Black Currant, Red Currant, Ginger and Mint Jelly

I made some red currant and black currant jelly, but really thought there was so much colour and goodness left after I had boiled the fruit and sieved it. So I added some wtaer to both and boiled them again, this time with a little piece of ginger and a handful of mint leaves.

I let it steep for a while, sieved it and added sugar. For 1 liter (about 1 quart) I added a bit less than 1 kilo (about a pound) of sugar.

I used a candy thermometer and boiled it to 104°C / 217°F and then poured it into canning jars. Let it cool. Close the lid and store in the fridge.

It turned out delicious.

Amazing how we always tend to think of everything as single use. Now I have my traditional Red Currant jelly, a traditional Black Currant Jelly and this great new experiment that I got for not a lot of trouble and leftover used berries that were on their way to the compost heap.

Nut Crispbread

I went on the GAPS diet just over a year ago.  I did it mostly because I was disgusted with arthritis drugs and decided to do something myself to get rid of the pain in my body.  I have osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia, the former causes pretty constant pain in my hands and the latter makes me feel, on occasion, like I was hit by a truck.  The drugs that are used to treat those pretty much all have in common the danger of the patient's heart stopping or the patient having a stroke.  Neither of those is preferable in my opinion.  So I did GAPS by the book, intro and all.  I planed to be on the diet for the prescribed 1.5 years and then, hopefully, I would be in less pain.

I loved the diet.  It really is very much like the traditional Icelandic diet used to be for centuries.  Lots of meat, some vegetables, fermented dairy and pretty much fermented everything. Fermentation by whey was one of the best preservation of food possible here.  So I felt great.  I lost weight rapidly and noticeably a lot of water weight, which I could feel, made my joints much easier to move.  So I was very happy on that diet.  I ate so much good food and I was never hungry.  People felt sorry for me, but I was happy as a lark.  Yumm!

Then hubby and I went on a vacation and I started cheat and eat bread when we were in Italy.  Two days later I realized, that the pain had returned.  Returned!  I hadn't even consciously noticed that I had had no pain in my hands for weeks.  I had just noticed that I felt great.  Anyway, for those who are interested in trying this diet there are many books on the subject as well as websites.  Here are some of the ones I found useful: The Nourishing Gourmet, Keeper of the Home, The Healthy Home Economist, Gaps Diet Journey and of course this: Gaps.me.

There was only on thing that I found incredibly difficult on this diet and that is not eating bread.  I love bread with butter and cheese.  Especially my own fresh baked sourdough.  But that isn't allowed on the GAPS diet and I was doing it correctly.  By the book.  So no bread.  No toast.  And I missed my toast.

But then I discovered that one can make crisp bread with nuts.  And it's very easy.

I use a variety of nuts, just depending on what I have in the cupboards.  I also like to include seeds, like sesame and pumpkins seeds.  I just eyeball it into my food processor, but a typical recipe might look something like this:

½ cup Almonds
½ cup Pecans
¼ cup Hazelnuts
¼ cup Sesame seeds
¼ cup Pumpkins seeds
1 TBS Salt
2 large (3 small) Eggs

Put the nuts, seeds and salt into the food processor and pulse until the mix is very fine.  I usually mix the eggs into this in a bowl by hand because the mix is fairly dry and I have a very small food processor.  I put half of this mix on a silicone sheet and roll it out using baking paper on top.  I roll it out to make it pretty thin, but it is a matter of taste.  This amount of nuts will make two sheets for me.

Bake at 180°C /360°F for about 20 minutes (depending on thickness) until the edges are golden.
Cut while still hot into the size that suits you.

This will keep for at least 2 weeks on my countertop, but I usually eat this within the week :)

Peppermint Potato Candy

It sounds like an oxymoron.  How can a potato make a delicious candy?  I wish I could say that this is an old family recipe and my grandmothers have used potatoes in candy for generations.  But I'd be lying.  The truth is that I had agreed to give a talk about potatoes on "The Day of the Potato".  This is a part of a series of happenings that the Agricultural college of Iceland hosts to increase awareness of the importance of preserving genetic variety.

I happen to be the foreman of the vegetable club of the Horticultural Society and I had also given a talk on Rhubarb a few years ago.  So I was asked to do this and I said no.  So a few weeks later they talked to me again and said that no one had wanted to take this on.  So I said yes.

Then I sat down at the computer and looked for interesting recipes.  Because unlike Rhubarb, on which I had been collecting recipes, I just boil and bake potatoes and that would be a very boring talk.  So I concentrated on finding unusual recipes with potatoes.  And much to my surprise I found them in droves.  Apparently, making candy with potatoes was quite common in the 40's and 50's.  So I had to try pretty much every recipe I found.  Some were better than others and this one was a favorite.  All of them used boiled and mashed potatoes and combine it with powdered sugar.  I always have some leftover from dinner.  It's nice to be able to use them for something fun like candy.

¾ cup Mashed boiled potato
2 tsp Soft butter
1 tsp Peppermint extract

Whip all those together (a machine is best for that)

Add a little at a time:
7-8 cups Powdered sugar.
It will, and should be, a pretty stiff dough.
Push into a square form (I line mine with baking paper)

Melt together over a bain marie:
2 cups of a Dark chocolate
1 tsp Butter

Pour over the peppermint dough.
Put into a refrigerator  and let it get cool.
Remove from the form from the fridge and cut into squares.
Enjoy!

Old Fashioned Ice Cream

I bought an old fashioned Ice cream maker a few years ago.  I didn't really know what it was, but the colour was adorable and whatever it was intrigued me.  The people at the thrift store were excited that I bought it and asked me what it was because they had no idea either.  These are not at all common here and I assume that it was bought in the States by some seaman who thought his wife would enjoy using it.  Since it is practically unused and mint condition, I'm assuming the wife didn't really think it was such a hot idea.

But I love it and I have so often planned to use it, but never taken the plunge.  It's so funny how doing something that I haven't done before is so impossibly difficult.  And then once I do it, it's really easy.  So I decided to make Rhubarb Ice cream in it.

I love Rhubarb ice cream.  Nobody else seems to, which I find very strange.  But I had some rhubarb and there was a family party and I offered to bring dessert.  The family was a bit skeptical.  My daughter confessed to having serious doubts beforehand, but once they tasted, they were converted.  Or at least that is what they told me.

The recipe for the ice cream is very easy, I posted it before here.  Except this time I used a whole Vanilla pod for the ice cream instead of the vanilla sugar/essence that is specified in the recipe.  It's not a lot of ice cream, probably about a quart (or 1 liter).  There were 8 of us and all had a nice portion each, but it was also served with Rhubarb soup and whipped cream.  I actually like smaller recipes of ice cream since I like to make more flavors rather than a huge amount.  Coffee ice cream is probably my favorite, along with the Rhubarb and of course real Vanilla.  The taste is just so much better.

Making ice cream from scratch is very easy.  I started with two egg yolks, one tablespoon  powdered sugar, seeds from half a vanilla pod and mixed it together with a fork.

Five stalks of  rhubarb are chopped into little pieces and boiled with a little bit of water and 3,5 oz sugar.  Or one can use rhubarb mash from making the rhubarb soup.  The rhubarb is cooled while 1 and 1/4 cup of whipping cream is whipped.  Once the rhubarb has cooled, it is folded together and poured into the ice cream maker.

I had never used this old fashioned ice cream maker before, so I had little idea how much salt would be needed, but I bought 4 kilos (8punds) of rock salt.  I used about half of that, 2 kilos (4 pounds) and all the ice I had, alternating a dash of salt and a smattering of ice.  But I did make this recipe twice, and could churn it with that amount of salt and ice.  (This meant that I had some ice cream that was for me only after the party.  Oh, joy.)

