Tag Archives: gaming

fire spirit salmon [spicy salmon en papillote]

Posted on by
3

blog_firespiritsalmon_titleHey adventurer! Are you hungry after your long journeys through Azeroth? Well, I’ve cooked up a dish for you that’s straight from the wonderful nation of Pandaria.

This special recipe was created by the amazing Sha of Happiness. She has picked some of the most delicious dishes in all of Azeroth and re-created them in her kitchen.

I’m sure you’re hungry, so let’s get started on this very simple, but very delicious dish!

Recipe adapted from Fire Spirit Salmon by Sha of Happiness. 

UNIT COMPOSITION

blog_firespiritsalmon_ingredients

  1. salt
  2. pepper
  3. 2 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
  4. 1 teaspoons of olive oil (or butter if you prefer)
  5. ~ 1 tablespoon of sliced ginger
  6. 1 tablespoon of miso paste
  7. 1 1/2 tablespoon of sesame seed oil
  8. 1 tablespoon of red chili paste
  9. 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
  10. 1/2 white onion, diced
  11. 2 4oz cuts of salmon
  12. OPTIONAL: 3 – 5 sprigs of green onion (scallion)

BUILD ORDER

Prep time for this dish is roughly 15 minutes. Total cook time is about 10 minutes. This will make 2 servings.

I’ve made a slight deviation from Sha’s original recipe. In her recipe, she suggests cooking the salmon via pan or roasting it in the oven. I’ll be roasting it in the oven, but I made a minor change — I’m cooking it en papillote!

So, I’m sure you’re asking… What is en papillote? The term “en papillote” is French for “in parchment”. Basically, the method is you take some sort of food, wrap it into a little package and then cook it. Since the food is wrapped up in its own little container, it will basically be steamed by its own juices (or what ever liquid you’ve put in the pouch).

There are many regional variants on this type of cooking. Zongzi, which is a Chinese dish comprised of sticky rice and various fillings, uses this technique but with leaves. Zongzi is also insanely delicious, so if you ever have a chance to get one, I recommend it!

OPENING

  1. Set a pan on high-heat.
  2. Add in your olive oil.
  3. Sautee your garlic and onions.
  4. Remove from heat and set aside.

MID GAME

  1. In a bowl, combine your soy sauce, sesame sauce, and red chili paste.blog_firespiritsalon_mix
  2. Add in your sliced ginger. When the salmon has finished cooking, you will want to remove these slices before plating.
  3. Set aside and prepare your salmon!

LATE GAME

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 375° (~190° C). 
  2. Place your sauteed onions and garlic on one side of the parchment paper.blog_firespiritsalmon_cooking1
  3. Place your salmon on top of the onions and garlic.
  4. Season your salmon with salt and pepper.
  5. Pour the sauce over the salmon. (Optional: Place a few sprigs of green onion on top of the salmon)blog_firespiritsalmon_cooking2
  6. Fold the parchment paper over the salmon, making sure to leave air inside the package. Roll the sides of the parchment paper up, so that the package is sealed.blog_firespiritsalmon_cooking3
  7. Place in the oven and roast for about 7 minutes. Remove from the oven when done. Be careful when opening the package!blog_firespiritsalmon_cooking4
  8. EAT!

GG WP!

blog_firespiritsalmon_done

A big thank you goes out to Sha for creating this amazing and healthy recipe! 😀 Salmon is good AND good for you. <3

hearthscones [pear scones with blueberry preserves]

Posted on by
2

blog_hearthscones_title

About a month ago, I got into the Hearthstone beta and subsequently spent all the moneys on desperately trying to get amazing cards. At the time, I was building a rogue deck, and anything non-rogue was immediately disenchanted. NEVER GONNA PLAY A WARLOCK ANYWAY I GUESS.

blog_hearthstone_rogue

This is our town, scrub.

Eventually, I collected and crafted enough cards to build my rogue deck and jumped into ranked play. However, climbing the ladder to Masters 3 was increasingly difficult!

I started messing around with a combo spell deck that relied heavily on setting up your spell damage minions and using headcrack/eviscerate. However, the meta shifted and people on the ladder expected this, so they would kill my minions ASAP… Especially my ringleader. This was clearly not our town, scrub.

Since it was all about control, I decided to try a rogue control deck. All them weapons! It worked for a while, but I got stuck in Masters 2. Then, I tried the Miracle Rogue deck. When it worked, damn, it worked… But most of the time, I would basically die before I got a chance to set up anything.

