Raid the Pantry Recipes
Most players will discover a mixture of familiar and exotic dishes in Raid the Pantry. The game’s recipes were simplified and tend to omit ingredients such as butter or oil and seasonings. Schil and Mil prepared many of the dishes themselves in order to get the photographs needed for Raid the Pantry Ingredient and Dish cards. Here are a few favourites:
Duck à l'Orange
Ingredients:
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 ½ cups orange juice
2 tablespoons shallots, minced
1 ½ cups chicken stock
Sections of four oranges, cut from membranes
2 duck breast halves, seasoned with salt and pepper
¼ cup unsalted butter
2 tablespoons orange zest
Preparation:
In a medium saucepan, boil the water with the sugar until the syrup caramelizes and turns a golden brown color. Add the vinegar, juice, shallots, and stock; simmer until the sauce is reduced to a little less than a cup. Add butter and 1 tablespoon of the orange zest. Then stir the orange sections into the sauce and turn off the heat. Meanwhile, in a skillet, sear the duck breasts over high heat. Cook each one for about 9-11 minutes on each side. Pour the prepared sauce over the duck breasts and garnish with the remaining orange zest.
This duck à l’orange recipe makes 2 servings and takes about 45 minutes to prepare and cook. We enjoyed it with brown rice on the side.
Fact: Duck à l’Orange is actually an English interpretation of the classic French recipe Canard à l’Orange. In the 1960s this recipe helped to popularize French food in both the UK and the USA.
Chicken Paprikash
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced into strips
1 cup mushrooms, sliced thickly
¼ cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons sweet Hungarian paprika
¾ cup chicken stock
1 cup sour cream
¾ kg (1 ½ pounds) chicken tenderloin fillets or chopped chicken breast
Regular size package of wide noodles
Preparation: Brown the chicken in hot butter and oil in a large skillet. Remove the chicken and add onions and mushrooms to the pan. Sauté until the onion is clear.
Put the chicken back in and add a splash of wine to deglaze the skillet. Add paprika, salt and pepper and stir to coat. Stir in the stock, remaining wine, and sour cream. Simmer while preparing noodles, at least ten minutes more.
This recipe serves four to five and can be served over noodles or rice. It takes about half an hour to prepare and cook.
Cooking tips: Known as paprikás csirke in its native Hungary, you can prepare this dish with a mixture of light and regular sour cream. The sauce will be thinner made with lighter sour cream, but you can thicken it by simmering the dish uncovered in the last step of the recipe. Feel free to experiment by adding additional vegetables such as tomatoes, capsicum, celery, and garlic.
Mushroom Pizza
Ingredients:
1 teaspoon or packet of active dried yeast
3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup warm water (50C / 120F)
1 cup tomato paste
1 teaspoon minced garlic
¼ teaspoon of each desired seasoning, e.g. basil, oregano, parsley, thyme
several sliced mushrooms
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
¼ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
Preparation: Stir yeast into warm water and set a timer for ten minutes. Meanwhile, fit the dough hook into your food processor and measure the flour and olive oil into its bowl. Add salt to taste. Prepare sauce by stirring garlic and seasonings into the tomato paste. When the timer goes off, preheat the oven (215oC / 425oF), then stir and then pour the yeast mixture into the flour mixture and process on the recommended speed until a solid ball of dough forms.
You can knead a little additional flour into the dough by hand if it is too sticky to handle. Turn half of the dough out onto a sheet of cooking paper and roll to desired thickness and shape with a rolling pin. Transfer the cooking paper to a baking sheet and lightly depress the dough all over with your knuckles. This prevents large air bubbles from forming.
Spread the dough thickly with the pizza sauce and top with the grated mozzarella and mushrooms. Sprinkle with Parmesan and additional seasonings as desired.
Repeat the process for the other half of the dough and bake the pizzas 10 to 15 minutes until the cheese is bubbly and the crust lightly browned. Serves six people.
Cooking tips: You can use the dough immediately, but if you cover it lightly with plastic wrap and give it at least an hour to rise in a warm place, the resulting crust will be thicker. It is possible to wrap the dough or a portion of it in plastic wrap or beeswax cloth and refrigerate or freeze for later use. Prevailing humidity can affect the stickiness of the dough and how long it needs to come together in the food processor.
Mango Lassi
Ingredients:
1 cup plain or vanilla yogurt
½ cup milk
1 large ripe mango, peeled, pitted and chopped
1 tablespoon sugar, to taste
Preparation: Simply whiz all ingredients in a blender until smooth, pour into glasses and serve. Makes two portions.
