GoT's Bowls O' Brown & HotPie's Dire Wolf Fig & Pepper Bread
"A (wo)man is hyped."
- Everyone, Game of Thrones Season 6's Teaser Trailer 2, Youtube's Comment Section
 |
| Bowl o' brown |
Today, I'm heading straight into the den of geeks. If it didn't already show in my previous posts, I think it's high time to share my little penchant for all things fantastical, magical realism with/or historical elements. You might have heard of this show before - Game of Thrones has made the headlines several times during its past 5 screening seasons on HBO, and is renowned for its bloody spectacles, jaw-dropping, heart-wrenching plot twists and openly voluptuous scenes. Very generally said, it delivers an epic fantasy storyline set in its very own imaginary world, with heavy medieval undertones. Apart from - ehm - the obviously otherworldly dragons, however, the magic of this world is quite carefully rationed. Westeros, Game of Thrones's mainland, is actually set is a sort of post-magic era, where people no longer believe in the mythical beings mentioned in their history. The TV show follows George R.R. Martin's novel series of A Song of Ice and Fire, and R.R. Martin has done a masterful job crafting the world of Game of Thrones - there is a Tolkien-esque feel to the rich detailing weaving everything from the political intrigue and societal structure to the cultural, geographical and culinary traits of each region on the map.
Finally, what I love most about GoT is the delicious, ruthless moral ambiguity. No stereotypical heroes VS villains, nor war of the White Good VS the Black Evil. There isn't a single easily identifiable character on the show as they are all unsettingly gray, and their multifaceted human nature is absolutely refreshing.
If you've never watched it - gogogooo!! It's not on Netflix (yet - fingers crossed), but HBO has their own subscription package for streaming TV shows.
And if you ARE a GoT fan, SQUEEE HOW HYPED ARE YOU? It's been a long, long winter (whatever the Starks say, it has already come dammit. Winter in Canada was brutal this year) and it is finally thawing into spring with season 6's premiere tomorrow. I can't wait. In fact, I have so much energy bursting out from trepidation that I decided to invest it in a GoT-themed feast.
Bowls O' Brown are typically cheap, slow-cooked stews of dubious sanitation for the poor. In G.R.R. Martin's books, they are said to be somewhat culturally unique to the slums of King's Landing, also known as Flea Bottom. Common brown ingredients include many vegetables and difficultly identifiable meat of dubious origin.
"In Flea Bottom we called them bowls o' brown. We'd pretend that the meat in them was chicken - we knew it wasn't chicken." - Gendry (Row, row, row the boat...)
 |
| Bowl O' Brown with Fig & Pepper Bread |
I added a
tiny, more appetizing twist to the traditional brown. The recipe that I'm
sharing is actually a Croatian stew from the Dalmatian Coast, known as pašticada (παστιτσαδα). I thought this little cultural wink was only
proper as the set of King's Landing is filmed in Dubrovnik. Ironically,
however, pašticada is usually prepared for
important feasts such as weddings and baptisms - a bit like a holy grail of
Dalmatian dishes. In its traditional form, it could take up to 3 days to make
(this version is shorter, don't worry). The meat and root vegetables are
slow-cooked in sweet red wine for a couple of hours, and the end result is the
most wonderful sauce: rich and complex and sweet-and-sour, made from blending
those wine-candied softened vegetables, dried prunes and tomato paste together.
If you want to stay true to tradition, pašticada is normally served with gnocchi. Here I made HotPie's Dire Wolf Bread to keep in line with the Game of Thrones' theme. The bread's eccentric fig & pepper flavor comes from a novel I read a few months ago on magical realism and cooking, named Garden Spells. It's a lip-smacking cove of genius culinary ideas and a really nice, light "feel-good" read. The sweetness of the dried figs provides a pleasant counterbalance to the cracked black pepper's spiciness and, with the Bowl o' Brown, the flavors are perfectly complementary. The pepper ties up quite nicely with the hint of spice from the celery and parsley roots. I'm loving the bread's leftovers with Jarlsberg cheese, and I think I'll try making this could be quite divine with sourdough next time.
...By the way, remember how chimeric HotPie's first attempt at making the Wolf Bread was?
