For the final feast, since we had already toured all the regions from the cookbook, I decided to just have fun and cook some “character’s favorite foods” as well as some random interesting dishes to fill out the menu.

Hot Pie’s Direwolf Bread for Arya

This tasted good on its own and with a little butter or jam. It was really nice hot out of the oven. It’s a good thick dough that holds its shape once baked

before cooking

bread basket with all 3 wolves

Ingredients: (The recipe makes ~3 wolves)

• 2 cup flax meal
• 3 cups wheat flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• pinch salt
• 6 Tbs. butter
• 4 Tbs. honey
• buttermilk or sour milk
• 1 egg, beaten with a little water, for the wash

Directions:

• Combine the dry ingredients, then rub in the butter.
• Stir in the honey, followed by the buttermilk, just enough at a time, until you have a nice soft workable dough. I did this until I could squish the dough together into a ball to roll out, but before it got too sticky.
• Roll out to around 1/2″ thickness, and carefully cut into the direwolf shape with a sharp knife. Template here. When you’re satisfied, transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush all over with the beaten egg.
• Bake at 350F for around 20 minutes, or until it turns golden brown.

Cheese Platter

Red and Golden Beet, Goat Cheese Salad

This was delicious with a bit of blackberry vinaigrette

The Hound’s Favorite: Every F*&ing Chicken in the Room (Lemon pepper chicken with herbs, potatoes, and tomatoes)

This was a delicious chicken dish that was quite easy to prepare and looked pretty with all the colors 🙂

Ingredients:

• 4 lbs. (10-12) skin-on, bone-in chicken parts (thighs, legs, wings)
• 1 lb. baby potatoes
• 1 onion (yellow or red), chopped
• 2 lemons, 1 sliced and 1 juiced
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
• 10 oz. cherry tomatoes

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• Spray a rimmed 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish with cooking spray. Into the baking dish arrange chicken parts (skin side up), potatoes, sliced onion and lemon slices evenly in pan.
• In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, Italian seasoning, crushed red pepper flakes, paprika, salt and pepper. Pour mixture all over chicken and potatoes. Sprinkle all over generously with additional Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.
• Bake uncovered for about 1 hour, or until chicken and potatoes are fully cooked. During last 20 minutes of cooking, add cherry tomatoes and continue cooking for the 20 remaining minutes.

Recipe from Comfort of Cooking

Robert Baratheon – Braised Boar Belly

This was delicious! The braised meat was nice and tender and tasty. This was my first time cooking anything boar.

I followed This Recipe

Tangy Purple Potato Salad

This is amazingly good. I will probably cook this again for my next potluck/picnic type activity

Ingredients:

• 750g of baby potatoes (mix of purple and white)
• 1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1 garlic clove, finely minced
• 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
• 3 spring onions, finely chopped
• A handful of dill and basil, roughly chopped
• A generous pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper

Directions:

• Place the potatoes in a pot of cold water, cover, place over a high heat and bring to the boil. Simmer until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork. Drain the potatoes and slice into bite sized chunks
• While the potatos are cooking, prepare the dressing. Whisk together the vinegar, oil, lemon juice, garlic, mustard, spring onions, and herbs. Season with sea salt and ground black pepper.
• Pour the dressing over the cooked potatoes and gently toss, until everything is combined.
• Serve while still warm

Ramsay Snow – Sausages

Roast Silkie Chicken with Carrot/Chestnut/Fig/Oat Stuffing

I didn’t realize this chicken came with the head and feet still attached so I had an interesting time chopping those off. This chicken is so strange looking with its black skin which darkened further once it was cooked. It tasted a bit different than standard chicken and there’s not quite as much meat on it. I think they’re generally used more frequently in stews than roasted. It was good though, and definitely and interesting experience!

Drogon’s favorite – Roasted Lamb

This lamb roast was delicious! I covered it in butter/garlic/herb puree and lots of salt and pepper to make a delicious crust once it was roasted. I put it over a bed of leeks as well, which cooked in the juices of the roast.