So, I did some research and crosschecked my decklist with the winning decklists from the ManaGrind tournament. I decided to go with a deck that had a lot of draw power and value minions, such as the Argent Commander. Well, it worked and I broke into Masters 3. Yippie! Plus, I got to keep my Defias Ringleaders. Yeah, beat it.

After getting comfortable with the card attributes and some strategies, I decided to take a stab at Arena. I got my butt kicked so much. Losing definitely sucks, especially when you basically throw the game because you played the cards in the wrong order or because you miscalculated how much damage you could’ve done that turn. I’ve definitely lost a lot of games because I miscalculated the amount of mana I had. Yes, I can totally use 2 of these 6 mana cost cards this turn. Wait a minute…Crap.

People are frighteningly good in arena, too. So when you make mistakes, it hurts a lot!
The people who play arena know which cards to draft, which cards synergize, and when to use those cards. It’s like they KNOW when I have a flamestrike in my hand so they don’t play extra minions before my turn 7. But, what they don’t know is that I have 3 more flamestrikes in my hand. MY MAGIC WILL TEAR YOU APART. 

blog_hearthscones_arena

I wish I saw this more often…

The interesting thing about arena is that you also get a chance to test your skills with other classes. I don’t have enough cards to complete decks for all nine classes, but, it’s nice to take a break from rogue and mess around in arena with a mage or a druid.

blog_hearthscones_classes

Plus, you might even get lucky and draft a fancy legendary like Ragnaros or Sylvanas Windrunner!

Because of my new-found crippling addiction to love of all that is Hearthstone, I’ve decided to immortalize it into baked goods. And thus, Hearthscones were created!

blog_hearthscones_doneSo, pull up a chair by the hearth, and let’s start baking!

WELL MET!

UNIT COMPOSITION

blog_hearthscones_ingredients

  1. 1 pinch of salt
  2. 2 teaspoons of baking powder
  3. 4 tablespoons of butter, cut into small pieces
  4. 1 ¾ cup of flour*
  5. ¾ cup of sugar
  6. ½ cup of whole milk
  7. 1 bartlett pear, chopped
  8. ½ cup of blueberry preserves
  9. 1 egg (this is for an egg wash)

*if the dough comes out too mushy during mixing, you may need to gently fold in additional flour just to fix the consistency. I recommend adding them in 1/4 cup intervals.

BUILD ORDER

Total prep time is roughly 30 minutes. Cook time is about 16 minutes. This will make 6 scones.

OPENING

  1. Combine flour, baking powder, salt in a large bowl.
  2. Add in your butter. Squish the butter between your fingers in the flour. Keep doing this until the flour has somewhat of a bread-crumb like consistency.blog_hearthscones_flour
  3. Add in your sugar and gently combine with the dough.
  4. Slowly pour in your milk and making cutting motions through the dough with a spoon to combine. You do not want to over mix the dough at this point.
  5. Add in your chopped pear. Gently fold the dough until the pears have all combined.

MID GAME

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 375° F.
  2. Put the dough on a clean, floured surface. You’ll want to use a rolling pin in order to get the dough to the same size (~1.5 inches). Cut the dough into circles using a cookie cutter.blog_hearthscones_dough
  3. Place the dough circles on a baking dish lined with parchment paper.
  4. Create the Hearthstone squiggle using foil. Imprint the Hearthstone squiggle into the dough.blog_hearthscones_imprint

LATE GAME

  1. Scramble your egg and gently brush the egg over each dough circle. This will help the scones brown.
  2. Gently spoon blueberry preserves into each squiggle imprint.blog_hearthscones_cooking
  3. Bake the scones for about 16 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.
  4. Eat!

Puffy scones!

blog_hearthscones_done2
HMM, WELL PLAYED. 

And that’s GG! Now take your scones, scarf them down and go 9-1 in the arena.

Before BlizzCon, I actually sent a few batches of Hearthscones to Blizzard HQ!

blog_hearthscones_vaeflareI was incredibly worried that they would arrive in crumbles, but thankfully, they seemed to have made it in one piece! :) Vaeflare was kind enough to take care of the scones and distribute them to the teams.

Hopefully I’ve inspired you to bake your own delicious Hearthscones!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I hear the Arena calling my name. I WILL BE YOUR DEATH.