Dragon Age Recipes is dedicated to food, fun, and men and women of Thedas. Tuesdays from now on will feature two characters from Dragon Age Origins. Thursdays will feature two characters from Dragon Age 2. Sundays will feature two characters submitted by followers. Submission deadline is Saturday. Please see the "About" page for info.
Life has been crazy lately, but it would be good to get back to doing something productive. I’d like to do recipes for the Inquisition cast, but I don’t have any screen shots. If you have some and are willing to let me use them, please send them to me via the “submit” button. I’ll cross the names off this list when I get a screenshot I can use. Only 2 rules: try to get a screen of *just* the character in question (no Inquisitors in the frame), and no nudity. So that bug where nude Cullen is hiding behind a pillar while Sera and the Inquisitor celebrate their pranks? I can’t really print that one.
From Seheron to the Korcari Wilds, the adventurous traveler will find a few of the same foodstuffs everywhere people prepare food. Regional variations abound, of course. One might find tea in Par Vollen, but few in Redcliffe would have even heard of the stuff. Tisanes - herbal infusions - they would know, but actual tea leaves? A rare, ultra luxe import, at best. At the other extreme, everyone knows what salt is.
This list applies equally whether the cook habitually prepares food for one or for fifteen, or whether the householder is as rich as a magister or as poor as a city elf.
I’ll start posting regular recipes again soon, I promise, but maybe this is better than nothing?
Staples (dry, non-perishable foods):
Grain (rice, barley, oats, spelt, millet, quinoa, etc): cooked whole, it fills the belly and provides necessary energy
Dried Legumes (beans, lentils, peas): cheap, wholesome source of protein (canned beans are especially convenient)
Salt
Vinegar: (wine and cider are most useful) brightens the taste of most foods, also aids in food preservation
Oil: regular olive oil is indispensable in most kitchens, but households that often fry foods at high temperature might also want one with a higher smoking point (you can use regular olive oil in baking and no one will ever know)
Pasta: one might argue that whole grains fill this role, but there are times when an hour is too long to wait for dinner, and its cost is hardly prohibitive
Preserved Vegetables: canned tomatoes, corn, beans, can be combined for a quick meal, or for emergency provisions
Canned broth
Canned soups (emergency meals)
Canned fish/poultry (chunk light tuna has the lowest mercury levels of the various tunas, but pink salmon is safer)
Peanut Butter: comfort food or emergency rations? You decide.
Flour: If you have nothing to eat but flour, an egg or two, and a pinch of salt, boiled dumplings are better than going hungry
Leaveners: baking powder, baking soda, yeast
Sugar
Honey
Soy Sauce
Onions: all savory foods are better with onions
Garlic: ditto
Important note: store your onions, garlic, and potatoes separately. The onions will cause the potatoes and garlic to sprout and eventually rot. It isn't economy if you have to keep throwing food away because it's gone bad.
Cold Storage:
Cabbage: Can be served cooked or raw, seasoned in any number of ways, and lasts for weeks when kept cool, even if pieces are cut off. The edges will discolor after a few days, but pare off the discolored part and the rest will be fine. Only discard when it starts to feel soft.
Carrots: delicious, nutritious, inexpensive, and last for weeks
Lemon Juice: Versatile for cooking, but a splash of it makes tap water more palatable
Eggs: an ingredient in many recipes, but a quick meal in their own right
Worcestershire Sauce
Prepared Mustard
Mayonnaise
Milk
Butter
Spices and Herbs: Seasonings are expensive, but they last for a long, long time and add vital variety to the most boring diet. I consider the following essential. Others might disagree. My list excludes dill and tarragon because I dislike the taste, but many people would consider both essential.
Store dry chili of any type in the freezer to avoid paprika bugs
Protein: fish, poultry, meat, tofu (buy it in bulk, divide into portions, and freeze)
Leftovers, portioned into meal-sized units (resealable bags rule)
Bread, when purchased on sale (best toasted before use, though)
Wrap "protein" foods first in kitchen foil to exclude air from the surface to prevent freezer burn, then bundle like items together in large resealable bags. Label all food going into the freezer with the contents and the date. Some food is best if you cook it straight from the freezer (frozen pizza, anyone?), but for solid foods that need defrosting, thaw food rapidly and safely in cold water. For larger items such as a whole chicken, put the item in a large bowl, cover with cold water, and thaw in the refrigerator. It will still thaw faster than it would in the refrigerator without the water, and much more safely than it would at room temperature.