Then churning by hand.  The mechanism of this is really interesting and I would actually love to have a smaller unit to use.  This large bucket is just a bit too big for the kitchen and so it has to reside in the garage, even if the turquoise  colour is just fantastic.

I didn't really know how long it would take to churn the ice cream.  It actually took shorter time than I thought, but then the amount of ice cream was only about half of the capacity of the ice cream maker.  I think it only took 15-20 minutes to churn the ice cream.  I loved peering into the ice cream  maker and watch how it moves the ice cream so slowly.  It all looks a bit weird, but then suddenly everything starts to flow smoothly.  I took the thing apart, emptied out the container and put the ice cream into the freezer to store it until it was time to go to the party.

I served the rhubarb ice cream with the fabulous rhubarb soup and lots of whipped cream.

There is nothing in this world that doesn't taste better with lots of whipped cream.  And then it was sprinkled with dark chocolate.  Although some cocoa nibs are also very good with this.  As is chopped dark Toblerone.

Skyr

I usually make yoghurt for breakfast, but the other day decided to make the traditional Icelandic skyr.  I used to have skyr for breakfast and lunch when I was a kid, long before I had heard about something called yoghurt.

Skyr is really good and it's good for you.  Skyr is really a cheese, although we are used to it as a sweet dish.  It's always made from skim milk which we call "undanrenna" and has a fat content of 0,1%.  Which is practically no fat.  Not that I avoid fat.  We eat skyr with a mixture of cream and full fat milk, sugar and blueberries.  Which of course are only available in the autumn, but it seems that we always had them when I was young.  Now they are imported all year round, so I can have my skyr with blueberries, even if the imported berries taste a bit more watery than the small local variety of wild blueberries.

I haven't made skyr before, but it is surprisingly easy, although a bit more involved than making yoghurt.

I started with 2 liters (2 quarts) of skim milk and heated that up to 90°C / 195°F and held it for more than 3 minutes.  Then I cooled it down to 42°C / 108°F.

Next add fresh skyr (or skyr culture at 1% of the milk volume, if that is available).  I used fresh skyr with live cultures, about 1/2 cup for my 2 liters.  Yoghurt can be used instead of skyr.

Then add Rennet, only 1 drop per liter and stir it gently for a minute.

This needs to sit still for about 4-5 hours.  I put it in the oven and turned the heat to as close to 42°C / 108°F as I could.

By now the milk looks like a jelly (pretty much like cheese does at this stage) and now it needs to be sieved at room temperature.

I did that using cheesecloth and let it sit for a few hours.  My instructions said 10 hours, but that wasn't necessary.  The whey drained very quickly.

I spooned the skyr into a jar and put it in the fridge to cool to below 10°C / 50°F at least.

At this stage the skyr is realy to eat and now one can add all sorts of flavors, sweet or savory.

My preference is to stir the skyr with some half and half and a little bit of honey.  I then store it and spoon it out for breakfast, pour some milk (or half and half) over it and add fruit.  Eat it with a tablespoon, a bit of skyr, some milk and a few berries.  Yumm.

Out of the 2 liters of skim milk I got 1/2 liter of skyr and a lot of whey.  The whey (called Mysa) used to be drunk as a refreshing drink in the olden days, tasting a bit sour.  My whey wasn't very sour since I only let it sit for 4-5 hours in the oven, but I have mixed it with Rhubarb syrup and some lemon juice as drink.  There is a bit of taste, that I need to get used to, but it's very healthy, full og nice gut loving bacteria.

A Shot of Green

I sometimes make soup to have for lunch.  I started with a recipe for Broccoli soup that I got from a book by two Canadian doctors about food that fights cancer.  I do not have cancer, but a lot of people around me do and I was intrigued by the title.  This was many years ago and I have since been mindful to include some or all of the super healthy stuff in my diet, one way or another.

I have also experimented with this recipe, trying different kinds of vegetables, depending on what I had handy in the fridge.  One can really use pretty much any vegetables and adjust the seasoning to taste.

Cauliflower would be nice and light with its delicate flavor.  Beetroot would be a bright pinkish red, carrots for an orange soup and rutabaga for a yellow one.  An addition of linseed could be interesting.  My mom used to make a really good linseed soup.

But anyway, the other day I made this soup, and it's just really, really good.  It oozes healthiness and my mouth waters when I think of it's thoroughly green taste.

Start with sautéing one onion, preferably in butter.  If garlic is added, it should go in at the last stages, it doesn't take as much heat as the onions.  Add to the onions a tablespoon of turmeric (I am a firm believer in the health benefits of herbs and spices, turmeric is wonderful stuff and this soup is one way to get it naturally and in a form that makes is easy for the body to absorb.  So do not skip sautéing the turmeric and do include black pepper to get all the benefits.), half a tablespoon of freshly ground pepper and the same of crushed coriander seeds and mustard seeds.  Let the spices fry a bit in the butter.

Add a quart/liter of chicken stock to the pot (it's great to have homemade for this, but use the best quality store bought if that isn't available. Chop up one head of broccoli and add to the stock as well as one cup each, spinach and kale (in winter all I have is frozen and I use 4 balls each).  Let this simmer for 10-15 minutes. Take a stickblender to this a whizz it smooth.  Salt to taste and snip a lot of fresh parsley over the soup if it's available.

I store the soup in a large mason jar and keep it for a week in the fridge, it lasts me 5 days ( I guess the soup is 4-5 servings) which makes it perfect for weekday lunch, with two soft boiled eggs.  I have been changing my diet somewhat and feel much better for it. I avoid grains, sugar and starches.  For someone who isn't doing that, an addition of one potato will make the soup thicker, but I find that I don't really notice much difference.

Perfect and thick - Yoghurt revisited

It's been more the a year since I made my first yoghurt and I've been making it ever since.  That is just about every week to ten days.  The yoghurt that I make tastes somehow fresher than store-bought.  I have never liked unflavoured yoghurt.  It's always tasted way too sour, but when I make it myself I never sweeten it.  I just mix a bit of honey or strawberry-honey mixture and I love the way the crisp sour taste mixes with the sweet honey and tart fruit.

I think I surprised everyone that I was so diligent about the yoghurt making and baking sourdough bread, which I also do every week or so.  I think it's because I just feel so good after eating my own.  I can't imagine being without it.

I've just started a new diet called GAPS.  The whole idea is that our gut is damaged and lets through large molecules into the bloodstream which cause the body to make antibodies and also that the bacterial flora of the gut is not good, so that we have too many harmful bacteria in the gut and they make toxins which also get into the blood and they cause all sorts of problems.  Neither grain nor dairy is allowed on this diet because they are hard to digest.  The diet starts with meat broth, boiled meat and vegetables, cod liver oil, Probiotics and yoghurt for those who can tolerate it.  Rather restrictive, but I'm prepared to try it.  I am lucky enough to be able to use yoghurt from day one.  Not only have I been eating yoghurt every day but I'm one of the lucky people who can digest lactose as are 95% of my country men.  This ability is a genetic mutation about 8000 years old, known in peoples of northern Europe and eastern Afrika.  So I have no plans to abandon dairy.

I have found a wealth of information on the internet about this diet and I particularly like this site, The Liberated Kitchen, where she has a page about the resources, for those who would like to know more.  I have started this diet because I am really tired of arthritis pain in my hands and I think I need to try something to make it better (other than painkillers).