Renly Baratheon – Fresh Peach Pie

There are few things I enjoy more than a fresh fruit pie. I think Renly would approve of eating peaches whenever they are available 🙂

Grilled Peaches Drizzled with Honey Lemon Thyme Glaze

I’m very excited about peaches being available so we made some delicious grilled peaches that were mentioned as a King’s Landing food in the books

Sansa’s Favorite – Lemon Cakes!

I made some different lemon cakes in a previous feast, and there are all kinds of things you could make that would fit the bill. These are little lemon cakes with whipped lemon cream topping. I love all things lemon so these were great!

Robin Arryn’s Favorite – Milk Cake

mmm delicious milk soaked cake (commonly known as Tres Leches cake). This was delightfully sweet and soft. A great dessert!

Joffrey’s Favorite – Wine

The meal wouldn’t have been complete without some infamous wine. We washed the meal down with beer as well.

For tonight’s episode it seemed fitting to cook food from Dorne. This region has food with a very Mediterranean feel to it.  It’s been fun exploring how much the food varies from region to region. The food was delicious and we had a lot of fun eating and watching 🙂

Stuffed Grape Leaves – ground lamb, mushrooms, rice, raisins, and onions, drizzled with lemon juice

Ingredients:

• 1 pint jar brined grape leaves, drained, soaked in boiling water for 30 min, then rinsed
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 1/2 tbs olive oil
• 4 tsp finely minced jalapeno or other hot pepper
• black pepper
• sea salt
• 20 crimini mushroom, minced
• 1/2 lb ground lamb
• 2 handfuls chopped raisins
• 1.5 cups cooked rice
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• juice of 1 lemon

Directions:

• In a skillet over medium heat, saute the onion in oil until it begins to carmelize. Add the hot peppers, mushrooms, and salt and pepper. Cook for a few minutes until the mushrooms are soft.
• Remove pan from heat and stir in the raw ground lamb, raisins, and rice, mixing everything together.
• Place about 1.5 Tbs of the mixture onto each grape leaf (laid flat with the vein side up). Fold in the end and sides and roll up the packet.
• Line a large pot with unstuffed grape leaves then arrange as many filled rolls as will fit in a snug layer, seam sides down. Place more unstuffed leaves down on top of these rolls before starting a second layer.
• When all the rolls are in the pot, pour in the stock, then drizzle the lemon juice over the grape leaves. Set a dish on top of the rolls to keep them pressed down while cooking.
• Cover the pot with a lid and simmer slowly over medium-low heat for 45 minutes – 1 hour until the meat is cooked. You may need to add more liquid during cooking. Serve at room temperature.

Spiced lemon duck with root vegetables roasted in duck fat

Ingredients:

• 1 duck
• 2 lemons
• 3 tbs olive oil, plus more for covering duck
• 1/2 tsp salt for sauce plus more for duck
• 2 tbs honey
• 1 tsp ground chili powder
• black pepper
• assorted root vegetables, I used 1 potato 2 carrots and 1 leek

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 F. Juice the lemons and stick the empty halves into the duck.
• Pour 1/2 cup of the lemon juice into a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the oil, salt, honey, and spices to the pan. Simmer the sauce until it has just begun to reduce, about 5 minutes.
• Place the duck in a roasting pan. Rub the duck with olive oil then sprinkle liberally with salt. Using a basting brush, apply the glaze to both sides of the duck.
• Add chopped vegetables to the pan and sprinkle with salt.
• Roast the duck for ~2 hours, until cooked to 165 F. Continue basting the duck with the glaze every 30 min or so.

Figs, olives, feta, stuffed dates, etc.

