Chapter Three: Let’s Eat!

The Candle Lane

Venturing into, and then choosing to retreat from, Candle Lane during their first exploration of that foul place left a bitter taste in Elodie’s mouth. This drink recipe packs some of that astringent punch but it is tempered with warm botanicals and dark sweetness. Just the cocktail for sipping while planning a raid on a Zhentarim arms depot.

Make sure to enjoy it with CL’s snarky editorializing 🙂 As both GM and our official mixologist, he’s earned it:

It always feels like a treat when your players buy into your narrative to the extent that they (not just the characters, but the players!) are so nervous about something that they find any excuse to delay facing it. So it was with the ominous shadows of Candle Lane, lit only by a single flickering arcane lamp at the far end. When Elodie, Eliana, and Vaikner convinced themselves that it was oh so prudent and sensible to first check in on Floon’s lodgings, I tried to keep my best poker face, but inwardly I was pulling a Dastardly Whiplash, twirling my mustache and rubbing my palms together.

When they finally decided to return, I knew I wanted to mark the occasion with a drink to commemorate their cowardice — ah, that is, their discretion. To that end, I wanted something dark, lantern-flame-colored, and bitter. It seemed appropriate to base the cocktail we dubbed the “Candle Lane” on another cocktail named for Toronto, the hometown of Waterdeep’s creator Ed Greenwood. The Candle Lane differs from a classic Toronto in the bitters used (I wanted more of a citrus tang) as well as the source of the sweetness (a demerara syrup to evoke the heavy gloom of the foreboding alley), as well as a slight tweak to the proportions and the serving style.

The Candle Lane

Ingredients:

– 4 oz rye whiskey

– .5 oz Fernet-Branca

– .5 oz Demerara simple syrup (brown sugar simple syrup is an easy substitute)

– 3 dashes orange bitters

Sliver of flamed orange peel for garnish

Method:

Combine all ingredients over ice in a mixing glass and stir until well-chilled (30 seconds with small ice cubes, 45 with large ones). Strain into a champagne glass to evoke the Lane’s namesake, and garnish with a “wick” of flamed orange peel.

Ormpur-style Salmon

Renaer strikes Elodie, both literally and figuratively, as a very fishy individual. This recipe, with its somewhat startling combination of silky salmon, buttery apple, and assertive cheese, commemorates the uncertain start to their friendship. It may sound a little strange but give it a try. This appetizer is elegant enough for the son of the Open Lord of Waterdeep.

The original recipe is for Asturian-style Salmon, from José Andrés Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America cookbook. He is a wonderful chef and a good person: his World Central Kitchen does amazing and courageous work. They lost seven of their staff in Gaza last week. Sharing time with loved ones over a table; celebrating what is precious and special in life – that is the one way that I can think of for us to honor their tragic loss.

Feeds 4 as an appetizer. Or one rapturous Eliana as a reasonably-sized snack.

Ingredients:

120g/1/4lb smoked salmon

2 sweet and crisp apples (Golden Delicious are specifically called for in the original recipe but I think this has to be a personal preference type of decision)

75ml/2.5tblsp extra-virgin olive oil

15g/1/2tblsp unsalted butter

Salt to taste

30ml/1tplsp cider vinegar

3 juniper berries

30g/1oz. Salmon roe

30g/1oz. Cabrales cheese (or any creamy blue cheese that you like), cut into small cubes

3g/1tblsp chopped chives

Sea salt to taste

Method:

Preheat your oven to 325F/160C.
Place one of the whole apples on a large square of aluminum foil with 15ml/1/2 tblsp of the olive oil and all of the butter. Wrap the apple, scrunching the foil securely around it into a silver bundle. Bake the wrapped apple until soft. This will take between 20-30 minutes, depending on the size of the apple and how cooperative your oven is feeling. Mine took a full hour. After baking, allow to cool for a few minutes, then carefully unwrap. Remove the skin and apple core, place the fruit and its buttery juices in a bowl, and, using a fork, mash it into a soft purée. Add salt to taste and set aside.
While the first apple is baking, peel and core its companion. Dice the raw peeled apple into 0.5cm/1/4 inch cubes and set aside. I sprinkle the cubed apple with a little extra cider vinegar so it does not turn brown.
Make the dressing by mixing the cider vinegar with the remaining 60ml/2tblsp of olive oil in a small bowl. Add a pinch of salt. Crush the juniper berries with the flat of a knife and add them to the dressing in the bowl.
Cut the smoked salmon into 0.5cm/1/4 inch cubes, add to the dressing, and allow the fish to marinate for 10 minutes. Then, remove the salmon, reserving the dressing.
To serve: spread a thin layer of apple purée onto a serving plate. Scatter the marinated salmon cubes on top. Cover with the fresh apple cubes and salmon roe. Then layer the blue cheese cubes on top of that. Finally, drizzle with the reserved dressing, sprinkle over the chives and a few pinches of sea salt. Eat.

Note: José Andrés recipe calls for 120g/1/3lb center-cut raw salmon. For those who do not wish to eat raw fish, he offers the option of drizzling the salmon with the dressing and then broiling it for a few seconds to cook it slightly before serving. Alternatively, he suggested using smoked salmon. When I first tried the dish, I could not find sushi-grade salmon and went straight to the smoked fish option. It was so good that, full disclosure, I never went back and tried the recipe as written!

