the ingredients and by my prejudice against fruit soup. To me it tasted like a melted smoothie until I finally found the right combination to change it to a pureed fruit salad. Which, to me, is way better. So is it decent enough? Absolutely. Is it something I’ll eat all the time? Nope. Was it worth experimenting? Do you even have to ask? Will you like it? You’ll have to let me know!

Creamy Heart Soup

We had to start with the substitutions. Obviously hydromelon is watermelon. They didn’t even attempt to change the name. I made the gambit through all the milk varieties – milk, half and half, heavy cream – and finally landed on whipped cream. Why? Because fruit soup really needed some cream and the whipped kind tasted best. If you need an easy whipped cream recipe check out my Hylian Wildberry Crepe post. The last is voltfruit. When I picked up my first voltfruit on Eventide Island a dragon fruit immediately came to mind – and the idea just stuck. It looks just like it! So that’s what we went with.

We start with dicing our watermelon into large cubes, dicing our radish into small cubes, and scooping the fruit from the dragon fruit. It was actually incredibly easy. Watermelon is cut into slices, the rind is removed in pieces, and then you can easily cut through the delicious insides. The dragon fruit is cut right down the center and the edible portion is easily removed with a spoon. And the radish is diced like, well, everything else.

Add all the ingredients to your blender in this order. Based on your blender there may be a particular order you should add things in. For my blender it was: dragon fruit, watermelon, radish, sugar, and lemon juice. Blend until smooth, stop and add the whipped cream, and then blend until well-mixed.

Once it’s all ready add the mint leaf and stir it around for 30 seconds to a minute. You don’t need to go crazy – that fresh, minty flavor will be there without any additional mashing or dicing. Remove the mint and chill the soup thoroughly, at least one hour. I promise it will not taste as good warm.

Now for the confession. You know the nicely made fruit balls that look like they float so well in the photo? Yeah… they didn’t float at all. The minute I tried to gently place them in they sank to the bottom like a rock. So it took some serious maneuvering and MacGyver-ing to get the photo to look sort of like the Breath of the Wild photo. Hey, that’s the price of a photo! But what does it mean for you? Well, you won’t be able to present the soup the way I did. Unless you want to serve it to your guests with a few lids and coins in the center to keep the fruit from sinking… So whether you want to include fruit balls or not is totally your call. My recommendation: skip it entirely. This soup doesn’t need any more fruit.

If you do choose to add fruit simply take either a melon baller or, if you don’t have one (like me!) then use a round teaspoon and gently cut a circular shape from a slice of fruit. It’s not that hard – I promise! Garnish however you choose and enjoy slurping your dessert!

Link’s Creamy Heart Soup recipe:

- Any radish
- Hydromelon
- Voltfruit
- Fresh Milk

Creamy Heart Soup

Servings: 4 small, 2 large
Time: 15 minutes plus 1 hour to chill
Difficulty: easy
Print

Creamy Heart Soup with Watermelon and Dragonfruit from Breath of the Wild

Soup

2 1/2 cups watermelon, seeded and diced
1/2 medium dragonfruit
1 tsp radish, diced
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 cup whipped cream
1 mint leaf

Garnish Ingredients

12 small watermelon balls
8 small dragonfruit balls
4 radish slices, cut into hearts

Directions

Dice the watermelon into large chunks
Dice the radish into small pieces
Slice the dragonfruit in half and scoop out the edible fruit
Add all ingredients to a blender in this order: dragonfruit, watermelon, radish, lemon juice, sugar
Blend until smooth
Stop the blender, add the whipped cream, and blend until thoroughly mixed
Pour the soup into a bowl and add the mint leaf. Stir and mix for 30 seconds to 1 minute until the mint flavor is infused in the soup. Remove the leaf.
Chill the soup for at least 1 hour.
Using a melon baller or teaspoon remove fruit balls from watermelon and dragon fruit.
Slice and shape radish into hearts.
Garnish the chilled soup with fruit and radish hearts and serve.

Recipe Polls

Let’s Change Poll Day to Monday

June 12, 2017by Teri Mae1 Comment

So remember how not even a week ago I said we should make Wednesday’s poll days? Well I’ve changed my mind. I think I’m going to need more than 2 days to prep for these recipes. So without further ado, here is the poll for next Tuesday’s recipe!

