Wild blueberry pancakes

We went to a little house in the woods in Sweden, and hardly saw any other people for a week. We did however find wild boar evidence and moose poo and tons of chanterelles, blueberries, wild raspberries, strawberries and lingonberries. Especially blueberries.

s and I had been getting into a good weekend pancake swing - the English kind, rolled up. I convinced him to try some thicker ones with wild blueberries in. We used this recipe, and they were great. This is our current favourite pancake recipe. I brought some blueberries back and froze them, we still have enough for one more round - then I will try with the frozen wild blueberries from the store.

(Makes about 10)

3/4 cups (c 175 ml) milk (used oat milk)

1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1 cup flour (or 1/4 cornstarch & 3/4 plain flour)

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg (note: I tried with flax egg - 1 tbsp ground flax seed mixed with 2.5 tbsp boiling water - when we ran out of eggs and they were also great)

1 tsp maple syrup (or sugar) (optional)

1/2 tbsp lemon zest

1/8 tsp salt

1/3 cup wild blueberries

Butter for cooking

Mix milk and lemon juice and let sit 5 min to curdle.

Mix flour, baking powder, salt and lemon zest in a medium bowl.

Beat eggs into the milk mixture, then add to the dry mixture gradually, beating in well. Mix in the blueberries with the final strokes.

Melt butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Drop in batter about a 1/4 cup at a time - I could fit 3 in the pan at a time. Cook a few min on the first side, until there are bubbles and the edges are set, then flip and cook on the other side. Keep going, adding more butter when needed. Keep them warm in a low oven if relevant.

Eat with maple syrup. Or, if you have plenty of wild blueberries, try putting a handful in a small bowl, adding a little lemon zest and juice, and drops of sugar, flour, and water, and blasting for around 30-60 sec to make a delicious jam-syrup (this would be just as good with frozen blueberries). Or, if you are sage, slather with Nutella and jam and maybe some berries on top.

Bircher muesli

Tried making bircher muesli once, ages ago, didn’t float my boat at the time. But since I’ve gotten so into overnight oats recently and we had some apples, I thought it might be worth another roll…

Seems like there are lots of variations out there… I wanted one with minimal prep in the morning, so decided to go with adding the apple the night before along with all the other stuff - more or less this one: 

Mix overnight: 

1 small apple, grated

1/2 cup rolled oats

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 tbsp sunflower seeds 

2.5 tbsp raisins 

130 ml oat milk 

 

To serve in the morning:

Skyr

Berries

Maple syrup (optional)

Grate the apple into a biggish eating bowl. Add the oats, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, raisins and oat milk, mix, cover and put in the fridge overnight. Eat with skyr and berries and perhaps some maple syrup in the morning.

Overnight chia oats

I got into a bit of a porridge phase over the winter, and when it started warming up felt like it was time to experiment with more alternative breakfasts, having been (happily enough) stuck in a muesli rut for years...

 

I ate some overnight oats that I bought when travelling, and realised these could be good. I'd tried making Bircher muesli ages ago, and at that time decided cold soaked oats weren't really my bag. But on reflection, maybe this had more to do with the sour-sweet-crunch of the grated apple. Also, it was a while ago, maybe I should try again. And I liked the idea of making a combined oat-chia situation, similar to this. Turns out I do like overnight oats! The basic combo was a hit from the start, so I haven't changed that much. Toppings are essential, and I have experimented with different combos, but keep coming back to this one.

 

(amounts for one portion) 

 

Overnight mix:

1/2 cup oats

1-2 tsp desiccated coconut

1 tsp hemp seeds (hulled)

1 tsp cacao nibs 

1 tbsp chia seeds

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

pinch of salt

2/3 cup oat milk 

Toppings:

1-2 tbsp frozen wild blueberries

big tbsp skyr

sprinkle of dried blueberries

sprinkle of chopped almonds 

sliced banana

swirl of almond butter

drizzle of maple syrup

The day before you want to eat them, put all the ingredients for the 'overnight mix' in a big jar or a bowl you can cover, mix well, and put in the fridge.

