Author Archives: Sariann

Trout Baked in Clay

“Then came trout fresh from the river, baked in clay; her prince helped her crack open the hard casing to expose the flaky white flesh within.” (I:251)

Trout Baked in Clay

Our Thoughts:

Creating these fish was tons of fun! True to our belief in the importance of utilizing local agricultural resources, we baked rainbow trout and brook trout that were caught locally by a friend. They were absolutely phenomenal.

The clay acts as kind of a dutch oven for the food, keeping the moisture inside the fish. When the first clay fish finally cracked, we were surprised and delighted to find the flesh perfectly cooked and flaking off the bones. It was creamy and tender, with a wonderful, clean taste.

Half of the fun in this recipe is molding the clay around the fish. We chose to make them look like actual fish (many thanks to  Aidan’s artistic “talent”), which would be an impressive addition to any dinner table. Cracking the clay fish open on the table certainly adds a level of drama to the meal.

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Cold Fruit Soup

“There were great joints of aurochs roasted with leeks, venison pies chunky with carrots, bacon, and mushrooms, mutton chops sauced in honey and cloves, savory duck, peppered boar, goose, skewers of pigeon and capon, beef-and-barley stew, cold fruit soup.” -A Clash of Kings

Medieval Fruit Soup

Medieval Cold Fruit Soup

Our Thoughts:

On first taste, the medieval soup comes across with just a strong honey taste.  The color tells one’s brain to expect a different flavor, a strawberry, perhaps, but once over that initial surprise, you can begin to really appreciate it for its own merits.  With a little  cinnamon on top, the soup reminded us of a candied apple, yet the almond milk lends it just a bit of exoticness.

This recipe, along with the modern version, is available in the Cookbook.

Leek Soup

“The wedding feast began with a thin leek soup, followed by a salad of green beans, onions, and beets…” -Storm of Swords

Medieval Leek Soup

Thoughts:

This was a simple, tasty recipe pairing.

The medieval leek soup took all of 5 minutes to prepare, and the result was an interesting, tasty broth with a bit of kick.  The pepper and ginger lengthen the feeling of heat in your mouth, transitioning from the temperature of the hot soup to the warm sensation of the spices.

If you were a monk traveling the open road and cooking over campfires, the modern recipe would be your dinner of choice. The citrus flavor makes the soup wonderfully fresh-tasting, perfect for a spring evening with a chunk of sourdough bread. Leeks are a gem of a veg, underused in cooking these days.

Try both recipes and let us know your favorite- viva la leek!

 

Medieval Leek Soup

Take funges and pare hem clene and dyce hem; take leke and shrede hym small and do hym to seeþ in gode broth. Colour it with safroun, and do þerinne powdour fort. -Forme of Curye, ~1390

Ingredients:

  • 1½ handfuls of mushrooms
  • 6 threads saffron (or a pinch of ground saffron)
  • 1 leek
  • ¼ tsp. ground ginger
  • 1/4 tsp. ground pepper
  • 2 c beef broth (or chicken broth)
  • ¼ tsp salt

Wash the vegetables; slice the leek finely and dice the mushrooms. Add saffron to the broth and bring it to a boil. Add the leek, mushrooms, and powder fort to the broth, simmer 3-4 minutes, remove from the heat, and serve.We prefer to use beef broth, but it is also good with chicken.

Modern Leek Soup

Ingredients:

  • 3 medium leeks
  • 1 medium carrot
  • 1 stalk celery
  • 4 hand fulls spring greens
  • 1 lemon
  • 2 Tablespoons butter
  • 1 litre vegetable stock
  • 2 bay leaves

Trim the green end of the leeks to about 3 inches above the white, and cut root end. At root end, slice a cross to about halfway up the stalks, and rinse. Slice the leeks into thin rings. Melt the butter in a large saucepan and add the leeks. Cover and simmer over a low heat until the leeks are softened, but not colored.

Chop the celery and carrot and add to the pan. Pour in vegetable stock, add bay leaves, salt, and pepper, and leave to simmer for 20 minutes or until veg is soft but sill vibrantly colored.

Rinse the spring greens and shred into thin ribbons.

Grate the lemon zest and drop into thepot with the shredded greens. Simmer for 2-3 minutes until the greens are just tender, juice the lemon into the soup and serve.

White Beans and Bacon

Medieval White Beans and Bacon

“Then came lamprey pie, honeyed ham, buttered carrots, white beans and bacon, and roast swan stuffed with mushrooms and oysters.” (A Clash of Kings)

Modern White Beans and Bacon

Our thoughts:

Both of these recipes are absolutely wonderful. The medieval recipe really soaks up the bacon taste in the beans. Roughly chopped lardons paired with the buttery beans make for a lovely mouthful. The onions offer a bit of caramelized sweetness at the end of every bite.

