The Hunger Games Experiment

Over the last couple of months I have been reading the Hunger Games Trilogy and got completely hooked on them. In the process, I came across: The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook, by Emily Baines. Truth be told, I initially bought the cook book as a gift for @emysue, since she was the one who turned me onto the Trilogy in the first place. But since she raved about the cookbook quite a bit, I had to get my own copy.

Since getting my own copy I have decided to try and make all 150+ recipes from the cookbook which are recipes gleaned from the actual trilogy. You can call it an obsession for food, or call it a hobby, but my goal is to make most, if not all, of the meals from the HG book. So here it goes...

I only see it fitting that I start the Hunger Games Experiment (HGE) with Katniss Everdeen, the main character's favorite dish: Lamb Stew with Dried Plums.

First off, all prunes are dried plums... I learned that at the grocery store while I was shopping for ingredients when I couldn't find dried plums. Turns out, for marketing reasons they label them as Prunes. Just like rasins are not called dried grapes. I guess Lamb Stew with Dried Plums does sound more appetizing than Lamb Stew with Prunes. Bleghh!

So I got all the ingredients and decided to make it last night. The recipe is pretty straight forward. A pretty basic stew... You brown the meat, saute onions with garlic, deglaze... etc.






Add some stock, add the veggies and herbs and cook for a long time...



What threw me off was the addition of sugar. (quite a lot, if you ask me) and ginger ale. I thought nothing of it at the time, but Im here to just follow instructions.

After about 1 hour of prep and cooking and 2 hours of waiting for it to get cooked, this is what i ended up with:




Looks pretty good? It smells very good... but did it taste good? Of all the food that is presented to Katniss at the Games in the Capitol, does it live up to the hype?

Well... It is good. Between the plums, the ginger ale, and the additional sugar, the stew is sweet. Literally, sweet. The meat is very tender and the taste is almost delicate. You get hints of earthiness in the lamb shanks. The sweetness of the broth and plums, which have mostly disintegrated to mush, off set this taste in a good way.

If I were to cook this again, I would completely 86 the sugars, brown and white. And also put in the plums within the last 20 minutes of cooking in order for it retain some of its mass.

Was it worth the hype? I've had better Lamb Stew, but I guess if I lived all my life in District 12 subsisting on the Capitol's rations and the occasional wild game, I can see why Katniss would love this. My guess is it's the sugar. ;)