A well-stocked pantry can get you through just about anything from surprise guests to an unexpected month without income. Just be sure to rotate your stock so you aren't using the carrots you just bought while last month's gets moldy in the crisper drawer.
(Apologies for the lack of image, I just didn’t have one)
8 large (16-24 count) shrimp
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/4 lemon, juice and zest
1/3 pound asparagus (leftover is fine)
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 Tablespoon Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
This is really the recipe to use if you have leftover steamed asparagus. Even soggy asparagus is fine. Be sure to juice the lemon and grate the zest in advance. If you have no lemons on hand, 1/2 teaspoon crystallized lemon juice is an acceptable substitution.
Peel and de-vein the shrimp. Or use defrosted frozen shrimp. Set aside.
Heat the olive oil in a non-stick pan, add the shrimp, and cook until they are half-way cooked. One side should be pink, the other, still grey and raw-looking. Add the garlic, lemon juice and zest, and chopped cooked asparagus, and stir fry for a few moments until you can smell the garlic. Add the brown rice and the Parmesan cheese and cook, stirring constantly, until everything is hot. The shrimp will be done by now. Serve with a delightfully dry Reisling or perhaps a Pinot Gris. Chardonnay is far too heavy for this. Add the freshly ground black pepper as your palate demands.
Serves one. Eating alone need not be dull, darling.
books.google.com is a truly invaluable resource, in general. Many classics have entered the public domain, and thanks to technology and great generosity on the part of translators (and coders), research has never been easier.
Those with an interest in classical cookery might research the following (and many more):
M. A. Careme
Taillevent
Brillat Savarin
Escoffier
The ability to read French helps, but it’s far from essential. Most works are available in translation. A few are not, but if I can get through them with my sparse, ancient memories of High School French, anyone can.
We don’t go in for fancy foods in Markham, Inquisitor. Well, some do, at the the Grand Tourney, but they don’t eat like that every day. So, this is something for the rest of the year, when the crowds have gone home and it’s just trying to get something tasty on the table for rest days or what have you.
I’ve got to warn you. Eye of the round is a tricky cut of meat. It’s the same part of the cow that bottom round comes from - the well-exercised back end - but it doesn’t have any marbling to make it moist or bones nearby to give it flavor. It’s a tough, stringy piece of meat that doesn’t taste like much of anything. How’s that for a recommendation? But never fear, if anybody can salvage this mess, it’s you.
You’re going to need to plan it ahead of time. Two days is good, but one will do, if that’s all you’ve got. Make a paste of garlic, shallots, fresh parsley, dried sage, salt, and black pepper and let it sit on ice for a bit until the flavors blend. A day will do it, but you can make it a week or more ahead of time, if your life ever slows down enough to let you think that far in advance. Figure on two cloves of garlic, a chopped shallot, a generous pinch of rubbed sage, a fistful of parsley, a scant palmful of salt, and a generous grinding of black pepper, and adjust for availability and personal taste. You don’t really need the sage, but I like it. Mash up the rub in a mortar and pestle until it’s paste. That can take a while. Dagna’s got some contraption rigged up to do it in mere heartbeats - a food processor, she calls it - but I’m not going near that thing.
I said it’s a rub? Well, it is. Take your roast out of the ice box about 3 hours before you want to eat and smear that salty, onion-y slop all over it. Cover it with a kitchen wrap of some kind and keep it on a high shelf away from the dogs for about an hour. Meanwhile, preheat your oven about as high as it will go. Dagna says to write 500 degrees Fahrenheit. If you can leave your hand in there for more than two heartbeats without pain, it isn’t hot enough.
Put the roast beef in the oven and close the door. Here’s the tricky part.
If you’ve got a gas oven, it will cool down a little faster, so allow 7 minutes a pound. If your oven runs on sorcery, Ee-leck-triss-city, figure 6 minutes a pound. So, for an average 3-pound roast in a sorcerous oven, 20 minutes.
Turn the oven off or pull out the coals, whatever takes the source of heat away. Don’t open the oven door. At all.
Let it stand for two hours, then take the roast out and eat it with mashed potatoes, peas, and your aunt’s weird fluffy dessert she always insists on bringing because everyone always loves it.