Dates stuffed with nuts and drizzled in honey

Chickpea Paste (hummus)

Flatbread

Snake with fiery mustard red wine sauce

The snake was a bit more effort to eat than it was worth but I really loved the sauce that went with it. I think I’ll use it for some pork chops or chicken sometime soon. I’ll post the recipe for the sauce here:

Ingredients:

• 4 tbs stone-ground mustard
• 2 small thai chiles, minced
• 1/2 green pepper, minced
• 2/3 cup red wine
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tbs honey

Directions:

• In a small saucepan, combine the sauce ingredients. Simmer on low until it has reduced by at least a third (about 15 minutes)

Peppers stuffed with cheese and onions

Lemonsweet (basically lemonade sweetened with honey)

Fruit

Lemon honey lamb chops

Dornish Creamcakes

The food from tonight’s feast featured food from across the narrow sea. I might end up doing another feast from this region with food from other cities later on. For tonight, I decided to focus on the beginning locations from Dany’s journey Pentos-Dothraki Sea-Qarth. I really enjoyed making the food from this region because some of it was quite unique. The recipes can be mostly found in the Feast of Ice and Fire cookbook I have been working from or on the author’s blog Inn at the Crossroads. I’ll type out a couple of my favorite recipes from the night below. I can’t believe the season is more than half over!

Winter Cakes

Dense cakes with dried cherries, candied ginger, and pine nuts

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup dried cherries, diced
• 1/2 cup candied ginger, diced
• 1/2 cup pine nuts
• 5 tbs heavy cream
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tsp grated nutmeg
• 2 tbs marsala cooking wine

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 375 F
• Combine the flour and sugar in a bow. Rub in the butter. Add the cherries, ginger, and nuts.
• In a separate small bowl, combine the cream, egg yolks, and nutmeg. Pour this over the dry mixture. Stir in the wine and combine everything thoroughly till the dough holds together in one big ball. Add more wine if necessary.
• Form the dough into 12 balls of equal size. Flatten into disks (about 3-4″ diameter and 3/4″ thick). Place onto greased baking sheet, giving room to spread a little.
• Bake the cakes for about 25 minutes until they are slightly golden on top

Lemon, cherry, and raspberry tartlettes

Delicate pastries from the kitchens of Pentos

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose/plain flour
• Pinch of salt
• 1 stick butter, cubed or an equal mix of butter and lard
• 2-3 tbsp cold water
• Fruit preservers or lemon curd

Directions:

Ginger candies

Goat with Sweetgrass, Firepods, and Honey

Large goat chops marinaded and cooked in peppers, honey, sour cherries in sour cherry  juice, lemongrass, and raisins. This marinade was quite good! It had a very interesting flavor.

Dothraki blood sausage and lamb hand pies

Shrimp and Persimmon Soup

Pentoshi Honey Orange Duck

Garlic Butter Mushrooms

Fruit, including dragonfruit of course 🙂

Dothraki blood sausage tart

This was really delicious, almost like a medieval quiche. I loved the nuttiness of the crust and the flavor the goat cheese provided.

Ingredients:

Crust

• 1/2 cup unsalted pistachios, finely ground or very finely chopped
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 6 Tbs.  unsalted butter, chilled
• 1 egg
• 2-3 tsp. ice water, if needed

• 1/2 lb. (8 oz.) Blood Sausage, cut into 1/4″ slices (black pudding, boudin, and morcilla all work great)
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 1 leek, halved lengthwise and sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 4 oz. soft goat cheese (chèvre or feta)
• 2 Tbsp. chopped pistachios for garnish (optional)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Combine the ground pistachios, almond flour, and all-purpose flour in a large bowl, along with the salt. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs (you can use a food processor for this step to make it easy). Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Depending on the size of your egg, you may or may not need to add a splash of cold water to bring the mixture together. Press the dough into a flat disc between plastic wrap, and chill for 30 minutes.
• Press the chilled dough into your tart pan, making sure to spread it evenly at a depth of about 1/4″. Prick the bottom of the pan all over with a fork to keep the dough from bubbling up. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the edge starts to pull away from the pan, and is just shy of browning.
• While the crust is baking, prepare the filling. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat, and cook the leeks for about 3 minutes, or until they are tender. Add the garlic and stir for another minute. Set aside and allow this mixture to cool. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs and cream with the goat cheese.
• When the crust is finished, sprinkle the garlic-leek mixture over the bottom of the crust. Follow this with the sliced blood sausage, then the cheese mixture, making sure to distribute evenly. Garnish with additional pistachios.
• Bake for 30 minutes, or until the filling has set. Allow to cool slightly before serving; Best eaten warm.

