Ursurun Cuisine

Ursurun cuisine is quite varied, but makes excellent use of the wide variety of crops that can be grown in the chaparral as well as the many unique ingredients it has amassed as a centre of trade. Ursuruns favour dishes that can be served in small portions in the style of tapas, and are especially fond of foods that pair well with Moce (red whiskey).

## List of Ursurun Ingredients/Dishes

Alliu - Very pungent flowering plant closely related to onion. Tastes like garlic mixed with the pungency of leek. The greens are used as both aromatics and as a garnish, and the bulb is broken into cloves and fried to remove its unpleasant intensity, leaving behind a rich savoury flavour that serves as a basis for many sauces and condiments.

Burru (Tempu) - Butter. Burru tempu is a fermented butter with a more developed and pungent flavour.

Calure / Calure Cantonu - Chillies grown in specific regions. Their characteristics vary wildly depending on where in the chaparral they're grown, but are always at least medium in heat. Many of them have innately sweet and smoky flavour profiles.

Caggari - Caggari is a vibrant orange-red bush that grows in the Ursurun chaparral. Its fruit is blood-red and deeply savoury with hints of acidity and sweetness, often boiled down into a sauce to intensify its flavour. The fruits are also consumed raw in tursuri. The root of the caggari plant is full of starch and protein, and consists of a supremely sticky white flesh (the adhesive properties are lost as it is heated). The root has a flavour similar to ginger, and it is often pounded and acid added to create large curds. These curds are then moulded into patties and fried as a savoury protein option, or they are compressed into wheels and bacterial cultures are introduced to create a sweet, spicy semi-soft dessert cheese with a washed rind.

Caggari Tunde - A dessert made with caggari cheese whipped into a batter with other ingredients and baked atop a crust of sweetened cardinale dough. Often served by the slice in tucattu cantu (coffee houses).

Cardinale - Red potatoes, the most common starch of the region. Staple food of most inhabitants of the Red City.

Cardinale Asuttu - Cardinals that have been freeze-dried by exposing them to extreme cold and then extreme heat. When properly stored can keep for up to twenty years, and are typically ground and tossed into Occargiu for a filling meal. They can also be added to any boiled dish where they will reconstitute.

Carne - Meat. The name of the animal is appeneded, e.g., Carne Corru (Aurochs meat)

Carne Asuttu - Meat that has been air-dried, crumbled into a powder, and sieved to ensure that its texture is fine. Added to soups and stews as a protein option, or used to make Carnettune.

Carne Boligare - A small, bitesize ball of cardinale dough that has been wrapped around a filling of carne and assorted vegetables, then fried in oil until shatteringly crisp on the outside. Exceptionally popular in cantu, and almost always served with lashings of ciuri.

Carnettune - A common food eaten by soliders of Ursare made by pounding caggari root, boiling it in water, and adding carne asuttu. The result is a jello-like food that is rich and meaty, as well as gently spicy from the gingery flavour. It is eaten with seduri and (optionally) ciuri.

Ciuri - Fragrant oil steeped with sciursu and calure. The calure is then fried in the oil to render it crisp, along with aromatics (such as alliu). Most dishes in the Red City are served with this condiment, as its flavour profile is well-loved by most Ursuruns.

Chucaru - A dumpling made from cardinale flour and water. It is folded around a desired filling, commonly corru sera, and then boiled or steamed. It is also commonly fried after being cooked first, typically in burru.

Chucaru Tursu - Tursurru wrapped around a filling and deep fried in oil. Often served as a snack in cantu.

Corru Cantonu - Regional hard cheese made with Corru milk, often named after the specific canton in which it is produced.

Corru Sera - Extremely rich and smooth cheese, very similar to cream cheese, often used to fill dumplings or as the basis for sauces. Can be eaten with any carbohydrate for a filling meal, often with ciuri.

Durci - A preserve made from boiling fruit down with sugar. Juice from the caggari root is added to thicken the mixture, as the perfect amount of stickness remains after the cooking process. Durci is appended to the name of the fruit, e.g., posoccu durci.

Duru Alliu - A variant of alliu with none of the pungency and a large bulb. The bulb is often diced and eaten raw in Tursuri, but is also a common filling in chucaru.

Fosurru - Shredded cardinale that have excess moisture removed before being pressed into a cake and fried. Alliu is commonly added, and they are topped with posoccu durci or tucatti durci and eaten at breakfast. If eaten at another time of day, they are normally served with corru sera and ciuri.

Fune - Boiled and mashed cardinale kneaded into a dough with additional cardinale flour. Briefly boiled before being fried, most often in ciuri but also in burru, depending on one's mood.

Occargiu - A common stew flavoured with sciursu, alliu, and either caggiu fruit or a stock made from carne. The primary protein of occargiu is eyestalk mushrooms, and it is the food most commonly prepared in the homes of the poor owing to its ease of creation and the abundance of eyestalk mushrooms.

Petolu - A dish made from alternating layers of thinly sliced cardinale, carne in a sauce made from caggari fruit and alliu, and corru sera. The layers are placed in a square metal dish, baked, and served in small cubes on plates.

Pili - Long noodles made of reconstituted cardinale starch, first boiled and then tossed in a sauce. Not particularly common, but very popular in certain cantons of Ursaru.

Posoccu - A large fruit that looks similar to a peach. The flesh inside is firm and sweet, tasting something like a tangy apricot while being extremely juicy. It is commonly dried and steeped in tucattu to end meals, but is just as often made into a durci.

Sciursu - The stamen of a blood-red flowering plant that only grows on soil soaked in blood. Used as a spice for its intense flavour and colour. Extremely expensive outside of Ursaru, but fairly affordable within.

Seduri - A red salt that has particularly coarse grains. Seduri has a unique flavour that pairs well with moce and with ciuri, so is eaten with most savoury dishes.

Tucatti - An extremely large fruit that is renowned for being equal parts sweet and tart. Its flesh is almost inedible while raw due to the intensity of its flavour. In order to be consumed tucatti are juiced, the rinds are candied and made into marmalade, and the seeds are made into tucattu.

Tucattu - A hot beverage made by roasting the seeds of the tucatti fruit, grinding them, and steeping the resultant powder in water. Once roasted and ground the powder is compressed into bricks (tucattune) and dipped in a solution that protects the outside from oxidation, keeping the tucattu fresh for up to three years.

Tursu - Corn, taken from one of the layers and introduced to the chaparral's farmland. Has a pinkish kernel that is unusually sweet, but has excellent depth of flavour. Discovered in 341. Tursu can also be dried and ground to create a flour, though it must first be nixtamalised by being soaked in an alkaline solution. In the Ursaru proper this is usually limewater, but soldiers have been known to mix the ashes of their fire with water to achieve a similar effect.

Tursuri - A mixture of tursu, diced caggari fruit, and diced duru alliu, mixed with tucatti juice that has been diluted with water. The result is a salsa that is commonly eaten alongside the rich flavours of Ursurun cuisine to cut through its richness and heat.

Tursurru - An unleavened flatbread made with Tursu flour. The thickness varies on the individual making it, but is usually somewhere between a tortilla or naan.