A Westerosi Feast

Honeyed chicken, House Tully trout pies and black bread, finished with Sansa’s lemon cakes – a feast fit for the season 5 premier!

I am a HUGE game of thrones fan, I have read all the books about 10 times and I love the TV series, and I cannot wait for season 5! I couldn’t resist making some Game of thrones themed foods to celebrate the premier on Monday!

As a food lover, one of the great things about reading the books is the detailed descriptions of the food, there is even a page on wiki of ice and fire, that lists all the food mentioned in the books!

I have made a few different things, inspired by food in the books and TV series. I’ve made honeyed chicken, which is mentioned on the wiki page, I’ve used drumsticks, because I thought eating meat off the bone was probably most accurate!

The House Tully trout pies were inspired by the lamprey pies they eat quite often in the books, but I’ve used trout (google a lamprey, I have no idea why anyone would want to eat one of them!!), and made them House Tully themed, seeing as a trout is their sigil.

I made a rye bread sourdough, inspired by the ‘black bread’ that is often mentioned in the books, I wish it had turned out a bit blacker though!

And finally I couldn’t do a game of thrones post without making lemon cakes! I have tried to make them look like the lemon cakes Sansa eats on the show. There was a scene in season 4, where Lysa gives Sansa  some lemon cakes, and it looks like they are individual cakes, with a lemon on top. So I have made crystallised lemons to decorate the cakes.

Everything tasted great, and was really fun to eat, so if you are having some friends round to watch the first season 5 episode, I recommend making something Game of Thrones themed to impress them!

P.S….TEAM LANNISTER!

Variations:

The Honeyed Chicken: You could add some chilli to the marinade to spice your chicken up, or add some cinnamon, for a more Dornish feel!

The Black Bread: You could mix in some dried fruits, nuts or seeds, to make the bread more exciting

The Trout Pies: You could use any fish in the pies, or replace the mushrooms with some ham.

The Lemon Cakes: The buttercream could be replaced with lemon curd

Ingredients: 

The Honeyed Chicken; Serves 2

• 8 Chicken Drumsticks
• 2 Cloves of Garlic
• 3tbsp Honey
• 6tbsp Soy Sauce
• Fresh Oregano

Black Bread; Makes one large loaf:

• 300g Sourdough Ferment
• 200g Strong White Bread Flour
• 350g Rye Flour
• 15g Salt
• 300g Water

The Trout Pies:

• 500g Puff Pastry
• 2 Trout Fillets
• 8 Cup Mushrooms
• 1/2 an Onion
• 2 Cloves of Garlic
• 2-4 tbsp Cream Cheese flavoured with chives

Candied Lemon Slices:

• 2 Lemons
• 225g Granulated Sugar
• 225g Water

The Lemon Cakes:

Sponge:

• 200g Butter
• 200g Caster Sugar
• Juice and Zest of 2 Lemons
• 3 Eggs
• 250g Self Raising Flour
• 2tbsp Honey
• 1tbsp Lemon Syrup (reserved from the candied lemons)

Buttercream:

• 100g Butter
• 1tbsp Lemon Syrup (reserved from the candied lemons)
• 250g Icing Sugar
• 2tbsp Lemon juice

To Make:

The Honeyed Chicken:

Remove the skin from the chicken legs and make some deep diagonal cuts in the thickest part of the flesh, and place in a baking dish.

Combine the honey, soy sauce, garlic and half the oregano in a bowl, and mix to combine, pour half the mixture over the chicken legs, leave to marinade for a few hours, or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 200°C

Cook the chicken in the preheated oven for 35-45 minutes, until cooked through and the meat is tender. Once cooked, use a pastry brush to coat the chicken in the remaining marinade.

Scatter over some fresh oregano and serve.

The Trout Pies:

Preheat the oven to 180°C

Fry the onion, garlic and mushrooms over a medium heat, for around 5-10 minutes, until they begin to caramelise.

Roll out the pastry to a large rectangle around 1cm thick. mark into quarters length ways, and cut out one fish shape in each quarter. Score two of the fishes, to give them scales and tail markings.

Spoon the mushroom mixture evenly onto two of the fish shapes, then lay the salmon fillets on top, and then spoon over the cream cheese.

Spread a little bit of water around the edges of the fish, then lay the remaining fish shapes over the top, and press the edges down firmly to seal in the filling. egg wash the pastry.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown, and the centre is piping hot.

Serve!

The Black Bread:

Combine all ingredients for the sourdough in a large bowl until well combined and the mixture begins to form a ball of stiff dough.

Turn out onto a work surface and knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Form into a tight ball, and return to a well floured bowl. Cover and leave to prove for around 8 hours, until bubbles appear at the top of the dough.

Turn out the proved dough knock out the air. Form into a tight ball and return to the well floured bowl, leave to prove for 12 hours.

Preheat the oven to 200°C

Slash the top of the bread and bake in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes, until evenly browned, and sounds hollow when tapped. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Slice and serve!

The Candied Lemon:

Cut two lemons into around 8-10 circular slices.

Combine the sugar and water in a saute pan and heat until the sugar has dissolved.

Place the lemon into the sugar syrup and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the syrup has reduced by about 2/3 and the lemon has turned translucent.

Use a slotted spoon to place the lemons on a greased and lined baking tray. Leave to cool before using.

Reserve the remaining lemony syrup for the lemon cakes!

The Lemon Cakes:

Sponge:

Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease are rectangular baking tray.

Cream together the butter, sugar and lemon zest until pale, light and fluffy – around 5 minutes. Then add in the eggs one at a time and fold in the flour, lemon juice and honey until well combined.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared dish, and bake in the preheated oven for around 25 minutes, until cooked through.

Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Heat half the reserved candied lemon syrup in a pan with a few tbsp of lemon juice. Spoon over the sponge until all the syrup has been absorbed.

The Buttercream:

Combine all the ingredients for the buttercream, and whisk until it forms a glossy mixture.

Assembling:

Cut the sponge into 12 evenly sized squares and then slice each square into two horizontally, to form two layers.

Sandwich the two layers of each square together with the lemon butter cream and pipe a small spot of buttercream onto the top of each cake. Finish with a slice of candied lemon.

Serve!