Qualinesti Vegetable Stew

Join me as I make Qualinesti Vegetable Stew from Heroes’ Feast: The Official D&D Cookbook for the first time! Heroes’ Feast: The Official D&D Cookbook by Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, and Michael Witwer and published by Ten Speed Press on October 27, 2020. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/3GMAlXF

Qualinesti Vegetable Stew

In the world of Krynn, shortly after the ancient Kinslayer Wars, Prince Kith-Kanan appealed to his brother King Sithas for western sovereignty. His brother peacefully granted the western elves independence from the nation of Silvanesti. However, Kith-Kanan, the new king of the western elves, was met with decades of hardships resulting from the diaspora. Until their capital Qualinost was founded, his elven people struggled to find new ways of living off the land. Several simple and humble meals entered the repertoire of the elven diet, including “Harvest Prize,” an artfully prepared baked vegetable casserole. Sourceable produce such as eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, and tomato were thinly sliced then stacked in fanned layers upon fresh basil and tomato (crushed into a sauce), then drizzled with fresh and fragrant oils before roasting. This humble yet abundant dish could feed an entire elven village at little cost. Although the elves of Krynn now prepare variations of this dish year-round with inspired substitutions to harness the seasons, the combination below is the most classic and recommended.

Serves 4

⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
Kosher salt
1 (15-ounce) can tomato puree
1 teaspoon sugar
Freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup chopped fresh basil
1 zucchini, sliced ¼ inch thick
1 yellow squash, sliced ¼ inch thick
1 Japanese or Chinese eggplant, sliced ¼ inch thick
4 plum tomatoes, sliced ¼ inch thick

Preheat the oven to 375°F with a rack in the middle of the oven.

In a 12-inch ovenproof skillet over medium heat, combine ¼ cup of the olive oil, half the garlic, and the thyme and cook, stirring, until fragrant and the garlic just begins to sizzle, 1 to 2 minutes. Scrape the mixture into a small bowl and set aside.

Add the remaining oil to the skillet over medium heat and allow the oil to warm until shimmering. Add the onion and ½ teaspoon salt and cook, stirring, until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the remaining garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the tomato puree, sugar, and pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, about 7 minutes. Adjust the seasoning with additional salt, if necessary, and set aside off the heat to cool slightly. Add 2 tablespoons of the basil and stir to mix; spread and smooth the mixture into an even layer in the skillet.

Working in concentric circles from the edges of the skillet toward the middle, neatly shingle the sliced zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, and tomatoes, alternating and overlapping the vegetables and packing them tightly in a single layer. Drizzle the reserved garlic-thyme oil evenly over the vegetables and sprinkle with about ¾ teaspoon salt and ¾ teaspoon pepper. Cover the skillet and bake until vegetables begin to soften, about 30 minutes. Remove the cover and continue baking until the vegetables are very tender and bubbling around the edges of the skillet, about 20 minutes more.

Rest the dish for 10 minutes, sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons basil and serve.

Cook’s Note

Japanese and Chinese eggplants are long and slender, with a diameter similar to that of zucchini or the fat end of a yellow squash. If you use globe eggplant instead, choose the skinniest one you can find and cut the slices to a similar size as the squashes and tomatoes. Make sure the curved side faces out when you arrange them in the skillet.

Transcript

Cold Open

This was a wonderful companion to a middle–eastern stew my wife made.

Intro

Today I am making Qualinesti Vegetable Stew from Heroes’ Feast: The Official D&D Cookbook. If you have made this recipe, share your thoughts in the comments below!

Discussion

This dish took more prep work than cooking effort, but it was a refreshing dish to make. I began by assembling the ingredients. One-third cup olive oil, five garlic cloves, two teaspoons minced fresh thyme, one large yellow onion, salt, fifteen-ounces tomato puree, one teaspoon sugar, black pepper, one fourth cup chopped fresh basil, one zucchini, one yellow squash, one japanese eggplant, I didn’t read the cook’s note about using slender eggplants so I used a globe eggplant instead, and four plum tomatoes.

I think the most important part of cooking is the prep work, so I prepped my ingredients before touching the oven or stove. I began by crushing and chopping the garlic. Setting it aside, I moved to the thyme, removing most of the stems and mincing the rest. I set the thyme aside, and bundled up basil, rough chopping it before setting it aside as well. Next were the vegetables. I started with the onion, finely chopping it with minimal tears shed. Next up were the larger vegetables. Each had to be washed and cut approximately one-fourth inch thick. My cuts were much more varied, unintentionally. With the zucchini, squash and eggplant sliced, I finished with the tomatoes.

Now that the prep work was done, I heated up my cast iron skillet on medium and added about one fourth of the olive oil, garlic and thyme, cooking till the garlic was simmering. Then I took it out to use as a garnish overtop the assembled dish in a few. I added the remainder of the oil till it was warm, then added the onion and seasoned it. After about four minutes the onion was softened, and I added the rest of the garlic, stirring till it was fragrant. Then I added the tomato puree and seasoned it, stirring it all together, letting it simmer for around seven minutes to let the puree thicken. Then I removed it from the heat, and folded in two tablespoons of basil, stirring it in, and smoothing it all out into a single layer.

Next I assembled the dish by layering the eggplant, zucchini, squash and tomatoes. Beginning from the outside, spiraling in. I had a lot of extra vegetables, or I didn’t layer them tightly enough. In either case, I had more than one layer of veggies in my dish. I placed it into my preheated oven set to three hundred and seventy five degrees for thirty minutes covered. After thirty minutes, I removed the lid and allowed it to cook for an additional twenty minutes, until the outer edges were boiling.

Finally I removed it from the oven and let it cool for ten minutes after garnishing it with the last of the basil. We thoroughly enjoyed this dish with a stew my wife made. Alone, I fear it wouldn’t be hearty enough to satisfy me for a meal, but it is definitely a recipe worthy of trying out .