A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook
Page 14
In a separate bowl, mix together the brown sugar, cold butter, diced ginger, and flour. The mixture should be crumbly, and a food processor can help with this immensely. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the top of the cake and bake it for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the topping is golden brown. Let the cake cool for a short time in the pan, then transfer it to a rack.
In a small bowl, combine the confectioners’ sugar and enough milk or cream to achieve the desired glazing consistency. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cake, and serve.
Tyroshi Pear Brandy
“I have sweet reds, from Lys and Volantis and the Arbor, Whites from Lys, Tyroshi pear brandy, firewine, pepperwine …” —A GAME OF THRONES
Makes about 1 quart Prep: 20 minutes
Stewing: 1 month Aging: 1 to 3 months
Pairs well with Roman Buttered Carrots,
Duck with Lemons, Modern Poached Pears
There is something innately satisfying about making this pear brandy. There’s a fine feeling of anticipation as it ages in a dark corner of the house, its color slowly deepening. The brandy also improves considerably during this time. After the first month, it is harsh and unpleasant. At month two, it has obviously mellowed, and after the third month, it is wonderfully drinkable, full of all the best flavors of both brandy and pears.
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1½ pounds ripe pears (3 to 4)
1 bottle brandy (750 ml.)
1 teaspoon fruit protector powder (optional)
Make a simple syrup by cooking the sugar and water over medium-high heat until the solution is clear. Allow the syrup to cool to room temperature.
Cut the pears into quarters, core them, and slice them thinly. Combine the pears, sugar syrup, brandy, and fruit protector (if using), in a clean 2-quart jar with a lid. Cover the jar and place it in a cool, dark place for 1 month. Don’t refrigerate!
After a month, filter the liquid through cheesecloth into a new, clean container, removing the solids. Either discard the pear slices, or use them in another recipe. Allow the brandy to age for 1 to 3 months before serving. Store sealed for several years, or up to 1 year after initially opening.
Cook’s Note: Fruit protector powder is often used in home canning, and is made by well-known companies, such as Ball, Bernardin, and Mrs. Wages.
Iced Green Minty Drink
Slave girls scurried through light and shadow, bearing flagons of ale and wine and some iced green drink that smelled of mint. One table in twenty was occupied at this hour of the morning. —A DANCE WITH DRAGONS
Traditional Iced Green Minty Drink
Serves 4 Prep: 5 minutes
Chilling: 2 hours to overnight
Pairs well with Breakfast in Meereen,
Oatcakes, Fingerfish
This unique and flavorful beverage is traditional green tea, jazzed up. The sweetness and refreshing mint are well suited to hot days and climates, or for when you just need a nice crisp pick-me-up.
½ tablespoon loose matcha green tea
4 cups boiling water
¼ cup honey, or to taste
1 cup fresh mint leaves, loosely packed
4 small stalks lemongrass For garnish
Pour the loose tea and boiling water into a 1- to 1½-quart teapot and steep the tea for 2 minutes. Stir in honey to taste, followed by the mint leaves, and steep for 3 to 4 minutes longer. At this point, you can either serve the tea hot in small heatproof glasses or chill it for a few hours. Serve it garnished with a stalk of lemongrass.
Cook’s Note: This recipe is inspired by traditional Moroccan mint tea, but we’ve tweaked it a bit to make it more green, using powdered matcha green tea for color. Matcha green tea, a finely ground loose-leaf tea, has been used in the ancient Japanese tea ceremony since it was brought to Japan in 1191 by a Chinese Zen Buddhist monk.
Modern Iced Green Minty Drink
Serves 3 to 4 Prep: 5 minutes
Chilling: 2 hours to overnight
Pairs well with Breakfast in Meereen,
Duck with Lemons
Light, cold, and refreshing, this beverage is tasty enough to be craved, and just exotic enough to suit the far reaches of Volantis. When first mixed, the icy slush is a uniform pale foamy concoction. After a few moments, however, it settles into three layers: the crushed ice is on top, pushing down on the melon puree, and the straight juice falls to the bottom. The mint flavor complements the melon, and just a bit of carbonation makes things interesting.
2 cups 1-inch cubed honeydew melon
3 cups crushed ice
½ cup packed fresh mint leaves
One 12-ounce bottle ginger ale
⅓ cup honey
Add all ingredients to a blender. Pulse until the mixture becomes slushy. Pour into glasses and serve immediately.
