Witcher Recipes, a 3 course meal

[username_3266374]

Witcher Recipes, a 3 course meal

I cook as a hobby, and have always been fond of medieval and middle ages recipes. I've been modifying some of my existing ones to fit into the world of The Witcher for a meal suitable for Geralt's table. Over the next few days I'll post some recipes, concluding a full three course meal, starting with soup, a main course with sides, and finally desert.

So, let's start with the soup:

Dragon's Blood (Tomato) Bisque --


INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons tomato paste
4 cups chicken broth
2 (14.5 ounce) cans fire roasted diced tomatoes, drained
3 tablespoons white sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup heavy cream
salt and black pepper to taste



DIRECTIONS
Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion, celery, carrot, and garlic. Cook and stir until the vegetables are tender and beginning to brown, about 8 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook 1 minute longer, stirring constantly.

Stir in the tomato paste, chicken broth, tomatoes, sugar, and nutmeg. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer 15 minutes until the vegetables are very tender.

Pour half to three-quarters of the soup into a blender-depending on how chunky you want it-filling the pitcher no more than halfway full.

Hold down the lid of the blender with a folded kitchen towel, and carefully start the blender, using a few quick pulses to get the soup moving before leaving it on to puree. Alternately, you can use a stick blender and puree the soup in the saucepan.

Return the pureed soup to the saucepan and stir in the cream. Cook over medium heat until the soup is hot. Season with salt and pepper to taste before serving.

Please feel free to comment about any changes you think should be made to the recipes.

 

[GuyNwah]

Tomato dishes don't belong on a medieval table Tomatoes and other New World produce weren't introduced until the 16th C., and both tomatoes and potatoes were regarded with suspicion for some time before they were accepted.

Pretty much the same soup, with gourd (courge) or turnips, and beetroot instead of tomatoes for color, would be just as luscious. I'd consider using more carrots and onions, as well as parsnips, as these were popular and of excellent quality at the time. And a greater variety of spices. Nutmeg and pepper are OK, but cooks would show off their ability to blend spices, and you'd probably see at least cumin and cardamom, maybe saffron and cinnamon.

Example: Gourdes in Potage

 

[Garrison72]

Consider the tomatoes an anachronistic addition. Great idea op.

 

[wichat]

And orange carrot wasn't created till 17th century by Netherlanders, so the carrots in middage were yellows, whitish, purple or almost black... Sugar cane or beet were not usual as sugar from turnips or parsnips.

Bread was a luxury cause not everybody was owner of an oven so the most closer to bread for peasant was the porrige (balls of flour and water cooked in broth, well... soap).

Oh! and milk was from almond: have cattle was also a symbol of luxury...

 

[GuyNwah]

Oh! and milk was from almond: have cattle was also a symbol of luxury...

I don't think fresh cow's (or other animal) milk was much used even on rich tables. Didn't keep well enough. You're right about almond milk.

Sour milks like smetana, and of course cheeses, would, however, be plentiful, certainly on the tables of the better innkeepers whom Geralt and his friends frequented.

Smetana has the good property of not curdling ("breaking") in soups. Créme fraîche or crema Mexicana agria are suitable substitutes; conventional "sour cream" is not.

 

[Garrison72]

They had to have used cow's and goat's milk right? Wasn't dairy farming common back then? Maybe it was mostly for cheese. I visited a prairie house museum in my hometown and the curator talked about the early settlers using ice somehow throughout the summer, but I can't remember how, it was years ago. I wonder if they built ice houses and stored them underground. I'm sure cows could be milked right before a meal.

 

[username_3266374]

True about the anachronisms, but like I said, I've been modifying recipes, plus the CD Project red team gave us some lee-way in this, as they have tomatoes in Witcher 1, and talk about spuds in Witcher 2, ;-)

 

[wichat]

Yes they used milk, but not for drinking. They used for make butter, cheese, etc. But not fraiche creame because the short longevity of the fresh milk doesn't allowed them to keep it in its original form. The conservation of food in those days was based on salt-based curing or drying.

 

[GuyNwah]

They had to have used cow's and goat's milk right? Wasn't dairy farming common back then? Maybe it was mostly for cheese. I visited a prairie house museum in my hometown and the curator talked about the early settlers using ice somehow throughout the summer, but I can't remember how, it was years ago. I wonder if they built ice houses and stored them underground. I'm sure cows could be milked right before a meal.