Thursday Thoughts

The Completionist’s Dilemma

June 8, 2017June 8, 2017by Teri Mae9 Comments

Warning- this post may contain a few minor spoilers for completionists

I’ve always been a completionist when I play Zelda. I complete every side quest, open every chest, get the highest possible tier in every game, collect every item, explore literally every nook and cranny, and, up to this point, cut every blade of grass and pick up every single rock. I love the feeling of mastering a game, of knowing it inside and out, and of feeling like I gave it everything I have. So when I started playing Breath of the Wild there was never any question of whether I would collect all the Korok seeds, explore every area thoroughly, and complete as many missions as they threw at me.

I started with a game plan: I would explore every new tower area completely and 100% before I unlocked the next area. It was the only way to ensure that I didn’t miss anything. I block off the new area before I activate the tower and then I start exploring. Literally every single square foot is explored before I move on to the next tower. I slowly move my boundary inward until I have seen all the amazing, incredible landscape and admired every lovingly-rendered scene. If I see anything suspicious that I haven’t figured out yet, I stamp it and come back to it once I’ve had time to figure it out.

It’s been a fantastic way to see everything. I have definitely gotten hours of excitement and enjoyment from this game I would have missed if I had focused on the story alone. It’s nice to be the one my little brother questions when he can’t find a shrine and it’s fun to feel like I gave the developers the exploration they were intending.

But sometimes it’s a struggle. When I climb yet another craggy peak at Death Mountain it can get boring and tedious. When I run across yet another empty field, zig-zagging until the entire thing has been viewed I wonder what I’m doing with my life. And when I accidentally notice how many hours I’ve played and I’ve barely finished half the map I worry about my life choices. Sometimes I worry that, by choosing to play the game this way, I’m losing all the spontaneity and pure excitement that comes from random exploration. And, frankly, sometimes I worry that people are judging me for not spending my time the way they think I should.

So there’s the dilemma… What I am doing vs. what I feel I should be doing vs. what other people do. It’s been hard. Sometimes I don’t want to keep playing because Hyrule field took forever to explore and there was literally nothing there. And sometimes I get bored climbing and climbing and waiting in the rain to do yet more climbing just to get to the top of spires that don’t contain a single item. But when I find something all the spark and energy come flowing back. It’s rewarding to find a Korok seed in some random area I never would have explored. It’s awesome to be obsessed with killing every Lynel only to find out there’s a medal for doing so. It’s breathtaking to find a view you never would have seen unless you were in the right place at the right time.

And you know what – it doesn’t matter what people think and how other people play the game. This is your game and your experience. Don’t let anyone take that away from you! They can keep their judgy comments to themselves because this brings you joy and life is about having joy. However you choose to play the game, just do it! Because Zelda is about adventure and someone else’s adventure should never take away your adventure.

So has it been worthwhile to become a 100% completionist for Breath of the Wild. You bet. I wouldn’t change this experience for the anything.

So how about the rest of you? Are there any completionists out there pushing for 100% like me? Have you been working a different strategy to make sure you get every piece of awesome you can?

Recipe Polls

Wednesday’s Are Now Poll Days

June 7, 2017by Teri MaeLeave a Comment

Let’s be honest with each other. After I posted my first recipe I had no idea which one to tackle next. I knew crepes were first and that was it. The next recipe was the result of a conversation that went like this:

“Here is a list of 8 ideas I could make next, [insert husbands name here]. Which should I do?”

“Ummmm… the Mushroom Risotto looks good. Do that one”

“Okay. But that’s the hardest on this arbitrarily determined list… I guess we can work with that”

But my very good friend Ishto (his reddit handle. Is that what it’s called? A handle?) posted my last recipe to reddit and I GOT A REQUEST!! It made me very, very happy. But it also made me decide that hey, why don’t you, the *cross my fingers* loyal readers get a say in what I make next? So Wednesday’s are now poll days. I’ll list 4 new recipe options that I feel like making for the next post, it’ll be open for 1 day, and you get to decide what I make. I’ll make the poll available on twitter as well as here on this blog. The winner will be the next recipe on Tuesday! Sound good? I think so.

