My wife has been goat-sitting for some friends-of-friends the last couple of weeks, which means we’ve been getting a bunch of goat milk.  Over the weekend, she decided to make most of the supply into farmer’s cheese, which left a big pot of whey left over.  We didn’t want to just throw it out, since not only is it tasty but quite nutritious, so we decided to make soup. 

I threw in some barley, and let it cook until the barley was soft, then added a can of diced tomatoes, a bunch of dried basil, and some pepper, plus a bunch of pre-made frozen meatballs (yay, Costco) and a couple of handfulls of pre-washed baby carrots.  My total involvement was about 5 minutes, with maybe an hour total cooking time (mostly for the barley).

The result was quite tasty, with a distinctly sweet taste from the way, and a very rich, velvety texture.  The slight sweetness mixed with the tomatoes made me think of Spaghetti-O’s, only good.

The only thing I like better than easy food is easy food made from ingredients I already had.

Last night I finished up making the snacks for the party this weekend.  I've read several times that there are numerous examples of the Vikings using pea flour in their bread, and I had to try it. 

I used my hand-cranked grain mill to grind split peas into fairly fine flour, then mixed it with barley and oat flours and proceeded as I described for the other breads.  The result is quite tasty, and the pea flavor is not really evident, which is interesting. 

The last thing I made was some root vegetables in sour cream.  Beets with sour cream is a common modern Scandinavian dish, but I didn't have any evidence for beets in a Viking context, so I used diced carrots and parsnips.  I sauteed them until semi-soft, then added sour cream, salt, cumin, and mustard seed (whole).  Pretty good on the crackers.

I'll post some info on sources soon, I don't have them on my just now.

More snacks to add to the pile.  I made two sets of flatbread so far, which basically come out like big crackers.  These can be used to spread things on, such as the already made cheese, pea spread, etc.  Or herring, since who doesn’t like a good pickled herring?

There have been a few oven-like hearths found in the Viking context.  See Thora’s excellent summary for more info.  I think that bread, however, was probably more often cooked on the “frying pan”.  There are several examples from the archaeological record of long handled frying pans, which are essentially flat, sideless disks of metal attached to a long handle.  Flat, crackerlike bread would be very easy to cook on such a pan, by placing it over the open fire until the bread had dried.  Another possibility is the flat soapstone hearth.  Modern Finns still use (in some places) flat soapstones that sit next to the open fire.  You lay out your “cracker” dough, thinly rolled, on the soapstone until it starts to set, then take of off and prop it up next to the fire, with the top side facing the heat, until it’s dried hard.  Traditionally these breads were made round with a hole in the middle so that you could hang then on a string or pole in the rafters over the fire, where heat and smoke would keep the bugs off them making them last nearly indefinitely. 

I cheated, and made mine in the oven, since I didn’t have time to set everything up over a fire.  I modified a modern Swedish flatbread recipe.  I don’t think they’ve changed all that much, and it jives with the ingredients and techniques that were available in period.  I used 2–3 cups of mixed flour, part dark rye, part oat flour, part barley flour.  Wheat doesn’t grow well in Scandinavia, so rye, oats, and barley are much more commonly found.  There are also several instances from the archaeological record that include green pea flour.  I really want to try that out, and may tonight, but haven’t so far.  Anyway, I mixed the flours with about 1/2 cup of melted butter, maybe 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and baking soda, and enough buttermilk to make a very stiff dough.  In period, baking soda (calcium bicarbonate) as we know it wasn’t available, but they would have used hartshorn, which behaves quite similarly.  Hartshorn is ammonium bicarbonate, which is derived from burning deer antlers (hart’s horn).  It is still available from specialty stores, and is still used in baking in Scandinavia.  Supposedly (I’ve never tried it) it produces lighter bread/cookies than baking soda, and produces a very strong ammonia smell during baking, which isn’t present in the finished goods.

I let the dough rest for 20 minutes or so, then rolled it out on a greased cookie sheet and baked at 375° for 20–25 minutes.  After they were cooled, I left them out overnight to continue drying, since they should be crisp.  Putting them in a very low (200°) oven for a while would probably also help.  To roll them out, I used a modern Scandinavian rolling pin that is studded, so the resulting bread is textured on top.  I’m guessing in period they’d have probably rolled them out using a smooth stick, then pricked them with something fork-like to get the desired texture. 

I was asked a while ago to make some “Viking snacks” for a vigil party (it’s an SCA thing) that’s coming up this weekend.  The goal is stuff that can be eaten with fingers, and can be roundly divided into bite-sized thingies.  I started on the cooking last night, and wanted to share both the thought process and “recipes”. 