You pretty much had to have a cow ready to be milked on hand; fresh milk wouldn't keep much longer than the time needed to carry it to the kitchen, and quality milk couldn't be had in the market (TW1 notwithstanding). So most of it ended up in sour milk products and cheeses, and cooks made do with the safer and more reliable almond milk.

 

[username_3266374]

2nd course, mostly because it's a slow day at work,

Aedirn Roast Chicken with root vegetables and gravy

1 (5 to 6 Pound Roasting Chicken
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large bunch fresh thyme
1 large bunch fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon each of ground parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
3 cloves garlic, minced finely
2 tablespoons (1/4) stick butter, melted
1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced
2 large parsnip, cut into 2 inch chunks
4 carrots cut into 2 inch chunks
olive oil
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup dry sherry

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F

Remove chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers, and pat outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme ans rosemary. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and rub with ground herbs. tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Place onions, carrots and parsnips in a roasting pan. Toss with salt, pepper and olive oil. Spread onion slices on very bottom of pan, layer remaining veggies on top, and place chicken on top of veggies.

Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until juices run clear when you cut between leg and thigh. Remove chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, tilt roasting pan so the dripping collect in one corner, skimming off as much fat as possible, and leaving the drippings. Place the roasting pan on top of the stove over medium heat and take a wooden spoon to scrap up the flavor from bottom of the pan. Stir the flour into the drippings to make a roux-like paste. Pour in the chicken broth in stages; continuing to stir to dissolve the flour evenly to prevent lumps. Stir in sherry and season with salt and pepper. Let simmer for 5 minutes to thicken.

Generously ladle gravy over the meat. Serve with veggies on the side

 

[GuyNwah]

Yes they used milk, but not for drinking. They used for make butter, cheese, etc. But not fraiche creame because the short longevity of the fresh milk doesn't allowed them to keep it in its original form. The conservation of food in those days was based on salt-based curing or drying.

Crème fraîche is a confusing name, because it has been fermented to where it has enough acidity (pH 4.5 or less) to keep safely. You're right that unfermented milk would never keep long enough to be used. But we figured out how to preserve milk by fermenting under proper conditions, somewhere way back in prehistory.

Dartmoor dairymen tell an old story of a princess who was in love with a handsome elf-prince. It was the custom among the elves of this place that a bride should anoint herself with cream before her wedding. But a witch desired the princess for her son, a hideous tin smelter, and every day the witch would come and spoil the cream. Finally the prince brought a pail of a new kind of cream made with fire, which the witch could not spoil. Having anointed herself with this new clotted cream, the princess married the prince, and the prince sent his pixies to teach all the dairymaids of Dartmoor how to preserve cream in this manner.

 

[GuyNwah]

2nd course, mostly because it's a slow day at work,

Aedirn Roast Chicken with root vegetables and gravy
(snip)

This is an excellent recipe. My family will "turnip" their noses at parsnips, so I use potatoes. If deglazing a pan is in your skill set, you can use the sherry to deglaze, and not have to scrape.

Sherry is, I believe, not an anachronism; it continued to be produced in Moorish Spain, where though the Moors could not consume it, it was a valuable export.

 

[username_3266374]

This is an excellent recipe. My family will "turnip" their noses at parsnips, so I use potatoes. If deglazing a pan is in your skill set, you can use the sherry to deglaze, and not have to scrape.

Sherry is, I believe, not an anachronism; it continued to be produced in Moorish Spain, where though the Moors could not consume it, it was a valuable export.

This one started more as a curiousity for me than anything. Let's say that the herbs came from a certain song, and it goes from there.

 

[GuyNwah]

This one started more as a curiousity for me than anything. Let's say that the herbs came from a certain song, and it goes from there.

The chorus and the selection of herbs go back a long way, to the days when a combination of four herbs (those, or others) was thought able to ward off the plague. Similar combinations show up in recipes for the notorious "Four Thieves' Vinegar". They have some antibiotic properties, so they weren't so far-fetched as one might think.

And "parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme" are still without peer as a seasoning for chicken.

 

[dragonbird]

Bread was a luxury cause not everybody was owner of an oven so the most closer to bread for peasant was the porrige (balls of flour and water cooked in broth, well... soap).

