Tag Archives: diablo

blackheart’s doubloons [butternut squash ravioli]

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Yaarrr, matey! Are ye after some edible treasures? Well, you’re just in luck because THAR BE TREASURE ON YOUR PLATE. Hahaha!

So you might have been wondering what has happened to little ol’ me for the past few months… I basically needed a hiatus. But don’t worry, I’m back with new tools (including a brand spankin’ new cutting board YES) and new recipes! This time, I’m writing a recipe about a newish, but unreleased game: Heroes of the Storm.

I was fortune enough to gain access to the Technical Alpha, so I messed around trying out various heroes. Considering my history with Blizzard games, it should be no surprise that Valla is typically my hero of choice. I even scored her master skin before the wipe! Vengeance! 

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Towards the end of the Technical Alpha, I attempted to level up Nova so that I could flaunt the fancy new master skin… Unfortunately, I fell a little short of that goal! But, playing those games on Blackheart’s Bay inspired me to create my latest dish…

BLACKHEART’S DOUBLOONS!

If you’ve seen this map played, you’ll know that there are two treasure chests which spawn doubloons. These chests, especially the midlane chest, are always points of contention between the teams.

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I have seen games won solely because one team completely controlled the the chests throughout the match.

When you collect enough doubloons from raiding chests or killing mercenaries, you can pay good ol’ Blackheart to bombard your opponent’s base.

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However, my favorite part about this entire map is how goofy the coins are compared to the actual characters in the game. Have you seen the size of those things? They’re ridiculous!

I wanted to recreate these massive coins into something more edible and savory, which is why I chose the pasta route… I even picked up a pasta machine just for this recipe! Yep, we’re going all in on this one!

UNIT COMPOSITION

blog_butternutsquashraviolo_ingredients

  1. salt
  2. pepper
  3. 1 tablespoon of thyme
  4. 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  5. 3 sprigs of fresh sage
  6. 3 tablespoons of butter
  7. 2 shallots, diced
  8. 4 cloves of garlic, diced
  9. 1/2 cup of grated asiago cheese
  10. 1/2 cup of cream
  11. 1/2 cup of oyster mushrooms, diced
  12. 3 eggs
  13. 3 cups of flour
  14. 1 cup of water
  15. 1 butternut squash, cut into halves (mine was about ~2lbs)
  16. OPTIONAL: parsley

As I mentioned earlier, I purchased a pasta making machine. You can get by without it by just using a rolling pin, but it will take longer to get the pasta rolled out evenly.

BUILD ORDER

Total prep time for this dish is about 1 hour. Cook time is 1.5 hours. This recipe will make roughly 6-8 servings (each serving is about 3 ravioli). You may end up with left over stuffing!

OPENING GAME

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 375° F.
  2. Remove the seeds* and guts from the squash.
  3. Sprinkle the two butternut squash halves with salt and thyme.
  4. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil over the halves.
  5. Roast the butternut squash for 50 minutes or until soft. Allow the butternut squash to cool for about 15 minutes.blog_butternutsquashravioli_squash
  6. While the butternut squash is roasting, prepare the pasta sheets and the rest of the filling.

*once washed and dried, the seeds can be roasted at 375 for ~10minutes with olive oil and finished with sea salt!

MID GAME

The next few parts are extremely messy, so be prepared to clean your kitchen. :) You will want to have extra flour on hand in order to prevent the dough from sticking to your working area.

  1. Pour your flour into a mound on a clean surface.
  2. Using a measuring cup, create a impression on the top of the mound. This will the bowl for mixing the eggs.
  3. Crack your 3 eggs and place them in the impression:blog_butternutsquashravioli_dough
  4. Using a fork, mix the eggs. Once the eggs have been mixed, add in the water and begin slowly incorporating the flour into the liquid to create the dough. As I mentioned earlier, this process is incredibly messy!blog_butternutsquashravioli_mixing
  5. Once the dough begins to take its shape, use your hands to fold the dough in on itself. You may want to occasionally dust your surface with additional flour in order to keep the dough from sticking.blog_butternutsquashravioli_dough2
  6. Cover the dough with a towel or cling wrap and allow it to rest for about 30 minutes.

