Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
A huge thank you to all 25,000+ of you for an incredible year! Gourmet Gaming wouldn’t exist without you, and I’m so happy to have such a wonderful community of people who help out, make suggestions and pledge support. I can’t wait for 2013, and hope Gourmet Gaming will continue into the future and evolve.
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![ChristMMOs: World of Warcraft – Winter Veil Gingerbread Cookies
Merry ChristMMOs! This festive season, Gourmet Gaming will be celebrating with a selection of treats from your favourite MMOs to bring a little bit of gaming to your table this holiday season.
I love gingerbread. I start to buy it around Halloween and then never stop – once, I managed to get a pretty big gingerbread cookie for a mere nine English pennies. It was a good day. I didn’t care that it had a ghost on it and it was November 3rd that is beside the point! The Winter Veil Gingerbread Cookie has featured in World of Warcraft’s festive Winter Veil event for a few years now. This year there’s even a quest titled “The Winter Veil Gourmet” featuring the Winter Veil Gingerbread Cookies, Egg Nog and Hot Apple Cider…
Click ‘Read More’ for the full recipe!
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This recipe makes 24 cookies.
What you will need: A baking tray, greaseproof paper/baking parchment, 2 large mixing bowls, a sieve, 1 tree-shaped cookie cutter, a wooden spoon, a small bowl, and a pastry brush.
Ingredients:
200g / 1½ Cups Plain Flour
Pinch of Salt
¼ Teaspoon Baking/Bicarbonate Soda
2-3 Teaspoons Ground Ginger
1 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
¼ Teaspoon Ground Cloves
¼ Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
55g / ¼ Cup Butter (Room Temperature)
50g / ¼ Cup Caster/Superfine Sugar
1 Egg (Room Temperature)
70g / ⅓ Cup Molasses Sugar
To Garnish:
200g / 7 oz. Green Royal Icing
White Icing Decorating Tubes
2 Tablespoons Icing/Confectioners Sugar
Water
Making the Winter Veil Gingerbread Cookies:
Sift the flour, salt, baking soda and spices into a large bowl then set aside. Line a baking tray with baking paper/greaseproof parchment.
In another bowl, beat the butter and caster sugar together for about a minute. Add the egg and molasses sugar, and continue to mix until well combined. Slowly add the flour and spice mixture, continually beating gently until a dough is formed.
Bring the dough together, then wrap it in cling film/saran wrap and place in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 175C/350F.
Once chilled, kneed the cookie dough gently on a floured surface before rolling out to about ¼ Inch thick.
Use the cookie cutters to make your shapes, and set them on the baking tray; evenly spaced and not too crowded. Chill the prepared cookie shapes for 5-10 minutes in the freezer before baking in the oven.
Bake the cookies for 7-8 minutes, depending on their size, then remove from the oven to cool. Repeat this process as needed until all the dough is used.
Garnishing the Winter Veil Gingerbread Cookies:
While the cookies cool, mix the two tablespoons icing/confectioners sugar with a little water to create an icing paste in a small bowl – this will act as a glue between the cookie and the green royal icing.
Roll out the green royal icing on a surface dusted with icing/confectioners sugar to about 1cm thick. Use the cookie cutter again to create the same shapes from the green royal icing. You may need to trim the stumps of the trees off with a knife.
Paint a little of the icing paste on to the surface of the tree shaped cookie, then carefully stick the royal icing tree on top. Use a small rolling pin to evenly distribute the royal icing, to avoid finger prints.
Repeat the process until all the cookies are covered with a green royal icing top. Finally, use the white icing tubes to trace a delicate line around the inner edge to finish the Winter Veil Cookies.
I brought these cookies into work and, frankly, I’ve never been so popular. They were lucky there were any left as I had previously made another batch of 36 that never even made it from the kitchen. You can of course use the recipe above to make any shape cookie, or even add a small hole prior to baking if you’d like to hang them from your tree this Winter Veil.
Like this? You might also enjoy the World of Warcraft – Graccu’s Mince Meat Fruitcake.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/4f1cb42e43138c4c5dbe57b38c0e2baa/tumblr_mfautdJCuo1qjhjgyo1_500.jpg)
ChristMMOs: World of Warcraft – Winter Veil Gingerbread Cookies
Merry ChristMMOs! This festive season, Gourmet Gaming will be celebrating with a selection of treats from your favourite MMOs to bring a little bit of gaming to your table this holiday season.
