Gourmet

THE ENCHANTING Harbingers of Spring: Transforming your table with powerful Scandinavian plants

By
Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – As the chill of winter fades away, nature awakens with a vibrant burst of life, bringing forth the first harbingers of spring. Among these are the delicate cowslip, vibrant cornflowers, resilient dandelions, and versatile stinging nettle. Found abundantly in home gardens, these powerful Scandinavian plants not only symbolize the arrival of a new season but also offer a myriad of opportunities to elevate your dining experience. In this article, we explore the beauty, health benefits, and culinary potential of these simple, natural, and edible plants, transforming your table into a captivating feast for the senses.

Cowslip (Primula veris): Embracing Delicate Beauty
With its dainty yellow blooms, cowslip adds a touch of elegance to any table setting. The tender petals can be used to garnish salads, desserts, or cocktails, adding a subtle floral note and a pop of color. Its presence on the table invites a sense of tranquility and heralds the arrival of spring with grace.

Horned pansy (Viola cornuta): Vibrant Colors and Culinary Versatility
Cornflowers, with their vibrant blue hues, are a visual delight that captures the essence of the season. These edible flowers are not only beautiful but also rich in antioxidants. Add a few cornflowers to salads, infuse them into syrups, or freeze them into ice cubes for a stunning and refreshing twist. Their delicate flavor and striking appearance make every dish a work of art.

Dandelion (Taraxacum): Nature’s Nutritional Powerhouse
Often dismissed as a common weed, dandelions are a nutritional powerhouse. Packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, these sunny yellow flowers and tender greens bring vitality to your table. Incorporate dandelion greens into salads, brew dandelion tea for a cleansing beverage, or use the petals to create homemade dandelion jelly. These humble plants remind us of the abundant health and beauty found in nature’s offerings.

Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica): A Versatile Culinary Gem
While its name may sound intimidating, stinging nettle is a culinary gem. Packed with nutrients and known for its detoxifying properties, nettle leaves can be used in a variety of dishes. Blanched nettle can be added to soups, stews, and pastas, offering a vibrant green color and a subtle earthy flavor. With proper handling (gloves and blanching), this “powerful” plant becomes a flavorful addition to your spring table.

Don’t forget that people also eat with their eyes! A good cook always serves food beautifully!



Eating with the Eyes: Captivating the Senses

Beyond their health benefits, these simple Scandinavian plants offer a feast for the eyes, transforming your table into a visual masterpiece. Their vibrant colors, delicate petals, and unique shapes add an artistic touch to any dish, inviting you to savor not only the taste but also the beauty of your meal. From a simple salad adorned with cowslip and cornflowers to a nettle-infused soup served with edible dandelion blossoms, each dish becomes an expression of natural beauty and creativity.

As spring breathes new life into our surroundings, it also offers an array of powerful plants from our home gardens to enhance our dining experience. Embrace the delicate beauty of cowslip, the vibrant colors of cornflowers, the versatility of dandelions, and the culinary potential of stinging nettle. These simple, natural, and edible plants bring health, beauty, and a touch of Scandinavian charm to your table. By incorporating these enchanting harbingers of spring, you create a feast for the senses, nourishing not only your body but also your soul. So, let the beauty of these powerful plants inspire your culinary adventures and celebrate the season of renewal with every bite.

Images: NordenBladet

SEA CABBAGE SALAD with tuna fish, tomato, cottage cheese and pumpkin seeds

By
Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – I’m sharing with you a recipe that I myself have created. The salad is easy and quick and is amazingly tasty and healthy and it has just five ingredients but tastes like restaurant food acknowledged with a Michelin star.

Helena-Reet’s recipe for a healthy Sea Cabbage-Tuna salad with tomato, cottage cheese and pumpkin seeds

Ingredients:

380g cottage cheese (for example Alma)
3-4 fresh tomatoes
2 cans of 185g tuna fish. Suitable in tomato sauce as well as in salty water.
1 pack of 500g natural Kapten Grant’s sea cabbage
100g of peeled pumpkin seeds

Preparation:

Wash and chop the tomatoes and mix with all other ingredients in a big bowl.

For garnish you can add for example dill, basil and buckthorn! In summertime strawberries and flower blossoms are great (for instance primrose, marigold, cornflower or fireweed)

Those who have tried it before have asked for more!

