MARISHA: I think so, I couldn't understand what he said.
LAURA: He was looking for us, but I'm more concerned about what's in here.
MARISHA: Oh. It appears to be quite the sight, so be careful. But yeah, we need light.
TALIESIN: Oh, light would be a good idea.
LAURA: Get the (crackling) as my Dancing Lights come into effect, but they flicker like electricity.
MATT: Giving that flickering energy throughout the room. You all, by the way, that strange mildew smell that you caught outside of the house, now that you've let the adrenaline begin to run free, you begin to take in your other senses. With that, the very strong, pungent smell of-- It's like decaying vegetation meets old fungus. It is this weird organic smell that's musty and unnatural. As the lights begin to flicker around, too, you can see there's an odd oily residue on everything. You can see an overturned table with long benches that are on the ground. You can see an open door to the backside that leads into another chamber. You can see in the kitchen area, Laudna, where you are, there are shelves where some things have fallen off to the side and it looks like part of a meal has been scattered to the ground. But everything has this faint shimmering, oily residue on it that shines as the energy balls glide around the room to give light to it.
Campaign 3 Episode 5, "The Threat Between the Walls," Month Day, Year
Thanks to critrole.fandom.com for the transcript from the episode shown above.
Vegetation Meets Fungus
Everything's Covered in Goop
I had a harder time with the inspiration for this week, and when I told my partner that I think I would take inspiration from Dugger's house he... was less than enthusiastic about what I could make. But I had a plan!
I only recently have perfected my stir fry (I've maybe only been making them for a year or so, and I am sad it took me so long), and if you've never made one, this recipe is a truly fantastic place to start. It will get you lots of staples into your pantry for you to experiment with, and, honestly, a stir fry is hard to mess up. (Rice is harder to cook than a stir fry, in my opinion.) I realize that the stir fry sauce is brown, which is not the color that they said the sticky stuff was... but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make in this case.
I have a lot to say about this recipe, and a lot of it is flexible, so I hope you'll stick with me! Also, I forgot the mushrooms, which is ridiculous considering the name of the recipe, I know, I'm sorry and, to make matters worse, it would have been so much better with mushrooms. My pictures here show chicken because my partner likes chicken in his Chinese food. Pretend the chicken is mushrooms.
Disclaimers about this recipe: When I say Chinese food here, I'm referring to "American Chinese Food." For most Americans, the most well-known Chinese food chain might be Panda Express, I personally have very little knowledge of actual Chinese Food, but I did learn a lot about sauces!
On we go!
Ingredients
- Stir Fry Contents
- 1 Head of Broccoli
- 2 Carrots
- 1 Zucchini
- 1 cup of Snowpeas, still in the pod
- 1 lb Mushrooms
- 1/2 Green Bell Pepper (optional)
- 1/2 Onion (optional)
- Sauce and Aromatics
- 3 Tbsp Soy Sauce
- 2 Tbsp Honey
- 2 Tbsp Oyster Sauce
- 1 tsp Sesame Oil
- 1/2 tsp Sriracha (or Chilli Garlic Sauce)
- 3 green onions, whites only (save the greens for garnish)
- 1 Tbsp ginger root, grated
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 Tbsp Corn starch (separate)
- 1 Tbsp water (separate)
- Sesame Seeds (optional to garnish)
I'll say more about the ingredients later, but the Bell Pepper and Onion here are truly optional. I only added them in because I had them on hand from something I had made earlier in the day, so don't feel like they are truly necessary. And if you're someone who likes to cook by the recipe (like me), I actually suggest leaving them out.
Directions
- Wash and dry your produce and chop everything. I mean everything. Make the broccoli bite-size, and cut off the extra stem. Cut the ends off of the zucchini, cut them in half lengthwise, and slice them into half-moons. Trim and peel the carrots and cut them on an angle so you don't have circles, but oval slices of carrot. Slice the mushrooms. Aim to make things bite-sized or around 1/2 inch thick. For the aromatics, mince the garlic, peel and grate the ginger, and slice the green onions, separating the whites from the greens. Chop any other vegetables and ingredients now as well. (If you're including a meet, prep that now too by cutting it into bite-sized pieces.)
- Mix your sauce. Combine soy sauce, honey, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and Sriracha in a bowl. Stir well and set aside. (If adding a meat to the stir fry, cook that now. Salt and pepper the meat, heat a drizzle of oil in a pan, and cook and stir until cooked through. Once cooked, remove from pan, and set aside)
- Add a drizzle of oil, about 1-2 Tbsp (I usually use Olive Oil but if you have an oil of choice, go for it) in a pan on Medium-High Heat. Note: Once things start cooking it goes fast, so that's why we do a lot of the prep work ahead of time.
