Let's try Dragon Age's recipes: Starkhaven Fish and Egg Pie

A long time ago I worked on a food related blog and a friend of mine wrote this as a joke and a reminder, that I could share this here as well, so share I shall.

Full disclosure: I don’t live in a place where “pie” is a dish often on the menu, if ever. Just not our thing, culturally speaking. There have been a couple of exceptions and over the years pies did "arrive", but more in the sweet/confection category, and not the savoury one. Globalisation! Yay!

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Please note also: I am NOT a professional cook, however I could pass for a professional eater if given a chance.

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Full transcript available here:

My Dear Sneaky Mage!

I hear you’ve delved into the Dragon Age Saga.

I used to regularly visit my friends in the wonderful,

albeit dangerous world of Thedas.

Exquisite hosts.

Charming guests.

Always up to some mischief.

Most soirees usually ended up with darkspawn,

dragons, mages or other some such peculiarity

running amok and causing chaos.

No, it never was a boring affair.

And the food! Oh, the food was absolutely delightful!

You simply must try out this recipe, I managed to discover

on one of those soirees hosted by Lady Ledoure, of a famous Starkhaven pie!

A delicious dish supposedly favoured by King Ottomar Vael,

before he died at the hands of brigands as said Lady mentions

in her world-famous cookbook The Whole Nug.

In case you’re wondering,

I've never actually met the man, only his successor

Sebastian Vael (a very handsome, yet terribly dour fellow)

thus I have no way of confirming or denying the depth of the man's love for said pie.

I can confirm, however, that it truly is a delicious dish,

usually made with lightly poached fish from the Minanter River,

however as you probably don’t have access to said river,

you’ll have to make do with fish from local sources.

Lukily for you I’ve managed to find the perfect substite

in my own little spin on the original recipe I’ve enclosed with this letter.

Try it out and let me know that you think!

Yours Truly,

the Queen

We got this recipe from the book. Pretty straightforward. Only thing that was missing and we had to improvise was the batter. Again, we don’t do pies...

A quick note on the measuring system used in this recipe:

Per my origin, I primarily use the metric system and metric cups (1 cup = 250 mL, 1/2 cup = 125 mL 1/3 cup = 83.3 mL and 1/4 cup = 62.5 mL). I shall try to adjust every measurement accordingly, however due to the complicated nature of this type of conversions (with regards to varying density of particular ingredients) and differences in cups alone (US cups and UK Imperial cups to add to the confusion) I also recommend using a converter, for example:

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/cooking/    

Starkhaven Fish and Egg Pie:

First, we have to prepare the base for the pie - The Fish Broth. A dish delicious on its own, however since we're using it as a base in our case, we will make it a bit more... substantial.

INGREDIENTS for the FISH BROTH:

• 1,5 l (6.3 cups or 1,5 quart) of water

• 2 decent size Salmon fillets

• 1 chicken bouillon cube

• 2,5 g (half a teaspoon) tomato puree

• 30 g (1/8 cup) butter

• 1 small leek

• 1 average sized red tomato cut in half

• 2 small carrots

• 5 g (approx. 1 teaspoon) dried thyme, or a fresh spring of thyme instead

• Salt and pepper to taste

  
  

1. Melt the butter in a large sauce pan over medium-high heat. Add leeks and cook stirring for 3-5 minutes or until leek is welted.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients, sans wine. Bring to a boil and let it simmer until the salmon is just cooked through (about 15-20 minutes depending on the size of the fish). Adjust the seasoning to your taste.

   
   

Now, let's prepare the dough for our pie. This buttery pie dough is extremely simple to make. It is also one of my friends inventions and perfectly suitable for any pie you can conjure up on your own.

INGREDIENTS for the PIE DOUGH:

• 250 g (2 cups) of flour

• 250 g (2 cups) of Ricotta cheese (or if you don't have that, use cottage cheese instead)

• 125 g (1/2 cup) of non-salted butter, room temperature

• 2,5 g (half a teaspoon) of salt (if the cottage cheese you're using is already very salty, skip this step)

• 10 - 12 ml of water

1. First mix flour and butter well, until the consistency of the mix resembles that of bread crumbs.

2. Add Ricotta cheese, salt and water. Knead the dough together for about 5-10 minutes, until it's nice and pliable.

3. Place the dough in a plastic kitchen foil and let it rest in a refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

   
   

After you take the dough out, divide it into two parts, one slightly smaller than the other (approximately 1/3 for the top and 2/3 for the bottom) and roll them out evenly, until they are about 5 mm thick.

Now crimple the edges well (or some of the filling will try to escape to freedom... as it did in my case). And don't forget to punch little holes or slits into the pie dough placed on top of the filling! Any leftover dough can be used as decoration, so let your inner artist shine for a bit, but don't overdo it. Tacky pie is tacky.

And here we are with the main star of this show - The Filling. Crack your knuckles, say a little prayer to whatever Deity you prefer for this momentous occasion.

INGREDIENTS for the FILLING.

• Salmon from the broth, cooled with the meat removed from the bones and skin, broken into chunks

• 2 cups (500 ml) of fish broth

• 2 cups (500 ml) of milk

• 1 dl (1/4 cup) of good white wine

• 1/2 (65 g) cup of flour

• 1/2 cup of butter

• 1 cup of sliced almonds

• 1 cup of dried cranberries

• 2 eggs, boiled hard and sliced

• 1 egg beaten

• 1 cup of single cream

• 1/4 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg

• Salt, pepper to taste

1. Melt the butter in a separate pot, add the flour and stir well for about two minutes.

2. Add the broth and milk and whisk vigorously till the mixture is silky smooth. Continue to whisk while you bring the sauce to boil, turn the heat down to medium and allow it to cook for at least ten minutes. Add in the wine. If the sauce is still too thick, thin it out with more fish broth.

3. Once the sauce is cooked, take it off the heat and stir in the cream. Season liberally with salt, add freshly grated nutmeg and pepper if desired.

4. Now stir in the rest of the ingredients, except the one beaten egg and mix well. After it cools down a bit, add the beaten egg and whisk vigorously to prevent it from hardening.

5. Transfer the mixture into the pie pan/earthen crock covered with the pie dough and cover it up as described above.

6. Place the pie in a pre-heated (180ºC) oven and bake until the crust is golden (approx. 50-60 minutes, depending on the depth of the pie pan you're using).

Once you take the pie out, let it sit for at least 15 minutes.

You can take this chance to admire your finished masterpiece and invite all the members of your household to bask in its glory. If you don't have anyone else in your household but your pets, do not let them near it, especially if gluttonous in nature.

My end result definitely did not look as good as this AI rendition of my photo, but it did taste good. Would I ever repeat it? Probably not. It was just too much work... Also for some reason people in my household don't really like fish that much (the barbarians), so there were only two of us, trying to eat the whole thing.

Final Verdict:

A fun experiment with a delicious result, however I just couldn't be bothered to repeat it again.