“There is a charm in making skull stew, to the unaccustomed cook, from the excitement of wondering what the result will be, and whether any flavour save that of onions will survive the competition in the mixture.” ~’anIe beSant
This dish is exactly what it says it is: a skull with meat stewed off and served on a nice bed of entrails. It is a Klingon food that is not well known by non-Klingons, but is as common as gagh on the tables and restaurants of the Empire. That’s mostly because it is a great way to make use of the left over animal parts and vegetable scraps after other dishes are made. A continuous stew is generally ready in a Klingon household (or public house, or restaurant) with new ingredients being added daily. However, is the basic, initial recipe.
Yields: 6-8 servings
INGREDIENTS:
• 1 medium-to-large-sized calf’s skull
• 1 medium-sized onion, chopped
• 1 small green bell pepper, chopped
• 4 small tomatoes, chopped or 1 8-ounce can peeled tomatoes, chopped
• ½ pound mushrooms, chopped (optional)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• ½ cup cream
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil
• 2 beef bouillon cubes
• tablespoons dry sherry
• ½ teaspoon salt
• black and cayenne pepper to taste
• Tabasco to taste
DIRECTIONS:
Wash and clean the calf’s head, removing the brains and blood. Then cover with water and bring to a boil; remove the surface sum, cover with lid, reduce heat, and continue boiling for at least 2 hours until the cheek meat is tender. Remove head from pot and let cool. When it is sufficiently cooled, cut the cheek meat away from the bone, cube and set aside. Wash and save the skull.
In a separate baking dish combine 2 tablespoons melted butter and two tablespoons of flour with just enough water to make a think paste. Season this with the salt, pepper, cayenne, and Tabasco, add the cubed cheek meat, and stir in the beef bouillon. Bake this mixture in a deep pan at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.
Now in a medium skillet, brown the onion and bell pepper in oil (if you are using mushrooms, ad them at this time), and then add the tomatoes and heat until they begin to dissolve. Add the onion, pepper, tomato and optional mushroom mixture to the cheek meat and flower mixture in the oven and bake about another 10 minutes.
Mix the eggs and cream together and add them to the cooking mixture. Add the skull and return to the oven. When the 10 minutes has elapsed, remove the stew from the oven. Stir in the cooking sherry.
Place the calf’s skull in the center of a large serving bowl and over it pour the combined stew mixture.
recipe: Khartan house molnoth
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