If you have ever taken a few tentative steps in the sleepy yet lively rural world of Stardew Valley, then there is a chance that after a hard day’s work in the garden or at the mine, you have stumbled into the local tavern, The Stardrop Saloon, to round out the day. Together with some of the village’s authoritative residents such as Pam, Clint, or Shane, you might have had a beer or a pizza at one of the tables, listened to the music streaming from the jukebox, or perhaps just warmed your hands quietly in front of the open fire. The moustachioed owner Gus was sure to be standing behind the bar, as he usually does, where rumour has it that the key to his heart is shiny diamonds, edible snails, fish tacos, and oranges, but also tropical curry stew.
One of the best games ever, at least in my opinion.
Food plays a big role in Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone’s wonderful farming simulator and is an excellent way to charm the villagers. So what could be better than Barone and author Ryan Novak writing an official cookbook with recipes from the game’s world, where the characters themselves offer their favourite dishes? The book, which is divided into the four seasons, contains around 50 recipes from well-known characters (and, of course, the fictional cooking programme The Queen of Sauce). To sum up the summer that is now coming to an end, as well as my love of both cooking and Stardew Valley, I decided to cook Gus’ favourite dish, the summery, tropical curry stew. Follow along in this report from when Stardew Valley moved into the Westerberg kitchen.
Today’s mission: Tropical Curry.
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Gus may be used to Stardew Valley’s selection and prices, but if he had heard that the real world charges an exorbitant fee for what’s on the counter, it would probably have made him re-evaluate the contents of his favourite dish. In addition, I found it impossible to get Jamaican curry, so instead, it had to be replaced with Santa Maria’s “strong, curry”.
There is no mention in Barones and Novak’s book of how tedious/sweaty it is to hollow out pineapples.
Anyway, we got started with the prep work. Since the stew would not only contain pineapple flesh but also use the rind as a bowl, I began to hollow them out with the utmost care. Due to my inability to understand American measurements (cups, ounces, inches) and how much of the rind I should save at the bottom of the fruit, I wrote them down on a piece of paper. Simple-minded? Perhaps. But it prevented at least 30 Google searches. However, if someone had told me in advance how long it would actually take to remove the contents of two pineapples, I would have shed a tear.
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The result of what felt like 25 hours of work…
I’ve been told that it’s a “typical guy thing” to work with lots of bowls that mostly generate lots of unnecessary washing up, but I call it successful planning and organisation. Besides, it looks pretty good in the picture. The fact that Gus isn’t satisfied with frying in butter, rapeseed, or olive oil is incomprehensible to me. So this was the first time I ever fried in coconut oil. I don’t know what it’s supposed to be particularly good for, but I did my best to follow Gus’ instructions.
Am I a “typical guy” or just smart and orderly? Feel free to discuss.
At this point, it had taken nearly 1.5 hours, excluding shopping. I am certainly not a fast cook, and keeping track of all the ingredients made me feel dizzy, so I took a short break, drank two glasses of juice, and stared out of the window for a while. Since I had realised in advance that there was a risk that I would fail at cooking, I had made sure to eat a frozen ready meal beforehand, so there was no hunger stressing me to finish in time. It would simply take the time it would need to take.
A Fun Light break with window watching.
Fried golden onion…
and bell peppers and jalapeños…
and thyme and garlic and ginger…
and curry powder and stock…
What initially looked so beautiful in its individual ingredients soon looked like old faeces… Why does it always turn out like this with curries? Well, it’s in the nature of things, and at that point there was no turning back anyway. Luckily, the next step was a real joy: a dash of Caribbean chilli sauce from the world’s best Skånsk Chili. It puts anyone in a good mood. None of their sauces are anything but fantastic, but this one is among the absolute best if you can handle a little extraordinary heat.
A few sprinkles of Skånsk Chili and everyone will be happy again.
The soundtrack to my cooking. Boldly so.
The final phase. Add the potatoes.
And the pineapple.
Finally, I added the potatoes and pineapple and let them cook together for about 40 minutes, and when there was a quarter of an hour left, I also cooked the rice. But the stew looked really disgusting, I couldn’t deny it. I didn’t want to look at it, so I started washing the dishes to take my mind off it. I watered the plants around the flat, drank another glass of juice, and listened to Dr. Octagon for a while.
Spread out and flatten the rice in the bottom.
Serve with coriander and a jalapeño, which you toss after taking the photo.
With the rice at the bottom of the bowl and the stew on top, sprinkled with a little coriander, I thought it looked pretty good in the end. I was pleased with my creation, and it tasted good too. Strong as hell, spicy, rich, and sweet all at the same time. I understand that it’s Gus’ favourite dish, but maybe he orders his employee, Emily, to cook it for him. I think I clocked in a total of just over 2.5 hours, including a break for juice, to make this, and that’s a long time for anyone, especially a busy restaurant owner. However, if you’re comfortable spending that amount of time, I would definitely recommend trying Gus’ Tropical Curry. Maybe it’s the key to your heart too?
Dining and Cooking