Bon appetit!





WHAT are funnel chanterelles and how to store them for winter?

By
Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – Yellowfoot chantarelles (Cantharellus aurora) and funnel chantarelles are very popular food mushrooms in the Nordic countries (especially in Finland), which, in addition to the golden chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius), are also gaining popularity in Estonia. Funnel chantarelles are relatively difficult to notice because, due to their yellowish-brown color, the mushroom colonies resemble fallen tree leaves in autumn and thus blend well with the surroundings. They can be harvested from August to November.

But if you already find funnel chantarelles (Craterellus tubaeformis) in a coniferous or mixed forest, it is very easy to pick them because they grow together. As they are not eaten by worms, you don’t need to check the mushrooms before putting them in your basket. It is also convenient to transport them because chantarelles are very wiry and do not break so easily. In the absence of a basket, they can also be temporarily carried / placed in a plastic bag or backpack.

The funnel chanterelle cap is 2 to 6 cm in diameter, funnel-shaped, grey to dark brown with its edge curled downwards. The underside of the cap is grey or waxy yellow and resembles spore leaves. The gills are either light grey or bluish grey, branching and descending towards the stem. The stem is 3–5 cm high, 0.5–1 cm in diameter, cylindrical, hollow inside, springy-wiry, pale yellow to dark yellow in colour.

How can you prepare chantarelles?
It is not necessary to scald or boil funnel chantarelles for food. Boiling also makes the mushrooms chewy. It is therefore advisable to scald and / or fry the fresh chopped mushrooms, which have been previously washed, or cleaned with a damp cloth or a brush, in a pan. Mushrooms can also be frozen raw, but they lose their structure and turn into a mash when thawed. To prevent the mushrooms from burning to the bottom, they must be mixed gently during frying. Next, make a delicious mushroom sauce, mushroom pie or let it cool and put in the freezer. Butter sautéed mushrooms stay fresh in the freezer for about three months, lard sautéed mushrooms for half as long (up to half a year). Frozen raw mushrooms stay fresh even longer.

In this way, all the mild-tasting mushrooms that do not need to be scalded can be preserved: chanterelles, boletes, funnel chanterelles, hedgehog mushrooms, orange milk caps, saffron milk caps, champignons, parasol mushrooms, sheathed woodtuft caps, etc.

Natural medicine views chanterelles very highly because they outshine all other mushrooms thanks to their beneficial properties. They have anti-tumor effects, they help boost the immune system, provide support in case of inflammatory processes and are a natural antibiotic.

Chanterelles contain many different vitamins — vitamin D and vitamins B (mainly B1, B3). The mushrooms contain several times more beta-carotene than carrots, so in traditional medicine and home witch kitchens, the preparation of chanterelles is used to correct vision and in case of loss of night vision. However, the most wonderful feature of chanterelles is that they contain quinomannose, which helps in helminthiasis, i.e. they actually fight all worms in the human body. No other mushroom has such a property—not only to scare away and remove parasites from the body, but to surround the parasite’s eggs and dissolve them in a film—and neither has it been observed in any plants. If they are consumed for alternative treatment, it must be remembered that the mushrooms must be used raw, dried or powdered (dried at max +40 C!). Heating destroys the antiparasitic effect of the mushroom.

Folks have used chantarelles to help treat the following problems:
– anthelmintic effects (giardiasis, ascariasis, etc.)
– liver diseases (hemangiomas, fat build-ups, hepatitis)

Chanterelles are one of the fattest mushrooms, containing up to 0.4 percent fat. They are difficult to digest, but rich in vitamins, minerals and micronutrients. Their protein content is 2.5 percent. But mostly chantarelles contain water: 91–93 percent. The energy content of 100 g of chanterelles is 30 kcal. Thus, the best known and most loved mushroom in our forests is actually a superfood. There are few people who do not know or have never eaten chanterelles.

How to make a beneficial chantarelle tincture?
When using dry chanterelle powder, take 5 tablespoons of the powder and place in a clean and airtight half-liter glass jar. Pour on mild 40% vol. vodka, fill the jar to the rim and close with a lid. Place the jar in a warm dark place for two weeks. Shake lightly once a day. When the tincture is ready, filter it through a paper coffee filter at least 3 times. Pour the filtered tincture into a clean dark bottle and keep in the dark.

