Simple Dornish fare

By On · 13 Comments

When the sun set the air grew cool and the children went inside in search of supper, still the prince remained beneath his orange trees, looking out over the still pools and the sea beyond. A serving man brought him a bowl of purple olives with flatbread, cheese, and chickpea paste. He ate a bit of it, and drank a cup of the sweet, heavy strongwine that he loved. -A Feast for Crows

Simple Dornish Fare

Simple Dornish Fare

Thoughts:

Mmmm…hummus. It’s really tough to go wrong with simple, basic, quality ingredients, and this spread is no exception. While you can certainly substitute pre-made pita or naan, nothing quite beats fresh flatbread, warm and straight from the oven. It’s so good that I have twice eaten it all before being able to photograph it.

Add to that some nice olives, a bit of tangy feta cheese, and a glass of strongwine, and this is a simple, easy, light meal perfect for the heat of Dorne, or the heat of summer.

How to Make It

Elements

  • hummus (recipe below)
  • pita bread (recipe below)
  • purple olives
  • feta cheese
  • strongwine (any fortified wine will work, such as port or sherry)

Take a decorative platter and heap with fresh pita bread, hummus, olives, and feta cheese. To make your feta more exciting, try drizzling it with a little balsamic vinegar. Or try packing the inside of a pita pocket with crumbled feta, honey, and sesame seeds.

Hummus Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1-2 cloves garlic
  • 1 (19 ounce) can garbanzo beans, half the liquid reserved
  • 4 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons tahini
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • Aleppo Pepper (optional)

In a food processor, chop the garlic. Pour garbanzo beans into processor, reserving about a tablespoon for garnish. Add lemon juice, tahini, and salt. Blend until creamy and well mixed.

Transfer the mixture to a medium serving bowl. Make a decorative imprint in the top, pour olive oil over, and sprinkle with pepper to taste. Garnish with reserved garbanzo beans.

Pita bread Recipe

Makes 15-20 small flatbreads

Prep: 10 minutes      Rising: 1 hour      Baking: 3-5 minutes each

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 1 Tbs. honey
  • 1 package of yeast, about 2 1/4 tsp.
  • 3 cups all purpose flour, plus more for kneading
  • 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup lukewarm water
  • olive oil
Dissolve the honey in 1/2 cup of warm water (careful: too hot, and it will kill the yeast). Add the yeast and let sit for 10-15 minutes until it looks bubbly. In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt. Pour the yeast mixture into the middle of this bowl.

A the additional 1 cup of warm water, and stir until the dough has pulled together. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5-10 minutes. When the dough bounces back after being poked, it’s ready to rise. Grease a large bowl with olive oil and place the dough in it. Cover loosely with plastic wrap or a damp dishcloth, and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size (roughly 1 hour).

Place a flat baking sheet in the oven, and preheat to 500F. Deflate the dough, and divide into 15-20 pieces. Roll each piece out into a flat disc. Once the oven is at temperature, toss a couple of these rounds of dough onto the hot baking sheet. Close the oven door, and watch the pita carefully. It should puff up within a minute or two. Flip over, and bake for another minute. Remove from oven and let cool. Repeat with all the dough, and enjoy warm!

*Cook’s Note: although you might be tempted to deflate the freshly baked pita, be careful not to burn yourself on the hot steam!

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13 Responses to Simple Dornish fare

  1. Liz B. says:
    August 9, 2011 at 3:43 pm

    This looks absolutely delicious!! I could probably eat it everyday.

    ~bumbling bee

    Reply
  2. duckchick says:
    August 9, 2011 at 6:58 pm

    Deeelish! I do love hummus, and this flatbread recipe sounds great! Can’t wait to make it!

    Reply
  3. Trina says:
    August 9, 2011 at 10:26 pm

    In my mind, “strongwine” is port or sherry (since they’re fortified wines, definitely sweet and heavy, and I loooove them), but I’m not sure either would fit this food selection. Did you guys go with one of those? Or maybe Greek wine like you recommended before?

    Reply
  4. Zach says:
    August 10, 2011 at 1:27 am

    WHY IS THE HUMMUS RECIPE YELLING AT ME?

    This looks delicious, though. I probably should try making my own hummus, given how much of it I eat.

    Reply
  5. Eric Akawie (@EricJ) says:
    August 10, 2011 at 3:15 pm

    I’ve been imagining strongwine as Brandy. Though now that I think about it, given customs of the time in our world, and the rarity of distilling knowledge in ASOIAF, it could be any wine that’s not watered.

    And the meal should probably have a tablespoon of hot pepper relish to be properly Dornish.

    Reply
    • nyxmyst says:
      August 13, 2011 at 12:19 pm

      According to my husband (who makes a hobby of making alcohol) strongwine of the time would now be called ‘cask strength’. While these days that term refers to scotch.. back in the day it referred to the strength of wine in a cask that had been aged. Usually it was drunk watered.

      Strongwine would be a barrel aged wine..This process is no longer used. All wine is bottle aged now. He would suggest Port or Fortified wine instead since at least we can get it. The other option, of course, is making your own but barrel aging would take years. and you have a good chance of ending up with vinegar instead of wine.

      Reply
      • Needs Mead says:
        August 14, 2011 at 10:08 am

        Thanks to you and your husband for the input! I love the combination of a fortified wine or port with a spread like this. A little wine goes a long way, and it feels appropriately decadent. :)

        Reply
  6. moara says:
    August 11, 2011 at 6:58 am

    I found this recipe for medieval hummus. It sounds not quite the same, but it would be fun to try.
    http://ren-flora.livejournal.com/5985.html

    Reply
  7. Kyle H says:
    October 27, 2011 at 1:01 pm

    So does the hummus recipe call for 1 garlic clove, 2 garlic cloves or three? I see 1-2 garlic cloves, then a third is listed as chopped garlic.

    Reply
  8. Martha says:
    July 1, 2012 at 7:39 am

    I made the pita bread, but it didn’t poof :( Any idea what I did wrong? The dough just became quite hard and crunchy. It wasn’t bad, but not at all what I had expected…
    Other than that, your page here is amazing! I’ll have to try some other recipes in the upcoming holidays!

    Reply
  9. lori says:
    July 23, 2012 at 5:44 pm

    just FYI – Purple olives are called alfonso – big, meaty, purple and delicious with pita bread

    Reply

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