Onions in Gravy

“Ben Stark laughed. ‘As I feared. Ah, well. I believe I was younger than you the first time I got truly and sincerely drunk.’ He snagged a roasted onion, dripping brown with gravy, from a nearby trencher and bit into it. It crunched.” -A Game of Thrones

Onions in Gravy

Our Thoughts:

Think winter.

You have been riding for hours through the snow-swept Wolfswood. The black strip of cloth you wrap around your mouth and nose has frozen almost rigid from the moisture in your breath, but you are finally home. You pass through the outer gate of a stone keep to a world alive with the sounds of the practice yard, and the smells of horses and cookfires, smoky in the icy air. A few minutes later you are in the castle mess hall, dipping fresh bread in warm rich gravy- salty and delicious. Sweet pearl onions burst in your mouth- and you wash them down with dark ale. As you hungrily devour the warm bread and rich ale, the gravy, the sweet onions, you feel certain that no one, not even the high lords with their haunches of fresh meat, has ever enjoyed a meal more.

That is what it is like to eat this dish.

However, as delicious as this recipe proves to be, it would be at its best when paired with something. Bread and sharp cheeses, roasted meat, or turnips swimming in butter would all suit admirably.

(Guest review by Fire Pony)

Recipe available in the Cookbook!

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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Mereneese Lamb with salad of raisins and carrots, hot flaky bread

“That night her handmaids brought her lamb, with a salad of raisins and carrots soaked in wine, and a hot flaky bread dripping with honey. She could eat none of it. Did Rhaegar ever grow so weary? she wondered. Did Aegon, after his conquest?” -A Storm of Swords

Roman Lamb and Carrots

Thoughts:

This was a delicious dish. Hands down one of our favorites so far. The sweetness of the sauces suited carrots, raisins, and lamb alike, while drawing out their natural flavors. We served our with Naan bread, warmed in the oven, and iced milk sweetened with honey.

Make it at Home!

Rock Your Premiere Party!

In honor of the upcoming premiere of Game of Thrones on HBO, we have put together a selection of foods that would be ideal for any premiere party. We’ve included a selection of full recipes for those willing to try their hands in the kitchen, but also provided a “fake it” option for those with less time for or inclination towards preparation.

Make It!

In this category, we’ve thrown out a bunch of options, and will leave the decisions to you! You can choose to make one thing, or all of them (if you’re feeding an army). Options are listed in order from left to right, more difficult to easier.

♦ A Full Dornish Dinner ♦

Stuffed Grapeleaves ♦ Flatbread ♦ Olives and Feta

Honeyed Chicken ♦ Skewered Lamb/Goat/Beef ♦ Pork Pies

Cream Swans ♦ Lemon Cakes ♦ Spiced Honey Biscuits ♦ Baked Apples

Southron Mulled Wine ♦ Mead

Fake It!

For this category, we have listed all the easy food stuffs you can get at most stores, and put together for your guests to nibble on. Think of it as a tasty wayfarer’s meal, eaten on The King’s Road, between Winterfell and King’s Landing.

Loaf of Rustic Bread ♦ Variety of cheeses (cheddar, brie, chevre, etc.) ♦ Pickles

Big Bunch of Grapes ♦ Slices of Blood Oranges, Pears, and Apples in Lemon Juice

Pita and Hummus ♦ Variety of Olives ♦ Packaged Stuffed Grape Leaves

Store-bought Rotisserie Chicken ♦ Pre-marinated Shish Kebab Skewers

Mead ♦ Wine ♦ Cider ♦ Ale

NOTE: The trick to faking it effectively is purchasing high quality ingredients and presenting them well. Consider visiting Whole Foods. If you want to feel like you are at Winterfell, the bread needs to be crusty and authentic and the cheese should come from some small farm in Vermont. Serve on your largest wooden cutting board, with your most rustic looking knife.

