[Proposal] Quabs! (Ahonay-themed recepies)

[ryuutenshi]

QUABS. Quabs, quabs, QUABS.

I recall that my very first thought upon visiting Ahonay was, "Get me a pot, it's time for some down-home Maryland cooking!" and that a wonderful activity would be to have a "Quab feast", complete with Old-Bay covered hands and whatnot.

I've gotten to thinking, though. I doubt the D'ni would have eaten them (for some reason they don't seem to be the type to do crustaceans, don't ask me how I know) but it'd be great to do some kind of themed dish based on Ahonay using D'ni cooking techniques and spices but with a bit of that Ahonay flair.

So, what's on Ahonay:
-Quabs!
-Terrose Trees (which may or may not be artificial)
-Funky crystal trees
-Water
-Rocks
-SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE

Given what we've established about D'ni cuisine, I don't think just grabbing a straight Maryland style crab feast would do the trick I don't think that Old Bay would at all agree with the D'ni.

I kind of want to implement the terrose into this somehow, as well as the crystal trees. I'm not quite sure how yet, however. Cherry or rose flavoring doesn't seem like it would go well with crab (Apple? Sure. Rose/Cherry? er...) but perhaps I'm wrong.
This also leads us to the question of what kind of crab to use. There's a lot of types, from my own favourite the Maryland Blue to the Dungeness to King Crabs, and while I'm very familiar with the taste of Maryland crab, I'm not very fond of the other sorts and so don't know much about them.

I'm thinking that what would be best would be some sort of crab cake (restaurant style and broiled) somehow using pink rose as part of the ingredients (and I have to look up again what parts of the rose you actually use in cooking and what you can eat!) certainly rose petals could be part of the decoration...

Finally, the crystal trees? That's easy - rock candy, perhaps of an unusual flavor (... somehow I think spearmint might be best!) as a dessert, or even arranged around the plate ;3

Also, part of me wants instead to make it just a soft-shell crab so we get the feeling of eating quab, but... I don't think that'd work as well as I want it to. Besides, quabs look funny.

[Printehr]

I think I agree with you in that the D'ni probably never developed a recipe for quabs... but I don't think it was because of a general dislike for crustaceans. I'm thinking its just because it was Kadish's Age, and that he was too busy tricking other D'ni into thinking he was the Grower to come up with some delicious recipes. ;D I don't think they'd have been aversive to seafood in the least; in fact, I think crustaceans might have been something of a delicacy, as nothing like crabs existed in the Cavern, and thus would have been reserved for the upper classes. I agree that they probably wouldn't like Old Bay though

Looking at pictures of quabs on Google image search, they don't look like they have that much meat. Their heads don't look too edible; maybe there'd be more meat in the "trunk" that the legs attach to. I think quab legs would be the most edible part of the animal, and is convenient for us surface dwellers, as any large, red crab legs could serve as "quab" legs. Perhaps the meat from the rest of the quab could be made into quab cakes, as eating their heads or the trunks alone doesn't sound too appetizing.

I don't see a cherry/rose flavor (if that is indeed what terrose tree leaves taste like; for now I don't think we can make that call) being incorporated into the dish either... perhaps a separate dish, like a tea? Speaking of which, brewing tea makes me think of brewing soup, and I think quabs could make a wonderful soup.

And crystal rock candy would be great! We'd have to experiment to get the color as close to the Ahnonay crystals as possible, but it could make for a great dessert after finishing off some quab legs!

[ryuutenshi]

Ooo, I like the idea of quab soup (with sherry. crab soup must have sherry it is NECESSARY), and I think it'd be best kinda creamy. None of this silly tomato stuff. Hmmmm. But how to make it Ahonay-y?

Terrose tea... that wouldn't be so hard, if we go for a rose-flavor. I'm thinking something light and delicate, a white-tea base probably with some soft overtones. Nothing too extreme - I was about to say a roobios or hibiscus but then I realized that those are a bit too intense for what I have in mind.

[Printehr]

I was looking for a way to make the Quab soup Ahnonay-y by making the broth out of Terrose leaves... I found an excellent cherry/rose petal soup recipe here, which I thought about using as a base to add the quab meat to. But that combination doesn't seem appetizing at all.

But then I started thinking... maybe we're going about this the wrong way. Sure, Terrose trees look flowery, but they're not. (See this picture- admittedly blurry, but you can clearly see that they're just leaves- no blossoms).

So what if the Terrose tree leaves don't taste like rose petals or cherry blossoms or any such thing? What if they've got a more leaf-like flavor to them? They probably wouldn't be too tasty by themselves... but that got me thinking again. Hickory-smoked quab might be tasty... what about instead of smoking it over hickory, you cook it over smoking Terrose leaves?

Of course, they might also taste like rose petals or cherry blossoms. That would make for a tastier tea. But if they taste like regular leaves, that might make for a more palatable way to incorporate them into the quab recipe.

This all assumes that the Terrose trees are natural and not simply replicas constructed by Kadish, though.

[ryuutenshi]

Apr 25, 2008 11:59:34 GMT -5 Printehr said:

I was looking for a way to make the Quab soup Ahnonay-y by making the broth out of Terrose leaves... I found an excellent cherry/rose petal soup recipe here, which I thought about using as a base to add the quab meat to. But that combination doesn't seem appetizing at all.

But then I started thinking... maybe we're going about this the wrong way. Sure, Terrose trees look flowery, but they're not. (See this picture- admittedly blurry, but you can clearly see that they're just leaves- no blossoms).

So what if the Terrose tree leaves don't taste like rose petals or cherry blossoms or any such thing? What if they've got a more leaf-like flavor to them? They probably wouldn't be too tasty by themselves... but that got me thinking again. Hickory-smoked quab might be tasty... what about instead of smoking it over hickory, you cook it over smoking Terrose leaves?

Of course, they might also taste like rose petals or cherry blossoms. That would make for a tastier tea. But if they taste like regular leaves, that might make for a more palatable way to incorporate them into the quab recipe.

This all assumes that the Terrose trees are natural and not simply replicas constructed by Kadish, though.

Even if they're replicas they're still based on -something-.

Hmm. This warrants more thought, methinks. I think maybe we should divorce the quabs from the terrose idea - a nice rose tea would still be nice, but the quabs... hmmmmm. The question is, what's ahonay-y enough? If we just make cream of crab soup that's boring...

[Printehr]

Well, it could mean concocting an entirely new recipe. We know that Ahnonay had the following things:

-Quabs
-Water
-Terrose Trees
-Crystal Trees (probably not edible)

So anything other than one of these four ingredients would have come from D'ni. What would a regular, non-Ahnonay themed soup be like? I'm thinking maybe just meat or vegetable broth, simmering in a pot for hours, with lots of subtle spices. There wouldn't necessarily need to be anything else in it- I'm thinking the D'ni ate in courses, so soup wouldn't be a stand alone meal.

So Quab Soup would have quab meat floating in spiced broth, with possibly some kind of Terrose tree flavoring- edible rose petals in the broth, perhaps. The question is, what kind of broth? Crab broth (I'm not even sure that'd be real appetizing), some other type of meat broth, or vegetable broth?

And I can see the D'ni adding a little light wine to the broth... perhaps something infused with Terrose leaves? A rose-scented wine could make quite a contribution to a good soup, but you'd have to find the right kind of broth to mix it with.

[teana]

One possible flacoring for the Crystal Tree candy is Creme de Violet. In small amounts it would match the color of the trees and add an exotic touch.

www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/liquor/straight-up-creme-de-violette-and-blue-moon-thingytails-047167