Tag Archives: honey

Klava with Honey – Vlad Taltos series

“How do you brew klava?”

“You don’t know?”

She smiled. “I can serve it with the best, but I’ve never needed to learn how to brew it.”

“You press coffee through a filter made of eggshells and wood chips with vanilla bean, then reheat it so it almost boils, then you pass it through a cloth to remove any oils brought out by the reheating.”

-Issola, by Steven Brust

Thoughts:

Not being an every day coffee drinker, I tend to think Turkish coffee is already superior to the average cup of morning joe. But put through this process, it transcends the bounds of ordinary beverages, and becomes something near ethereal. Each of the different flavors is discernible, from the earthiness of the woodchips to the sweet subtlety of the vanilla bean. The cream thickens the already dense coffee into a silky, decadent drink.

Fun Fact? The eggshells help decrease the bitterness of the coffee. See? Right there, you and I both learned something culinary and fascinating from fictional food. That’s why it’s so cool!

Don’t be intimidated by the list of below ingredients and equipment. Once you get the hang of it, it’s quite straightforward. I’ve also included a version that is french-press friendly, because more people have those than have cezves. 

**Disclaimer: I’m not really a coffee drinker, but I thoroughly enjoyed Klava. However, if you are crazy for coffee, you may want to increase the strength of your own brew!**

Recipe for Klava

Prep time: about 10 minutes

Makes 1 (strong) mug-worth, or about 4 Turkish coffee cups-worth

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup water
  • 2 Tbs. Turkish coffee grounds
  • pinch of cinnamon and/or ground cardamom (optional)
  • 1 Tbs. honey
  • cream, to taste

You’ll need:

  • 1/4 cup clean eggshells
  • 1/4 cup woodchips (hickory, cherrywood, or other would suit)
  • 1 vanilla bean, chopped roughly and crushed
Helpful Items:
  • funnel
  • mesh straining bag/clean scrap of fabric
  • a cezve (pot for making Turkish coffee)
  • mason jar

Alright. So. In a small pot, or cezve, combine the water and coffee grounds. If also adding spices, do so at this point. Place over medium-high heat and watch carefully. Heat until it froths up, then remove from heat.

In a mesh bag, combine the eggshells, woodchips, and chopped vanilla bean. Suspend this bag in the mason jar, and pour the coffee over it. Allow to steep for five minutes. Remove the mesh bag, and pour the Klava through a funnel lined with cloth. 

Klava is best served in a mug, as opposed to a glass, so it doesn’t get cold. Turkish coffee cups are also ideal serving vessels, albeit on the small side.


French Press Recipe for Klava

Makes about 2 mugs, takes about 5 minutes.

Couldn’t be easier.

I doubled the above quantities for the coffee grounds and the water, then let all the ingredients steep together in the pot before pressing down the filter. It’s a great recipe cheat for those who don’t have the cezve for making proper Turkish coffee, but are looking for a quirkier style of caffeine. 

Butter Biscuits – 1798

Thoughts:

True to their name, these are quite buttery. More what we might think of as modern rolls rather than biscuits, they are simple and wholesome, stopping just shy of fluffy. Because they are so simple, they are a perfect vehicle for your choice of condiments, including jam, clotted cream, or honey on the comb.

Colonial Butter Biscuits Recipe

Quarter Recipe Yield: 10 small biscuits

Sponge: overnight       Prep: 10 minutes       Baking: 25-30 minutes


Ingredients:

              Full Batch                   Half Batch                Quarter Batch

  • 1 pint milk                  1 cup milk                  1/2 cup milk
  • 1 pint emptins          1 cup emptins           1/2 cup emptins (or sourdough starter)
  • flour                              flour                             1/2 cup flour
  • 1 lb. butter                 2 sticks butter          1 stick butter
  • another pint milk    1 cup milk                  1/2 cup milk
  • more flour                  flour                             2 cups flour, plus a bit more

Mix the half cup milk with the half cup emptins, along with a 1/2 cup flour to make a sponge. Cover loosely with a dish towel and let sit out overnight. In the morning, your sponge will be larger, bubbly, and, well… spongy. 

