Meal of the Day: Lordaeron Surprise!

EDIT – Updated with Gnomish measurements as well as Goblin. Sorry, I learned with Goblin.

So this one is a little later than I wanted it to be? Why? Because yesterday was Hallow’s End. Oh my Light, I’ve never experienced a Hallow’s End before — well. I mean. I kinda had? But it was mostly running in fear from the people acting weird and suddenly there’s a fucking Horseman??

I could go on and on about Hallow’s End — and maybe I will! But for now, my apologies for the lateness. Apparently they weren’t joking when they said if you ate too much candy you’d get sick.

But what I actually wanted to talk about was this. I call it Lordaeron Surprise.

A little background I guess… At the Keg, one of my first real friends there was Vali, a totally normal human woman from the Northern region of the Eastern Kingdoms. There is absolutely nothing strange about her and she is just a totally normal Human woman with a totally normal pulse and respiratory system and all her skin.

She was also my first victim with Ice Soup. I still maintain that Ice Soup is delicious, nutritious and refreshing, but she has gone over the bar at me more than once with less than friendly intentions. I’ve been informed that is an ancient way of displaying displeasure. Duly noted.

So, being a totally normal Human, there were some certain things that she really enjoyed consuming. With certain meats that were uh… I was never really informed what they originally were, but I did find out that when the bounties are for heads, they don’t really keep the heads. Therefore certain… ingredients… were easier to find than you would think.

As long as you had a strong stomach.

But after tinkering with the recipe and bringing home some good ol’ Lordaeranian pumpkins, people started asking me to make it for them. Since…. they aren’t ya know… Uh. From the region… I had to improvise.

That is how the modern version of Lordaeron Special came to be.

Full disclosure: I have recently been asked to make a more friendly step by step version with visuals. And I had made this originally back before… ya know… Before Tirisfal got extra blighty. So some of these pictures had to be improvised after the fact… Sorry.

First, assemble your ingredients. For two small pumpkins you can use one pound of meat, one pound of Tirisfal mushrooms, half an onion about two cups of mixed veggies, and mashed potatos.

As always, don’t be afraid to mix it up. This is one that’s really hard to screw up. I screwed it up but no one even noticed! Trust me, it’s okay to screw up, it’s how you learn.

There’s a little bit of prep for the pumpkins, so let’s do those first. Get your oven on medium-high heat (400F/200C) and wash your pumpkins. Get all that residual blight and bat crap off of the rinds.

Next, we want to get the tops off and gut them…

This took a bit of effort to start, but once you’re in the tops come off pretty easily. Then you scoop out all the pulpy bits. This smells amazing. Save the seeds, you can bake them for an easy, tasty snack.

Now- Fry up your meat. I use mutton or beef, cuz… ya know… Stormwind and cows are everywhere, but you could use anything. Once the meat was about halfway browned, I threw in the sliced mushrooms, half of a diced onion, and some spices. Garlic, onion and thyme was what I used. Once the  meat is browned and the onions are well sweated, drain the juice off (I give mine to Oshu) and divide the meat between the pumpkins.

Next, sweat the vegetables and get them warmed up. Here’s my secret for this part — I like to use a little bit of beef broth and some flour and make a gravy with the veggies. I used about one pack of mage-frozen mixed veggies for two pumpkins.

Layer this in also. The last step before cooking is to add the mashed potatos. I… actually am not super good at mashed potatos, but Colin always has them prepped by the time I come in anyhow, so I just get some from the Potato Vat. You can either cut some up, boil them soft and mash them yourself — or use any shortcuts available to your disposal. I hear that there’s a Goblin product kinda like Mook’n’Cheez that makes instant foods. Not sure though.

You can either glop the potatos on top for a rustic look, or do what I did and get all fancy and shit. I put them into a piping bag we use for desserts and covered the top.

Put the pumpkins in the oven and bake until the outside turns a bit darker and is soft. This step is kinda optional, but let me tell you, the freshness of the pumpkin being baked into the meat is just phenomenal. Plus then you can eat almost the whole thing!

The top gets a gorgeous crust that is to die for.

As they say in Tirisfal — Bone Apple Teeth!!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb (1/2 kilo) meat (I used beef)
• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• Mushrooms (optional, I just fucking love mushrooms)
• ~2 cups (350g or one pack frozen) mixed veggies
• Enough mashed potatos to cover the top (about 3 cups or 750ml, depends on your pumkpin )
• Spices (I used garlic, thyme, salt and pepper)
• Optional – Beef broth and about 1 Tbs (15 ml) flour for discount gravy

Instructions:

1. Prepare your oven! Set it to about 400F/200C
2. Prepare your pumpkins! Wash the outside, cut the top off and gut it. This part smells so damn good
3. Make sure you have mashed potatoes of some shape or form. Access the Potato Vat
4. Brown your meats halfway
5. Once halfway browned, add in the mushrooms and onions
6. When meat is browned and onions are translucent, divide into the pumpkins
7. Add veggies to the pan, along with about 1/4 cup broth and the flour
8. Cook the veggies until warmed through but not overcooked. The gravy should be thickened by this point. You want them to still have a little cronch.
9. Divide the veggies between both pumpkins
10. Splorp potato onto the pumpkins until both are evenly covered. I am a man of class and science.
11. Bake until the tops have a nice crust and the outer rind is soft
12. Enjoy!