I love gingerbread. I start to buy it around Halloween and then never stop – once, I managed to get a pretty big gingerbread cookie for a mere nine English pennies. It was a good day. I didn’t care that it had a ghost on it and it was November 3rd that is beside the point! The Winter Veil Gingerbread Cookie has featured in World of Warcraft’s festive Winter Veil event for a few years now. This year there’s even a quest titled “The Winter Veil Gourmet” featuring the Winter Veil Gingerbread Cookies, Egg Nog and Hot Apple Cider…
Click ‘Read More’ for the full recipe!
![Bastion – Leechade
Bastion was the impressive and visually stunning Indie hit of 2011, if you’ve not played it yet I recommend you pick it up right away on Xbox Live, Steam or Google Chrome! One of the most awesome things about the game is the Distillery where The Kid can choose all sorts of interesting potions to help him on his journey. Each one has a unique effect, taste and appearance – I just wish I had the amazing bottles to do each spirit justice. “Leechade’s so sour, it’ll perk you right up when you’re feeling low”.
Click ‘Read More’ for the full recipe!
[[MORE]]
This recipe makes 1 drink.
Ingredients:
1 Measure Advocaat
1 Measure Dry London Gin
0.5 Measure Triple Sec
0.5 Measure Blue Curaçao
Top Up Cloudy Lemonade
Lemon Wedge Garnish
Like this? You might also enjoy the Sims 3 - Love Potion #8.5.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwxc9xWI1z1qjhjgyo1_r1_500.jpg)
Bastion – Leechade
Bastion was the impressive and visually stunning Indie hit of 2011, if you’ve not played it yet I recommend you pick it up right away on Xbox Live, Steam or Google Chrome! One of the most awesome things about the game is the Distillery where The Kid can choose all sorts of interesting potions to help him on his journey. Each one has a unique effect, taste and appearance – I just wish I had the amazing bottles to do each spirit justice. “Leechade’s so sour, it’ll perk you right up when you’re feeling low”.
Click ‘Read More’ for the full recipe!
![Christmas Special Dessert: World of Warcraft - Graccu’s Mince Meat Fruitcake
I’ve never set foot in Pandaria, been on a forty man raid at two o’clock in the morning to Darkwing Lair or suffered the ‘Wrath of the Lich King’… but I do like cake! I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve not yet earned my WoW badge, like I’ve also not earned my Minecraft one and in all seriousness it’s because I know I’d befall the trap and vanish into oblivion. To be honest, I’m saving my online RPG virginity for Diablo III which I am eagerly awaiting (for the love of God, Blizzard, I only have so much patience). Anyway, what better way too round off a Christmas feast than with a traditional fantasy fruitcake!
Click ‘Read More’ for the full recipe!
[[MORE]]
This recipes serves 8-10.
What you will need: A 25cm Bundt cake mould, 2 mixing bowls and a sieve.
For the Mince Meat Fruitcake:
250g / 1¾ Cups Self-Raising Flour
150g / ¾ Cup Butter (Room Temperature)
100g / ½ Cup Golden Caster Sugar
50g / ¼ Cup Dark Muscovado Sugar
75g / ½ Cup Mixed Dried Fruits
2 Eggs
450g / 1lb Jar of Mincemeat
75g / ½ Cup Flaked Almonds
120ml / ½ Cup Whisky (Optional)
To Garnish:
Icing/Confectioners Sugar
6 Glacé Cherries (Halved)
Making Graccu’s Mince Meat Fruitcake:
Sieve the self-raising flour twice into a large mixing bowl to aerate it properly, then set aside.
Grease the bundt tray well with a little butter and preheat the oven to 160C/325F.
In a separate bowl cream the butter and the sugar until well combined, try to break up the Muscovado sugar as much as possible.
Next add the dried fruits and almonds, stir well, then add the jar of mincemeat and mix again.
Beat the two eggs together and gradually add them to the mixture, stirring in as you add. If you’re adding the whisky, do so now and mix well.
Pour the wet ingredients into the flour and fold them together gently then pour the mix into the prepared bundt tray. Pop in the oven and cook for approximately 80-100 minutes – if it’s cooked an inserted skewer/knife will come out clean.