 

In the morning, take it out of the fridge, mix well again, and put in a bowl if not already in one. Sprinkle with frozen blueberries and let sit for maybe 10-30 min - so they defrost - can be expedited by a few seconds in the microwave if more haste is desired. When ready to eat, add a big dollop of skyr in the middle, sprinkle with dried blueberries, sliced banana and chopped almonds, swirl on almond butter and a drop of maple syrup, and it is ready to go.

 

Notes: 

* the frozen wild blueberries make delicious, colourful juice when they melt, so these are the best - better than fresh, or frozen cultivated ones.

* you can batch prep these - they are just as good after a day or two in the fridge - recently i have been making two jars at a time ready for weekend breakfasts, and sticking with muesli during the week (easier to transport). 

Amaranth granola

At Easter, we met a bunch of Germans in a house by a lake in northern Germany. Three boys who went to school together, and their partners, and their sons - one each, aged 5-7. One partner was missing though - the Swedish opera singer had to stay in Berlin to do Wagner. But she provided us with lots of goodies, including a jar of delicious granola based on popped amaranth. Which made me realize it could be time to mix up my granola game - I've been making variations on the same recipe using oats since forever - I love it, but this one was good too! Granola is great in general - simple and tasty and good to eat alone or sprinkled on top of almost anything... I asked L for her recipe but she wasn't sure if she had one, so I used this one for guidance/inspiration.

I was feeling lazy and tried to order the amaranth already popped. But when it arrived it turned out it was just the seeds. So first thing I had to do was try and pop it (I looked to here for help)... which actually, it turned out, was quite fun - the seeds are tiny (only about a mm diameter), but they pop just like popcorn! So cute...

2 cups puffed amaranth (I think I popped about 10-12 tbsp of seeds to get this much - but do a bit too much, it should store OK)

1/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts (or use pecans)

2 tbsp pumpkin seeds

2 tsp ground cinnamon

3 tsp cocoa powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground vanilla

3 tbsp coconut oil 

1/4 cup maple syrup

First pop the amaranth. You could do this in advance and keep until needed. Heat a big high-sided metal pot (dry) until pretty hot, then put in one tbsp of amaranth seeds, give it a few seconds, shaking it a bit, until it all pops - then tip out into a big bowl. If it doesn't pop and burns instead, the pan isn't hot enough - discard, let it heat up a bit more, then try again until you hit the right temperature. Keep going, 1-2 tbsp at a time (should not be more than a single layer in the pan), until you have enough. Let cool before putting in a storage jar or going right ahead to make the granola.

When ready to make granola, heat oven to 180C and line a big baking tray with baking paper.

Mix dry stuff (excluding the dried fruit) in a big bowl. In a separate bowl, warm the coconut oil gently until it is liquid (if it is not already), then mix with the maple syrup. Add wet to dry and mix well. Spread out evenly on the baking tray, transfer to the oven, and bake for c. 15 min (try less next time) until lightly toasted. Remove from the oven and let cool 20-30 min before putting in a storage jar.

 

I love this stuff, a really interesting taste / texture. Maybe a bit too much salt and syrup - could reduce next time. Also maybe a tiny bit too long in the oven - try 12 min next time. Also wasn't very clumpy - consider adding some psyllium husk next time?

Now I am wondering what else I can use popped amaranth for! Also, what else can I pop - quinoa, perhaps?

Berry pancakes

Another small S and me Sunday morning cooking adventure - thought it was about time he tried pancakes again (he dissed them pretty hard the last time, but aren't all kids supposed to like pancakes? Thought berries should sweeten the deal; these ones seemed to have a good lot of berries in them.

