In A Kitchen Far, Far Away (Episode II)

When we last left our courageous culinary crusaders (ie: my wife and I) in Episode I, we had tried a bunch of the recipes in the official Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge cookbook. Some came out really well, while others were less successful.

There are plenty more recipes in the book, though, and in this episode we continue our journey through weird alien foodstuffs.

Any food is better when it’s Star Wars-themed food

Moogan Tea

Since I didn’t make any drinks in Episode I, let’s start out with one now.

Moogan Tea is a mix of unsweetened iced tea, chocolate milk, a syrup made from a variety of spices, and then topped with falernum-flavored whipped cream. If that sounds like an affront against nature, believe me when I say that we thought the same thing when we first read the recipe. We were intrigued, though, and it definitely sounded like something you’d find in a Star Wars cantina.

So we brewed up some iced tea, bought some chocolate milk, got a small amount of falernum from a friend who happened to have some on hand, and we put it all together.

Surprisingly… this wasn’t bad. In fact, it was quite tasty. The iced tea and chocolate milk actually complement each other way better than I had suspected, and the spice syrup (that recipe is also found in the book) added a nice flavor to the mix. I’d say that the only part I didn’t like was the falernum whipped cream, as I discovered that I don’t actually like the taste of falernum that much. However, when the whipped cream was mixed into the drink it helped. It also gave the drink a nice creamy texture, so if I were to make this again I could see topping it with plain whipped cream just to blend it all together.

We really expected this to be terrible, but it was surprisingly good. My notes on it start with “not an abomination”, which is really all you can ask for in a recipe like this.

Christophsian Sugar

You may notice, in the pic of the Moogan Tee above this, that there’s some crystals on top. Those are Christophsian Sugar crystals, a sweet and crunchy sugar concoction that the cookbook has as a topping for a few of the recipes.

It’s not unlike making caramel, really, in that at the core it’s boiling sugar and water. It also has added orange extract. Once it’s cooked, you spread it out in a thin layer on a sheet to cool and then you can shatter it and put in on all sorts of things.

Here’s the thing about this recipe, at least as far as the book lays it out: it doesn’t really work as they describe it. In fact, it took us multiple tries and we had to deviate quite a bit from the way it’s explained in the cookbook to finally get it right.

The biggest issue is that the way they have you boil everything leads to blackened, burnt sugar that’s inedible. It’s on the heat too long, and if you’ve ever made caramel or worked with any sort of cooked sugar you know that it can go from “perfectly done” to “Anakin Skywalker after getting torched by lava on Mustafar” in the blink of an eye. The recipe has you going well past that point, and as a result we ended up with a pot of black, burned goo.

When I went to clean out the pot, and cool water touched the blackened sugar mess, it created a new form of matter. It’s not food, exactly, but it does look like something you’d find in Star Wars…

Our second attempt, again following the book’s directions, didn’t fare any better. We ended up posting about it on Facebook and got a few good suggestions from friends, so we opted to give it one more try.

Finally we took it off the heat much earlier, spread it out onto parchment on a baking sheet, and let it cool. This time it worked much better, and became a crunchy and sweet sugary topping as it was intended to be.

I’ll also admit that we popped more than a few of the larger pieces into our mouths and just ate them straight. Can’t go wrong with crunchy, orange flavored sugar chunks.

This is what the sugar is *supposed* to look like, though in fact it might be just slightly too light. It took a few tries to get it to this point, however, so we’ll call it a win.

Mon Cala Sardine Fritters

My first thought, upon reading this recipe, was that I didn’t want to make it because I don’t like sardines. Then I realized that I had never actually had sardines, so I don’t know if I like them or not. I do know, however, that I like deep fried things (I’ve lived in Florida and in Minnesota, two places that will fry just about anything). So, we gave this one a try.

Chop up sardines. Add in seaweed, sesame seeds, and some seasonings. Mix that all up with an egg and panko breadcrumbs. Roll this concoction into balls, and then drop them into hot oil.

The result is a crunchy, fish-flavored ball that’s actually quite tasty. Obviously, your feeling on it depends entirely on how much you like fish, as the sardine flavor is pretty strong, but I enjoyed them. We also made up some of Emulsauce (see the Pikobi Deviled Eggs from Episode I for more about that) to dip these into, and that was a really nice addition.

So it turns out that I don’t hate sardines, at least not when they’re mixed with other things and deep fried. Then again, that can probably be said for a lot of things.

