It is kind of late, but a happy new year! Since I must work the past three weekends to complete our year-end, I took time off writing blogs. Our year-end has not been completed yet since we still have the field audit and the submission of the consolidated reports. Although, we met the most significant part of the year-end preparation work. So, I restarted our blog for the year.
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I decided to do a cooking project with my husband for the first project. We got a cookbook, The Elder Scrolls – the official cookbook, as a Christmas gift from our father. The exciting part of the book was all the recipes are from Skyrim, Morrowind, and across Tamriel, the video games, the elder’s scroll. It has been almost a decade since my husband or I played the game last time, but we still have fond memories of the game.
Both my husband and I liked to play role-playing video games. I used to play final fantasy, Dragon quest, the elder scrolls, Baldur’s gate, etc. I enjoy any games that involve crafting. The inventory system of the games became much better as the technologies evolved, and the crafting system in the games became more complex. We now have crafting games with survival components, such as Minecraft or Ark.
It can be time-consuming; however, I enjoy cooking in video games. In the back of my mind, I desire to achieve self-sufficiency or independence, which state I will never attain without sacrificing many activities I enjoy doing. I can experience that state in virtual worlds without sacrificing too much. It can be time-consuming; however, I enjoy cooking in a video game. In some games, you must gather ingredients from fishing, hunting, or farming.
I could quickly lose myself in-game worlds in some adventure games, such as the elder scrolls. I will be the game’s main protagonist, engage in various dangerous adventures and missions, and create my own stories. A role-playing game like the elder scroll attracts bookworms like me, seeking out worlds where I could become consumed.
In the developed countries I’ve lived in (Japan, Canada, Germany, and the United States), humans have advanced our lifestyle to states where we obtain most things from stores. Unless we engage in activities that risk our lives, we can live safely in secure environments. After all, we achieved these states in the last century or so. Instinctively, we still need to do something to survive despite what we do for a living. I often seek video games that can satisfy some of my hidden desires.
When I saw this book, the book gave me the idea that we can experience the game world with my husband. Of course, we will not hunt or farm for the ingredients, but it will be a fun activity we can do together.
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For the first project, we made “Potage Le Maginfique”. According to the book, this is a Breton dish. The reason I picked this dish was simple; I love eating soup. For the first attempt, we used the exact ingredients from the book.
Ingredients
¼ cup unsalted butter
½ cup diced onion
1 or 2 garlic minced
1 cup diced and peeled medium carrots
½ cup all-purpose flour
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups beef broth
Salt and Pepper
- Melt the butter in the saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic.
- Sprinkle the flour into the pan and stir to be sure there are no clumps
- Add chicken and beef stock
- Cook until the carrots are soft
- Puree with an immersion blender
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I am not good at using an immersion blender for the volume of the soup, and I used a regular blender because I feel traditional blenders make the soup meet my preferred consistency.
We thought it was odd that the recipe did not call for Potatoes. I was worried that the soup would not be thick enough, only with carrots. We were wrong. The flour thickened the soup as if there were potatoes in the soup. We ate the soup with some small pieces of toast. The soup was delicious, and both my husband and I enjoyed the soup.
The difficulties level of the recipe is low for this soup. It took me approximately 30 minutes to cook the soup, and I used an Instant pot and used high pressure for 10 minutes. I used a blender to puree the soup to make the soup consistent throughout the batch.
Alternation
I consider alterations to this original recipe by using different ingredients such as pumpkin, butternut squash, and potatoes.
I will add cloves or nutmeg if I use pumpkin or butter squash. I may add parsley and chives if I use potatoes.
Nutrition information – Carrot
My mother encouraged me to eat carrots when I was a child because of their abundant beta-carotene. According to Joachim and Schloss (2008), a carrot contains more beta-carotene than any other vegetable, and it includes 28,100 International units in every 100g. Beta-carotene is important because our body converts beta-carotene into vitamin A. There is more beta-carotene in the carrot skins, and I usually leave the carrot skins on; however, the carrots need to be skinned for this soup. You will get more beta carotene from cooked carrots than raw carrots because cooking helps free the nutrients from the carrot’s cells (pp. 101-102).
Conclusion
We picked one of the most accessible receipts from the book for this project, and I found that soup has a slight sweetness from carrots. Because the recipe calls for flour, you can control soup thickness. I think you can use different ingredients such as pumpkins, butter squash, and potatoes, although you may want to use the other spices.
It is neat that someone put effort into reproducing a recipe book from a game. I could not devote as much time playing intense adventure or crafting games during the past few years, and I felt a little uneasy. This project brought me back to my past gaming experiences. Since both my husband and I enjoy playing games, the project was a neat activity we could do together. The cookbook will be an excellent book for anyone who wants to cook and play the elder scrolls.
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References
Joachim, J. and Schloss, A., 2008. The Science of Good Food. Robett Ross Inc.
Monroe-Cassel, C. 2019. The Elder Scrolls. PP 102-103. Insight Editions.