Take 1 tablespoon in the evening with warm tea, as a course of at least three weeks; for children at 5 years of age, 1 teaspoon.

Put in a hot tea, let it stand for at least 5 minutes. Drink before going to bed when the tea is ready to drink and the alcohol has evaporated. It is good to repeat the course every 1–2 months.
When using fresh chanterelles, clean and wash the mushrooms, drain and cut them to size of a fingertip, and place in a glass container. Lightly fill the container and pour 80% vol. grain-based quality alcohol on top. Fill the container to the rim and close with a lid so that no air is trapped inside. Seal airtight, place in a dark and warm place for two weeks. When the level of the alcohol drops, refill to the rim.

All subsequent steps are the same as described above.






Photos: 6x NordenBladet / Helena-Reet Ennet
Source: NordenBladet.ee

Recipe: HOMEMADE delicious HAM and BASIL buns from yeast-levened dough

By
Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – Homemade food is delicious and I enjoy coming up with new recipes. These recipes are usually based on what can be found in the refrigerator. Buns from yeast-leavened dough is of course a classic pastry. Making them, especially if you decide to buy a ready-made frozen dough, is super easy! You can wrap anything you like in the ready-made dough: mushrooms, ham, cheese, wieners, meat, carrots, rice or anything else exciting! Here, however, I present you a nice and spicy ham and basil buns recipe.

You will need:
500g frozen yeast-leavened dough
250–350g ham
200–300g cheese
100g basil in tomato sauce or other similar herb mixture in tomato paste
a pinch of dill

Preparation (15–20 min):
Unroll the pre-melted dough or, if there are plates, make it bigger and cut out beautiful square pieces. Add ham, dill, cheese and basil paste and wrap it all together. The edges can also be pressed with a fork, so they stick better together. Buns bake quickly in an already hot oven. In the meantime, I lift the buns out and flip them over so that they are baked nicely on both sides.

P.S. They taste best warm!
Bon appetit!






Photos: NordenBladet / Helena-Reet Ennet
Source: NordenBladet.ee (Helena-Reet´s recipe collection)

Recipe: HOMEMADE onion solyanka with three meats

By
Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – Solyanka is a Russian national dish that is very popular in Estonia as well. I make solyanka from different meats, but solyanka is also very tasty when prepared with chicken, fish or mushrooms. The best soup is made when you don’t follow the exact recipe, but you do what’s left in the fridge from previous meals. There are a lot of onions in the Estonian-style solyanka, but there is no definite rule here. If you like, you can also add potatoes and carrots.

You will need:
400–500 g of onions (approx. 4–5 onions)
3 cloves of garlic
4 tablespoons of oil
2 tablespoons of flour
150 g of concentrated tomato paste
1–1.5 l of hot beef broth (2 bouillon cubes can also be dissolved in hot water)
3 bay leaves
10 grains of black pepper
4 sour pickles or marinated pickles
300 g of wieners
300 g of half-smoked sausage
50 g of olives
If you wish, leftovers / shashlik from the previous day

For serving:
sour cream 20%, green onion, dill

Preparation (40–50 min):
Chop the onions and fry in heated oil in a soup pot and mix with flour. Add heated water, a pinch of salt, bay leaves, pepper and braise for about 15 minutes. Now add the tomato purée, chopped garlic and pitted olives, mix everything well and let braise for a few minutes. Then put in a pot pickles and minced meat (wieners, smoked sausage, shashlik). Mix everything well and let it boil. Then reduce the heat and let it braise for a while.



Photos: NordenBladet/Helena-Reet Ennet
Source: NordenBladet.ee (Helena-Reet’s recipe collection)

Food of Iceland: What is Laufabrauð and how to make it? + Recipe and VIDEOS!

By
Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – Laufabrauð (Icelandic pronunciation: ​[ˈløːivaprœiθ], “leaf bread”; sometimes also called “snowflake bread” in English) is a traditional kind of Icelandic bread that is most often eaten in the Christmas season. Originating from northern Iceland but now eaten throughout the country, it consists of round, very thin flat cakes with a diameter of about 15 to 20 cm (6 to 8 inches), decorated with leaf-like, geometric patterns and fried briefly in hot fat or oil.

