Category Archives: Fictional

Snacking with Davos Seaworth

“Fetch him some hot wine with cloves, I am misliking the sound of that cough.  Squeeze some lime in it as well.  And bring white cheese and a bowl of those cracked green olives we counted earlier!  Davos, I will join you soon, once I have bespoken our good captain.  You will be forgiving me, I know.  Do not eat all the olives, or I will be cross with you!” (III: 136)

Snacks for Davos

Our Thoughts:

Feta and olives are a classic Mediterranean pairing, and are very nice when combined with the hot white wine.  If you like pepper, just a touch sprinkled on top of both olives and cheese can be lovely.  Try finding a windswept spit of rock, or a tallship to eat your snack on.

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Salladhor Saan’s Hot Wine

“Fetch him some hot wine with cloves, I am misliking the sound of that cough.  Squeeze some lime in it as well.  And bring white cheese and a bowl of those cracked green olives we counted earlier!  Davos, I will join you soon, once I have bespoken our good captain.  You will be forgiving me, I know.  Do not eat all the olives, or I will be cross with you!” -A Storm of Swords

Salladhor Saan’s Hot Wine

Thoughts:

While spiced red wine is perfectly suited to winter in the frozen North, this recipe uses more summery, exotic ingredients that one might find in the holds of a pirate captain’s ship: vanilla, lime, and expensive spices. 

This is a unique twist on a usual mulled wine recipe, resulting in something vaguely like a hot sangria. Each of the flavors takes its turn on the palate, from the initial burst of citrus to the semi-sting of cloves and pepper, while the bay leaves impart just a slight hint of earthiness. The vanilla and honey combine to sweeten out the tartness of the lime, rounding out the full taste experience of this drink.

A must try for those who like hot wine!

Salladhor Saan’s Hot Wine Recipe

Cook’s Note: I chose to use a white wine, even though the wine in the book is a red.

Ingredients:

  • 1 lime, keep the peel and half the juice
  • 700 ml white fruity wine (that is 1 normal bottle)
  • 1-2 vanilla pods (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)
  • 3 bay leaves
  • ~10 whole cloves
  • pinch of ground cloves
  • pinch of white pepper
  • 3 -4 tablespoons honey
  • 6 tablespoons white port (optional, but fortifying)
Peel the lime, cut into small pieces, and juice half of it. Pour the wine in a pan, add the lime peel, lime juice, vanilla pods, cloves, pepper, and bay leaves. Bring to just under a simmer. Lower the heat, cover the pan and leave to warm through for at least 15 minutes. Try to just keep it hot and not let it boil. Add 3 tablespoons of honey and the port, if using, then taste to see or you want to add more honey. Remove the vanilla pods, cloves, lime peel and the bay leaves. Serve in a heatproof glass.

Hen stuffed w/carrots, chestnuts, and prunes

“I never eat prunes myself.  Well, there was one time when Hobb chopped them up with chestnuts and carrots and hid them in a hen.  Never trust a cook, my lord.  They’ll prune you when you least expect it.” (DwD)

Black Hen, carved, w/carrot-chestnut-prune stuffing

Our Thoughts

So, as soon as we learned about black chickens, we knew we had to try one.  However, we didn’t realize that ours came with a head. Or with giant dinosaur feet. This made the preparation of the meal something of an adventure, and we mean the kind where it’s sort of unpleasant. We rolled up our sleeves, though, and soldiered on. The only solution was to cut that bird up until it looked like the sort of chicken we know and love, and so it stopped staring at us.

Eating this chicken is a strange experience. Your tastebuds say “chicken!”, while your brain can’t quite get over the color. The texture of the meat is somehow reminiscent of turkey, with a richer flavor than one gets with regular chicken. There isn’t a great deal of meat on one of these birds, but what you do find is tasty. Thankfully, the stuffing is absolutely YUM. Each flavor gets its own sort of showcase in your mouth, and each provides a nice, different texture from the others.

Bottom Line? A nice recipe, but next time we’ll put the stuffing in a normal chicken.