But back to yoghurt.  The first time I made my own yoghurt I got a really good thick yogurt, so I thought, hey, this is easy and promptly made another batch that was very thin and runny.  Then I had a batch that had tiny hard grains in it.  So I thought I had better figure this out so that I could make the perfect batch every time.   This is how I do it.

I always use 1.5 - 2 liters of full fat milk.  For a while I experimented with adding cream to it and that produced very nice yoghurt, but it is more expensive.  So full fat, pasteurized og homogenized (can't get it any other way) but not ultra heat treated.  I would try fresh milk straight from the cow if I could.  I put this in a pot and put it on full heat on the stove.  I stir it pretty continuously as i monitor the heat with a thermometer.  When it reaches 180 °F / 85 °C I turn down the heat and hold this temperature for at least 5 minutes.  This is the best tip ever.  This is what makes the yoghurt thick and creamy.  Something about the heat and proteins, but the result is thicker yoghurt.

After holding this temperature for 5 minutes I plunge the pot into a bowl filled with ice cubes and water and stir the milk until it has cooled down to 110 °F / 42 °C.  Then I pour almost all of the milk into a large jar.  The small amount I pour into a glass and to this I add the yoghurt that I'm using as a starter.  This is usually what is left of my own.  Or, if I've been greedy, store bought fresh yoghurt.  I mix it with the milk in the glass, about 2 - 3 tablespoons, and then pour it into the large jar.  Then I mix the liquid in the jar by gently stirring.

I put the jar into my oven on a low setting and keep it overnight.  I find that 10 hours works very well for me.  Then I take it from the oven and put it in the refrigerator to cool down.  When it is cold I use a knife to stir it well and it is ready to eat.

I used to think this was so much hassle to make.  First I thought one would need a yoghurt maker.  Not so.  Wouldn't use one if I was given one.  It is much easier to use a jar.  Also I used to worry terribly about the exact temperature.  But it's not that precise.  I've heated the milk above the recommended temperature (although not to a boil) without any ill effects.  The important thing is that the yogurt bacteria thrives at temperature between 100-110 °F / 38-43 °C.  If it gets hotter the bacteria will die.  If it gets colder the bacteria won't do it's job till it's warm again.  So as long as one is careful about the temperature after the yoghurt is added, there is no problem.

Fruit Rolls

I have always hated to throw out any left over mash from making fruit or rhubarb gel, syrup or drink so I was quite happy to find a recipe for fruit rolls.  I jumped on the chance to make some,  first I used the left over mash from making Red Currant (Ribes) jelly and then I tried to use Rhubarb mash.  I liked the former much better, it tasted really good, fresh an fruity.

They are relatively easy to make.  I used about 1 liter (4 cups) of fruit mash for one baking sheet.  For the Redcurrant mash I put the mash into a pot and pour a little less than 1 cup of water over it.  I then added sugar to taste.  Since I was using leftovers from jelly making, the mash was already slightly sweet, so I didn't need a lot of additional sugar.  Just start with 1 tablespoon and let that dissolve at a low heat and then taste it to see if it needs more sugar.  I've seen recipes without sugar, so I guess it all depends on taste.  I also like to squeeze a little lemon juice in there to give a little tang to the taste.  I let this simmer for 10-20 minutes making sure all the fruit was well mashed and the whole thing has thickened.  It's good to give it a last taste to make sure that it's neither too sweet nor too sour.   Then I strained it.  I did that with the Red Currants because I had all the little branches and stuff in there.  When I used Rhubarb mash I didn't strain, but that makes more of a cloudy fruit roll.  It can be good to use a stick blender on the fruit mash to make sure it is well pureed.

This is then poured on a baking sheet lined with baking paper or silicone.  The thickness is 1/2 to 1cm (1/4 to 1/2 inch) thick.  This is put in the oven on a low heat 60C (140F) until it has dried and can be peeled off.  This can easily be overnight in the oven on that heat.  I don't have a dehydrator, but this would be perfect for that.

When I do the Rhubarb mash fruit roll I also add an apple to give it more substance.   In fact most fruit can be used and I think Blueberries would also make a very nice fruit roll and those probably wouldn't need any additional sugar.

My neck of the woods

I went for a drive on Friday. There is this place only about half an hour from the city called Hvalfjördur (Whalefjord).  It's a long fjord that used to be the major road to the north, but has now been replaced by an undersea tunnel.  It's a very deep fjord and I remember how tiring it was to drive it on the way home, first all the way into the fjord and then all the way out again.  But it is a really nice place to go to, especially now that there is hardly any traffic there.

I had the idea to just wander about and look at the plants and see what I would find.  This is of course a slightly crazy time to go to the countryside, the plants are dying and all the leaves are turning yellow.  And red.  Glorious reds and oranges and it's just all very pretty.  I'm not much of an autumn person.  It's my least favorite time of year.  But this autumn has been quite nice and we haven't yet has a powerful low pressure system blow away all the leaves.  But it's getting a bit cold and as everyone knows it's always really windy out in the country.  So I dressed in my trusted ski overalls (bright red and easy to find should I get lost and have to be rescued).  I also made myself some sandwiches and took some cookies and something to drink and drove off.

I hadn't planned to pick any berries.  In fact I hadn't even thought about berries at all, and even if I had, I would have been sure that they were all gone.  But I saw so many fat and juicy berries that I had to pick them.  They were Empetrum hermaphroditum, which I understand are called crowberries in English. We call the plants krækiberjalyng and they are the most common berry that grows here. I will make saft from them.  Saft is just the juice with a bit of sugar to sweeten, but I thought using honey would be nice. It will be very healthy with all the antioxidants of the berries and the the antiseptic properties of honey. I like to have berrysaft to take in the morning, one tablespoon a day, with the fish oil.

I also found some lichens. Actually I found a lot of lichens and I collected some. I'm not quite sure what type they are, but suspect one of them is a Parmelia. I need some more lichen dyed wool for my someting-soft-and-warm-around-the-neck-this-winter-project. My mother also gave me an Umbilicaria lichen that she collected for me.  My mom wrote her BS thesis about moss and lichen that grow on the graveyard wall that is a stones throw from where we lived . I'm very excited to try to dye from that. It could give me that elusive purple.

And I wasn't alone in the fjord.  I had the company of the local sheep that still haven't been rounded up for winter.  I love the way they look, so haughty and arrogant.  Like they own the place.  And of course they do. I was just the visitor.  This is where they live all summer long.  I thought it would be nice to post a picture of them in their natural habitat.  So if you see Icelandic lamb in Whole foods, you can be sure that you are buying mountain lamb.  They are almost like goats they climb so high.

When I came home I went to the store and bought some fresh lamb's liver for dinner.  I used to get inards, like liver, hearts and kidneys for dinner very frequently as well as whalemeat and seabirds.  But so many people have stopped eating that although I don't know why.  My husband wasn't used to this type of food, but I've gotten him to like both liver and whalemeat, but he won't eat the kidneys and hearts, but the dogs love those.

Liver is really delicious and very easy to make.  We use lambs liver almost exclusively here, but calf liver is very popular in Italy and I think some nations eat liver from grown cattle.

But I think that if you can make a delicious meal with just salt and pepper as the only seasoning, then that food is the best.  So here is my liver recipe:

Slice one onion and brown it on a pan until it is soft in half olive oil and half butter.
Cut the liver into fairly thin slices and brown them on both side in the pan.
Pour some water over the whole thing and let it simmer for about 10 minutes or until the liver is no longer pink.  But don't cook it longer than that, check it by cutting into the slices.  Liver gets very tough and unappetizing if over cooked.
Thicken the liquid to a sauce by your preferred method, I use a maizena thingy from the store.  I also add a bit of cream to the sauce if I have some.
Season with salt and pepper.
Serve with boiled new potatoes, fresh salad greens and red currant jelly.

