Have a Happy STO Winter!

Hello everyone. Content Designer, Tiff Chu, here. I jump start my holiday spirit by thinking about holiday eats. Sometimes, replicated food isn’t quite right for all your holiday festivities. If you’re feeling adventurous in the kitchen, try making some of these recipes from scratch!

It’s been a year since I last found this recipe during the Winter Invasion, and handed it to Neelix. He hasn’t ever made it for me though! This year, I found the recipe again, and I’m keeping it to myself. Well, I suppose I’m also sharing it with you. Take that, Neelix!

Serves 2.

Hardware:

Small whisk

2-cup measuring cup or medium mixing bowl

Small mixing bowl

2 small glasses for serving

Small spatula or spoon

Ingredients:

1 egg, separated (I do not suggest using the egg shell method to separate because... germs)

2 teaspoons sugar

1+ drop of vanilla (not to exceed ¼ teaspoon)

1 cup Targ milk (or skimmed Milk of Cow)

3 tablespoons of Rum (or Brandy, Bourbon, Scotch, or none of the above)

Pinch of nutmeg

Pinch of orange zest (optional)

Directions:

Whisk sugar and egg yolk together until light yellow. Stir in vanilla, milk, rum, and zest. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until fluffy (but not stiff). Fold the egg whites into the milk mixture. Separate into 2 serving glasses. Toast your friend and enjoy!

Warning: If you are squeamish about raw egg, you can cook half the milk first with a teaspoon of cornstarch, then quickly whisk the egg mixture into it, turning off the heat, and pouring the cold milk in right after – while constantly stirring. Or drink the replicated version.

I found the recipe to resuscitate Last Year’s Fruitcake but it was so awful, I decided to find a new, better fruitcake. You’d think it’d be possible after hundreds of years for humans to perfect this, but I had to travel to the future to get this recipe! I’m pretty sure the timeline is intact after my brief incursion. Serves 3 dozen.

Oven: 300°F

Hardware & Bake times:

Choose one:

Pan Bake Time

3 dozen individual (muffin pan) cakes 60 min 16 mini loaves (about 3 3/4" x 2 1/2") 65~70 min 6 to 8 medium loaves (about 3" x 5") 75~80 min 2 standard 9" x 5" loaves 2hrs + 10~15 min

Mixer

2 mixing bowls

1 non-reactive bowl (stainless steel, ceramic, glass, or metal coated with enamel)

Whisk

Spatula

Brush for glaze

Spray (and muffin liners if baking small cakes)

Cooling rack

Fruits:

(These are suggestions, but you will need a total of 2 ½ pounds of dried fruits. You can use dried blueberries, raisins, peaches, mangoes, etc. I do recommend keeping the dates though – they add a lot of moisture and flavor.)

1 ½ cup diced dried pineapple

1 ½ cup dried cranberries

1 cup dried apricots

1 ½ cup chopped dates

1 cup candied cherries (plus more if you want to decorate the top of your cake)

1/3 cup dice crystallized ginger candy (optional)

¾ cup Rum (or Brandy, Apple Juice, Cranberry Juice...)

Cake Batter:

1 cup Butter

2 cups Dark Brown Sugar

1 teaspoon Salt

1 Teaspoon Cinnamon

¼ teaspoon Allspice

¼ teaspoon Nutmeg

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

4 large Eggs

3 cup All-Purpose Flour

2 tablespoons dark dutch-processed Cocoa Powder

¼ cup Boiled Cider (or Dark Corn Syrup)

½ cup Apple or Cranberry Juice (or Water)

2 cups chopped toasted Pecans (or Walnuts, Almonds or whatever mix of nuts you like)

Glaze:

Rum (or Brandy, Simple Syrup, Vanilla Syrup)

Directions:

The night before – In a large non-reactive bowl, combine all dried fruits with Rum (or liquid of your choice) from the “Fruit” section above. Cover and let rest overnight. Prep your pans of choice (from table above in “Hardware” section) by lightly greasing them. If you are using muffin liners, also grease the liners. Preheat oven to 300°F. Move your oven shelf to bake the pans in the middle. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until well combined. Beat in salt, spices, and baking powder Beat in eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each egg. In a separate bowl, sift or whisk together the flour and cocoa. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture along with the boiled cider, beating gently to combine. Switch to your spatula, and stir in the juice; everything from the Fruits section from your non-reactive bowl; and nuts. Pour batter into you pans (no matter which pan, they should be filled to about ¾ full). Bake according to these times (or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean):

3 dozen individual (muffin pan) cakes 60 min 16 mini loaves (about 3 3/4" x 2 1/2") 65~70 min 6 to 8 medium loaves (about 3" x 5") 75~80 min 2 standard 9" x 5" loaves 2hrs + 10~15 min

Cool the cakes in the pans for at least 5 minutes before removing, but you do not need to remove them from their pans. Brush the warm cake with your glaze of choice, such as Rum (or Brandy, Simple Syrup, or Vanilla Syrup). When the cakes are completely cool (usually a few hours for loaf cakes), wrap tightly in plastic wrap and store at room temperature for up to 6~8 weeks.

