Years back, the Consortium tried to make Southsun a lovely travel destination, and theoretically speaking it would make an amazing place to relax, maybe be served a drink or two, forget about metagenomics and their impact on the flavour of sauces for a while (is it the sauce or the taster that's off?).
Fighting the karka, because some bookah had to go and disturb what's best left alone, led to the discovery of some wonderful ingredients! Passion fruit in particular was a big one, and it got me thinking... Let's toss a salad, destress a bit, and maybe roast some karka too!
Bowl of Salad a la Consortium (oh what a fitting name)
Before we even get into the salad, let's get back to basics. We need a Bottle of Tropical Dressing, so...
Bottle of Tropical Dressing
- Pile of Salt and Pepper- Vegetable Oil (plus a bit of EVOO to taste) or other neutral oil
- Vinegar 1:1 with the oil, roughly (I used white wine vinegar, white vinegar works too, passion fruit vinegar is when you want to make the pinnacle of dressings)
- Sprig of Dill, about one sprig will do, scale up as needed
- Ginger Root (extract the juice or skip to powdered), maybe 5% by volume of juice, 2.5, somwhere in that range
- 3-6 Passionfruit, juiced
I didn't think to grab a picture of the open Passion Fruit, but the natural geometry inside is beautiful!
Cut fruit in half, use knife or spoon to separate seeds from pith, throw seeds and pulp surrounding them into your A551-ST Mk2 to process to a juice. Filter out seeds, pour into dressing bottle.
Add herbs and spices, oil, and vinegar, close bottle, and hand off to your 5HK-IT golem to mix to full emulsion.
...and with that out of the way...
Actually a Bowl of Salad a la Consortium
- Bottle of Tropical Dressing to taste- a Nornian handful of Spinach Leaf
- Head of Lettuce
- Walnu.. Almonds (Walnuts, I had Almonds on hand)
Have your A551-ST Mk2 clean itself out, then use it to grind your nuts. It should look like this, and once it does, set it aside.
Cut your Head of Lettuce into mouth sized manageable chunks. I like to use a technique my Elonian mentor taught me, take a chef's knife, cut the heart out of the lettuce by making a triangular pyramid cut (no, this is not a pun, my chef mentor was actually Elonian, and this was the cut he taught me when I was learning in the Mediza district), then just pull the triangle pyramid of a heart out, square base works too, but you lose more lettuce that way, its wasteful, so don't. Quarter the head, then simply slice into strips.
Toss your lettuce and spinach together, distribute roughly evenly, sprinkle Almo... Walnuts on top, dress, and serve!
Oh, I added tomatoes because I had one that was going to turn, and the last thing you want is an undead Branded tomato (seriously, did the thought even cross your mind?). If you stick to a recipe, sure, you get the essence, but you miss out on discovery, and discovery is the best way to learn!
Bowl of Swee.. err.. Butternut Squash Soup (for 2... or 12 really)
- Cream Soup Base (Roux with buttermilk added, keep thin enough to be a cream soup base)- Butternut Squash (the size and quantity determine the quantity of every other ingredient, so its hard to be specific with them)
- Stick of Butter (totally unnecessary if you used a butter based roux)
- Cayenne Pepper
- Ghost Pepper (a little goes an.. burning BURNing BURNING!)
- Apple (one is sufficient for a smaller squash)
- Pile of Pumpkin Pie Spice
As you can see, I am not certified to make any Bowls of Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash Soup, but I'm not going to let rules stop me from experimenting!
First off, prep your oven to 450 proper units (that's 175C for most people, and 350F for a select few humans).
Get a baking pan or cookie sheet, cut your squash in half down the length, gut it of its seeds with a standard spoon, place flat side down on tray, bake till you can put a toothpick into the neck without effort.
Get your A551-ST Mk2 ready, because you're going to spoon the squash from its skin into it, process, and move to a soup pot. Heat over medium heat, then reduce to light simmer.
In a sauce pan, make your roux. Once that is done, add Buttermilk, Cayenne Peppers, (not certified to say this, because certification requires you to get lucky when talking to Pact Suppliers or spend everything you have) but Ghost Peppers (I use Melinda's Naga Sauce, look it up on the Black Lion Trading Post search page), processed Apples, and Pile of Pumpkin Pie Spice.
Once that is all nicely mixed, pour into soup pot and mix in. Serve.
I would have a sponsor, but after Canach and the Karka Incident, I'm not accepting gold from the Consortium. Although, if I accepted that gold, I could have gotten certified for the soup...
The Pact Suppliers do seem to have some issues with their recipes. I had to bug them for months to get something other than recipes for turnip soup or really questionable chili.
ReplyDeleteI must ask, as you clearly have the expertise to answer such a question - Have you found any difference in quality between produce grown through regular methods and those from synthesizers? I've often wondered.
Like truffles and peppers in Orr are different than those in other parts of Tyria, they too will be different coming from synthesizers.
DeleteIt depends on the ingredient though, its extremely different with truffles and peppers, resulting in basically different species!
On the other hand, you're less likely to notice the difference between a strawberry from Kryta and one from Ascalon. If where they are grown doesn't change their listing on the Black Lion Trading Post, they're interchangeable and you probably won't notice the difference.
A lot of people will argue with me on this, but I care a lot about where my oranges come from. Its a Skritt tunnel...