Melt 1 stick of butter into another half cup of milk, and let cool until it’s just warm; if too hot, it will kill the yeast in the sponge. Add to the sponge, and gradually mix in 2 cups flour. At this point, you should have a thick batter. Gently knead in additional flour until the whole mixture comes together into one cohesive mass that is soft but not sticky.

Tear off 8 pieces of equal size, and gently form into small rounds. You may either place these directly onto a baking sheet, or into the cups of a muffin pan.

Bake at 350 F for 25-30 minutes, until the tops are just slightly golden, and the biscuits feel firm to the touch.

They are best served with jam, honey, or clotted cream.

Honeycakes

Elizabethan Honeycakes

“She still remembered the innkeep, a fat woman named Masha Heddle who chewed sourleaf night and day and seemed to have an endless supply of smiles and sweet cakes for the children. The sweet cakes had been soaked with honey, rich and heavy on the tongue…” -A Game of Thrones

Modern Honey-ginger cakes

Our Thoughts:

We had initially intended to make two versions of this dessert, but after some trouble tracking down a suitable old one, and after tasting the modern version, we couldn’t wait to share.

While the Elizabethan version is very light, fluffy, and ohsotasty, it is more of a bun than a cake. As such, it didn’t respond well to my initial attempts to soak it in honey. It would accept a honey glaze once it had cooled down, but still lacked that really over the top sweet honey kick. So I went a step further, and filled them with honey. YES.

The modern cakes are also wonderful. They make these dense, doughy little cakes bursting with honey flavor and the subtlest of spices. We finished ours with lavender icing, and can’t imagine a better pairing. We thought they couldn’t get any better until we tried soaking a few in about 1/4″ of honey overnight. Result? Sheer decadence. The honey hits the tongue, the lavender hits the palate, and the whole thing is amazing. Our batch lasted about 5 whole minutes…

If anyone has a solid recipe for an older honeycake, we’d love to see it. In the meantime, we’ll be in the kitchen, eating these cakes until we run out, or can’t fit through the door.

Elizabethan Honeycake Recipe

Elizabethan Almond Cakes- Take one peck of flower, one pound of sugar, one pound of almons, beaten & strained with as much ale as will stiffen your paste, put theirto three spoonfulls of barme, & a few annisseds, then woork it well together, then make it in little cakes, prick them thick for rising & bake them. Elinor Fettiplace’s Receipt Book, 1604

Makes about 12 buns

Prep: 10 minutes           Rising: 1.5 hour, minimum            Baking: 15 minutes

Our changes: No aniseseeds, don’t like ’em. You are more than welcome to include them if you do, however.  We basically used the original recipe, but added honey to the batter, as well as soaking the cakes in honey for a while.

Ingredients:

  • up to 3 1/2 cups flour
  • 3 Tbs. honey
  • 2 tsp. sugar
  • 3 Tbs. ground almonds
  • 1 packet yeast, or 2 1/4 tsp.
  • 1/2 pint ale (1 bottle)
  • pinch of salt
  • honey for soaking, probably around 1/2 cup at least
Dissolve the yeast in the warmed ale, and leave to froth up.  Grind the almonds and sugar in a food processor, then combine with the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a small well in the mixture, and pour in the yeasty ale. Adding the flour a bit at a time, work everything all together until it is a nice smooth, pliable consistency  leave in a warm place until it has doubled in size. After it has risen, knock it down and knead it for a few minutes before shaping it into around 10 small buns.
Allow the buns to rise again for at least 15 minutes, then bake in a preheated oven for 10-20 minutes at 375 degrees F. The buns should be just slightly golden.
Using a small paring knife, cut a small hole (about 1/2″) in the tops of the buns, poking well down into the cake, but taking care to not poke all the way through. Take a small spoon and carefully fill each hole with honey. You may need to do this several times as the honey soaks into the cake. Put in at least 1 Tbs. honey per cake.

Modern Honeycake Recipe

Makes: never enough

Prep: 15 minutes           Bake: ~30 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 2 1/2 cups cake flour
  • 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. ground ginger
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup honey
  • 1 cup buttermilk

Sift together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add egg and beat thoroughly, followed by the honey. Add the flour mixture and the buttermilk in alternating turns, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Pour into paper lined cupcake tins, or a greased muffin pan, filling each cup 2/3 full. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes or until the cakes are a golden brown.

