Thanksgiving is a time when many of us spend time with our friends, families, and loved ones. It’s also a time for us to sit down and enjoy our most favorite thing ever: food.
In honor of the holiday, we’re sharing two hearty recipes from The World of Thedas Volume 2: Pig Oat Mash and Dalish Deep Forest Comfort. These recipes come straight from the finest compilation of Thedosian culinary creations: The Whole Nug by Lady Ledoure. Preparing these dishes is sure to warm your belly and your heart and convince even the most distant bann to come over for dinner.
Planning on cooking one of these dishes? Tweet at us with the results!
Pig Oat Mash
The Hanged Man in Kirkwall always has a pot of this warming porridge boiling on the fire. Several patrons apparently swear by it as a hangover cure, but only if washed down with cider spiked with brandy, of course. Even if you aren’t an incorrigible liar, an inveterate gambler, a seafaring lush, or a bored noble slumming in the greasiest dive in the Free Marches, the pig oat mash, also called Hanged mash, makes a wonderful sweet-salty breakfast, perfect for starting off your day.
Ingredients
- Four very ripe windfall apples
- Two handfuls of dried salt pork or a good smoked bacon, torn into shreds
- Three handfuls of dried, rolled oats
- One handful of berries of your choice, fresh or dried
- One to two cups of weak ale or water
Directions
Peel and core the apples and throw them, along with everything else, into a pot placed over a fire. Boil for an hour, until the apples have softened and melted into the porridge. Serve hot.
Dalish Deep Forest Comfort
The Dalish elf clans in southern Orlais have enjoyed this dish for hundreds of years, but the flavors are also pleasing to a civilized palate, with reasonable substitutions, of course. The original recipe calls for the use of the larvae of a wood-burrowing beetle, prized for the distinctive “pop and squish” of their “tangy innards.” No, thank you. I have used tomatoes in their place. You may also substitute for the squash a grain-based noodle of some kind, but for the purist who wants to experience a truly cultural dish, the squash is a must!
Ingredients
- Three string squashes
- Two good tablespoons of butter (halla butter traditionally used, but regular butter will do perfectly)
- Four cloves of garlic, chopped
- Two cups of wild, fresh-picked mushrooms, chopped
- Two cups of the leaves of the elfroot plant, chopped (spinach will suffice)
- Two cups of diced tomatoes
- One pinch of crushed hot red pepper, for spice
- Three pinches of parsley
- Rock salt, ground fine
- Three-quarters of a cup of halla cheese, freshly crumbled (or a brined goat cheese, which lacks richness but also the distinctive stench of halla, for which some may be thankful)
- Edible wildflowers and pine nuts, for garnish
Directions
Cook the squash in any manner you desire. The Dalish roast it whole in a fire pit filled with hot coals, but you may prefer to use an oven. When fully cooked, the flesh of the squash will come apart in strings that resemble noodles. Remove this flesh by scraping it out with a fork and set the result aside.
Heat the halla butter and fry the garlic in it. After about a minute, add the mushrooms and cook until they are just tender. Add the elfroot or spinach and allow it to wilt. Elfroot leaves take much longer than spinach to cook, and if you are using spinach, watch it carefully. Mushy spinach is a sign of a poor and inattentive cook!
Finally, add the tomatoes, crushed pepper, and parsley. Season with salt to taste. Cook the mixture to your desired consistency.