If he's eating in inns, I guess he'd have had trencher bread?

 

[username_3266374]

Ready for the final course?

 

[wichat]

If he's eating in inns, I guess he'd have had trencher bread?

Usualy there were a comunity oven in one village. Often must mix images of XIV and XV centuries with midage. In midage, only Seigniors were owner of lands and houses, villages, and rivers, and mountains, and cattles and game animals, poaching were punished with gallows. Peasants were tenants, in the best, or simply that they were owned by the feudal lord who could dispose of their livesand used them as manpower.
And in the few cases when a man could own a building, (a tavern, an apothecary) taxes and fees were always abusives. Well, just as right now, with the bankers and their mortgages .

 

[username_3266374]

Finally, dessert.

Dwarven Apple and Pear pocket pies

Piecrust:
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup shortening or butter
6 tablespoons cold water, plus 5 tablespoons cold water, as needed

Pie filling

3 large apples, peeled, cored and diced
3 large pears, peeled, cored and diced
½ cup chopped figs
½ cup sultanas
2 tbs cinnamon
1 tsp ground clove
1 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup firm packed brown sugar
3 tbs butter
1/8 cup all purpose flour
¼ cup dark rum

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
To prepare the piecrust, combine the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Cut in the shortening with your fingers or a pastry cutter, until the pieces are the size of small peas. Sprinkle 6 tablespoons water over the flour, and gently toss with a fork. Push the flour to the sides of the bowl, add the remaining cold water, and mix until all is moistened and combined. Divide the dough in half, and form each half into balls. Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate.

For filling, combine apples, pears, figs and sultanas, spices, brown sugar, vanilla and butter into a large pot and cook the fruit down, roughly 10 minutes, stirring regularly to prevent burning. Add rum and flour, stir constantly and continue to cook for 5 more minutes. Take off heat and let cool.

Lightly flour your hands and the countertop and turn the dough out onto the countertop. Knead the dough ball, folding over 10 to 20 times. Using a rolling pin roll the dough to 1/3 to 1/2-inch thickness, then cut into rounds using a 2 1/4-inch ring. Roll each round as thinly as possible or to 5 to 6 inches in diameter. Spoon 1 to 2 tablespoons of filling onto the dough, brush the edges of half of the dough lightly with the egg wash, fold over and seal the edges together with the tines of a fork, dipping it into flour as needed. Gently press down to flatten and evenly distribute the filling and snip or cut 3 slits in the top of the pie.

Place finished pies onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.


To deep-fry pies, heat vegetable oil in a deep-fryer or a large heavy pot to 375 degrees F. Once hot, add 1 to 2 pies at a time and fry until golden brown, approximately 3 to 4 minutes.

 

[GuyNwah]

This is luscious. I have used that same pie crust recipe ever since I learned to cook. (It's 16th C.; earlier pies had a thick, coarse crust to protect the filling from the oven, after which it was suitable only for feeding to the servants or the pigs. But it is so good that any anachronism is immediately forgiven.)

Cornish pasties, the "meal in a pocket" once carried by real-world miners, are similar (you can put meat in one end and fruit in the other for a two-course meal). "In fact so universal are the contents of Cornish pasties, a local proverb states that the devil will not venture into Cornwall, for if the inhabitants caught him, they would be sure to put him into a pie." [James Orchard Halliwell]

 

[username_3266374]

This recipe actually is a variation of one from Chaucer himself. Specifically : "Tak gode Applys and gode Spycis and Figys and reyfons and Perys and was they are wel ybrayed colourd wyth wel and do yt in a cofyn and do yt forth to bake wel."

Obviously, it's a little.... well vague, so I decided to be clever and sat down with my spice cabinent, my nose, and several bottles of varied hard spirits that were either period or were complimentary and started putting my nose to work.

I had the idea to do them as a pasty as I was trying to tie the whole mythology of the world together. I figured that the dwarves would be similar to the Welsh in that they'd spend much of their time in either iron, or coal mines and need to have something easy that can be taken down into the tunnel, plus having the seam to hold onto so as not to cover their food with coal dust. The thought evolved that naturally this style would follow them to non-mining communities where they could be sold at markets or food stalls because they could be prepared in bulk and would be and easy grab and go food.