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In the course of my travels, I have taken copious notes regarding cookery. Some of my comments have made it into the records, but only as brief observations on restaurants and rooming-house kitchens. I have thus taken the time to begin collating my notes into a proper guide to the food of Barsaive. This work will eventually be gathered into a volume, divided by racial and regional specialties, and organized in the traditional categories. For now, I will begin with my more recent culinary experiences.

-- Tarliman Joppos, Scholar of City Lore, Hall of Records, Throal

Veroniki with Cream Sauce

A specialty in the region around Anghali G'Hosteren, I managed to get Bria Nairn of Sebkha's Lodging House to give me her recipe. These small fried dumplings are deceptively filling. My attempts at making them have not quite matched Bria's work, despite having her recipe, but then my hand is not as practiced as hers. Interestingly, veroniki have their origins in human culinary traditions, but Bria, the acknowledged master of the dish in Anghali G'Hosteren, is dwarven.

Pastry:

2 to 3 cups sifted whole wheat flour

2 tbsp fresh yeast

1 cup warm milk

2 tbsp softened butter

3 egg yolks

1/4 cup sugar

2 Tbsp dark ale

grated peel of 1 lemon

generous pinch of salt

Filling:

1 pound sausage (sage or smoked, not hot)

1 onion, chopped

Generous dash cinnamon

Or for elves and anyone else who doesn't want meat in their diet:

2 cups fresh greens

1 onion, chopped

½ cup goat cheese

Generous dash cinnamon

Pinch sage (scant)

Pinch basil (generous)

Sauce:

2 Tbsp. butter

1/4 tsp. pepper

Generous dash of nutmeg

1 tsp. salt

3 tsp minced fresh ginger

½ tsp cumin

1 tsp garlic powder

1 cup plain yogurt

1 cup milk

2 tbsp whole wheat flour

Mix yeast, 2 tbsp milk, 1 tsp sugar, and set aside to rise.

Blend milk, lemon peel, salt and rum. Set aside. Beat egg, add remaining sugar and butter, beat till frothy. Add egg mixture to milk mixture. Add yeast to liquids.

Add liquids to flour and work into a smooth dough. Don't add all the liquids at once. Use about half to start with, then the rest in small portions as you blend the flour and liquids using a fork until well blended. Start with 2 cups of flour, and add more if the dough is sticky. Add flour in small amounts and work it in well before deciding whether or not to add more. Work the dough with a wooden spoon until it separates easily from the bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk, about an hour.

Crumble the sausage into a skillet, add the onion and cinnamon and fry until sausage is done and onions are transparent. Drain well and set aside to cool. The filling should be room temperature and dry before making the veroniki.

If you're working with the non-meat variety, saute' the greens in a little oil, together with the onion and seasonings. Drain very well, then blend together with the cheese. Any strong, firm cheese will do if you can't get white goat cheese. Again, set aside to drain completely and cool.

Roll dough out flat on a floured board and cut it into 2.5" squares. Fill each square with a spoonful or two of sausage, fold over and seal the edges with wet fingers. Let rise 15 minutes while the oil heats. Your oil should be hot enough it sputters and pops a bit when you drip a little water into it. Deep fry until golden brown, turning once. This only takes a minute or two per side! Watch these closely, they burn easily. Drain well. Pour a small amount of sauce over veroniki immediately before serving.

Veroniki can also be baked. Use a hot oven and check after a quarter hour.

While the veroniki are cooking, make the sauce. Blend all ingredients except the flour, cook over low heat until smooth. Beat in the flour and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until it thickens. Serve immediately.

This recipe has been cut down considerably from the original. Bria told me, "Well, first I have my apprentices chop up about twenty pounds of sausage and a bag of onions. When they're about done, I stick my head out and take a peek at the common room, and add more if the crowd looks promising." This version makes two large platefuls, enough for two trolls or a family of dwarves.

Quaalz

Much beloved by orks, this red bean dish is simple to prepare, filling, nourishing, and amazingly hot. Best suited for campfire cookery, I have had quaalz in orkish eating houses that was good, but did not set me to sweating the way the batch prepared by the Iron Fangs did. Their cook told me his recipe. I've cut it down a bit from the original, that makes a kettle full, to a family-sized portion.

Ingredients:

4 cups dry red beans

Soup bone, preferably with some meat still on it. Ham or beef is preferred, but whatever large animal is available will do.

1 ½ tbsp salt

2 onions, cut in large pieces

4 cloves Garlic, smashed

2 tsp D'janduin (Cayenne will do if you haven't seen a t'skrang merchant in a while)

1 tsp Black Pepper

1 Bay Leaf

1 tsp Oregano

1 tsp Thyme

Cheap beer, about a pint

Take out the bone, clean the meat off it, and throw it all back in. Add the onions, garlic and spices. Simmer for another half hour. Dump in the beer and cook for another half hour to boil off some of the liquid. Don't use dwarven stout or hurlg. No point in using something drinkable for cooking. Your basic cheap brown ale is best for this. Toss the bay leaf, but leave in the bone. Somebody will want it. Extra bones may help stop fights over dinner. Serve with black bread and plenty of hurlg.

Mead

As a good alternative to vinlo, mead is a light-bodied sweet wine made from honey. The variant I give below is one taught me by my uncle, who while he didn't make it for a living still brewed a fine batch. Now, bear in mind that what your bees find determines the quality of the honey, and the honey makes the mead. Generally, you want to place your hives well away from the fields and deep in the woods, and gather during the late spring, when the basswood trees are blooming. The darker and stronger the honey, the more flavor there is to the mead. Seasoning the must, or unfermented liquid, takes a careful hand also. Practice makes perfect, the advantage of which is you have plenty of mead around for when friends drop by.

There are more complex ways to brew this delightful beverage, but why go to unnecessary lengths? This short-run mead is simple to make, produces excellent results if reasonable care goes into the preparation, and stands up well against more involved processes. I've purposefully made this a small batch. It's a shame to waste anything, and if something goes awry in the making, you don't have much to have to toss out.

Ingredients:

One gallon water

Three pounds honey, strained

Fresh ginger

Fresh citrus, preferably an orange

Apple cider, about a pint

After a few minutes, a brownish froth will start to form on the surface. This is the beeswax cooking out of the honey. Skim off the foam and discard it. Keep skimming the foam until no more rises to the surface. Discard the ginger and orange at this point also. Set the must aside to cool. Cover it tightly so that nothing gets in while it's cooling.

Wash out a one-gallon crock with boiling water. Wash the lid as well. You want this crock as clean as possible. The lid should fit snugly but not too tight. You want the pressure inside to be able to get out without bursting the crock, but no air should get in from outside.

When the must has cooled to room temperature, and this may take overnight, stir in a spoonful of good yeast. Some people will tell you that you need a special brewing yeast for this, but yeast is yeast. What the bakers use for their best pastries and breads will also make a good wine. Pour the must into the crock, all the way to the top. There should be no air left inside at all when you fit the lid.

Put the crock aside in a dark, cool place for a week and a half. Do not lift the lid and peek. Do not sample; the mead will taste bad until it's nearly done. After the time has passed, bring out the crock. Pour the mead through fine cloth into another clean crock, and put it aside in a cool place. Immersing the crock in a spring would do nicely. Leave it for two or three days, then check to see if it's bubbling. If so, and there's a yeasty smell to it, strain it again into a clean crock, and cool again. If not, then it's ready to drink.

This mead will keep for two or three weeks reasonably well. You'll have to bottle it to keep it any longer. I've had a few batches that I aged for several years that mellowed into a smooth, light wine that definitely gave vinlo some competition.