250 g dried currants (normally raisins but I prefer (Danish): korender, (German): Korinthen (MUST be organic, otherwise they are waxed and the wax melts when heated and it is disgusting)
1 vanilla pod
2 cinnamon sticks (Sri Lanka or Ceylon – NOT Kassia)
10 cloves
8 cardamom pods, slightly crushed
If you like your glögg extra spicy, add 10 black peppercorns
If you like a slight licorice note, add 4 star anise as well
1 knob of fresh ginger, sliced
The peel of 1 lemon
The peel of two oranges
150 g chopped almonds
Sugar to taste, but remember that the port and the raisins/currants are sweet
Please note that at least all fruit must be organic. Otherwise it is treated with some kind of wax (among many other toxins) which really does not work when heated, or at all.
Mix some of the port with vanilla, peels and spices, bring to just under boiling point, remove from heat and leave to infuse for at least 24 hours. Will keep longer in a well-sealed container in the fridge. For convenience, place the peels and spices (which need to be discarded before serving) in a gauze bag or a tea filter bag, or just pour it through a fine-meshed sieve before heating and serving.
Mix the brandy/rum with the raisins/currants and leave for at least 24 hours.
To serve:
Heat all ingredients gently in a heavy-bottomed pot, making sure it does not boil. Serve piping hot in mugs or glasses, with a spoon for the raisins and almonds.
Reposting, as this is a good winter dessert (despite the ice cream). Too heavy for summer.
When I saw this recipe in Olive Magazine, I was intrigued, not only by the celeriac in a sweet recipe but also because I had never heard of Parkin cake before. It turns out to be a time-honoured, tried and tested classic. That shows how much I know about food.
I made some adjustments along the way. For example, for the parkin cake, I don’t like the idea of “self-raising flour” (as they insist on spelling it, although it is actually “self-rising flour” – but I have discovered that you can’t trust their spelling at all despite the fact that it is an English mother-tongue magazine). I have also translated the rather cryptic “mixed spice” into part cinnamon and part nutmeg.
Also, since I do not have an ice cream machine – I know – big mistake, but they do take up a lot of room – I have changed the procedure of finishing the ice cream slightly. I whipped the cream separately, and since I used organic eggs in a country with strict salmonella control, I skipped the bit where the egg mixture is heated up.
For the ice cream:
1 celeriac, peeled and finely sliced, should yield about 500g
300 ml whipping cream
700 ml milk
160 g golden caster sugar (I used Rewe’s bio Rohrohrzucker)
9 egg yolks
Heat the oven to 200C/fan. Place the celeriac slices in one layer on a baking sheet. Bake till the celeriac is dark brown. It is OK if it seems almost burnt around the edges. This will bring flavour and colour.
In a saucepan, bring milk and the baked celeriac to the boil, then take it off the heat and allow to infuse for about an hour. Then blend till smooth.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whip sugar and egg yolks till light and fluffy and the sugar has dissolved, then mix with the celeriac milk.
Whip the cream to soft peaks and fold into the mixture.
Cover with cling film and place in freezer. For the first couple of hours, stir regularly until almost at ice cream texture.
For the parkin cake:
100 g flour
1 heaped tsp baking powder plus a pinch of salt
1 heaped tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 large pinch grated nutmeg
200 g oats (I used coarse or “large” oats, but the finer, smaller variety is probably better)
200 g golden syrup (I had some rice syrup nearing its sell-by date and supplemented with maple syrup)
75 g black treacle (I used Rapunzel Zuckerrohr Melasse)
100 dark muscovado sugar (I used Rewe’s Brauner Roh-Rohrzucker)
110 g unsalted butter
1 egg
1 tblsp milk
Heat the oven to 160C/fan.
Sift the flour, ground ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg into a large bowl, add the oats, and mix.
Melt the golden syrup, treacle, sugar and butter in a saucepan, until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.
Pour the hot mixture into the dry ingredients and quickly mix thoroughly.
Add the egg and milk, then mix again briefly.
Pour the mixture into a buttered and lined loaf tin. The tin I used was about 25 x 9 cm, and fitted perfectly. The cake rises between 1 and 2 cm during baking. Bake for 50 minutes or until a knife comes out fairly clean. The cake should be dense and sticky.
