Tentacle and Kelpie Stew, Prepared With Undine

Welcome back, Dungeon Meshi Manics.  How has your May treated you?  Things are getting very Springy on my end.  And you know what comes with Spring?  New cuisines to try out!  Seriously, Spring is the season of food.  Don't bother looking that up, I write a food based manga fan blog so I know.  With that in mind I have a treat for you this week, DMMs!  We are cooking not one, not two but THREE monsters.  "You mush addled, Slime. That's beyond the realm of belief!" I can hear you write on a notepad, tear the paper off and consume it.  Kekeke (I'm a Kekeke laugh Slime), my good DMMs.  You'll have plenty of time to apologize after you try some Tentacle and Keplie Stew, Prepared With Undine!

Stews are the best.  Just throw everything you have into some water and cook until soft.  Easy peasy!  And usually very nutritious.  But how do we get to the end result for this monster filled stew?  We've already met two of the ingredients.  Tentacle are another word for Plantain and while I chickened out on using actual horse for Kelpie we can just use beef.  So that leaves the last monster, the Undine.

See that little water bubble, DMMS?  That's our Undine.  In the "real" history nailing down an Undine can be tricky.  It all starts back in the 15th century when alchemy was the reigning science.  The first time they show up anywhere are in the writings of  Paracelsus, the Father of Toxicology! Undine was the element associated with water.  Paracelsus felt of all the elementals the Undine were closests to the mortal realm. So running into a woman made of water and marrying her was totally possible!  Over time the Undine became more of a sprite that controlled water.  In the dungeon it's something far less sexy.  Just a water ball that shoots water lasers.  But why does the gang want to eat...or drink...plain water?  Seems like there are literally meatier options. What's the one thing a mage cannot be without, DMMs?  Yes, a wand.  Okay, a spell book.  Right, a holier than thou attitude and erudite manner. What I'm looking for is Mana!

Marcille has been popping shots left and right since the start of this adventure and is tapped out.  Since the party started their adventure with no supplies whatsoever she has no potions to get that mana back.  Huge problem when all you can do is look cute and caste spells.  Seeing that's she's in a real pinch and the Undine is pure mana there's only one logical solution.

I have to admit, we've eaten some weird things on this trip. But drinking a water spirit?  That seems so unhygienic.  Fishmen and mermaids swim in that water!  How can you even drink an Undine?  It killed that dwarf in the last chapter so they seem pretty strong.  Long story short, they trap the thing between two shields and boil it until dead!

So we have a dead Undine and Marcille sets to drinking but there's another problem.

Mage's have the most expensive pee in the universe.  Just like every runner has learned the hard way, you can only get so much nutrients from liquid.  At the end of the day your body gains more from solid foods!  Since you as as smart as you are handsome, I'm sure you know where this is going, DMMs!

We've got magic water, we've got Kelpie meat (regular cow meat) and we've got Tentacles (Plantains).  That's an impressive lineup, DMMs!  What can we do with them?  Searching around I found a couple of recipes for a Tanzanian dish called Ndizi Nyama.  It uses everything we already have and adds some extras for a fuller stew.  Checking various recipes I decided to keep mine simple since it's the first time I've tried this.  Let's look at the lineup! 

How's that for a stew?  Plantains, meat, tomatoes, garlic, ginger, and onions!  Beautiful.  If you'll notice the plantains are not ripe.  You actually want them to be green this time, DMMs.  You're going to be boiling them and need that starch.  Trust me, you're going to like how they turn out.  Before we get there, we have to start with the meats.  I went with top sirloin because it was on super sale.  But any strip should work.  You just need to cube it.

Simple enough.  And even simpler is plopping the meat, three cloves of diced garlic, a little bit of ginger, and salt to taste into a cup and a half of boiling water!

You don't want a hard boil, DMMs.  Have it just around medium low heat.  Cover this and have it go in the background for 15ish minutes while you chop the other fruits and veggies.  Chop two or three tomatoes and dice up half an onion.  Add them both to the pot when the meat has boiled for ten minutes.

Okay, settle down. I know it looks delicious already but now is time for the plantains!  You'll notice that unripe plantains have ALL the starch.  Peeling can be a little challenging but you can do it what with your opposable thumbs and all!  We are going to turn these into spears.  Begin by chopping the plantain in half.

From there chop these halves lengthwise.  Two magically become four!

Time to get fancy!  Angle the knife and chop these quarters a little thin.

Looking good!  Do this for both of the plantains.  Once the 15 minutes of stewing is up you'll add these to the pot.  It's also a good time to add any spices that you want.  I threw in some tumeric and yellow curry powder.  The stew was reminding me of a curry so I thought it would be a good fit!

Now time for the long simmer, DMMs.  These have to simmer at medium low heat for 20 minutes so put that lid back on and think about how great everything is going to taste.  Or pull up a chair and play on your phone.  Either works!  But at the ten minute mark you're going to throw in that can of coconut milk.  I added some paprika at that time too!

Stew is so much fun.  Chop and boil.  That's all you have to do!  Once that twenty minutes is over you have yourself some Ndizi Nyama...I hope.  I've never had it before so I can't say how this stands up.  But I served this over rice and look at how good it turned out!

The plantains were amazing, DMMs!  Everything about them felt so much like a potato but chewier.  So much fun to eat!  I bet they would make a great potato substitute in instant Japanese style curry.  I can't wait to try that someday.  Give this one a try and you'll certainly get that mana back!

That's it for this week, DMMs!  We are finally out of Kelpie and tentacles!  But come back next week and we may talk a little more about mana and Undines.  I'm not sure how it'll go but I'm sure it'll be wet!