On the thought process side, it goes something like this: 

• the Vikings didn’t use “recipes” as we understand them today, or if they did, they didn’t write them down, since most of them couldn’t write anyway. 
• We do know from the archaeological record what cooking tools (and hence techniques) then had at their disposal
• we do know from the archaeological record what ingredients they cooked with, since there’s physical evidence
• nobody likes to eat food that’s gross
• we do know from the Sagas and from later written sources that the Vikings were fond of certain tastes (sour being big).

So what I made last night was:

• Some pea spread for putting on crackers/flat bread.  Split peas (which are common from Viking digs) cooked until pasty, tempered with some walnut oil (walnuts also prevalent) and spiced with salt, fresh dill and horseradish.  Essentially all the ingredients mentioned hereafter were common in the Viking context.  For a great summary, see Thora Sharptooth’s Viking Age Foodstuffs.  Most Viking hearth finds have been relatively large, open fire-pit style affairs, using pottery or the occasional metal pot that can be hung over the fire.  This dish lends itself to that style.
• Two batches of soft cheese.  There are a number of finds of cheese strainers from Viking digs.  These basically look like flattish colanders, sometimes with the inclusion of a loosely nalbound “net” of horse hair or other coarse material.  I used 1 gallon of milk, brought up to 185°, then mixed with 1/4 – 1/3 cup of vinegar.  You can use just about any acid you want.  I’m guessing they’d have used cider or malt vinegar, since those would most likely have been available.  I used red wine vinegar, since it’s what I had.   The resulting curds get placed in cheese cloth to drain until it’s as hard as you need.  One batch I made for spreading on bread/crackers, and seasoned it (after cheese cloth but before draining) with salt, cumin and fresh dill.  The other batch I mixed with a little sour cream and honey, to use in the following dish
• Stuffed prunes.  I got some pitted prunes, and stuffed them with the honeyed cheese from above and some toasted hazelnuts.  Prunes were very prevalent in the Viking context, both local and continental species, which suggests that they were importing prunes to meet demand.  Hazelnuts are also very common.  In some places hazelnut shells make up the largest component of food remains found.  I could probably find the reference if anyone is interested.

More to follow as I continue to cook.

Over the weekend we were having a family dinner that I needed something not too hard for, and I decided on caponata.  It’s one that my Mom taught me as she learned it from her Grandmother.  It’s an Italian dish (I think from the South, but I’m not sure).  It does take a little time, mostly because of lots of chopping, but it’s certainly not hard, and the results are great.  I’m trying to decide what to do with the leftovers, which only get better.

I started with two medium-sized eggplant, diced.  I cooked them in olive oil until they started to soften up a bit, some salt at this point helps.  Then I added some chopped onion, two chopped red bell peppers, garlic, oregano, and just a touch of pesto (I didn’t have any dried basil, or that would have been my first choice). 

Once that’d sauteed a bit, I added about 3/4 cup golden raisins, about as many green olives, and maybe 1/4 cup of capers.  Then about 1/4 of balsamic vinegar.  The trick is to balance the raisins and the onions against the vinegar/capers/olives to get a nice sweet and sour.  In times past I’ve added a touch of honey, but in this case the onions and raisins were enough. 

Just before serving I tossed in two sliced zucchini, and cooked it until they were just softening. 

Very tasty, and really easy.  Better the next day.  I served it with some polenta cooked with some aged fontina cheese.  The relative plainness of the polenta worked well against the caponata.

The party this weekend was quite a success, much food and much fun was had.  Here are some pictures of the spread.

On the far side are some spicy kebabs and some chicken wings, then a few cheese and olives (the small bowls) some kibbeh on the green platter, and various fruits.

more of the chicken and kebabs.

The dessert table.  Baklava, semolina cakes (behind the candle stick), some fried cheese pastries, and a chocolate cake in the background.

At the far end are hard boiled eggs and veggies, in the middle are hummus and baba ghanouj and more veggies, then a great mess of pita.

Feta, olives, felafel and pickles.

Last night I was looking for something quick for dinner, and my wife reminded my of “Garden Burger Stroganoff”.  It originally came from some veggie cookbook I can’t currently remember, and we’ve been making it in one variation or another for many years. 

While heating up water for pasta, I sauteed some onions and garlic with 3–4 medium sized portobello mushrooms until everything was squishy.  Then came salt and pepper, some dried thyme, and just a little red wine.  I cooked it until most of the wine was gone, then added about half a pint of sour cream (Tillamook reduced fat) that had been blended with about 1/2 a tablespoon of corn starch.  Flour works here too, but I didn’t have any white flour.  That will thicken up nicely.  Just before serving I put a couple of Garden Burgers (actual Garden Burger (tm) variety) in the toaster until they were crispy, then chopped them up and added them to the mixture. 