Things got crazy at work, stayed that way for a long time, I got married, and then Inquisition came out. I'm going to be easing myself back into it, though. Thanks for writing.
Hope you don't mind if I post this publicly, because I've been getting this question a lot.
HAVE YOU BEEN INVITED TO A FANCY-ASS DINNER PARTY? DO YOU THINK WINE TASTES SHITTY AND YOU CAN’T SEE WHY PEOPLE THINK SIPPING NASTY-ASS CRAP IS CLASSY?
WELL PULL UP YOUR BRITCHES, BECAUSE IT’S TIME TO EDUCATE YOUR PEASANT ASS.
All of Thedas welcomes the kind weather of summer and its many delicious fruits and vegetables, but Orlais takes the celebration to extremes with grand tournaments and elaborate outdoor banquets. A typical Orlesian feast menu might feature as many as two dozen different dishes per course, but the typical Orlesian noble’s kitchen has an extensive staff. This menu is simplified to allow the cook to enjoy the occasion , as well.
Menu
White Leeks (C16)
Cumberland Pies (C50)
Roast Lamb with Green Sauce (MP)
Sorrel in Verjuice (MP)
Peas and Onions (MP)
Rissoles (C51 and MP)
Strawberries
The recipes are taken from Chiquart (C), and Le Menagier de Paris (MP). My copy of Le Menagier is incomplete and lacks the title page (and therefore the translator’s name). I say only that it was not translated by me. Should you wish to view it in the original language, try here. The Chiquart translation is by Elizabeth Cook, sourced here. As always, the redactions (modern interpretations of primary sources) are my own. No primary-source recipes given for the Strawberries (I was astonished to find one for the lamb). Simple foods are not often committed to history. It’s rather like opening a cookbook and expecting to find a recipe for a grilled cheese sandwich. Why waste valuable parchment recording something everyone knows how to do? Especially if the foods are too common to help your patron’s social standing. How Orlesian!
White Leeks
If protected from the elements, leeks winter over remarkably well, but they should be harvested early in their second year before they flower. Use lean salted pork if you can find it. Otherwise, bacon will do.
2 bunches of leeks
8 ounces salt pork, cut into 1-inch chunks
water to cover
8 ounces almonds, finely ground
Slice and meticulously wash the leeks, using only the white and pale green parts (save the tops for stock). They will be full of mud, so you will need to immerse the leeks in cold water, swish them around with your hands until the mud drops to the bottom of the sink, drain, and repeat until the leeks are clean. Drain them well.
Put the leeks in a saucepan with the salt pork and barely enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until the leeks are tender, about 15 minutes. Drain the leeks, reserving the broth, and set them aside. Put the salt pork back in the skillet with the broth and the ground almonds, and bring to a boil again. Reduce heat until the liquid is opaque. You just made almond milk.
Return the leeks to the saucepan with the almonds, the almond milk, and the salt pork, and heat through. Remove the salt pork before serving.
Cumberland Pies
They’re called pies, but they bear more resemblance to dumplings. Served with a spicy-sweet sauce, they whet the palate for the meal to come. They’re called nurriz pastries in the text, which suggests the French adaptation of a foreign (Spanish?) recipe. They call for a great quantity of chicken livers, and if that’s something you like, use half pork, half chicken livers, by all means. They will be even more subtle and delicious than the all-pork variety. But many people have an aversion to organ meats, so the recipe below omits them.
The recipe calls for grains of paradise, a spice that has become rare in modern times. It was originally used not because its flavor was indescribably wonderful, but because it was cheaper than the black peppercorns it replaced. Black pepper is now much more affordable, so we’ll use that instead. When choosing a wine for the sauce, use the mildest, least tannic red you can find. You will be reducing it greatly without any meat or other protein to bind the tannins, so choose something soft and fruity, such as merlot. Those who do not take wine may use grape juice instead, but omit the sugar from the sauce.
8 ounces ground pork (or meatloaf mix)
4 ounces bacon, diced
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp black pepper
pinch saffron
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 raw eggs
20 wonton wrappers
oil for pan frying
2 cups red wine
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp groundcinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
Cook the pork and the bacon in a skillet until they are completely cooked. Drain and set aside to cool.
