Highbush Cranberry Jelly

Our first fall in Fairbanks I distinctly remember walking up the hill behind our house and exclaiming, "What is that smell?" This was not in a good way. This smell reminded me of a cross between gym socks and a musty old antique book store. I thought for sure that something had died and was decomposing in the leaves somewhere. Now, I don't know a lot about food writing...but I am pretty sure that you are not supposed to use smelly gym socks, and decomposing in the opening paragraph to describe something you are about to eat. Yup, I am about to go there. You see, I discovered the source of this fine scent was actually the highbush cranberry that was growing like mad along the edge of the trail. Surely they can't be edible? It turns out that they are indeed edible and often I now see highbush cranberry jelly at the Farmer's Market. I myself could never imagine making such a thing. Really, how could I even stand to pick them? I have to hold my breath each time I walk past them.
How was it that I ended up not only picking 4 cups of these berries, but bringing them into my house and cooking them? I blame it on Hank Shaw. That's right that Hank Shaw from Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook. It is his fault. I have been a fan of Hank's site for a couple of years now. I finally had the opportunity to meet him (only for a brief moment) at Blogher Food in Atlanta last spring. The one piece of advice he had for me was that I needed to try the moose meatballs from his site. He said, "they will blow your mind". So, I patiently waited for moose season to come around in Alaska. We don't hunt ourselves, but someone usually kindly offers us a little moose meat each season. A couple of weeks ago I finally found myself with the moose meat I had been waiting for. This is when I realized that Hank's recipe called for one dreaded ingredient, highbush cranberry jelly. Now, to be fair he did mention I could substitute lowbush cranberry (lingonberry) jelly. I really wanted to try the recipe as it was intended. I suffered through the picking, and jelly making, and even as I took the photos for this post. In the end I was glad I did, the meatballs were amazing, but it was the sauce that really made the dish. The highbush cranberry added a real earthy taste. I don't see myself smearing this jelly on toast anytime soon, but I will be making the meatballs and the highbush cranberry sauce again for sure.

Pannukakku

Still looking for something delicious and super easy to make Christmas morning? Pannukaku is a traditional Finnish Breakfast dish usually served with jam. It is related to crepes, swedish pancakes, and I believe most resembles the Dutch Baby. It is definitely more buttery (making it good for special occasions as you might only want to eat it once a year) and a little more custardy. Although I never had it growing up it was very popular where I lived. They even serve it at a local restaurant, The Suomi Cafe where the pronunciation sounds more like Bunn-oo-guck-oo. The pronunciation is probably more Yooper (a person living in Michigan's Upper Peninsula) than Finnish.Now, I have to stop in for breakfast and Pannukakku every time I visit. Traditionally, I believe it is supposed to be served with Lingonberry Jam. The Suomi Cafe serves it with Raspberry, and David eats it with Maple Syrup. I say make your own traditions. We will being eating our traditional cinnamon rolls, but if I thought I could get away with something this simple I would! Happy Holidays everyone.

Lingonberry Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta

This was my third attempt at Panna Cotta. I nearly posted the lovely Vanilla Bean and the Lemon that I made this past spring. Something was holding me back. Although those other recipes were far easier than this one, there was something slightly off with the consistency. What I am finding with the other two recipes is that they are perfect texture after about four hours, the problem is that if they sit overnight they continue to gel and become more the texture of jello, any longer and you have Knox Blocks. It seems that powdered gelatin just keeps getting more solid. A few weeks after this experience I still had two draft posts sitting in my inbox when I came across a blog article called "Perfecting Panna Cotta". If you are ever planning on making Panna Cotta, even this recipe I recommend you read the article first. I knew right away that I needed to delete those other two posts and try again. Then I promptly forgot all about it, until I saw a great recipe for Blackberry Panna Cotta. I started thinking about all my berry options and decided to go with Lingonberry. Unlike powdered gelatin, sheet gelatin takes some time to set up. I was really worried about these when I tried them after 6 hours as they were more the consistency of mousse, but had I read the instructions more carefully I would have realized they need to set up for a full 24 hours. At 24 hours they were perfect, I then held out and tried one each day for the five days following. Day five they were still perfect. They are really light and not very sweet, the perfect thing after a big meal. If you like things a little more on the sweet side I recommend adding an extra 1/4 cup of sugar, but if you like the tart natural flavor of the berries follow the recipe as posted.  Also, don't miss the fun blog photo out takes after the recipe. 

