What might come as a bit of a surprise to a lot of people, I’m actually a bit of a chef. Since moving in with my soon-to-be wife, Rachael, I’ve been spending a lot of time in the kitchen making all sorts of dishes for us both to eat… Healthy meals mostly. But as much as I like to cook my own thing, I’ve become a bit of a fan of the video games and pop culture cookbooks that have become a thing recently. I own a copy of the first World of Warcraft official cookbook, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pizza cookbook, Snoop Dogg’s Cookbook, and my more recent read: Un-cook Yourself: A Ratbag’s Rules for Life by Australian comedian and YouTube sensation Nat’s What I Reckon (Which I plan to review here at some point).
So, when the nice people behind the Australian PR company for Magic The Gathering sent me this recipe based on a card from the next set, Modern Horizons 2, called simply “Food” (A Token card), I had to share it with you. I’m sure it’ll be fine… maybe. Read more about the card and the recipe down below, and maybe give it a shot yourself.
To celebrate the launch of its latest card set Modern Horizons 2, Wizards has created a recipe based on one of the set’s legendary cards in a devilish roast.
Chef’s Surprise – A Recipe From The Underworld Cookbook is a recreation of a “Food” Token card, which was made popular by a legendary card and a famous magical character named Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar (Asmor for short). The character appeared in previous MTG lore in 1993 and made an impression due to its overly long name.
Asmor is famous in the MTG world as the author of “The Underworld Cookbook”, and was offered a deal by a Lord of the Pit that she had summoned: to prepare food for the demon for seven years or be a meal for the demon. More information is available here.
Chef’s Surprise – A Recipe From The Underworld Cookbook, by Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar
Serves: Three to four people
Ingredients
Chicken:
- 2 Maryland chicken thighs bones removed and laid flat
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1/4 onion, grated
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon grated garlic
- 1 teaspoon grated ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon chili pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
- Pinch of cinnamon powder
Stuffing:
- 600g ground beef
- 5g gelatin powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- A pinch of coarsely ground black pepper
Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Toppings:
- 1 daikon radish
- 10 apples
- Grapes, to taste
- Green leaves, to taste
- 1 crab leg
- Skewers, for decoration
Directions:
- Remove excess skin and fat from the Maryland chicken thighs and pierce the skin with a fork.
- Combine all the ingredients for the chicken together in a bowl, rub thoroughly, and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.
- In a separate bowl, combine the ingredients for the stuffing and knead well until white, then refrigerate until ready to use.
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat, and place the marinated chicken thighs skin side down.
- When browned, turn over and remove to a plate to remove from heat.
- Remove any browned bits of meat from the pan, add the sauce ingredients and simmer gently to make a sauce.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- Cut the daikon into quarters (pending size of radish, may need to be thirds), then into smaller pieces to be shaped like fangs (image below). Create two sets of fangs as shown below. One set will be used during the cooking process and the other for topping.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and use half of the stuffing to form a round base. Place the rest of the stuffing on top of the center of the base, in between the two chicken thighs (reference image below).
- Fill the area between the two thighs where the stuffing is visible with one set of the daikon fangs.
- Bake in the oven at 200°C for 20 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, brush with the sauce and bake again at 200°C for 10 minutes.
- Remove the cooked fangs and replace them with the uncooked second set you’ve set aside.
- Serve on a plate. Garnish with green leaves, grapes, and apples.
- Attach the fangs for finishing. Decorate with crab legs on bamboo skewers and you’re done!