Bring the wine to a boil in a sauce pan and reduce to 1 cup. Stir in the sugar, cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, and cloves while the wine is still hot, but do not allow the wine to boil again once the cinnamon is in, lest you wind up with a ropey mess. Keep warm or cool to room temperature, at your convenience.
Mix the bacon-studded pork with the 1 tsp ginger, black pepper, saffron, 2 Tbsp sugar, salt, and eggs. Place a rounded spoonful of the filling on each wonton wrapper, moisten the edges with water, and pinch to seal. You want a fat pillow of a pie, so it will probably take more than one teaspoon per pastry and less than a tablespoon. You can always bake the leftover meat mix as meatloaf (it’s wonderful crumbled into applesauce!).
These fry quickly, so make sure that you have them all assembled before you start frying them.
Fry a few pastries at a time until they are golden brown and the pastry bubbles, 3-4 minutes per side. Serve warm drizzled with wine sauce.
Roast Lamb with Green Sauce
“Grain” in the source recipe refers to grains of paradise. We substitute black pepper. Note the resemblance of the herb paste to gremolata. Some classic preparations really have been around forever.
1 6-pound leg of lamb, bone in
Salt and olive oil
1 bunch parsley
1/4 cup wine vinegar
2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 bunch parsley
2 tsp dried marjoram
1/2 cup verjuice (or 1/4 cup cider vinegar and 1/4 cup apple juice)
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and rub the trimmed lamb with oil and salt. Roast uncovered for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, grind the parsley with the vinegar.
Remove the roast from the oven and reduce the heat to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Spread the parsley paste over the meat and return the lamb to the oven until the internal temperature reaches 130 degrees Fahrenheit, about an hour.
While the lamb is roasting, grind the remaining ingredients to make a sauce.
When you remove the roast from the oven, tent it with kitchen foil and allow to stand for 20 minutes before carving. The meat should be rare. If you prefer your lamb medium, roast until the internal temperature reaches 140 degrees Fahrenheit. If you like it well done, aim for 150 degrees… or make friends with a dragon.
Sorrel in Verjuice
This is probably intended as a soup or sauce, but if you chop the sorrel leaves coarsely instead of finely, you can serve it as a vegetable, like spinach (which makes a good substitute if you cannot find sorrel).
This is probably not intended as a cooked dish, but you may steam it if you wish. You will have to wash the sorrel well to get rid of the inevitable sand. Leave it wet and toss it in a covered skillet until the leaves wilt.
8 ounces sorrel leaves
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp capers
Toss the sorrel, chopped raw or steamed, with the white wine vinegar and the capers and serve.
Peas with Onions
The fascination with pork fat is an enduring one, it seems. This early in the year, the peas would be new peas, but onions add too much to the flavor to omit them just because the peas aren’t hard little nuggets of starch. The “a la cretonne” recipe the author mentions is a long, involved recipe with eggs and breadcrumbs, and a lot of added hassle. Simple is better, even if the Menagier doesn’t necessarily see it that way. Indeed, his convoluted phrasing makes an easy, uncomplicated recipe sound daunting. Perhaps he thought his new wife had nothing better to do. We have many better things to do, so frozen vegetables serve us well.
2 large onions
2 slices bacon
1 16-ounce package frozen petite peas
salt
Peel and cube the onions and put them in a pot with the bacon almost enough water to cover (some onion should stick out). Bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat, and simmer until the onions are very tender, about 20 minutes. Drain, reserving the broth and discarding the onions. If you want to fish the bacon out, you can chop it and add it to the peas, but the flavor is already extracted.
Put the peas in a saucepan with the onion water and reserved bacon, if using. Do not worry if the liquid does not cover the peas. These are tender baby peas, not the mature dried peas the managier was using. Bring to a boil and steam until the peas are hot and tender, about 10 minutes. Serve the peas with the liquid as a sauce, adding salt only if necessary.
Rissoles
Rissoles are deep fried turnover-like pastries. Usually, they contain meat or fish, but this feast has so much meat already, it might be better to leave it out. The recipe mostly follows the Menagier version, but it takes Chiquart’s candied raisins in place of the grapes, which would not yet be in season. Spring roll/egg roll wrappers make a convenient substitute for homemade dough. Homemade egg pasta dough is better and more appropriate, but it is a chore to make if you do not have a pasta machine.
