Post by Jaezred Vandree on Sept 12, 2022 10:33:53 GMT
Shou-Style Steamed Fish with Ginger and Soy Sauce
By Lord Jaezred Vandree
INGREDIENTS:
• 12-14 ounces of Luskani cod* fish fillet
• 4-5 scallion stalks, cut into short sections, then julienned or shredded
• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 small shallots, minced
• 1 small onion, very thinly sliced
• 1 ½-inch crop of ginger, peeled and julienned
• Half a medium carrot, julienned
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 2 teaspoons of toasted sesame oil
• ½ teaspoon of minced ginger
• ¼ teaspoon of salt
• ¼ teaspoon of black pepper
• Coriander leaves (garnish)
*Can be substituted for red snapper, halibut, or grouper.
DIRECTIONS:
1. Massage the fish with sesame oil and half your prepared salt and pepper. Set it aside for later.
2. Place a small pot over medium heat and pour the olive oil into it. Once the oil is heated, add minced shallots and garlic, stir and cook until fragrant. Then add minced ginger, and similarly stir and cook until fragrant.
3. Pour soy sauce into the pot, then add the remaining salt and pepper (to taste), and stir and simmer for a few seconds. Pour the sauce into a bowl once finished.
4. Steam the fish by placing it in a pan with cold salted water, putting a lid on top of the pan, and heating the pan until it reaches a boil and simmer.
5. Remove the pan from heat and pour the salt water away. Then pour the sauce mixture over the fish, put the vegetables in alongside it, and steam for a further 5 minutes or until the fish is cooked through.
6. Arrange your dish in a bowl, garnish, and serve.
AUTHOR’S NOTES:
A classic dish from the far eastern nation of Shou Lung, best eaten with steamed white rice, if you can find it in the market. If you’re the sort of person who enjoys feeding animals, I bet the clowder of tressyms that now prowl and purr around Daring Academy would love some cuts of soft, savoury fish fillet.
One very particular copy of this recipe found its way, curiously, into a stack of reports meant for Queen Nicnevin, attached to two other slips of parchment. Under the Witch-Queen’s gaze, the true message written underneath the innocuous recipe with illusory script is revealed to her:
Inspired by this steamed fish recipe.
By Lord Jaezred Vandree
INGREDIENTS:
• 12-14 ounces of Luskani cod* fish fillet
• 4-5 scallion stalks, cut into short sections, then julienned or shredded
• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 small shallots, minced
• 1 small onion, very thinly sliced
• 1 ½-inch crop of ginger, peeled and julienned
• Half a medium carrot, julienned
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 2 teaspoons of toasted sesame oil
• ½ teaspoon of minced ginger
• ¼ teaspoon of salt
• ¼ teaspoon of black pepper
• Coriander leaves (garnish)
*Can be substituted for red snapper, halibut, or grouper.
DIRECTIONS:
1. Massage the fish with sesame oil and half your prepared salt and pepper. Set it aside for later.
2. Place a small pot over medium heat and pour the olive oil into it. Once the oil is heated, add minced shallots and garlic, stir and cook until fragrant. Then add minced ginger, and similarly stir and cook until fragrant.
3. Pour soy sauce into the pot, then add the remaining salt and pepper (to taste), and stir and simmer for a few seconds. Pour the sauce into a bowl once finished.
4. Steam the fish by placing it in a pan with cold salted water, putting a lid on top of the pan, and heating the pan until it reaches a boil and simmer.
5. Remove the pan from heat and pour the salt water away. Then pour the sauce mixture over the fish, put the vegetables in alongside it, and steam for a further 5 minutes or until the fish is cooked through.
6. Arrange your dish in a bowl, garnish, and serve.
AUTHOR’S NOTES:
A classic dish from the far eastern nation of Shou Lung, best eaten with steamed white rice, if you can find it in the market. If you’re the sort of person who enjoys feeding animals, I bet the clowder of tressyms that now prowl and purr around Daring Academy would love some cuts of soft, savoury fish fillet.
One very particular copy of this recipe found its way, curiously, into a stack of reports meant for Queen Nicnevin, attached to two other slips of parchment. Under the Witch-Queen’s gaze, the true message written underneath the innocuous recipe with illusory script is revealed to her:
6th Eleint 1499
I have discovered a demilich living in the chasm of Daring Heights, in a network of tunnels about half a day’s walk away from the entrance of the chasm north of the city.
We (Heret Velnnarul, Varga, Tazmuck Leathertail, Wren Lunaboult, and I) were hired on a mission by Daring Academy scholar Tim, who explored the chasm himself several days prior in search of the lair of a beholder that adventurers killed many moons ago. He came across black-furred tressyms in the caverns below and ran away when he noticed a necrotic aura causing them to drop dead. He wished for us to discover exactly what it was killing the winged cats and bring them back to safety in Daring Heights for scientific study.
The dead beholder’s lair, located northeast of the chasm’s entrance, is a vast cavern with some ruined humanoid-made structures (most notably a long wooden bridge), a waterfall, and a deep pit. The culprits behind the tressym serial murders were, in fact, bodaks — a situation reminiscent of Lostbell Mine, as I’m sure Your Majesty would realise. As we were fighting the bodaks in the lair, the demilich came floating out of the pit, its voice clackety-cackling in our heads and mentioning a talisman that none can take from it, before reanimating the dead beholder’s skull and disappearing down the pit once more.