200 g self-raising flour (c. 190g / 7.5 oz plain flour + 2.5 tsp baking powder)
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 egg
300 ml milk (used oat)
knob butter
75 g / 2.5 oz berries (used frozen mixture) (plus extra for eating)

sunflower oil or a little butter for cooking
golden or maple syrup for eating

Mix together flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the egg with the milk, then make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and whisk in the milk mixture gradually to make a thick smooth batter. Beat in a knob of melted butter, and gently stir in the berries.

Heat a teaspoon of sunflower oil or small knob of butter in a large non-stick frying pan. Drop a large tablespoonful of the batter per pancake into the pan to make pancakes about 7.5cm across. Make three or four pancakes at a time. Cook for about 3 minutes over a medium heat until small bubbles appear on the surface of each pancake, then turn and cook another 2-3 minutes until golden. Cover with kitchen paper to keep warm while you use up the rest of the batter.

Serve with golden or maple syrup and more berries.


Just realized I used 2X as much berries in the pancakes as the recipe - that'll be why they were so berry-y... Which was delicious, although perhaps a little excessive. Should try again with the right amount of berries... coincidentally it's pancake day tomorrow...

Garlicky mushrooms and spinach on toast with a soft-boiled egg

Woke up with this on my mind on Sunday morning. I'd found some really good dark Nordic bread on an exploratory excursion to Amager on Saturday, and with my current splurge on anything with eggs or dairy, well fancied a good eggs-on-toast breakfast. I guess over the years I've refined and identified my favourite parts of an English breakfast. I like toast. Garlicky fried or baked mushrooms. Intense, irony spinach. Eggs, scrambled in butter or poached so you get saucy runny yolk. I had a good eggs florentine in Putney the other week (I kind of feel like the Hollandaise is unnecessary when you have runny yolk though... although I guess nice enough if someone else is making it).

Was debating whether to poach or soft boil; went with soft boiling; and I think it was a successful experiment. I liked that you could cook more than one at once and they were ready at the same time. And it's less faff. There is peeling to contend with, but it didn't take long just for two, and they were super cute sitting in their nests of spinach atop slices of toast.

olive oil
4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
10 mushrooms, cleaned and roughly chopped
salt+pepper
knob of butter
2 eggs
4 slices of good dark toast
400g spinach, washed
nutmeg, freshly grated

Heat some olive oil in a lidded frying pan (meanwhile boil water for eggs in a small saucepan) and add half the garlic. Fry until starting to colour, then add the mushrooms, season, and cook until they have released their juice and reabsorbed it. Finish with a knob of butter, then transfer to a plate.

Probably about time to put the eggs and toast on - cook eggs in boiling salted water for 4 min. Add a little more oil and the rest of the garlic to the frying pan and fry a little before adding the spinach and cooking until wilted and any excessive liquid has evaporated. Season with salt, pepper and freshly grated nutmeg.

Put toast on plates, put mushrooms on top, then mound of spinach, make a depression in the middle of spinach mound. Peel eggs and place one in the middle of each nest. Sprinkle a little salt+pepper on top. Eat straight away. Yolk will spill out and make sauce when you cut into the egg - yum.


Yesssss. Would be good for Easter breakfast.

Bircher muesli

I've made bircher muesli before, and been totally unconvinced - it's like porridge, but without porridge's comforting warmth. And it's like muesli, but muesli that's been left overnight and lost its crunch.

Anyway, I read this article and thought maybe I'd give it another go.

(one serving)

25 g oats
handful of chopped unsulphured dried apricots
~6 tbsp fresh apple juice (fresh apple cider in American)
1 apple
almond milk (optional)
toasted flaked almonds

Put oats, chopped dried apricots and apple juice in a bowl and leave in the fridge overnight. In the morning, grate the apple into the bowl and mix it all together. If it's too thick thin with a little almond milk. Add some toasted flaked almonds (to taste) and eat.


It's nice enough, OK for a change, but didn't change my mind about any of the above. I'll stick to normal muesli.