Assassin's Introduction: Bread, Cheese and Meat

Recreated from Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

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​  [Jason to Burrich] 'So you got his little bastid, at least until Chivalry gets back and does otherwise with him.' Jason offered me the slab of dripping meat. I looked from the bread to the cheese I gripped, loth to surrender either, but longing for the hot meat, too. He shrugged at seeing my dilemma, and with a fighting man's practicality, flipped the meat casually onto the table beside my hip. I stuffed as much bread into my mouth as I could, and shifted to where I could watch the meat. 
   'Chivalry's bastard?'
   Jason shrugged, busy with getting himself bread and meat and cheese of his own. 'So said the old ploughman what left him here.'

Finishing Robin Hobb's Assassin's Fate earlier this year felt momentous. With a newborn to nurse, I couldn't make it when she visited Oxford to promote it though. I did manage to get a book signed which went some way to consoling me, particularly the inscription – 'Here Fitz's journey begins ...' – which sounds about as unassuming as a cheese sandwich considering the scope of this magnificent epic series. With hopes that The Speculative Kitchen might have similar endurance, I'll embrace a humble beginning.

Fitz's first meal in the Realm of the Elderlings – and my first in this blog series – is a simple combination of bread, meat and cheese. Each part can be easily bought if you want a quick dish to assemble, otherwise I've included recipes for baking your own bread and cooking a joint of meat. It's easily bulked up to a full 'ploughman's lunch' if you're after a well-established English twist on Fitz's culinary introduction to Buckkeep.

Soda bread (serves four)
This isn't intended to be a fancy meal so I opted for a simple soda bread -- no yeast, kneading, proving or loaf tin required.

Dry ingredients

• 450g wholemeal plain flour (you can use regular plain flour if you prefer, or a combination of the two)
• 50g oats
• 1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 level tsp salt
• 25g seeds, e.g. sunflower seeds (optional, for extra bite)

Wet ingredients

• 450ml buttermilk*
• 1 tbsp dark treacle (helps to create a lovely dark loaf and deeper flavour)
• 1 tbsp honey

*450ml regular milk and a tbsp of lemon suitable as a substitute

To finish

• 20g butter for basting, melted

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1. Preheat oven to 180°C (400°F) fan and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. 
2. Using a wooden spoon or your bare hands, mix all the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle ready to receive the wet ingredients in step 4.
3. Combine all the wet ingredients together in a jug. Stir to keep the treacle and honey from sticking to the bottom. 
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients.
5. Mix until the wet and dry ingredients are fully combined. Continue using your implement of choice from step 2. The mixture will be slightly sticky but should hold when formed into a round loaf shape.
6. Place on your prepared baking tray and score a cross into the top of the loaf.
7. Bake for 50 minutes. Remove from oven and tap the underside -- it'll have a nice hollow sound if ready. Baste with the melted butter and eat as soon as it's cool enough to handle.

Based on recipes from the BBC's Good Food and Felicity Cloake's How to cook the perfect ...

Ham (serves four, with leftovers likely)

• 1kg unsmoked gammon*
• 3 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard

*The raw cured meat is called gammon until it's cooked and then it's called ham.

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (400°F) fan. Remove any packaging or wrapping from the gammon but leave on any cooking string that might be holding the meat together. 
2. Mix the honey and mustard together in a bowl. 
3. Rub the honey and mustard mix all over the gammon and place the meat into an ovenproof dish or tray. Position the meat so that the majority of the fat is running around the sides. 
4. Cover with foil and cook for an hour. 
5. Remove the foil and continue cooking for another 30 minutes.  
6. Leave to rest for 10 minutes and then carve. 

Serve with your choice of cheese and beer. Plates optional.

Ploughman's lunch (serves four, with leftovers likely)

• Soda bread (see above)
• Cooked meat (see above)
• A selection of cheeses (I had an English cheddar with French sheep's and goat's cheese)
• Pickle or chutney
• Tomatoes
• Gherkins
• Fruit (apples are traditional with a Ploughman's, but pears and plums made nice additions)

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