So now I just have to make the saft, make some Rhubarb syrup from the last of the Rhubarb stalks this year and then make fruit rolls from the left over mash.  I'm also wondering if I could make fruit rolls from the left over mash of berries.  And I'm all out of yoghurt and the sourdough bread is almost gone.  I bought a lot of broccoli at the store since they had them on offer and I've started to eat this delicious Broccoli soup for lunch.  So I'm making a lot of soup and freezing it.  And then there is all the timber that I got for free and plan to use to make raised beds for the allotment garden.  And I'm crocheting that warm thing and also a jacket type ting from the sweater that I unraveled last week.  I really wish I had another weekend coming.

Gift from the gods, brought by the butler

Filipendula ulmaria - Meadowsweet is a lovely medicinal plant.  It is well known as a natural painkiller as it contains salicylic acid, the ingredient in aspirin.  The plant is however, unlike aspirin, quite gentle for the stomach and is used to treat heartburn since it neutralizes stomach acids and it is used for peptic ulcers.  It is anti inflammatory and as such it works well for rheumatic pain.  It is also astringent and a urinary antiseptic.  It is even gentle enough to treat diarrhea in children.

It's name in Icelandic is Mjaðurt, which means Meadplant.  Mead is a drink that the vikings drank way back when they were delusional enough to think Iceland was inhabitable.  There are no surviving recipes for mead, but it was probably alcoholic and some think it was made with honey, but it is fairly obvious that Filipendula ulmaria was used in it.

I got the idea to make a drink from Meadowsweet when I had finished the Rhubarb "champagne".  I was sure that it would make a lovely drink that would be even more like Champagne than Rhubarb.  The scent of Meadowsweet flowers is sweet and warm, almost vanilla like, but still very distinct.  The leaves have a slight almond like smell that is again a bit different.  I made a potful to try it out.  And Oh!  Jumm!  I really like it.  This is no drink for viking brutes.  They can drink robust Rhubarb drinks.  This one is a drink for the girls, wearing white lace, sitting in the garden in the sunshine with the butler reverently serving this delicate tasting and lovely natural champagne, like it's a gift from the gods.

The recipe is simple.

Take about 10 - 15 flower heads of Meadowsweet and put in a pot with cold water, about 4 liters/quarts.

Add:
A sliced lemon
500g. /1 pound sugar
1 desert spoon of apple vinegar.

Let this sit for 24 hours
Sieve this and pour the clean liquid into 2 liter plastic bottles, close them and let sit for a couple of days.

When the plastic bottles are quite hard, you put them in the fridge to stop the fermentation.

When you open the cold bottle, the drink will have a gentle carbonation and taste divine.
This drink is lovely and refreshing and would go well with Macarons.  You know!  Those French lovely cookies that I'm always planning to make.  That'll be another post one of these days.

I am making another batch of it these days to give to the vegetable club of the Garden society who are coming to visit the allotment (and I offered to be their host).  I did give some to my husband, poor thing, he went into the hospital three times last month and finally got out last week (and no I never did smack him on the head with the bat :) and he's getting all better, finally.  Although that could be a result of receiving correct medical treatment rather than drinking this lovely drink.  But you never know, do you?
...

How to drink Rhubarb

Rhubarb is great to drink.  The tartness of it makes a refreshing taste for summer heat in combination with a touch of sugar og honey for sweetening, lemon juice and even a touch of Ginger for a more spicy version.  I find that it is really easy to just trow it in a pot and improvise, but here are a few recipes that I am going to give in my talk about Rhubarb.

I have posted this recipe before, but it is the only one that I've posted without having made it myself. My excuse is that I wanted to try it, but it takes a long time to be ready so I thought I'd post it so that I didn't loose the recipe. Unfortunately I can't remember where I got it from. But here is is, a little boozy treat for those who like that sort of thing. I have to say that the taste of this isn't really all that much Rhubarb, but rather a sweet something that I can't put my hand on. But it still might make an interesting gift.

Rhubarb liquor
This recipe is for about 6 dl. and takes about 4 weeks to do.

5 dl / 2 cups Rhubarb pieces
4 dl / 1 3/4 cup vodka
1 vanilla pod
1,5 -2 dl (3/4 cup more or less) simple syrup

Put the Rhubarb into a jar. Pour the vodka into the jar, put a lid on and shake for a few minutes.
Let this stand for about 2 weeks and shake every now and again. Add the vanilla pod.
After about 4 week you sieve the booze, add the simple syrup and stir well. Taste and add more syrup as you like.  Let this stand for about a month to let the flavours mellow.

I didn't find that it mellows that much, but I did let a piece of vanilla pod stay in the bottle and I think I probably shouldn't have.  There might just be a tad too much vanilla taste.

Rhubarb syrup is great to make because it can be made into drinks and to make pink lemonade.  I like this recipe which I got at Miss Print blog.  The syrup can also be used in cocktails if one wants to.  The recipe for syrup is something like this:

1 cup rhubarb (washed and dried) cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/4 cups water
1 cup sugar

Put all ingredients into a saucepan and stir. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally.
Once mixture has boiled, turn down the heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes until the rhubarb is soft and the red colour has bled in.  Sieve the mixture and pour into a bottle and let it cool.  This should keep for a few weeks in the fridge.

The recipe can be tweaked a bit.  I like to add some lemon juice and occationally a piece of ginger to make it slightly more interesting.  Use as sauce on ice cream, as a drink concentrate and mix with still or sparkling water.  Pour into lemonade to make it pink.  Or slosh some vodka into it to make a boozy drink.

I am now in the process of making a third recipe.  The name is lovely, so I had to try it: Rhubarb champagne and I found it on an Australian site: Just like my nan made

Rhubarb champagne

2lb rhubarb
1 sliced lemon
8 pints of cold water
1 lb sugar
1 dessert spoon of vinegar

Wash rhubarb and cut up roughly, add sugar, finely sliced lemon, vinegar & water.  Let stand for 24 hours, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar.  Sieve and pour into plastic bottle and close them.  Used soft drinks bottles are ideal.  Let stand for a few days.  This will start to ferment and becomes alchoholic after 2 weeks.  Before that it is a fizzy sweet drink, probably a bit like my Ginger ale.

This needs to be put in the fridge to stop fermentation.  Do that when you like the taste.

I can't wait to try this one, it sounds really interesting and I'll be sure to add my verdict to this post.
But on to other things Rhubarb...

UPDATE:  I really like the "champagne".  It tastes quite sophisticated and unlike any other rhubarb drink I've tasted.  The name isn't that far off.
...

Everything Rhubarb and some Chocolate too.

I love Rhubarb.  I love the colour and I love the taste.  When I was little we used to pick slender stalks and dip them in the sugar bowl and eat them like candy.  My mom also used to make rhubarb compot which we ate hot with cold milk as desert.  And it seems that the only jam that was ever available back then was Rhubarb jam, the only Rhubarb thing that I don't really like.  I've made it a bit of a hobby to find unusual recipes with Rhubarb and I've posted some here like the delicious Rhubarb soup and the fantastic Rhubarb ice cream.

I got a phone call the other day from a woman I've never met and she asked me to participate in the Day of the Rhubarb which is being held in a kind of Folk museum in the City.  Apparently she got my name from the Gardening Society as someone who is an expert on using Rhubarb.  Oh!  Ok!  I can be that!