Once cooked remove from the oven and allow to cool completely in the bundt mould.
You can, if you wish, ‘feed’ the cake some more whisky by pouring small amounts over the cake every few hours . If you’re impatient (like me) simply remove once it’s cooled enough.
Sieve over a sprinkling of icing/confectioners sugar and arrange the glacé cherries around the top of the cake. Ideally, serve with some brandy cream.
This cake is “Preserved with Graccu’s special spices! It’ll be a very long time before these turn bad…”; I ate this entire cake in a day. I regret nothing. My Irish roots ensure I’m very particular when it comes to fruit cakes, I like them and I love that winter gives me the excuse to tuck into various incarnations starting with a Hallowe’en Barmbrack and finishing, very often, with a third helping of Christmas pudding. I’ll never again buy a Christmas cake now that I know how easy and cheap this is to make. Apparently you “must remain seated while eating” which is ideal should you choose to eat this while questing or watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” for the thousandth time.
Like this? You might also enjoy the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - S’Jirra’s Famous Potato Bread.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwjzgzCnva1qjhjgyo1_500.jpg)
Christmas Special Dessert: World of Warcraft - Graccu’s Mince Meat Fruitcake
I’ve never set foot in Pandaria, been on a forty man raid at two o’clock in the morning to Darkwing Lair or suffered the ‘Wrath of the Lich King’… but I do like cake! I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve not yet earned my WoW badge, like I’ve also not earned my Minecraft one and in all seriousness it’s because I know I’d befall the trap and vanish into oblivion. To be honest, I’m saving my online RPG virginity for Diablo III which I am eagerly awaiting (for the love of God, Blizzard, I only have so much patience). Anyway, what better way too round off a Christmas feast than with a traditional fantasy fruitcake!
Click ‘Read More’ for the full recipe!
![Christmas Special Main: Streets of Rage - Roast Poultry
For the main of the Gourmet Gaming Christmas meal it’s obvious that I had to go with some kind of roast bird and I’ve had many requests for the chicken/turkey (nowhere seems to be able to decide which it is) from Streets of Rage. I grew up with Streets of Rage on my Sega Mega Drive and I would regularly play it with my childhood best friend. We were never able to complete it and it seemed I was to be eternally bested by the penultimate level… Until this year when I purchased the Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection on Xbox 360 (in case you were wondering both myself and my co-op partner both said “No!” like the goody-two-shoes we are). I originally wanted to make this recipe with turkey so it would be more festive but sadly at the time they weren’t readily available in the stores, however this recipe works very well for either fowl.
Click ‘Read More’ for the full recipe!
[[MORE]]
This recipe serves 3-4.
What you will need: Large roasting tray and a wooden skewer.
Ingredients:
1 Small Chicken/Turkey
1 Tablespoon Butter
1 Lemon or Orange
Handful of Fresh Parsley
5 Garlic Cloves
2 Celery Sticks
2 Carrots
1 Large Onion
2 Bay Leafs
Salt & Pepper
Olive Oil
Preparing the Roast:
Preheat the oven on its maximum temperature. Chop the carrots, celery and onion roughly and line the bottom of the roasting tray with them.
Place the bird on top – if it’s legs are tied down, untie them and push them up into the air. Slide the wooden skewer through the flesh on the back of the legs, through the body and out the legs on the other side to help support them and keep them upright.
With a sharp knife, slice a few holes into the lemon then pop it in cavity along with a few cloves of garlic, the parsley and two bay leafs. Make sure you don’t over stuff and that there’s still room otherwise the bird wont cook evenly!
Rub butter over the skin, season with salt & pepper then pour over a little olive oil.
Place the bird in the oven then turn the temperature down immediately to 200C/400F and cook as per the time-to-weight instructions of your bird.
After 90 minutes, begin basting the bird every 20 minutes until it’s finished cooking.
Remove from the oven and allow to rest for at least 30 minutes, serve with your favourite roast vegetables.
I decided to keep the chicken quite simple so it would reflect the in-game bird which, actually, looks more like a chocolate bird than anything else. I couldn’t eat the chicken, but I was assured it was moist and delicious. Next time I might try calling for back-up and use the flames from a tirade of air-to-ground missiles to cook my Christmas dinner.