Cook’s Note: For a nice adult twist on this drink, try adding a splash of your favorite alcohol. We recommend vodka or Midori, but the recipe is well suited to experiment.
Honey-Sweetened Wine
Dany broke her fast under the persimmon tree that grew in the terrace garden.… Missandei served her duck eggs and dog sausage, and half a cup of sweetened wine mixed with the juice of a lime. The honey drew flies, but a scented candle drove them off. —A STORM OF SWORDS
Makes 3 servings Prep: 5 minutes
Chilling: 2 hours to overnight
Pairs well with Breakfast in Meereen,
Duck with Lemons
This beverage is a variation on ancient Roman mulsum, and is very refreshing and drinkable on a warm summer morning.
12 ounces semisweet wine, white or rosé
About 2 tablespoons honey
3 lime wedges
In a glass or pitcher, mix the wine and honey. The ratio is roughly 1 tablespoon honey per glass of wine, but add the honey slowly and sweeten to your taste. Squeeze the juice from one or two of the lime wedges into the mixture, and stir until everything has been incorporated. This beverage can be made ahead of time and chilled. To serve, pour it into three decorative glasses and garnish with the lime.
Feasting in Style
Cooking, eating, and drinking are closely tied to the Proustian memory, the experiences etched into our minds forever. When planning a feast, one must consider not only the food, but also the overall atmosphere. Serving dishes, lighting, flatware, table decor, beverages, and overall mood affect how your family and guests will experience a meal. You may have cooked your authentic Westerosi meal on your beautiful new gas range in your relatively high-tech kitchen, but when guests are seated and the meal is served, you can transport everyone to the decadence of King’s Landing, the insulated comfort of Winterfell’s halls, or the opulence of a magister’s villa in Pentos.
Strive to make the table as much a tactile experience as the meal itself. Heavy rough-spun linen and furs reflect life in the North, while sheer silks and gilding are more suited to King’s Landing. Choosing a tablecloth is the simplest way to begin the transformation—red for a Lannister meal, gray for a Stark, ornately woven fabrics from across the narrow sea, or a rough-spun black for meals with the Night’s Watch. Likewise, props—antlers, silver bowls, autumn leaves, pine boughs, exotic fruits, and flowers—add something special to the meal. And don’t skimp on the candles. Beautiful as well as authentic, candlelight creates a special experience.
Serving dishes and place settings should, ideally, reflect the location in which the guests mentally dine. Avoid starkly modern items, choosing instead earthenware casseroles, turned wooden bowls, and hammered flatware. Rather than the glasses given to you on your wedding day, opt for hefty pewter tankards and thick, handblown glass. Historical accuracy is not as important as creating an atmosphere consistent with the aesthetic of Ice and Fire. As modern consumers, we are so used to certain conveniences that something as simple as the absence of separate water and wineglasses will immediately distance the meal from an everyday culinary experience.
Th
rift stores are a great way to inexpensively outfit a Westerosi table; they offer props, dishware, centerpieces, and cutlery. Also take a look through dusty attics and deep kitchen cabinets for items you may have forgotten.
Index
Breakfasts
Breakfast on the Wall
Breakfast at Winterfell
Breakfast in King’s Landing
Breakfast in Dorne
Breakfast in Meereen
Breads & Buns
Applecakes
Buns with Raisins, Pine Nuts, and Apple
Crusty White Bread
Oatcakes
Black Bread
Oatbread
Flatbread
Biscuits and Bacon
Salads & Sides
Salad at Castle Black
Pease Porridge
Onions in Gravy
Buttered Beets
Turnips in Butter
Fingerfish
Sweetcorn Fritters
Summer Greens Salad
Sansa Salad
Buttered Carrots
White Beans and Bacon
Peaches in Honey
Chickpea Paste
Stuffed Grape Leaves
Honey-Spiced Locusts
Soups & Stews
Mutton in Onion-Ale Broth
Bean-and-Bacon Soup
Cold Fruit Soup
Leek Soup
Sister’s Stew
Broth of Seaweed and Clams
Stewed Rabbit
Cream of Mushroom and Snail Soup
Sweet Pumpkin Soup
Bowls of Brown
Beet Soup
Pies and Savory Tarts
Pork Pie
Beef and Bacon Pie
Fish Tarts
Cheese-and-Onion Pie
Pigeon Pie
Main Courses
Rack of Lamb
Aurochs Roasted with Leeks
Honeyed Chicken
Trout Wrapped in Bacon