Lingonberry Vinaigrette

 A while back Bon Appetit did an article on New Austrian Cuisine. I made the entire dinner including goulash, spaetzle, and a red cabbage salad. This meal had a lot of flavors going on. Each individual component was good, but all together the competition happening on my tongue was just too much. When I asked David how he like the meal he said, "These flavors are just not something I'm used to, but I like the radioactive red color of the dressing on the cabbage." Somehow, I knew exactly what he meant. That dressing was really good, too much for the meal that night, but I knew if I worked with some of the ratios I could create a really good every day salad dressing. That is a really good thing considering I still have over 6 quarts of lingonberries in my freezer from last fall.


Lingonberry Vinaigrette

Ingredients
3 tablespoons lingonberry preserves,
or 1/4 cup lingonberries(fresh or frozen) and 1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Preparation
In a medium bowl combine all ingredients and blend with an immersion blender, or use a regular blender. Serve over a bed of salad greens, ours was great topped with diced granny smith apple, chopped toasted walnuts, and gorgonzola.

*For those living in Alaska Lingonberries are called Low-Bush Cranberries.

Dutch Baby

There are so many breakfast dishes similar to this one. My obsession with them started when we picked more lingonberries than we knew what to do with last fall. I thought it would be nice to make a traditional lingonberry dish and made Pannukakku. It was good, but the recipe I used was nothing like the Pannuakakku I remembered eating at the Soumi Cafe when I was growing up. So a few weeks ago I made a similar dish called an Apple Pancake, which was much better and quite tasty. I'm sure the apply pancake will become a regular player in the Saturday morning breakfast routine. I was still looking for a solid stand alone replacement that could nicely hold a lingonberry sauce. Then I found this recipe for the dutch baby in the last issue of Gourmet Magazine. I stuck to the recipe and topped it with lemon sugar. Yes, I did use Meyer Lemon zest that I have stored away in the freezer. The next time I make this I will use some of the lingonberries that are still lingering or would that be lingonring in my freezer. I loved the texture and the flavor of this Dutch Baby pancake. The recipe called for making this in a 10 inch cast iron skilled, but I used a glass pie plate and it turned out just as well. Next time I might double the recipe and make it in a 9x13 pan. I can't wait to make this one again...

Dutch Baby with Lemon Sugar
from Gourmet

1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
3 large eggs at room temperature 
2/3 cup whole milk at room temperature
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Put a 10 inch skillet or pie plate on middle rack of oven and preheat oven to 450ºF.
Stir together sugar and zest in a small bowl.
Beat eggs with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and frothy, then beat in milk, flour, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and continue to beat until smooth, about 1 minute more (batter will be thin).
Add butter to hot skillet and melt, swirling to coat. Add batter and immediately return skillet to oven. Bake until puffed and golden-brown, 18 to 25 minutes.
Serve immediately, topped with lemon sugar.

Pannukakku with Lingonberry Sauce

Our Alaska Lowbush Cranberries are actually the same berry as the Swedish Lingonberry. As I mentioned earlier, this year we have a bumper crop. If I continue and this cranberry kick I will have to change the name of my blog to "The Red Kitchen". This morning I decided that it would be great to make a traditional Lingonberry dish for breakfast, a celebration of a beautiful fall day and a bountiful harvest. Growing up the Suomi Cafe was the local place for a hearty breakfast and they served Pannukakku and although I have probably only eaten it once or twice, I have always wanted to try making it at home.
I started the Lingonberry sauce last night before bed. I like my sauce pretty tart, so up the sugar to 1- 1 1/4 cups if you like it sweeter. This can be served warm or cold. I put the sauce in the fridge overnight and served it cold on the Pannukakku. The Pannukakku recipe I found on the Kreative Kirstin blog was good, but I could tell that the amount of butter was WAY off. I used half a stick and it probably would have been fine with 1/4 stick.

Lingonberry Sauce
3 cups lingonberries or cranberries
1 cup water
3/4 cup sugar

In a medium saucepan combine cranberries and water. Boil over medium heat for 15-20 minutes until sauce begins to thicken. Remove from head and add sugar, stir until dissolved. Let cool. Transfer to refrigerator. Serve.