We were joined by Jesper and Annett whom we met this summer in Hedeby and then again in Moesgård.
First a horn filled with self-made blackcurrant mead was passed around. The honey we got from beekeepers from the area, the blackcurrant comes from our own garden. We made so much mead that there will be enough for next year's Viking Markets!
For the meal we orientated ourselves to the following recipes (with our changes mentioned as well; the original recipes can be found in "An Early Meal"):
- "Wild Leaf Herb and Cheese Pottage": Basically wild greens with butter and cheese. Instead of the goosefoot, which doesn't grow at this times of the year, we used chervil greens and rapini. We shortly boiled the rapini but the chervil (as well as chives and a spring onion) we added raw and salted everything using wild garlic salt. Also, we didn't use any whey. The interesting thing about the recipe is that its focus lies on wild herbs. Instead of the goosefoot mentioned in the recipe one can choose any seasonal wild herb, so the meal tastes different every time.
- "Salmon in Turnip Stew": With this recipe we didn't deviate much from the original instructions. The greatest difference would be that we added some white turnips from our garden to the rutabaga which made up most of the turnip mix.
- "Buttered Turnips": The remaining turnips and rutabaga diced and boiled. Then some butter was added and herbs like dill, coriander and chives. Done! We didn't mush the vegetables, though.
- "Wheat frumenty with Cheese": Originally, this is a very simple recipe. Cook some wheat (for cooking) in water or stock, add hard cheese, crushed coriander seeds and cress. Our version was a little bit more elaborate: First we stewed some onions and savoy cabbage in butter and mixed this with he wheat. Apart from hard cheese we used coriander greens and seeds, mustard seeds and some beer vinegar for seasoning. Good to know: If you don't want to take "cooking wheat" but use normal wheat grains, it might be useful to let them soak in water for a day. But even then they take quite a long cooking time!
- "Hazelnut Treats": For these we cracked all the hazelnuts we had left. The nuts were then finely ground. Unfortunately, we left the cookies in the oven a little bit too long so they git quite hard. But still very tasty.
- "Apple Frumenty": Originally this meal would really fill up your stomach since here, too, wheat grains have to be cooked, and then mixed with apple and blackberry frumenty as well as roasted walnuts and some mint. The recipe inspired us to add apple frumenty as a dessert to our midwinter feast, but the ingredients we chose were slightly different. We left out the wheat but kept the walnuts (after all, we collected quite a lot if them during the HIKG). Instead of sour apples or crab apples and blackberries we took an apple frumenty made with the fruits of local apple trees and spices and rosemary which we made in late summer. With this we deviated from "Nordic" ingredients, but at this point were didn't really care. Those who wished for it got a little bit of skyr as well.
It was a lot of fun to try out these recipes and we're looking forward to try them on the markets as well. The midwinter night itself was really nice, too. We took the opportunity and later enjoyed the full moon while sitting next to a nice campfire. Many thanks to our guests for a great evening!
