Hi everyone, Mod R here.
Based on how many people have asked for a House Andrews cookbook in the comments in the past few years, I know I’m not the only one who reads with her tummy as well as her eyes.
Something you need to know about me is that I am a maniac (maniac!) on the floor of Orro’s kitchen- and all other IA food scenes. Immersive books and greed mix very, very well and a Horde, as everyone knows, marches on their stomachs.
I’ve made Edge Hamburgers, Orro’s Eggs 3 Ways, I’ve ordered Old Bay seasoning from the US to cook Kate and Julie’s Low Country Boil and I’ve certainly baked a Pithivier or two (or seven). I bookmarked Nevada’s treasure box dessert for when I’ll visit Las Vegas and I had lunch at the Ca’ Sagredo hotel in Venice when I visited my in-laws in Italy just because I could. Catalina’s fajita dinner with mango pico de gallo hits the spot like no other.
I will not mention the amount of carpaccio I’ve ordered since Burn for Me has been released. Although I have yet to find it in an Asian fusion restaurant so I am still on lookout for that twist.
If I can’t order it, I have to make it, and I know no rest until I can recreate the scene exactly. My next goal is to make a grazing board based on the Tachi food mandala in Sweep of the Blade. And yes, I know I could call it a charcuterie board because the definition has expanded to include more than just cured meats and pates, but I’m staying a purist.
She cut the bread into precise half-inch cubes, placed five of them together onto the plate, one in the center and four in the corners so they formed a square. She picked up the honey and slowly dripped a few drops onto each cube, until the bread soaked up the amber liquid.
Andrews, Ilona. Sweep of the Blade, Innkeeper Chronicles 4. NYLA, 2019. Kindle Edition, page 85
The tachi at the edges of the table leaned in slightly.Maud plucked the blue kora fruit from the bowl, peeled the thin skin and carefully cut the fruit into even round slices. She managed eight slices, seven perfectly even and one slightly thicker. She placed the seven slices around the cubes. The eighth was a hair too thick. She pondered it.
The tachi pondered it with her.
Better safe than sorry. She reached for another kora.
The tachi to her left emitted an audible sigh of relief and then crunched his mouth shut, embarrassed.
After the kora, she cut the red pear, then the thick yellow stalks of sweet grass, slowly building a mandala pattern on her plate. The kih berries followed, perfect little globes of deep orange. She carefully arranged the berries and took one last look at the plate.”
I’m thinking potato sourdough for the bread, homemade hot honey infused with chilli and vinegar, and maybe physalis can be the kih berries- I always thought they looked a bit alien. I am a bit stumped because my vampire supplier is fresh out of kora fruit- does anyone know a blueish fruit or veg that could take its place? Roasted purple ube (purple yam) is as far as I’ve got.
Have you ever needed to eat something just because you read about it?
Blue dragon fruit is what I picture for Kora fruit
I think the first time I craved food from a book was reading Wind in the Willows when I was 7. The picnic scene where they are unpacking the basket.
I tend to mark down books where the authors don’t pay attention to food.
My husband loves that picnic scene – Moley gets so overwhelmed hehe.
I made a Pithivier with almond paste and apples because I read about Nevada making it. It was delicious! Thank you for the inspiration!
I make one with mincemeat filling for Christmas and it goes down a treat 🤗 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mincemeat
MODR!! YOU ROCK!!
Love the Horde belly wants to eat summary, and It’s going on my to do list!
This hit my funny bone and now I just have to re read all of HA just for the food.
And if one cannot find the correct color of food required, food dye comes in handy. ( From my children’s days of Green eggs and Ham).
I have used blueberries to color & flavor my quinoa for my granola quinoa yogurt delish.
I wonder if you could use Plums as teh blueish food?
you can grow and maybe buy purple carrots. They taste great. Also Huckleberries are purple.
Some plums are purple blue.
Well, when we moved to the US, we went to Applebees for dinner once cause my husband got super excited after passing by. We did not return. 🤭
I also bought a bag of Takis, but gave up since it was super salty.
But I made Rose’s Edge burgers, Catalina’s Pithivier, and Dina’s Apple Cake after reading the books and getting Ilona’s recipes.
Did you order the apple or the bees 😂😂
oh ya. applebee is really dependent on the specific location. if you don’t know locals who love it then skip that one. ours finally closed. yea.
