Eggs for Breakfast – 1890s

Thoughts:

Creamy, delicious eggs. Savory from the broth and mushrooms, with the slightest crunch lent by the onions. It’s not quite an omelet, nor yet scrambled eggs, but something like both, in that the chopped whites and yolks of hard-boiled eggs are combined in a thick, creamy sauce. It’s an interesting spin on eggs for breakfast, and a great way to use up any leftover hard boiled eggs you may have in the fridge. In fact, I bet it would be a terrific way to use up leftover deviled eggs from a party (if there is such a thing… I usually eat them all!). The mustard would be a welcome addition, I think.

I recommend expanding on the original recipe, and putting a hefty layer of the egg mixture on a slice of toast, topping with a sharp cheese, and setting it under the broiler for just long enough to melt the cheese. With this treatment, it can actually stand as a breakfast main course, rather than a side.

Recipe for Eggs for Breakfast

Boiling eggs: 10 minutes Prep time: 15 minutes

Serves 3-4

Cook’s Note: I haven’t the faintest idea where the bay leaf is meant to figure in, so I’ve omitted it altogether. If you like, I suppose you could let it sit awhile in the stock to pass on a bit of the flavor.

Ingredients:

6 mushrooms, diced (~1/4 cup)
6 hard boiled eggs, divided into whites and yolks, both chopped small
1 slice of onion, diced (~1 1/2 Tbs.)
2 Tbs. butter, divided
1 Tbs. flour
2 Tbs. cream
1 cup stock
salt & pepper to taste

Saute the mushrooms in 1 Tbs. butter until soft. Remove from pan and set aside.

Melt the rest of the butter, and add the flour. Stir until the butter bubbles and turns golden. Pour in the stock and cream and stir until it reaches a smooth consistency. Add the chopped egg whites, mushrooms, and salt & pepper to taste. Bring to a bubble, then crumble the yolks into the mixture. Turn off heat and stir to combine.

Venison Pies

Medieval Venison Pies

“Such food Bran had never seen… venison pies chunky with carrots, bacon and mushrooms…” –A Clash of Kings

Modern Venison Pies

Thoughts:

In a slight break from our usual style, I’ve actually stayed true to the medieval recipe, not adding the extra ingredients detailed in the book; the medieval recipe is just so quirky and specific that I wanted to try it as it was meant to be eaten. In the modern version, however, I’ve added in the carrots, bacon, and mushrooms to match the description.

The medieval version is quite strange. However, take a delicious meat, and smother it with butter, and there’s only so much that time can alter. The spices are quite a bit sweeter than those in the modern version, and go well with the butter. The rye crust, we decided, is like many medieval crusts, and is meant more as a container than it is meant to be eaten. I’d be curious (and may try it at some point) just how long it would keep, as it is essentially potted venison in a pastry container.

In contrast, the modern version is savory, bursting at the seams with venison, veg, and bacon. With such a variety of ingredients, each bite is different from the last in composition. The crust is wonderfully delicate and flaky, making it as enjoyable to eat as the filling. To be fair, though, this isn’t the best way to showcase venison, as it is just an element of the pie instead of the star of the dish. Also, rather than make a whole venison pie, we opted for this recipe to make several smaller hand pies. They might not fit in as well at a feast in Winterfell, but they’re ideal for snacks and lunches.

The Winner? I’d give it to the modern pasties, but the old version is fun to try.

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Magister Illyrio’s Dubious Mushrooms

“Mushrooms,” the magister announced, as the smell wafted up. “Kissed with garlic and bathed in butter. I am told the taste is exquisite. Have one, my friend. Have two.” -A Dance with Dragons

Black Mushrooms, take 2

Our Thoughts:

This dish proved to be more of an adventure than we anticipated.

We looked in several markets for black mushrooms, without success. Then, brilliance. I went to our local Asian supermarket, and cast about until I found an entire aisle filled with dried mushrooms. This, surely, was the perfect place to obtain suitably sketchy mushrooms. The winning bag reads, “Superior Quality Dried Fungus”, and beat out both the “AAA Dried Fungus” and the merely “High Quality Dried Fungus”.

Having obtained my dubious black mushrooms, I returned home to experiment.

They were horrible. I tried to prepare them many different ways, only to be met with the incontrovertable fact that the texture is simply unbearable. The butter and garlic just slipped right off the rubbery mushrooms, leaving us with a wholly unappetizing dish.

The second take is what you see above, and is wholly delicious. They might not have the same dubious backstory to go with them, but the trade off for great flavor is well worth it. Plump mushrooms bursting with butter and garlic- does it get better?