Tag: Stardew Valley

Cranberry Candy

Posted December 29, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

A bit of a misnomer, Cranberry Candy isn’t a candy but rather a beverage, most likely named for its sugary sweetness. I chose Cranberry Candy as my STARDEW VALLEY bonus recipe because the cranberry flavor and bright red color make it perfect for the Christmas season, which my family is still celebrating (we’re Catholic, so we celebrate Christmas until January 6th).

The recipe in the game lists the ingredients as cranberry, apple, and sugar. For the apple, I went with sparkling apple cider, since Cranberry Candy strikes me as something fizzy like soda or sparkling punch. To get the cranberry flavor, I went with standard cranberry juice, but I wanted to add something more. I tried a little pomegranate juice in the mix, and I loved it! It deepens the flavor (and the color) without overpowering the apple and cranberry, creating a complexity I really enjoy. My favorite part about it is that, even though all the flavors meld together, you can isolate individual elements of each ingredient: the richness of the pomegranate, the tart astringency of the cranberry, and the fizzy brightness of the apple cider.

Whip up a batch for your holiday festivities and toast a fruitful year in STARDEW VALLEY!

P.S. Just a quick reminder, I’m taking January and February off to finish my upcoming cookbook, so this will be my last post for a couple months. Enjoy the rest of the holiday season, and I’ll see you in March! 😀

Pink Cake

Posted December 15, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 1 Comment

Pink Cake may sound basic, but this dainty dessert hides a secret ingredient: melon! In STARDEW VALLEY, Pink Cake is a favorite of several villagers. The in-game thumbnail shows a cute pink tube cake topped with red heart sprinkles. The ingredients are listed as flour, sugar, egg, and pink melon (a fruit unique to the game, which looks like a pink cantaloupe). I was intrigued by the idea of a melon-based baked good, so I chose this cake for my STARDEW VALLEY dessert!

For my sponge, I used a variation on a recipe for melon chiffon cake I found on Singapore Shiok. My favorite part about this recipe is that, in addition to melon flavoring, it also uses real cantaloupe. I topped it with my go-to vanilla buttercream, since I felt like adding melon flavor to the frosting would make the recipe too “one note.” And how lucky was I to find these jumbo pixelated heart sprinkles from Nerdy Nummies for my decorations? They’re just the right size, and the 8-bit look is just right for a recipe based on a computer game.

This was my first time making chiffon, and it took me two tries to get it right. Chiffon can be finicky—the key to success is to fully incorporate the flour without over mixing. Doing too much or too little can lead to a deflated cake. Keep folding until you really don’t see any more bits of flour. The final result is worth it: fluffy, delicately sweet, and packed with melon flavor.

Spicy Eel

Posted December 1, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

I don’t like fish, but I LOVE eel. I had it for the first time last year on sushi, and it blew my mind. If the idea of eating eel makes you squeamish, I’m begging you—please please PLEASE give it a try! It’s truly lovely. It has a delicacy similar to fish, but it has a meatier, heartier flavor that reminds me of chicken.

Spicy Eel is my favorite food from the game STARDEW VALLEY. When eaten in-game, it adds buffs to speed and luck, making it perfect for when you plan to spend the day racing all over the map collecting foragables or delving deep in the Mines.

Apart from eel, hot pepper is the only other ingredient listed in the in-game recipe for Spicy Eel. Judging by the dish’s thumbnail, it looks like the eel is brushed with a red sauce. I decided to make my sauce with gochujang (spicy chili paste) for my hot pepper element, taking my inspiration from tteokbokki. Basically I just played with the ingredients and consistency of the sauce until I was happy with it. It’s important to make sure eel is fully cooked (see the note in the Instructions below), so I consulted the cook temp/time in a Serious Eats recipe for whole eel and tweaked it to suit the size of my fillets.

As a self-professed spice wimp, this dish was a little too hot for me, but it was ultra flavorful. I’ll definitely make a milder version for myself in the future, but if you like your food to bring the heat, Spicy Eel is the dish for you! 🙂

Strange Bun

Posted November 17, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

Say hello to the Strange Bun, my latest recipe from the game STARDEW VALLEY! In the game, this recipe is made from void mayonnaise and periwinkle, an appropriately strange combo to be sure. Literally everyone in the game hates them (even the villager who gives you the recipe). I was intrigued by this dish, so I decided to try my hand at making a delicious (but still weird) version.

The in-game recipe thumbnail shows a yellow spiral bun that rises in the center and has red filling, so I knew what my final bun needed to look like. I started with my go-to enriched dough recipe, but I swapped out the egg for mayonnaise. It may sound wild, but mayo has long been known to add fat and complexity to baked goods. In fact, you may have even come across cake recipes that call for mayo.

But what to do about the filling? I loved the idea of adding to the strangeness by making my buns spicy. I decided to make red pepper jam, and since this was my first time making it, I used a recipe by Inquiring Chef and tweaked it to suit my taste. To make the bun higher in the center, I cut the rolled dough into triangles and rolled them from the wide end, baking them in muffin tins to help them keep their shape.

The final product was savory and sweet with a touch of spice. A bit confusing to be sure, but delightfully so. I think if the villagers in STARDEW VALLEY got a chance to try this version, they might change their minds about Strange Buns!

Pepper Poppers

Posted November 3, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 1 Comment

Today marks the beginning of a menu I’ve been looking forward to all year! Not only is this my first time making a menu for a computer game, but it’s for my all-time favorite game: STARDEW VALLEY!

For those who are unfamiliar, STARDEW VALLEY is a farming and life simulation role-playing game. There are loads of farming sims out there, but this one is special because it is just so perfectly balanced. It’s well-paced, relaxing but rewarding, easy to play in both short bursts and long hauls, and incorporates fun storytelling and lore. In fact, STARDEW VALLEY is the only computer game I’ve continued to play since having kids (sorry, Sims). On top of it all, the art style and music are beautiful in their simplicity…and the food looks AMAZING. Which is why we’re here today. 😉

Food plays a big roll in STARDEW VALLEY. Many of the recipes provide buffs to the player’s speed, energy, luck, attacks against monsters, and more. There are loads of iconic STARDEW VALLEY recipes so I had a hard time narrowing it down, but I knew from the beginning that today’s recipe needed to make the final cut. Let’s make Pepper Poppers! 😀

Pepper Poppers is probably the food I eat most early in the game. It provides buffs for both farming and speed, making it perfect for when I’m working on building my farm to max capacity. Judging by the recipe’s in-game thumbnail, Pepper Poppers consists of a mix of red and green breaded peppers, which the description states are spicy and filled with cheese.

I chose jalapeños for my green peppers and mini sweet peppers for the red (since my store didn’t have any red chilis). For the filling, I used a mix of cream cheese and shredded Cheddar, then threw in some chopped pepperoni and chives to make it my own. Since this recipe is a favorite of the character Shane—and he’s the one who gives the player the recipe—I decided to create a batter than uses his favorite beverage, beer. My beer batter is loosely based on this Paula Deen recipe.

These were SO satisfying. Crisp on the outside, then a hit of spice, and ultra creamy in the center. I can see why they’re Shane’s favorite!