November 2007

Honey Roasted Gant, stuffed with Cherries, Dates, Raisins, and Rosemary

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Quotes from the books:

Gant - I heard a bird some forty or fifty yards to my right; it sounded like a marsh gant, a small, horned, web-footed aquatic fowl, broad-billed and broad-winged. Marsh girls, the daughters of Rence growers, sometimes hunt them with throwing sticks. - Raiders of Gor, p 4 (Region: Vosk Delta)

Dates - The principal export of the oases is dates and pressed-date bricks. Some of the date palms grow to more than a hundred feet high. It takes ten years before they begin to bear fruit. They will then yield fruit for more than a century. A given tree, annually, yields between one and five Gorean weights of fruit. A weight is some ten stone, or some forty Earth pounds. - Tribesmen of Gor - 37

Cherries - With the tip of my tongue I touched her lips. Some slave cosmetics are flavored. “Does Master enjoy my taste?” she asked. “The lipstick is flavored,” I said. “I know,” she said. “It reminds me of the cherries of Tyros,” I said. - Beasts of Gor Book 12 Page 349
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Prepare the gant for roasting. In a wooden bowl mix together 2 cups each of ripe cherries, thick tender dates, and plump raisins. Add 1 cup cherry liqueur, 2 large spoonfuls of honey, a dash of salt and pepper and mix well. Spoon the fruit mixture into the cavity of the large bird and add 2 branches of rosemary. In another bowl mix together 3 cups of verr butter, 1 cup honey, and a dash of salt and pepper. Using your hands carefully lift the skin of the bird away from the breast and gently line beneath the skin with the honey and butter mixture. Next add two branches of rosemary under the skin beneath very careful not to puncture the skin.

Gently place the bird in the roasting pan and add a cup of water and a cup of Ka La Na to the bottom of the pan. Cover the bird with rence cloth and set it in the bread oven over medium flames. Watch over the bird carefully, basting often to ensure a tender and juicy meat.

Next to balance the sweetness of the bird prepare a tangy vegetable dish. Cut up into small pieces and place in a medium bowl 2 large suls, and 3 turnips, mushrooms, carrots, and peapods. Roll a large segmented larma under your palm to crush the tender meat inside, then slice it open and squeeze the juices over the vegetables. Lastly pour 1 cup of Ka La Na and a splash of sul paga into the mixture. Mix well and pour into a hot skillet. Allow the mixture to simmer, adding more larma juice if the pan runs dry. When the vegetables are tender remove them from the heat and allow them to cool slightly in the pan while you finish the gant.

Remove the gant from the oven and discard the rence cloth. Spoon the juices over the bird one last time. While the bird is soaking up the juices, carefully remove the rosemary branches and discard them. On a large plate place several strips of tur-pah for color. Beg permission from your Owner to use a large kitchen knife and slice away 3 large pieces of the white meat. Lay the gant gently on the bed of tur-pah and arrange the pieces neatly on the plate. Take a spoon and ladle some of the rich fruit compote inside the bird onto the meat allowing it to drizzle gently over the sides. Next spoon a large serving of the tangy larma coated vegetables on the plate. Garnish the plate with some fresh dates and cherries and a sprig of rosemary.