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badseed1980OK, OK, I didn't REALLY cook snake. Granted, I could have done. This is the Boston area, after all. We have Savenor's, where they will either stock or acquire any kind of meat you could want (and some you might NOT want). I didn't really want to pay for it or go to the hassle of trekking to Savenor's to get it, though. Instead, when I was eyeing the Dornish Snake with Fiery Sauce recipe from A Feast of Ice and Fire, I decided to go with something a little more mundane as the base: chicken thighs.
Now, if you've read George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series at all, you know that Dorne is a hot place, desert-like, and that the food they eat there is in many ways similar to that of our world's Middle East. They are even keener on hot peppers in Dorne than they are in that part of our world, though, and any recipe including the word "Dornish" is likely to be quite spicy.
The recipe for the "Fiery Sauce" in this cookbook is no exception. It contains whole-grain mustard, red wine, peppers, turmeric, honey, lemon juice, and olive oil. For the peppers, the cookbook authors recommend ancho. I ended up using half ancho and half Aleppo. Also, I was lacking whole-grain mustard, so I used about 2/3 dijon mustard with 1/3 whole mustard seeds.
The combination of the ingredients was one that intrigued me, with half of them adding up to something fairly French (wine, mustard, olive oil) and the other half adding up to something Middle Eastern (hot peppers, honey, lemon, turmeric). When I cooked the sauce ingredients down as instructed, a delicious alchemy seemed to take place, melding everything into a combination that was rich, complex, and warming. This sauce was super, super good. The balance of sweet, hot, tart, and savory was just right. It transformed my simply baked chicken thighs into something exotic and delicious. Accompanied by homemade tabbouleh (herbs and tomatoes from my garden!) and some roasted eggplant, I could imagine myself transported to Dorne, eating my dinner by under a pomegranate tree by the water gardens with the Martells. This will DEFINITELY be a "make again" recipe.
Now, if you've read George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series at all, you know that Dorne is a hot place, desert-like, and that the food they eat there is in many ways similar to that of our world's Middle East. They are even keener on hot peppers in Dorne than they are in that part of our world, though, and any recipe including the word "Dornish" is likely to be quite spicy.
The recipe for the "Fiery Sauce" in this cookbook is no exception. It contains whole-grain mustard, red wine, peppers, turmeric, honey, lemon juice, and olive oil. For the peppers, the cookbook authors recommend ancho. I ended up using half ancho and half Aleppo. Also, I was lacking whole-grain mustard, so I used about 2/3 dijon mustard with 1/3 whole mustard seeds.
The combination of the ingredients was one that intrigued me, with half of them adding up to something fairly French (wine, mustard, olive oil) and the other half adding up to something Middle Eastern (hot peppers, honey, lemon, turmeric). When I cooked the sauce ingredients down as instructed, a delicious alchemy seemed to take place, melding everything into a combination that was rich, complex, and warming. This sauce was super, super good. The balance of sweet, hot, tart, and savory was just right. It transformed my simply baked chicken thighs into something exotic and delicious. Accompanied by homemade tabbouleh (herbs and tomatoes from my garden!) and some roasted eggplant, I could imagine myself transported to Dorne, eating my dinner by under a pomegranate tree by the water gardens with the Martells. This will DEFINITELY be a "make again" recipe.
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Date: 2014-08-14 12:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-14 12:41 pm (UTC)