Cuisine of the Realm

Quormé Sabzuee

A stew of lamb and dried limes cooked for hours with a great quantity of green herbs, parsley, coriander, chives, and fenugreek, until the herbs go dark and the broth thick. It is served with rice or with the dark bread of Aethelgard. The name is Luxian: quormé is the pot, sabzuee the green. Each valley has its own version and the Council has twice declined to rule on which is correct.

The recipe, Valdoria style

• 500 g lamb shoulder, cubed
• 2 large bunches parsley, 1 of coriander, 1 of chives, all chopped fine
• 2 tablespoons dried fenugreek leaves
• 4 dried limes, pierced
• 1 onion, 1 tin of red kidney beans, oil, salt, pepper, turmeric
• Fry the onion with turmeric; brown the lamb. Fry the herbs separately until dark and fragrant, about 15 minutes. Combine, add the limes and water to cover, and simmer two hours. Add the beans for the last half hour. Serve with rice.

Abbguscht

The royal dish: a broth of lamb, chickpeas, and potato cooked in a clay jar, then the broth served first and the solids pounded and served after. It is made for the High Warden on Warden's Day and for any Luxian on their birthday.

Bread, cheese, and wine

The dark rye bread of Aethelgard, baked in the forest ovens. Mountain cheese from the Cinder Highlands, aged in the old mine galleries. And the wine of the Aurelia shore, the only wine of the Realm, from the vines above Verdian; it is poured at the Solstice feast and nowhere else in December.

The feast

On December 24 Charter Square becomes one table. Quormé Sabzuee from the cathedral kitchens, bread from Aethelgard, cheese from Purgnar, wine from Verdian, and the toast, Fyrn ovar, the hearth endures. Every citizen has a seat by Article VIII of the Charter.