1/2 cup dried figs
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup minced apple
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
pinch cardamom
12 egg roll wrappers
egg white, lightly beaten
oil for deep frying
powdered sugar to serve
Preheat the oil to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
Mince the dried fruit and mix with the apple, nuts and spices. Place a few tablespoons of the mixture diagonally across the egg roll wrapper, keeping the filling away from the corners. Brush the edges with egg white and roll up like an envelope, enclosing the filling.
Deep fry two or three at a time, removing them with a slotted spoon once the pastry turns golden brown and bubbles. Serve warm or at room temperature, sprinkled with powdered sugar.
SOURCE RECIPES
C16. To make white leeks, he who is in charge of them should arrange that he has his leeks and slice them small and wash them very well and put them to boil. And take a good piece of salt chine of pork, and clean it very well and put it to boil therewith; and when they are well boiled take them out onto fair and clean tables, and let them save the broth in which they were boiled; and let there be a good mortar-full of blanched almonds, and then take the broth in which the said leeks have boiled and draw up the almonds with it, and if there is not enough of the said broth take beef or mutton broth -- and take care that it is not too salty; and then afterward put your bruet to boil in a fair and clean pot. And then take two fair and clean knives and chop your leeks, and then take them and bray them in a mortar; and, being brayed, put them into your broth, of almonds as much as water, to boil. And, the leeks being boiled, when it comes to the sideboard put your meat on fair serving dishes and then the said broth of the said leeks put on top.
C50. Again, nurriz pasties: and to give understanding to him who will make it let him take his fair pork meat according to the quantity which he should make and then take the gizzards and livers of poultry in great quantity and clean them well and put them to cook; and take a fair and well cleaned piece of bacon lard in a good place(?) and put it to boil therewith; and then when his meat is cooked let him take it out onto fair and clean boards, and put the pork by itself and chop it very small; and let him take the gizzards and livers and his chopped meat and put it in and sauté this all together. And let him take his spices: white ginger, grains of paradise, saffron, a great quantity of sugar according to the quantity of the filling, and let him flavor it well with salt and the spices so that there is neither too little nor too much of anything; and eggs also according to the quantity of the filling. And then deliver it to the pastry-cook, and let him advise his pastry-cook that he should make his crusts very small and fairly high for frying, and arrange that you have a great deal of fresh pork fat with which your pans should be well filled to fry the pasties. And then arrange that you have a fair pot full of the best and finest wine which can be found, and put it to boil on a fair clear fire of coal and make it boil enough that it diminishes to half or a third; and take a loaf of sugar and break it up and put it in according to the quantity of the work, and if one loaf is not enough put in more or less of it; and take your spices: cinnamon, ginger, grains of paradise, and put it in measure according to the quantity of the broth, and a little salt, and put whole cloves in, one ounce or two or more or less according to the quantity of the julliet or conserve which you have made. And when this comes to the sideboard put your pasties on fair dishes and the said julliet put on top.
Roast Mutton (MP) in a little salt or with verjuice and vinegar. The shoulder is first spitted and turned before the fire until the grease has melted away, then larded with parsley: and not too soon for two reasons, one being because it is easier for the larding, the other because if you lard it too soon, the parsley will burn before the shoulder is done.
GREEN SAUCE WITH SPICES (MP). Grind ginger very fine, clove, grain, and take out of the mortar: then grind parsley or allheal, sorrel, marjoram, or one or two of the four, and white breadcrumbs soaked in verjuice, and strain and grind again very fine, then strain again and put it all together and flavour with vinegar.
Peas(MP): On a fish day, when the peas are cooked, you should have onions which have been cooked as long as the peas in a pot and like the bacon cooked separately in another pot, and as with the bacon water you may nourish and serve the peas, in the same way; on fish days, when you have put your peas on the fire in a pot, you must put aside your minced onions in another pot, and with onion water serve and nourish the peas; and when all is cooked fry the onions and put half of them in the peas, and the other half in the liquid from the peas of which I spoke above, and then add salt, And if on this fish day or in Lent there is salted whale-meat, you must do with the whale-meat as with the bacon on a meat day. When you have NEW PEAS, sometimes they are cooked on a meat day both in meat stock and with ground parsley, to make green soup, and this is on a meat day; and on a fish day, you cook them in milk, with ginger and saffron in them; and sometimes "a la cretonnee" of which I shall speak later.
