A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook (A Song of Ice and Fire) (15 page)

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Authors: Chelsea Monroe-Cassel,Sariann Lehrer

BOOK: A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook (A Song of Ice and Fire)

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Coat the bottom of a deep 9 × 9 inch or 9-inch-round baking dish with butter. Then arrange the ingredients in layers that are as thin as possible—first some cheese, then some turnips, then some butter, then some spice. Repeat the layers until ingredients are used up, keeping each layer as thin as possible. Top with more cheese. Bake until the cheese is just melted, around 15 minutes.

Modern Turnips in Butter

Serves 4
Prep: 10 minutes
Cooking: 30 minutes

Pairs well with
Modern Pork Pie
,
White Beans and Bacon
,
Lemon Cakes

These buttered turnips are nothing short of a miracle. The process of boiling the roots in milk creates a creamy, sweet, and tender result. Far and away the best turnip preparation we have ever tasted, this recipe will not disappoint!

3 large turnips, peeled and cut into similar-size pieces

3½ cups milk

3 sprigs fresh thyme

2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into cubes

Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Add the turnips, milk, and thyme to a large saucepan and simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes, or until the turnips are tender enough to stick a fork through with little resistance.

Drain the turnips, reserving the cooking liquid. Discard the thyme sprigs. Puree the turnips using a potato masher, immersion blender, or regular blender. Melt in the butter, add the chopped garlic, and continue blending. Add 2 cups of the reserved cooking liquid and combine until a uniform consistency is achieved. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Beef and Bacon Pie

Part of him wanted nothing so much as to hear Bran laugh again, to sup on one of Gage’s beef-and-bacon pies, to listen to Old Nan tell her tales of the children of the forest and Florian the Fool
.
—A GAME OF THRONES

Medieval Beef and Bacon Pie

To make Pyes. Pyes of mutton or beif must be fyne mynced & seasoned with pepper and salte and a lytel saffron to colour it, suet or marrow a good quantitie, a lytell vynegre, pruynes, great reasons, and dates, take the fattest of the broath of powdred beefe.
—
A
PROPRE NEW BOOKE OF COKERY, 1545

Serves 6 to 8
Prep: 15 minutes
Baking: 40 minutes

Pairs well with
Salad at Castle Black
,
Roman
Buttered Carrots
, dark or hoppy beer

We followed the recipe from
A Propre New Booke of Cokery
, simply swapping some thick-cut bacon in for the original marrow and letting the rest of the recipe be. The sweetness of the pie comes from the fruit, which dissolves as it cooks, providing a
satisfying counterpoint to the tart vinegar and salty bacon. Then the fruit flavor fades into the background, and what remains is a sweet, rich meat pie with an easy medley of flavors.

½ cup thick-cut bacon, diced or cut small

1½ pounds stew beef, cut into small pieces

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup red wine vinegar

⅓ cup prunes, sliced

⅓ cup raisins

⅓ cup dates, chopped

1 cup beef broth

2 to 3 tablespoons flour

1 batch
Medieval Pastry Dough
or dough for a double-crust 9-inch pie, unbaked, rolled into 2 rounds

1 egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Cook the diced bacon in a saucepan over medium heat until the fat runs from it, then drain off the fat. To the bacon pan, add the beef, spices, vinegar, and fruits. Add enough broth to thoroughly wet the mixture; the final consistency should be runny. Mix in the flour and cook on low heat until the juices form a gravy.

Let the meat mixture cool. Line a 9-inch pie pan with a round of pastry dough and fill it with the meat mixture. Add a pastry lid, turn the edges under, pinch them closed, and brush with beaten egg. Bake until the filling is bubbling and the pastry is cooked, about 40 minutes.

Modern Beef and Bacon Pie

Serves 8
Lattice: 15 minutes
Prep: 15 minutes
Cooking: 1 to 1½ hours

Pairs well with Medieval
Honey Biscuits
,
Baked Apples
,
Mulled Wine

This recipe is rich and savory, much closer to what we imagined when we read about the beef and bacon pies of Winterfell. For all that this is a relatively dense dish, the flavors are fairly light. The beef, bacon, onions, and herbs are all distinguishable, but don’t linger overlong on the palate. The result is a lovely meat pie that can be served hot or cold.

12 strips bacon

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 onion, diced

1 carrot, cut into small chunks

½ medium potato, cubed

1½ pounds chuck steak or stew meat, cut small

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

½ cup beef broth

Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Large pinch dried rosemary, or other savory herbs

½ batch
Medieval Pastry Dough
, or enough dough For a single-crust 9-inch pie, unbaked