Day 14: W20 Cookbook

Onyx Path’s Month of Nightmares features games, stories, and more to celebrate the spirit of Halloween. Count down the days with us by reading our excerpts, participating in the discussion, or by taking advantage of our special offers leading up to a haunted Halloween.

The W20 Cookbook is the book I didn’t know I wanted to make before I made it. I’ve always loved cooking, even though I’ve not yet had a kitchen with enough available floor that I could lie down. Turning raw ingredients into something that tastes good is an achievement, even if it’s one that most people manage most days. I like to cook, and eating together is one of those things that brings groups of people together — kinda like gaming.

Also, let’s face it: I’m not the teenager I was when I started playing Werewolf. That was more than twenty years ago. I did a lot of my gaming at University, consuming mostly cheap vodka and cigarettes. Ain’t no way in Hell I could survive on the same diet now.

So a cookbook. We designed it as an in-character artefact. It’s the book of a Silent Strider who recounts the stories of werewolves he’s met as he gathered recipes to reflect each tribe and each almost-tribe. It’s his collection of culinary lore. The recipes are quite real — when making the book I made each recipe multiple times, in both US and metric measures. The recipes have alternatives for making them vegan, or gluten-free, because I want as many people as possible to try them — and while the idea of a vegan werewolf may seem odd to some, it’s a distinct possibility.

I hope that the people treat the W20 Cookbook as more than just another Werewolf book, and try some of the recipes within.

Excerpted here is one of my favorite recipes. The smoky chicken exemplifies everything I love about cooking: It’s easy — chop a bunch of stuff and put it into a pot, leave that for an hour, then tuck in — and it tastes great.

Red Talons

Finding a recipe for the Red Talons was no mean feat. The whole idea of presenting a tribe’s food culture kinda falls down when most of that tribe hunt their own food and eat it raw. A Red Talon called Smokejumper saved me. Turns out she’s a Theurge who cooks “homid food.” I don’t know if she fell in love with the taste of cooked meat, or if it’s something about the different tastes available between Homid and Lupus. She’s not the only one — Smokejumper’s in contact with a handful of other Red Talons, who test new ideas and new flavor combinations. They’re making some mistakes, but it’s fascinating to see from the outside. It’s also a little worrying hearing Smokejumper talk about the more fundamentalist Red Talons, who see the whole process of cooked meat as being inherently Weaver-tainted.

I’ve had to adapt Smokejumper’s recipe. She’s a big believer in using “some” as a unit of measurement. Worse, her recipe starts “first build your oven.” If you’re feeding four, joint the chicken legs (or use four drumsticks) and serve with couscous or quinoa.

Smoky Chicken and Peppers

Serves 2?     Prep time 10 mins     Cook time 1hr

Ingredients

2 large bell peppers, either red or orange

1 red onion

2 red chili peppers

4 cloves garlic

2 whole chicken legs, skin on

1 tsp smoked paprika

olive oil

Salt and black pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 390°F/200°C.
2. Chop the peppers into slices. Peel and slice the red onion. Take the seeds out of the chilies and finely chop. Peel the garlic.
3. Place the chicken legs into an ovenproof dish or pan with a lid, skin-side down. Scatter the vegetables and garlic over the top, and then sprinkle over the paprika. Season with salt and pepper, and drizzle generously with olive oil.
4. Bake with the lid on for about 30 minutes.
5. Take the lid off and turn the chicken legs skin-side up. Cook for a further 30 minutes. Remove the garlic cloves before serving.

Variations

Vegetarian/Vegan—Replace the chicken legs with Portobello mushrooms. Cook for 15 minutes each, rather than 30.

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