LATE GAME

  1. Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a small pan.
  2. Sautee your mushrooms, shallots and garlic. Remove once the vegetables have become caramelized. Set aside.
  3. Once your butternut squash has cooled, scoop the meat out with spoon and place it into a bowl.blog_butternutsquashravioli_mix
  4. Mash the butternut squash until smooth. Add in your sauted vegetables, half of the cheese, and the cream. Stir until combined thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  5. To prepare your pasta sheets, break your dough into four sections. Using a rolling pin (dusted with flour), roll your dough sections into sheets small enough to fit through your pasta machine. Dust your pasta machine with flour.
  6. You will want your pasta rolled out on the 2nd thinest setting on the machine. Roll out your pasta onto a floured surface.
  7. Once your pasta has rolled out, cut out circles (I used a 3″ cookie cutter, but you could also use a pint glass) in the dough. Place a tablespoon of filling onto the circle cut outs.blog_butternutsquashravioli_process
  8. Cut out another circle and place it on top of filled piece and seal each ravioli shut by pressing down on the dough. At this point, you may want to nudge the filling to help reinforce the doubloon shape.
  9. Using left over dough, cut out skull shapes to place on the ravioli. Once cut out, gently dampen each skull with water and adhere them to the ravioli. (I only made a few of the skulls because they’re a lot of work!)blog_butternutsquashravioli_uncookeed
  10. Set a pot of water to boil and season the water with salt. Once the water boils, drop the ravioli in one at a time. The ravioli should take about 2 minutes to cook. Remove them immediately.
  11. In a small pan, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Add in your sprig of sage. While the butter is cooking, remove the milk solids (the white foamy stuff) by skimming the top of the surface with a spoon. This will create clarified butter.
  12. Plate your ravioli doubloons and drizzle the sage butter sauce over them. Garnish with grated cheese, pepper, and fresh parsley.

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GG WP, hero!

However, if you don’t want to serve your mateys doubloons, the ravioli looks fine without the skulls. :)

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Since Heroes of the Storm is offline for a few days, you now have a chance to recreate these tasty treasures in your own kitchen. Hopefully I’ll see you in the Nexus once Heroes is back online!

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Happy cooking!

prime evil rib [prime rib with cherry port wine sauce]

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blog_primeevilribIn honor of Diablo III’s birthday, I decided that I wanted to create a very special dish for the Lord of Terror. We all know Diablo as the “Prime Evil”, but do you know what else is prime? PRIME RIB, OF COURSE!

So, I invited the Prime Evil himself to join us for a pre-birthday dinner:

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You’re so much cuter in person!

For this prime rib, I decided to try something different with the sauce, so I opted for a sweeter sauce that uses port wine as a base. Aww yissss. If you want a more traditional sauce, I recommend going for the tried-and-true aus jus sauce.

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Cooking a standing rib roast sounds like it might be a Torment IV-level culinary challenge, but it’s actually pretty simple. It just takes some patience, some prep work, and some good technology!

UNIT COMPOSITION

For the prime rib:

  1. salt
  2. pepper
  3. 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  4. 4lb standing rib roast, bones cut away and tied (your butcher can do this for you)
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MEAT GOOD!

For the sides:

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  1. salt
  2. 3 tablespoons of butter
  3. 1 cup of milk
  4. 1 head of garlic
  5. 1/2 cup of asiago cheese or shredded parmesan
  6. 1 1/2 lbs of red potatoes, cleaned and chopped into quarters
  7. 1/2 lb of asparagus

For the sauce:

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  1. 1/2 cup of port wine
  2. 1 cup of cherry preserves

Note: I highly recommend using a probe thermometer for this recipe! I have this one.

The reason is that prime rib roasts come in all shapes and sizes, which means that cooking times will vary based off the size and the temperature consistency of your oven. By using a probe thermometer, you will be able to know when your roast reaches the correct temperature (and desired done-ness):

Level of Doneness Temperature
Rare 120 – 125°F
Medium Rare 130 – 135°F
Medium 140 – 145°F
Medium Well 150 – 155°F
Well Done 160°F+

via What’s Cooking America

BUILD ORDER

Allow the rib roast to come up to room temperature for about 3-4 hours prior to cooking. Prep time for this dish will take about 1 hour. Total cook time for the roast can range from 1hr – 2hrs. Cook time for the sides is about 40 minutes. This dish will make about 3-4 servings.

