Hossenfeffer

All of Chaosium's Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is currently available in PDF from Humble Bundle for £14.21.

That's everything. Which is insane value for money. You'd be mad not to. Get it here!

[Original post on the excellent (but undernourished) /c/runequest_glorantha!]

All of Chaosium's Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is currently available in PDF from Humble Bundle for £14.21.

That's everything. Which is insane value for money. You'd be mad not to.

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/runequest-chaosium-inc-books

We've had to wait for it, especially in the UK since the initial shipment of hard copies seemed to go missing, but it's well worth that wait.

This is the counterpoint, the rebuttal, the answer to questions posed by the Lightbringers and Earth Goddesses cult books. The Lunars are not just baddies, they're the flip side of the coin, the pragmatists, the side with the winning perspective. I believe in the Red Goddess, Mistress of Life and Death.

Presented here are cults including the Seven Mothers, Teelo Norri, Honeel, the Crimson Bat, the Red Emperor and the Red Goddess. Also included is Nysalor/Gbaji and an introduction to Lunar illumination.

This is a must have volume if you want to run anything connected to the Hero Wars in Glorantha.

Plus, also, once again the art is breathtaking.

An investigation has been launched after ram-raiders stole a Slush Puppie machine.

The raid happened at about 01:40 BST on Saturday at Moores Fish & Chip Shop in Newton Leys, Milton Keynes.

Thames Valley Police said significant damage was caused to the shop after a vehicle, believed to be a dark Vauxhall Astra, repeatedly drove into it.

A number of men entered the shop and stole the cold drinks machine.

Martin Helsdon, the man who brought us the magisterial Armies and Enemies of Dragon Pass has done it again with an even larger, even more ambitious addition to the Jonstown Compendium collection of community content for Runequest.

Focused, as the name suggests, on sea-faring it is hugely detailed and comprehensive, and blessed with some of the finest artwork ever produced for a Gloranthan book.

While it covers everything to do with ships and seaborne trade (ship-building, shiphandling and seafaring, cargo and harbours, naval warfare, nautical terminology, etc) and documents a whole flotilla of different types of vessel, in many ways the stand out is the ‘Periplus’, a first-person account of the voyages of an Issaries trader interspersed with the meat of the book, which brings the material to life.

Thoroughly recommended!

Available from the Jonstown Compendium on Drivethru, here. Note: this isn't an affiliate link or anything, just a direct link to the listing.

Chicken and asparagus risotto

Serves 2

Ingredients

• asparagus, one bunch - for this, where the asparagus is chopped, I like quite thin stalks, if I'm serving it whole as a side I prefer thicker stalks
• chicken breast, 250g cooked, and chopped - this is a weeknight meal, if I was taking time I'd poach and shred some chicken breast fresh for it
• risotto rice, 250g - I like Carnaroli most, but only had Arborio in the cupboard so that's what I used here
• shallots - I had some huge Echalion shallots and just used a couple, finely sliced
• garlic, 2 cloves, finely slived or minced
• butter, an ungodly amount, in 1 cm cubes - some for frying and some to finish. Maybe 100g
• 1 cup of dry white wine
• stock, 1L - I used half chicken and half veggie
• flat leaf parsley, 1 fistful, chopped
• Parmigiano Reggiano, 50g, finely grated
• salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. take a bunch of asparagus and snap off the woody stems (don't bin them!). Cut the asparagus into roughly 1.5cm to 2cm pieces on a slight bias.
2. bring some stock to a bare simmer and toss in the woody asparagus stems. I used about 1L stock total.

3. bring half the butter to a low simmer in a heavy bottomed pan (an enamelled dutch oven is perfect here, a Le Creuset or other similar). Gently cook the chopped asparagus in the butter, until fragrant and softening, maybe 3-4 minutes.
4. remove the asparagus and reserve.
5. add the chopped shallots to the pan and let soften, about 5 minutes.
6. add the garlic to the pan and let soften, about 2 minutes.
7. turn the heat up under the pan to medium, add the rice, and stir in the rice. Fry until you can smell a slightly toasty note from the rice, stirring often.

