Patrick's Food Ramblings

Musings on Viking breakfasts

patrick@cauldwell.net (Patrick Cauldwell) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:05:11 GMT

I’ve been doing some thinking this week about Viking-appropriate breakfast foods. My favorite breakfast at events is still dark bread with cheese, fish, kraut and hard boiled eggs, but there’s only so many times you can eat that, and some people fear fish. So…

Roasted barley flour + skyr: mix some roasted barley flour into skyr or non-fat yogurt, then top with honey (if desired, roasted barley flour is pretty sweet) and fruit, preferably berries.

Fried oatmeal: leftover steel cut oats cooled in a pan, sliced and fried in butter/lard/bacon grease/whatever. Would be good with butter and honey, or savory with bacon/sausage or fish (kippers maybe).

Scrambled eggs with dill and smoked salmon + some dark bread

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More dairy experiments

patrick@cauldwell.net (Patrick Cauldwell) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:14:51 GMT

I let my piima culture die over the winter, which made me sad. I have remedied the situation however, and now have not only a new healthy piima culture but some fil mjolk as well. I haven't tasted the fil mjolk yet, but it sets up very nicely at room temperature, and has a much sharper "buttermilky" smell than the piima. Both are room temperature "yogurt" cultures that come originally from Scandinavia. I also made some skyr last week, which didn't work out particularly well. I think I left it too long at too high a temperature, so it was very grainy and sour. It did produce some nice whey though, that will see it's way into lactic acid pickles over the next little while. I just finished some sauerkraut and some fermented bean paste before the whey was done, and they soured much more slowly than the ones using whey I made last year. I left some of the whey out to see how sour it will get. I'm itching to try some of the traditional Icelandic whey pickles, but need good sour whey (syra or mysa in Icelandic I think) to make it work.

I'm recovereing from a wintertime slump into too much prepared food and cooking a lot. It's so much fun to try new stuff. I managed to dehydrate a batch of Ethiopian berbere over the weekend, so it will hopefully keep longer and take up less space that way. I want to experiment with adding some to green pea flour for "instant" backpacking food. I think it should work pretty well. Only one way to find out...

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Beets and sweet potatos and garlic, oh my

patrick@cauldwell.net (Patrick Cauldwell) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:01:49 GMT

Yesterday I was reading an article on the NY Times about Hanukkah recipes, and decided to whip up some latkes for dinner, since even picky eater girl loves a good latke. I grated a couple of sweet potatoes, salt, pepper and cinnamon (Vietnamese cassia) and mixed with 3 eggs and maybe 1/2 cup of cottage cheese. They fried up beautifully on the cast iron griddle, and were a big hit as usual. I like the sweet potato better than standard for these, as they are easier to cook and the sweetness works well with the cottage cheese.

Anyway, I had hit upon this plan relatively early in the day, and was wondering what to make to go with them, when I remembered the forlorn can of pickled beets in my pantry at home. Borscht! Vikki favors a good cold borscht, so I made it so. I tossed two small diced yellow Finn potatoes and about 5 cloves of garlic into 3 or so cups of chicken broth, and cooked until the potato was soft, then cooled it down with ice. When it was cool I added the juice from the pickled beets, as well as the beets themselves (chopped), salt, pepper and the juice of one lemon, as well as about 4 more cloves chopped raw garlic, and some fresh dill. To serve, I added some sour cream (low fat) and some homemade sauerkraut which was very chunky and crunchy. I'll definitely be doing this one again. It was fantastic. Sweet, sour, crunchy, beety goodness with just enough bite from the garlic. When we were first married, we lived up stairs from a nice Russian lady who really liked Vikki and was always bringing her food. This was a lot like I remember her cold borscht, only hers was clear. I used Pacific Foods organic chicken broth which was not clear, and I'm not much for the skimming. But the flavor was pretty close, I think. If only I could find some good dark rye...

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Everything old becomes new...

patrick@cauldwell.net (Patrick Cauldwell) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 18:22:47 GMT

I love leftovers. There are an infinite range of possibilities for reusing stuff. I surveyed the fridge last night, and decided to kill two leftover birds with one stone. I took the last of the kahlua pork and some leftover greens cooked in coconut milk and used them to stuff enchiladas. I drained the greens, and filled each enchilada with some pork and greens, rolled them up, and topped them with some Tex-Mex style red chile gravy. Basically instead of the New Mexico style red chile and water enchilada sauce, this is more like standard gravy (begun with a roux and everything) with lots of red chile, cumin and garlic. To top it off I (or rather the 9 year old) grated a bit of Tillamook extra-vintage white cheddar, which proved just the thing. 30 minutes at 350° and all was good. They were a bit hit, and I'll definitely be playing with the chile gravy some more. It would be just the thing for a good CFS.