We continued exploring Westeros cuisine last night by eating food from The Reach, home to the Tyrells. Most of the recipes came from the Game of Thrones cookbook: A Feast of Ice and Fire and from the authors’ blog Inn at the Crossroads

Stewed Rabbit

This was really great tasting! Very flavorful. Butchering this rabbit was in interesting experience.. I’m so happy I never have to skin or behead one.

• 6 tbs olive oil
• 1 rabbit, cut into pieces, keeping the legs whole
• salt and groundblack pepper
• 1 cup dry red wine
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 tbs tomato paste
• 4 rosemary sprigs,
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 lb Nicoise olives

Directions:

• In a large, deep skillet, heat 2 tbs of the olive oil. Season the rabbit with salt and pepepr. brown the rabbit over medium-high heat, turning int occasionally until it is crusty all over, about 10 minutes. Transfer the rabbit to a large plate
• Add the wine tot the skillet and continue cooking, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Pour the wine into a cup and reserve, then wipe out the skillet.
• Add the remaining 1/4 cup olive oil to the skillet and reduce the heat to medium. Add the onion, carrot, and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 8 minutes.
• Add the tomato paste and rosemary bundles and cook, stirring, until the tomato paste begins to brown, about 5 minutes.
• dd the rabbit and any accumulated juices along with the reserved wine to the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until sizzling, about 3 minutes.
• Add 2 cups of the stock, season with salt and pepper, and bring to a boil.
• Cover partially and cook over low heat for 30 minutes. Add the olives and the remaining 1 cup stock and cook until the sauce is slightly reduced and the rabbit is tender, about 20 minutes longer.
• Discard the rosemary bundles. Serve the rabbit in shallow bowls.

Sister’s Stew (fish stew served in bread bowls)

Bread Bowls

Fruit Tarts

These were very interesting. The fillings were very sweet and tasty. I used a different crust that in the book with a very simple recipe. The recipes for the tarts themselves are posted on the inn and crossroads blog linked above.

• 8 tbs butter
• 2 tbs sugar
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Pulse everything in food processor until blended

Poached Pears in Sweet Wine Syrup

These were SO good. I loved how it turned the pears red

Trout Wrapped in Bacon

The bacon flavored the fish very nicely! I’m not a huge fish fan at times but I really liked this.

Snitched Tart (currant, black fig, date, pecan, honey tarts)

My guests really loved these. They were very sweet!

Roasted beet, onion, and green beans 

This was a good simple greens side dish. The components are flavored with salt, pepper, and thyme and drizzled with balsamic vinegar

Pastry creme swans

In the book these are made with meringue, which I would have preferred to do, but it was too humid in my apt. to make meringue.

We continued our exploration of the cuisine from ASOIAF by cooking food from the north, specifically the wall. These recipes come from the cookbook “A feast of ice and fire.” Some of the recipes can also be found on the authors’ blog Inn at the Crossroads. I thought the food was delicious! About halfway through my plate I realized that the guys in the night’s watch pretty heavy and filling foods. It was all so tasty but I could hardly manage even 1 serving of each item. As with the other week, since these recipes come from a cookbook, I’m not going to type them all out here but I’ll write out the recipes for my two favorite dishes, the apple cakes and the pork pie.

Crusty White Bread

Basic yeast white bread recipe, raised overnight in fridge

Savory Pork Pie

Pork mixed with onions and spices layered with spicy bbq sauce and apple slices. This was super tasty! I guess it’s like a delicious meatloaf but then you get bonus pie crust .