Quails Drowned in Butter
Almond Crusted Trout
Roasted Boar
Dornish Snake with Fiery Sauce
Duck with Lemons
Beverages
Mulled Wine
Iced Milk with Honey
Lemonsweet
Tyroshi Pear Brandy
Iced Green Minty Drink
Honey-Sweetened Wine
Desserts
Iced Blueberries in Sweet Cream
Baked Apples
Arya’s Snitched Tarts
Blueberry Tarts
Poached Pears
Cream Swans
Honey Biscuits
Apricot Tarts
Lemon Cakes
Tyroshi Honeyfingers
Wintercakes
Menus
Dinner in King’s Landing
Crusty White Bread, Summer Greens
Salad, Buttered Carrots, White Beans and
Bacon, Roasted Boar
Dinner with the Night’s Watch
Rack of Lamb, Turnips in Butter, Salad at Castle Black, Iced Blueberries in Sweet Cream
Dinner at Riverrun
Trout Wrapped in Bacon, Summer Greens
Salad, Pease Porridge, Crusty White Bread
A Feast at Winterfell
Aurochs Roasted with Leeks, Roasted Boar,
Cold Fruit Soup, Oatcakes, Turnips in
Butter, Baked Apples, Blueberry Tarts,
Poached Pears, wheels of white cheese,
Mulled Wine, chilled autumn ale
Tourney Feast at King’s Landing
Aurochs Roasted with Leeks, Crusty White
Bread, Sansa Salad, Pigeon Pie, Baked
Apples, Modern Lemon Cakes
Sumptuous Spread at Bitterbridge
Poached Pears, Fingerfish, Black Bread,
Medieval Turnips in Butter, Cream Swans,
Lemon Cakes, Honey Biscuits
A Wedding in King’s Landing
Cream of Mushroom and Snail Soup, Pork
Pie, Sweetcorn Fritters, Oatbread, Almond
Crusted Trout, Cheese-and-Onion Pie, Fish
Tarts, Pigeon Pie, Mulled Wine
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, we would like to thank George R. R. Martin, without whose work this cookbook obviously could not have been imagined. His world became ours years ago through his novels, and led us to explore the wonders of historical cookery. Only in our wildest dreams did we imagine that our culinary adventure would turn into this cookbook, so thank you for everything. The world needs its share of eaters, and we’ll cook anything you like so long as you don’t kill off too many main characters.…
We would like to thank a great number of others:
Our good friends, who put up with our monopolization of the kitchen for months on end, were patient while we photographed their cooling dinners, and without whose appetites we would have surely drowned in the sheer volume of food we cooked.
Percival, prince among cats, who made sure to taste everything that came out of the kitchen for quality assurance.
Our parents, not only for their continued faith in us, but also for their borrowed dishes, silverware, taxidermy, and backyards in which to build hazardous wildling fires.
Our fearless field agents, who delivered baskets of delicious goodies to George R. R. Martin during his book signing tour, braving crowds, public transportation, and pits of deadly vipers for the cause.
The terrific staff at Random House, for their belief in this project and invaluable help throughout the entire publishing process.
The loyal fans of our blog, whose enthusiasm and delight have kept us eager to try new Westerosi dishes long past what we would have been able to sustain by ourselves.
We would also like to thank the Vikings for mead, the Mesopotamians for beer, and that crazy Celt way back when who ate some spoiled apples, saw amazing things, and decided to make cider.…
About the Authors
Chelsea and Sariann co-run Inn at the Crossroads, a popular food blog based on the Song of Ice and Fire series. Both avid fans of the fantasy genre, they bring to the table a unique combination of artistry, historical knowledge, and love of food.
Chelsea grew up in rural New York, surrounded by cows and an appreciation for small farms. However, her real love affair with food began during a year abroad in Turkey, which sparked a passion for both food and history, as well as leading her to a degree in classical history. A lifelong artist and fantasy fan, she greatly enjoys foreign languages, treasure hunting, and all things honey.
Sariann learned her way around the kitchen at the sides of her mother and grandmothers. After growing up on a working New England farm, she attended the University of Vermont, where she spent time working on a dairy farm and became a supporter of the eating local and small farming movements. Something of a British cultural history enthusiast, she finds great pleasure in reinventing traditional staple dishes and rekindling love for foods that have been forgotten.
www.innatthecrossroads.com