Laufabrauð can be bought in bakeries or made at home, either with ready-made dough or from scratch; patterns are either cut by hand or created using a heavy brass roller, the laufabrauðsjárn (“leaf bread iron”). Leaf bread making at home is usually a family undertaking and often an essential part of the Christmas preparations, where several generations gather and take part in the decorating.




Laufabrauð. Photos: 3x NordenBladet

Many families have their own personal traditions surrounding the bread. They gather together in the beginning of December, usually on the first Sunday of Advent, and make a full day out of it. Groups of 12-15 can make several hundred cakes at a time. At the end of the day, the cakes are split evenly between all and are stored in cookie tins until Christmas. Recipes are passed down from mother to daughter and there are also designs passed down through generations.

Traditionally, this was the only time of the year when men took any part in the cooking. They would roll the dough out, which takes considerable effort because of the required thinness, and/or cut patterns into the bread with their pocketknives. Thin bread, which used to be a necessity, is now the sign of a good laufabrauð. If you can read newspaper headlines (or even the articles) through the rolled out dough, you’ve done it right.

Dough is kneaded by hand, rolled into a long cylinder, and wrapped, usually in a tea towel, and allowed to rest. Today, bakeries will sell pre-kneaded and cut dough that only needs to be decorated and fried, but where’s the fun in that?

The dough can be made with pretty much whatever flour you’d like – regular white, whole wheat, rye, whatever. Sometimes caraway seeds are added in. Icky.

The cylinder is cut into about 40-50 pieces. They are flattened by a rolling pin as thin as they can possibly be. The dough dries out quickly and must be kept wrapped. Once a slice is cut off for decorating, the cylinder of dough is immediately wrapped up again, usually in a tea towel. Scraps and cutoffs aren’t re-kneaded because they will just dry out, so they are fried and eaten as a warm treat.

A plate is placed on top of the rolled out dough and a circle is traced using a kleinuhjûl (a knife that resembles a pizza cutter). Today, the bread is usually decorated with a special knife called a laufabraudsjárn, but some families’ still use pocketknives. In that case, each circle of dough is folded into a half moon and small slantwise cuts are carved into it. Once this is done, the half moon is unfolded and every other “leaf” is flipped back.

Recipe:

4 1/3 c. (1000 g) flour
¾ c. (200 g) rye flour
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
¼ c. (50 g) butter, melted
4 1/3 c. (1 l) warm milk
Oil or fat for frying (about 1 liter)

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, rye flour, sugar, and salt. Add melted butter, warm milk (heat it to just below the boiling point then allow to cool slightly) until you obtain a smooth dough. Flatten the dough into very thin circles, like pancakes. Decorate by cutting out patterns with a sharp knife. Using the tines of a fork, poke holes all over the dough circles (to prevent the formation of bubbles when frying). To prevent the dough from drying out before frying, stack the breads on top of one another, placing a sheet of parchment paper between each. Heat oil or fat in a deep pan until very hot (180°C). Using 2 forks to put them in oil, fry the circles of dough for about 1 minute on both sides until golden then immediately press the bread between newspaper and papertowels with a flat pot lid. Store the breads stacked in a tin box in a cool, dry place so that they don’t break. Laufabrauð is traditionally eaten with hangikjöt (smoked lamb).

Laufabrauð origin.

The preparation of this bread is a tradition that originated in northern Iceland and subsequently expanded throughout the territory. The first written mention dates from the first half of the 18th century (1736). It was probably older, but there are no references to it. Today, it is an essential Christmas tradition in Iceland.

Iceland, at that time, was a country in which it was very difficult to find products such as flour, sugar, salt… especially in winter. They were considered luxury products and only accessible to the richest. In addition that most of the times they arrived with mold by the lack of interest of the merchants. Until the 18th century there was no milling equipment in the country.

The Icelanders learned how to make water mills. The problem was the grain, although it was cheaper, they had to save to be able to buy it. That is why everything made from flour was intended for special occasions. Housewives tried to stretch the dough as thin as possible to create more pieces. They said that the ideal was to be able to read the Bible through the dough. Each bread was designed with great care and affection to emphasize the importance of consuming that piece of bread.

