HAVE you ever looked at food in video games or even trading card games and marveled at how mouth-watering it looks? Or if you’d be able to make it IRL? In this case, you probably wouldn’t be asking yourself these exact questions. Not after you see the inspiration behind this creation by Wizards of the Coast. Magic: The Gathering’s new card set, Modern Horizon 2, launches on June 18. To celebrate its launch, Wizards of the Coast have cooked up a wicked feast for fans try and recreate.
Modern Horizons 2 officially launches on June 18 and features a plethora of new cards to play around with. However there’s few cards that’ll be familiar to hardcore MTG fans. Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar, or Asmor for short, makes an appearance in the new card set.
Asmor has been a part of MTG lore since 1993 first featuring on the Granite Gargoyle rare card. She referenced through a quote she makes about the taste of Gargoyles in The Underground Cookbook. Since then, Asmor and her Underground Cookbook has been mentioned in an official MTG short story titled Chef’s Surprise and on various cards.
The chef of the underworld finally makes an appearance in card form some 28 years later as a Legendary Creature. Asmor’s famous cookbook has also been turned into an Artifact card, which of course allows you to create a food card.
While her recipes are underworld inspired, there’s one in particular that Wizards of the Coast have recreated using IRL ingredients. It’s called Chef’s Surprise – A Recipe From The Underworld Cookbook. On card, this tooth-filled delicacy with a scorpion tail sticking out of its mouth is terrifying. And I could almost say the same about its IRL counterpart.
But don’t let the image fool you. Chef’s Surprise is made mostly of chicken thighs and ground beef. A crab leg has also taken the scorpion tales place, but still has the same horrific affect. According to Wizards of the Coast, Chef’s Surprise serves 3 to 4 people. They’ve also been kind enough to share the recipe so that you too can make this demonic roast for yourself.
Chef’s Surprise – A Recipe From The Underworld Cookbook, by Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar
Serves three to four
Ingredients
Chicken:
- 2 Maryland chicken thighs bones removed and laid flat
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1/4 onion, grated
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon grated garlic
- 1 teaspoon grated ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon chili pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
- Pinch of cinnamon powder
Stuffing:
- 600g ground beef
- 5g gelatin powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- A pinch of coarsely ground black pepper
Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Toppings:
- 1 daikon radish
- 10 apples
- Grapes, to taste
- Green leaves, to taste
- 1 crab leg
- Skewers, for decoration
Directions:
- Remove excess skin and fat from the Maryland chicken thighs and pierce the skin with a fork.
- Combine all the ingredients for the chicken together in a bowl, rub thoroughly, and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.
- In a separate bowl, combine the ingredients for the stuffing and knead well until white, then refrigerate until ready to use.
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat, and place the marinated chicken thighs skin side down.
- When browned, turn over and remove to a plate to remove from heat.
- Remove any browned bits of meat from the pan, add the sauce ingredients and simmer gently to make a sauce.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- Cut the daikon into quarters (pending size of radish, may need to be thirds), then into smaller pieces to be shaped like fangs (image below). Create two sets of the fangs as shown below. One set will be used during the cooking process and the other for topping.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and use half of the stuffing to form a round base. Place the rest of stuffing on top of the centre of the base, in between the two chicken thighs (reference image below).
- Fill the area between the two thighs where the stuffing is visible with one set of the daikon fangs.
- Bake in the oven at 200°C for 20 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, brush with the sauce and bake again at 200°C for 10 minutes.
- Remove the cooked fangs and replace them with the uncooked second set you’ve set aside.
- Serve on a plate. Garnish with green leaves, grapes and apples.
- Attach the fangs for finishing. Decorate with crab legs on bamboo skewers and you’re done!
