Medieval Cooking, pt. 4, Peeres in Confyt

This dish was a little bit of extra credit. I've been absolutely loving the medieval theme this month, and doing some additional research. While there is a poached pear recipe in the Feast of Ice and Fire, I first heard about it via an excellent BBC4 documentary called Clarissa and the King's Cookbook.

Watch the three-part documentary on YouTube:

• Clarissa and the King's Cookbook pt. 1
• Clarissa and the King's Cookbook pt. 2
• Clarissa and the King's Cookbook pt. 3

Famous British foodie Clarissa Dickson Wright tackles Peeres in Confyt (pears poached in red wine) in the third segment, working directly from the version of the recipe in the Forme of Cury. To make mine, I boiled the pears, then simmered them in a light syrup of 2 cups merlot, 1/2 cup honey, ginger, cinnamon, and whole cloves.



Bonus: You should have some syrup left over, and you can pour it in small glasses and serve it as a sweet spiced dessert wine with the pears.

Color Palette This Week

This week's palette includes hard-boiled eggs, red potatoes, Bartlett pears, and the pricey spice saffron. Apparently it was much more available in the old days because it seems there's saffron in almost every medieval recipe! I need to make that small bunch last a long time in my kitchen.

Medieval Cooking, pt. 3, Dessert & Drinks

First, I'd like to give a belated shout out. On the 6th and 8th of March respectively, the two most beautiful women I know (my grandmom and my mom) celebrated happy birthdays. Love you two ladies!



Fruit Tarts with Raisins, Apples, and Pine Nuts
Being in a birthday-celebrating mood, the next thing to try out for the Game of Thrones dinner was a dessert. My original intention was to make apricot tarts but since apricots weren't available at the grocery I combined the fruit tart concept with the filling from another A Feast of Ice and Fire recipe: the Buns with Raisins, Apples, and Pine Nuts.



On my first attempt (pictured) I added spiced almond milk before baking, per the instructions on the Apricot Tart recipe. They came out pretty well, but to add some sweetness to please a modern palate, I thought I'd try it again with an almond milk caramel sauce instead. Here's where I finally ended up, with the version I'll make for premiere night.

Ingredients (makes four 4-inch tarts):

For the pastry dough (use any Medieval Pastry Dough recipe)------------

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 2 oz (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 egg yolk, beaten
• pinch of saffron (optional)

For the filling------------

• 1 braeburn apple, peeled, cored, and finely chopped
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup pine nuts
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1/2 cup raw sugar
• 2 tbsp poudre douce

Preparation:
For the pastry dough: Preheat oven to 350° F.

Add the saffron strands to the water and let some of the flavor get drawn out. In a large mixing bowl, mash the flour into the butter with a fork or pastry blender until the butter is broken up into small pieces (no larger than a pea). Make a well in the flour mixture and add the egg yolks and saffron-water. Combine with a fork then continue to knead the dough by hand until it becomes the pliable consistency of pastry dough. If your dough is too flaky, add water 1 tsp at a time and continue kneading.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface and divide it into 4 equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball by hand, then roll the balls out into sheets using a floured rolling pin. Ideally the rolled-out dough should be 1/8 inch thick. Take the rolled-out sheets and place them in 4 inch tart pans.

Next you will need to pre-bake the crusts. Poke lots of holes in the bottoms with a fork to prevent bubbling, and put them in the oven for about 8 minutes. Keep an eye on them and don't let them start to brown yet. When finished, set aside.

For the tart filling: Preheat oven to 375° F.

In a bowl, mix together the chopped apples, raisins, pine nuts, and poudre douce until everything is evenly coated in the spices. Fill each pre-baked tart shell with the fruit mixture, level with the top of the tart pans.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the crusts are slightly brown. While the tarts are baking, begin making the caramel. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the almond milk and raw sugar. Bring it to a rolling boil, stirring constantly with a spatula for about 5 minutes. Don't let it burn during that time. Let the caramel cool for a few minutes to check the consistency; when it's just right, it should be a soft caramel sauce, dark and easy to pour at room temp but not liquid or runny.

Remove the tarts from the oven and place on cooling racks. When cool enough to touch, remove the tarts from the tart pans, and pour the caramel over the filling in each, dividing it evenly among them. Continue letting the tarts cool for about 15 minutes before serving.

Wine and Beer
Disclaimer: I'm a total sucker for good label design, fantasy themes, and red wine.