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Recycled pig and more

patrick@cauldwell.net (Patrick Cauldwell) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:56:05 GMT

I had some leftover kahlua pork, so decided to try some kahlua pig and cabbage, which is basically just that. Leftover pork with cabbage and onions in a little chicken broth. Very easy, a great way to stretch leftovers, and just the thing to go with kimchi. I had some from the store that was getting a little old, and yesterday I made up two big batches of napa kimchi with some nice locally grown napa cabbages I scored at Uwajimaya. Since I was in the mood I hacked up the cabbage I didn't throw in with the pork and made a batch of sauerkraut too. It's always nice to have a few crocks of something bubbling on the counter top.

I also had my first taste of full-on poi this weekend. I've cooked and mashed taro a bunch of times, but never had official poi until I found some at the store this weekend. It's certainly bland, but it went really well with the pork and cabbage, and is very filling. And supposedly it's really good for you. Plus, there's something just plain cool about purple food. :-)

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You can't go wrong with pig...

patrick@cauldwell.net (Patrick Cauldwell) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 20:38:15 GMT

...unless you happen to be veggie, of cource. :)

Vikki has declared a Tiki Christmas this year, so I decided to start practicing for Christmas dinner and made my first batch of kahlua pork last night. It worked out super well. A while back I got gifted this "indoor BBQ" which is basically a big-ass crock pot designed to hold ribs. That seemed like the perfect vehicle for experimentation. I got a super-cheap pork picnic roast which came in two pieces. I wrapped each piece in foil after slathering with a little liquid smoke and Hawaiian red salt, then tossed in the cooker, turned on low, before I left for work in the morning. By dinner time, the pork was completely falling apart, just like it's supposed to be, and turned out very tasty. Served with some rice and greens (spinach and mustard greens) cooked in coconut milk with some totatoes and Hawaiian salt. Mmmm. The only thing that would have made it better is if I'd had some ti leaves lying around. You are supposed to wrap the pork in ti leaves before the foil, but Uwajimaya is far from here, and I had to make do without.

For XMas, I'm thinking of applying the same principle to a turkey instead of pork (since it's Christmas, after all) with maybe some mashed taro and sweet potatoes with pineapple. And maybe the same greens but made with taro leaves (which are super good, and available at Uwajimaya) instead of the supermarket greens. Hmmm. I'll need to come up with some genre appropriate dessert too. Possibly involving coconut. The flaming bananas Foster with coconut icecream at the Luau the other day was pretty awesome...

All information is provided AS IS with no warranty express or implied. In no way does it reflect the opinions or views of my employer.

More Viking snack food

patrick@cauldwell.net (Patrick Cauldwell) — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 18:15:07 GMT

Last weekend I made some Viking-style snacks for another SCA vigil, and tried some new stuff this time. I made a big batch of skyr, and needed to make use of it, so I mixed some skyr with honey, then added some little dried prunes and hazelnuts fried in butter. This worked out really nicely, and includes ingredients common in the archeological record. It was quite good with the barley flat bread. I'm thinking it would be even better filling the barley pancakes. Hmm.

The other new one was some oatcakes, which were just butter, honey, oatflour and rolled oats (and maybe a bit too much salt). Baked until cookie like. They were a lot like simple (salty) oatmeal cookies. Good with herring. :-)

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Tiki drinks + historical research = great book

patrick@cauldwell.net (Patrick Cauldwell) — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 20:29:52 GMT

I just got a copy of the recently released

Sippin' Safari: In Search of the Great "Lost" Tropical Drink Recipes... and the People Behind Them

and it's proving to be quite an excellent book. Jeff "Beachbum" Berry has authored three previous books on Tiki drinks ( Beachbum Berry's Grog Log, Beachbum Berry's Intoxica!, and Beachbum Berry's Taboo Table) and the food that goes with them, and this is his finest work to date.

In his quest to recover the lost art of the faux tropical drink, he's done a truly amazing amount of legwork and research. Sippin' Safari is as much a work of history as it is a drink book. Mr. Berry tracked down an interviewed a number of famous (in the right circles) waiters and bartenders from the old tiki bars and gotten their recipes first hand, doing some detective work along the way. There's a whole chapter on tracking down the Zombie recipe (which I still haven't tried, as it takes a bit of prep), tracking down leads and referencing a copy of a 1937 bartenders notebook. Cool stuff, both from the tiki and research perspectives.