However, this week’s option has already been decided by Arealtossup. He commented on reddit that he would love to see Creamy Heart Soup. So I’m going to make it for him… somehow… (I know I also got a request from bobpuller but sorry, bobpuller, monster cake is definitely going to be a Halloween special!). But I still thought, hey, we should do a poll to start us off. So feel free to take it and lets find out which letter of the alphabet (or number, if you’re one those people who think multiple choice questions are numeric) people like the most. I’m sure we can tell a lot about your personality by your letter choice…

Recipes

Mushroom Risotto

June 6, 2017June 13, 2017by Teri MaeLeave a Comment

I tried making risotto once. It did not turn out. So why did I decide to tackle something that was this intimidating this early on? Come on, guys. It’s obvious. I’m a gamer and gamer’s do not give up and do not take the easy road when it comes to conquering a difficult challenge. How many of you have come across a puzzle that was difficult and said to yourself “Nah. It’s too hard. I’ll just pretend like this side quest doesn’t exist and that’ll be just fine”? The answer is none of you. Guys, we are the ones who stick with it to the end. The completionists. The puzzle-solving-it’s-2-AM-because-once-more-will-do-the-trick kind of people. And that’s why I attempted this terrifying food so early on. Why not chalk up the win from the get-go? And with this recipe I found it was definitely worth it.

Mushroom Risotto

A few pointers before we begin:

Risotto should never be made in a regular pan. A heavy-bottom pot or enameled cast-iron pan are really the best. They keep a hot temperature that isn’t easily changed by adding liquids.
I cannot say this strongly enough: once you start stirring your rice you can. not. stop. If you stop the rice will burn to the bottom, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!
You must use Italian rice. It has a special type of starch that allows the rice to stick together, unlike any other kind of rice. The best (according to one author) are: Arborio, Vialone Nano, and Carnaroli. I use Arborio, myself
Musrooms are versatile but you definitely want some with flavor. I used portobellini’s for this recipe but other options could be portabella’s, porcini, or shiitakes.

Now that the rules are over with, we start with the prep work. Once you start cooking your Risotto you can’t, and I do mean that (see warning above), stop stirring it. So keep everything nice and handy and ready to throw in the pot. Start with getting your diluted vegetable broth simmering. It needs to stay at a slow simmer the entire time you make your risotto. Then fine dice onion, large dice mushrooms and get them soaking, grate Parmesan cheese, cut 2 tablespoons butter and separate into 1 tablespoon pats, measure out your vegetable oil, and ready your salt and pepper.

Heat up your nice, heavy pan and add the oil and butter. Cook the onion until it’s nice and tender and get ready for the fun/exciting/scary/hot part: the rice.

Add all the rice, stir it around until every grain is coated in the butter mixture, and start adding your broth 1/2 cup at a time. I found that using a ladle was perfect for this. It was easy to keep in my left hand while my right stirred like crazy to keep the risotto from sticking. I made sure my set up was broth on the left, risotto on the right. But feel free to switch it up! We don’t discriminate against lefty’s here.

Stir and scrape the bottom of the pan until all the liquid has been absorbed and then add a second ladleful of broth. Keep stirring and keep repeating until it’s been 10 minutes. At this point, when you would add more broth, instead add the mushrooms and soak water. When that liquid is evaporated and absorbed add more broth. Continue until the rice is tender but still has a bite. Some like it crunchy in the center. Mine was definitely not crunchy but you don’t want it soft. It’ll go mushy if your rice isn’t still al dente.

Add Parmesan cheese because it’s delicious, correct for salt and pepper, and enjoy while it’s hot!

Link’s Mushroom Risotto recipe:

