Sansa Salad
All the while the courses came and went. A thick soup of barley and venison. Salads of sweetgrass, spinach, and plums, sprinkled with crushed nuts
.
—A GAME OF THRONES
Salat. Take persel, sawge, grene garlec, chibolles, letys, leek, spinoches, borage, myntes, prymos, violettes, porrettes, fenel, and toun cressis, rosemarye, purslarye; laue and waishe hem clene. Pike hem. Pluk hem small wiþ þyn honde, and myng hem wel with rawe oile; lay on vyneger and salt, and serue it forth
.
—THE FORME OF CURY
, 14
TH CENTURY
Serves 4 to 6
Prep: 10 minutes
This is a tasty, tasty salad, based loosely on instructions for making a salad from the 14th-century
Forme of Cury
. All the elements work beautifully with one another both texturally and aesthetically. Pack this for a lunch or serve it as a light afternoon meal, and you won’t be disappointed.
7 cups baby spinach
1 cup fresh mint leaves
1 cup diced prunes
½ cup candied walnuts
½ cup fresh lemongrass, thinly sliced
½ cup violets, primroses, or other edible flowers (optional)
raspberry vinaigrette to taste
Combine the spinach, mint, prunes, walnuts, and lemongrass in a large bowl. The edible flowers can be mixed in with the salad at this point or used as a garnish on top. Pour the vinaigrette over all, then toss well and serve.
Cook’s Note:
Use this recipe as a starting point and choose any variation of these ingredients—or others—to create your own personal “salat.” Toss with dressing, and you’re ready to serve!
Buttered Carrots
Cersei set a tasty table, that could not be denied. They started with a creamy chestnut soup, crusty hot bread, and greens dressed with apples and pine nuts. Then came lamprey pie, honeyed ham, buttered carrots, white beans and bacon, and roast swan stuffed with mushrooms and oysters
.
—A CLASH OF KINGS
Roman Buttered Carrots
Aliter: caroetas elixatas concisas in cuminato oleo modico coques et inferes. cuminatum colourium facies
.
Cuminatum in ostrea et conchylia: Piper, ligusticum, petroselinum, mentam siccam, cuminum plusculum, mel, acetum et liquamen
.
—APICIUS, 4T
H CENTURY
Serves 2 to 4
Prep: 10 minutes
Cooking: 20 minutes
We tweaked the ancient recipes a bit. We swapped butter for olive oil, added raisins to the carrot dish, and left out the fish sauce because of personal preference, but feel free to include a dash of it if you’d like. The resulting dish is a unique approach to cooked carrots that falls somewhere between sweet and savory.
2 cups chopped carrots (use heirloom carrots, if available)
½ cup raisins
2 to 3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons wine vinegar
2 teaspoons cumin (roasted and ground seed is best, but the powder works well)
Ground black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
2 tablespoons sweet wine, red or white
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Cut the carrots into disks or chunks. Put them in a pot of water and bring it to a boil, then drain them immediately and place them in an ovenproof dish. Add the raisins, honey, vinegar, cumin, and pepper. Drizzle the butter over top, then shake well to coat the carrots, and roast until they are tender. Add the wine to deglaze the sticky pan and dislodge the carrots, then pour the whole contents of the pan into a serving dish. Serve warm.
Modern Buttered Carrots
Serves 6
Prep: 10 minutes
Cooking: 25 minutes
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 pounds carrots, peeled and cut diagonally into ¼-inch slices
Kosher salt
Ground black pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh
chives or scallions
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the carrots and ½ teaspoon salt and cook, covered, until steam begins to escape from under the lid, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and continue to cook, covered and stirring occasionally, until the carrots are just tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
Remove the lid, add ¼ teaspoon pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is evaporated and the butter begins to brown, about 5 more minutes. Sprinkle with chives and season with more salt and pepper if needed. Serve.