Welcome to the very first volume of Pameryawen's Essential Corelanyan Cuisine! (The publisher told me the title was too long to put of the book cover, but this is the full title of my work.) When I reached the young age of one hundred, I left my home island of Solstice and traveled to other Altmer settlements and was absolutely shocked to discover that they enjoyed (and I use that word loosely) a completely different cuisine compared to what we experience on Solstice. Their food is quite bland, with muted flavors and a tepid selection of practically tasteless spices. Their food isn't necessarily inedible, but rather boring when compared to the dishes we know and love. I decided to write a little recipe book to capture the essential essence of Corelanyan Cuisine, which somehow grew to encompass multiple volumes.

A culture is defined not only by its beliefs, its art, and its social institutions, but by its cuisine as well. What follows are the most purely Corelanyan and Solstice recipes that define us and bring comfort and excitement to our tables.

Fattened Tide Guppies
Traditional Summerset dishes utilize a lot of fish. Kippered Silvertrout is a royal delicacy and Eton Sprat are commonly served for supper to commoners. When Clan Corelanya arrived on Solstice, they could no longer find Silvertrout nor the wriggly Eton Sprat, so they improvised. Instead of Kippered Silvertrout, we served Kippered Bronzebass. Replacing Eton Sprat, however, was quite impossible. Eton Sprat has a very nutty flavor and fatty texture that you can't quite replicate with any other fish. Yet again, improvisation! A Corelanyan noble experimented by raising a tide guppy inside a rather large coconut to attempt to infuse it with nuttiness. The guppy grew quite fat and, much to the noble's surprise, he had created an amazing culinary innovation. This tide guppy is exclusively served raw, as its fat content makes it burn too quickly when exposed to high heat.

Ingredients:
One live tide guppy or other small fish.
A whole coconut.
Algae.
Seawater.

Preparation:
Cut the coconut in half, retaining both halves.
Retain enough coconut water to fill one half to the midway point.
Fill the rest of the half coconut with seawater.
Take the fish and gently transfer it into the filled half coconut.
Cover the surface of the liquid with algae.
Cutting a large, circular hole in the top of the unfilled half to allow in sunlight and air.
Place the half of the coconut with the hole over the filled half.
Set the coconut on a windowsill.
Every day, add a handful of algae through the hole.
After repeating for seven days, remove the top half.
Pour out the liquid.
Notice that your fish has become fat and tasty.
Descale the fish and cut off its head.
Slice the fish into bite-sized filets.
Serve raw atop steamed saiewin grains and enjoy!

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Nocturnal's Mystery
In my professional opinion, the dish affectionately known as Nocturnal's Mystery is one of the pinnacle dishes of Corelanyan cuisine. Served exclusively at dusk and evening festivals, never in the morning or the afternoon, it is celebrated for its bold flavor and tasty surprise. The dish gets its name as it was originally prepared by a devout follower of Nocturnal to Kinlady Torinwe and Argonian elders during the negotiations to end tensions on the island. The chef attempted to create the Argonian delicacy, Saxhleel Nagahssee, but in a preparation that would be palatable to High Elf tastes. In traditional Nagahssee, a rodent fed a diet of rice, parsnips, and mushrooms is placed within a snakeskin and served alive and kicking to Argonian diners. As Altmer will never consume a rodent of any kind and we never eat our meat live, the chef substituted other, more suitable creatures, and made sure to cook everything until it was quite dead. I understand that some Saxhleel enjoy the wriggling feel of the live mouse in their Nagahssee, but I certainly do not. Ensure that you begin cooking this dish early in the morning so it will reach the proper doneness by evening.

Ingredients:
A large coral crab (never a mudcrab).
A chicken, plucked and beheaded.
A guar, eyes removed.
3 heads of garlic, each split in half.
A large pineapple.
Saiewin grains.

Preparation:
Take your chicken, split it half, and remove the intestines.
Place one garlic head within, half a head on each side.
Take the coral crab and pry open the top shell.
Spread the saiewin into the crab.
Atop the saiewin, place your chicken, skin side up.
Place several rings of pineapple so they form a circle around the chicken.
Sprinkle a generous amount of serren pepper over the chicken and pineapple.
Place the top shell back on the crab. If the top won't stay down, tie together with twine
Slice open your guar, downwards from neck to groin.
Remove the innards.
Insert the stuffed crab into the guar, and add the remaining garlic heads.
Roast guar over a bed of hot coals until the scales turn a dusky gray.
Serve on a silver platter with Queens Sauce (see Volume 2).