Like this? You might also enjoy the Sonic The Hedgehog - Chili Dog A La Sonic.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lw60k0SziZ1qjhjgyo1_500.jpg)
Christmas Special Main: Streets of Rage - Roast Poultry
For the main of the Gourmet Gaming Christmas meal it’s obvious that I had to go with some kind of roast bird and I’ve had many requests for the chicken/turkey (nowhere seems to be able to decide which it is) from Streets of Rage. I grew up with Streets of Rage on my Sega Mega Drive and I would regularly play it with my childhood best friend. We were never able to complete it and it seemed I was to be eternally bested by the penultimate level… Until this year when I purchased the Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection on Xbox 360 (in case you were wondering both myself and my co-op partner both said “No!” like the goody-two-shoes we are). I originally wanted to make this recipe with turkey so it would be more festive but sadly at the time they weren’t readily available in the stores, however this recipe works very well for either fowl.
Click ‘Read More’ for the full recipe!
![Christmas Special Appetizer: Fallout 3 – Yum Yum Deviled Eggs
After the complication of a trio of recipes for last weeks post, I felt something from a simpler time was needed. A time when women were women, men were quite possibly all exactly like Don Draper and mutants were mutants. Christmas is often hailed as the tackiest holiday thanks to gaudy decorations and glitter, but this also makes it the most retro. Apart from making my starter a prawn cocktail, deviled eggs come in as more of the American classic of yesteryear and Fallout 3 just happens to be full of these strange, vintage consumables. In the interest of safety I’ve removed all rads and rehydrated the eggs for your dining pleasure.
Click ‘Read More’ for the full recipe!
[[MORE]]
This recipe serves 6.
What you will need: A pot, a bowl and a spoon.
Ingredients:
6 Large Eggs
3 Tablespoons Mayonnaise
½ Teaspoon Mustard
Salt & Pepper
Garnish
Paprika
Fresh Parsley
Sliced Spring Onion
Making the Deviled Eggs:
Boil the eggs in a large pot of water for 6-10 minutes to make sure they’re hard. Remove the eggs and leave them to cool in a pot of cold water for 15 minutes.
Carefully peel the shell off and slice the eggs in half lengthways.
Remove the yolks and put them in a bowl, add the mayonnaise, mustard, salt & pepper and mix well until creamy.
Using a spoon (or an icing bag for that added retro touch), fill the eggs back up with the yolk filling.
Arrange artfully on a plate, garnish with the paprika, parsley and spring onion, then serve.
Fallout 3 sparked a kind of hysteria in me that seems to appear any time I play a Bethesda game; I distinctly remember collecting bottle caps from nights out (possibly trying to pay for cabs home with them) and sharing bobby-pins from my hair with people, explaining why they would need them before they awkwardly all gathered at the opposite end of the bar – I was, in a word, obsessed. Making these Yum Yum Deviled Eggs has made me rather excited to catch-up on my ever growing backlog of games over the Holidays and play Fallout: New Vegas. And if there’s one food that could survive a nuclear disaster, it probably is a deviled egg.
Like this? You might also enjoy the Fallout: New Vegas - Wasteland Omelet.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvt1w5blgm1qjhjgyo1_r1_500.jpg)
Christmas Special Appetizer: Fallout 3 – Yum Yum Deviled Eggs
After the complication of a trio of recipes for last weeks post, I felt something from a simpler time was needed. A time when women were women, men were quite possibly all exactly like Don Draper and mutants were mutants. Christmas is often hailed as the tackiest holiday thanks to gaudy decorations and glitter, but this also makes it the most retro. Apart from making my starter a prawn cocktail, deviled eggs come in as more of the American classic of yesteryear and Fallout 3 just happens to be full of these strange, vintage consumables. In the interest of safety I’ve removed all rads and rehydrated the eggs for your dining pleasure.
Click ‘Read More’ for the full recipe!
