Fiction To Sink Your Teeth Into, a feature normally written by professional chef Rohan O’Duill, has been taken over this month by Rachel A. Rosen, who co-wrote a book about being bad at cooking.

In Dale Stromberg’s Maej, Madenhere and Taræntlere eat meersaw-gossamy, described as a flavourful stew of “squash, aubergine, egg, and garlic.” I asked him for details about what it tastes like, and he told me they were never afraid to throw in chilies, and that “any dairy was rhinocerote milk and eggs are likely peahen eggs.” Lacking access to rhinocerotes and being vegan myself, I created a slightly less ambitious version.

• Ingredients:
• Vegetable or other cooking oil
• ½ cup vegetable broth
• One large onion, chopped
• Loads of garlic, minced. I’m not here to tell you how many cloves you need. I’m not the boss of you.
• 1 tbsp fresh ginger
• Spices to taste. I used about 6 tbsp of something called “Jamaican curry” that contained a lot of turmeric and allspice.
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tbsp dried chilies. You probably don’t want that much but I do.
• Sea salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 1 can of stewed tomatoes
• 1 can of coconut milk (again, if you can find a rhinocerote, be my guest and try to milk it. Let me know how it goes at nightbeatseu @ gmail . com)
• 1 can of chickpeas, drained (you can reserve the liquid to make aquafaba if you want)
• 1 butternut squash, cubed
• 1 Japanese eggplant, sliced
• 2 small carrots, sliced
• 1 large parsnip, sliced
• Several leaves kale and swiss chard
• Optional: 1 package of Korean rice cakes (note: if you grew up in hippie circles, you probably have an image of “rice cakes” that is unpleasant. I mean the tasty Korean ones. They are tube- or disc-shaped and slightly chewy.)

Directions:

1. Sauté onions in vegetable oil for a few minutes, then add the garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant.
2. Add spices, cook for about 30 seconds to a minute longer.
3. Deglaze with vegetable stock.
4. Add stewed tomatoes, coconut milk, and chickpeas, and stir to combine.
5. Add squash, eggplant, carrots, and parsnip. If you have the frozen kind of rice cakes, you can add them now. If they’re the other kind, leave them for the last 10 minutes.
6. Might be a good time to taste it and see if you want more spices or nah.
7. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover to simmer for 10 minutes.
8. Chop the kale and swiss chard and toss that in.
9. Cook for 10 more minutes or until vegetables are cooked.

Eat hot and serve to all your friends while you plot a revolution! You can pre-order Maej while you wait.