A Feast of Ice and Fire, a Cookbook Review

 Authors Chelsea Monroe-Cassel and Sariann Lehrer have done a marvelous job with this Official Companion Cookbook. More than 200 glossy pages, including gorgeous photography of each dish and easy to follow recipes, this cookbook is a treat for fans of the books. just plain old cooks, and those interested in medieval cookery alike.

Each recipe comes with two preparations, a medieval version and a modern version.  Also included are recipes for sauces, doughs, and spice blends that will be used throughout the cookbook, each with historical notes and other interesting facts.

The organization of the recipes is very on brand, as we go to each location.  There is The Wall and also The North, both with very rustic and hearty meals.  Then we move on to the south, where we get a bit of seafood such as trout wrapped in bacon and broth of seaweed and clams, but also some real treats like poached pears. Next is Kings Landing where we get royals dishes such as almond crusted trout or Quail drowned in Butter, to the simple fare of the common folk in the city, including bowls of brown and oatbread. Lastly we get the exotic location of Dorne and Across the Narrow Sea, which include such exotic recipes as Honey Spiced Locusts and Dornish snake with Fiery Sauce.

Although there are a few truly exotic recipes that may be more for show than anything else for most cooks, the majority of the recipes are very approachable dishes.

Overall, this is a wonderful cookbook.  I have tried and loved many of the recipes, and look forward to trying many more.

White Beans and Bacon

Red Bean Buns

From the World of WarCraft Cookbook comes this lightly sweet and absolutely delicious recipe for Red Bean Buns.

 

This recipe is rated skill level: Master, and takes a while to prepare as it uses a yeast dough that requires more than one rise time.  It is not a simple recipe, but it honestly isn't too hard to make either, just work intensive.  Particularly if you are, like me, unlucky enough to have no Asian grocer near you.  

I had no easy access to the red bean paste called for, nor could I even find the Azuki beans needed to make it from scratch, and I didn't want to order online for a single item, so after a bit of research I discovered that White Bean Paste is an acceptable substitute for sweet bean buns, and that white beans I had access to (I chose navy beans) were suitable. I took one can of low sodium navy beans, rinsed them well, and then put them into a food processor with 1/4 cup sugar (which I worked out was 2/3 the weight of what 15oz of cooked beans would have been when dried). After processing until smooth, I cooked on the stovetop for 15 minutes until the mixture became thick and stiff.  Then I spent quite a while pushing this product through a fine mesh strainer to get a very smooth, lustrous white bean paste.

I followed the rest of the Bean Bun recipe closely, and the dough came together very nicely.  I only had white sesame seeds on hand, so those ended up decorating the buns before baking. 

These came out perfectly.  Crusty on the outside and tender inside with a perfect amount of filling. Everyone rated these a 5 out of 5, which made all that work very worth it. They do take more than 2 hours or so to make, as they require a total of 1.5 hours of rising, but wow, what a treat!  We paired these with Spiced Blossom Soup, a very good pairing. I look forward to making these Bean Buns again!  Maybe next time I can get my hands on the red bean paste....

The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook: Review

Full disclosure, I've had this cookbook for years and made a number of recipes from it before I decided to start this blog. I received this lovely book from my husband as a birthday gift some years ago.  We immediately tried a number of recipes for the holiday season.  I didn't review any of them at the time, but all of them were interesting enough to make more than once.  I particularly want to make Aunt Petunia's pudding again, as it was a big hit the first time we made it!

This book has no pictures or illustrations of the finished recipes, and the pages are all rough cut, I presume to sort of imitate the feeling of a hand written spell book. I rather like the look and feel of the book, but it isn't the highly polished presentation that some of the other fantasy cookbooks aim for. The paper itself is good quality, and the individual recipes are easy to read and the directions are well written.  I enjoy the little historical and Harry Potter related notes included with each recipe. My only beef with this cookbook is the organization of the recipes themselves.  There is no real rhyme or reason to it that I can make out. Each section is related to a part of Harry's journey through the magical realm, or characters there-in.  There are sections for the Dursley's, the Train, Diagon Alley, Giant's and Elves, the Great Hall, and so forth.  It's very whimsical, and I do think it captures the feeling of the Wizarding World in it's layout, but it makes it more difficult to navigate when looking for main dishes or desserts, for instance.  It does have a very nice Index, something I have noticed most fantasy cookbooks lack, so that can help if you know the main ingredient or the name of the recipe you are looking for.

This cookbook is really a love letter to classic British cuisine, which I think shows through in the Wizarding World as well.  There's all the fun things foreigners might like to try, like Spotted Dick and Toad in the Hole, as well as more Wizarding World specific treats that fire the imagination, like Pumpkin Pasties and a wide variety of Honeydukes treats.  Mostly it's very common British fare. Stews, roasts, meat pies and classic puddings, the sort of things that are very suitable for regular meals.  I like the mixture of the magical and the mundane, it fits the world of Harry Potter very well.

