Venison Stew

A thick soup of barley and venison.

- A Game of Thrones: King's Landing

Hobb had cooked up a venison stew, thick with barley, onions, and carrots.

- A Game of Thrones: The Wall and Beyond

… trenchers dripping full of venison stewed with beer and barley.

- A Clash of Kings: The South

… and a bowl of venison stewed with onions…

- A Feast for Crows: The Wall and Beyond

They supped that night on a venison stew made from a scrawny hart…

- A Dance With Dragons: The North

Next to the ubiquitous lemon cakes, venison stew is one of the more prevalent dishes to be found in Westeros.  Enjoyed by would-be kings and the common man on The Wall alike, what I attempted here was a one size fits all basic recipe incorporating the flourishes given by Martin.

Through the ages "venison" evolved from a generic term for nearly all wild game to more narrowly refer to the meat of deer or elk.  It was also considered amongst the choicest of meats, featuring prominently in the medieval cookbooks of nearly all of Europe.

In Michigan we are fortunate enough to have whitetail deer in abundance.  The venison used in this dish came from a deer I was lucky enough to hunt this past November in the northern part of the state.  Here is a link to some pictures of the deer, which I have opted not to include in the main post as they are (only slightly) graphic.

Venison is also available commercially from farm-raised deer and is becoming increasingly common in supermarkets.  I went for some shoulder meat which is a good-candidate for stewing as it contains lots of connective tissue which melts away in the long, moist cooking environment of the stew pot.

Raw Venison

The other ingredients mentioned by GRRM include barley, onions, carrots, and beer.  I decided there was no reason that a single basic recipe could not include all of these.  In addition, I added bit of thyme to give another layer of flavor to the stew.  For the beer component, I went with what I consider a huge find at my local purveyor - "Dragon's Milk" which, in addition to being a perfect name, is a great dark ale with a caramel note that goes really well with a deep dish like this.

Dragon's Milk

I took advantage of the reference in A Clash of Kings to make some trenchers.  I took a stale loaf of bread (in this case, sourdough, but nearly anything will do), cut it into pieces and hollowed them out.  Dead simple.  And tasty as the stale bread eagerly soaks up some of the stewing liquid leaving a very edible piece of dinnerware at the end.

The end product is about the best thing you can do with two hours of your life and your oven.  The venison is fall-apart tender, the barley is just barely firm, and the sauce has picked up the flavors of the beer, onions, and carrots.  The weather in Michigan is just starting to have that tang of fall in the air and so this was perfect to warm the soul.  Make it this weekend, substitute beef if you have to, but find a big pot and have yourself some stew.

Venison Stew in Trenchers

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 cup flour
• 2 cups beer, dark ale or stout
• 4 cups stock, beef or venison (preferably home made, but low-sodium if not)
• 2 lbs. venison, shoulder, leg, or other stewing portion, trimmed and cut into 1" pieces
• 1 cup pearl barley
• 2 onions, medium, peeled and quartered
• 6 carrots, large, peeled and cut into 2" chunks
• 2 tsp. thyme, dried
• 1-2 loaves stale unsliced bread, depending on size
• kosher salt
• fresh ground black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat.
2. Combine flour, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp pepper in shallow, wide dish.  Pat venison pieces dry with a paper towel and dredge in flour mixture.  Shake off excess and place into Dutch oven in a single, well-spaced layer once the oil has begun to shimmer (do multiple batches if your pot is not large enough, removing the cooked batch to a plate and adding more oil as necessary).
3. Cook venison until well browned on all sides and remove to a plate.  Add beer and wait for foaming to subside.  Scrape the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to dislodge the fond (i.e. the crusty, brown, gift from the Seven that is stuck to the bottom of your pot).  Add stock and bring to a boil.
4. Add venison (and any accumulated juices) back into pot along with carrots, onions, barley and thyme.  Stir well to combine.  Cover pot, carefully remove from heat and place in center of oven.  Continue cooking in oven for about 2 hours or until venison is tender and barley is softened, stirring occasionally.  The stew should be well-thickened at this point.  If it becomes too thick before it is done cooking, add more stock.
5. While the stew is cooking in the oven, make the trenchers by using a knife and your fingers to hollow out a bowl in the middle of the bread, leaving at least 1/2 inch of bread around the outside. Fill each trencher with stew and serve.

Green Bean, Onion, and Beet Salad

The wedding feast began with a thin leek soup, followed by a salad of green beans, onions, and beets…

 - A Storm of Swords

We have some lovely young beets coming out of the ground right now in Michigan.  Having found myself at home staring at a bushel basket of the things after a weak-willed trip to the farmers' market, I decided to try this dish, served at the Red Wedding.

Green Bean, Onion, and Beet Salad

Martin's description presents the three straight forward main ingredients: green beans, onions, and beets.  Given its place in the dinner, I figured this was likely to be a cold salad.  However to get some extra flavor I roasted the beets and onions.  The recipe below blanches the green beans so they stay green and crisp.  A very basic vinaigrette ties it all together.

The sweetness of the roasted beets and onions offsets the punch of the vinaigrette nicely and the green beans retain enough of a bite to give a good textural contrast.  In fact, I ended up with so much of this salad I took it to a neighborhood pot luck and returned home with an empty bowl.

Many have discussed how GRRM's descriptions of food can foreshadow or serve as other literary devices.  I can tell you from experience that after cleaning a few pounds of beets, your hands will look like you were in attendance at the Red Wedding itself...

Green Bean, Onion, and Beet Salad

Ingredients

3 lbs. beets

2 onions, medium

1 lb. green beans, trimmed and cut into bite sized pieces

1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

1 shallot, minced

1 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus 2 tbs.

fresh ground pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Scrub beets and halve each.  Pat dry with paper towels.  Peel onions and quarter.  Toss both together with 2 tbs. olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Place in a single layer on a shallow baking sheet and roast until everything is well caramelized - about 1 hour, flipping beets if they are starting to burn.