So I've been up to my eyeballs in Rhubarb ever since that phone call, wiping the dust off my various Rhubarb recipes and looking for new ones, making stuff from the recipes to snap photos and even creating one, this Rhubarb and Chocolate chip muffins.  Well, at least adjusting a recipe to fit me needs.  In my 20 minute talk I want to show how incredibly versatile Rhubarb is and give people recipes for every part of the plant.

I didn't have a photo of my Rhubarb syrup, so I made some so that I could snap a picture.  When making syrup, there is always the problem of what to do with the mash that is left from sieving.  This time I adjusted a muffin recipe and came up with this:

Rhubarb and Chocolate Muffins.

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

2 tsps baking powder

1/4 tsp salt 

3/4 cup granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling

1/2 cup melted butter 

1/2 cup rhubarb mash plus almost the same amount to put on top

1/4 cup milk

3 eggs 

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Start by turning the oven on to 200C / 400F and line some muffin forms.  This recipe is perfect for 12 muffins. 

Mix the sugar, melted butter, rhubarb mash, milk, eggs, and vanilla extract until smooth.  Combine the dry ingredients; flour, baking powder and stir it into the wet mix.  Don't over mix this, a few lumps are fine.  Add the chocolate chips.
Fill the muffin form and put a small dollop of rhubarb mash on top and a chocolate chip.  Sprinkle with some sugar.  Bake for about 20-30 minutes, check with a toothpick.

They were really nice and I was very happy that I didn't have to throw away food.  Although I could have put it on the compost heap, but this is so much better.

The speaking thing is on June 30th and I have reserved the rest of the month to everything Rhubarb.  Dyeing yarn and hair, insect poison, and, yes!  There is Rhubarb soap.  Might be two different ones.  And it's all coming soon to a ...
....

Liquid gold - Dandelion honey

Those dandelions are everywhere and I've had a nagging thought that last year I wanted to make something from them, but was too late to collect the flowers.  And couldn't remember what it was.  That happens to me a lot and it's got nothing to do with age.  It's just the way I am.  Feeling rather frustrated that I hadn't written anything down, I kept scouting for the best places to pick the flowers and pray for some sun so that I could pick them fully open.  The weather this spring has been really dismal, but things are looking up.  We saw double digits yesterday - 13C.  This is what I've been reduced to. By now I'm grateful if the temperature climbs above 10C (that's about 50F) and ecstatic if the sun peeps from behind a cloud.

Then it came to me.  Dandelion honey!  I read about it somewhere (didn't write it down) and I knew that I had to try that.  It just sounded so jummy to me.  The only trouble was that I imagined that it would require so many flowers that it would take forever to collect them.  But when I was collecting the flowers to make a dye from them the other day I knew that it takes no time at all.  And it's pleasurable, too.

I had to look for a recipe again, since I hadn't written anything down.  Always write things down.  I know this.  But I still don't!  Thankfully, I found this really good recipe with step by step photos on a German blog: Heilkraeuter.  The recipe is very easy, but it takes some time to make mostly because it needs to simmer for a long while.

Dandelion honey

3 handfuls of Dandelion flowers
1 liter water / That's just over a quart
1 kilo sugar / 35 oz sugar
Juice and rind of 1 lemon (the original recipe give 1/2, but I like lemons so I used it all)

Wash the flowers quickly and gently in cold water.  Pour the water over the flowers and let it stand for about 2 hours (or longer, it's no biggie).  Bring to boil and then turn of the heat and let cool slowly overnight.
Sieve the flowers from the water and discard (or even better, put on the compost heap).  In a saucepan, pour the sugar into the flower water and bring to the boil.  Lower the heat to a simmer and simmer until it reaches a syrup stage (110 C / 230 F).  This took me 3 hours, but the time may vary depending on the temperature.  Pour into sterilized jars.
Use the syrup as you would use honey.

I made another batch that I heated a little less, maybe slightly over 100C / 210F, to make a more runny honey.  The first one can be used as a spread on bread, the second is better for my yoghurt.

It tastes remarkably like honey, sweet and flowery with a hint of lemon.  And it's vegan.

This German recipe uses the flowers whole, with the green sepals.  I have seen some recipes that say you should only use the yellow petals and therefore you need to spend a lot of time pulling away all the green stuff, because it is bitter.  This isn't true.  I tasted it and I have also tasted both batches that I made and they are very far from bitter.  The sepals taste nothing like the leaves.  So I wouldn't recommend that anyone wastes time on that.  But have a go at making the honey, it's really good.
...

Sourdough starter - the making of Grumpy

Making my own sourdough starter was just way cool.  Each starter is unique to it's location.  I was fascinated by that.  That my sourdough starter would really be mine, uniquely.  In addition sourdough bread is considered to be much more nutritious, easier to digest and have a lower glycemic index than other types of bread.  It has long been my favorite bread, especially if it has rye in it.  But I never really knew all that about sourdough.  Just that it tasted good.   I have learned a lot from various websites, but especially www.thefreshloaf.com, but it took a while for me to grasp it all.  I wanted to write it down so that I could repeat the experience should I need to at some point.  Here is how he started his life.

To mix together flour and water and expect it somehow to come to life almost seems to defy logic and science.  It is of course the magic of life and I am thoroughly in awe of my beloved Grumpy.  Sourdough starter is simply made by mixing flour and water and the yeast that is naturally on the flour and lactobacillus bacteria that is mostly on our skin will take residence and start to ferment.   Since there is a lot of micro organisms all around us, it is possible that some of them will try to take over the starter.  You will know that your starter is fine if it has a pleasant tangy smell.  Somewhere between beer and fruit.  The yeast likes an acid environment, oxygen and a temperature between 18 and 29 C (65 and 85 F), the middle being optimal.  I saw somewhere that some people put a tablespoon or so of pineapple or orange juice in the starter to increase the acidity.  I tried this once when I felt that the starter was a bit sluggish and it only improved.

But back to the birth of Grumpy.  I had made a starter previously.  That time I "cheated" a bit and put in some dried yeast.  That was fine, but I wanted to make it without any help.  So I took a straight sided jar and put about 50 g. /1.8 oz of Rye flour into it.  Then I added the same amount (50 ml /1.7 fl.oz) of room temperature water.  I used water from the kettle that has been boiled and cooled to room temp only because the cold water is really, really cold.  We have very good tap water here, no fluoride or chlorine added to it.  I would consider using bottled water if I lived where water quality is questionable.  Then I stirred the flour and water to make a smooth paste and get some air in there.  Clotilde of Chocolate and Zucchini suggest that one should have a wooden spoon dedicated to this and avoid using metal.  She didn't explain why, but I liked the idea and I now have one.  I also read somewhere that in Finland (the Finn people are renowned for their excellent rye bread) they had a special wooden bowl for the dough and it is scraped clean rather than washed.  That way the yeast culture simply dries and is easily refreshed with water and a feed next time.  I will consider buying a wooden bowl next time I go to Helsinki.  But for now I use a glazed earthenware bowl that my mother in law gave me.

Since I love rye bread I really wanted to make a rye starter.  Which is fortunate because it is one of the easiest flours to use to make a starter.  Even if one doesn't intend to bake a rye bread one can use a rye starter.  Or, alternatively, one can start with a rye starter and turn it into a wheat starter by feeding with increasing amounts of wheat once the starter gets going.