The day that I made this to take pictures I could not find salmon roe anywhere. I used whitefish roe instead. So my finished dish lacks the visual drama of those gleaming coral orbs scattered over the tops. I got much more subtle sprinklings of yellow. But they still pop with a satisfying fishy and briny tang.

Leniwe Pierogi (Lazy Pierogi)

This is a very homey and comforting Polish dish. Also filling and very inexpensive to make. And popular with children. All fairly standard for a traditional Slavic dish of humble peasant origins. Coincidentally, these are also important requirements when feeding hungry orphans in the Deep on a strained budget. Saer Ederick, take note…

They are called “lazy” pierogi because you are just making fresh and pillowy dumplings for your loved ones. Not going to the extra trouble of filling and shaping them. Yeah, Polish cooks are held to some high standards. That’s a little glimpse into our relaxed and guilt-free culture for you ;).

This is a traditional recipe and there are many different versions out there. I used a recipe from a blog that I like called aniagotuje.pl (lit. Ania cooks).

Makes approximately 50 dumplings, enough to feed 4.

Ingredients:

500g/1lb small curd cottage cheese or farmer’s cheese or kwark

2 large eggs, whites carefully separated from the yolks

60ml/2tblsp unsalted butter, melted and then cooled until tepid

100-130g/1/3-1/2 cup all purpose flour

2.5g/1/2tsp salt for the dumplings, additional salt (20-30g/2-3tsp) for the boiling water

Method:

Put the cheese into a food processor and blitz until it forms a uniform creamy mass.
Place the cheese into a large bowl and add the melted and cooled butter along with two egg yolks. Mix thoroughly.
Slowly add 100g/1/3 cup of flour to the cheese mixture, along with the salt. Mix again. The dough will be quite sticky but try to resist the temptation to add more than 130g/1/2 cup flour in total. The dumplings will be more delicate the less flour you add. Plus you will be making up any flour deficit when you shape them.
In a clean dry bowl, whip the two reserved egg whites until foamy and holding soft peaks.
Gently fold the egg into the cheese dough until just combined.
Bring a large pot 2/3 full of well-salted water to the boil and then reduce the heat to so that the water is at a bare simmer. The dumplings are delicate and overly harsh jostling at a rough boil will make them fall apart.
Heavily flour your work area, the plate/tray where you plan to place your formed dumplings before boiling, and your hands. Scoop out 1/3 of the dough mixture onto your floured work surface. Sprinkle more flour over the top of the dough, and then, working steadily but gently, roll the dough into a log about 3cm/1.5 inches wide. Slice the log obliquely into small dumplings, each about 3cm/1.5inch long. My dough was very gloopy on the day that I took pictures (maybe because I doubled the recipe and was a little heavy-handed with my butter). I had a real Shai-Hulud situation on my board and ended up patting the giant slug of dough into shape rather than truly rolling it. Then I sliced off rough dumpling shapes and scooped them straight into the simmering water. They do hold together, but do not fret if the whole thing feels a little precarious.
Place the formed dumplings into the simmering water. Cook them in batches – at least three. They do not need long. When you first plop them in the pot they will briefly sink, and then they will rise up as they cook. Remove them from the water 1 minute after they first bob up onto the surface of the water. Drain and serve immediately with your preferred topping.

Toppings:

I grew up eating these showered with bread crumbs fried in ample butter until golden and crispy, and then drizzled with sugar and cinnamon. For this version, melt 60g/2tblsp butter in a frying pan until foaming and starting to smell a little nutty. Add 100g/1/3 cup fresh bread crumbs (home-made or use unflavored store bought panko crumbs). Sauté until the bread is toasty. Pour the contents of the frying pan over a bowl of dumplings. Top with sugar and cinnamon to taste. My grandfather, after spending some time working in Ghana, developed a liking for very spicy food. So he would finish off his dumplings with the distinctly untraditional topping of hot chilli powder. It worked surprisingly well with the sugar and cinnamon!
Another favorite topping is cream. Either unvarnished in its fatty unctuousness, or embellished with additions such as sugar and vanilla. For a simple and simply luxurious cream sauce, combine 100ml/1/2 cup heavy cream with 60g/2tblsp butter and 60g/2tblsp sugar in a small pot. Heat until it just reaches a boil. Add 5ml/1tsp vanilla essence and stir to mix well. Top your dumplings with this cream sauce.
A fruit sauce works well with this dish as the freshness and acidity of the fruit temper some of the richness of the cheese dumplings. You can make a very simple strawberry sauce by placing 500g/1lb washed and hulled strawberries in a blender with 125g/1/2 cup granulated sugar and 60ml/2tblsp freshly squeezed lemon juice. Blend and serve. Replace the strawberries with raspberries if you prefer but you may need to strain the blended sauce through a sieve for get it sufficiently seedless and smooth. Apple sauce is also very comforting as a side dish with the dumplings.

Note: I made double the recipe because I also wanted to turn part of this batch of into a baked dumpling dish. Just plop your cooked dumplings straight out of the water into a buttered casserole dish (20x30cm, 8×13 inch). To the dumplings add 1 cup/200g of fresh blueberries, 1/2cup/100g sugar, and 1/2cup/120ml heavy cream. Stir gently. Sprinkle with cinnamon, place the dish on a baking sheet to avoid spills, and bake in a 180C/350F oven for 1 hour or until golden and bubbling and purple with exploded berries.