Cooking Christmas Dinner with Nerds: Liquid Nitrogen and Other Mischief

Christmas is a time of fun, atmosphere and cozy togetherness. But as you all know, true nerds are incorrigible and even try their tech antics at Christmas dinner. Are you such a source of insecurity? Then we have some nice tips here.

Harry Potter’s pumpkin juice

This simple recipe will put you in the spirit of Hogwarts. No house elves have been exploited for this recipe, so muggles will have to wave their electric wand themselves.

1 liter apple juice
1/2 cup canned pumpkin (*not pumpkin pie filling!)
1/4 cup apricot jam
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pour the apple juice into a blender or a bowl with an immersion blender.
Add the canned pumpkin, apricot jam, vanilla and cinnamon.
Blend on the highest setting until everything is well ground and blended.
You can also pour everything into a bowl and beat/mix by hand. Pour into glasses and serve.

Gagh (Klingon meal of live worms)

The Klingons from Star Trek love to eat this beloved dish, which consists of live worms. While the end result of this recipe looks pretty scary, there’s no worm involved here.

Ingredients for 3 to 4 servings:

– 200 g pre-cooked udon noodles (also known as Japanese wheat flour noodles)
– 60 g dry (uncooked) soba noodles (aka Japanese buckwheat noodles)
– 60 g dry (uncooked) udon noodles
– 6 spring onions, finely chopped
– 3 eggs, beaten
– 3/4 cup bean sprouts
– 1 packet nasi spices
– Soy sauce
– Cooking oil (for example a mixture of 1:1 sunflower oil and olive oil)
– Food coloring (red and black are the most lifelike)

Preparation:

1. Boil the noodles in water with ~2 tablespoons of soy sauce and food coloring (~2:1 red:black). Simmer until desired tenderness. Let it drip out.
2. In a frying pan, heat ~2 tbsp. cooking oil and ~2 teaspoons soy sauce. Stir-fry all spring onions and bean sprouts. Add the eggs little by little, stirring constantly.
3 Add the cooked noodles to the stir-fry mixture. Add the fried rice and ~ 2 tablespoons extra cooking oil. Mix constantly and thoroughly to obtain a homogeneous mixture.
4. Serve on a plate garnished with a head of lettuce.

Preparing a dessert with liquid nitrogen

Are you one of the lucky few who can get your hands on liquid nitrogen, and do you want to prepare your guests for life on Neptune’s moon Triton in the distant future? Then this is the recipe to prepare unsurpassed ice cream.

First make sure you have the following ready:

-4 cups full-fat whipped cream
-1-1/2 cups condensed milk
-1-3/4 cups of sugar
-1 liter pureed fresh strawberries or thawed frozen berries
-Additional 1/2 cup of sugar if using unsweetened berries
-5 or more liters of liquid nitrogen
-Gloves and goggles recommended
-Large punch bowl or salad bowl made of plastic or stainless steel
-Wooden spoon
-Metal wire whisk

Preparation

With the help of this recipe you can make half a liter of strawberry ice cream. First mix the whipped cream, condensed milk and sugar in the bowl using the large one. Keep beating until the sugar has dissolved. If you are making vanilla or chocolate ice cream, whisk in the vanilla or chocolate syrup. You can also do this with other liquid flavorings.

Now comes the more dangerous part. Put on your gloves and goggles. pour a small amount of liquid nitrogen directly into the bowl containing the ice cream ingredients. Continue to stir the mixture as you slowly add more liquid nitrogen. Once the cream base thickens, add the pureed strawberries or other fruits.

If the ice cream gets too thick to stir for the whisk, switch to the wooden spoon. When the ice cream becomes too hard to stir even with the spoon, remove the spoon and pour the remaining liquid nitrogen onto the ice cream to harden completely. Let the excess liquid nitrogen evaporate before serving the ice cream.

PS: here’s a tutorial to build your own device that extracts liquid nitrogen from the air. Be careful, never get liquid nitrogen on your skin and don’t store it in a sealed bottle.