Well Fed Buff: Spiced Wolf Meat
Every week, Well Fed Buff serves up tasty dishes to boost your HP and stats, just in time for your weekend gaming.
It can be a real challenge to fit balanced meals into your heavy gaming schedule -- or work/school/life for that matter. In-game, we whip up a stack of meals and consume them when needed. I like to do the same in the real world. This week, we'll be making a stack of Spiced Wolf Meat for easy meals throughout the week.
In Azeroth, Spiced Wolf Meat can be learned from any cooking trainer as soon as your cooking skill reaches 10. The ingredients required are Stringy Wolf Meat, which drops from wolves in Elwynn Forest, Dun Morogh, Tirisfal Glades and Mulgore and Mild Spices, which is purchasable at any Trade or or Cooking Supplies vendor. The in-game dish only supplies 2 Stamina and Spirit, but our version will be much heartier.
This recipe is very similar to the Cuban dish Ropa Vieja. It is best cooked on a weekend when you have lots of time (though most of the time it is cooking you can be playing) and heats up very well in the microwave for quick, tasty and complete meals that are easily eaten beside the keyboard.
The Mats:
This dish is prepared in two phases: the boiling phase and the finishing phase. The mats for the first phase are:
2.5 to 3 pounds of wolf meat or the cheapest boneless beef roast available at your local grocer. While this dish is fabulous with a sirloin roast, it works quite well for the bargain round roast that you wouldn't want to use for anything else.
1 large onion, quartered
2 tomatoes, quartered
1 cup baby carrots or 2 medium carrots chopped coarsely
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped in half
2 cups of brown rice
For phase 2, the mats are:
4 tablespoons of olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 red and 1 yellow pepper (orange is good too), thinly sliced after being cored and seeded
12 oz. tomato paste
1/4 cup of white wine
2 teaspoons ground cumin
salt and pepper (freshly ground preferred) to taste
The Quest:
Cut the roast into quarters.
Combine the meat, onion, tomatoes, carrots and garlic into a large stockpot.
Add water until it covers the meat by 2 inches.
Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered, skimming as needed.
Allow to cook until the meat is tender enough to be easily shredded. Depending on the quality of the cut of meat, this could take anywhere from 2 to 5 hours. Add water as necessary to keep the meat covered.
While the meat is cooking, prepare the brown rice using the package directions. Reserve for phase 2.
Strain the meat, reserving 1 cup of the broth for phase 2.
Allow the meat to cool and then shred into small strips (no thicker than a pencil)
Heat the oil in a very large frying pan or skillet over medium heat.
Cook the garlic, onion and peppers in the oil until soft, about 5 minutes.
Stir in the wine, tomato paste, broth, cumin, salt and pepper until all ingredients are mixed well.
Stir in the meat strips until well coated and cook until the sauce is reduced, about 5 to 10 minutes.
Serve on a bed of brown rice.
Unless you are feeding a 10-man raid, this should make enough for 8 more meals. Combine the rice with the remaining meat mixture and put into containers to be refrigerated until needed. Each individual serving will heat up nicely in the microwave for 2 to 3 minutes. In fact, this is a meal that actually improves when reheated.
Need something to carry you through your PvP grind or raids? Read Well Fed Buff and pick up some tips on how to make a Monster Omelet, Runn Tum Tuber Surprise or Spicy Dwarven Cocoa. These simple and fun recipes can give you that stat boost you need for your
World of Warcraft sessions.