Serve over noodles.  I used some soy-based spaghetti, ‘cause that’s what I had, but egg noodle are probably preferable. 

Very simple, and quite “hearty”.  The whole thing can easily be done by the time the water has boiled and the pasta is cooked.

In preparation for the party this weekend, I spent pretty much the whole day yesterday cooking, which was a lot of fun, if tiring. 

I made vats of hummus and baba ghanouj, as well as some cheese filled pastries, a semolina-based dessert (think coconut and rosewater brownies) and most labor-intensive of all, some kibbeh. 

In making the hummus, etc. I have rediscovered how much I love my Braun hand-blender.  Love it.  I could make a whole big bowl of hummus at once instead of slopping batches in and out of my food processor or blender.  Goodness. 

This was the first time I’d attempted kibbeh, and now I remember why.    It’s very labor intensive.  You have to puree ground lamb (I actually used beef, since Anne’s allergic to lamb) with bulgur and onions until you get a very doughy meat-porridge.  Mmmmm.  Thank the heavens for latex gloves.  Then you make a separate filling of sauteed meat, onions, garlic, pine nuts, cinnamon and allspice.  The “dough” gets filled and you end up with little football shaped packages that will get deep fried on site.  I’ve had them in restaurants, and they are fabulous, so with any luck mine won’t suck. 

It looks like there’s going to be some serious eating, drinking and being merry!

As lame as it is, I’m getting too much comment spam, so I’m disabling comments until I can find time to upgrade to dasBlog 1.7, which should fix the issue.  I’ll get the comments back on as soon as I can.

I’ve become completely entranced by- and infatuated with kefir. 

Having been raised on hippy vegetarian food, I was familiar with kefir from early on.  Always Alta-Dena brand, preferably strawberry, although my Dad favored the boysenberry.  It’s basically like yogurt with a consistency like a thin milkshake.  Tasty.  Apparently it’s an acquired taste though.  My wife Vikki can’t stand the stuff.  She says if it tastes like yogurt is shouldn’t be drinkable.  Just wrong. 

Anyway, I’ve always been a fan.  And lately I’ve been reading the odd article on the wonders of “probiotic” foods, a.k.a. those foods that contain live bacteria that are supposed to be living in our guts.  “Intestinal flora” as they say.  These can be wiped out by antibiotics and all the preservative-heavy food in the modern American diet, which leads to all kinds of problems.  So now you can buy “probiotic” yogurt and kefir, presumably with extra bacteria.  Or you can take “probiotic” bills that contain dried bacteria.  It’s all good. 

So back to kefir.  I’d always assumed that kefir was just yogurt that had been mixed up with stuff until it was runny.  And for many commercial brands that may in fact be the case.  But “traditional” kefir is made quite differently from yogurt.  It comes from the Northern Caucasus originally, and has been known historically around that region.  The word “kefir” itself comes from Turkish apparently.  The secret is what are called “kefir grains”.  These are actually little colonies of a bunch of lacto-bacteria with some yeasts that form little balls (the “grains”).  These balls grow and divide naturally until they look kind of like a cauliflower.  The kefir making process is quite simple.  You acquire a set of grains from somewhere, and stick them in a jar of milk at room temperature for around 24 hours.  They you pour your newly cultured kefir through a strainer to recover the grains for the next batch.  Very cool. 

I had to try it, so I got some starter grains on eBay and started production.  It looks like there are several suppliers who sell on eBay, or you can try G.E.M. Cultures (www.gemcultures.com).  There are also kefir-grain-sharing networks that you can find on the internet.  The grains grow quite quickly, so pretty soon you have more than you can handle, which is a good time to give some to a friend (or apparently to sell them on eBay).  I’ve only had my grains for a week, and with one batch a day, the grains have more than doubled in size. 

The taste is not nearly as sour as I would have guessed.  Fresh from the 24 hour culturing cycle the flavor is very mildly yogurt-ish, with a very slight taste of yeast.  It makes great smoothies, and is good on cereal.  If you like that kind of thing. You can “cure” it further if you want it more sour, but I haven’t tried that yet.  You can also get it to carbonate, which sounds pretty fun.  I’ll have to try that soon.  Also, supposedly the little critters are just as happy in soy or even coconut milk, which could be interesting. 

For more information on kefir than most people could possibly absorb, check out Dom’s Kefir in-site.  Highly informative, with lots of tips and tricks, and recipes.