Tag Archives: George RR Martin

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!

Starting a Pear Brandy

Pear Brandy starting to age

Although there are several pear brandies available commercially, we opted to try making our own. This beautiful beverage will have to age around two months before we can let you know how it has turned out. If you like, you can make some too, and watch it mature along with us! We anticipate it will be delicious, with all of the flavor of pears, but none of that sometimes off-putting texture.

**Update**

We tried our brandy every month after bottling it. After the first month, it was very harsh and unpleasant. At month two, it had mellowed considerably, and now, at the third month, it is wonderfully drinkable, full of all the best flavors of both brandy and pears.

Make it at Home!

Thick Stew of Mussels, Crabs, and 3 kinds of Fish

“The food was plain, but very good; there were loaves of crusty bread still warm from the ovens, crocks of fresh-churned butter, honey from the septry’s hives, and a thick stew of crabs, mussels, and at least three different kinds of fish.  Septon Meribald and Ser Hyle drank the mead the brothers made, and pronounced it excellent, whilst she and Podrick contented themselves with more sweet cider.” -A Feast for Crows


Modern Fish Chowder

Thoughts

For this dish I opted for a hearty New England style fish chowder.  I threw together a couple of different recipes, tweaked them to suit, and this is the incredibly tasty result!

One bite of this modern stew will make you forget the effort that went into creating it. This is the earthly realization of platonic fish chowder. We asked the guests at our dinner table to give their thoughts, but only received grunts of approval and moaned delight.  Imagine yourself eating this meal in a tranquil sept on an island, savoring the hearty broth in peace while chaos rages around you. Imagine that, because eating this stew can transport you out of your everyday life.  

Part of the challenge of food blogging is making the photos show just how delicious the dish is, and that’s often done with atmosphere. The building in the photo is a perfect stand-in for the Sept from the books. In reality, it’s a gutted and abandoned church near where my parents used to live, in West Boyleston, MA. I drove by the place once, and immediately knew I would have to use it for a photo. I must have been quite a sight as I made my way down the embankment, folding table, dishware, food, and camera all teetering precariously. But the photo made it all worth it, and I got a great picnic lunch, to boot! 

Modern Fish Stew Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1.5 oz salt pork or thick cut bacon, diced
  • 1 lb potatoes (about 2 medium), chopped into 1/2″ cubes
  • 1 yellow onion, finely diced
  • 1.5 lb fish (we used salmon, haddock, and cod), about 2 fish or 4 fillets, cut into 1″ chunks
  • 2 c water
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 12 oz can evaporated milk
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • ~1/2-1 cup crab meat (imitation is fine, and cheaper!)
  • around a dozen mussels (ours were precooked)

Place 1/2 lb fish (about 1 fillet) in a pot with 2 c cold water. Bring to boil and boil 10 minutes.

While that is cooking, fry up the salt pork over medium heat. Once the bits are beginning to turn crispy and brown, add the diced potato. Cook 5 minutes over medium-high, stirring frequently. By now the fish broth should be done, so add it and the fish to the potato, then spread the remaining cubed fish atop this mess. Let this burble for about 10 minutes on medium-high.

At this point, if your pan won’t hold an additional 3 cups of liquid, transfer everything to a larger pot. Add heavy cream, evaporated milk, salt & pepper, crab meat, and whole mussels still in the shell. Bring to just under a boil, then reduce to medium-low, cover, and simmer about an hour.

To serve, ladle into bowls and garnish with additional pepper. To really round out the meal, serve it with the other original components from the book: crusty fresh bread with butter and honey, mead, and cider. 

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.

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Modern Auroch’s Joints roasted with Leeks

“Such food Bran had never seen; course after course after course, so much that he could not manage more than a bite or two of each dish.  There were great joints of aurochs roasted with leeks, venison pies…”

-A Clash of Kings

Ready for the oven!

Our Thoughts

This was yet another very tasty dish.  The vegetables were absolutely delicious; I could have made a meal of just those!  While the veg almost stole the thunder from the roast beef, the addition of a medieval black pepper sauce really kicked the meat up a few notches.  Definitely a keeper!

Get the aurochs recipe in The Cookbook!

Medieval Black Pepper Sauce

Poivre Noir : Black Pepper Sauce

ORIGINAL RECEIPT:

165. Poivre noir: Black Pepper Sauce. Grind ginger, round pepper and burnt toast, infuse this in vinegar (var.: and a little verjuice) and boil it.  – Le Viandier de Taillevent, 14th century

This recipe makes a lovely, rich sauce that pairs well with robust red meats, such as venison, boar, and beef.  The quantities of ingredients can be tweaked to make the sauce thicker or thinner to your preference, and you should also feel free to adjust the amount of pepper to taste.  The tartness of the vinegar might surprise you on first taste, but after a little acclimation, we think you’ll like it as much as we do.  The charred tasted of the bread combined with the bite of the pepper rounds out the flavor sensations that go with this sauce.