Martha Stewart’s lavender icing recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/340910/lavender-icing

 

 

Stewed Plums

“In the airy chambers beneath the rookery, his girl served them boiled eggs, stewed plums, and porridge, while Pycelle served the pontifications.” -A Clash of Kings

Stewed Plums

Our Thoughts:

These stewed plums are like a simpler version of our Medieval Plum Mousse recipe. The fruit breaks down and mixes with the honey and cinnamon, resulting in mushy spoonfuls of delightfulness. It’s a great way to used plums that are slightly underripe or out of season, and make them into a wonderful topping for a dessert (Ice Cream! Cake!), or as a sweeter side for a slice of meat.

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Ham with Cloves, Honey, and Dried Cherries

“Sad to say, the kitchens proved to have no wild boar on hand, and there was not time enough to send out hunters. Instead, the cooks butchered one of the castle sows, and served them ham studded with cloves and basted with honey and dried cherries. It was not what Cersei wanted, but she made do.” -A Feast for Crows

Ham with cloves, honey, and dried cherries

Our Thoughts:

Salty, juicy goodness. The sweet punch of a cherry. Slow drips of honey.

All this can be yours.

This recipe is so good that it nearly defies description. Even as someone for whom ham and pork generally hold little appeal,  I still had 3 servings. It’s the kind of flavor combination that will keep you eating in an effort to really nail down a description. We at least had the excuse of writing this post, but you’ll have to come up with your own.

What’s more, this is a great way to sneak a little Westeros into your otherwise normal family holidays.

This tasty ham, followed by episode 2.2, and chocolate Easter eggs? WIN.

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Roman Sweets

“…next I sing of honey, the heavenly ethereal gift…” -Virgil

Roman Stuffed Dates

Our Thoughts:

These are a purely natural, gluten and sugar free powerhouse of nominess. The texture of chewy date is complimented by the crunchy nut filling, and the whole is dripping with honey. They fit perfectly with my mental preconceptions of Ancient Roman dining. Imagine reclining on elegant couches, opulent fabrics rippling underneath you toward the exquisite mosaic on the floor. Course after course of decadence is served, yet this dish stands apart as the epitome of simple, delicious sweets.

Go on. You know you want to.


Roman Stuffed Dates

DULCIA DOMESTICA: LITTLE HOME CONFECTIONS (WHICH ARE CALLED DULCIARIA) ARE MADE THUS: LITTLE PALMS OR (AS THEY ARE ORDINARILY CALLED) DATES ARE STUFFED—AFTER THE SEEDS HAVE BEEN REMOVED—WITH A NUT OR WITH NUTS AND GROUND PEPPER, SPRINKLED WITH SALT ON THE OUTSIDE AND ARE CANDIED IN HONEY AND SERVED.

Ingredients:

  • Dried dates, pitted
  • crushed nuts – hazelnuts and cooked chestnuts are perfect
  • cinnamon and long pepper (or black pepper), 1 tsp. per 1/2 cup of nuts
  • honey to cover the stuffed dates
  • a jar to store them in

Chop the nuts small, and mix with cinnamon and pepper. Carefully stuff this mixture into the pitted dates, taking care to not overstuff and tear the fruit. Place the stuffed dates in a jar, propping the dates up to keep the nuts from spilling out. Continue this process until the jar is full. Pour honey over the stuffed dates until all the crevices are filled.

Mock Dormice

“Aggo gave an urchin a copper for a skewer of honey-roasted mice and nibbled them as he rode. Jhogo bought a handful of fat white cherries. Elsewhere they saw beautiful bronze daggers for sale, dried squids and carved onyx…”  -A Clash of Kings

 

Our Thoughts

This was a dish from the books that we couldn’t actually make, but after giving it some thought, we came up with a fun solution.

These are tasty little morsels. The flaky pastry melts in your mouth, while the sausage pops with juices when you bite into it. Plus, they look like mice. There is a residual feeling of decadence that accompanies the eating of these tiny faux creatures, bringing you just a tad closer to your favorite Roman emperors and Dothraki bodyguards.