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Medieval Fruit Tarts- blueberry, strawberry, apricot, cherry

“A man was pushing a load of tarts by on a two-wheeled cart; the smells sang of blueberries and lemons and apricots. Her stomach made a hollow rumbly noise. ‘Could I have one?’ she heard herself say.” -A Game of Thrones

Medieval Fruit Tarts

Thoughts:

These are a wonderful treat that really showcase the fresh fruits of summer. We went all out and made all the varieties mentioned in the books: blueberry, strawberry, ambiguous berry, and apricot. We also added a cherry version because we found a tasty recipe for it, and cherry pie is a Father’s Day favorite.

Of all these tarts, our favorite was probably the apricot one. It had the most complex assortment of flavors, followed by the cherry tart. What all of these tart recipes have going for them, though, is that after eating several slices of each, you won’t feel bogged down by sugar, because there isn’t all that much in any of the recipes. The real focus of each tart is the fruit, and the flavors of the berries in particular comes across beautifully. In short, these are the perfectest herald of summer.

Basic Medieval Pastry Dough Recipe

Take fine floure and a curtesy of faire water and a disshe of swete butter and a litle saffron and the yolkes of two egges and make it thin and tender as ye maie. –A Propre new booke of Cokery, 1545

Ingredients

  • 3 cups Flour
  • 1/2 cup Water
  • 1-2 sticks Butter (we used one, could do with more!)
  • pinch of saffron
  • 1 Egg yolk, slightly beaten
Dissolve the saffron in your 1/2 cup water. While that is going, rub in the butter to the flour, then add the egg yolk and saffroned water. Stir until entirely incorporated, adding more water very gradually until everything just sticks together.
To pre-bake a shell, line a pan with dough, rolled very thin. Using a fork, poke holes all over the bottom of the pan, or use a pie weight. Bake for around 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Don’t let it start to brown! Remove from oven and fill as per the recipe.

Makes enough for 8-4 inch tart pans and one 9 inch pan.

Medieval Cherry Tart Recipe

To make a close Tarte of Cherries. Take out the stones and laye them as whole as you can in a Charger and put in synamon and ginger to them and laye them in a tart whole and close them and let them stand three quarters of an hour in the oven, then take a sirrope of Muscadine and damaske water and sugar and serve it. –Thomas Dawson, The Good Huswifes Jewell, 1596

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 lb. whole cherries
  • dash of rose water (optional)
  • 1/4 cup sweet red wine
  • 1/4 cup honey or sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp. ginger
  • dash of red wine vinegar (to taste)
  • pastry dough for 1-9 inch pan, or 8-4 inch tart pans

Combine cherries, wine, and vinegar in a saucepan. Cover and simmer for around 1/2 hour, or until the pits can be easily removed by squishing the cherries through a colander. Put cherry puree in a bowl and add the sugar and spices. Allow to cool. Line your tart pan with pastry dough (recipe above), and trim the edges. If you like, you can make decorative shapes with the dough remainders to place on top of your filled tarts.

Add rosewater and port to cherries. Add enough sugar to sweeten, but not make it cloy, plus the ginger. Add a little vinegar or lemon juice to sharpen. Cook for 45 minutes or until flavors are mingled. If needed, you may thicken with bread crumbs. Let cool. Fill shells, close, bake at 375º F for 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Serves 4-6

Apricot Tart Recipe

Leche frys in lentoun. Drawe a thik almaunde mylke wiþ water. Take dates and pyke hem clene with apples and peeres, & mynce hem with prunes damysyns; take out þe stones out of þe prunes, & kerue the prunes a two. Do þerto raisouns, coraunce, sugur, flour of canel, hoole macys and clowes, gode powdours & salt; colour hem vp with saundres. Meng þise with oile. Make a coffyn as þou didest bifore & do þis fars þerin, & bake it wel, and serue it forth. -Forme of Cury, 14th Century

Our Changes: The original recipe for this is sort of a hodgepodge of fruit. We took out the apples, pears, and dates, replacing them with fresh apricots and dried ones. The yellow-orange of the apricots is beautiful against the red of the almond milk filling.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups extra thick Almond Milk
  • 1/2 cup dried apricots, sliced lengthwise
  • 3-5 fresh apricots, diced
  • 1/2 cup pitted prunes, sliced lengthwise
  • 1/2 cup currants
  • 2 Tbs sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. each cinnamon, mace & cloves
  • 1/4 tsp. each ginger, nutmeg, white pepper
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • few drops red food coloring (in substitute of sandalwood)
  • 2 Tbs. olive oil
  • one 9-inch pre-baked pie shell, or 8-4 inch pre-baked tart shells

