Culinary art?! I know I know, something new. But Aev, you’re a student, can you even cook? I don’t like to brag, but I’ve been told I get the cereal to milk ratio right every time. I’m Bob Ross without the afro, and tonight I’m going to walk you through my experience of making Osol Twists.
I’m not sure how it happened, but Aev now has a reputation around Osol Twists. I figured I would try them out in real life to see what all the hype was about. If you’d like to give it a try here is the recipe I followed. I’m going to outline that here as well. The ingredient list is very manageable;
- 3 Oranges (Unless you’re me, and it takes a couple to get that whole “Peel” thing figured out.)
- 4+ Cups of water. You’ll be using more than that for rinsing as well.
- 2 Cups of sugar. You may want a bit more if you’ve got a sweet tooth.
That covers the food portion, but you’ll need these as well.
- Sauce Pan (A fairly large one works best)
- Vegetable (Or fruit, if that’s what you’re into) Peeler
- Wire cooling rack
Ingredients, assemble!
Presentation makes the meal. With everything assembled the first step is to start peeling the oranges. Through trial and error I learned the best way is to start at the top and peel clockwise (Unless you’re in the southern hemisphere, then you need to do it counter-clockwise) from the top along latitude lines.
They should look nothing like this.
Why is the band-aid there? Three guesses. Moving right along, once the oranges have been peeled and placed into the sauce pan cover them with cold water.
This part looks kinda gross.
After the peels are submerged bring the whole thing to a boil. This is the part that kills whatever germs were living on the peels, so it’s best to be patient and let heat do its work. You’ll need to monitor, and stir.
Stir!
You can even see my battle wound in that one. The things I do for this fleet. After the water is brought to a boil drain the mix and start the process over again with additional cups of cold water. If you bought your oranges somewhere sketchy you may even consider a third boil. Your call. Once all the boiling is out of the way we can get to the sweet part. Rinse your pan and then add water (2-4 cups depending on the size of the pan and how many peels) and 2 cups of sugar.
More stirring.
It’s important to mix them up before heating it to a boil. Not sure why, but that’s what the recipe says. Two cups may be a bit light on the sugar as well. The traditional Romulan twist is much more tart than sweet, so if you want the Romulan experience stick to two cups. I’d recommend a bit more though. Once the water is totally clear bring the heat to a simmer setting and soak the peels for at least 45 minutes. They should be fairly translucent.
Bath time.
Once that 45 minutes has passed the next step is to start drying the peels. Place some paper towels under the wire rack and lay the peels out. The drying takes a while.
Early stages of drying.
If you’re really impatient (like me) you can start eating them after about an hour. I found the ones that I let dry overnight much better though, so a bit of patience did work out. According the recipe you can store them for three weeks. I wasn’t having any of that though, they were all gone the next day. Same with that fancy presentation junk. I’m not cooking for the Khre’Riov.
So, how did they taste. Well, my first though was ‘interesting’. It’s not something that I’d tasted before, so it was a bit hard to find a comparison. Luckily just a few weeks ago I ran into orange crush pop-tarts in the store. Since pop-tarts are one of my major food groups I grabbed a box. If you want to taste Osol Twists without making them that’s the closest you can get.
It’s not a food for everyone. I’m not sure I’d make them again. If Thompson was cooking, sure thing. We all know food tastes the best when other people make it. The good news is that if anyone I know ever needs oranges peeled I’m their guy.
The whole process was entertaining. Being able to put a taste to an alien food I use so often in game is a neat little RP bonus. I very well may try it for some other alien food or drink, and I suggest all you give it a try as well.
