I’m just going to say it. This may be the greatest pop culture celebration book ever. It couldn’t be more keyed-in on its source material and fan base. Ugh. Gah. Zhuuh. You’ll make those sounds and more going through the recipes in Alien: The Official Cookbook, the latest Alien franchise tie-in book and a food prep guide for anyone planning the ultimate Halloween party. “Gross!” You can just hear those kids who are fans of gross-out movies as they try to pick what course to make first. It’s disturbing and a masterpiece at the same time. Normally I wouldn’t review a cookbook without preparing some of the meals, so I can present a read on the design and content as well as the desirability of the food. This is an exception, first: to get it out to you before Halloween weekend, and second: because if you’re like me then making these selections for a party will be more for the visual surprise than the eating (I may double back later for a review of the meals, too).
Eggs, chestbursters, and xenomorphs. Oh, my! The dishes are all presented in a way Alien designer H.R. Giger would have loved. Alien is known for its dinner scene, cut short by… intervening events of a horrific nature. (Insert a screaming Veronica Cartwright as Lambert here). Thanks to cookbook writer Chris-Rachel Oseland, you, too, can experience something similar.
Alien: The Official Cookbook is available now here at Amazon (you still have time to get it before Halloween!). Take a look at a preview of some of the recipes below, courtesy of Titan Books.
A new cookbook has the recipes to get you through your travels wherever you are in the ‘Verse. Firefly: The Big Damn Cookbook pulls together foods seen throughout the series and some just inspired by it with lots of good in-universe commentary from Mal Reynolds and his crew. I’ve been a fan of the sci-fi series since the San Diego Comic-Con 10th anniversary reunion (discussed here), and have reviewed every tie-in from the series released so far here at borg. Banter of the crew is a great feature of many of the Firefly books published in the past ten years, and author Chelsea Monroe-Cassel gets all the characters right in her latest cookbook. Firefly: The Big Damn Cookbook is now available for all Browncoats from Titan Books–you can take a look at a preview of recipes below courtesy of Titan Books, and order a copy here at Amazon.
Among all the tie-ins, this is the first foray into the food of the series. A great focus is placed on the types of meals that make sense in the ‘Verse for a ship’s crew, as well as Joss Whedon’s incorporation of a future filled with Asian influences. Five-spice is a common seasoning incorporated into the recipes, along with ginger and soy sauce, and that simplicity of nomadic life that underscored the travels of Serenity come through, too, with everyday ingredients, like honey for a sweetener, and white sauce, brown sauce, and biscuits a key component. You’ll find foods discussed on the series by the crew of Serenity, other foods tangentially seen on screen, with some added in a creative way to fill in the blanks in between. The author includes appropriate specs for meals with simple ingredients but also some dishes from more extravagant fare (like you might find at a formal shindig on Persephone). The only way to tell if a cookbook is good is to dig right in. So I tested four of the recipes that appealed to me the most on paper.
First I made Simon’s Eggy Oat Mush from the Recipes for Shipboard Living section. This turned out to be a hearty breakfast concoction, a savory oatmeal cooked with veggies, egg, and garlic. The egg brings the flavors all together and it will fill you up for the day. It had a unique flavor profile for anyone only accustomed to oatmeal with brown sugar, cinnamon or other sweeteners–different enough that you could see being stuck on a ship and coming up with this as a staple. It took only 15 minutes to prepare, and would also make a good dinner side dish.
The prep for River’s Meat Pie could hardly have been simpler. This recipe was in the Recipes from the Core Worlds–Underbelly section (as opposed to an “upper crust” item). The result was a tasty dish, highlighted by the right amount of fennel, onion, and garlic, and a perfect pastry dough crust (pictured above, top). I halved the cookbook recipe and it made four perfect hand pies, great for carrying to lunch any day of the week (think Hostess fruit pies, but savory). The crust was well-suited for a hand pie, sturdy enough to hold everything in, yet nice and flaky.