8. toss in your white wine and keep stirring frequently until it's been absorbed.
9. remove the woody asparagus stems from the stock and chuck.
10. a ladle or two at a time, add some stock to the risotto and keep stirring often until the stock has been almost completely absorbed. Repeat until you've used almost all the stock. Test the rice. You want no chalkiness, but still a little but of a bite to it, it shouldn't be mushy.
11. add the chopped chicken and the fried asparagus to the pot along with the last ladle or two of stock. Keep stirring until it's at about the consistency you're looking for[1].
12. add the chopped parsley and the rest of the butter. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve.

My wife declared it to be as good as the M&S microwave Chicken and Asparagus risotto ready-meal, so you can't get much better than that, can you?

[1] - the perfect risotto should 'creep' across the plate, ie when you add a ladleful to a plate it shouldn't maintain a heaped shape but should gradually relax and spread a bit. Mine, here, was a bit thick, but what can you do?

... I think it was Farmer Geddon.

Kedgeree

Serves 4

Ingredients

• two or three good-sized fillets of smoked haddock (I prefer undyed but it can be harder to find)
• 300 ml milk
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp garam masala
• 8 eggs
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp mild curry powder
• 1.5 cups of basmati rice, washed and soaked
• a small bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped
• salt
• lemon to serve

Method

1. Add the milk, bay leaves, and garam masala to a pan large enough to take the haddock fillets in a single layer, and bring it to a simmer. Once it's reached a simmer, add the haddock fillets, cover, and turn off the heat. Leave for about 10 minutes. Then, remove the fish and save for later. Strain the milk into a jug.
2. Hard boil the eggs. I like to use J. Kenji López-Alt's method for easy-to-peel eggs. I usually let them cook for 10 minutes, then straight into a cold bath before peeling them.
3. Gently fry the chopped onion and garlic for five minutes, then stir in the mild curry powder. Once ithe mixture is fragrant, stir in the rice and add a good pinch of salt.
4. For 1.5 cups of rice I like to use a little over 2 cups of liquid. I add one cup of the reserved milk, and one cup of water. Bring to a simmer, cover, and turn the heat down as low as it will go for about 10 minutes.
5. While the rice is cooking, chop the parsley and flake the fish (discarding any skin if it was present). When the 10 minutes is up, check the rice to make sure the liquid has been absorbed, then top the rice with three quarters of the parsley and the flaked fish. Put a sheet of kitchen towel over the top of the pan, then re-cover, turn the heat off, and let it rest for about 5 minutes.
6. While the rice is resting, cut each boiled egg into 4 quarters.
7. Gently stir the rice, fish, and parsley into each other, then split between bowls. Add the boiled eggs and garnish with the remaining parsley. Serve with wedges of lemon.

Crows had to drink at home.

One of my favourites. And the kids eat it too since it's basically giant chicken nuggets!

Ingredients

• One chicken breast per person
• plain flour (I like to season mine with a little salt and pepper)
• 1 egg, beaten
• breadcrumbs (I use Paxo Natural, but you could posh it up a bit with artisinal breadcrumbs)
• a frying oil (eg sunflower)
• salt and pepper
• parmesan
• lemons to serve

Method

1. Preheat an over to 75'c to keep things warm. Put in a baking tray lined with kitchen towel or greaseproof paper.

2. Pop a damp sheet of kitchen towel on your worktop, then a chopping board on top of that. Get a large piece of clingfilm (double the size of the chopping board, rest it over the board, then place a chicken breast on the clingfilm and finally lay the rest of the clingfilm over the chicken. Using a meat mallet, a rolling pin, or even another chopping board, bash your chicken breast to an even 1cm or so thick. Repeat for all chicken breasts (if you have decent quality clingfilm the same piece should hold up for multiple chicken breasts).

3. Heat the oil in a large frying pan.

4. Lay out three shallow bowls, each big enough to take a flattened breast. Put the flour in one, the egg in another, and mix the breadcrumbs and parmesan with a little salt and pepper in the third.

5. One by one, dredge the breasts in the flour and shake excess off, then dip in the egg and drip the excess off, then finally into the breadcrumb / parmesan mix and again shake off any excess.

6. Fry each coated chicken breast for 3 to four minutes on each side (check the internal temperature with an instant-read thermometer: chicken should reach a minimum of 70'C / 158'F according to the World Health Organisation - most recommend higher but the WHO is good enough for me). Transfer the cooked chicken breasts to the oven to keep warm while you do the others.

7. Serve with lemon wedges, a really simple tomato spaghetti, and a green salad.