Cream of Mushroom and Escargot Soup

Medieval Cream of Mushroom and Escargot Soup

“The first dish was a creamy soup of mushrooms and buttered snails, served in gilded bowls. Tyrion had scarcely touched the breakfast, and the wine had already gone to his head, so the food was welcome. He finished quickly.” -A Storm of Swords

Modern Cream of Mushroom and Escargot Soup

Our Thoughts:

An inherently a rich, decadent dish, the modern soup was devine. The creamy texture of the escargot is countered nicely by the fresh, clean taste of parsley. The wine in the broth adds a depth of flavor, and the longer the broth is cooked down, the creamier and more decadent it becomes. Also makes fantastic leftovers!

The medieval dish was an odd one- not bad, but very different. Extremely spiced, the almond milk just didn’t seem to have the proper robustness to support the clove and mace. That said, it was a very interesting dish, and very typically medieval in it’s flavor profile.

Recipes are available in the Official Cookbook!

Salt Beef

“The rain might have stopped, but the compound was still a morass of shallow lakes and slippery mud. Black brothers were folding their tents, feeding their horses, and chewing on strips of salt beef.”

Salt Beef

Our Thoughts:

We won’t lie. We bought a ten pound piece of meat to cure without even thinking of the blog. We’re that culinary crazy. When one of us realized that we were pretty much making salt beef, we were a) relieved that this meaty goodness could be shared with the world, and b) absolved of the crime of cooking food outside of the blog. We did, however, look like a house of psychopaths for three weeks while the muslin-wrapped bundles hung in our pantry. Which has a window, of course.

But once we unwrapped and sliced into the wondrous meat, the weeks of apparent insanity were completely worth it. The meat is, obviously, very salty, but when paired with a sharp cheese and a good loaf of bread, it is the perfect trail food. We brought a chunk of our salt beef when we went camping, and it became part of breakfast, lunch and dinner!

A long wait for the finished product, but well worth the wait!

Get the Recipe!

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.

Get the Recipe!

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.

Get the Recipe!

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.

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.

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!