- Hylian Rice
- Goat Butter
- Rock Salt
- Any Mushroom

Mushroom Risotto

Servings: 4
Time: 45 minutes, 18-25 minutes to cook
Difficulty: moderate
Print

Mushroom Risotto with Parmesan cheese from Breath of the Wild

Adapted from Essentials of Italina Cooking by Marcella Hazan

ingredients

5 total cups diluted vegetable broth, 2.5 cups broth + 2.5 cups water
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons onion, diced very fine
2 cups Arborio rice (or other Italian rice-see note above)
3 ounces Portabellini mushrooms (or other mushrooms-see note above), diced, soaking in 1/2 cup water
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Bring broth to a very slow, steady simmer on a burner near where you’ll be cooking the risotto.
Heat your heavy-bottom pan on medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon of butter and the vegetable oil.
When the butter is melted add the onion and cook until it becomes translucent.
Add all the rice and stir quickly and thoroughly until the grains are well coated.
Add 1/2 cup of simmering broth and cook the rice, stirring constantly with a long wooden spoon or spatula until the liquid is gone. Make sure you wipe all the sides and bottom of the pan clean as you stir. You must never stop stirring and you must wipe the pot completely clean frequently or the rice will stick.
When there is no more liquid in the pot, add another 1/2 cup of broth and stir as described in step 5. Continue to add broth and stir in this manner.
When the rice has cooked for 10 minutes, add the mushrooms and water. Continue to stir until there is no more liquid.
Finish cooking the rice with broth, or, if you have no more broth, with water. Cook the rice until it is tender, but firm to the bite, with no more liquid remaining in the pot. This will take anywhere from 18-25 minutes total.
Off heat, add a few grindings of pepper, the remaining tablespoon of butter, and all the Parmesan cheese. Stir thoroughly until the cheese melts and clings to the rice. Taste and correct for salt. Transfer to a platter and serve promptly with additional grated cheese on the table.

Thursday Thoughts

A strong, female playable character in Legend of Zelda

June 1, 2017June 1, 2017by Teri Mae3 Comments

I wish more video games had strong female leads. Having said that, I’m definitely not one of those people who needs a strong female to take over every male role. In the immortal words of George R R Martin “To me being a feminist is about treating men and women the same” (Salter, The Telegraph, 2013). There should be, and needs to be, a balance. There are games that should be about male characters, and that’s okay! And there are games that should be about female characters, and that’s also okay!

What I don’t like is the trend of taking a male character, turning them into a female character, and calling it “good enough”. We don’t need yet another female who reminds us more of our brother than ourselves. What we need is a character who is a woman who was meant to be a woman. With that in mind, I don’t need Link to be a girl. I need Link to continue to be a boy (because he so obviously is) and I need a game from Zelda’s point of view.

Zelda is already the strong, intelligent, awesome female character we need in the Legend of Zelda series. She is brave, always fighting alongside Link, like she does as Sheik or Tetra. She is fleshed out, created as a person with thoughts, opinions, and struggles, as is so poignantly brought home in the memories of Link in Breath of the Wild. And, more importantly, she’s been there from the beginning. This is not some character Nintendo would create out of nothing to prove to the public that they, too, care about women. This would be a way for them to show that, from the beginning, they have cared about women. It would be a way to prove that, just because their main hero in this series is male, it doesn’t mean they had a completely chauvinistic point of view. I mean, these are the people who created Zelda’s Adventure, one of the few older games I have played from a female’s perspective!

And not only is Zelda already created, expanded, and real to the story, but she already has an amazing super power – the triforce of wisdom. How easy would it be to make more difficult, challenging puzzles focusing on the idea that Zelda has to use her triforce of wisdom to defeat them? Instead of the regularly-encountered boss, why not bosses with a big twist, requiring some serious forethought and skills to defeat them?

Don’t you guys agree that the absolute best remastered version of Ocarina of Time would be to include the original mode from Link’s point of view and a newly released mode from Zelda aka Sheik’s point of view? It’s not like she sat around doing nothing for 7 years while Link was sealed away! So what awesome shenanigans did she save Hyrule from? Or to have a new Skyward Sword utilizing her very particular role at the temples, with new maps, puzzles, and her own set of bosses?

So, in my opinion, we don’t need a new female, playable character in the Zelda series. We don’t even (in fact, please don’t!) need to make Link into a girl. Nintendo just needs to jump on the idea they’ve already started and use the amazing character they already have. Let’s make a new Legend of Zelda about Zelda.

So what do you guys think? Don’t be afraid to weigh in! I’d love to hear your opinions.

Recipes

Wildberry Crepes

May 30, 2017May 30, 2017by Teri Mae8 Comments

What seems like an eternity ago my husband and I went to Paris. This was easily one of the best experiences of my life and I brought back a serious love for french pastries. I set out determined to master every single one I had eaten. The easiest to master was the crepe. My high school french teacher taught me how to make his secret recipe, weaseled out of the corner crepe stand proprietor while he was living in France. I already had a lot of experience making them before my trip but I was able to perfect it after watching the way the locals made them. So when I accidentally made a crepe in Breath of the Wild I was so excited! Link could make crepes! It felt so cool to make something in the game that I love making in real life. This made the decision of which recipe to create first simple. It had to be the crepes that had brought me so much joy.