Mix together well the almond milk, sugar, spices, oil, and food coloring. The color should be a brilliant red; the mixture should be thick but runny. In a separate bowl, mix together the fruits. Add the almond milk mixture and thoroughly blend. Place this filling in the pie shell. You may find that you have to put the fruit in the shell first, then spoon the almond milk over that. Bake at 375° F for 45 minutes, or until the filling is set and the top has slightly browned. Remove from oven; allow to completely cool before serving. Serves 4-6.

Medieval Berry Tart Recipe

Daryoles. Take wine & Fresh broth, Cloves, Maces & Marrow, & poweder of Ginger & Saffron & let all boil together & put thereto cream (& if it is clotted, draw it through a strainer) & yolks of Eggs, & mix them together, & pour the liquor that the Marrows was seethed in thereto; then make fair coffins of fair paste, & put the Marrow therein, & mince dates & strawberries in time of year, & put the coffins in the oven, & let them harden a little; then take them out & put the liquor thereto, & let them bake, & serve forth. -Two Fifteenth Century Cookbooks

Our Changes: We took out the marrow. Yeah. Not needed here. We also used this recipe for the blueberry and ambiguous berry tarts.

Ingredients

  • 3/4 c. cream
  • 1/4 c. wine (we used a sweet red, like that for the cherry tarts)
  • 1/4 c. milk
  • 5 egg yolks + 1 egg
  • 1 pint strawberries, or other berries of your choice, or a mix
  • 1/2 c. chopped dates
  • 1/2 c. honey
  • 1/4 tsp each saffron & ginger
  • 1/8 tsp each mace & ground cloves
  • 2 pre-baked pie shells, or 8-4 inch pre-baked tart shells

In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, cream, wine, saffron and other spices, and bring to a boil. Remove from heat. In a separate container, beat egg yolks and honey together. While beating, add a bit of the hot milk mixture. Pour this back into the pot with the hot liquid while whisking furiously. Place the cut strawberries and dates in baked pie shells and spoon the cream mixture over fruit and into the shells. Bake at 375° F for 45 minutes, or until the filling has set. Serves 4-6.

Shrimp-and-Persimmon Soup

“She was breaking her fast on a bowl of cold shrimp-and-persimmon soup when Irri brought her a Qartheen gown, an airy confection of ivory samite patterned with seed pearls.” (II:637)

Shrimp and Persimmon Soup

Our Thoughts:

This cold soup was a surprising mixture of flavors. An interesting choice for a breakfast, but once you think about it, a rather healthy one: fruit and protein. The combination of the persimmon and shrimp made us feel like we were dining in a Mediterranean seaport. Lime juice adds a lovely freshness to the soup, while the shallots create a decidedly savory flavor.

Although different from our normal fare, this soup is going in the personal cookbook. Also, the persimmon soup, sans shrimp, would be a wonderful base for a variety of other soups and stews, whether served hot or cold.

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Thick Stew of Mussels, Crabs, and 3 kinds of Fish

“The food was plain, but very good; there were loaves of crusty bread still warm from the ovens, crocks of fresh-churned butter, honey from the septry’s hives, and a thick stew of crabs, mussels, and at least three different kinds of fish.  Septon Meribald and Ser Hyle drank the mead the brothers made, and pronounced it excellent, whilst she and Podrick contented themselves with more sweet cider.” -A Feast for Crows


Modern Fish Chowder

Thoughts

For this dish I opted for a hearty New England style fish chowder.  I threw together a couple of different recipes, tweaked them to suit, and this is the incredibly tasty result!

One bite of this modern stew will make you forget the effort that went into creating it. This is the earthly realization of platonic fish chowder. We asked the guests at our dinner table to give their thoughts, but only received grunts of approval and moaned delight.  Imagine yourself eating this meal in a tranquil sept on an island, savoring the hearty broth in peace while chaos rages around you. Imagine that, because eating this stew can transport you out of your everyday life.  

