Hato's Ginkgo Porridge

We returned from vacation to find a letter from a fan who suggested we do more with our blog. Pictures are fine, but this fan suggested recipes, games, and mysteries that can be solved by readers. Pretty ambitious! We decided to start with a recipe for a dish that played a role in the fourth book in the series, The Sword That Cut the Burning Grass. This was ginkgo porridge, made by Hato, the servant girl who believes Seikei is really the teen-age emperor of Japan.

First we have to tell you about ginkgo nuts. They come from the female ginkgo tree. (Did you know there were both male and female ginkgo trees?) The nuts appear in autumn, with a soft yellow-green outer covering. If the fruit falls off the tree and rots, it gives off a terrible smell. This may be why most ginkgo trees people grow in their yards are male, not female.

If you're starting with the whole fruit (it's really a fruit with a nut inside), you should peel off the outer covering and throw it away. It's supposed to be mildly toxic (poisonous), so wash your hands afterward. Inside, you'll see a hard, smooth white nut case. It looks like a pistachio nut. You have to crack open this case and remove the nut inside, which has a thin covering. Drop the nut into some boiling water and cook for a few minutes. Then scrape the skin off with a spoon. Drain the water and cool the nuts. If you're not going to use them right away, store in the refrigerator.

If all this sounds like a lot of work, you can buy packages of peeled ginkgo nuts in stores that sell Chinese or Japanese food products.

Now we start with a cup of rice. Usually rice is cooked one part rice and two parts water, but to make porridge, you have to use much more liquid. Hato uses mild green tea--about ten cups of it for a cup of dried rice. Bring the liquid to a boil, add the rice, five or six ginkgo nuts and a dash of salt. Cover and cook about 40-50 minutes, until the rice is very mushy. Stir it all together, let it cool a bit, and enjoy! Hato got a job in the emperor's castle making this porridge.