While browsing the wine selection at Harris Teeter last week, Brendan and I found a wine that combines all three of those elements: Once Upon A Vine's Big Bad Red Blend. It's a good medium-bodied red that I think would pair well with most non-sweet hearty dishes, and it's definitely a good buy in the $10-$12 price range.



Of course we also have to serve beer, and we've got some delicious home brewed stout. I've mentioned before that Brendan makes beer, and our most recent batch (based on a Mackeson Triple Stout clone recipe) will be perfect for the theme.

Medieval Cooking, pt. 2, Salad & Porridge

I had recipe experiments lined up for the last two days, but they didn't come out well enough to post, so I'm doubling up today.

These are the first two recipes I've made from A Feast of Ice and Fire, the Game of Thrones companion cookbook that I mentioned in my last post.



Salad at Castle Black
For the salad, I chose one of the simplest in the book, the Salad at Castle Black. Some of the recipes are posted on the authors' blog Inn at the Crossroads, but some are exclusive to the cookbook, so I can't share a link for this one. I'll just mention I swapped the turnip greens for arugula because that's what I had, but either would be delicious.



Pease Porridge
The pease porridge recipe is from the 14th century, made from yellow split-peas, pearl onions, herbs, and spices. A translation like the one in the GoT cookbook can be found on godecookery.com. One thing I didn't expect, never having used pearl onions before, was how long it takes to peel them before they're cooked. The first layer of flaky skin comes off well, but the second can be stubborn. I threw half of them in the pot with the second layer on, and found it was much easier to peel off that layer after cooking.

The authors were quite correct: this dish is totally about the herbs, the parboiled onions adding sweetness, and the peas being a canvas for the flavors. I went heavy on the sage, and also added marjoram, savory, and thyme. So good.

Medieval Cooking, pt. 1

The popular HBO TV series Game of Thrones returns for a third season later this month, and to celebrate, I'm trying to put together a themed dinner. This is something I've done before; when I was a meat eater I did a Skyrim-inspired stew to celebrate the game's release.

To do this month's themed meal, I have some help from an awesome cookbook my friend got me as a gift- A Feast of Ice and Fire, the official companion cookbook of the series, written by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel and Sariann Lehrer, two women after my own heart.



I love this book, and if you're thinking about picking it up yourself, I will encourage you for several reasons:
1.) For a glossy, thick hardcover, it's very reasonably priced.

2.) The dishes are translated from authentic period recipes, from sources like the Forme of Cury (the writings of King Richard II's master cooks) but most of them also come with easy to follow modern updates, so you can choose between authenticity or availability of ingredients. Many of us don't have galangal and pigeon breast just lying around...

3.) Each dish is also accompanied by a quote from the A Song of Ice and Fire book series, great for fans of the story.

4.) The recipes are all beautifully photographed. I admit to having one of my first pangs of meat-eating envy at the sight of the rabbit stew in this book.

After a cheeky foreword by George R.R. Martin, the opening section gives instructions for stocking a medieval kitchen, and covers some of the basic components such as spice blends, preparing pastry dough, making a basic roux for sauces, etc. My first task was to mix the two most common period spices, Poudre Douce (sweet powder) and Poudre Forte (strong powder).


McCormick Gourmet Collection spice jars are relics of the past, right?

I made my own custom labels, and if you have some empty jars lying around and want to have the same ones, I made a free PDF you can download and use to print your own.

Also, there's a certain amount of flexibility with period recipes- because nothing was manufactured en masse back then, no two kitchens had the exact same spice blends. For Poudre Douce, think classic apple pie spices, and Poudre Forte is a similar blend sans sugar with a higher ratio of ginger and clove.

The next step will be trying out some of the recipes and creating a menu. I have a few ideas so far... also, **UPDATE: I just saw that the book's authors provide a convenient Game of Thrones party planning idea list on their blog, Inn at the Crossroads.

The Simplest Broccoli Soup (via Gordon Ramsay)

I bought the ingredients to make my buddy's dairy-free broccoli soup (as I mentioned in a previous post), but I have to let the avocados ripen first. So instead of doing that one tonight, I used half the broccoli I bought and tried out an extremely uncomplicated broccoli soup from this Gordon Ramsay video [watch to get the recipe].


Yes, it really is that green.

Being made out of only three ingredients (broccoli, water, and salt), I thought it seemed too simple to be good, but I stand corrected. Trust me, try it.

Color Palette this Week

This week's veg is brought to you by things that rhyme with schmoccoli.