Melt the butter in a nonstick skillet over medium heat and sauté the corn kernels for about 5 minutes; sprinkle the corn with salt and set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg and milk until smooth, then stir in the cornmeal, flour, a pinch of pepper, followed by the corn.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in the same nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot but not smoking, then drop in 2 tablespoons of batter at a time. Fry until the fritters are golden brown on each side, around 5 minutes total, then transfer them to paper towels to drain. Cook all the batter in this way, adding more oil if necessary. Serve hot.
Oatbread
Tyrion listened with half a ear as he sampled sweetcorn fritters and hot oatbread baked with bits of date, apple, and orange, and gnawed on the ribs of a wild boar. —A STORM OF SWORDS
Makes 2 loaves Prep: 5 minutes
Dough rising: 2 hours total Baking: 30 minutes
Pairs well with any roasted fowl, Sweetcorn Fritters,
Iced Milk with Honey, butter and honey
Each bite of this bread has a different combination of fruity filling, but the entire loaf is soft and delicious, with the oats providing a subtle heartiness. A bite with a bit of candied orange peel is so utterly sweet and wonderful that it will keep you coming back for more and more.
1½ cups warm water
2¼ teaspoons dry yeast (1 packet)
2 tablespoons honey
1½ cups rolled oats
2½ to 3 cups all-purpose flour (feel free to use some oat flour here, too), plus more as needed
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
⅓ cup diced dates
⅓ cup diced candied orange peel
⅓ cup peeled, diced apple
Rolled oats for topping (optional)
In a large mixing bowl, combine the warm water, yeast, and honey. Allow the mixture to sit for around 5 minutes, until it becomes bubbly.
Add the oats, 1 cup of the flour, the salt, and butter to the yeasted water. Stir until completely mixed together, then add the fruits and work the mixture until they are evenly distributed throughout. Gradually add the rest of the flour until you have a cohesive mass of dough.
Flour a board or your countertop, and turn the dough out onto it. Adding flour as needed, knead the dough for around 8 minutes. If you poke it and it bounces back, you’re done.
Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover it with a clean dish towel. Put it in a warm place until it has doubled in size. Then punch it down and divide it in half. Form the dough into two round loaves. Wet the top of each loaf with a little water, then sprinkle it with rolled oats. Using a sharp knife, lightly score the top with an X shape.
Place these loaves on a baking sheet and allow them to sit, covered with a clean tea towel, for about 1 hour, or until they have doubled in size again.
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Bake the loaves for around 30 minutes, or until they are golden brown.
Ideally, you should allow the loaves to cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting into one, but given how good this bread smells, you might have trouble leaving it alone.
Cream of Mushroom and Snail 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
Medieval Cream of Mushroom and Snail Soup
Oystres en grauey.—Take gode Mylke of Almaundys, an drawe it wyth Wyne an gode Fysshe broþe, an sette it on þe fyre, & let boyle; & caste þer-to Clowes, Maces, Sugre an powder Gyngere, an a fewe parboylid Oynonys y-mynsyd; þan take fayre Oystrys, & parboyle hem in fayre Water, & caste hem þer-to, an lete hem boyle to-gederys; & þanne serue hem forth.
—TWO FIFTEENTH-CENTURY COOKERY-BOOKS
Serves 4 Prep: 5 minutes Cooking: 25 minutes
Pairs well with Medieval Pease Porridge,
Crusty White Bread, white wine
This dish is very different from modern soups, and typically medieval in its flavors. The almond milk in the broth and strong spices such as clove and mace give the soup a character all its own. While intended to be made with oysters, the original recipe brilliantly accommodates the substitution of escargots.
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, minced
½ cup white wine
½ cup fish stock
1 cup small mushrooms or roughly chopped larger mushrooms
1 tablespoon sugar
1½ cups almond milk
1 cup fresh or canned escargots
Pinch of ground ginger
Pinch of ground cloves
Pinch of mace
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat and sauté the onion until the pieces are soft, about 5 minutes.
In a separate pot, combine the wine and fish stock, bring the mixture to a boil, and add the mushrooms. Turn down the heat to low, cover the pot, and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the sugar and almond milk to the pot with the wine and stock, keeping the mixture hot but not boiling. Add the escargots and cooked onions, followed by spices to taste.
Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until the soup has thickened slightly. Serve hot.
Modern Cream of Mushroom and Snail Soup
Serves 4 Prep: 10 minutes Cooking: 30 minutes
Pairs well with Crusty White Bread,
Summer Greens Salad, Tyroshi Pear Brandy
An inherently rich, flavorful dish, this soup is divine. 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. It also makes for fantastic leftovers!
2½ cups chopped mushrooms: a mix of chanterelle, oyster, and shiitake
1 small onion, chopped
4 cups chicken stock
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
¼ cup flour
1 cup whole or part-skimmed milk
1 cup light cream
Salt and pepper to taste
One 6-ounce can escargots, drained and chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup chopped parsley
2 green onions, chopped
¼ cup white wine
Combine the mushrooms, onion, and chicken stock in a saucepan and simmer for 20 minutes.