Cool in the tin.
For the pears:
400 g sugar NOTE the recipe calls for golden caster sugar. I used Rewe’s Rohrohrsugar which is clearly not suited for this purpose, and the whole thing got rather messy and difficult to handle. My guess is that ordinary white sugar would do just fine.
4 pears, peeled, and each cut into eight wedges lengthways
1 star anise
1 vanilla pod, split lengthways
1 cinnamon stick
100 g unsalted butter
On low heat, melt the sugar in a frying pan until you have a light caramel. Don’t stir, just tip the pan till it is all melted.
Add the pears and stir gently. Beware of splutter.
Add the spices and keep stirring. If the sugar stiffens, turn up the heat a little and keep cooking until it melts again. Continue to cook until a knife can go through the pear with ease, but be careful not to overcook.
Remove from heat, then add butter and give a final stir once melted.
Pour the pears into a sieve over a bowl, to stop the pears from over-cooking, and to preserve the caramel sauce which is to be poured over the pears and icecream when serving.
Parkin cake keeps well, and gets stickier with time.
Alledgedly, parkin cake can be frozen, wrapped in cling film and tin foil, but I can’t confirm that yet.
Conclusion: Celeriac ice cream is nice, but only as a novelty and together with these other two components. I would never make it to be eaten on its own or as part of any other dessert.
I would also look at other ways to caramelize pears – in this version it was quite difficult as the sugar kept lumping up.
But star anise in a caramel sauce – why have I never thought about that – from now on I will remember that whenever I caramelize anything – sweet or savory.
1 heaped tsp turmeric and a healthy dose of freshly ground pepper
1 tsp salt
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (“Natron”)
200 g carrots, peeled and grated
a handful of walnuts, slightly crushed between the fingers
300 ml yoghurt (the recipe calls for low-fat Greek yoghurt, but I normally only have 3,6 percent goat yoghurt in the house
1 dl milk (the recipe calls for semi-skimmed milk – I used oatmilk but I am sure any kind of milk or plant-based milk will do
Heat oven to 230 C (fan 210).
Mix the flours, oats, salt, turmeric, pepper, and bicarbonate of soda well and stir in the carrot, walnuts and yoghurt.
Then mix in enough of the milk to make a soft, quite sticky dough, and form a flattish ball. Put this on a baking sheet, slash the top and bake for 30 minutes or until risen and baked through.
30 g each of pumpkin and sunflower seeds and 20 g each of flax and sesame seeds for coating
Dry-roast the pumpkin and sunflower seeds till you can smell them, let cool, add the flaxseeds, salt and 1 dl cold water, and let soak at room temperature for about ten hours.
Grate the pumpkin. Mix with the flour, the soaked seeds and the salt.
Dissolve the yeast in 3 dl cold water and add to the dough. Knead well for ten minutes, add water if needed. Coat a bowl with oil and leave the dough to raise to double its size at room temperature, two to three hours.
Dust a space on the table top with flour and turn out the dough. Knead, flatten and fold, and knead for a while, divide into two portions and let rest for ten minutes.
Mix the coating seeds. Coat two baking tins approx 9,5×25 cm with oil. Wet the surface of the dough slightly and roll the breads in the coating seeds and place in the tins.
Cover and let rest for 30 to 40 minutes while heating the oven to 250 C.
Bake for ten minutes, reduce heat to 210 C and bake for another 35 minutes.
1 medium red cabbage, trimmed and finely sliced (I had about 700 g cabbage after peeling, trimming and slicing).
250 ml cranberry juice
250 ml orange juice
2-4 tblsp goosefat or duckfat or vegetable oil
2 medium red onions, chopped
Balsamic vinegar
Raspberry vinegar
1 small glass cranberries
For the spice bag: A generous knob of ginger, sliced, 4 bay leaves, 6 juniper berries, 6 cloves, 10 black peppercorns, 1 cinnamon stick, broken into a couple of pieces, and 2 star anise.
A little bit of maizena, salt, pepper, sugar.
Day 1: Marinate the cabbage overnight in apple- and orange juice. Stir once or twice and pack the cabbage down tightly each time.
