Welcome back, Geeky Gluttons, to another episode of Munchies & Minis!
For those just joining us, Munchies & Minis is my tabletop RPG-inspired live cooking show. Once a week, I make a snack or meal to pair with a side of dice rolls. You can catch me on Twitch (unless indicated otherwise on social media) Wednesday nights at 7 pm EST.
In our last video, we roasted some marmalade-glazed cornish game hens inspired by D&D’s Helm & Cloak Inn. This week we continue our Baldur’s Gate culinary tour at The Blade & Stars inn with recipes for cherry wine cordial, herbed cheese, and spiced hollandaise sauce.
A Quiet Night Under the Stars
The Blade & Stars, named for its enchanted sign depicting a scimitar surrounded by twinkling stars, is the perfect place for the weary adventurer more interested in sleep than excitement. The Bard Volo notes in his Guide to the Sword Coast that “Your stay is apt to be quiet and unremarkable, unless your demeanor makes it otherwise.”
He attributes the peace to the inn’s practice of monitoring its guests’ comings and goings– not invasively, of course. But this and serving food directly to guestrooms tend to discourage thieves and doppelgangers from preying on the unwary guest a little too much into his cups. While he notes that the food arrives lukewarm, he also mentions:
“Bread can be ordered spread with herbed cheese or melted eggs (both surprisingly good). On cold nights, the proprietor, Aundegul Shawn, serves ruby cordial on request–a sweet, syrupy concoction of cherries dissolved in sugared red wine. It’s nice, once you’re used to the rawness it leaves in the throat.”
The Ruby Cordial sounds a lot like glögg, a Scandinavian mulled wine made with cloves, cardamom, black pepper, cinnamon, and brandy. So with that, I made a batch after steeping some zinfandel with dark cherries. Zinfindel often has a darker, raisin-like flavor than most reds that stands well to stronger spices. Keep those cherries after steeping, though! They add a tremendous boost to desserts and cocktails.
This Ruby Cordial also doesn’t take all that long to make, so in the meantime, I thought I’d make some bonus recipes for the Herbed Cheese and Melted Eggs. For the former, I made a compound butter using cheddar cheese and herbs de Provence. The latter, I made a spiced hollandaise sauce with a simple spike of apple cider vinegar. Both are easy to make, delicious, and a perfect accompaniment for freshly baked bread.
Want to learn how to make Blade & Stars Ruby Cordial for your adventuring party? Watch the video or find out how to get the recipe cards below!
Blade & Stars Ruby Cordial
Sing for your Supper!
This video will always be around to cook along with. But I also have the printable PDF recipe cards available for my Ko-Fi and Patreon supporters.
This week, my blog post and Munchies & Minis recipe cards are available in exchange for a $2 donation on my Ko-fi page.
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If you join my Patreon community at the “Kitchen Twitch” ($5/month) level or higher, you will not only get access to ALL of my Munchies & Minis recipe cards. You’ll also get blog-post Spotify-playlists, community-polls, random digital and physical-swag surprises, AND a welcome gift of my Lord of the Rings recipe cards and playlists.
I hope that this episode inspired you to start a culinary campaign of your own. Next week, I’ll continue the third season of Munchies & Minis with a recipe chosen by my Patreon subscribers!
Make sure to join me live Wednesday on Twitch from 7 pm – 9 pm EST. OR you can catch the archived episode on YouTube.
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