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Daenerys Targaryen's ideal meal

We were swamped with terrific ideas and suggestions for this meal. Combining our ideas with yours, this is what we’ve got:

We started with Kati’s idea that the meal would have to include lots of small dishes of nibbles for Dany to daintily pick at. Dylan is also probably correct in that there would have to be a “crap ton of fresh fruit”. We shopped at the local Asian market for some extra strange fruit varietals.

As per the suggestion of many, we served some spiced lamb over a bed of mixed grains. Also savory, the tea eggs from our Meereenese Breakfast. Equally exotic were the roasted grapes- half raisins with a burst of sweetness.

For a sweet finish, we followed Total Zelanity’s observation that Tyroshi Honeyfingers needed to be included. Add to that a side of Anne Clark’s suggested yogurt with honey and pomegranate, and some honey-cinnamon roasted chickpeas.

Our drinks consultant recommends a South African mead, such as the coffee, fig, or chili varietals from IQhilika, or a spicy Corsican witbier such as Pietra Columba. We also served up some of our home brewed persimmon wine. For a non alcoholic beverage, we suggest a minty green tea- a superior shade of green can be had by brewing matcha with fresh mint sprigs.

 Our Thoughts:

Dany really feasts like a queen (or a khaleesi, if you prefer). The grapes on their own are wonderful, but for a really incredible experience, combine a bite of yogurt, roasted grape, and lamb. The three combine for a really amazing flavor. The extra fresh fruits are luscious, but in my opinion, can’t hold their own against the amazingness that is Tyroshi Honeyfingers. I mean, fried dough, soaked in honey. Yes.

We also employed an old Jacobite tradition for toasting: Fill a small glass with water. Take your beverage of choice, and, while passing it over the water, say, “To the Queen”. In this way, any Targaryen loyalist in Westeros can secretly toast Daenerys, their queen over the water. :)

Honorable Mention:

Doug suggested Ethiopian-style lamb tips, from lamb plundered from the weak Lhazareen

Min’s suggestion of something flambeed

EVERYTHING in Tami’s extensive list of courses

Faris’ suggestion of a course for each of the seven kingdoms, so she could metaphorically devour them

kkw for playing to my weakness for Turkish cuisine

Nate’s suggestion of a vintage Madeira, because it and Dany have gotten better with travel, are complex, and survive exposure to extreme heat

 

Spit-roasted Rabbit

“Serving men were carrying off baskets of Hot Pie’s bread and tarts, the chief cook was carving cold slices off a ham, spit boys were turning rabbits while the pot girls basted them with honey, women were chopping onions and carrots.” -A Clash of Kings
Spit-Roasted Hare

Our Thoughts:

This is about as rustic as our recipes get. Limited by our current residency in the city, we roasted our rabbit over our porch grill, rather than a proper fire. The result, as you can see, is a picturesquely charred rabbit suspended over glowing coals.  The pairing of the char on the rabbit and honey produces a taste reminiscent of barbecue sauce, smoky and sweet together. Although rabbit is prone to turning dry as it cooks, ours stayed juicy and tender, in part, no doubt, to the honey basting.

We tried eating the rabbit with forks and knives, but in the end stooped to tearing at the meat with hands and teeth. Much more effective, and somehow even more flavorful. Not to mention perfectly in keeping with the book, given how the rabbit is eaten a few pages later…

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Breakfast in King's Landing

“Cersei Lannister was breaking her fast when Sansa was ushered into her solar. ‘You may sit,’ the queen said graciously. ‘Are you hungry?’ She gestured at the table. There was porridge, honey, milk, boiled eggs, and crisp fried fish.” -A Clash of Kings

Breakfast in King’s Landing

Our Thoughts:

While Sansa might not have had the stomach for such a breakfast, we’re certain you will have no such qualms. The saltiness of the fingerfish is a flavorful counterpart to the sweetness of the honeyed porridge. The texturally aware eater will delight in the wide array provided by this spread: crunchy fish, delightful porridge mush, Oozy honey, firm egg. Wash it all down with good quality cold whole milk, and you’ll be set for whatever challenges your day might bring.

Just please, don’t set your bedroom on fire…this breakfast can be yours without the drama.

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