The book is filled with pictures of classic tiki bars, old drink menus, the bartenders and their families, and other interesting details surrounding the original 30s-70's tiki scene.

If you are into tiki, history, or both, this is well worth the read.

All information is provided AS IS with no warranty express or implied. In no way does it reflect the opinions or views of my employer.

Towards a better Mai Tai

patrick@cauldwell.net (Patrick Cauldwell) — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 20:22:46 GMT

being a recently converted Tiki enthusiast, I've been experimenting with a number of fine Tiki drinks, including the Mai Tai. It's hard to go too wrong with a decently made Mai Tai, but there's still room for both error and improvement. After checking out some of the advice on Tiki Central, last night I tried one with fresh Key lime juice (instead of fresh Meyer lime) and homemade Orgeat (made to this recipe) instead of the commercial Torani stuff. The improvement was quite noticeable, and even Vikki liked it (she's not generally a Mai Tai fan). The Key lime juice was sweeter, and less bitter, and the homemade Orgeat was less sweet, and not so artificially almondy. So altogether:

2 oz. Appleton Estate Jamaican rum

1.5 oz. Key lime juice

.75 oz. Bols Curacao (the only brand I could find)

.5 oz. orgeat

.5 Malibu coconut rum (not traditional, perhaps, but a very nice addition)

All information is provided AS IS with no warranty express or implied. In no way does it reflect the opinions or views of my employer.

That's good fish

patrick@cauldwell.net (Patrick Cauldwell) — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 17:03:37 GMT

I hit on a winner last night. Even the picky girl liked it. She went back for thirds, even, which pretty much never happens with her unless dinner consists of mac & cheese or snickers bars.

On a large piece on tinfoil, I laid down a thick layer of baby spinach leaves, and on top of that sliced tomato.

Next came a couple of mahi mahi fillets from Trader Joe's (where the prices for frozen fish are super-reasonable). On top of the fish I sprinkled some red Hawaiian salt, and about half a can of thick coconut milk. Chopped onions over the whole thing.

Sealed it up in foil, and baked at 375° for around 40 minutes. After it came out of the oven, I topped it with sliced avocado. Served up with some fried rice with Chinese sausage and sugar snap peas.

Totally a meal I'd do again, especially after the kid's reaction.

All information is provided AS IS with no warranty express or implied. In no way does it reflect the opinions or views of my employer.

berry time

patrick@cauldwell.net (Patrick Cauldwell) — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 17:39:49 GMT

At last night's Tuesday night market, we picked up a mixed flat of cherries, strawberries, gooseberries, red and yellow raspberries, and some boysenberries to boot. I think the mulberries come later in the season. The possibilities are endless, but I like either fresh berries by themselves, with some yogurt, or with barely sweetened home made whip cream. A quick dessert that you can whip up as the mood strikes.

Also at the market was a guy selling game meats (from a ranch in Bend). He had waterbuffalo, bison, elk, and even yak in a number of different cuts. I was most tempted by the elk ribeyes. The elk stew meat started at around $7.50/lb, which isn't too unreasonable, considering the limited market. There might be some Viking food in there somewhere.

All information is provided AS IS with no warranty express or implied. In no way does it reflect the opinions or views of my employer.

Asian vegetables

patrick@cauldwell.net (Patrick Cauldwell) — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:30:59 GMT

At the Sunday market in Hillsboro this weekend I scored some really nice gai lan ("Chinese broccoli") and some snow pea tendrils. The latter are the stalks that peas grow on, after you take the peas off. They have a very nice flavor, and stir fry well. I stir fried both of the above greens with a little ginger and garlic, some oyster sauce, a little dark soy sauce, and some Chinese rice wine. Just before the sauce went on, I threw in some fresh chow mein noodles I picked up at New Seasons. Quick, easy, and very tasty. So exciting to see fresh veggies coming in.

All information is provided AS IS with no warranty express or implied. In no way does it reflect the opinions or views of my employer.

How to build your own tandoor

patrick@cauldwell.net (Patrick Cauldwell) — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:08:47 GMT

There's a great blog dedicated to building your own backyard tandoor in an oil drum. Not only is this a cool project, but his food looks great.

All information is provided AS IS with no warranty express or implied. In no way does it reflect the opinions or views of my employer.