I’m sure that these were one of Admiral Ackbar’s favorites. Every time he’d see them he’d get excited, yell “IT’S A SNACK” and then dig in.

Mandalorian Spicy Stew

Chicken, apple, some seasonings, and pearl couscous make up this hearty stew. There’s also onion, garlic, and purple potatoes (to give it some otherworldly color) mixed in. I’m honestly not usually a big fan of fruit mixed in with savory dishes, so I was a bit leery on this one with the apples and all (I know that chicken and apple is a thing, it’s just not really my thing).

The stew was pretty easy to make, as like most stews it’s basically “soften onion, brown meat, then mix everything together and cook”. We went a bit light on the spice (it calls for two tablespoons of curry powder) as my wife is a self-described wimp when it comes to heat, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly as printed in the book.

This ended up being really good! Definitely something to make again. The apples mixed well with the other flavors, and it was just tasty and warm and hearty. With the chicken, potatoes, and couscous it’s also very filling.

We made this for my birthday dinner, because what better way to celebrate than with a traditional Mandalorian dish? After all… this is the way.

Braised Shaak Roast

We don’t have any herds of shaak around here, as they’re native to Naboo, but fortunately the recipe says to use pot roast (which is much easier to get). It also says to use garlic, pasta, pearl onions, mushrooms, carrots, and breadcrumbs. Plus kale, but we both think that’s gross so we left it out.

This recipe takes a long time to make. The initial cooking of the beef is two hours, according to the book, but we found that it took considerably more time. Like, over an hour more. When we went to shred the meat initially after the two hours, it was still pretty much a raw hunk of beef with a browned outside. So we kept adding on more time, checking it occasionally, and then adding on more time until it was actually cooked through. Once you get past that point, the rest of the dish comes together fairly quickly, though: cook the pasta, cook the pearl onions and mushrooms, then put it all together. Sprinkle shredded rainbow carrots on top for color, and breadcrumbs for crunchiness.

I do like that some of these recipes call for odd colored veggies, like purple potatoes or the rainbow carrots. They’re not products that I’d normally buy, so it’s fun to mix things up a bit.

So was all that waiting worth it? Well… no. Not really. The meat ended up really bland. The thing is, when initially cooking the meat you’re just using soy sauce and water. So the flavor is coming from the meat itself as it simmers for hours in the liquid, as well as the veggies you’re tossing in later, but there’s just not much else in there to really make it pop. Maybe subbing beef broth for the water would help, or using yellow onions (as pearls are fairly bland), or putting in some seasonings as the only thing the recipe calls for is some minced garlic. Something to help add flavor, because as it is there just isn’t much.

Of course, by that point you’ve got a whole new recipe. Which may not be a bad thing, as the one in the book wasn’t much to write home (to Naboo) about.

Gormaanda’s Glowblue Noodles

For the most part, this is a very similar to a pasta alfredo dish. Except that you’re using rice noodles rather than fettucine. Also, you’re dying them blue with teabags. That’s a bit different.

As you’re boiling the noodles, you add in a couple of blue butterfly pea tea bags. These don’t really change the flavor of the noodles at all, but it does give them a weird blue color. The sauce is basically parmesan and cream with some garlic and butter, and then it’s topped with mozzarella pearls and cherry tomatoes. The recipe recommends parmesan crisps as a garnish, which is a great idea because then you have parmesan crisps.

Of everything we’ve made from the cookbook so far, this is one of the more otherworldy looking, mostly due to the blue noodles.

The sauce was the winner of this dish. It was gooey and cheesy, and really tasty. The blue rice noodles themselves really didn’t add much to the dish, but I could definitely see making the sauce again and putting it over pasta. The rice noodles only really added the novelty of being blue, so I could see a decent quality fettucine (with or without odd coloration) being a good vehicle for this cheese sauce.

Plus, of course, those parmesan crisps were super easy to make so we’d probably do those again as well (either for this dish or just to have them to snack on).

Whether it be weird drinks or oddly-colored noodles, the official Black Spire Outpost cookbook continues to offer some fun and often very tasty recipes inspired by a galaxy far, far away. Like in Episode One, some of these I think we’ll definitely make again while others were interesting experiments that were neat to try once.

Since this is a Star Wars-themed post, and there are still more recipes to make from the book, expect an Episode Three to be coming soon!