3. While the beets and onions are roasting, clean the tips off the green beans and cut into 1 inch pieces.  Prepare an ice bath.  Add beans to salted boiling water and cook until they just begin to become tender - about 5-10 minutes.  With a slotted spoon or spider remove the beans from the boiling water and into the ice bath until cooled.  Drain.

4. While beans are cooling. peel skin off the beets and slice into bite-sized pieces.  Combine with onions and green beans in a large bowl.

5. Prepare vinaigrette by mashing garlic along with kosher salt to form a paste.  In medium mixing bowl add garlic paste, vinegar, mustard, and shallots.  Whisk to combine.  Continue whisking with one hand while slowly pouring the olive oil in a stream.  Whisk until smooth and adjust seasonings with salt and pepper.

6. Toss vinaigrette with beets, onions, and green beans until well combined.  Refrigerate to let flavors mingle - at least 2 hours.  Adjust seasonings and serve chilled.

Candied Onions

The serving men brought out a heron stuffed with figs, veal cutlets blanched with almond milk, creamed herring, candied onions...

- A Dance With Dragons

A simple side, but one of my favorite things to bring to a table.  I took "candied" in this instance to mean caramelized.  The savory and sweet complexity that can come out of a simple onion never ceases to amaze me and the smell of browning onions is so visceral to our our relationship with food.

The secrets to perfectly caramelized onions are time and temperature.  For an extensive treatment of the subject, I would refer you to this post by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt over at Serious Eats.  I wanted something a little short of the entirely deep dark mahogany you might use for French onion soup so I kept things a bit more simple.

As far as ingredients go, the only things needed beyond onions were olive oil, salt, and pepper.  As for the onions, I chose cipollinis for two reasons.  First, they are Italian in origin which syncs with my Mediterranean vision of the Free Cities.  Second, their small size makes them look like little candies sitting in the dish that you just want to pop a few into your mouth.

Candied Onions

The taste is that singular balance between the dark sweetness of the exterior to the slightly firm savory center that only onions can provide.

Candied Onions

Ingredients:

• 2 dozen cipollini onions, peeled
• 2 tbs olive oil
• kosher salt
• pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Heat a cast iron (or other suitably oven-safe) skillet over medium-high heat and add the olive oil.
3. Once the oil begins to shimmer add the onions.  Season with salt and pepper.
4. Cook the onions until some begin to caramelize then toss them well and place the pan on the middle rack in the oven.
5. Continue to roast the onions for approximately 30 minutes, tossing the onions occasionally to be sure none are burning from contact with the pan.
6. Once the onions are suitably golden brown, remove, adjust seasoning, and serve immediately.

Veal Cutlets Blanched With Almond Milk

The serving men brought out a heron stuffed with figs, veal cutlets blanched with almond milk...

- A Dance With Dragons

The Italians have a dish known as Arrosto al Latte which is not a "roast" in the traditional dry heat sense, but is instead more of a pot roast type of braise.  Although made with cow's milk, I did not see any reason why we could not substitute in almond milk and come up with something close to Martin's description.  As with most pot roasts, Arrosto al Latte is typically made with less tender cuts that need long cooking times to become optimal.  However, the use of the word "cutlet" in this passage mandated an entirely different cut and therefore a different cooking technique.

Veal "cutlets" can come from many parts of the animal (breast, leg, etc) but if you ask your butcher for a veal cutlet suitable for scallopini or the like, you will be on the right track.  Then, I chose unsweetened pure almond milk for the braising liquid.  I wanted to avoid too much sweetness and also anything too processed.

While in a typical pot roast the meat is seared to get some caramelization, in this recipe I went down a different path.  It starts by sauteing the vegetables to get some browning there and then deglazing with a sweet white wine.  I chose a moscato, which is  an Italian sparkling, in this case Bartenura from Pavia.  It is only slightly bubbly with a nice sweetness.  I like this wine here as the muscat is one of the oldest cultivars and the straightforward simplicity of it works for the Mediterranean-ish setting of the Free Cities.

While a typical stew needs around two hours to tenderize the meat, with thin cuts like this, much less time is necessary.  In this case, I was able to get a nice fork tender after about ten minutes of simmering.

The tenderness of the the veal with the smooth, slightly nutty taste of the almond milk is a winner.  Plus the quick cooking time on this means it might actually get into my regular rotation.

Veal Cutlets Blanched In Almond Milk

Veal Cutlets Blanched With Almond Milk - Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 veal cutlets
• 2 tbs olive oil
• medium carrot, chopped
• small onion, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1/2 cup sweet white wine (Moscato or similar)
• 4 cups unsweetened almond milk
• kosher salt
• fresh ground pepper

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering.  Add the carrot, onion, and celery and season with salt and pepper.  Cook until the vegetables are softened and beginning to brown.

2. Deglaze the pan with the wine, scraping with a wooden spoon to get up all the browned bits.  Continue cooking until the wine is nearly evaporated.

3. Add the almond milk, bring to a slow boil (lots of sugar in the almond milk so be careful not to scald it) and then reduce to a simmer.

4. Season the veal with salt and pepper on both sides and add to the pot.  Cook at a bare simmer for approximately ten minutes.

5. Remove the veal from the cooking liquid, plate in a shallow dish and spoon some of the cooking liquid over it to serve.

Serious Eats, Seriously Cool

THE food blog Serious Eats was good enough to drop a link here and a nice write-up yesterday.  Thanks very much to what is the finest source for food content on the internet and welcome to everyone who has come by via the link.  I hope you like what you find here.