In a separate pot, melt 4 tablespoons of the butter over medium heat and stir in the flour; cook until the mixture turns a nice golden color. Add the milk and cream, stirring constantly until smooth. Season with salt and pepper, then stir in the mushroom and chicken stock.
Sauté the escargots, garlic, parsley, and green onions in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter for about 2 minutes, then add them to the soup, along with the wine. Serve hot.
Sweet Pumpkin Soup
Her father had been fighting with the council again. Arya could see it on his face when he came to table, late again, as he had been so often. The first course, a thick sweet soup made with pumpkins, had already been taken away when Ned Stark strode into the Small Hall.
—A GAME OF THRONES
Serves 4 to 6 Roasting vegetables: 1½ hours
Cooking: 10 minutes
Pairs with: Black Bread,
Sweetcorn Fritters, Modern Honey Biscuits
Although served in the capital of King’s Landing, this is every bit a Northern autumnal soup. Sweetened by yams, the bisque pairs butternut squash and pumpkin to perfection. Roasting the vegetables caramelizes them slightly, really bringing out the best of their innate flavors. Add a few dashes of spice, and you have a soup that Arya would rather eat than fling at her sister.
1 sugar pumpkin (around 4 pounds)
1 large yam
½ medium butternut squash (cut lengthwise), seeds removed
½ cup apple cider
2 cups chicken b
roth
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Using a sharp knife, cut the pumpkin in half horizontally. Clean out the inside, removing all the stringy innards and seeds. (You can roast the seeds, making them into a lovely snack for later.)
Wrap the yam in foil and place it on a baking sheet along with the butternut squash half and the two pumpkin halves. Roast all the vegetables until they are soft, about 1½ hours.
Mash the yam, the squash, and the flesh from the pumpkin together in a large saucepan. Add the cider, broth, and spices, and blend either in an upright blender, or using an immersion blender. Return the soup to the pan and heat until it is hot through.
Summer Greens Salad
This evening they had supped on oxtail soup, summer greens tossed with pecans, grapes, red fennel, and crumbled cheese, hot crab pie, spiced squash, and quails drowned in butter. Lord Janos allowed that he had never eaten half so well. —A CLASH OF KINGS
Serves 6 Prep: 15 minutes
Pairs well with Fish Tarts,
Modern Stewed Rabbit, Apricot Tarts
The varied flavors and textures of this salad make for a taste that is both complex and sophisticated. The sweetness of grapes and apricot counters the tang of the arugula, while the bite of the fennel gives a flavor that lingers on the tongue. The combination of nuts, crunchy fennel, gooey jam, and firm grapes will give your palate a great deal to experience.
1 fennel bulb
4 teaspoons apricot jam
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 shallot, minced
Salt and ground black pepper
5 ounces arugula (lightly packed, stemmed, 8 cups)
1 cup seedless grapes (red or green), halved
¾ cup crumbled gorgonzola
½ cup chopped pecans (the candied version is wonderful)
Cut the fennel in half lengthwise and reserve one part for another use. Trim the stalks from the remaining half bulb, core it, and slice it very thin; set aside. Trim the fennel fronds from the stalks and set them aside; discard the stalks.
Whisk the jam, vinegar, oil, shallot, and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper together in a large bowl.
Toss the fennel slices with the vinaigrette; let them stand for 15 minutes.
Add the arugula, fennel fronds, and grapes; toss, and adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper.
Top with gorgonzola and pecans and serve.
Sansa Salad
All the while the courses came and went. A thick soup of barley and venison. Salads of sweetgrass, spinach, and plums, sprinkled with crushed nuts. —A GAME OF THRONES
Salat. Take persel, sawge, grene garlec, chibolles, letys, leek, spinoches, borage, myntes, prymos, violettes, porrettes, fenel, and toun cressis, rosemarye, purslarye; laue and waishe hem clene. Pike hem. Pluk hem small wiþ þyn honde, and myng hem wel with rawe oile; lay on vyneger and salt, and serue it forth.
—THE FORME OF CURY, 14TH CENTURY
Serves 4 to 6 Prep: 10 minutes
Pairs well with Pigeon Pie,
Honeyed Chicken, plum wine
This is a tasty, tasty salad, based loosely on instructions for making a salad from the 14th-century Forme of Cury. All the elements work beautifully with one another both texturally and aesthetically. Pack this for a lunch or serve it as a light afternoon meal, and you won’t be disappointed.
7 cups baby spinach
1 cup fresh mint leaves
1 cup diced prunes
½ cup candied walnuts
½ cup fresh lemongrass, thinly sliced
½ cup violets, primroses, or other edible flowers (optional)
raspberry vinaigrette to taste
Combine the spinach, mint, prunes, walnuts, and lemongrass in a large bowl. The edible flowers can be mixed in with the salad at this point or used as a garnish on top. Pour the vinaigrette over all, then toss well and serve.
Cook’s Note: Use this recipe as a starting point and choose any variation of these ingredients—or others—to create your own personal “salat.” Toss with dressing, and you’re ready to serve!