Weekend culinary adventures

patrick@cauldwell.net (Patrick Cauldwell) — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 17:35:45 GMT

I'm experimenting with Hawaiian/Polynesian food a bit, so Saturday night I made some kalbi ribs (not strictly Polynesian, I know, but popular in Hawaii) and a melange of taro, onions and plantains baked in pineapple juice, olive oil and ginger. I was very happy with the results, and it all went excellently well with kimchee. :) We also had some frozen laulau from Uwajimaya. It's one of my new favorite dishes, and I need to try making it from scratch. It's pork and butterfish wrapped in taro leaves and steamed. Extra good. Sunday morning saw a good Hawaiian breakfast of linguica, rice and fried eggs (scrambled for the girl).

Sunday dinner was my new favorite burger recipe, half beef, half pork, seasoned with pepper and alder smoked salt from Whole Foods. The smoked salt makes all the difference. Served up with authentic kosher pickles, and some locally made barbeque sauce we scored at the farmer's market. Good eating. And the local snap peas are coming in, also a welcome addition. Yay produce!

All information is provided AS IS with no warranty express or implied. In no way does it reflect the opinions or views of my employer.

Summer produce is starting to arrive

patrick@cauldwell.net (Patrick Cauldwell) — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 18:11:34 GMT

having dined two nights in a row on fresh corn, asparagus, and apricots/nectarines, I'm all revved up for produce season. We should start seeing more and more at the farmer's markets very soon. It takes a while way up North here, but I'm particularly looking forward to berry season. The last few years, our farmer's market has had mulberries, blueberries, strawberries, gooseberries (red and green), black and red raspberries, etc. Nothing better for breakfast with a little yogurt or cereal.

All information is provided AS IS with no warranty express or implied. In no way does it reflect the opinions or views of my employer.

The fermented tostada

patrick@cauldwell.net (Patrick Cauldwell) — Thu, 03 May 2007 17:24:32 GMT

I've been having lots of fun with fermentation lately, thanks to some very cool books like Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats and Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods. I'm on my second batch of fermented beans, and the 3-4 batch of sauerkraut now.

This morning it all came together in a fine breakfast. I took a "hand made" corn tortilla from Trader Joe's, heated it up with some cheddar cheese, then layered on some of the fermented beans (made with pinto beans and garlic this time), some cortida (Latin American-style sauerkraut), some pickled jalapenos, and some piima cream. Simple, fast, and oh-so-tasty.

Next up... I've got some gingered carrots and some turnips and beets bubbling their way toward pickle-hood on top of my fridge. A few more days until they are ready.

All information is provided AS IS with no warranty express or implied. In no way does it reflect the opinions or views of my employer.

Bread pictures

patrick@cauldwell.net (Patrick Cauldwell) — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 05:05:46 GMT

All information is provided AS IS with no warranty express or implied. In no way does it reflect the opinions or views of my employer.

Viking baking experiment - the earth oven

patrick@cauldwell.net (Patrick Cauldwell) — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 22:36:11 GMT

In my ongoing quest to reproduce the flat bread unearthed in grave finds at Birka and other locations, this weekend I got to try baking them in an earthen oven. I'll post pictures soon, but until then, a brief summary.

The oven was constructed by some friends of mine last fall. It's made from adobe, and is a dome shape about 4 feet in diameter and 2.5 - 3 feet high, with a smoke hole at the top, and an opening in the side just big enough to admit a metal baker's peel.

We fired the oven for probably 2-3 hours before any bread went in. For the first loaves, which were more modern sourdough loaves, we left some of the coals at the back of the oven, and put the bread in at the front. This left the oven way too hot, and the loaves blackened pretty seriously before they were done all the way through. For my flatbread, I scraped out the rest of the coals, and relied on the heat of the oven walls.

I used several different recipes, but the one that worked best was 1/2 whole grain barley flour, 1/4 oat flour, and 1/4 green pea flour, plus about 1/2 tsp of salt. I made a stiff dough using buttermilk, and left the dough unrefrigerated overnight to sour (it didn't, much). The dough was shaped into two flat "loaves", each about 8" in diameter, and 1" high. The surface was pricked with a knife before baking, to increase the surface area of the top crust and encourage drying.

The loaves went into the oven, and backed for probably around 20 minutes. As the oven cooled a bit, subsequent batches took slightly longer to firm up.

The result was quite good, with a crisp crust, and a nice texture. Not light, more like a heavy scone or batter bread in consistency. It went excellently well with some simple soft cheese and dried fruit.

I'll have some pictures up, hopefully this evening. I got pictures of the whole process.

All information is provided AS IS with no warranty express or implied. In no way does it reflect the opinions or views of my employer.