Here are some of the recipes my family has tried from this cookbook.

Boiled Potatoes with Herb Vinaigrette.

Ogri'La Chicken Fingers

 From the World of WarCraft Official Cookbook, our family recently tried the Ogri'La Chicken Fingers.

This is a very straightforward recipe, skill level: apprentice, and total prep and cook time at around 30 minutes.

I actually had our 14 year old daughter, who has gotten a little selective about food in recent years, help me select recipes she'd be willing to try from all of these fantasy cookbooks.  My husband is a big fan of chicken, but our daughter not so much.  She was, however, willing to try these.

Daughter rates the finished product a full 5 stars out of 5.  I agree.  Husband rates them as a 4 out of 5 and said he'd like a bit more seasoning in the batter.  Your milage may vary.  I don't think they need any additional salt, but I may try some smoked paprika or a pinch of cayenne in the batter next time.

We used local chicken breast, and served with homemade honey mustard sauce, a simple caesar salad, and the herbed boiled potatoes from the Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook.

I was a bit skeptical about browning the breadcrumbs ahead of time, as directed in the recipe.  I was afraid they would become overdone, maybe even burnt, but that was not at all the case.  These came out a perfect crunchy golden brown, and the chicken inside was surprisingly tender and moist. Far better than anything you can get at your local drive-through, these are well worth the effort.

I think the batter under the breadcrumbs, as opposed the normal routine I've done in the past of egg wash, seasoned flour, then breadcrumbs, make these extra tender and delicious. Honestly, the best breaded baked chicken recipe I've ever tried. I will 100% be adding this recipe to a monthly rotation. And because they are baked and not fried, I don't even feel guilty for serving my family chicken fingers for dinner!

Junglevine Wine

Whew, this packs a punch!  Pun intended.

This recipe is from page 203 of the World of WarCraft Official Cookbook

I don't know quite why this recipe is listed as skill level: Expert. It seemed fairly simple to prepare. 

Ingredients include sugar, brandy, pomegranate juice, triple sec, diced fruit of choice, and red wine.  It's pretty simple, aside from peeling, coring and dicing some fruit, it mostly involves mixing the ingredients and dissolving the sugar into them.

I chose pears and apples for the fruit, and also decided to serve it warm as opposed to iced, as it is the middle of winter.  Both options are given in the recipe.  I also halved the recipe, as I'm serving it just for my husband and I.  This still made enough for a few evening's worth of drinks.  We selected E&J VS Brandy as it is very smooth and I think it worked well. For the wine, we found a local Garnacha for it's fruitiness, and because

I must say, the pears really soaked up the mixture and were absolutely delicious to fish out and nibble on while drinking.

This drink was a delight, and both my husband and I give it 5 stars out of 5.  Sweet, smooth, fruity and delicious, this drink will be a big hit for any party, and any season, or just for a weeknight cocktails at home.

Greatfather's Winter Ale

This recipe is on page 199 of the World of WarCraft Official Cookbook.  It is listed as Skill Level: Master, and I agree.  I think tempering the eggs in a safe manner is fairly difficult, but if you are comfortable trying that, this recipe is certainly unique.

This recipe includes apples, oranges, a variety of holiday spices, eggs, ale, apple cider, brandy, brown sugar and maple syrup. Quite a variety of ingredients!

(Alternatively, we also tried this using prepared eggnog instead of of the eggs and Holiday Spices, and it was actually pretty similar in taste.)

I made this for my husband and myself to enjoy a few days before Christmas.  We made 1/3 batch because there were only 2 of us, and I used a local holiday ale. I also omitted the baked fruit since we weren't serving it for guests.

The taste is really unusual.  Not quite eggnog, not quite grog, but both of us found we liked it more as we sipped on it. A touch creamy, a touch fruity, a touch bitter, a touch spicy, a lot sweet; this drink has a lot going on. It certainly would make an impression at a party!

I give this recipe a 3.5 out of 5 stars.  It is a bit difficult for a mixed drink, and some folks might not enjoy the unusual and complex flavors. All the same, it is very fitting for the winter holidays!

Fantasy Cookbooks

What is more charming and whimsical than a fantasy feast?  From the lavash layouts in A Song of Ice and Fire, to the monstrous meals of World of Warcraft, fantasy worlds offer a fun way to dive into new and interesting recipes, and add a little magic into our lives.

I've begun a modest collection of fantasy world cookbooks, and I intend to cook and review at least one recipe per week from my collection.  

But before we review individual recipes, let's take a closer look at each book!

World of WarCraft The Official Cookbook: Review

The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook: Review

A Feast of Ice and Fire, the Official Companion Cookbook