![Christmas Special Drink & Nibbles: Skyrim – Black-Briar Mead, Grilled Leeks & Elsweyr Fondue
Everyone knows cold weather demands a warming drink and something to nibble on, preferably in front of a roaring fire. For the start of my Gourmet Gaming Christmas feast I thought taking a trek back to Skyrim might be worth while due to a lot of requests and let’s not forget its cold, snowy, Nordic landscape. Someone managed to source me some authentic Norfolk mead (thank you!) which I’ve used as my base for creating the infamous Black-Briar brew. I didn’t want it to be just a plain old mead; I felt that spices and fruits available around Skyrim could be added to create a more hearty drink. I’ve also been in enough bars in Skyrim to know that you can’t drink mead without some grilled leeks, why not dip them in a Kajiit’s favourite - Elsweyr Fondue?
Click ‘Read More’ for the full recipe!
[[MORE]]
This recipe serves 4-6.
Black-Briar Mead
What you will need: Large pot, a sieve and a serving jug/bottle.
Ingredients:
200ml / 1 Cup Mead
200ml / 1 Cup Dry Cider
200ml / 1 Cup Cloudy Apple Juice
2 Tablespoons Honey
3 Star Anise
1 Teaspoon Cloves
1 Cinnamon Stick
Add all the ingredients to a pot and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Sieve the mixture into a clean bowl or serving jug. Can be enjoyed warm or chilled.
Grilled Leeks
What you will need: A pot, a bowl, and a griddle pan.
Ingredients:
Leeks
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
1 Clove Garlic
Slice the leeks vertically in half and wash thoroughly in cool water. Pop the halved leeks in a large pot of water and bring to the boil. Cook for 4 minutes or until cooked about half way through, then drain and instantly submerge the leeks in a bowl of ice cold water to stop them from cooking any further.
Dry the leeks in some paper towels then season with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and garlic. Warm a griddle pan on a medium heat.
Lay a few leeks at a time, open side down on the pan. Try to keep them intact so they still have their shape. Turn them gently every few minutes to prevent from burning. Once cooked, lay on a plate or tray to serve.
Elsweyr Fondue
What you will need: A fondue pot/a heavy pot and a grater.
Ingredients:
200ml / 1 Cup Ale
110g / 1 Cup Mature Gruyère (Grated)
110g / 1 Cup Emmental (Grated)
1 Tablespoon Flour
¼ Teaspoon Nutmeg
1 Teaspoon Sugar
If you have a fondue pot with a heater than use that. If not – you can also use a heavy pot to melt your ingredients.
In the pot heat the Ale on a medium heat – do NOT allow it to boil.
Mix the grated cheeses with the flour until it is lightly coated. Add the cheese a little at a time to the ale, stirring gently. Reduce heat to low.
Once the cheese has melted, add the nutmeg and sugar and mix gently. Grate over a little more fresh nutmeg and serve.
The original recipe calls for black-market “Moon Sugar” which we know is used to make Skooma, so I had to do some research on what this could be. I instantly thought of nutmeg; it’s seasonal and is a traditional spice to serve with Swiss based fondues. It also has psychoactive and toxic effects if consumed in large amounts, causing sickness and hallucinations – not unlike the in-game drug. Skooma: Not Even Once, Elsweyr Fondue: Delicious. Try dipping in chunks of fresh bread or fruits and eating with savoury preserves or chutneys.
Like this? You might also enjoy the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Sweet Rolls.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvh6cxJVW81qjhjgyo1_r1_500.jpg)
Christmas Special Drink & Nibbles: Skyrim – Black-Briar Mead, Grilled Leeks & Elsweyr Fondue
Everyone knows cold weather demands a warming drink and something to nibble on, preferably in front of a roaring fire. For the start of my Gourmet Gaming Christmas feast I thought taking a trek back to Skyrim might be worth while due to a lot of requests and let’s not forget its cold, snowy, Nordic landscape. Someone managed to source me some authentic Norfolk mead (thank you!) which I’ve used as my base for creating the infamous Black-Briar brew. I didn’t want it to be just a plain old mead; I felt that spices and fruits available around Skyrim could be added to create a more hearty drink. I’ve also been in enough bars in Skyrim to know that you can’t drink mead without some grilled leeks, why not dip them in a Kajiit’s favourite - Elsweyr Fondue?
Click ‘Read More’ for the full recipe!
I love to play video games and I love to eat. Preferably at the same time.
What's even better is eating the food from the game I'm playing while I'm playing it.
Gourmet Gaming is updated every Wednesday.
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