Category Archives: Main Courses

Laura Moon’s Chili – American Gods

“Laura made a great chili. She used lean-cut meat, dark kidney beans, carrots cut small, a bottle or so of dark beer, and freshly sliced hot peppers. She would let the chili cook for a while, then add red wine, lemon juice, and a pinch of fresh dill, and, finally, measure out and add her chili powders. On more than one occasion Shadow had tried to get her to show him how she made it: he would watch everything she did, from slicing the onions and dropping them into the olive oil at the bottom of the pot on. He had even written down the sequence of events, ingredient by ingredient, and he had once made Laura’s chili for himself on a weekend when she had been out of town. It had tasted okay–it was certainly edible, and he ate it, but it had not been Laura’s chili.”

–American Gods, by Neil Gaiman


Thoughts:

Predictably, this chili is as delicious as you would expect after reading through that description.

I love the colors of this thick and savory chili, those rich dark reds, the flashes of orange carrots, and the sprinkle of seasonings. The huge amounts of cumin and spices amp up the other flavors, while the dill and lemon add a bit of an acidic zip. I’d never before added cocoa powder to a chili, but after this batch, will do it to every chili to follow. Although not specifically mentioned in the ingredients listed in the novel, the cocoa deepens the flavors of the chili, and could potentially account for Shadow’s inability to really recreate Laura’s recipe. 

 

Laura Moon’s Chili Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 lb. ground lean beef
  • 2 15 oz. cans kidney beans
  • 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes (fire roasted are best)
  • 6 medium carrots, diced
  • 1 bottle dark beer
  • 2 freshly sliced hot peppers
  • 1/2 cup red wine
  • 1/2 Tbs. lemon juice
  • 1 tsp. fresh dill, chopped fine
  • assorted chili powders, to taste
  • salt, to taste
  • 1 tsp. cumin
  • pinch of turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp. unsweetened cocoa

Cook over medium heat for at least an hour. As with most stews and soups, the chili is much better the next day.

Pigeon Pie, version 2.awesome

Pigeon Pie with Bacon and Artichoke Hearts

Our Thoughts:

We couldn’t have made up a better pie than this. It’s absolutely incredible. AND it’s historically authentic. Utter win.

This is completely unlike any meat pie I’ve previously tried. The artichoke hearts are sort of a baffling yet intriguing addition. Because there are so many other ingredients, the pigeon doesn’t really get a chance to shine in its own right, but the spices help bring it forward. We used a very flavorful bacon, which was one of the strongest elements, while the egg yolks and meatballs just added some depth and body.

Overall, much more interesting and dynamic than our original Pigeon Pie recipe, but definitely for those more adventurous epicureans.


Medieval Pigeon Pie

After ye pidgeons are made fitt to put into your pye season them with grose pepper, salt, mace & nutmeggs then lay ym into your Pot; you must have palatts ready boyld and cut into what bigness you like and lay over your pidgeons with ye yolk of hard egg, e marrow and balls of meat, made of ye lean of a legg of veal. Beat in a mortar with beef suett and some bacon amongst it when ye meat is a small as for sausages. Then add as much spice as is agreeable to your taste and a few sweet herbs. You may put in artichoke bottoms. This pye must be baked in a patty pan. -Lucayos Cookbook, 1690 

My Changes: I, personally, did not include the tongue from the original recipe. However, many people swear by it as a tasty ingredient, so if you would like, feel free to add it, and let us know how it turns out! I also swapped out the beef suet and marrow for a dash of grease left over from cooking the bacon.

Ingredients:

  • 1 springform pan with high sides
  • Pastry dough (get the recipe)
  • 5 pigeons
  • 1/4 tsp. each pepper, salt, mace, nutmeg
  • boiled palatts (tongue! – optional)
  • 3 hard boiled egg yolks
  • 3 large meatballs, preferably of veal (cooked or uncooked)
  • 1/2 cup cooked chopped bacon
  • artichoke hearts
  • 1-2 Tbs. bacon grease
  • 1 egg for glazing

Roll out pastry dough and drape over the pan. Gently press the dough into the pan to make sure it molded to the sides and bottom. Trim the excess dough and reshape into a ball- this will be your lid.

Put your pigeons in a large pot and cover with water. Simmer for around 45 minutes, or until the meat can be easily pulled from the bone. Remove all the useable meat and discard the bones.

Season the meat with your spices, then lay in the bottom of the pastry. If using tongue, lay over the pigeon meat. Crumble the egg yolk over top of the meat, then flatten or crumble the meatballs to form the next layer. Sprinkle the bacon over that, then lay sliced artichoke hearts on the very top. Pour the bacon grease evenly over the top.

Roll out the remaining pastry dough and cut into a circle the size of the bottom of the pan. Lay this circle over the pie filling, brush the edges with water, and roll the outside dough down until it touches the top crust. Pierce the top of the pie in several places to vent the steam, flute the edges in a decorative pattern, and brush the whole thing with beaten egg.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour, until the crust is golden.