Mine is worse: it looks like a fossilized donkey. You got to give the poor boy some merit - shaping dough into a wolf really is a lot harder than it looks ._.
 |
| Fig & Pepper |
GoT's Bowls O' Brown (Croatian Beef Stew - Pašticada)
Adapted from Chasing The Donkey's guest recipe from award-winning chef Mario Mandaric, head chef of La Gitana restaurant in Hvar
Ingredients:
Marinade:
200 ml red wine
75 ml apple cider
30 ml oil
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
2 tablespoon mustard
Stew:
1 kg beef or veal, top round or silverside cut
2 Russet potatoes, chopped into stew-sized chunks
3 medium yellow onions, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
300g carrots, divided in 150g and 100g, chopped into stew-sized chunks
250g parsley root, divided in 150g and 100g, chopped into stew-sized chunks
50g celeriac, chopped into stew-sized chunks
50g dried figs, diced
70g prunes, diced
1 apple, peeled and quartered
60g tomato paste
450 ml sweet wine (I used a creamy sherry: Harveys Bristol Cream), divided in 300 ml and 150 ml
450 ml beef or vegetable broth, divided in 250 ml and 200 ml
3 whole cloves, grounded
3 Bay leaves
1 tablespoon thyme leaves, fresh
1 teaspoon rosemary, fresh
 |
| Ingredients prepping for the Bowl o' Brown |
Preparation:
Marinade:
1. First, combine the mustard and the liquid smoke together. Mix until well incorporated and set aside. In another bowl, combine all the other marinade ingredients.
2. Rinse and pat dry the meat and, using a knife, score small cuts all over its surface. Spread the mustard-liquid smoke mixture over the meat and place in the container of marinade. The container should be large enough so that the pieces of meat are not overlapping each other; and for the marinade to be able to cover them perfectly.
3. Cover, set in the fridge and let marinate overnight.
Stew:
4. In a large pot, heat some oil and brown-sear the meat on high heat (on all sides). Remove from the pot and set aside. Then, lower the heat to medium and stir in the chopped onion and garlic. Stir-fry them until the onions are tender and caramelized. Remove them from the pot and set aside.
5. Add a bit of additional oil if you start having too much caramelized juices in your pan. You'll be deglazing it with wine soon, so don't be tempted to scratch it off now. Quickly stir-fry a first batch of potatoes, 100g carrots and 100g parsley root (don't cook them! You just want to brown them a little). Remove from the pot and set aside.
6. Put your caramelized onions and garlic back into the pot and add all the remaining vegetables (150g carrots, 150g parsley root and celeriac). Stir-fry them quickly and, once they have browned on the edges, add 300 ml of sweet wine/sherry. Make sure to scrape all the yummy crusted bits on the bottom to incorporate them in the sauce.
7. Return the meat to the pan, and pour in 250 ml of broth. Give it a quick stir to combine the wine and broth together.
8. Turn your heat to low and let simmer for 2 hours.
9. When the meat is tender, remove the caramelized, softened vegetables. Set them aside to cool.
10. Add in the tomato paste, dried figs, prunes, cloves and bay leaves. Return to the pot the first batch of browned potatoes, 100g carrots and 100g parsley root. Pour in the remaining 150 ml sweet wine/sherry and 200 ml broth. Cover, and let simmer for an additional 30 minutes.
11. As your stew goes through its last cycle of cooking, purée the wine-candied vegetables that you have set aside. Stir the purée back into the pot and incorporate it with the rest of the sauce.
12. In the last 10 minutes of cooking, add the quartered apples, rosemary and thyme. Season for taste with salt, pepper and additional tomato paste to play with the sweet-and-sour balance.
13. Serve and enjoy!
Fig & Cracked Pepper DireWolf Bread
Adapted from BBC Good Food
 |
| Flour mixture :3 the pepper reminds me of crushed Oreos |
Ingredients:
225g white all-purpose flour
110g rye flour
1 1/8 tsp active dry yeast
30 ml lukewarm water
1/4 tsp white granulated sugar
2 tsp whole cracked black pepper, ground
125 dried figs, chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
200 ml water
Preparation:
1. First, mix the lukewarm water with 1/4 tsp sugar. Sprinkle the yeast granules over it and set aside to let it activate. It should be frothy within 10-15 minutes.
2. In the bowl of your stand-mixer, combine the all-purpose flour, rye flour, ground black pepper and salt.
3. Form a well in your dry ingredients and add the oil and 100 ml water.
4. Attach a dough-hook to your stand mixer and start mixing on medium speed. As the dough starts to form, add the remaining water, slowly and gradually, until the dough becomes soft enough to be kneaded.
5. Knead for about 10 minutes. When your dough becomes smooth, elastic and is able to retain its ball-shape, it is ready.
6. Put your dough in a well-oiled bowl, loosely cover with a plastic wrap and set in a warm place. Let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
7. When the dough has risen, punch it down. Knead lightly again just to incorporate the dried figs in. Don't overwork the dough.
 |
| Kneading in the dried figs :) |
9. Heat your oven at 350F and bake for 30-45 minutes, or until it sounds hollow when you tap it underneath. Cool 10-15 minutes before digging in :)
About the Author
0 comments