But back to Grumpy.  I placed the jar on the kitchen counter and waited.  Now, this was in February and even if I usually keep the house at 23-25 C (72-77 F), it will be cooler close to the windows in very cold weather.  Therefore it makes a bit more sense to start a starter in spring or summer.  It didn't take more than about 2 days for bubbles to appear.  Then I threw away some of it and added water and then some more rye.  This I repeated every day.  I discovered later that it is better to feed the starter twice a day and be sure to pour away half of it, feed it with equal amounts of flour and water.  Now I throw out all but 1-2 tablespoons and then add about 35 g. /1 oz of water and the same amount of rye flour.  I first add the water and make sure that it is at room temperature.  The water that is standing in the kettle is perfect for that.  Then feed the starter twice a day for a week.  That way you should get a very lively starter.

Being the miser that I am, I really suffered when throwing away half of the starter.  But you have to do it.  It is much less wasteful.  When the starter gets going it will double in a few hours.  Since you need to feed it an equal amount twice a day you would soon end up with a bathtubful of starter and the next day, two tubfuls, then four!  You get the drift.  It's exponential growth.  So throw away half!  Some people use what they throw away in waffles, pancakes, cookies or pizza dough, but I don't bake those, so I weep and waste.

Now the test of the starter isn't only the smell (which should be pleasantly sour) but the rate at which it rises.  You should not attempt to bake a bread with it unless it doubles in about 6-10 hours.  It won't be strong enough to raise the dough sufficiently if it doesn't.  Believe me, I tried!

Now, I wrote another post about baking a bread with the starter, but I want to finish this by discussing how to take care of the starter.  I had to try a few places for my starter and I used a thermometer to check temperatures.  I found the perfect place for Grumpy to feed in my living room on a shelf below my faithful November cactus (Schlumbergera truncata).  That cactus dates from 1977 when my husband gave me this little baby plant with one bud on it.  The bud promptly fell off and I, being young and childish, was offended and shamelessly tried to kill it.  I pushed it behind the curtains and didn't water it, hoping it would die.  But by spring it just started to grow vigorously.  So I began to take care of it and was rewarded by profuse flowering the following November.  Every year after that it would be like a ball of fire on the window sill.  When I moved to the States it got left behind, as did my other worldly possessions.  Years later my great aunt, who had lived on the floor below me, told me that she had stolen a cutting of it (because as everyone knows, cuttings take better if they are stolen, rather than given) and that her very large and robust cactus, that boomed like crazy every year, was that cutting.  When she died at the age of 96 my father came home with her cactus and gave it to me.  The cactus thrived, but to my great disappointment, it didn't flower.  I kept it in the best location, took good care of it but... nothing.  Until my father died.  That Christmas it started to bloom again.  And it kept going until the spring.  And bloomed again in the fall.  And it has been going ever since, blooming twice a year.  I can't think of a better place for Grumpy to rest while he feeds.

But back to him.  I  have been baking one bread a week and I store him in the fridge in the days between baking.  What now works for me is this:  I take him out early on Friday, measure about 70 g. of Grumpy, add 70 g. of water and 70 g of flour and stir.  I put him on his shelf and keep an eye on him.  If he doubles I make a sponge in the evening.  If he doesn't double I feed him once more and make the bread in the morning.   For the bread I use anywhere from 100 g to 200 g of the starter. I use double the amount of water and triple the amount of flour in any mixture I like (so 1-2-3) and then I add nuts and seeds as I fancy.  What is left of Grumpy gets a feeding and goes into the fridge until the next time.  And I just want to say that is is way easier than I ever thought baking bread would be.
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Perfect sourdough bread - with a little help from a French friend

I love my sourdough.  I love it slightly toasted with some
 cheese.  And yes, I'm planning to make my own soon. The
Rose jelly is also a favorite and easy to make.

Another bread with a different recipe.  I've been making the same bread a few times but thought I'd try something a bit different.  So I found this website, chocolateandzucchini.com, which is the very best one that I have found so far.  It has very detailed explanations and she even tells you the why's.  I love that.  I need to know why.  I hate not knowing why, so this woman is my new hero.   She is French, but she writes it in English.  I just love her blog and highly recommend it to everyone interested in cooking, because this blog is not just about baking.

This recipe has worked very well for me every single time.  I have followed Clotilde's recommendation to make the starter in the evening and start the dough the next morning.  Clotilde is very good a explaining everything, but this is my shorter version of it.

200 g. Starter sponge.  This post explains how to make the starter.
400 g. Water
600 g. Various flours
           I usually use about 150 g. Rye, 250 g. Spelt, 200 g. Whole wheat and mix them with a whisk.
15 g. Salt (the recipe calls for 10 g, but I like salty bread)

Put the sponge in the Kitchen aid bowl and add the room temperature water and stir. Then add the flours.  Stir on the lowest setting for a few seconds.  Then let it rest for 30-40 minutes.  The rest allows the flour to absorb more water.  Then add the salt and any nuts or seeds that you want to add.  I've used sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and pine nuts.  Mix for a few minutes until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and looks smooth.  (This can all be done by hand, obviously).  I put olive oil on my hands to avoid the dough sticking to them and gently coax the dough out of the bowl and into an earthenware bowl.  As I do this the surface of the dough gets covered in oil, but additionally I put the plastic bag on top and wrap the bowl in a kitchen towel and put it by the shelf for an hour or two.

After that the dough will have risen.  Then I take the dough out and use a spatula to fold the edges into to the center.  I do this all around the edges of the bowl and then I cover it with plastic and wrap it a towel and let it rest for another hour.  Then I repeat that.  Let the dough rise until it has doubled.  If in doubt poke a finger into it and if the indentation remains, it is ready.  I fold the dough again and gently lower it into a pot.  To prevent the dough sticking to a pot.  I pour a bit of oil into it and add some flour.  Rub the mixture on the bottom and sides of the pot.  I have a terrible time remembering to cut slashes in the bread, but that looks pretty neat.  I found that using oiled scissors is much easier than a sharp blade or knife.  Put the lid on and put the pot into the cold oven.  Turn it to 240 C/460 F and let it bake for one hour.

Many people use dutch ovens or baking stones, but I own neither.  I have used a stainless steel pot with its lid to bake the bread.  It works beautifully even if it is rather unconventional.  When the time is up I take the pot out of the oven turn it upside down and knock on the bottom.  If it doesn't sound hollow I put it back in the oven.  Alternatively stick a cooking thermometer into the center of the bread.  It is done if that reads 100 C / 210 F.

When it is done, the bread needs to cool completely before being cut or it will be gummy.  I've found this to be true.  The bread lasts me a week and I don't freeze it, but it is easy to freeze half for use later in the week.

This recipe works really well for me. The bread rises beautifully and much better than when I have put the dough into a preheated oven like many other recipes suggest.  I am working on getting the courage to try the sourdough baguette recipe next.
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Yoghurt - homemade and to die for delicious

I have been picking up jars of all shapes and sizes to use
to store herbs and all sorts of stuff.  This one is perfect for
my yoghurt.  I hae two that I alternate.  I also can't resist
collecting coneswhen I see them laying on the ground.

I eat yoghurt every morning for breakfast.  I'm not adventurous (at least about food, I find it a bit of a bore to have to eat constantly) so I always eat strawberry yoghurt.  Last time I was on vacation I got in the habit of mixing my own from the buffet because they didn't have the European style yoghurt that I like.  I used unflavoured yoghurt that had an ingredient label that said something like: "Yoghurt and not much more" (many makes have all sorts of nasty sounding stuff in them) and then I mixed it with strawberry compote, almonds, walnuts, dates and rolled oats and whatever else took my fancy.  Oh, what a breakfast!  Much better than the small cup of yoghurt I had gotten used to.  So when I came home I started to think about making my own.  I've looked a yoghurt makers at stores and I've seen so many recipes through the years  and often thought about it, but... you know.  When you haven't done it, it just seems to be such a bother.