Adapted “modern” recipe from the book. I didn’t include cheese because I though it had plenty of flavors without and it tasted amazing this way.

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, diced
• 1 1/2 pounds ground pork
• 1 sleeve of Ritz crackers, about 1 1/2 to 2 cups crushed
• 1 tbs poultry seasoning
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• pinch each of salt and ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup spicy barbecue sauce
• 1 apple, thinly sliced
• dough for double crust 9″ pie (storebought or made from scratch)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 F. Lightly brown the onion in a pan over medium heat. Place the onions, along with the pork, crackers, poultry seasoning, cumin, and salt and  pepper, in a bowl and mix thoroughly. (Since I was already using the modern recipe, I decided to also use a food processor for this step, since I had already used it to crush the crackers, it worked quite well!)
• Pour the filling into the pie shell, spreading it out evenly. Pour the sauce over the top of the pork mixture. Arrange a layer of sliced apples over the top of the sauce. Cover with the top dough and pinch edges shut.
• Cut decorative steam holes in the top of the pastry and bake for 45 min to 1 hour. (My crust burnt slightly, I cooked for 1 hour, but I wanted to make sure the pork fully cooked)

Fried Apple Cakes

Apples, pine nuts, and pecans mixed with honey and spices inside a fried pocket of dough. These were kind of like a medieval donut. These were SO good fresh and warm. I was worried they wouldn’t taste as good once they cooled down a bit but they still tasted great!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup milk
• 2 1/4 tsp dry yeast
• 2 egg yolks, beaten
• 3-4 cups flour
• pinch of salt
• 4 tbs butter, softened
• 2 medium apples, cored, and diced
• 2 tbs honey
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1 tbs ground cinnamon
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used pine nuts and chopped pecans)
• Oil for frying

Directions:

• Warm the milk just lightly to the touch and add the yeast to it. Let sit for 10 min until yeast has foamed up
• Add the egg yolks, 3 cups of flour, the salt, and the butter. Mix thoroughly by hand until you have a soft dough that pulls away from the sides of the bowl, adding extra flour as needed. Turn the dough out onto a floured countertop or board, and knead for several minutes, pushing with the heel of your hand, then gathering the dough back into a lump, adding more flour if necessary.  Allow the dough to rise undera  clean dishcloth for about 1 hour
• To prepare the filling, in a saucepan, combine the apples, honey, spices, and nuts. Cook together over medium-low heat until the honey has been absorbed. Set aside.
• On a floured countertop, roll out the dough to 1/4″ thickness. (I only rolled out about 1/4 of the dough at a time to make it easier). Using a 2″ round cutter, stamp out disks of dough. Make as many discs as possible using all the dough. Wet each of the disks edges with water. On half the dough disks place about 1-2 tsp of the filling, then place another round on top. Pinch the edges together firmly. Allow them to rise for another 20 minutes.
• Heat 1″ of oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Gently lower each cake into the hot oil with a slotted spoon. Fry until the dough is golden on both sides. Drain on paper towels. Serve warm

Pease Porridge

Yellow split peas mixed with boiler onions, herbs, and spices

Raisin and roasted chickpea salad

Bean and Bacon Stew

basic beef broth stew with veggies (carrots, celery, onions, and leeks) with beans and chunks of bacon

Whole roasted chicken with carrot, date, and chestnut stuffing

I really loved this stuffing. I think it would have had an even better texture if I had used real bread crumbs (instead of the kind from a can). I generally roast my chickens by coating liberally in salt, pepper, butter, and thyme.

Encrusted rack of lamb

yummm rack of lamb.. why does it have to be so expensive. It goes in the same category for me as scallops do, why so delicious but expensive 😦 These were great. The crust was quite good and the lamb turned out well.

Iced blueberries with sweet cream

this basically tasted like blueberries with delicious pudding on them. What’s not to like? 🙂 The cream was homemade from heavy whipping cream, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla extract