Ingredients

  • 1 slice bread, toasted until black
  • 1/3 cup verjuice, or equal parts cider vinegar and water
  • 1 Tbs. wine vinegar
  • 1 Tbs. ground black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
Soak the burned bread in the liquid until it has fallen apart; mash with a fork.  Stir in the spices and slowly bring to a boil.  For a thinner sauce, add more liquid; for a smoother version, press through a sieve.

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.

Wildling Roasted Haunch of Goat (on a spit!)

There is something deliciously primal about tearing into a roasted haunch of meat with one’s hands. We didn’t anticipate this adventure, but when the opportunity presented itself, we couldn’t say no.  The purpose of the weekend had been to do a dry run for a camping trip the following weekend.  So we gathered our tents and headed out of the city.

The girls spent the morning going farmstand-hopping, picking up a wide variety of incredible baked goods, ogling jars of vintage buttons, and sourcing quirky meat.  Sariann espied the haunch of goat at a great place appropriately named “Blood Farm”, which has been run by the Blood family for 5 generations.  Their bacon is terrific, and their lamb has won multiple awards.  Another farmstand of note is that of John Crow Farm, where we hope to get goose and duck eggs in a few weeks.  To tide us over, we got some potted herbs and some wonderful mixed tea.  The then current shopkeeper, Jen, was very helpful, even offering a few tips on where we might look for lamprey and wild boar!

Needless to say, as soon as we were in possession of this large chunk of meat, the rest of the day sort of evolved around that.  While it thawed on the front stoop, the girls met up with the guys for a picnic at an old ruined stone church (SO cool!), and did a spot of antiquing before returning to the house.

Gender stereotypes were out in full force at this point.  The boys dug a fire pit and hacked down small trees with which they constructed a wild-looking spit for the meat.  The girls, on the other hand, pitched tents, and made cozy nests of blankets and pillows, then set about preparing the meat.  The goat got a rub of  salt, black pepper, savory, marjoram, and cumin, and was set over the fire, getting turned once in a while for a couple of hours.

We could have brought the cooked meat indoors to properly carve and portion out.  We could have, but we didn’t.  Instead, we found ourselves hunched over the spit like a group of savages, gobbling bits of meat still dripping with juices.  We felt like wildlings, and it was fantastic.

Between five of us, we devoured every bite of the goat, and several skewers of lamb and veg as well.  Our favorite parts?  The sizzle of fat dripping into the coals.  The primitive spit outlined against a raging fire.  An excuse to yell “HAUNCH” all night long.  Needless to say, this weekend was a definite win.

Three-finger Hobb’s Breakfast

“Very good, m’lord, only Hobb’s made boiled eggs, black sausage, and apples stewed with prunes this morning.  The apples stewed with prunes are excellent, except for the prunes.  I never eat prunes myself.  Well, there was one time when Hobb chopped them up with chestnuts and carrots and hid them in a hen.  Never trust a cook, my lord.  They’ll prune you when you least expect it.” -A Dance with Dragons

Three-finger Hobb’s Breakfast

Our Thoughts:

This was a smaller scale, yet immensely satisfying breakfast.  The spices in the black pudding perfectly compliment those in the stewed apples, making a bite of the two together something amazing.  The egg is the simplest thing on the plate, yet doesn’t seem out of place among the more flavorful elements of the breakfast, instead providing a nice balance for the fruit and meat.  

Absolutely a win, and will be a new staple breakfast in our house!

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A Meal at the Inn

“Ser Rodrik tried to tug at whiskers that were not there, but before he could frame a rebuke the serving boy came scurrying up.  He laid trenchers of bread before them and filled them with chunks of browned meat off a skewer, dripping with hot juice.  Another skewer held tiny onions, fire peppers, and fat mushrooms.  Ser Rodrik set to lustily as the lad ran back to fetch them beer.” -A Game of Thrones

Meal at the Inn

Our Thoughts:

Take some tasty vegetables, award winning meat, and cook them both over a hot fire.  Can you really go wrong there?  The meat was perfectly tender, and the veggies came out wonderful.  The peppers were perhaps a little too hot for our taste, but added a lot aesthetically.  The mushrooms were delicious as is, while the cooked onions could be popped out of their crispy outer skin.

Our only change? Try cooking the meat under a broiler, with the bread well below to catch the drippings.  YUM.

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