But I found this wonderful website, Smallnotebook.com and blog (I love the clean uncluttered look of it as well as the subject) about organzation and clutter and some really good instructions for making your own yoghurt.  So I just did it!

It was really much easier than I anticipated and the result was a stunningly good yoghurt.  I didn't use any complicated equipment, all you need is a candy thermometer that goes up to 180 F / 85 C, a pot, a jar and the oven.

I only used 600 ml (20 fl oz) of milk for my first try.  I measured the milk into a pot.  Put it on the stove, turned on the heat and waited for it to reach 180 F / 85 C.  It does so when it starts to bubble and threatens to boil over, so watch it carefully.  When that temperature is reached some people try to hold the milk at that temperature and that will supposedly give a thicker yoghurt.  I didn't try to do that, but took the pot off the heat and plonked it into a large bowl with ice and water to cool.  This cools the milk fairly rapidly (which I understand is better) and it should go down to 110 F / 42 C but not colder.  Then I poured some of the milk into a glas jar and stirred in 1-2 tablespoons of store bought yoghurt, unflavoured.  After that I poured in the rest of the milk and stirred the whole thing, gently.  Then I put it in the oven.

Now, my oven has a digital display so I turned it to 45 C.  But I also put a candy thermometer into a glass of water and stuck it in there, just to check the temperature.  It turned out that my oven is colder than it displays, so I turned it up until the candy thermometer read 110 F / 42 C, which turned out to be 50C.

The yoghurt stays in the oven for 7-8 hours and during that time it shouldn't be moved too much.  I did this in the morning and just about freed my oven in time for dinner.  For some people it makes sense to do this late at night and take it out in the morning.  Then the whole thing is put in the fridge to get completely cold.  After that it is ready to eat.

Mine turned out perfect.  Just the way I like it.  Much better than the organic yoghurt that I bought to use as a starter.  That was unusually thin and watery and I was worried that it wouldn't be any good, but that fear was unfounded.  I do not like yoghurt that has been thickened with gelatin or starches, but those who do like that can probably use those to thicken their homemade yoghurt if they want.  I've also seen recipes that used powdered milk in addition to regular and that will make a thicker yoghurt.  I use full fat milk for my yoghurt, but it can be made with reduced fat milk, although why anyone would want that is beyond me.

I didn't add any sugar to the yoghurt, but I defrosted some strawberries and added sugar to those and heated that on the stove.  When it cooled I whizzed it in a blender and put in in a jar in the fridge.  Now  I can make my own blend every morning.  I don't want everything to be mixed together too much, I enjoy the contrast of the sweet strawberries and tart sourness of the yoghurt.  But I have seen recipes that put sugar and vanilla into the milk before it is heated so I guess that is a possibility for those who have a sweet tooth.  I really recommend this to anyone who eats yoghurt.  It's like so many things that just taste completely different when home made.  And this way you know exactly what is in it.

Hmmm... Bread?

I have a few cross stitch pieces that my great aunt made.
She gave many of them to my daughter but I have still to
put them in a frame yet. Love the tureen with the
vegetable decoration. It came from my mother in law.

I have been thinking that I may be suffering from a serious midlife crisis.  Like the middle aged men who run out and buy motorcycles, trade in their wife for a younger model and so on.  Except my symptoms are an obsessive interest in making things.  All sorts of things.  And one obsessive interest seems to breed another and snowball into a collection of unfulfilled areas of interest that manifests in a stack of books.

The other day I suddenly got an urge to bake a sourdough rye bread.  I honestly do not know where I got that idea from.  Most often my interests seem to evolve naturally from one area to another:  Soap to creams and lotions and back to soap on to essential oils and medicinal plants with a detour to crocheting borders for duvet covers and from there to dyeing with natural materials to bookbinding (yes! Bookbinding is fascinating), but this had no connection to anything else and surprised me.  I love to bake cakes and cookies, but that is just selfish, indulgent greed.  Bread?  No!  Tried it once.  Killed the yeast.  Decided it was not for me.  But then I got this strong urge.  One problem with a sudden urge to make sourdough bread is that one has to have a starter to make it.  Making a starter takes at least a week if successful.  So I have been having a close relationship with Grumpy, my starter, for a few weeks.  It wasn't successful at first.  He seems to be in good shape now and I have high hopes for his longevity.

It was a bumpy ride that started with an innocent mix of rye flour and water in equal amounts.  I used a glass jar.  Then I waited for it to start to bubble.  I stirred it every day, twice a day, until it did.  Then I fed it.  Also every day.  This involves discarding half of it and adding more flour.  It soon started to ferment and bubble quite happily.  It was a bit like magic.  Life from nothing, it seemed.  But getting from there to bread is only a part of the way.  My first attempts went into the trash with an loud bang.  I could have killed a man with that heavy blunt instrument.  This last one I baked in a cast iron pot that was too big, so it looks flat, but it tastes very, very good.  I also think that I may be starving my starter.  But I'm getting there.  I used a recipe from The Fresh Loaf site.  The recipe for the first bread is:

300 g. Whole wheat
150 g. Spelt
50 g. Rye
50 g. Whole grain starter

375 g. Water
10 g. Salt

I used my rye starter which is a bit wet.  If the starter is very  dry then use less, about 40 g.
This recipe is very simple and it worked fine for me.  I dissolved the starter in the water.  Added the salt.  Then the flour, which I had mixed well with a whisk.  I use my Kitchen aid mixer with a dough hook to mix the dry and wet ingredients.  Then I put the dough (it's sticky) into an oiled bowl and covered it with a plastic bag and a towel.  Placed it somewhere warm and draft free,  I let it rise overnight on the kitchen counter, for 10- 12 hours.

There is the wet finger test to see if it has risen fully.  You poke a wet finger into the dough up to the first knuckle.  If the hole remains and doesn't spring back then the dough is fully risen.  Then the dough is taken out, stretched a bit and folded, this should be done gently to preserve the gas bubbles that the rising has produced.  Then the dough is shaped into a ball.  It then needs to sit for another 2-3 hours and should rise again.  I put mine into a cast iron pot that had been heated in the oven at 230 C / 450 F.  I put a lid on and let it bake for 40 - 50 minutes, the last 10-15 without the lid.  To test for doneness one can apparently knock on the bottom of the bread and it should sound hollow.  This process is beyond my comprehension so I prefer to stick an instant read thermometer into the center of the bread.  The internal temperature should be about 99 C / 210 F.

I will continue to work on my bread until I get the perfect loaf.  I still have some way to go and taking good care of Grumpy is a high priority now.

In the spirit of Christmas

The cookies jar is another find at the Good S, but the
candle thing (what is that called) is German, but bought
in York, UK when I was a student. My uncle has one that
is white and big. He must have bought it in Prague where
he studied, but this was the biggest I could afford.

Bluegras is the Icelandic common name for Geranium sylvaticum.  It alludes to the fact that it was used for centuries to dye cloth blue.  Sometime after 1780 an old woman died in Iceland and with her the knowledge.  She didn't share it with anyone and the art was lost.  Just before 1980 another woman in Iceland was the only one left who knew her craft.  She had just been diagnosed with cancer when she told me that she was going to teach me how to wash, starch and iron the traditional priest's collars.  It wasn't a request.  All priests in Iceland prayed for her partly, I'm sure, because they feared that the knowledge would die with her.  I also prayed fervently because I wasn't at all sure that I would be able to supply the collars as perfectly as my aunt had done for decades.  My great aunt lived another good twenty years and by the time she died in her 90's she had taught others.