Buttered Carrots
Cersei set a tasty table, that could not be denied. They started with a creamy chestnut soup, crusty hot bread, and greens dressed with apples and pine nuts. Then came lamprey pie, honeyed ham, buttered carrots, white beans and bacon, and roast swan stuffed with mushrooms and oysters. —A CLASH OF KINGS
Roman Buttered Carrots
Aliter: caroetas elixatas concisas in cuminato oleo modico coques et inferes. cuminatum colourium facies.
Cuminatum in ostrea et conchylia: Piper, ligusticum, petroselinum, mentam siccam, cuminum plusculum, mel, acetum et liquamen. —APICIUS, 4TH CENTURY
Serves 2 to 4 Prep: 10 minutes Cooking: 20 minutes
Pairs well with Honeyed Chicken,
White Beans and Bacon, sweet red wine
We tweaked the ancient recipes a bit. We swapped butter for olive oil, added raisins to the carrot dish, and left out the fish sauce because of personal preference, but feel free to include a dash of it if you’d like. The resulting dish is a unique approach to cooked carrots that falls somewhere between sweet and savory.
2 cups chopped carrots (use heirloom carrots, if available)
½ cup raisins
2 to 3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons wine vinegar
2 teaspoons cumin (roasted and ground seed is best, but the powder works well)
Ground black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
2 tablespoons sweet wine, red or white
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Cut the carrots into disks or chunks. Put them in a pot of water and bring it to a boil, then drain them immediately and place them in an ovenproof dish. Add the raisins, honey, vinegar, cumin, and pepper. Drizzle the butter over top, then shake well to coat the carrots, and roast until they are tender. Add the wine to deglaze the sticky pan and dislodge the carrots, then pour the whole contents of the pan into a serving dish. Serve warm.
Modern Buttered Carrots
Serves 6 Prep: 10 minutes Cooking: 25 minutes
Pairs well with Beef and Bacon Pie,
Summer Greens Salad, white wine
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 pounds carrots, peeled and cut diagonally into ¼-inch slices
Kosher salt
Ground black pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh
chives or scallions
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the carrots and ½ teaspoon salt and cook, covered, until steam begins to escape from under the lid, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and continue to cook, covered and stirring occasionally, until the carrots are just tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
Remove the lid, add ¼ teaspoon pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is evaporated and the butter begins to brown, about 5 more minutes. Sprinkle with chives and season with more salt and pepper if needed. Serve.
Fish Tarts
Their feats were accompanied by crabs boiled in fiery eastern spices, trenchers filled with chunks of chopped mutton stewed in almond milk with carrots, raisins, and onions, and fish tarts fresh from the ovens, served so hot they burned the fingers. —A STORM OF SWORDS
Medieval Fish Tarts
Tartes of Frute in lente.—Take Fygys & sethe hem wyl tyl þey ben neyssche; þan bray hem in a morter, & a pece of Milwel þer-with; take ham vppe & caste roysonys of coraunce þer-to; þan take Almaundys & Dates y-schred þer-to; þan take pouder of Pepir & meng with-al; þen putte it on þin cofynne, & Safroun þin cofynn a-boue, & opyn hem a-bowte þe myddel; & ouer-cast þe openyng vppon þe lede, & bake hym a lytel, & serue forth.
—TWO FIFTEENTH-CENTURY COOKERY-BOOKS
Makes about 1 dozen mini tarts Prep: 15 minutes
Cooking: 15 minutes
Pairs well with Sister’s Stew,
Almond Crusted Trout, sweet red wine
These make great appetizers for a fish-based dinner. This medieval interpretation is a pleasing blend of sweet and savory flavors. The figs add an interesting texture and act as the base for the filling, while the dates increase the sweetness to a satisfying level without the addition of processed sugar.
¼ pound salmon fillet
1 pint fresh figs (about 1½ cups)
¼ cup slivered or sliced almonds
6 dates, pitted and quartered
½ batch Medieval Pastry Dough or 12 premade mini tart shells
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
If using homemade pastry dough, roll out to ¼-inch thickness. Cut 1-inch circles with a cookie cutter, and press into a mini cupcake pan, or mini-tartlette or brioche molds.
Add the salmon to a pot of simmering water, and poach for about 4 minutes, or until cooked through. Set it aside to cool.
Boil the figs for 10 minutes, or until tender. Drain and place them in a mixing bowl. Add the almonds and dates. Shred the fish and take care to remove any bones; add it to the bowl with the fruit and nuts. Mix the ingredients thoroughly, and spoon the filling into the pastry shells.
Bake for 15 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and the filling is beginning to crisp. Serve immediately while still warm.
Modern Fish Tarts
Makes about 24 mini tarts Prep: 10 minutes Cooking: 20 minutes
Pairs well with Cheese-and-Onion Pie,
Sister’s Stew, white wine
Like the medieval tarts, these make great appetizers. The cream-cheese filling is delectable—with the smoked fish, it feels like eating a well-crafted bagel. The sage adds a great kick and an additional layer to the flavor. If you have extra filling, save it to use as a spread for crackers and bread!
A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook Page 9
