An Unexpected Cookbook: The Unofficial Book of Hobbit Cookery (13 page)

This recipe is a great way to use up the residual heat from a roast rack of lamb or roast chicken. You can throw this in the oven while the meat rests and have both hot and ready for the table at the same time.

1 lb / 450 g thin asparagus

zest of 1 lemon

1 tbsp lemon juice

½ tsp fresh ground nutmeg

1 tsp coarse salt

2 tbsp melted butter, divided

If you’ve been cooking at a lower temperature, turn your oven up to 400F / 205C.

Coat the asparagus in 1 tbsp butter. Once coated, spread your stalks across a baking sheet in a single layer. Slide the baking sheet in the oven and let it cook for 5 minutes (if you like your asparagus firm. If you prefer it more tender, leave it in for 7 minutes.) Pull it out of the oven and quickly turn the stalks. Return the asparagus to the oven for another 5-7 minutes, depending on your preferred level of doneness.

While you wait for it to finish cooking, mix the remaining 1 tbsp melted butter, 1 tbsp lemon juice, coarse salt, and fresh ground nutmeg. Drizzle the asparagus with seasoned butter as soon as it comes out of the oven. It’s now ready to join your main course on the table.

If you’re adventuring away from home, this recipe works equally well on an outdoor grill.

VEGAN VARIATION

Replace the butter with the oil of your choice and add another pinch each of nutmeg and salt to make up for the difference in flavor.

In the United States, cobbler usually means a dessert topped with a crumbled butter and flour topping as a substitute for pastry crust. In Tolkien's day, Cobbler meant any sort of pie - sweet or savory - topped with big round pastry “cobbles” instead of enclosed in a full pastry crust. This was primarily done for economic purposes to help stretch out expensive fats like butter.

To Victorians, venison was the king of meats (the far less expensive beef was often passed off as venison in pub dishes) and so after buying a rich cut of meat, there wasn’t always enough money left over for a dense, buttery crust. The cobbler was an economical cook’s compromise.

If you’re on a budget and need to stretch things further, you can substitute 1 pound/ ½ kg of peeled potatoes, turnips or a mix of both for a pound of the venison. You’d be following in a fine tradition of thrifty innkeepers stretching a little meat to a lot of people.

Filling:

2 tbsp butter

2 large onions, peeled and sliced

2 celery sticks, chopped

4 carrots, peeled chopped

3 lbs / 1.3 kg venison shoulder trimmed of fat and cut into 1 inch / 2.5 cm cubes

2 ¼ c / 500 ml dark ale

1 c / 235 ml beef broth

2 tbsp flour

½ tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp mustard powder (not prepared mustard)

1 tbsp thyme

2 tsp coarse salt

½ tsp fresh ground black pepper

3 tbsp redcurrant or cherry jelly

2 bay leaves

Topping:

3 ¾ c / 480 g flour

1 ½ tbsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp salt

1 tsp thyme

½ c / 115g butter

1 ¼ c / 300ml whole milk + 1 tbsp

1 egg

Start by making the cobbler topping. Instead of a full pastry crust, you’re essentially making savory biscuits which will be a crunchy golden brown on top and full of brothy flavor on bottom.

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and thyme in a large bowl. Cut your butter into cubes and work it into the flour until it achieves the texture of gravel. Now moisten that gravel into a dough by adding the milk, a little at a time, until you end up with a dough similar to American biscuits or Hot Buttered Scones (pg 83).

Knead the dough a couple of times for good measure, then cover it with a towel and set it in the fridge while you make the cobbler filling.

Preheat your oven to 400F / 205C. While the oven heats up, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Gently fry the onions and celery for 4-5 minutes, or until the onion barely starts to brown.

Add the browned onions and celery to a rectangular baking pan. Now add the cubed venison (or beef, if you’re feeling thrifty) to the skillet and brown it in batches. Don’t overcrowd the pan.

When the venison is browned, send it to join the onions in your baking pan. Add the cubed carrots to keep it company.

Whisk the flour into the beef broth until it’s completely dissolved and free of lumps. Now mix in the Worcestershire, mustard powder, thyme, salt, and pepper. Once those are well blended, add the red currant or cherry jelly and keep whisking until you achieve a thick, sweet broth.

Modern cooks may be tempted to leave out the jelly, but you’ll miss it if you do. The small quantity adds a hint of sweetness and a subtle background flavor that balances out the bitterness of the ale. Speaking of which, once your jelly is mixed into the broth, pour in the ale and give it all a casual stir. Drop in the bay leaves.

Go back to your pan of meat and veggies. Give them all one more good stir before gently pouring the liquids over the solids. Shake the pan a couple times to settle everything.

It’s now time to top it with the “cobblers.” Fetch your dough from the fridge and use your hands to press it down until it’s about 1 inch / 2.5 cm thick. The cobbles will inflate in the oven, so you don’t want them to be too thick.