How timely! I was just thinking last week that a cookbook would be a fun project for House Andrews to play with whenever they are frustrated with current projects and just want to have a bit of fun. Plus it could introduce new people to the different series because it will draw from each of them and there could be excerpts and references to send readers looking for the series. It would make the perfect Horde gift to people they are trying to bring into the fold. (The word seduce comes to mind.) Maybe a publishing house would be interested because it would help promote their existing series.
You’ve been very creative, Mod R, in your pursuit of these dishes! I love the photos.
Anyone ever read S.M. Stirling’s Emberverse books–Dies the Fire, The Protector’s War, etc.? Since the initial apocalypse leaves everyone at risk for starvation, his descriptions of meals once they start to have enough food are downright pornographic. Even his newest books (a new anchor series, completely different world) has a lot of loving detail in descriptions of meals. I can’t point to any one dish, but details about meals now helps me enjoy a book more, like how the captain cooks for her crew in Jessie Mihalik’s Hunt the Stars.
Oh my God, I really have found my people!! I totally do this! I even want to make the apple cake Dina made Sean…and I don’t even like cake.
This whole post makes me so happy!!
one of us
one of us
one of us
😀
😂
do you need the process or just the result? I would shape and slice a suitable salad turnip then marinate it in blueberry juice. this soft white turnip is what is used in falafels tinted pink as a quick pickle. it takes colour well, is crunchy, and generally does what you tell it!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonicera_caerulea
You might try Haskap for Kora
it’s not blue, but red Dragon fruit always seems alien to me.
paper lantern gooseberries are orange.
good luck
You and I were going the same way Geri
Try a dragonfruit (the dark, red/magenta inside kind) – they look alien an may be the best substitute that you can slice evenly – then take a picture! (Thanks for taking a pic of the eggs three ways – I will have to do that for a brunch)
Yes, we need a cookbook!
Or at least more recipes 🙂
I re-read Dina’s apple cake recipe just last week. I have apples…
I looked at a couple recipes for the Pithivier and wasn’t impressed with any of them. Most had rum, which I like, but the apple one sounded better. This one looks 👍
Thanks Mod R!
In the first Innkeeper Dina makes egg salad sandwiches on toasted garlic bread. They sound wonderful 😋
Yes. I learned about low country boil from Kate Daniel’s leftovers. It’s a summer favorite!
Indigo Rose tomato and a very deep blue color. Also Damson plums or Concord grapes. My father grew Concord grapes and Damson plums, and all of us kids absolutely loved eating them straight from the garden. I am sure there are many heirloom varieties of tomato out there that are a deed blue/purple in color.
Kih berries = kumquat. Blue fruit – there are “blue” mangoes, though I’ve never seen one in person. For something to cut up – purple potatoes or tomatoes. Blue fruit to go with bread and honey – haskap berries is something more unusual but available
I grew up reading Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe books. So many interesting foods in those books…
If you’re looking for more kora fruit alternatives, there is a fruit called the star apple, which has a dark purple rind and flesh that shades from white to blueish purple. The seeds form a star pattern which would look beautiful sliced up.
since you’re doing honey then i’d suggest some large maine blueberries
Not exactly “fusion” but you may find Beef Tataki what you are looking for as an Asian style of carpaccio
🙂
the egg sandwiches Dina makes during the dahaka bbq!
All hail Orro! Who HASN’T had to eat something they read about? Philistines!
Took a wander on Google, and the closest thing I could find to a purple fruit that one peels then slices would be some forms of dragon fruit. Plums might work here too.
You beat me to it Leanne. See my comments below about taste. Peeling a dragon fruit is fun though, slice off the two ends, cut down the middle lengthways and simply peel off the skin.
Certain figs are purple on the outside, and you can eat the skin so they could remain purple on the outside, wild grape can sometimes be a very deep purple – so can regular grapes, obviously. Then there are giant blueberries, definitely purple.
mangosteen is purple on the outside and needs to be peeled, but you wouldn’t slice it as it comes in segments
Aside from the IA food items, I’ve had the following cravings or food switches:
Chocolate chip cookies because of Mercy Thompson
Pepsi because of Lt Eve Dallas
Lebkuchen because of an issue of Betty and Veronica where they visit Germany during the holiday season
Cake shake because of the Chicagoland Vampire series
Still haven’t found it, but I soooo wanted butter pies to be real because they were a favorite of the kids in A Tale of Time City.