Where Can one purchase a “Leaf-Cutting Tool” for Laufabrauð?

For many Icelanders, making laufabrauð (leaf bread) is an essential part of Christmas preparations. The art of making leaf bread is usually a family undertaking, where several generations gather and take part. Leaf-bread making traditionally requires a laufabrauðsjárn, or a leaf-bread roller, which can be purchased in, among other places, Kokka, Allt í Köku, and Brynja.

Kokka (on Laugavegur 47) offers two types of leaf-bread rollers: a 22mm roller (ISK 18,500) and a finer, 12mm roller (ISK 20,500). According to a sales representative, Kokka currently has a few leaf-bread rollers in stock; however, as many Icelanders begin preparing leaf bread in early December, they “usually go quickly this time of year.”

Allt í köku (on Smiðjuvegur 9 in Kópavogur) offers three types of leaf-bread rollers: a 12mm roller (ISK 20,495), a 22mm roller for (ISK 18,495), and a 22mm roller with a custom-made wooden handle (ISK 23,995). Last year, “all the rollers sold out,” (excepting those with the wooden handles).

Brynja (on Laugavegur 29) offers one type of hand-crafted leaf-bread roller (ISK 21,840). They expect the rollers to sell out in early December.

It’s interesting to note that most of the rollers that the abovementioned vendors sell are produced by Handverk Haraldar. The company is owned and operated by Haraldur Guðbjartsson who is one of only a few Icelanders who manufacturers hand-made leaf-bread rollers. Haraldur acquired the company, along with the manufacturing equipment, from Ægir Björgvinsson and his wife “Didda” in 2013.

Recipe: the Nordic karask (instant bread) aka kefir pastry with hemp seeds and maple syrup

By
Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – An example of the Estonian national cuisine is barley bread karask, which is easy to prepare and one might even say this is the lazy man’s bread. The classic karask is a pastry made from kefir, sour milk or butter milk, also from curd or yoghurt, barley or whole wheat dough pastry. Barley contains B-group vitamins (including folic acid) and E-vitamin, also barley helps lower the levels of cholesterol and gives you the feeling of fullness for a long time.

As for me, I always make karask from a mixture of three types of flour, with kefir, not using soda, yeast or any other leavening agent – the bread will rise nicely anyway. The crispy warm karask tastes wonderfully and it is far easier to prepare than the regular bread. You do not need the leaven and do not need to wait for the dough to rise. Today I will share with you one of my recipes for making barley bread karask.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BwJtYIBnSZ7/

Helena-Reet’s home made hemp seed karask with maple syrup:

For a large loaf you need : 600-800g of 2,5% kefir, 300-400g barley flour, 150-200g oat flour (or buckwheat flour), 150-200g wheat flour (or corn flour), 2 eggs, 2-3 tablespoonfuls of maple syrup, 2-3 tablespoonfuls of linseed oil, 7-9 tablespoonfuls of pumpkin seeds, 5-6 tablespoonfuls of sunflower seeds, 2 tablespoonfuls of sesame seeds, 2 tablespoonfuls of pared hemp seeds, and pink Himalayan salt (add generously).

I add all ingredients with no particular sequence, then I gently mix everything together (so that eggs will blend in the flour) and then either fill the bread baking containers or add the little buns straight to the baking tray. Oftentimes when using the bread container, I remove the half baked bread, turn it upside down and then bake the soft base of the bread as well. The crunchier, the better. The bread is best when still warm and with some added herb butter. I prepare basil-spinach butter (mix smashed basil, spinach and butter. Also, you can add chopped garlic and wild garlic/bear leek to the mixture).

Note that the more seeds you add the more nourishing the pastry becomes. The calories in one loaf might be as many as 3000-4500 (in a 1 cm slice around 300-450kcal, therefore one or two slices will be quite enough for one meal). So what useful ingredients do you get from the pastry loaf? A barley bread karask prepared with this recipe will contain plenty of beneficial biotin, folic acid, phosphorus, calcium, sodium and B1, B6, B12, C, D and E vitamins.




https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv8yv_0n2db/

Photos: NordenBladet/Helena-Reet Ennet