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    • Anna Smith Spark >
      • The Court of Broken Knives
    • C. Robert Cargill >
      • Sea of Rust
    • Stephanie Garber >
      • Caraval
    • John Gwynne >
      • Malice
      • A Time of Dread
    • Nnedi Okorafor >
      • Akata Witch
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      • The Name of the Wind
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      • The Hobbit
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Have It: Pork Ribs and Sweet Parsnips

1/24/2018

3 Comments

 
Recreated from A Time of Dread by John Gwynne
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Riv sat in her barrack's feast-hall, picking at a plate of boar ribs and sweet parsnips. Jost and Vald were with her, sitting beside each other. At any other time the sight of them would have made her chuckle
...
'Don't want that? I'll finish it for you,' Vald said, eyeing up her plate
​...
'Have it,' Riv said, pushing her unfinished food towards Vald.
'I'd have had that!' Jost exclaimed, eyes bulging in his gaunt face. He ate almost as much as Vald, not that you'd know it to look at him, the two of them often arguing over food. 
'Too slow.' Vald winked at Jost.
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John Gwynne's feast-halls play host to some hearty fantasy staples. 'A Time of Dread' features steaming tea, warming porridge, tender meats, melting onions, sweet vegetables and thick gravies. There's even a dog's dinner – a well-earned restorative for the brave hound – that sounds fit for the table of any fantasy food fan. You'll find it listed here along with the rest of the book's victuals. 

Of the various meats mentioned, I've gone for the ribs (pork, from the butcher's rather than from a wild boar I've speared myself) and slathered them in a honey glaze. Honey is one of the book's recurring ingredients, eaten for medicinal purposes as well as pleasure. In light of that, let's raise a horn of mead to this healthy​ meal and argue over who gets to pick the bones clean for some extra goodness.
This is a dish best cooked 'low and slow' so leave time for up to four hours in the oven.

Ingredients (serves 2)

The ribs themselves:

Six ribs, appr. 700g
Salt and pepper to season

For the glaze:
3 tbsp honey
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar*
1 tsp paprika
*any vinegar will do as an alternative

Parsnips:
2 parsnips

2 tsp dried thyme
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to season

Instructions

           For the ribs:
  1. Preheat oven to 130°C (270°F) fan assisted. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. 
  2. Remove the membrane from the bone-side of the pork (see picture below). Season both sides. 
  3. Place the ribs meat-side down in your pre-prepared baking tray and cover loosely with foil. 
  4. Cook in your pre-heated oven for 3 hours 15 minutes (a little less or longer won't hurt it). 

    For the parsnips:
  5. Peel the parsnips and slice them in half. 
  6. Parboil the parsnips (appr. 8 minutes), then lay them on a baking tray with a drizzle of oil and the dried thyme. 
  7. Roast in the oven at the same time as the ribs for 1 hour 15 minutes (the oven temperature is low enough to warrant this). 

    For the glaze:
  8. A few minutes before removing the ribs from the oven, gently heat all of the glaze ingredients in a saucepan.
  9. Remove the ribs from the oven and flip them over so the meat-side is now facing up. Cover with the glaze and return to the oven uncovered for 20 minutes. 
  10. Leave to cool for a few minutes, then carve up and serve. 

To serve: I served with carrots roasted in the same way and at the same time as the parsnips, as well as some steamed Swiss chard. The best addition, however, was some blue cheese – perfect for breaking up the sweetness of the honey and parsnips.  
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3 Comments

HS8795-73: Peanut Brittle with Strawberry and Pistachio 'Rust'

1/5/2018

2 Comments

 
Inspired by C. Robert Cargill's Sea of Rust
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My name is Brittle. Factory designation HS8795-73. A Simulacrum Model Caregiver. But I like Brittle.
Robots don’t eat, but Sea of Rust is still peppered with the figurative food of everyday speech and memories of food from former times. It’s not a world where what we humans eat is significant, but there are still food-inspired verbs like ‘sandwiched’ and ‘pancaked’; there are food-based endearments like ‘honey’ and ‘peach’; you can still ‘have beef’ or ‘go nuts’; heavy things drop ‘like a sack of potatoes’ and sharp knives still cut like ‘a knife through warm butter’.
​

While none of these a meal make, our robot protagonist with the cracking name gave me a way in. My imitation cover art is peanut brittle with extra nuts, strawberry (jam) and peach – all flavours you’ll find mentioned in the book.

Once recreated, smash it up and devour the parts like your life depends on it.
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Ingredients
  • 100g golden caster sugar
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 1 heaped tbsp golden syrup (use the spoon like it's a spade)
  • 100g peanuts
  • 10g salted butter
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tbsp strawberry jam
  • 25g pistachios, ground
  • 1 circular peach slice

Special equipment: foil-lined baking parchment for the mould, a book, a jam thermometer (optional), a wooden spoon for stirring, a pastry brush for decorating

Preparation: 
  • Use a book (appr. 20 x 12 cm) and foil-lined parchment paper to create a book-sized mould. The parchment paper should be on the inside of your mould for easy removal once the brittle is set. 
  • Weigh all the ingredients in advance and have them to hand. You'll need to work quickly once the sugar starts heating up because hot sugar burns very easily. 
  • Fill a bowl with cold water for testing when your brittle is ready. 

Cooking instructions
  1. Put the sugar, water and golden syrup into a wide-bottomed saucepan and cook on a high heat, stirring frequently until the sugar has dissolved.
    'high heat' – my hob goes up to 6; I stayed mostly on 5 but went as low as 4 while I checked progress or feared burning.
    'stirring frequently' – I was in there with a wooden spoon about every 30 seconds
    'until the sugar has dissolved' – around 8-10 minutes
  2. Add the peanuts, stirring frequently until the mixture reaches 150°C (300°F).
    '150°' – to test it's reached the right temperature,  drop a small amount of the liquid into your pre-prepared cold water then bite into your test piece. It's ready when it crunches like a hard-boiled sweet; it shouldn't be grainy (that means your sugar hasn't dissolved properly) or chewy (that means the mixture isn't hot enough yet).
  3. Remove from the heat. Add the butter and the bicarbonate of soda, stirring quickly until it's all mixed in. Pour into the pre-prepared mould, making sure it covers the entire space. Leave to set for around an hour before removing the parchment paper. 
    'covers the entire space' – use the spoon to spread it about if necessary but work with speed because it will force gaps into the surface of your brittle
  4. Decorate with strawberry jam, ground pistachios and the peach slice to look like the cover of Sea of Rust.  

If you enjoy working with sugar at speed, try my honeycomb inspired by John Gwynne's Malice.

If you want peanuts in a savoury dish, try the Kung Pao chicken recreated from Sylvain Neuvel's Sleeping Giants.
2 Comments

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