Out-of-this-world recipes

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/07/2018 (2979 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Summer is the time when the movie studios march out their hoped-for big-money blockbusters. You may have already forked out the cash for The Avengers: Infinity War, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Ant Man and the Wasp, or this year’s Star Wars epic, Solo: A Star Wars Story.

If your idea of a fun night is gathering your fellow cosplayers around the coffee table (hopefully not in your parents’ rec room) á la Big Bang Theory, plumbing the internal logic of your favourite universe while demonstrating your personal mastery of “the canon,” you will need suitable, thematically appropriate sustenance.

You can get your culinary geek on with The Geek’s Cookbook by Liguori Lecomte, translated by Andrea Jones Berasaluce (Skyhorse Publishing, $21.99).

It’s a fun addition to the libraries of anyone wanting to live in a preferred alternate universe. That might include one of those featured in the book such as the Harry Potter franchise, The Matrix, Breaking Bad, Dexter, The Walking Dead, or a couple of gamers’ universes like The Legend of Zelda and Minecraft. The Big Bang Theory even merits a couple of recipes. The easy-to-prepare dishes will power your theme night up a level.

The summer blockbuster that had the greatest impact on me was Star Wars. I remember sitting in the theatre with one of my cousins (who had come to town for a visit) and my brother. When the movie started and that spaceship glided over my head and up the screen I was amazed. It was pretty unsophisticated by today’s standards, but no one had done anything quite like it before. I’m not a total Star Wars fan (I’m more inclined to geek out on something like Labyrinth or Dark Crystal — anything involving Jim Henson’s company and Brian and Wendy Froud) but I’ll always remember that first Star Wars movie moment.

To celebrate the annual spate of summer blockbusters, here are two recipes inspired by Star Wars, excerpted from The Geek’s Cookbook by Liguori Lecomte. Used with permission from Skyhorse Publishing.

If you’re not a Star Wars fan — just change the recipe names.

Star Wars Dagobah Swamp with Herb Crust

Serves 4
Preparation time: 35 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour

640 g (1 lb, 5 oz) pork tenderloin
Olive oil, for drizzling
155 g (5 1/2 oz) Gruyère cheese
155 g (5 1/2 oz) crustless white bread
Chopped herbs (parsley, tarragon, chervil)
For the sauce:
30 ml (2 tbsp) chicken bouillon powder
280 g (9 oz) peas
6 mint leaves

For the vegetables:
15 ml (1 tbsp) chicken bouillon powder
1 onion, finely diced
Butter, for frying
15 ml (1 tbsp) honey
165 g (5 3/4 oz) quinoa
2 zucchini (enough for 4 people as a side)
12 asparagus spears
100 g (3 1/2 oz) hazelnuts, toasted
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F).

Roll the pork tenderloin in a sheet of aluminum foil with a drizzle of olive oil and some salt and pepper. Cook in the oven for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, process the gruyère cheese and bread together in a blender or food processor to make crumbs and add a handful of chopped herbs, to taste. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Remove the pork from the aluminum foil and lay the herbed bread crumbs on top of the meat. Bake under the broil setting of the oven at 200 C (400 F) for 5 minutes.

Make the sauce: Dissolve the chicken bouillon powder in 515 ml (18 fluid oz) water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the peas and mint leaves and cook for 5 minutes. Set aside some peas for the garnish and purée the rest of the mixture in a food processor, then pass through a fine metal strainer to make a runny sauce. Adjust the seasoning if needed.

Prepare the vegetables: Dissolve the chicken bouillon powder in 1 litre (4 cups) hot water. Cook the onion in a saucepan with a knob of butter. Add a pinch of salt and the honey. Once the onion has browned, add the quinoa. Cook over medium heat for 20 minutes, adding the chicken broth little by little until it evaporates completely.

Make balls from the unpeeled zucchini using a melon baller and sauté in a knob (about 15 ml) of butter in a frying pan. Season. Steam the asparagus for 5 minutes and sauté in a knob of butter in a frying pan. Adjust the seasoning if necessary. Roughly crush a few hazelnuts and toast for 2 minutes in a hot frying pan.

Slice two medallions of pork per person and arrange the different elements on serving plates, sprinkling with the toasted hazelnuts.

Star Wars Skywalker Verrine

Serves 4
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 2 hours

For the meringue:
60 g (2 1/2) oz egg whites (separated from two large eggs)
85 g (3 oz) superfine sugar
For the chocolate cream:
265 ml (9 oz) whipping cream
280 g (9 oz) mascarpone cheese
45 g (1 1/2 oz) superfine sugar
100 g (3 1/2 oz) white chocolate
5 ml (1 tsp) vanilla powder
100 g (3 1/2 oz) dried unsweetened shredded coconut

For the lightsabers:
100 g (3 1/2 oz) white chocolate
Fat-soluble blue food colouring
Fat-soluble red food colouring
8 Cookie sticks (any finger-type cookie you like)

Make the meringue: Preheat the oven to 80 C (175 F). Whip the egg whites in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, adding half the sugar when the whites start to froth, then the rest when the meringue starts to form. Continue whipping until you have a glossy meringue. Shape into meringues and bake for 2 hours.

Make the chocolate cream: Whip the cream, mascarpone cheese, and sugar until firm peaks form. Make sure that the mixing bowl, cream, and mascarpone are very cold. Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler or microwave oven, then fold it into the cream. Add the vanilla powder and shredded coconut, mixing together gently.

Make the lightsabers: Melt the white chocolate and divide it between two bowls. Mix the blue colouring into one and the red coloring into the other.

Dip the cookie sticks in the two coloured chocolates, leaving one end uncoated to form the hilt, and cool in the refrigerator. Crumble cookies and break up the meringue. To serve, place a little of the crumbled cookies in the bottom of a glass, then the cream, and top with some meringue. Finally, dip a chocolate-covered lightsaber in each dish.

Twitter: @WendyKinginWpg