Viking breakfast

patrick@cauldwell.net (Patrick Cauldwell) — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 23:45:22 GMT

For this morning's breakfast I tried the "Viking breakfast" that I put together as part of the "Viking bachelor food" experiment. I didn't actually get to implement it over the weekend, as much of the food I'd set aside for the weekend ended up spending said weekend in the fridge in my office, not coming with me to the event. Very sad.

Anyway, this morning I lined up

A thick slice of the "IKEA bread", more properly "ragbrod", very coarse grained and hearty wheat and rye bread
two slices of gjetost cheese, a sweet cheese made from caramelized whey
a hard boiled egg (I settled for chicken, not having any puffins around)
a pile of home made sauerkraut
two nice fat pieces of pickled herring with onions (sooooo good)

It made an excellent breakfast, and really got the day off to a fine (and fishy) start. Easy, portable, and very satisfying. I'll definitely be packing this stuff along to events this summer.

All information is provided AS IS with no warranty express or implied. In no way does it reflect the opinions or views of my employer.

Kale, potato and cod

patrick@cauldwell.net (Patrick Cauldwell) — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 17:18:23 GMT

I had some little fingerling potatoes that I needed to use up (nice yellow ones) and decided to pair them with some purple kale and some lovely Pacific cod (wild caught in Alaska).

I oven roasted the potatoes with some salt and olive oil at about 400 until tender, and chopped them roughly. Separately, I sauteed some onion and garlic in olive oil, then added the chopped purple curly kale until it was all tender, and added that to the potatoes.

To finish up, I fried the cod in coconut oil until it was cooked through and lightly browned, then broke it up and mixed with the veggies, then at the last minute added some lemon-infused olive oil, sel gris, and some Balinese "long pepper", which has a very nice floral, peppery scent.

The result was a big hit with the whole family. The soft cod contrasted nicely with the tender-but-firm kale. Vikki suggested that next time I serve the potatoes on the side, largely because I was a bit off on my ratios, and the dish ended up a bit potato-heavy. Maybe only half the bag of fingerlings next time...

All information is provided AS IS with no warranty express or implied. In no way does it reflect the opinions or views of my employer.

Viking bachelor food

patrick@cauldwell.net (Patrick Cauldwell) — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 20:40:23 GMT

I'm heading for a small event this weekend that's billed as a "Norse Rendezvous", meaning we're roughing it with as little gear as we can manage, and trying to find out how much trouble we can get into.

In keeping with the theme, I'm trying to figure out what the Viking equivalent of traveling provisions (aka bachelor food) would be. In a Fur Trade (Mountain Man) context, that might mean some bacon and beans or dried corn, maybe some flour and salt for biscuits, jerky, etc.

So far I think I'm going to bring

a loaf of Swedish dark rye bread (from a mix I got at IKEA over the weekend) which looks like a very black soda bread, coarse grained
pickled herring ('cause you have to have some, and it's the bomb)
sauerkraut (good winter vegetable, keeps well)
cheese (something Scandinavian appropriate, maybe gjetost)
hard boiled eggs (also good for traveling, keep well, calorie dense)
maybe a spot of bacon, but I might be too lazy to cook it.
some dried fruit, apples or prunes would be good

Hopefully by the end of the weekend I won't be too sick of eating that stuff. I'm thinking not.

All information is provided AS IS with no warranty express or implied. In no way does it reflect the opinions or views of my employer.

Fermentation experiment (beans)

patrick@cauldwell.net (Patrick Cauldwell) — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 20:31:14 GMT

I'm continuing to play around with lactic acid fermentation at home. The saurkraut came out pretty well, although next time I think I'll let it go a bit longer to see if I can manage a stronger flavor. The second experiment was fermented bean paste. Both recipes and suggestions around same came from Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, which I've been reading a lot lately. It has some very interesting things to say about what we eat as compared with what our ancestors ate, and why their way was probably better, which resonates well with me.

For the beans, I cooked up a batch of black beans, after soaking them overnight with some whey, as per the instructions. The cooked beans got mashed in the food processor with most of an onion, some salt, and 4 tbl. of when left over from the skyr. The resulting goo went into a mason jar, which sat atop my fridge for 3 days. It didn't seem to do much until the third day, when it grew about an inch taller in the jar, and looked a bit fizzy.

As no mold was in evidence, I went for it. The resulting bean mash is quite sour, and is excellent (if you like that kind of thing) on nachos along with some piima cultured cream, and also in wraps with some lettuce, cream cheese and pickled jalapenos. Good eating.

Next experiment... sweet potato. And another batch of cabbage, since we tore through the first batch with some brats in beer last night.

All information is provided AS IS with no warranty express or implied. In no way does it reflect the opinions or views of my employer.