Happy August, everyone! With The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance coming out at the end of this month, I thought it a good time to cook up a recipe inspired by the original 1982 film. Don’t be put off by the fact that this is a vegetarian dish. Today’s recipe for Podling’s Bean & Mushroom Kofta is the most flavorful dish I’ve ever cooked in my life.
Click here to skip to the recipe for Podling’s Bean & Mushroom Kofta.
Duality & Dinner in The Dark Crystal
The concept of duality acts as an overriding theme in Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal. Dualism teaches that two sides must be one to be complete and fulfilled. Opposites such as creation and destruction, collectivism and individualism, and nature and technology have flaws on both sides. These sides are broken without the other, though, with nothing to keep these flaws in check.
How does food play into this, you may wonder? More than you’d think. We see three dining scenes throughout the film. In the first, the Master of the Mystics feeds a young Jen simple fruits and vegetables.
Then we see the Skesis dining room, tearing and gorging on dead creatures while crying for even more food.
Finally, we witness Jen and Kira feasting with the Podlings.
What I find interesting about these three scenes is that they illustrate this central theme perfectly. Between the Mystics’ basic nourishing and Skeksis wanton wasteful gorging, we see the Podlings adopting both attitudes. The Podlings take joy in their excess but share it selflessly with strangers.
A Podling’s Potluck
So I noticed a meatball looking dish during the Podling feast scene, but when I compared it to the written lore about them in the Dark Crystal, it didn’t make much sense. The Podlings, or “the master gardeners who live in bulging plants” as their name in their language translates to, are vegetarians like the Gelflings. They domesticate animals, of course, like the Nebrie from whose milk they make cheese, or the Fizzgig who herd the creeping vines. But being pacifists, they have no desire to kill the animals they soul-speak with.
That’s why I chose to make a bean and mushroom fried ball to go with this scene. The next step was figuring out what culture to reference in this dish. The Podlings’ clothing, music, and language strongly resemble Balkan peasant cultures. Croatian words even pepper this pod-dwellers’ vernacular. With that in mind, I modeled my recipe after kofta – a regional spiced meatball made with garlic, parsley, and spices.
As my base, I chose a mixture of portobello and dried shiitake mushrooms, cannellini beans, and feta cheese. These mushrooms have an intensely meaty flavor on their own, and their rehydrating liquid makes a delicious foundation for the butter sauce in this dish.
The plates also look to contain some squiggles in red and brown, so I mixed in some red onion and sundried tomatoes for some sweet spiciness, and more slabs of portobello mushrooms.
Served on a bed of fresh parsley, the kofta blends crisp textures and balanced flavors sure to amuse the palate while listening to horns and pipes. And yet it is light enough not to turn one’s stomach if they happen to get pulled into a round of dancing. The Dark Crystal is about duality, and with this dish delicious and nutritious don’t need to be opposites.
Sing for your Supper
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The printable recipe cards and playlist for Podling’s Bean & Mushroom Kofta will be available as a $2 donor reward on my Ko-Fi page until Wednesday, August 4th, 2019, at 8 pm EST.
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recipe
Podling Party Food
Podling's Bean & Mushroom Kofta
Equipment: Food processor, stovetop, skillet, slotted spoon, olive oil, and hot water kettle and bowl or saucepan.
- 15.5 oz can of cannellini beans, drained
- 1/2 cup sundried tomatoes
- 2 large portobello mushrooms, sliced into strips
- 1 cup dehydrated shiitake mushrooms
- 1/4 cup feta cheese
- 1 bunch of fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 red onion, sliced into strips
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
- 4-7 garlic cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1 1/2 teaspoon coriander
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- kosher salt
Instructions:
- Rehydrate the shiitake mushrooms by bringing 2 cups of water to a boil in the tea kettle or in a saucepan on the stovetop. When boiling, remove from the heat and add the shiitake mushrooms. Allow them to soak while prepping your other ingredients.
- Heat the dry skillet on the stovetop over a medium flame. When hot, add the portobello strips and roast until lightly browned. Drizzle with olive oil, a teaspoon and a half of red wine vinegar, and a pinch of kosher salt. Continue to stir-fry another minute until soft. Transfer to a prep dish.
- Add another drizzle of olive oil to the still-hot skillet then stir in the onions. Cook until softened then add a pinch of kosher salt and another teaspoon and a half of red wine vinegar. Stir-cook until translucent before transferring to another prep dish. Turn off the stovetop.
- Pour the beans, 3/4 of the chopped parsley, 1/4 cup of the sundried tomatoes, breadcrumbs feta cheese, and spices into the bowl of the food processor. Pulse until it is the consistency of tabbouleh.
- Add the shiitake mushrooms, half of the onions, half of the portobellos, the remaining vinegar, cornstarch, and a few more pinches of kosher salt to the food processor. Pulverize until smooth.
- Scoop tablespoons of bean mix and form them into balls. Arrange them on a plate while allowing your skillet to heat over a medium-high flame.
- Coat the inside of the skillet with a thin layer of olive oil. When hot, add six beanballs in a circle. Lightly swirl around the pan until they form a browned skin on all sides. Carefully remove the cooked kofta with a spatula and transfer to the plate to cool. Repeat in batches of six until all cooked.
- Deglaze the skillet with the mushroom water and simmer for 6 minutes. Stir in the butter to melt and kosher salt to taste.
- Distribute the remaining parsley, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, and onions between serving plates. Top with the kofta balls, the butter sauce, and garnish with feta cheese. Serve.