Knowledge and passing it on is what keeps civilizations going.  Traditions, recipes, ways of doing things, stories and wisdom is passed from one generation to the next.  I have a feeling that grandmothers have passed along the majority of the knowledge until there was printing and books.  Now the internet is this wonderful source of knowledge that one couldn't even have dreamt about before.

I am very grateful to the many women (and few men) who make soap and blog about it.  The knowledge that they share so generously has become a constant source of delight for me.  I eagerly wait for every new post and photo and I try to find new blogs every now and then.  And new countries.  I am also grateful for Google translate.   I know that the translation isn't perfect, in fact at times it makes foreigners speak the weirdest English, but how else would I have an inkling what bloggers in countries like Russia, Japan, Chile, Turkey and Spain are talking about.  As it is I have learned so much from so many people that I have never met, nor am I ever likely to.  I love that and I am grateful to every one of them.

I have a favorite recipe that I have never given to anyone (well, no one has ever asked so it's not like I said no, even if I would have wanted to).  It is my German grandmother's Christmas cookies.  My mother has made them every Christmas for as long as I remember and so have I ever since I had a home myself.  I usually make a double recipe because they are quick to go.  In the spirit of Christmas I would like to share it.

150 g. /5.3 oz. Hazelnuts (or Almonds if you prefer)
125 g. /4.4 oz. Dark chocolate
175 g. /6.0 oz. Icing sugar
2 egg whites

Grind the nuts and the chocolate in an almond grinder.  Blend the dry ingredients, siv the sugar if it is lumpy.  Whisk the egg whites stiff.  Fold the dry ingredients into the egg whites.  Don't stir.  It will look like it is impossible to do but it will get there.  Make little tops with a teaspoon onto a baking paper and bake for 7-10 minutes at 175 degrees C.  Let cool on the baking paper.  Store in a cake tin.
The cookies sometimes keep their shape, but sometimes they go flat.  Either way they taste wonderful.  Crunchy on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside and they are of course absolutely essential for reading comprehension during the holidays.
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Rose hips - full of vitamin C

I really wanted to make these into a necklace they were so
pretty. And I really would like to be able to make oil from
those seeds. There's so many of them.

Autumn, not at all my favorite season, does have a few redeeming qualities.  One is the crops that are there for the picking.  I'm not a cook, but I love to bake and make sweet stuff.  That of course includes jams, jellies and syrups.  I have posted a few of my recipes but one I haven't posted yet is rose hips.  I picked a lot last year.  I in fact only discovered them here last year as I was walking the dogs.

There is this huge overgrown bush close by my house in no mans land and suddenly it was full of these lovely red fruits.  I quickly realized that they were rose hips and having read about them in Danish magazines for years (decades) I excitedly went a picked a few.  And then a few more and then even more since I started seeing them everywhere.  I think I still have some in the freezer since last year and I guess I'll use those to feed the birds this winter.  My only regret is that I am not able to extract oil from the seeds because there are so many seeds, it's unbelievable.  I did find a something on the internet that was supposed to do that, but It was too expensive.  But it would sure be fun to be able make my own rose hip oil.  I have infused rose hips in oil, but it's not the same.

But this summer was very good and so far the only sign of autumn is in the shorter days, so now we can light candles in the evening (and taking photo's without flash is getting increasingly difficult.  But temperatures are still in the 60's (we call that summer over here) so I have to wait a bit longer to gather a decent crop of rose hips since they are at their best just after the first frost.  And I read somewhere that rose hips have the most vitamin C in the coldest regions so here it must contain mega quantities.  But I have started to collect a few to make into a jelly to join the red currant and gooseberry jellies that I have already made.  I like to make small quantities, so my recipes are usually enough for maybe 6 jars or so.  Although i only had 3/4 of a jar of gooseberries, but boy are they good!

I like to make fruit syrup as well a jellies and one of the advantages of not making jam out of the rose hips is that there are a lot of tiny hairs inside and they used to be used a an itching powder by naughty boys in the olden days (before my time) and most recipes recommend that the seeds and the hairs be removed.  I'm too lazy to do that.  It's just too much work.  So here is my recipe for a jelly where that stuff is just sived away.

2.3 liters / 2 quarts   Rose hips
1.7 liter / 1.5 quarts  Water
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 packet pectin (depending on what you use the directions can be different)
1/4 tsp butter
3.5 cups sugar

Top and tail the rose hips and put them in a pot, pour the water over and let simmer for about 1 hour, or until the rose hips are soft.  Mash this in the pot with a potato masher or use a food processor if you wish.  The pour this into a jelly cloth contraption and let the juice run of for at least an hour, longer if you can.  Squeeze out all the juice.

Now measure the juice, you need 3 cups.  If there isn't enough then add water.

The juice along with the lemon juice is put into a clean pot and this is heated.  Add 3 tsp of sugar to the pectin and set aside.  Add the rest of the sugar to the pot and when that is dissolved, but the butter in and boil the whole thing hard for 1 minute.  Then add the pectin/sugar blend and boil for another 1/2 minute.  Pour into sterilized jars.  Close them when cold.
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Rhubarb delicacy and liquor

I love rhubarb and I'm always looking for
new recipes to try out.  I just had to try this. 

I do like Rhubarb.  I guess the flavour reminds me of childhood when we ate the raw stalks, sometimes after dipping them in sugar.  Back in those days there weren't that many sweets available so we kids would eat all sorts of plants such as Njóli (Rumex longifolius), Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) and Rhubarb.   I have to admit that my tastebuds can't bear the acid taste of raw Rhubarb anymore.  Nor am I a fan of Rhubarb jam.  I find it too heavy and almost gluey in concistency.  Although I have tasted very good jam that was 50/50 Rhubarb and Strawberries.

But before my youth, way back in the old days when fresh fruit was only seen in Iceland before Christmas and canned fruit was an expensive luxury, the heel of the Rhubarb was considered a special delicacy.  It was thought to taste similar to canned pears and those were expensive and difficult to get.  So when making Rhubarb jam, the heels would be cut away and canned separately.  This fact seems to be lost on many today as most people know that they are supposed to cut the bottom off the stalks, but instead of treating them with the reverence they deserve, people throw them away.  For some reason I mentioned this to a friend and a few days later she showed up with a bag of Rhubarb heels for me.  So this is what I did with them.

Rhubarb delicacy from way back when recession was the way of life

First I cleaned the heels and cut off the brown bits.  I then weighed them and I had about 200 g / 7oz.
I put them into a small pot and poured 180 g / 6.3 oz of sugar over them.  I heated this up and let it simmer gently until the heels were soft.  I then poured this into a sterile canning jar and let it cool before I closed the lid.  This is lovely warmed up slightly and served with ice cream.

I am still harvesting Rhubarb and have a few other recipes that I am going to make.  I'm making another batch of ice cream, this time I'm goining to siv the rhubarb bits out and see if my youngest likes it better.    I've made syrup before as well as saft, but I came across a recipe for a liquor that I thought was interesting.  I doubt that I'm going to try it, but even though I don't like to post recipes that I haven't tried and tested I thought I would write it down in case I change my mind.  It might make an interesting gift.

Rhubarb liquor

This recipe is for about 6 dl. and takes about 4 weeks to do.

5 dl / 2 cups Rhubarb pieces
4 dl / 1 3/4 cup vodka
1 vanilla pod
1,5 -2 dl (3/4 cup more or less) simple syrup

Put the Rhubarb into a jar. Pour the vodka into the jar, put a lid on and shake for a few minutes.
Let this stand for about 2 weeks.  Add the vanilla pod.
After about 4 week you siv the booze and add the simple syrup and stir well.  Taste and add more syrup as you like.
Let this stand for about a month to let the flavours mellow.
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