- Put whites from the green onions, ginger, and garlic into the pan and cook for about 30 seconds or until fragrant, stirring consistently.
- Add veggies to the pan and cook for about 5-8 minutes or until veggies begin to brown, again stirring consistently. While the vegetables cook, mix the water and corn starch in a separate small bowl, then add that mixture to the rest of the stir fry sauce and stir to combine.
- Once the vegetables are cooked add the stir fry sauce (and if you are adding meat to your dish, add that in as well at this time). Cook with stir fry sauce for about 1-2 minutes until everything is well mixed and incorporated, heated through, and covered in "goop!"
- Finish by topping it with sesame seeds and greens from green onions and serve with rice or noodles.
Tips, Suggestions, and Substitutions
Tips & Suggestions
- Do as much prep work ahead of time as you can because once you start cooking it goes fast. I would even suggest chopping everything the day before if you can. The chopping is definitely the bulk of the time on this recipe. You can also buy stir fry vegetable mixes in most supermarkets.
- We are a very not spicy household, so the 1/2 tsp of the chili garlic sauce/Sriracha is plenty for us. But if you like spicier foods, you can add more, or if you don't like spice at all, you can take it out completely.
Substitutions
- I want to specify here that this is what I used for my stir fry. I'm not kidding when I say that nearly any vegetable will work in a stir fry. If you don't like broccoli, try green beans. Not into carrots, how about some yellow squash? If corn is your favorite vegetable, get some of those tiny corn cobs that come in Chinese food! I also suggest that if you've got some leftover veggies in the fridge and don't know what to do with them or need to use them up quickly before they aren't good anymore, a stir fry is a great solution.
- If you're going to incorporate a meat I suggest using whole chunks of meat rather than ground anything. Maybe chicken breasts or tenders, or flank steak. Tofu can work as well, but I'm less experienced in the best ways to cook tofu, so I likely won't be your best resource for that, but the internet is an amazing place.
- This is a really great "starter" recipe, but there are lots of great stir fry sauces in the world (Pinterest and Google are great resources here honestly), so I hope you branch out and try some different flavors and combinations!
In Conclusion...
It's not as sticky as I would like it to be, but some of the ingredients, specifically the honey and oyster sauce, are the sort of consistency I wanted, and are sticky! And the corn starch does thicken up the sauce and helps it stick to the ingredients. This is our favorite stir fry sauce in this house and the recipe is almost totally original. I learned a lot about stir fry sauces and, after trying a few recipes, I found what flavors I liked, and where they came from and was able to concoct this one. I personally loved how this recipe turned out. I just wish I had chopped everything up earlier because chopping is not my forte, and that sucked up my time. But it's so yummy, and, once the chopping is done so fast and easy. Can't recommend it enough!
Do you have a favorite stir fry sauce in your house? If you try this one, do you have any suggestions to improve it or changes that you made that you like? And, as always, if you have any questions or suggestions, or just wanna say hi, please leave them in the comments below! You can also follow me on Pinterest or Twitter, if you enjoy those websites. Thanks for visiting, and don't forget to love each other. Is it Thursday, yet?
I promise, this will look, smell, and taste way better than Mr. Play-Doh Fun Factory's house.
Vegetation Meets Fungus
Ingredients
Instructions
- Wash and dry all produce and chop it into bite-sized pieces. Cut the zucchini into half moons, cut the carrots diagonally to create ovals, slice the mushrooms, trim the broccoli. Mince the garlic, peel and grate the ginger, slice the green onions, separating the whites from the greens.
- Mix soy sauce, honey, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and Sriracha in a bowl, still well and set aside.
- Add a drizzle of oil to a pan on medium-high heat. Once oil is hot, cook aromatics until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Add Vegetables and cook for about 5-8 minutes until veggies are mostly cooked through. While vegetables cook, in a small bowl mix corn starch and water together first, then add to the rest of the stir fry sauce
- Once vegetables are cooked pour the now completed stir fry sauce into the pan with the vegetables. Cook 1-2 minutes until everything is coated and incorporated.
- Garnish your stir fry with sesame seeds and onion greens (optional). Serve with rice or noddles.
Notes:
For full description and suggestions and tips, see the original recipe.
These are approximations. based on a 5-pound roast.
I chose not to include nutrition facts with this recipe since it can change so much every time based on your ingredients, vegetables, and the quantities you use.
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