Sunday 11 December 2011

Food fit for a Teutonic Knight: Medieval Soups from Battle Castle


A couple of weeks ago the lovely people over at Battle Castle held a medieval soup challenge! Writer Nicole Tomlinson was inspired to begin the challenge after a visit to Poland's Malbork Castle where she saw the above picture of Cherry Soup in the book The Cuisine of the Teutonic Grand Masters in Malbork Castle written by the chef there Bodgan Galzaka. You can read more about this at the blog here.  


The challenge was to create the recipes using ingredients available to you but would also likely have been available to the Teutonic Order. Whilst it is too late to join in Battle Castle's soup challenge (apologies for my lateness in writing this!) you could still have a go at creating some of the delicious looking medieval soups that were inspired by the Teutonic Knights. Battle Castle have released three recipes for you to try out for yourself:


Mushroom Soup

Lentil Soup

Cherry Soup
I think the Cherry Soup looks delicious! Here's the recipe:


“ZUPA WISNIOWA” - Cherry Soup
Described as “a warm winter sangria”, this enchanting recipe captures Chef Galazka’s colourful vision and enahnces sweet fruit flavours to balance the delicious dryness of the #1 ingredient - red wine.
Ingredients:
2 398 mL cans Bing cherries, 500 mL water, 100 mL wildberry honey, 1 L dry red wine, 250 mL Greek yogurt, 1 peach, 3 leaves of fresh mint, 1 lemon, ground cinnamon. Makes 6 meal-sized servings or 10 appetizer-sized servings.
Preparation:
Drain cherries. Pour water and honey into a pot. Add half the cherries and cook for 15 minutes at medium heat. Cut peach into thin slices, grate lemon zest and chop mint. Add wine to the pot and cook until alcohol has evaporated (approx. 3 minutes). Add cinnamon bit by bit, tasting until a desirable level of warm spiciness is achieved. Portion other half of cherries into bowls and then ladle hot soup over them. Add a dollop of Greek yogurt to each bowl. Finish with peach slices, mint, and lemon zest. Serve promptly.
Recipe inspired by “The Cuisine of the Teutonic Grand Masters in Malbork Castle” by Bogdan Galazka, Head Chef at the Gothic Cafe, located at the castle. Malbork is one of six castles featured in the Battle Castle action documentary series, airing in Canada in early 2012 on History Television and on Discovery UK.

For the other two recipes visit the blog here, and to find out more about the show which is hosted by Dan Snow click here

Sunday 4 December 2011

Liebster Blog Award!


I've just been given a Liebster Blog award by The Early Modern World! Thank you very much!
The word Liebster is German & means ‘dearest’ or ‘beloved’ but it can also mean ‘favorite’. The award is given to bloggers with around 200 followers or less in the spirit of fostering new connections, and is a nice way to show appreciation for their work.



The Rules are:
  1. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
  2. Reveal your top five picks for the award and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
  3. Post the award on your blog.
  4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the blogsphere – other bloggers.
  5. And, best of all – have fun and spread the karma!
So, in no particular order, here are my 5 picks:

Pure Medievalry ~ This is a fairly new blog written by a lovely person I discovered on Twitter (@sirthopas). He writes about a variety of topics within the medieval period aimed towards newcomers, enthusiasts, and academics alike.

Esmeralda's Cumbrian History and Folklore ~ I love this blog! It's written by @mabhmac, and is definitely worth checking out!

Seeing Symbols ~ This is another blog that I discovered through Twitter. It's written by MrsSymbols. Her posts on symbols and the symbolic are always a fascinating read.

The String of Bede's ~ The focus of this blog is Christianity and culture in Britain and Ireland, and roughly covers the period 500-1100AD. It's written by @Bede_String from Twitter, and is updated regularly with interesting posts!

Vitrearum's Church Art ~ A great blog about church art, with a focus on the medieval. There are some beautiful images on here!


Even though I don't think I'm supposed to nominate The Early Modern World back, I'd just like to make a special mention to this blog. It's written by my good friend @EMhistblog. Despite it venturing far from my comfort zone of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the posts on there always interest me and are well written. So if you haven't read it already, head on over to The Early Modern World. It's rather good there!