SORREL VERJUICE (MP). Grind the sorrel very fine without the twigs, and soak in old, white verjuice, and do not strain the sorrel, but let it be finely ground; or thus: grind parsley and sorrel or wheat-leaves. Item vine buds, that is those that are young and tender, without any sticks.
C 51. Again, rissoles: and to give understanding to him who will make them, according to the quantity of them which he will make let him take a quantity of fresh pork and cut up into fair and clean pieces and put to cook, and salt therein; and when his meat is cooked let him draw it out onto fair and clean tables and remove the skin and all the bones, and then chop it very small. And arrange that you have figs, prunes, dates, pine nuts, and candied raisins; remove the stems from the raisins, and the shells from the pine nuts, and all other things which are not clean; and then wash all this very well one or two or three times in good white wine and then put them to drain on fair and clean boards; and then cut the figs and prunes and dates all into small dice and mix them with your filling. And then arrange that you have the best cheese which can be made, and then take a great quantity of parsley which should have the leaves taken off the stems, and wash it very well and chop it very well in with your cheese; and then mix this very well with your filling, and eggs also; and take your spices: white ginger, grains of paradise--and not too much, saffron, and a great deal of sugar according to the quantity which you are making. And then deliver your filling to your pastry-cook, and let him be prepared to make his fair leaves of pastry to make gold-colored crusts(?); and when they are made, let him bring them to you and you should have fair white pork lard to fry them; and when they are fried, you should have gold leaf: for each gold-colored crust(?) which there is, have one little leaf of gold to put on top. And when this comes to the sideboard arrange them on fair serving dishes and then throw sugar on top.
RISSOLES ON A FISH DAY (MP). Cook chestnuts on a low fire and peel them, and have hard-cooked eggs and peeled cheese and chop it all up small; then pour on egg yolks, and mix in powdered herbs and a very little free-running salt, and make your rissoles, then fry in lots of oil and add sugar.[104]
Item, on ordinary days, they can be made of figs, grapes, chopped apples and shelled nuts to mimic pignon nuts, and powdered spices: and the dough should be very well saffroned, then fry them in oil. If you need a liaison, starch binds and so does rice. Item, the flesh of sea lobster is good instead of meat.
Author's note: This was supposed to have a lot of MotA screenshots for Orlais... but I can't find the damn things and I've got to get back to work. Imagine lots of pictures of badly-rendered hydrangeas, day lilies, and golden lions.
Excuses, excuses. I should have posted things this week, but things have been crazy, and I've been a little distracted. I'm... uh... making a mod, and I got a cutscene to work.
May 1 is Summerday in Orlais, and I promise that will go ahead as scheduled.
Senior Sweeney, the Circle Tower’s archivist, is a traditionalist and holds deep respect for the old ways. He is also in possession of a ferocious sweet tooth. Fortunately, he can wheedle or brow-beat apprentices into helping him with the stirring. A thick-handled wooden spoon is a must.
From Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook - cover and title page gone, but confirmed against website.
Have a buddy handy to help you with the beating step because that’s the critical part in making perfect traditional fudge.
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup milk
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, cut up
1 tsp. light corn syrup
2 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
1. Line a 9 x 5 x 3 loaf pan with foil, extending foil over edges of pan. Butter foil; set pan aside.
2. Butter the sides of a heavy 2-qt. saucepan. In saucepan combine sugar, milk, chocolate, and corn syrup. Cook and stir over medium-high heat till mixture boils. Clip a candy thermometer to side of pan. Reduce heat to medium -low; continue boiling at a moderate, steady rate, stirring frequently, till termometer registers 234 deg, soft-ball stage (20-25 min.)
3. Remove saucepan from heat. Add butter and vanilla, but do not stir. Cool, without stirring, to 110 deg. (about 55 min.)
4. Remove thermometer from saucepan. Beat mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon till fudge just begins to thicken. If desired, add nuts. Continue beating till the fudge be omes very thick and just starts to lose its gloss (about 10 minutes.)
5. Immediately spread fudge in the prepared pan. Score into squares while warm. When fudge is firm, use foil to lift it out of pan. Cut into squares. Store tightly covered.