Butter Chicken because of a Penny Reid book
Peanut butter and pickle sandwiches, Kinsey’s favourite in Sue Grafton’s Alphabet series.
And would butter tarts work for butter pie?
Probably not. Butter pie is supposed to be both cold and hot. From the Diane Wynne-Jones wiki:
“Butter-pie is a dessert from Forty-two Century, in A Tale of Time City. Described as a ‘yellow nubbly ice cream’ on a stick, it is a wonderfully creamy and buttery ice-cold concoction with a hot syrupy center that Samuel Lee Donegal describes as “goluptous”.
Okay, now I want that! Can’t imagine how to do it, but it sounds yum!
Dragon Fruit would work well. We have red and white dragon fruits in Perth Aust, but I’ve done a Google search on Dragon Fruit colours and there is a beautiful purple fruit. If you haven’t had one definitely try it. The fruit can be a bit mellow, but it holds its shape well, and goes well with pineapple.
Go online and google blue color fruit, I found several articles. one talks about blueberries, blackberries, Damson plums, Concord grapes, black currant and something else.
What if you soaked dragonfruit or honey dew in butterfly pea tea for the kora fuit
I’m going to cheat. Yes I have because I read cookbooks all the time. I’ve actually done the Tachi bread and fruit spread before. I used magos, star fruit, dragon fruit, apples, pears, strawberries, physalis, and kiwi. The colors were odd but I put sweet on the outside to not so sweet on inside. There were two types of honey and a cream cheese. Had some fresh bread with it too. It was a super cool sign to barrow from.
Well, there was this Mushroom Stew recipe I had to try, but not from a book. I used to play LotRO, and one of the in-game festivals had this recipe as a quest, and it sounded soooo good I just had to have some IRL. So I made it (with a couple small adjustments), and it was fabulous!
All the food from House Andrews books makes me drool, too. Yummy!
Mod R, may I come to dinner? Lunch? Breakfast? (Teasing, of course).
Blueberries are quite purple
Eggplant
Or aubergine on the outside anyway
Purple grapes
Blood oranges have flesh, those ladt two items could be best
Purple dragon fruit! The red variety has either deep red or purple. Prunes too. If you are not particular about the inside flesh Figs and mangosteen work well. Açai fruit sorbet can be scooped and added as well!
Apart from purple carrots and cabbage, purple sweet potatoes are delicious. I am lucky that I can get all of these at the supermarkets in Singapore.
http://flavorsofbrazil.blogspot.com/2011/02/fruits-of-brazil-jabuticaba.html?m=1
check out jabuticaba where the berries crowd the trunks… the trees look out of this world.
and red flesh guava also looks amazing.
honeyberries/honey suckle fruit
Japanese akebi
purple carrots! there are tons of cool varieties of carrots with different color patterns. Farmer’s markets might carry them. I grow some purple or purple/orange blends like dragon because my kids looove them.
I admire all of you who can cook and/or bake. I’m a complete disaster in the kitchen. HA meals and recipes in their books always sound so fabulous I can practically taste them as I read. Alas, someone else would actually have to put these meals together for me (I’d gladly pay or trade something)! I’d even sample the desserts and baked goods even though I’m not a dessert or carbs person. (I know, I know. I get even weirder than that since I can’t stand the smell and taste of cawfee or any alcohols too.)
I really like Kerrine, from the M.C.A. Hogarth books (the Dreamhealers series, starts with Mindtouch). It is a hot cinnamon cream drink.
1 T butter
1/4 cup cream (or 1/2 & 1/2)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 T honey or sugar
pinch salt
milk to taste
Over pot set to medium-low heat, stir butter, cinnamon and honey until combined and warmed through.
Add cream and stir until combined. Leave on burner until steaming, then season with salt and add milk to taste. (Steamed or warmed milk integrates more easily.)
from “Mindtouch (The Dreamhealers Book 1)” by M.C.A. Hogarth
Honestly, the only books that have made me hungry were the memoirs of Ruth Reichl, she was the restaurant critic for the NYT in the 1990s and also worked as the restaurant editor at the LA Times prior to that. She was also the editor at Gourmet magazine before it folded. When you read memoirs from people who work directly in the food/restaurant industry, they describe food in a way that is different from other people (not a knock against House Andrews, all the food in their books sounds delicious).
