Easy Recipes Inspired by The BFG Movie

Disney's The BFG directed by Steven Spielberg, adapted from famous chidren's author Roald Dahl, just opened this weekend and is playing in theatres now. The story is about a young orphan named Sophie who dares to stay awake at the witching hour and she meets The BFG (Big Friendly Giant). He takes her to Giant Country where they encounter other giants who are mean and eat children and their journey begins there.

I remember reading Roald Dahl's books as a kid and he was great at dreaming up complex tales and sparking a child's imagination. When I was approached to dream up some recipes inspired by the movie The BFG, I put my imagination to work. Here are three dishes relating to Giant Country.

Smashed Snozzcucumber Salad

http://roalddahl.wikia.com/wiki/Snozzcumber

BFG stands for Big Friendly Giant. When all the other giants eat humans, BFG eats a vegetarian diet of a foul tasting Snozzcucumber. It's really ugly (as pictured above) so I decided to make a cucumber salad that has all the textures and elements of snozzcucumber BUT is tasty!

It's a simple Chinese smashed cucumber salad with toasted white and black sesame seeds to represent the stripes of the snozzcucumber. I also added Hijiki seaweed because it's looks like short black hairs and the snozzcucumber has fibrous hairs.

Smashing persian cucumbers is a messy but cathartic process. After smashing and tearing it into pieces, I added chopped garlic and salt then mixed it with my hand and let it sit for 10 mins. The longer you let it sit, the saltier and more wilted it gets.

I found hijiki at my local Korean store but you can eleminate it altogether if you want. It comes dried and is rehydrated in a bowl of water for 30 minutes.

Drain the cucumber after 10 minutes and put into a mixing bowl with the sesame seeds and hijiki. Then season with rice vinegar and chili oil. Sesame oil and red pepper optional.

Fleshlumpeater Meatballs

http://www.wired.com/2016/06/bfg-exclusive-clip-meet-fleshlumpeater/

Fleshlumpeater is one of the biggest giants of Giant Country and he's not a vegetarian! Ah! For this character, I decided to make a big lump of meat (meatball) for his name. This is a classic bacon-wrapped meatball but with bison meat and a spicy chili sauce to go with it.

For the meatballs, combine these ingredients in a bowl, mix by hand, and form balls. Wrap with bacon, sear on a pan until the bacon is slightly browned. Then put it into the oven at 415*F for 10 mins. 

• ground bison
• one egg
• panko bread crumbs
• one quarter chopped onion
• 3-4 cloves minced garlic
• onion powder
• hamburger seasoning
• a small can of tomato paste (which I forgot to put into mine but you should put it in yours!)
• bacon

For sauce, roast green chili peppers, shallots, and garlic cloves in desired amounts in the oven. The more shallots and garlic you have, the sweeter the sauce will be. Choose amounts of each based on the more dominant flavor you want. Put everything in a food processor and blend while adding fish sauce and rice vinegar to taste. Adjust until you have a balance of sweet, spicy, salty, and sour.

• green chili peppers
• shallots
• garlic cloves
• fish sauce
• rice vinegar

Bloodbottler Acai Smoothie Jar

http://allaboutroalddahlo.weebly.com/the-baddies-in-roald-dahlacutes-books.html

You can see I'm taking literal translations of the giants' names. They are just large grotesque looking humans and that would not be very attractive as a food. However, blood in a bottle? I can do that. This acai jar makes a great breakfast or afternoon snacks for kids. 

The key to this acai bowl is to choose ingredients with red color and to serve in a mason jar. Hence, a bottle of blood.

Acai is a superfruit usually found in Brazil that has become very trendy as of late and you can find it in many shops. We make our own at home thanks to frozen packets like this. They come in blocks that defrost very easily with a quick 5 second rinse under water. It's a dark purple color and tastes very tart and sour if you don't blend it with other fruits. 

For two people, I use two blocks of frozen acai unsweetened, about 1.5 cup of strawberries, half cup of raspberries, and one frozen banana. For toppings, we like crushed nuts, banana slices, blueberries (or strawberries to stick with the red theme), coconut flakes, chia seeds for protein, and granola. 

 We use the Ninja Kitchen blender/food processor to make ours. I have blended with regular milk, almond milk, and coconut water before. Any of these will work but almond milk tastes best. Not as rich as whole milk and not as runny as coconut water. Add your toppings and enjoy!

 I hope you enjoyed these recipes. Be sure to check out The BFG in theatres now.