by Beth Keating
Lifestyle
DisneyBizJournal.com
May 4, 2023
Dedicated Star Wars fans know that today, May 4th, is known as International Star Wars Day. (Why, you ask? May the Fourth… May the Force…. Hear it?)
To honor the day, we went back to our trusty Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge cookbook to see what could be fun to serve for dinner today. Since the third season of The Mandalorian recently wrapped on Disney+, and we’re big Mandalorian fans, we flipped through the recipes to see what might have been interesting to Clan Mudhorn, carefully avoiding any of Din Grogu’s preferred frog’s legs.
We think Din Djarin might have enjoyed the dish we eventually chose, “Spicy Mandalorian Stew.” We know we did. It is spicy, but the apples in the dish lend a slightly sweet undertone to balance it out. Maybe have a nice crusty loaf of bread nearby just in case.
If you aren’t familiar with the Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge: The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook, it is a fun read. Chef Strono Tuggs, known as “Cookie,” is the head chef at Maz Kanata’s castle, and he is the “voice” behind the recipes in the Black Spire cookbook. Cookie quotes in the book, “Food is art,” and the Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge cookbook is art indeed. Even if you have no intention of actually whipping up any of the admittedly sometimes strange recipes in the book, the photography and illustrations in the book are beautiful to flip through, and the backstories sprinkled among the recipes add a whole lot of depth to the Star Wars universe. (The book is brought to you, in the real world, by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel and Marc Sumerak.)
Chef Cookie warns that this traditional stew is “so blazin’ hot it’ll burn the hair right outta your nostrils. This old Mandalorian gem is known in their native tongue as tiingilar – I ain’t fluent in Mando’a, but I assume it roughly translates to ‘eat at your own risk.’” Cookie councils that this spicy stew has the potential to make even the hardiest Mandalorian sweat themselves right out of their armor.
The recipe itself is a quick prep; most of the cook time is in the simmer. Give it a try. You can always cut down the amount of heat in the dish for the younglings in your clan! This is the way.
Ingredients:
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, roughly chopped
1 medium red apple, cored and diced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 carrots, roughly chopped
1 purple potato, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons garam masala
2 tablespoons curry powder
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1½ tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
4 cups chicken broth
½ cup pearl couscous
Directions:
1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, then add the onion, garlic and ginger.
2. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft and fragrant, then add the chicken. Stir occasionally until the meat is browned on all sides.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and cook, covered, for about 30 min, until the vegetables are soft. Serve hot.
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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.