Pentoshi Honey Duck w/orange snap peppers

“‘My fellow magisters have doubled the size of the city guard,’ Illyrio told them over platter’s of honey duck and orange snap peppers one night at the manse that had been Drogo’s. The khal had joined his khalasar, his estate given over to Daenerys and her brother until the wedding.” -A Game of Thrones

Honey Duck w/orange snap peppers

Our Thoughts:

Like many meat dishes, the star of this dish was the incredible sauce. Made with honey, orange juice, butter, and a dash of warm pepper, it brought out the richness of the duck.  Dripping with this sauce, each bite of the duck is succulent, a delight to eat.  We sauteed orange bell peppers with a touch of salt, as well as some baby bok choy for additional color, then drizzled both with some fig infused balsamic vinegar.  Amazing.  Serve with some flatbread, honeyed wine, and a table set with the strangest fruits you can find, and you’re golden.

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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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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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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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Beef and Bacon Pies

“Part of him wanted nothing so much as to hear Bran laugh again, to sup on one of Gage’s beef-and-bacon pies, to listen to Old Nan tell her tales of the children of the forest and Florian the Fool.” -A Game of Thrones

Medieval Beef-and-Bacon Pie

Thoughts:

Both of these pies are delicious, but they are very different; the medieval pie is sweet, the modern is savory.

 The sweetness of the medieval pie comes from added fruit and honey. As the pie bakes, the fruit melts, giving a lovely counter-taste to the tart vinegar and salty bacon. The fruit flavor fades into the background and what remains is a sweet, rich meat pie with an easy medley of flavors.

  The savory modern pie was more what we imagined when we read about beef-and-bacon pies of Winterfell.  For all that this is a relatively dense dish, the flavors are fairly light.  The beef, bacon, onions, and herbs are all distinguishable, but don’t linger overlong on the palate. 

Bottom line?  Medieval is sweet, modern is savory.  Make both, and tell us what you think! *The Modern recipe is now exclusively in the GoT Cookbook.

 

Medieval Beef-and-Bacon Pie

ORIGINAL RECEIPT:

To make Pyes. Pyes of mutton or beif must be fyne mynced & seasoned with pepper and salte and a lytel saffron to colour it, suet or marrow a good quantitie, a lytell vynegre, pruynes, great reasons, and dates, take the fattest of the broath of powdred beefe.  – A Propre new booke of Cokery, 1545

Our changes: We added bacon.  Delicious, thick cut bacon, in place of the marrow.  We winged the proportions a little on the dried fruit based on what was left in our pantry.  

Ingredients:

  • Pastry dough enough for 9″ pie pan, top and bottom (Recipe)
  • 1 ½ lbs. stew beef cut into small pieces
  • ½ cup bacon, diced or cut small
  • ½ tsp. pepper (or to taste)
  • ½ tsp. salt (or to taste) 
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 1/3 cup prunes, sliced
  • 1/3 cup raisins
  • 1/3 cup dates, chopped
  • ~1 cups beef broth
  • 2-3 Tbs. flour

On the stovetop, cook the diced bacon until the fat runs from it; drain off the fat.  To the bacon pan, add the beef, spices, vinegar & the fruit. Add enough broth to thoroughly wet the mixture – the final consistency should be runny.

Throw in the flour and cook on low heat until the juices form a sort of gravy.

Let cool. Line a 9-inch pie pan with and fill with the meat mixture. Add a pastry lid or leave open-faced. Bake at 375º F until filling is bubbling and the pastry cooked, approx. 40 minutes.

NB: The cookbook contains a better, more delicious, perfected modern pie recipe, complete with a lattice-woven bacon top.

 

Pork Pie

“‘If I could fly, I’d be back at Castle Black eating a pork pie,’ said Sam.” -A Clash of Kings

Medieval Pork Pie with Currants

Medieval Pork Pie with Currants

Thoughts:

When we began to make these, we naively thought, “Two meat pies?  We’ll surely have leftovers for days!”  They were gone within hours.  Like many of our modern and medieval comparisons, the resulting dishes were quite different from one another.  Here’s the breakdown:

The medieval pork pie is definitely in the sweet category.  The amount of eggs in it makes it fluffier than the modern version, and the currants and ginger only add to the sweetness.  However, it is a sweetness that really suits the pork.  We might leave out an egg or two in the future, just so the meat holds together a bit better.

The modern pork pie is dense, and is very serious about being pork.  It could have used a little more salt, but when dipped in either ketchup or BBQ sauce it is rendered delicious.  If you do have leftovers, this pie is wonderful for a quick, cold breakfast straight from the fridge.

Bottom line?  Modern is savory, medieval is sweet, but both are delicious, and will be a hit with anyone who can get their fork into one.

