This is a story about jam and good humor.

It can be a battle to stay dry, warm and happy in Oslo. Most days lately are suited for nothing more than warm socks, a mug of Earl Grey tea, and the following snack (which, now that you mention it, is how I've spent this entire weekend).

first you take apple-rosehip jam

then you add butter (arguably the most important part in terms of happiness)

then you smear it on fresh-baked homemade bread

The fact is, November is here and it's not going away. Every day we get a little less daylight and a little more rain. It's been raining/sleeting for the past three days with no signs of stopping. It's been gray and dreary for many more days than that. And it even snowed at the end of October! Quite shocking when you're used to Oklahoma winters.

proof that it snowed

Good weather is a rarity now, but when the sun comes out in Norway, it's like all the Scandinavian angels in heaven start sweetly singing the praises of the welfare state, fjords and brown cheese. It's even better when the beautiful weather keeps on giving, especially when combined with other Good Things. In this instance, cheap stuff and cooking.

In late September we had a stretch of gorgeous days. Sunny, blue skies, 60 degrees (F!). My lovely boyfriend and I even went island hopping in the Oslofjord.

Dan conquering Gressholmen

That day, the weather was so pleasant and cheery that I declared that I'd gather apples and make jam. I collected the apples from my apartment complex and rosehips from the bushes lining the streets on the way home.

free apples look like this

Yes, I'm a scavenger. But you would be too if you lived in Oslo, home of the $4 cup of boiled coffee. Everything here is expensive. Cheap things do pop up here and again, like the constant weekend flea markets and the cheap ethnic grocers downtown. And the abandoned jeans I found in the dumpster. I'm a hunter-gatherer, ok?

free rosehips look like this

Because apples naturally contain plenty, I didn't even have to buy pectin. Discounting the time spent working (and the slight burns endured at the range), I spent next to nothing making it--the cost of one lemon and the sugar.

free apples ready for their close-up, sporting characteristic free apple beauty marks

one very ripe rosehip

The sunny days are sadly past. On the bright side, almost two months later I still have the biggest out of the four jars of apple jam that I made stashed in my fridge. I dip into it at my leisure and each time its rosy apricot hue reminds me where it came from.

a spoonful of homemade jam help bad weather go down

these apples were destined for jam. note the authentic apple scab marks. (perfectly safe to consume, btw.)

So basically I took a bunch of apples and chopped them up. I left the skin and cores intact.

a pretty big dice

Then I boiled them with about a handful of ripe rosehips, chopped up, and some cloves, adding just enough water to keep the bottom from scorching.

let her go until everything's soft and mashy

The mixture took maybe about 20-30 minutes to reach that stage, with a bit of stirring now and then. In the meantime I had a bit of a snack with some of the leftover apples.

you see where this is going?

ahhh, childhood!

After my snack, I pushed the apple mush through a screen, which took care of the apple cores and skins, the cloves and the rosehip seeds. It was pretty painstaking though, which is why I didn't strain it any further through cheesecloth. This is why I ended up with jam instead of jelly (which is made from clear liquid rather than pulp).

Then, as per the basic method of jelly/jam making, I added sugar to equal three-quarters the amount of pulp. I also added the zest and juice of one lemon. And of course I cooked it til it gelled, popped it in the jars and called it a night.

this is what I ended up with

A rough recipe for anyone who wants to try:

Apple Jam flavored with Rosehips, Cloves and Lemon Zest
1200 grams of apples, chopped roughly
About a half cup of ripe rosehips, appendages removed and chopped
3 cups water
15 cloves
Zest and juice of one lemon
3.75 cups of sugar (75% of yield of apple puree)

Boil apples, rosehips and cloves in nonreactive pot with about a cup of water until mashy. Push through seive or food mill. Measure puree and add three-fourths that amount of sugar and the zest and juice of a lemon. Return to pot and simmer until gelled (use spoon test or cold plate test). Watch for hot jam magma splatters. When it reaches the proper consistency, pour into sterilized jars. Store in fridge (what I did) or process in a water bath for shelf storage. Eat whenever you goddamned feel like it.

serving suggestion: taste test of jelly bread with and without butter

Please enjoy the sun if you have it--Oklahomans I mean you! Some of us get about 8 hours of dreary light per day. (I am officially sick of 4 p.m. dusk.)

and use your free apples wisely!

Tangerine Rolls?

I have a picnic to go to at Vigelandsparken at two today. Having neglected to plan ahead, not taking into account that supermarkets are closed on Sundays in Norway (except immigrant markets downtown), I had to get creative with my pantry contents. Somehow I ended up at "tangerine rolls." Here's how.


1. I had the remnants of the cake of fresh yeast in the fridge that needed used ASAP.
2. My pepperoni rolls using sweet roll dough were really popular at the international potluck I threw.
3. A straight-up sweet application of sweet roll dough was in order. What better way to represent American eating habits on a Sunday afternoon than something like cinnamon rolls?
4. I don't have that much cinnamon, plus I don't like it that much. I do have tangerines! Thus I decided to wing it at tangerine rolls.

So then I attempted a take-off of the gloriously soft sweet dough recipe I used last week. It's from All Recipes, which of course is great for this type of down-home no frills type of food. I nixed the water, upped the milk content, and included the last of a small carton of light cream to get rid of it, hoping to simultaneously giving the rolls a nice fat/moisture boost.