Makes about 1 1/4 lb. (32 pieces)
Nutrition per piece: 67 cal, 2 g total fat (1g sat.), 2mg chol., 11mg Na, 14 g carb., 0g fiber, 0 g protein. 1% vit. A, 0% vit. C, calcium and iron
Submitted by magdalenatan!
Mod note: This recipe is identical to our paternal grandfather’s recipe, except that Grandpa’s fudge used 1 cup of milk and did not call for corn syrup. (I found the recipe when digging through a 10+ year old archive from my first computer, along with a rather suspect recipe for what claims to be spice cake but would probably result in pancakes - no idea what relative was responsible for that one, but there’s only 1/2 tsp baking powder for 2 cups of flour, so not likely to try it anytime soon). The corn syrup is there because like honey, it inhibits crystal formation. If I were going to make it, I’d use Grandpa’s recipe and I’d relish the tiny, nostalgic crunch, but those who like creamy fudge and don’t want to taste a memory should use magdalenatan’s submission instead.
If your fudge winds up gritty despite precautions, it’s because you started beating it too soon. One would think that agitation would help prevent crystals from forming, but that is not the case. The syrup part is very rich in sugar, and it wants to precipitate out. Agitation facilitates precipitation. Wait until it’s barely lukewarm before you start to stir.
Not all mages in the Ferelden's Circle of Magi consider their talents a gift. Keili, a particularly troubled apprentice, holds quite the opposite view. Her mentor tries to keep her mind focused on constructive pursuits that might one day ease her suffering, but for now, she is only truly at peace when she is praying, or otherwise working in the tower's chantry. In her free time, she likes to work in the chapel, scouring the floors and polishing the woodwork.
The recipe is simple: 1/2 cup boiled linseed oil - the kind artists use - mixed with 1/4 tsp lemon oil. Rub it in with a soft cloth, wipe off the excess, and buff, repeating as necessary. This works best on oil-finished wood, not varnished or alchemically sealed surfaces. As this treatment is food safe, it may be used on hardwood countertops, but apply sparingly and be sure to rub it in well and wipe off the excess. Linseed oil is extracted from flax seeds and is therefore not toxic, but neither it nor lemon oil are subtle.
Do not be tempted to substitute mineral oil for the linseed oil. Linseed oil dries to a hard, protective surface, as do most plant-based oils, but mineral oil never will.
If you have no means of drying strawberries yourself, this will be an expensive dessert to prepare, but the flavor is intense, innocent, and decadent, all at the same time. They're perfect for spring, and perfect for sharing with someone who appreciates subtlety. You can use freeze-dried, air-dried or oven-dried strawberries in the batter, but you cannot use fresh. They're just too dilute. Some high-end markets carry freeze-dried strawberries, but expect them to be pricey. The frosting works just as well with either fresh or frozen strawberries, but if you use the latter, defrost them first. A food processor or blender is required.
1 1/2 ounces dried strawberries
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp strawberry extract (or vanilla)
3/4 cup milk
1 cup strawberries (fresh or frozen)
1 cup butter
3 cups confectioners' sugar, divided
1 tsp strawberry extract (or vanilla)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line your cupcake pans with paper liners. The recipe makes 48 mini cupcakes or 24 standard.
Grind the dried strawberries to powder in a blender or food processor and transfer to a medium bowl. Combine with the cake flour, baking powder, and salt, and stir to mix. Set aside.
Cream the butter with the sugar and beat in the eggs and extract until fluffy.
Alternate between mixing in the flour and the milk, then beat vigorously until the batter is smooth and forms ribbons when you lift the spoon or beaters. The batter will be thick.
Fill each cupcake liner 2/3 of the way and half-fill any unused cups with water. This prevents the empty cups from getting too hot and burning the cupcakes next to them and it prevents the pan from warping. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 15- 20 minutes for minis, 20-25 minutes for standard. Remove the cupcakes from the pan and cool on wire racks to avoid sogginess.
Make a puree of the fresh or (thawed) frozen strawberries in a blender or food processor and beat with the butter and 1 cup confectioners' sugar until light. Blend in the extract (and food color, if you feel that you must), then add up to 2 cups of confectioners' sugar until the frosting reaches the desired consistency.