We slew all the present undead creatures and shepherded the surviving tressym away with us back to Daring Heights. Before leaving, I sent an arcane eye down the pit; however, after a 500-600 ft. descent and approximately 5 mins. of roaming the network of tunnels down there, it was dispelled in a flash of light.
The presence of the bodaks in the chasm brings to mind not only Lostbell Mine, but also reports of bodaks and banshee-like creatures being sighted on the northern road outside of Daring Heights just 1 month ago. It seems possible now that they were the demilich’s servants carrying out its will, which probably has something to do with the aforementioned talisman. I had thought that the timing of Novan Pendarvis’s arrival in the Dawnlands and Grougaloragan’s prophecy of “the dawning of the Undead Age”* was a mere coincidence — and I am still inclined to think it was — but it is increasingly getting harder to justify.
When we arrived back at Daring Academy, we discovered that Tim had gone missing. None of his colleagues had seen him since he sent us off the previous day. The lack of disturbance in his office suggests no struggle, though some small items that were on his desk had been taken. Attempts to scry on Tim and reach him with sending bore no fruit. He seemed to be an entirely unassuming scholar, so his disappearance was puzzling, to say the least. The adventurers are displeased with this outcome mostly because it meant they did not get paid for the job.
A smaller mystery on top of the big one surrounding Tim’s disappearance relates to the tressyms. According to the cats themselves, they woke up together one day to find themselves in the underground caves, and there were bodaks that could kill them with a single look. I must conclude that something or someone summoned them there, but the purpose remains unknown.
Some small personal news from Your Majesty’s humble servant: I have now re-mastered the sorcerous art of manipulating spells to suit my purposes, albeit in a manner different and to an extent lesser than when I was a Chosen of Lolth. It seems that even though the Spider Queen’s blessing had been taken from me, it is not impossible to regain a little bit of what was lost.
*Detailed in a previous report from before the Battle of Fort Ettin.
I have discovered a demilich living in the chasm of Daring Heights, in a network of tunnels about half a day’s walk away from the entrance of the chasm north of the city.
We (Heret Velnnarul, Varga, Tazmuck Leathertail, Wren Lunaboult, and I) were hired on a mission by Daring Academy scholar Tim, who explored the chasm himself several days prior in search of the lair of a beholder that adventurers killed many moons ago. He came across black-furred tressyms in the caverns below and ran away when he noticed a necrotic aura causing them to drop dead. He wished for us to discover exactly what it was killing the winged cats and bring them back to safety in Daring Heights for scientific study.
The dead beholder’s lair, located northeast of the chasm’s entrance, is a vast cavern with some ruined humanoid-made structures (most notably a long wooden bridge), a waterfall, and a deep pit. The culprits behind the tressym serial murders were, in fact, bodaks — a situation reminiscent of Lostbell Mine, as I’m sure Your Majesty would realise. As we were fighting the bodaks in the lair, the demilich came floating out of the pit, its voice clackety-cackling in our heads and mentioning a talisman that none can take from it, before reanimating the dead beholder’s skull and disappearing down the pit once more.
We slew all the present undead creatures and shepherded the surviving tressym away with us back to Daring Heights. Before leaving, I sent an arcane eye down the pit; however, after a 500-600 ft. descent and approximately 5 mins. of roaming the network of tunnels down there, it was dispelled in a flash of light.
The presence of the bodaks in the chasm brings to mind not only Lostbell Mine, but also reports of bodaks and banshee-like creatures being sighted on the northern road outside of Daring Heights just 1 month ago. It seems possible now that they were the demilich’s servants carrying out its will, which probably has something to do with the aforementioned talisman. I had thought that the timing of Novan Pendarvis’s arrival in the Dawnlands and Grougaloragan’s prophecy of “the dawning of the Undead Age”* was a mere coincidence — and I am still inclined to think it was — but it is increasingly getting harder to justify.
When we arrived back at Daring Academy, we discovered that Tim had gone missing. None of his colleagues had seen him since he sent us off the previous day. The lack of disturbance in his office suggests no struggle, though some small items that were on his desk had been taken. Attempts to scry on Tim and reach him with sending bore no fruit. He seemed to be an entirely unassuming scholar, so his disappearance was puzzling, to say the least. The adventurers are displeased with this outcome mostly because it meant they did not get paid for the job.
A smaller mystery on top of the big one surrounding Tim’s disappearance relates to the tressyms. According to the cats themselves, they woke up together one day to find themselves in the underground caves, and there were bodaks that could kill them with a single look. I must conclude that something or someone summoned them there, but the purpose remains unknown.
Some small personal news from Your Majesty’s humble servant: I have now re-mastered the sorcerous art of manipulating spells to suit my purposes, albeit in a manner different and to an extent lesser than when I was a Chosen of Lolth. It seems that even though the Spider Queen’s blessing had been taken from me, it is not impossible to regain a little bit of what was lost.
*Detailed in a previous report from before the Battle of Fort Ettin.
Inspired by this steamed fish recipe.
