Grisel’s Finger Foods

“Grisel reappeared before he could say more, balancing a large platter. She set it down between them. There were apples and pears and pomegranates, some sad-looking grapes, a huge blood orange. The old woman had brought a round of bread as well, and a crock of butter. Petyr cut a pomegranate in two with his dagger, offering half to Sansa.” -A Storm of Swords

Grisel’s Finger Foods

Our Thoughts:

I wasn’t sure at first if this meal warranted a post. Although the array of fruit sounds good, simple bread, butter, and fruit don’t generally stand out as memorable. But then I started to wonder what sort of bread one might find on the Fingers. The unnamed keep that serves as the paltry holdfast for House Baelish overlooks the Narrow Sea, so I though, Why not try a seaweed bread? Along with some homemade butter, of course.

I had my doubts initially, but was surprised by the bread! It has a nice texture, crumbly yet relatively dense. The seaweed is hardly noticeable, and if I didn’t know it was there, wouldn’t guess. In fact, next time, I might even add more. There is a very subtle salty sea flavor that compliments the more rustic flours. With a little homemade butter and a sprinkling of sea salt, it’s downright delicious. It’s also a good way to get a little more green veg in one’s daily diet, even when living in a meager hovel on The Fingers.

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Bread-Pretzel – Gentlemen Bastards series

“Locke put up his hands and tried to stand up; one of Jean’s fists grew in his field of vision until it seemed to blot out half the world. The blow folded him over like a bread-pretzel. When he recovered something resembling his senses he was hugging a table leg; the room was dancing a minuet around him.”

–The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch

Thoughts:

This recipe is slightly more of a stretch than I usually indulge in, but I really like pretzels, and they’re so easy to make at home. The addition of some darker flours, such as rye and pumpernickel, tweak the pretzels into something just slightly different than we are used to.

Serve the pretzels still warm from the oven. Not being a big mustard fan (sacrilege!), I love eating my pretzels with honey. :)

Recipe for Bread-Pretzels

Cook’s Notes: Although this recipe calls for several types of flour, you can also use plain, unbleached flour as a substitute for the quirkier varieties. This will result in a more American style plain pretzel, which is also delicious with a dusting of salt and some mustard, but lacks that slight otherworldly element of the recipe below.

Ingredients:

2 cups room-temperature water
1 Tbs. instant yeast
2-3 cups bread flour, plus more for kneading
1 cup pumpernickel flour
1 cup rye flour
2 Tbs. brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp. salt

Water bath:

6 cups water
2 Tbs. baking soda
toppings: try kosher salt, herb salt, caraway seeds, sesame seeds, parmesan, or a combination thereof

Mix together the water, yeast, sugar, and a cup of the flour. Add the salt, and continue to add flour until the dough has come together into a nice workable, mostly unsticky consistency. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead for several minutes, until the dough bounces back when poked. Place in a greased bowl, cover with a dish towel, and let rise until doubled in size, around 2 hours.

Divide the dough into around 16 pieces. Roll each of these into a long, thin rope about 1/2″ thick, and about a foot long. Twist into pretzel shapes, or into whatever shape you like, and set aside to rest. Repeat with all the dough. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 450F. Bring the water and baking soda to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Gently lower several pretzels into this water bath. They should sink to the bottom, but then gradually float up. Allow to simmer for about 30 seconds on each side, flipping half way through. Lift out and allow to drain on a cooling rack. Sprinkle with toppings while the dipped pretzels are still wet, and arrange on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake for around 12 minutes, or until the pretzels are a beautiful rich brown color.

Like this recipe? Check out the other recipes from the Gentlemen Bastards series!

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!