“Eat, eat. Hot. Good food, hmm?”
Yoda’s Rootleaf Stew from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back for #MayTheFork!
The Empire Strikes Back is often rated as the best Star Wars Movie of all time, and I must say it’s my favourite out of the original trilogy. Luke goes to Dagobah and meets Yoda, who offers him some nourishing rootleaf stew, and wonders how he can grow to such a big size on packaged rations. (i.e. overly processed industrial food.) I have a feeling the galaxy’s cuisine has suffered as a result of 20 years of war, anyway.
As Yoda (and the Jedi, I guess) is quite obviously modelled on buddhist monks (probably shaolin), I’ve decided to make a buddhist-vegetarian-friendly stew, (no garlic and no onion), and so you can make it for yourself or any relatives that celebrate Vesak Day today. When I first watched ESB, I had also thought it was modelled after the bitter chinese herbal soups/drinks that mums make their kids drink. (Anyone here has suffered what I’m talking about too?) The yarum seeds and galla seeds etc look like this according to Wookiepedia, and they definitely wouldn’t look out of place in a traditional chinese medicine shop:
However, not being a certified practitioner, I’m sticking to the safer things that are usually used, namely goji berries and red dried dates, in case I combine some herbs that shouldn’t ever be combined and get poisoned or something. I originally thought the yarum seeds looked like chilli powder, and hence added it too. Hence, this recipe is a mishmash of Chinese, Japanese, and Thai food, and hence can probably be sold in some hipster fusion joint in the West for $20 a bowl.
Ingredients (for 2)
15-20cm length “sohli bark” burdock root, shaved, cut into 4cm planks, and soaked for at least 15 mins
½ thumb ginger, minced
3 birds eye (small spicy) chillies, dried, de-seeded
50g shimeji mushrooms “spores”
2 cups shiitake dashi or water with 1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tuft dried holy basil (the leaf in the root leaf i suppose), soaked.
¼ cup goji berries “yarum seeds”
2 dried chinese red dates “galla seeds”
2.5 tbsp miso paste
Method
1. In an earthernware pot, heat a bit of vegetable oil in a pot and stir fry the ginger and chilli, you will.
2. The burdock planks, throw in you will, and stir fry until it soft, it starts to be.
3. The mushrooms, throw in next, and stir until covered with oil, the mushrooms are.
4. The soy sauce water / dashi, dates, and basil, add in you will, and to a simmer bring it.
5. When cooked the burdock is to your decided consistency (soft or slightly crunchy), the goji berries, add in. Pretty quickly do they cook, as long as submerged in water, they are.
6. Slowly dissolve into the soup the miso, by letting into the ladle hot liquid, and with your chopsticks, stir it you must.
7. In bowls, serve it. Eat, eat, hot, good food, mm?
8. Make sure not throwing it away, your apprentice is.
We made it part of a meal with rice, 100-year aged tea, and some iron eggs! I was going to use 9 century eggs (because Master Yoda is 900 years old), but since he’s a tough old cookie iron eggs fit as well. (Note, you don’t have to eat the date if you don’t want too, it’s mainly for flavouring.)
#MayTheFork is hosted by @mymainisacook and here’s the linkup! https://tmblr.co/ZbTg5m2LCP22b Pics that are not mine are from wookieepedia.
I’ve also recently gone on a Star Wars Run - a post on it will come later, but meanwhile you can check out my Instagram for some pictures and videos from it!
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