The easiest way to frost cupcakes is to fill a piping bag or resealable bag with the corner cut off and pipe the frosting on, but I'm told dunking the tops of the cupcakes directly into the frosting bowl works, too. Sliced strawberries, jelly beans or tiny candies make an attractive garnish.
Life is slow in Honnleath, with plenty of time to enjoy the quiet, rural goings-on and watch the birds hop between fence posts. Now that their favorite perch is gone, where else would they go? It's a good place to put a pot on the fire and leave it for a few hours as you carefully remove the wards from your father's cellar.
There was a joke in here somewhere about erecting a barrier, but in truth, bean jokes really are not all that funny. You get the idea. The important thing is that it's as good a way as any to use up leftover baked ham. Traditional recipes call for bacon in place of the ham, but this one is marginally healthier. The mustard powder is absolutely essential. You may use canned beans in place of the dry if you wish, but if you do that, omit the step where you boil them and shorten the cooking time by several hours.
1 pound small white beans
water
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup diced ham (or more!)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 Tbsp oil or dripping
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 to 1 tsp ground mustard powder
pinch black pepper
salt to taste
Put the beans in an oven-safe dutch oven and add water until they are submerged by at least 1 inch. Allow to stand overnight, then drain and rinse.
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
Put the rinsed beans back in the dutch oven with the vegetable broth and bring to a rolling boil. Boil for 10 minutes, then stir in the remaining ingredients, cover, and bake until the beans are very tender, about 4 hours.
The flavors will only intensify over time, so if you are busy doing something else, merely reduce the heat once the beans are cooked to your oven's lowest setting and leave them alone, adding water as necessary if they start to look dry. If you have a slow-cooker, you could do it that way instead. Just set the temperature to low and let them cook for 8-10 hours.
We don't know much about the family where Gamlen's unexpected daughter grew up, but it produced a fine, well-adjusted daughter. Charade Amelle defies expectations, adapting to changing circumstances with humor and grace. She must have learned it somewhere. Why not in a family that knew how to laugh?
At any rate, her "cupcakes" aren't quite what most people expect at the mention of the word.
1 small onion, chopped fine
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped fine
1 Tbsp olive oil
3/4 cup saltines, broken up
1/3 cup milk
1 egg
1 pound ground beef
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup ketchup
2 Tbsp brown sugar
3 cups hot, seasoned mashed potatoes
6 cherry tomatoes
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Saute the onion and the green pepper in the olive oil until they are soft. Meanwhile, combine the saltines with the milk and the egg in a 2-quart bowl and stir. Add the ground beef, onion mixture, Worcestershire sauce and salt and mix to combine. Divide among 6 muffin cups. Mix the ketchup with the brown sugar and spread over the meat.
Bake until the cupcakes are cooked all the way through (a meat thermometer inserted into the middle of one should read at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit), about 30 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven and run a knife around the outside of each "cupcake." Turn them out onto a plate (the topping will get all over the plate, but that won't matter, as no one will see it.
Spoon the hot mashed potatoes into a piping bag and frost the cupcakes with it. Go ahead and use instant mashed potatoes if you're feeling lazy. The quality of instant has improved dramatically in the last few years, and this recipe isn't really the epitome of haute cuisine anyway. Top each with a cherry tomato.
It is impossible to say whether Veld himself liked to bake or if he merely scribbled instructions for Meckel onto the back of recipe someone else discarded. It's possible that neither the recipe nor the instructions had anything to do with either man. All that is known is that a scrap of parchment was found with the recipe on one side and on the other, "The alienage is no good. Too many witnesses. The old fool will be more willing to talk about the Gem in Darktown. You might have to scare him a bit, so bring friends."
1 1/2 cups boiling water
2 tea bags
1 cup currants
1 cup golden seedless raisins
3/4 cup raw sugar (demerara sugar)
2 eggs
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
butter and parchment paper for pan
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, grease a 9x5x2 inch loaf pan, and line bottom with buttered parchment paper.
Pour the boiling water over the tea bags and fruit in a large bowl and let steep for 10 minutes. Remove the tea bags and allow the mixture to cool. Stir in the sugar and eggs.
Combine the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl and mix. Stir into the fruit mixture until well blended. Pour into the prepared pan.
Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 40-45 minutes. Serve warm with butter.
Author's note: Pairing this guy with a recipe was impossible, so here's my favorite Welsh recipe, in honor of the voice actor.