Tips:

Reactive bowls include: Aluminum, cast iron, and copper

If you are short on time, instead of resting the dried fruits in the rum overnight, you can mix and microwave everything to very hot (1~2 minutes), and cover then rest for 1 hour.

Start with all ingredients at room temperature.

Loosen the edges before removing the cakes from the pans.

If you like just a hint of Rum or Brandy flavor, add 1 tablespoon of liquor to ¾ cup of syrup for the glaze.

Should be free of all temporal side effects as long as all ingredients are from your current timeline.

It simply tickles me when a Klingon gets offended over cooked targ meat, saying it should be eaten raw. Well, for those digestive systems that might be a bit more delicate, I think Glazed Targ would be a better choice. This recipe calls for 2 racks of targ, which some humans claim is similar to 2 racks of lamb (6~8 ribs each).

Serves 6~8.

Oven: 375°F

Hardware & Bake times:

Bundt pan

Non-reactive baking dish (Glass or ceramic is recommended)

Small mixing bowl (I like to use my glass measuring cup)

Small whisk

Cooling Rack

Serving tray and bowl

Ingredients:

2 racks of Targ (6 to 8 ribs each rack)

2 tablespoons Olive Oil

1/3 cup Honey

½ cup chopped fresh Mint Leaves

2 tablespoons White Wine Vinegar (or Sherry Vinegar)

½ teaspoon Salt

Optional: Dijon Mustard, Black Pepper

Directions:

The night before: Combine Olive oil, honey, mint leaves, vinegar, and salt in the baking dish. French your rack of targ (for a similar procedure, you can look up how to french racks of lamb, or see below). Before turning your racks of targ into a crown, coat both sides in the honey mixture in the pan, cover, and rest in the fridge overnight. (If you’re really in a hurry, you can just marinate them for 20 minutes.) 75 minutes before serving, preheat the oven to 375°F and set the rack to the middle. Remove the targ from the pan. Bend each rack into a semi-circle and use strong twine to tie them together at the base and center. Pour extra honey mixture into small mixing bowl Push the rib ends outward to create the crown. Place it in a Bundt pan, meat side down, with the center of the pan coming up through the center of your roast. Place the Bundt pan on the middle rack in the oven, and cook for 30~35 minutes until the meat reaches an internal temperature of 130°F – approximately 8~12 minutes per pound. Remove from oven, take out the roast and transfer it to a rack. Cover with foil and let rest for 20 minutes. Pour any juices from the Bundt pan into your mixing bowl with the honey. Whisk to combine. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Transfer roast to serving tray. You may add rice or stuffing to the center of the targ roast, but who really wants to eat that stuff? Serve with the juice mixture on the side

Hardware:

Chopping board

Sharp knife (such as a 6 inch boning knife)

Strong Kitchen Twine

Directions:

Stand the targ rack up on one end so that you can see the "eye" (or round of meat) of the chop. Score the fat side at the edge about an inch and a half or so up the rib from the eye to use as a cutting guideline. Do the same on the other end of the rack. Some racks have a small flap of cartilage – cut it out and toss it. Using a sharp boning knife, cut through the fatty side of the rib roast, to the bone, from one marked end to the other. Then go back over your cut and, holding the knife perpendicular to the roast, jab it in several places to go all the way through the other side, so that the other side gets "marked" with scores. Turn the rack over, so that it is now bone-side up. You should be able to see the markings made from the knife that got inserted from the other side. Treat these markings as the boundary beyond which you will not cut. Working from the skinny ends of the rib bone, make a cut down along the bone until you get to the previously-scored marking, then cut across to the next rib and cut up to the end of that rib bone. Continue to do this until all of the bones have had the flesh cut around them. Turn the rack over again so that the fat side is on top, and begin to pull off the fat and flesh from the bones. Use your knife to help cut away any targ flesh that is sticking to the bones. Scrape away any residual flesh on the exposed bones. Use a towel to wipe the bones clean. Some prefer to use a strong twine contraption to pull the flesh off the bones – do what you’re comfortable doing. With practice, you can do this in about 3 or 4 minutes per rack of targ. It is a useful skill to impress any guests you invite for the holidays as you can french other types of roasts.

Stay frosty my friends, and enjoy a safe Winter Holiday!

Tiff Chu

Content Designer

Star Trek Online