If you haven’t read Ruth Reichl’s memoirs, I highly suggest it! She includes the recipes in her books too and I think she’s since published a few cookbooks.
why not use a French Plum for Kora? if it’s just barely ripe it should be super crisp and purple is blue enough, right ??
😀
also you might enjoy the MCD Dowser series as she the Main character runs a bakery and there is (free!) cookbook the author shares.
and I just realized French plums aren’t that purple inside! lol. oh well, maybe a pluot?
We grew some purple potatoes last year, I have thoughts about them:
1 They are *not* purple once they have been cooked, more blue-ish, still striking. And of course you really shouldn’t eat raw potatoes!
2 The ones we grew were extremely floury so do not boil, they *will* collapse however careful you are, either steam or, my recommendation, microwave.
3 Should you want to grow some yourself bear in mind they have a low yield, in our experience all the coloured ones have low yields.
I have a thought about damsons too, in my experience they are sour, not mouth puckeringly sour like sloes but still, they make the best jam ever because of the sweet sour thing, and great crumbles, but many humans would find them too sour raw. Taichi might be fine with them, I’ve not prepared food for any, so don’t know 😉
The Horde has come though with some wonderful suggestions I never knew existed and now want to try, but would have no idea where to buy . . . but the Horde came up with a soution for some at least 😀 Yay the Horde!
Oh and finally, you can sometimes get purple carrots in Waitrose.
Blue fruit & veg: there are blue potatoes, blue corn, blueberries, plums can be an intriguing dusky blue (the skins, anyway). Eggplant is more a deep rich purple shade but may work.
Ever since cones, I started putting lemon rind in every baked cookie. I love it. I tried making the apple cake but I messed up instructions but ill try it again . Tried eggs tree ways as well they were great. Looking forward to more recipes
I’m I’ve seen blue carrots 😀
If you like books that contain recipes try the Hannah Swensen murder mystery series, by Joanne Fluke. Hannah runs The Cookie Jar bake shop, Lake Eden, Minnesota’s most popular bakery. For years I looked for a banana bread recipe that didn’t turn out dry. I found Sally’s Banana Bread recipe in one of the books and now always made that one. It gets rave reviews from the family.
Oh yes! I made the Apple cake and it was fantastic! I made “Ascanio’s Chocolate Chip & Cherry Cookies” with green cherries 😉 after reading Blood Heir.
Kay Skarpetta’s (Patricia Cornwell) Crab cakes.
Purple fruits, vegs. Blueberries, blackberries, plums if you put them cut side own, or how about blue corn (used mostly in the USA South west in tortillas, chips, or other corn meal based things.)
Yes I will often read with my stomach. I’ll read about something in a dinner and then go look up a recipe.
Also, Did you know there are Blue Tomatoes! I didn’t. But you can find anythin on the interweb. https://joyfuldumplings.com/blue-vegetables/ is a website that lists 10 blue “vegetables” that sound interesting. Although they kind of cheat with 2 kinds of blue mushrooms.
Happy eating!
Anytime a brownie (my kryptonite) or cheesecake is mentioned in a story, I immediately want one.
Omgoh mod r would you please share the low boil recipr you used? Out of all the food ilona has mentioned in books that one is the one ive been dying to try!
I used this https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/low-country-boil-with-shrimp-corn-and-sausage – definitely go with the lemon butter!
I had Eastern European smoked sausages and definitely upped the Old Bay. Happy eating!
Thank you!!!
I now make my grilled cheese by first, grilling the bread, then rubbing a cut garlic clove all over it. Then putting the cheese on and grilling to melt the cheese, rubbing more garlic on the outside. CANNOT recommend enough!
I always read with my tummy and while I’ve only made two pithiviers, I have become hooked on the cantaloupe cucumber salad with Feta from HEB which is delicious and made my Texas kid ship me the fajita seasoning and taco sauce from HEB as well – way cheaper than ordering it. I’m definitely a mango in my pico de gallo girl. It never dawned on me I could do eggs three ways! Or recreate the mandala. Mod R, you’re brilliant! And yes please, we want a cookbook!