Part of the challenge of food blogging is making the photos show just how delicious the dish is, and that’s often done with atmosphere. The building in the photo is a perfect stand-in for the Sept from the books. In reality, it’s a gutted and abandoned church near where my parents used to live, in West Boyleston, MA. I drove by the place once, and immediately knew I would have to use it for a photo. I must have been quite a sight as I made my way down the embankment, folding table, dishware, food, and camera all teetering precariously. But the photo made it all worth it, and I got a great picnic lunch, to boot! 

Modern Fish Stew Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1.5 oz salt pork or thick cut bacon, diced
  • 1 lb potatoes (about 2 medium), chopped into 1/2″ cubes
  • 1 yellow onion, finely diced
  • 1.5 lb fish (we used salmon, haddock, and cod), about 2 fish or 4 fillets, cut into 1″ chunks
  • 2 c water
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 12 oz can evaporated milk
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • ~1/2-1 cup crab meat (imitation is fine, and cheaper!)
  • around a dozen mussels (ours were precooked)

Place 1/2 lb fish (about 1 fillet) in a pot with 2 c cold water. Bring to boil and boil 10 minutes.

While that is cooking, fry up the salt pork over medium heat. Once the bits are beginning to turn crispy and brown, add the diced potato. Cook 5 minutes over medium-high, stirring frequently. By now the fish broth should be done, so add it and the fish to the potato, then spread the remaining cubed fish atop this mess. Let this burble for about 10 minutes on medium-high.

At this point, if your pan won’t hold an additional 3 cups of liquid, transfer everything to a larger pot. Add heavy cream, evaporated milk, salt & pepper, crab meat, and whole mussels still in the shell. Bring to just under a boil, then reduce to medium-low, cover, and simmer about an hour.

To serve, ladle into bowls and garnish with additional pepper. To really round out the meal, serve it with the other original components from the book: crusty fresh bread with butter and honey, mead, and cider. 

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.

A Meal at the Inn

“Ser Rodrik tried to tug at whiskers that were not there, but before he could frame a rebuke the serving boy came scurrying up.  He laid trenchers of bread before them and filled them with chunks of browned meat off a skewer, dripping with hot juice.  Another skewer held tiny onions, fire peppers, and fat mushrooms.  Ser Rodrik set to lustily as the lad ran back to fetch them beer.” -A Game of Thrones

Meal at the Inn

Our Thoughts:

Take some tasty vegetables, award winning meat, and cook them both over a hot fire.  Can you really go wrong there?  The meat was perfectly tender, and the veggies came out wonderful.  The peppers were perhaps a little too hot for our taste, but added a lot aesthetically.  The mushrooms were delicious as is, while the cooked onions could be popped out of their crispy outer skin.

Our only change? Try cooking the meat under a broiler, with the bread well below to catch the drippings.  YUM.

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Cersei’s Creamy Chestnut Soup

“Cersei set a tasty table, that could not be denied.  They started with a creamy chestnut soup, crusty hot bread, and greens dressed with apples and pine nuts.” (II: 565)

Modern Creamy Chestnut Soup

Our Thoughts:

Cersei knows her foods; this is a rich, creamy concoction of yummy goodness.  The richness of the duck is balanced by the mildness of the lentils, while the chestnuts give it a slight sweet taste.  The added elements- croutons, sauteed duck, cheese- provide a nice textural and flavorful counterpart to the thick bisque of the soup itself.  Each bite tastes of luxury and the privilege that comes with being a Lannister of Casterly Rock.

The smoked duck is worth springing for, but we are now quite possibly addicted to it. Still, it makes for an absolutely mouthwatering soup that is the perfect cure for a cold, gloomy day.

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Salad in Castle Black

“‘From the Lord Commander’s own table,’ Bowen Marsh told them.  There were salads of spinach and chickpeas and turnip greens, and afterward bowls of iced blueberries and sweet cream.” (I: 372)

Medieval-ish Salad

Our thoughts:

This salad is earthy and quite tasty.  The different greens provide a wide variety of flavors; the splash of lemon from the sorrel, the refreshing crispness of the mint, and the classic tangy pairing of oil and vinegar.  That said, we weren’t crazy about the oniony greens in the mix. Our big change? Swap out the mushy chickpeas for the crunchy Middle Eastern snack kind.  Yum!

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