Guardian of Heaven and Earth
-
Rota
(Book 8 of the Guardian of the Spirit Series)
Author: Uehashi Nahoko
Translator: Ainikki the Archivist
End of Volume/Hiatus Bonuses
Author's Afterword of the 10-year anniversary edition of Guardian of the Spirit
It's been ten years since the first Guardian of the Spirit book was published. I had no idea when I started writing it that the series would be ten books. It's been made into an anime, a radio drama, and all kinds of other media--and I never would have guessed that would happen, either.
Writing a fantasy work is a mysterious thing; it's the creation of a brand new world, near to our own in some ways and far in others. I tend to think of the fantasy genre as close to the root of all storytelling. People just love making things up, and everyone likes a wild and unpredictable tale. You can see fantasy at work in the earliest stories and myths that have been passed down and are still told today.
With Guardian of the Spirit, I wanted to write a story that everyone could enjoy--children and adults, men and women, everyone. And I hope people continue to read and enjoy it for many years to come.
Uehashi Nahoko
August 20, 2006
Written on the way from England back to Abiko, Japan
Recipe: Tanda's Wild Vegetable Stew
Feeds 4.
Ingredients
4-5 spare ribs
Wild mushrooms (about 1 pack or at least 200g)
Substitute shitake or maitake mushrooms.
100g broth or stock
100g fiddlehead fern, boiled in water
Substitute asparagus spears.
1/4 bundle of bok choy, or to taste.
Substitute a leafy green of your choice. I like spinach here.
2 small onions or 1 large onion, diced
100g Bamboo shoots, simmered in brine
Substitute carrots or broccoli (or asparagus again if you really like it).
1/2 edible burdock or lappa (a medicinal plant)
Substitute parsnips.
1 scallion
For the broth (soy sauce version):
100 ml soy sauce
50 ml sake/rice wine
100 ml mirin (reduced sweet rice wine; substitute a sweet white wine)
(Kosher) salt, to taste
For the broth (miso soup version):
50g miso
100 ml mirin (substitute sweet white wine)
1/2 ginger root, powdered (roughly 20 g)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon gochujang (substitute chili powder)
1 tablespoon peanut butter
Cooking method:
Dice the spare ribs, mushrooms, fiddlehead fern (or asparagus), onions, bamboo shoots (or other vegetable of choice) along with all the other vegetables except for the scallion and burdock or parsnip. Chop the scallion into large chunks, as well as the parsnip (if using). Scatter the burdock flower into small pieces.
Set the spare ribs in a pot and fill it with water, about 1500 ml. Bring the water to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer the spare ribs in the water until tender, about 40-50 minutes.
If making the miso version, add everything except the gochujang/chili powder and peanut butter for the broth ingredients.
If making the soy sauce version, add all the soy sauce version ingredients.
Add all vegetables to the pot except for the mushrooms. Mushrooms cook quickly and will get leathery and unappetizing if you cook them too long.
If making the miso version, add gochujang and peanut butter. For those who want their soup extra spicy, substitute doubanjiang (black bean garlic sauce) for gochujang or chili powder.
Simmer the stew until the vegetables and meat are cooked through, about 3-4 hours.
Tip: You can cook your vegetables ahead and freeze them, then reconstitute them if you want a quicker meal during the week.
Remove the stew from the heat, then add the mushrooms and serve.
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I don't see the recipe. Have you posted it yet somewhere?
ReplyDeleteI planned to have one and may yet today...I just got a new computer, so I've been very busy trying to copy everything over and get it done :)
DeleteSorry for my impatience. This recipe looks very delicious. I can't wait to try it eventually. Some of these ingredients might be a bit hard to find in my summer cottage town, though :(
DeleteAlso, is there anything to the north of Kanbal? Or is there a frozen polar ocean just above them?
What are the populations of the nations of the Northern Continent and Southern Continent? I think Talsh on the Southern Continent is said to have a population of 27 million? That means New Yogo probably can't have much more than 2 million, I think.
The substitutions should be easier to find...some of these are specialty foods even in Japan.
DeleteThe map of for Traveler of the Void indicates that there are no nations above Kanbal.
I have no idea where you pulled the 27 million figure from; that seems alarmingly high. New Yogo's standing army is 30,000. Using what historians call the Rule Of Three (women, children, and old men can't be in the army), the total population is something like 90-100,000. Medieval cultures rarely had cities that cracked 1 million people. Rahan is said to be about 10 times the size of Kosenkyo, which would put its population at something like half a million (445,000). Talsh's standing army that's available at any given time is 200,000, but their population is obviously much higher because they've conquered so many nations.