Welcome back, folks! We are midway through Season 2 of House of the Dragon, and it’s getting heavy. Pretty good time for a lighter dish, right? With that, let me share my second course in my Dragonalia feast. It’s my adaptation of a medieval cabbage chowder that I call Green Queen’s Pottage.
Click here to skip to the recipe for Green Queen’s Pottage.
Coboches in Potage
This dish originally comes from The Forme of Cury, a collection of 14th-century English recipes attributed to Richard II’s master cook. Their recipe for “Caboches in potage” is as follows:
Caboches in potage
Cabbages in pottage
Take cabbages and quarter them and boil them in good broth with onions minced and the white of leeks, sliced and cut small; and add to this saffron and salt and season it with poudre douce.
I chose this dish as something the Red Keep’s kitchens would cook to honor the Green Queen, Alicent Hightower. For one, it’s her family’s predominant banner color. But also, it is a lighter dish that would be served during Lent in our world — appropriate given Alicent’s piety towards the Seven.
Before you think this cabbage-laden soup is a peasant’s dish, I assure you it’s anything but. Saffron and poudre douce were only available in wealthy households. Today, on the other hand, we can find them more readily. You can order saffron online or buy it at some grocery stores or international markets. However, a dash or three of ground turmeric acts as an acceptable substitute. The best recipe I’ve found for poudre douce, or “sweet powder,” is from Chelsea Monroe Cassel’s A Feast of Ice and Fire. In a pinch, though, blending a little pumpkin pie spice with black pepper and sugar, as listed below, will give you a similar flavor profile without tracking down seven different spices.
Simple reproduction is not my style, though. That’s why I made a few alterations. The Hightowers rule over Oldtown and its surrounding areas — which have been compared to real-world Paris and northern France. With that, I used Chardonnay wine to deglaze my pan after cooking flour and butter into a thickening roux. I figured the Chardonnay would add a touch of crisp acidity and extra buttery notes to the broth. This is also the same grape varietal used in champagne and other regional wines. That said, it’s now common enough to pour in a glass of the cheap stuff if that’s the extent of your budget.
I won’t tell the Green Queen if you won’t.
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Green Queen’s Pottage
Green Queen's Pottage
Equipment: Stovetop and a dutch oven or large pot with a lid.
Ingredients:
- half a head of cabbage
- one large yellow onion, minced
- one leek, white and light green parts sliced
- 3 cups of chicken stock
- 1/8 tsp saffron
- 1/2 cup chardonnay
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 3 Tb unsalted butter
- 1 Tb flour
- 1 tsp sugar
- kosher salt
Instructions:
- Cut the cabbage into four sections, then remove and discard the core. Slice the remaining leaves thinly into ribbons.
- Preheat the pot for 3 minutes over medium heat, then add half of the butter. Once melted, stir in the onion, leek, and half of the pumpkin pie spice and black pepper. Cook until softened, fragrant, and slightly browned.
- Add the remaining butter, and then the flour once melted. Stir for two minutes, then deglaze with the wine, scraping up the browned bits.
- Stir in the remaining ingredients and kosher salt to taste, then bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Serve bowls of soup with bread for sopping.