Casual Dornish Dinner

“The kid had been roasted with lemon and honey. With it were grape leaves stuffed with a melange of raisins, onions, mushrooms, and fiery dragon peppers. ‘I am not hungry,’ Arianne said…After a while, hunger weakened her resolve, so she sat and ate.” -A Dance with Dragons?

Thoughts:

THIS. Is. Epic.

From the first bite, this dish will make you feel like a Dornish Prince, or a lucky Sandsnake.What an amazing meal. This post was one of the earliest on the blog, but after reviewing it, I realized it was more of a concept post, rather that actual, awesome recipes. That, with the benefit of one cookbook’s worth of experience, plus several years of blogging, proved easy to fix. Years ago, I found an original medieval recipe for roast kid that went like this: “Take a kydde, and slytte the skyn in þe throte…And trusse his legges in the sides, and roste him…” This is one of my favorite recipes for showcasing just how unhelpful some medieval recipes could be. It’s essentially saying, “kill the goat and roast it.” None of our modern cook times or temperatures here!

This time around, I opted for my own marinade, swapped lamb for goat (which can be tough, and is a better candidate for stewing), and the result was delicious. Flavors of honey and lemon burst on the tongue, only to be replaced by the gradual burn of pepper. While the tender lamb is the center of the meal, the other sides are what makes it a feast. They include:

Pide (flatbread), with Chickpea Paste and Mesquite Honey
Marinated Feta
Assorted Olives
Stuffed Grape Leaves
Strongwine

The recipes for the Flatbread, Chickpea Paste, and Grape Leaves are in the cookbook. Look for the recipes for Strongwine and several other delectable dishes in the mini Dornish eCookbook. ;)

The pide bread, fresh baked and still warm from the oven, is addictive, especially paired with the rich feta. As though that weren’t enough to utterly stuff a person, the grape leaves’ complicated collection of flavors beckons from a nearby plate, and a bowl of mixed olives soon dwindles to a pile of pits. The meal is a constant cycle of sweet, spicy, and salty tastes, and just as soon as you complete one round of flavors, you find yourself reaching for more.

I wish I had a picture of the aftermath of the meal, wrought by just two eaters, but I’ll admit that I was pleasantly struggling to stay awake by that point. We ate it for lunch, and didn’t need a meal for the rest of the day.

Although there are many elements involved in a Dornish Dinner, a little forethought can simplify things. Make the grape leaves and the bread dough the day before, allowing the latter to rise overnight. Marinate the lamb overnight also, or start it first thing in the morning.

Verdict? Absolutely make this meal. Consider dressing in silks and eating out of doors, in hot weather, under trees heavy laden with overripe fruit. Or recline on a bed of pillows indoors, and imagine the warmth of the Dornish sun, even in the bitterest of our winters. Eat with your fingers- it brings you closer to the food.

Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken, and very well fed…

Lamb with Honey, Lemon, and Fiery Peppers

Prep: 4 hours+ Cooking: ~10 minutes Serves: 2-4, depending on sides

Cook’s Notes: Lamb can be expensive, but if you’re going through the effort of making this meal, don’t skimp on quality. A nice meat will mean you get a wonderfully tender dish in the end.

Ingredients:

juice of 1 lemon
2 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes, or more to taste
2 Tbs. honey, plus extra to drizzle
1/2-3/4 lb. lamb, cut into 1″ chunks

Combine the first five ingredients in a bowl, making sure to mix thoroughly. Add the lamb, and allow to marinate for at least 4 hours. Preheat the oven to 400F, and place the lamb on skewers, leaving just the slightest bit of space between each piece. Cook for around 8 minutes, flipping once in the middle to ensure the meat cooks evenly.

When done, remove from heat and drizzle with honey. If you like, you can then stick the skewers under the broiler very briefly to slightly caramelize the honey. Just be careful not to overcook the lamb. Place the finished skewers on a bed of pilav, and enjoy!

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