Dothraki Blood Pie

Traditional Blood Pie

“Food was brought to her, steaming joints of meat and thick black sausages and Dothraki blood pies, and later fruits and sweetgrass stews and delicate pastries from the kitchens of Pentos…” -A Game of Thrones

Modern Blood Sausage Tart

Thoughts:

*Fun Fact: Blood Pie is also a Klingon Dish. Oh, the wonders of the interwebs…*

The traditional pies are great. Rustic and hearty, frying leaves the dough wonderfully chewy, and the insides bursting with flavor. If you are wary of the blood sausage, you needn’t be; One of our housemates ate four of the pies in quick succession, raving about them, and was shocked to learn that they contained black pudding. The spices further improve what would be a wonderful recipe on its own. I used Aleppo pepper, and loved the middle eastern spiciness of it. If you too add spicy pepper to your filling, then you may find that our Milk Tea is a wonderful counter to that heat.

The modern pie is amazeballs. Truly. It took me about three glorious bites to even be able to think about additional adjectives. The smidge of garlic on the bottom of the filling was planted, grown, and harvested purely to complement the chevre. The leek was lovingly tended by orphans of the Greenblood who sang to it daily, until the time came for it to join the other ingredients in this tart. The black pudding, the center of the whole dish, stands firm amidst the other flavors, allowing them to complement, rather than overpower it. You may think the addition of the pistachios strange, but they lend a bit of crunch to an otherwise creamy dish, and help bring out the subtle nuttiness of the crust. Nibbled on its own, the crust has a nice, dry earthiness. However, it softens as it soaks up moisture from the filling, and adds to the overall gloriosity of the whole.

The two recipes are too dissimilar to compare fairly. I loved them both equally, albeit for their separate merits. I’d say that the traditional pie is the most Dothraki, but although the modern tart moonlights as a dainty and proper dish in its fluted tart pan, it’s absolutely one that Ser Jorah could dig into with both hands. Since most black pudding comes in 1 lb. packages, I suggest making both!

Feast like the Dothraki…

Onion Broth w/bits of Goat and Carrot

“The stewards began to bring out the first dish, an onion broth flavored with bits of goat and carrot. Not precisely royal fare, but nourishing; it tasted good enough and warmed the belly. Owen the Oaf took up his fiddle, and several of the free folk joined in with pipes and drums. The same pipes and drums they played to sound Mance Rayder’s attack upon the Wall. Jon thought they sounded sweeter now. With the broth came loaves of coarse brown bread, warm from the oven. Salt and butter sat upon the tables.” -A Dance with Dragons

Onion Broth with Goat and Carrot

Our Thoughts:

Zounds!

This is the most flavorful, delicious, unique broth we’ve ever encountered. Rich and full, heavily tinged with the salt from the pork, with the underlying flavors of the herbs and onions. We wouldn’t have expected the combined mint and sage to be pleasing, but as usual, we were wonderfully rewarded by following the original recipe. On the whole, it’s a nice, nuanced combination of flavors for relatively little effort.

Consider pairing this broth with a loaf of our Black Beer Bread, but go light on the butter; you only have a bit left, and winter is coming…

Stewed Goat Recipe

Goat Kid or Mutton, with Thick Broth. Get kid or mutton and cut it into small pieces, and put it into a pot with salt pork; then get sage, mint and onion, and cook everything together; then get good spices and saffron, distemper them with the meat’s broth and let everything boil together until the meat falls apart; then lift the meat out into a dish with the thick broth. -The Neapolitan recipe collection, Italy, 15th c.

Ingredients:

1/4 lb. salt pork
6 cups water
1 cup dark beer or ale (drink the rest while you cook! ;) )
2 small sprigs sage
2 small sprigs mint
1 onion, roughly chopped
poudre forte (equal parts black pepper, cinnamon, mace, clove, long pepper, ginger, etc)
1 cup carrots, chopped small
1-2 Tbs. bacon fat or duck fat
ground goat meat, 1 lb.

Combine the salt pork, water, ale, herbs, and onions in a large pot. Simmer for 45 minutes.

Strain the broth into a clean pot, reserving the onions if you would like to add them back in. Season with a pinch of spices, and add the chopped carrots.

In a separate skillet, brown the goat meat in the fat, then add it to the broth pot. Let everything simmer together for 15 minutes, or until the carrots are tender. Skim some of the fat off the top if you like, then serve hot.

Prep: 15 minutes Cooking: 1 hour

Serves 5-6

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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