The modern recipe is incredible. Curly endive is reminiscent of the broccoli rabe when wilted, balanced out phenomenally by the sweetness of the bacon and onions. We could eat this as a meal in itself! These dishes take about 10 minutes to make, and can easily be scaled up for more people.

Beans are indeed the magical fruit.

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Potted Hare

“Littlefinger turned away. ‘Boy, are you fond of potted hare?’ he asked Podrick Payne.” (II:199)

Elizabethan Potted Hare

Our Thoughts:

This quirky dish, still found in the UK, might be one of our new weekend staples.  The Elizabethan version is quite basic in flavor as it contains only a few spices, but this allows the taste of the rabbit to come through.  Ours didn’t hold together too well, and so ended up more a confit than a pate, which was still very good.  

The modern potted hare is fantastic. The thyme gives the rabbit a wonderful savory flavor, and the reduced fat adds a creamy texture that is awesome spread over crackers. The rabbit sets very well, and should be molded into any shape for a fun, interesting presentation.

Bottom line?  Well worth the effort, and tasty.  We served ours as part of a ploughman’s platter, with pickle, chutney, apples, cheese, and hunky bread.


 

 

Elizabethan Potted Hare

A Hare Hashed.

Cut it out in quarters, chine it, and lay it in Clarret, mixed with three parts of water, and parboyl it, then slice the flesh in thin pieces, and lay it on your stew pan, let this be off the Body, but the legs wings, and head whole, almost cover it with some of the liquor it was boyled in, add some Butter, sliced Nutmeg, the juce of Lemon, and a little beaten Ginger, serve it upon sippets, Garnish it with Lemon, and sliced Onion.

–The Whole Duty of a Woman: Or a Guide to the Female Sex, 1696

Our changes: *NOTE* This dish is best prepared a day in advance.  Potted meats are basically stewed meat and herb that are ground after stewing and packed into a terrine. So we’ve used the basic recipe for hashed hare and finished it as you would a potted recipe.  Also, can we please just take a moment to appreciate the title of the original source?  Hilarious.

Ingredients:

  • 1 rabbit, cleaned
  • 1 part red wine
  • 3 parts water
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 lemon, juiced
  • stick butter, clarified

Cut the rabbit into manageable pieces and place into a large pot.   Add one part red wine to three parts water until the meat is covered and simmer until flesh is falling off the bone (several hours).

Strain off liquid and pull all meat from the bone, discarding the bones (what broth is left can be made into a soup — waste not!). Grind down by hand or in a food processor, adding spices, and lemon juice. Pack loosely into a terrine, add a bit of the broth, then pour over with clarified butter to completely seal and coat. Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for at least one day before eating.

Modern Potted Hare

Ingredients:

  • 1 rabbit, cleaned
  • 1/3 lb. smoked slab bacon, cut into lardons
  • 1 pigs trotter, washed
  • 1 onion, peeled and quatered
  • 2 stalks celery, chopped
  • 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
  • 5 thyme sprigs, 1 Tablespoon thyme
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 glass white wine
  • 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
  • Salt and pepper
  • Olive oil
Preheat oven to 350F.
Cut rabbit into manageable pieces. Warm a glug of olive oil in a large sauce pan on medium-high heat, and brown rabbit pieces on all sides. Remove rabbit and brown the bacon. Put meat in a casserole dish with the trotter, veg, thyme, bay leaves, wine, and enough water to cover. Bring to a simmer and cover, transfer to the oven and cook for about two hours.
Place sieve over a saucepan, and strain off the liquid. Boil and reduce to a little over one cup. While boiling, pull rabbit meat off the bones and shred into a bowl. Finely chop the bacon, add it to the rabbit as well as the mustard and tablespoon of fresh thyme. Season with salt and pepper and and loosely pack into a terrine.
Pour over the reduced cooking liquid, cool, cover and refrigerate until solid.
Remove from fridge 20 minutes before serving.

Salad of Green Beans, Onions and Beets

“The wedding feast began with a thin leek soup, followed by a salad of green beans, onions, and beets…” (III:74)

Medieval Green Bean, Onion and Beet Salad


Modern Green Bean, Onion and Beet Salad

Our thoughts:

We are huge fans of beetroot, in fact they are one of our favorite veg, so we are thrilled to include them in these recipes! The color of these salads alone make them seem really impressive. They are both very similar in terms of presentation, but the taste varies.

The medieval salad tastes…well…medieval. The taste profile is somewhat weak, the strongest flavor coming from the semi-caramelized red onions. The beets taste as boiled beets should, and the green beans wouldn’t be anything without the salt we put on them. Balsamic vinegar is a must to make this dish passable.

We liked the modern salad far better, with the complexities of the thyme making the dish more interesting to eat. Broiling all the veg brought out the sweetness in each one, especially the beets and onions. The balsamic was less of a necessity on this dish, but it finishes the tastes fantastically.

Overall, if you have to choose, choose modern.

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