+Keeper Exile he/him Posted September 25, 2019 Report Share Posted September 25, 2019 (edited) In celebration of the soon coming Koloss Head Munching day on December 19 (I am pretty sure that's correct), I have decided that I am going to attempt to produce perhaps the weirdest dish I have ever seen in a book: chouta! Quote The flatbread used in chouta is very thick. The meat often used in the warcamps is flangria, which is mixed with ground lavis, formed into small balls, battered and fried. The meatballs are then stuffed into the fried bread and covered with a generous amount of dark gravy. The chouta stands in Dalinar's warcamp also sell a variety that is stuffed with fried cremling claws instead of meatballs, and there may be other variations. Chouta is flavorful, but not spicy. 8 Assuming that I don't want any cremling claws in my chouta, this seems to be fairly straightforward (I will ignore the fact that I am a horrid cook). I am planning on using either shredded chicken or ground beef for the meat, and then either beans or some other grain for the lavis. I was also thinking about getting a thick tortilla (or some other thick bread that I can fry in oil and then wrap around a bunch of meat and possibly beans). And finally, what I think is the hardest part, the gravy. For this, I was thinking about normal brown gravy, but I don't think that will fulfill the "flavorful, but not spicy" category. Please give your suggestions and opinions on the ingredients (especially the gravy and bread), methods of preparation, or really anything else. I am excited to see what comes from this, though it will probably end up like a lump of oily meat, beans, gravy, and tortilla. Chouta Coppermind page: https://coppermind.net/wiki/Chouta Edited September 25, 2019 by Keeper Exile 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quantus he/him Posted September 25, 2019 Report Share Posted September 25, 2019 For the gravy you could go with a heavy garlic & onion flavor palette, it's a classic that's strong flavors without and particular heat (I recommend a dash of worchestershire sauce, too, with those). I made a Chull-meat recipe on that side of things that runed out pretty good. Alternatively, you could probably pull off something pretty good on the cilantro/cumin side of things, but with the beans and flatbread you'd be going full-burrito at that point. You know, if you want to really replicate the...Spirit of the Flangria, I think cubed Spam is the only real option. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Keeper Exile he/him Posted September 25, 2019 Author Report Share Posted September 25, 2019 That gravy recipe sounds perfect. 6 minutes ago, Quantus said: You know, if you want to really replicate the...Spirit of the Flangria, I think cubed Spam is the only real option. Yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+robardin he/him Posted September 25, 2019 Report Share Posted September 25, 2019 1 hour ago, Quantus said: You know, if you want to really replicate the...Spirit of the Flangria, I think cubed Spam is the only real option. Haha, yes, I think I even posted a picture of an old can of SPAM in a discussion of flangria and what a real-world equivalent of "Soulcast meat" would be. Even more flangria-like would be... Deviled Spam. The can even reads, "It's SPAM... That SPREADS!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+robardin he/him Posted September 25, 2019 Report Share Posted September 25, 2019 (edited) 10 hours ago, Keeper Exile said: In celebration of the soon coming Koloss Head Munching day on December 19 (I am pretty sure that's correct), I have decided that I am going to attempt to produce perhaps the weirdest dish I have ever seen in a book: chouta! Assuming that I don't want any cremling claws in my chouta, this seems to be fairly straightforward (I will ignore the fact that I am a horrid cook). I am planning on using either shredded chicken or ground beef for the meat, and then either beans or some other grain for the lavis. I was also thinking about getting a thick tortilla (or some other thick bread that I can fry in oil and then wrap around a bunch of meat and possibly beans). And finally, what I think is the hardest part, the gravy. For this, I was thinking about normal brown gravy, but I don't think that will fulfill the "flavorful, but not spicy" category. Please give your suggestions and opinions on the ingredients (especially the gravy and bread), methods of preparation, or really anything else. I am excited to see what comes from this, though it will probably end up like a lump of oily meat, beans, gravy, and tortilla. Chouta Coppermind page: https://coppermind.net/wiki/Chouta I would say that "very thick flatbread" = not tortillas, but middle eastern style pita. I would think not the "pocket" kind, but the flat kind they wrap shish kebobs and souvlaki in, except that the description then says "stuffed into the fried bread", so perhaps it is pocket-style flatbread? "Ground lavis mixed with soulcast meat, formed into small balls" = sounds like chickpea flour, as used for falafel balls, or maybe a rice/lentil flour, mixed with ground meat and some binding agent (egg whites?) like when making meatballs. Just don't use bread crumbs or flour for the flangria balls, it's supposed to have a grainier texture. As for the meat, use Deviled Spam if you like, haha, or something more bland/tasteless the way Soulcast food in general is supposed to taste, like ground turkey (I think ground beef or pork, or even Spam, would be flavorful on its own). Then batter and fry the balls, like hush puppies. That reminds me: In real life, I have had delicious "crab filled hush puppies" which could serve as a stand-in for the "cremling claws" version of chouta, if you assume that "cremling claws" means "the meat extracted from the claws" (only Horneaters eat the shells along with the meat, right?). Given that, I would assume Soulcast meat would not replicate the crustacean meat they already have naturally and relatively cheaply, but something that would be cheap but bland blocks of protein like the pork "steaks" or the "chicken" meat they have, meaning ground turkey as a stand-in is perfect. (Or even "Tofurkey".) After all, if Soulcast meat was basically the same as cremling meat but produced with Soulcasters, they wouldn't mention two different "varieties" of chouta, right? It'd just be chouta, made more cheaply. Chouta is "flavorful, but not spicy". So salt, black pepper, garlic, cumin, a dash of powdered ginger and white pepper, but not chili, paprika, or cayenne pepper (or Old Bay seasoning). I'd add a few dashes of Accent (MSG) into the gravy, as well. Now stuff the balls into "very thick flatbread" that is itself fried. The "stuffed into" aspect makes it sound like pocket pita, which of course needs to be thick enough to be sliced into a pocket. So, after deep frying the battered hush puppies with crab/meat fillings, drop opened pocket pita into the fryer, stuff with the balls, and fill with "dark gravy." The gravy is the tough part. Not sure what "dark gravy" would go with the cremling (crab) version, seems to me that would really work best with a tartar sauce, mayo, or dill-yogurt-like "white sauce." But as far as the meatball based ones go, you could go with your basic turkey gravy like for Thanksgiving. Edited September 25, 2019 by robardin set URL in text 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Keeper Exile he/him Posted September 25, 2019 Author Report Share Posted September 25, 2019 (edited) @robardin Wow! That is very descriptive. Thanks for the suggestions. I think that using ground turkey for the flangria is a really good idea, as well as the extensive seasoning list you made (proves that you are an infinitely better cook than me. You actually can name a seasoning outside of salt and pepper). Edited September 25, 2019 by Keeper Exile Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bookish Ocelot she/her Posted September 26, 2019 Report Share Posted September 26, 2019 I've had something similar to chouta. Basically, naan bread (think thick pita) wrapped around turkey meatballs and slathered with a Greek yogurt sauce. Not quite gravy, but still really good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+robardin he/him Posted September 26, 2019 Report Share Posted September 26, 2019 17 hours ago, BookishOcelot said: I've had something similar to chouta. Basically, naan bread (think thick pita) wrapped around turkey meatballs and slathered with a Greek yogurt sauce. Not quite gravy, but still really good. Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I think it should be the thick pita flatbread and not pocket pita, and that the description of the meatball being "stuffed into" the flatbread just means a wrap. But what about the frying part? I wondered how the flatbread could both fried and stuffed if it was a wrap instead of pocket-style pita, and decided to go back to the sources... WoR Ch. 18: Lopen is described as "taking a bite of the paper-wrapped something he was eating" that "looked like a thick piece of flatbread wrapped around something goopy", and could be handed over by him to Kaladin (without falling part) while he fished in his pocket. It seemed to be chunks of undefinable meat slathered in some dark liquid, all wrapped in overly thick bread. Kaladin pronounces it "disgusting." WoR Ch. 46: Kaladin is dismayed to see Sigzil eating "something steaming and wrapped in paper" that he then has to ask Lopen what was in it. "Flangria," he's told, as Rock goes over to the same vendor to get some as well. Soulcast meat. Kaladin says (apparently as a negative) "Look, he's frying that bread," and Lopen adds, "you fry the flangria, too. Make little balls of it, mixed with ground lavis. Batter it up and fry it, then stuff it in fried bread and pour on gravy." (And then Rock's chouta crunches as he bites in, because he asked for deep-fried cremling claws on his.) So: The flangria in chouta, as first seen by Kaladin, appeared to be "chunks", but in fact are fried balls of ground lavis and meat. And the flatbread is both described as wrapped around the flangria, as well as fried, which is puzzling unless you interpret "frying" the bread as griddling with some oil rather than deep frying (like a taco shell), like Indian/Pakistani paratha rolls use. So it's crispy to taste on the one side, at least, but left still flexible enough to use as a wrap. So nix on my earlier suggestion of using pocket pita. Go find pictures of a "paratha roll", fill something similar with battered and fried balls of ground turkey and "lavis", and cover with a suitably dark sauce to taste! One key question here to revisit is what is our world's analog for "lavis", a "cereal crop" described has having "grain" removed for cooking that includes "steaming". Its best analog is not rice, however, which is more similar to "tallew", or to "clema" which is mushier when made into a cake or bread that falls apart easily and is cheaper than either lavis or tallew... I guess like oats are in our world (what Samuel Johnson's seminal dictionary of the English language from 1755 famously defined as "a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people."). I had suggested using lentil or chickpea flour for coarseness, but those are based on legumes, not cereals. But the texture is not described as particularly grainy or coarse. So maybe just go ahead and use regular wheat flour. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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