**NB: The cookbook contains a tweaked version of the Medieval Pie, and a much more dynamic version of the Modern Pie.**

 

Medieval Pork Pie

A-nother manere. Tak fayre porke y-broylid, & grynd it smal with yolkys of Eyroun; than take Pepir, Gyngere, & grynd it smal, & melle it with-al, & a lytel hony, & floryssche thin cofyns with-ynne & with-owte, & hele hem with thin ledys, & late hem bake, & serue forth. – Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books

Our changes: Instead of boiling down our own pork roast and grinding it up, we used pre-ground pork.  Much easier!  ALSO!  This makes a great pairing with the Cream Swans, because you will be able to use the egg yolks for this, and the whites for that.  Win!

Ingredients:

  • 1 9″ pie shell with lid
  • 1 1/2  lb. ground pork
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 2 tsp. ginger
  • 1/4 tsp. pepper
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 1/2 cup currants
  • 1/2 cup chopped dates

Brown the pork over medium heat.  Let cool slightly, and mix well with all the other ingredients – The filling should be very moist. Place mixture in pie shell & add lid. Fold top dough under and pinch edges shut.  Cut decorative steam holes in the top of the pastry, and bake at 375° F for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until a golden brown.

Modern Pork Pie

The new, updated, and totally delicious modern recipe is available in The Cookbook!

Goat with Sweetgrass, Firepods, and Honey

Medieval Goat

“She brought back a haunch of goat and a basket of fruits and vegetables.  Jhiqui roasted the meat with sweetgrass and firepods, basting it with honey as it cooked…”  -A Storm of Swords

Modern Goat

Thoughts:

The argument was fierce over which of these dishes was better.   Although different, both were very good.  The metal skewers allowed the meat to cook perfectly so it was very tender, leaving all judgment hanging on the marinade.

The medieval goat dish was succulent and flavorful.    The garlic, salt, and pepper are a tried and true combination, and one that in this case really complimented the slight gaminess of the goat.  While it was tasty, it struck several of us as generically medieval (if such a thing is even possible).  This dish seemed more appropriate to the clansmen in the Mountains of the Moon than the nomadic Dothraki.

In contrast, the modern dish made me feel like a princess on the plains of Vaes Dothrak.  I could practically smell the sweat of horses and feel the wind blowing through grass tents.  This dish had an exotic feel that was lacking in the medieval version, and that, for me, made the difference.  The complexity of the ingredients, and the interplay of sweet, tart, savory and spicy is lovely, and I found myself tempted to lick the plate at the end of the meal.

Bottom line?  Medieval if you want medieval, Modern if you want Dothraki.

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Honeyed Chicken

“‘Hungry again?’ he asked.  There was still half a honeyed chicken in the center of the table.  Jon reached out to tear off a leg, then had a better idea.  He knifed the bird whole and let the carcass slide to the floor between his legs.  Ghost ripped into it in savage silence.” -A Game of Thrones

Thoughts:

Yum. The sauce reduces down to a thick, syrupy consistency, which melts ever so slightly when drizzled over the hot chicken.  The raisins soak up the sauce, and become absolutely delicious little morsels.  Combine a bite of the chicken, dripping with the juice from the plate, with a plump raisin, and you’re golden.

Bottom line?  Omnomnom!

 

Medieval Roast Chicken Recipe

This was a recipe that gave us some difficulty; Absurd, when it seems so straightforward.  However, there appear to be no recipes for “honeyed chicken” from a surviving period cookbook.  At last, we found a recipe that we could work with.  Thank you Ancient Romans!  Now, you say that ancient Rome is not the Middle Ages, and you are correct.  However, we use what we can.  And really, it’s honeyed chicken.  Are you really going to hold that against us?

Our changes:  Since this dish is mentioned in The North, we took out a few things that were more Roman than Stark.  We started with Apicius’ recipe for Chicken in Honey and Dill Glaze (Apicius, 6.8.2).  Instead of white wine vinegar, we substituted apple cider vinegar, and added raisins, assuming that raisins are easier to come by in The North than are grapes.  We eliminated the dill and date syrup for the same reason. Also, absolutely no fish sauce with our chicken.  This left us with ingredients as follows:

Ingredients:

  • 1 whole chicken for roasting
  • olive oil/butter (~1 Tbs)
  • salt

Sauce:

  • 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • Dash of mint, dried or fresh (abt. 1 tsp.)
  • Small handful of raisins
  • ~1 Tbs. butter

Rub the chicken down with olive oil/butter and salt.  This makes the skin crispy and delicious.  Cook in an oven at 450 degrees F for approximately an hour, or until the juices run clear, and the thick meat of the breast is no longer pink.

While your chicken is roasting away in the oven, combine all ingredients in saucepan and allow to simmer until the raisins plump and the sauce reduces slightly.  Remove from heat, and when the chicken is done, spread the sauce and raisins over the bird.

Enjoy!