Hylian Wildberry Crepes:

The equipment for this recipe is pretty straight forward: a bowl for the batter, a whisk, measuring materials, a piping bag if you’re feeling fancy, and a frying pan or crepe pan. I make crepes so often it was worth every penny to buy a really amazing crepe pan. I use Le Creuset. I love their cast iron quality and the spatula and rateau (spreading) tools are perfect.

Crepes start with some forethought because they are best if there’s very little air in the batter. They make a smoother surface with no pockets or holes for the delicious insides to ooze out of. Eggs, milk, flour, and butter are whisked together until there are no lumps. This may take a minute or so. The flour can get really finicky when added to the egg mixture.

In order to get rid of all that pesky air a piece of plastic wrap is pressed down onto the surface of the batter, the bowl is given a few gentle shakes, and the entire thing is put in the refrigerator to rest for at least an hour. Since I usually make crepes for breakfast I make the batter the night before, that way they are fresh and ready for the morning.

Gently cutting in any butter that may have come out of solution is key! You didn’t let it sit for an hour just to ruin it now! Pans should be heated on medium low and butter should be added to the entire surface. Don’t skimp out on me now, we are making crepes not a salad! Add the first half cup of batter, spreading it by tilting a frying pan or using the rateau with a crepe pan. First crepes are a sacrifice to the Goddess: it’s meant to be made made and then promptly thrown away. If your sacrifice has been accepted you won’t need to butter your pan again.

Every crepe is an adventure. The amount of batter you add and your attention to spreading will produce different sizes and different shapes. The challenge is to get each one perfect. It’s definitely a super gut check challenge. Easier with pratice, the right elixers, and the right gear.

Only the best berries should be used, which usually means purchasing in-season. These wildberry crepes feature strawberries, the current berry-of-the-month. My favorite, however, are raspberries! Use whatever feels right. Wildberry is vague, allowing for some fantastic judgement calls. To make them a little syrupy dip the cut side of the berry into sugar and allow it to sit for a few minutes.

You can pipe or dollop the whipped cream. Honestly, after the pretty photo shoot was over, my husband and I stood over the crepe pan spooning on the cream and berries faster than I could make them.

Link’s Wildberry Crepe recipe:

- Fresh Milk
- Bird Egg
- Tabantha Wheat
- Cane Sugar
- Wildberry

Hylian Wildberry Crepes

Servings: 6-8 crepes
Time: 45 minutes
Difficulty: easy
Print

Crepes with berries and whipped cream from Breath of the Wild

Crepes

3 eggs
1 cup milk, any percentage will do
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour, sifted
3-4 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling

24-32 small strawberries, 3-4 per crepe
1 cup whipping creme or heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar plus a few pinches for dusting berries

Directions

Whisk together eggs and milk until smooth. Slowly add sifted flour and salt and whisk until combined. Add butter and continue whisking until the batter is smooth with no flour lumps.
Gently press a piece of plastic wrap down into the bowl to rest on top of the batter and cover it entirely. Refrigerate and allow to rest for at least one hour.
While the batter is refrigerating prepare the berries and whipped cream.
Cut strawberries in half and lightly cover the cut side in sugar. Allow to sit at room temperature for a few minutes to produce a little syrupy goodness.
Whipping cream can be made three ways: a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, a blender, or a bowl and hand mixer with a whisk attachment. For any of these options add the whipping cream to the blender or bowl and whisk on high. Slowly add the sugar and continue whisking until stiff peaks form and the cream becomes shiny.
When the batter is ready gently peel back the plastic wrap. It is perfectly normal for some batter to stick to the wrap. In fact, if it doesn’t, you may not have pressed the plastic down enough. Some butter may have separated at this point. Using a knife or spoon gently cut and turn the batter until uniform.
Heat pan on medium low until hot. Add butter to cover the surface of the pan. Add 1/2 cup batter to the pan and twist or spread using a rateau until the batter covers the bottom of the pan. Allow to sit for about 1 minute until the bottom sets up. Flip the crepe and cook about 1 minute more until lightly browned. Throw this first crepe away. It usually has too much butter to taste really good.
Continue adding 1/2 – 2/3 cup batter at a time to the pan without re-greasing the pan and follow step 7 for cooking instructions.
Remove from pan and immediately pipe or spoon on whipped cream and strawberries. Crepes are best enjoyed hot but are still delicious cold. They do not store well so make and enjoy all your crepes that day!