If you would like to roast a larger rib roast, it’ll roughly be about 1 rib for 2 people (1 rib is roughly 2lbs). A rough estimate for total cooking time is roughly about 15 – 18 minutes per pound, HOWEVER, use a meat thermometer as your guide for when you should remove the roast from the oven. Once the roast has hit it’s target temperature (view the “Level of Doneness” chart above), you should take it out of the oven.

I recommend purchasing your rib roast ahead of time so you can dry-age it in your refrigerator (set your temp to about 40°F). Dry-aging the meat will get rid of excess moisture and will intensify the flavor of the meat — basically your meat will be more meaty.

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The Butcher recommends that you dry-age your meat when you can!

To dry-age your rib roast, place your rib roast on a cooling rack in a baking dish. Wrap your rib roast in paper towels (or cheese cloth) and place your rib roast in the fridge. Change the towels every 24 hours.

You can dry-age your rib roast for a week in your fridge (you may need to trim away the uber-dry parts of the rib roast). I kind of waited until the last minute to pick up my rib roast, so mine only had about 3 days of dry-aging.

OPENING

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 500°F. 
  2. Season your rib roast with salt and pepper. Rub your olive oil into the rib roast.
  3. Place the probe of your thermometer in the thickest part the meat (not touching the bone).blog_primeevilrib_oven
  4. Once your oven has come up to temperature, place your rib roast in the oven. Allow it cook for about 5 minutes at this temperature, and then immediately drop the temperature to 325°F. The high heat is used to build a crust on the roast. 
  5. Place a head of garlic wrapped in foil in your oven (you can place this directly on the rack). The garlic will be used for your mashed potatoes.
  6. Allow the roast to cook until it reaches its desired level of doneness/target temperature (program your thermometer to beep at the desired temperature). While the rib roast is cooking, prepare your sides.

MID GAME

  1. Set a pot of water to boil. While the water is still cold, add in your chopped red potatoes. Season the water with salt.
  2. Allow the potatoes to boil for about 10 minutes, or until soft. Strain the potatoes and add the potatoes back to the pot.
  3. Add in your cheese, milk, and butter.
  4. Remove your garlic from the oven and peel away the skin — be careful, because it will still be hot!blog_primeevilrib_garlic
  5. Add in 3-5 roasted garlic cloves into your potatoes and mash to combine. Keep warm until the roast is ready to be served.
  6. Prepare your asparagus and gently steam them over hot water for about 6 minutes.

LATE GAME

  1. Once the roast has reached the target temperature, remove it from the oven and place it on a separate plate. Allow the roast to rest for about 10 – 15 minutes. The roast will continue cooking while it’s resting.
  2. Strain the excess oil from the roasting pan and add the drippings into a sauce pan (if you didn’t use foil in your roasting pan, you can cook your sauce directly in the roasting pan over your stove).
  3. Heat your sauce pan on medium heat and add in your port wine.
  4. Add in your cherry preserves and stir until combined. Allow the sauce to reduce.blog_primeevilrib_done
  5. Once the roast has finished resting, move it to a cutting board. Carefully cut the rib bones away from the roast (if you had your butcher pre-cut the bone away and tie it, this part will be super easy).
  6. Slice your roast into 1/2 inch pieces. Plate with your sides and serve with your cherry port wine sauce.
  7. Eat!

Once plated, you should have something that looks sort of like this:

blog_primeevilrib_plated2GG WP, Nephalem!

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And here’s the prime rib drenched in the diabolical sauce. MEAT GOOD!

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And of course, here’s a shot of Diablo enjoying his own special meal! HOW TASTES YOUR ROAST, NEPHALEM?

If you’re looking for a dessert to celebrate Diablo III’s birthday, check out what I made last year: Heart of Sin Cakes!

Happy Birthday, Diablo III!