Day 2: Sauté the chopped onions in fat or oil.
Add cabbage with juices, stir, then stir in most of the cranberries and add the spice bag. Season with salt.
Simmer 30 to 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, seasoning along the way with cranberries and balsamic and raspberry vinegar. Some might want to add a little bit of fish sauce for an oriental flair.
Depending how sweet the vinegars and the cranberries are, some might want to add sugar as well.
Finish with the maizena, according to personal preference.
Refrigerate overnight.
Remove the spice bag and reheat to serve. Leftovers are great in and with many types of sandwiches.
300 g flour 200 g sugar (any kind – I used brown “Rohrsucker”) 2 tblsp of the best cocoa powder you can find 175 g whole almonds 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 heaped tsp ground cloves 1/2heaped tsp ground cinnamon Grated peel of 1 organic (or at least unwaxed) lemon, washed. 3 whole eggs
Add lemon peel and eggs and knead to a uniform dough. Add more flour if it is too sticky.
Shape the dough into two approx. 20 cm long rolls. Place on baking paper and flatten them slightly to achieve the classic biscotti shape.
Bake for 15 minutes and remove from oven. When the rolls are cool enough to handle, using a very sharp knife, cut them into approx. 1 cm slices and bake again for ten minutes.
Let cool completely and keep in a container with a tight-fitting lid.
And remember – biscottis are supposed to be hard. That way, at least those of us with old teeth have an excuse to dip them in our coffee before eating.
Blend the following in a blender or food processor:
250 g of any kind of flour. I used half chick pea flour, and half oatmeal. If you are a gluten addict, you can of course use wheat flour. Next time, I will try amaranth and/or millet.
2,5 dl water
50 ml olive oil
1 large egg
2 cloves garlic
1 piece fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 tsp sea salt
Remove to a bowl and stir in:
150 g cooked (boiled or roasted) beets, chopped or grated
75 g chopped onion
1 tblsp fresh herbs, chopped, or 1 tsp dried.
120 gram goat cheese, crumbled or grated
Big pinch freshly ground black pepper.
Mix well and bake in waffle maker for seven to eight minutes. Serve with for example a fried egg, a sauce made of goat yoghurt mixed with herbs, and caramellised onions.
Leftover waffles can be frozen and resiscitated in the toaster.
NOTE: The recipe that inspired me did not mention neither thyme, rosemary, ginger or garlic, but I think those flavours are required, and go well here. Alternatively at least a couple of bayleaves. There is no reason to make northern European food more bland and boring than it has to be. Perhaps I’ll add garam masala and chili next time.
It did list a dl of cream, but I have never been able to see the point in adding cream to savoury dishes, so I threw in 100 g oats instead (since I am trying to incorporate oats into everything these days).
1 tblsp butter (I used ghee)
200 g chestnut, cooked and vacuum packed
400 g potatoes
100 g oats
2 red onions (the original recipe says 1)
4 cloves garlic
1 piece fresh ginger, finely chopped
Sprigs of thyme and rosemary
1 l vegetable stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cut the chestnuts, potatoes, onions and garlic in large pieces and add, together with the ginger to a pan and sizzle in the butter.
Add the stock, thyme and rosemary, salt and pepper and bring to the boil and simmer for about 30 minutes.
Fish out the herbs, and blend the rest. Season and serve garnished with chopped parsley or roasted oats.
60 g peanut or almond butter (I used almond butter, and next time, I might replace some of it with tahin
50 g honey
4 tblsp pumpkin seeds
4 tblsp chia seeds
100 g oats
50 g chopped almonds
Optional: for extra nutrition, add 1 tblsp baobab powder, and for extra flavour, 1 tblsp of the best and darkest cocoa powder you can find.
Coarsely chop the dates and purée them with hot water. Start with 1 tblsp water and gradually add just enough to make a thick, fairly smooth purée.
Slowly heat up and mix the nut butter and honey.
Mix all ingredients well – best done by hand.
Line a small, square plate, 15×15 cm or similar, with baking paper, and PRESS the mixture into it. You want to be able to cut it into compact bars once it has set.