Yes. From the James Bond books. But I also collect cookbooks, and have the Nero Wolf cookbook in hardcover since my paperback copy fell apart. I would LOVE a House Andrews cookbook
I can always tell when Hubby is re reading Hidden Legacy: He starts cooking skirt steak fajitas, including the mango pico.
Bliss.
That made me want to reread it for the 4th or 5th time. The Sweep series was so good. And I thought there was something of a promise of another volume.
how do we get these re ceipes
Click on the links in the blog article 😊
Asian beef carpaccio is called beef tataki.
Highbush blueberries can be as big as an inch. Tho they mostly run to about just under half an inch. Sigh. Every year we run down to a local u-pick and spend a morning picking lots.
They are berries and blue. Lol.
The Apple meringue pie is something I have tried… It doesn’t look as nice but it tasted good
Cape Goose berries would be great yes, but also Golden tomatoes (small cherry size) for the kih berries… image link:
https://dutchgardennursery.com/product/yellow-cherry/ They are quite sweet for tomatoe when ripe.
Over all Very delish sounding. More sweet than hot for me, please!
Kohlrabi comes in purple, too. I grew green ones this year. Next year, I grow both purple and green.
There are dark purple bell peppers. My aunt grows them. They change color if you roast them which I think is neat. There are also purple carrots though they are small
Edge burgers are a staple at our house. I like to eat them the next day in particular. I have made recipes from Lisa Kleypas’s historical novels. She will often have a featured dish woven into a story. The recipe will show at the end of a book. It’s such a fun interactive way to immerse myself into the story.
IA also has beautiful descriptions of food. I’m glad they post recipes to the blog!
Amazing post, thank you.
Please also post a picture when you manage to make this mandala dish.
Thank you again <3
Just now it happened to me.
I got a sudden hankering for fruit
after rereading this here 🙂
I always pictured dragonfruit on the tachi’s plate. Its got such a crazy color and skin, it definitely seems like an alien fruit!
+1
Plums are purple
plums= Pflaumen
some purple potatos keep their colour as well
purple carrots
You want books that make you want the food? Read the Redwall books by Brian Jacques. Kind of kid’s stories, but me, my dad and brother loved them. When they’re describing a feast and talking about the truffle, flan, cake, pasties, and then get into the drinks, it’d make me a little crazy because it always sounded amazing and I had no idea what half of the dishes were.
In terms of blue fruit, a lot of people have suggested blue tomatoes or Damson plums. Plums sound pretty good for the board, which is more fruity than veggie.
But you could also do figs. There are those Texas Blue Giants. Slicing those evenly does strike me as an elegant trick.
Mod R,
I have a burning desire to try Nevada’s Treasure Box dessert. I finally found a recipe that shows a pic of what the dessert sounds like – https://images.app.goo.gl/r6EEYdGob5q2BaCn7.
Maybe Manor Chum plums? Or there’s a prune that is bluish on the outside and dark purple on the inside… those eggs are impressive!
Mod R. check out purple potatoes, in our local foodie grocery stores (some sprouted so I planted them, they don’t mind snow, and prospered in my garden 🙂 )
Blueberries, seedless purple grapes (NOT wine grapes–seeds) , (rare) blue turmeric (winter indoors/summer outside) exists, got some segments from my local fruit stand & they sprouted so I potted them up as they have a very cool looking reddish strip up the center of the green leaves
What about Moon Drop grapes? https://www.southernliving.com/moon-drop-grapes-6834509#toc-what-are-moon-drop-grapes They’re long enough that you could slice them, but irregular enough that perfect symmetry would be challenging.
Even though its not blue, i always imagine dragonfruit in this scene.
One of the reasons I started on SM Stirling work was I was reading one of his works and the descriptions he had of food made my mouth water. Food is life and to despise food is to despise the life sacrificed for the meal.
that’s what I was thinking of cainito aka star apple.
Figs are purple skinned but wouldn’t slice in even diameters, a concern for a balanced mandala.
japoticaba looks like a 1″ grape, but isn’t a grape. I’ve only come across them once here in Sydney.
I’ve never met a fruit I’m unwilling to try.
there is a blue honey berry. I’ve never tried it. local groceries are pretty mainstream boring. but I like to garden and I keep looking at online plant sellers. I’ve learned about a lot of plants I want to grow and honey berry is on my wishlist