Use a 3 inch / 7.5 cm round cookie cutter to cut out your cobbles. Honestly, you’re welcome to use any fancy shaped cookie cutter you’d like. Hexagons look particularly fetching, as do overlapping diamonds. The point is to cover the entire surface in evenly sized increments in order to make a nice presentation. The easiest way to do this is to slightly overlap each cobble so it looks more like roofing shingles than street paving stones.

Whisk your egg and remaining 1 tbsp of milk together until smooth. Very carefully paint the glaze over the topping.

Carefully place your dish in the oven. (Try not to slosh too much broth over the top of the cobbles.) Bake for 30 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown and the interior is bubbly.

Take it out of the oven and let the cobbler sit for at least 10 minutes to cool and settle before serving. Make sure your family admires your handiwork before scooping out a cobble or two and a healthy mound of filling onto everyone’s plate.

Peas are a classic English vegetable that has been that has been horribly maligned due to the cruel arts of preservation. No one in the Shire would understand your hate because their peas were fresh, crisp green orbs that popped satisfyingly with each bite.

It’s very difficult to find fresh peas in the grocery store these days (though if you can, you really should give them a try) so this recipe relies on their closest relative, the frozen version. Do not, under any circumstances, make this recipe using the mushy grey mass that plops out of a can. This simple recipe is meant to be a celebration of the goodness you’d find in an English garden, not a funeral dirge for all that was lost to the horrors of canning.

2 c / 200 g frozen green peas

3 tbsp butter

1 tbsp dried rosemary

1 large clove of garlic, minced

2 tsp coarse or kosher salt

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the butter is melted, add your frozen peas and give them a good stir so they’re completely coated. Cook your peas, stirring often, for 5-6 minutes, or until they’re completely thawed and warmed through but not yet soft or mushy.

Sprinkle the rosemary, garlic, and salt on top. Give it all a good stir and continue cooking for another 2-3 minutes or until the garlic barely starts to brown.

If you add the rosemary and garlic too soon, they’ll burn by the time the peas are fully cooked. You want them in the butter long enough to add flavor without any tragic consequences.

This recipe can be easily doubled if you’re serving plenty of guests or your well trained family really loves their vegetables.

VEGAN VARIATION

Simply substitute the cooking oil of your choice for butter. Since the butter does add flavor as well as fat, you might want to add in a second clove of minced garlic and another pinch of salt.

No hobbit meal is complete without a mushroom dish. These stuffed, roasted mushrooms make a great main course for nights when you’re too tired from adventuring to make a rack of lamb or roast a chicken.

In middle class Victorian households, stuffed vegetables were a way to make a meal look a little fancy while also being economical. Instead of a pauper’s dinner, all it took as a little creativity to turn leftover sausage from breakfast, last night’s bread crusts, and a few herbs into an elegant meal.

4 large Portabella mushroom caps

1/2 tbsp butter

1 c / 200 g home made Country Sausage (pg 15) or vegan sausage crumbles

1 medium onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp salt

1 tsp dried herbs (rosemary or basil)

½ tsp fresh ground pepper

1 egg, beaten

1 1/2 c / 270 g dried breadcrumbs + 4 tbsp reserved (substitute ground cornflakes if gluten free)

½ c shredded mozzarella cheese (optional)

Gently wash the mushroom caps and remove any remaining bits of stem. Let them sit out on a rack to dry while you brown the sausage.

Melt ½ tbsp of butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook your breakfast sausage until browned through. Once fully browned, add it to a mixing bowl. In the same skillet, add your diced onion, minced garlic, dried herbs, salt, and pepper. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the onion is translucent and the garlic starts to brown. Add it to the mixing bowl full of sausage.

Once the mix is cool enough to touch, add the beaten egg. Use your hands to knead the sausage, vegetables, and herbs together with the egg binder. Once they’re all mixed, add all but 4 tbsp of breadcrumbs and keep mixing until the crumbs have soaked up a lot of the moisture.

Divide the mix into four parts. Gently press each one into a mushroom cap, taking care not to split the mushroom.

Sprinkle each mushroom with 1 tbsp of reserved breadcrumbs. If you’d like, you can also add a couple tablespoons of shredded cheese.

Bake at 350F / 180C for 15 minutes-18 minutes. Let cool slightly before eating.

If you’re having a grand meal, serve one of these alongside one chop from your roast rack of lamb so everyone feels like they had a hearty, somewhat grand main course. You’ll save money while also looking quite fancy.

For a more modest Shire inspired meal, serve these alongside mashed potatoes, green peas cooked with rosemary, and a hunk of fresh bread

VEGAN VARIATION

Substitute frozen vegan sausage crumbles for the breakfast sausage. Since most fake vegan meats are entirely fat free, cook the meat substitute in 2 tbsp of your favorite fat. When mixing the cooked crumbles with the breadcrumbs, onion, and seasoning, add an extra tablespoon of fat for both binder and texture. Leave out the egg entirely. If you want to add a little vegan cheese as a topping, wait until the last five minutes of cooking. Non dairy cheese substitutes don’t melt - they burn.