Dough recipe:

• 2/3 cup warm milk
• 1/3 cup warm cream
• 1/3 a cake of fresh yeast
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3-ish cups all-purpose flour, plus more for practical purposes
  
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1. Dissolve about a tablespoon of the sugar and the yeast in milk & cream mixture and let proof for several minutes.
2. Add the butter, the rest of the sugar, the egg, the spices and the salt. Then add flour by the half cup.
3. When it is unstirrable, use the rest of the flour to generously cover your work surface, turn the dough out onto it, and work the rest of the flour in by kneading gently. (Not too vigorous because you don't want to really develop the gluten in sweet rolls.)
4. When you get a nice, sticky but manageable dough ball, oil a bowl and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes or so. When it's done, it will be ready to roll out, fill, roll up, and then enjoy a second rise.















Filling recipe:

• Minced zest of one tangerine (I augmented with lemon zest so I could reserve some tangerine zest for the glaze)
  
• 1/3 cup white sugar (brown would probably be nicer, but I don't have any)
• A rough 1/4 cup of butter, cubed (I am working with butter in 100 gram increments, don't know the equivalents, so I guessed at it)
• A sprinkle more of cinnamon
  

1. Scatter these ingredients over the rolled out rectangle of dough. Roll up.
2. Use dental floss to slice the dough into roughly one inch thick rolls.
3. Place on greased, sil-patted, or parchmented baking surface, and let rise again until double. (Stuck 'em back in the warm oven with a bowl of water to keep 'em moist.)
4. Bake at 400 F (205 C) until golden and luscious.

Glaze:

• 1/2 tablespoon of butter, softened
• 1 and 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• Juice of one tangerine (as needed for desired consistency)
• About 2 teaspoons minced tangerine and lemon zest
• Little bit of lemon juice to taste (so it's a bit tangy and not just sweet)

Whisk these ingredients together, proportions by trial and error, to create a smooth, viscous glaze for the rolls. Apply, (drizzle if you're classy; smear if you're hungry) and eat.

Verdict:

A golden brown success story! These are so nice and soft, with a slightly crackly, shiny top going on. The rolls themselves are not too sweet, and the citrus taste is not very prominent. That I would change. But the glaze is so tasty, and definitely citrusy. Also a very pleasant shade of apricot. The lemon juice was really necessary for the taste of the glaze--without, it would have been just...sweet. Flat and sweet. But the addition of the lemon juice really brightened it. Warm, soft comforting rolls topped with sunny, cheery glaze. Almost perfect.


Now hopefully they will be popular at the picnic.

You may be wondering why I've declared them a success before bringing them to their final destination. It's simple, really. The ugly one had to be sacrificed in the name of science. :)

Here's a photo of the finished product being consumed on the grass. They were much enjoyed.

first post: pizza dough two ways (soon to be four)

When I say pizza dough two ways I don't really mean anything groundbreaking. Sadly. Just two pizzas with different toppings, though I would like to try this recipe for cinnamon roll-style pizza (if that makes sense).

Trying lots of pizza permutations is really easy if you make a big batch of dough at once and live off it for several days in a row (just like me!). This also works for pasta dough, which will be the subject of an upcoming post. (But god, so much pizza and pasta in the past few days...I need to watch it.)I was very pleased with the recipe I used for the dough. Will be making it again, as it's super easy, but maybe blended with some whole wheat flour and/or soyflour to up the nutrition. I really like the semolina in the dough--gives a great, just...pizza-y chew to the crust. I upped the proportion of semolina to regular flour in the original recipe, mainly because I bought a pretty big bag of it. (To save space, I won't post my version of the recipe. I just used a full cup of semolina and a bit less white flour...enough to form a workable, not-to-sticky dough. I also didn't feel like prebaking the crust before topping was necessary.)

PIZZA ONE: Spinach and tomato.

Very basic. Even, dare I say, healthy? (And even a bit boring? But only in light of the next pizza, and still quite satisfying).

1. Roll out dough, slather on some store bought sauce, some squished cloves of roasted garlic, and several generous handfuls of washed and drained spinach (yes the spinach will look like it's overwhelming the pizza but we all know how prone greens are to shrinkage--don't worry).
2. Top with maybe 1/4 c. sliced or shredded mozzarella. (If this were a perfect world and imported cheese was not as outrageously expensive in isolated Norway as it is, I'd use fresh mozzarella. But instead I used the domestic brand Tine mozzarella. It's compact, firm, and sort of tasteless, like Kraft mozzarella. But it gets chewy and melty so it serves it's purpose.)
3. Top that with some sliced cherry or plum tomatoes and sliced onions. Bake in 400 degree F (or ~205 C) oven until...it looks ready. You'll know!
4. When you whisk the pizza out, all nice and bubbly and golden, top with chopped parsley, ground black pepper, and grated hard cheese (I've been on a Grana Padano kick, again because of the cost factor. It's cheaper here than Parmigiano-Reggiano. And it tastes good, too!)
5. Eat. If, like me, you're feeling Norwegian...or maybe you are just easily tempted to buy stupid things when you wander grocery store aisles on an empty stomach...try it with Pizza Dressing! For what it's worth, it's pretty indistinguishable from ranch dressing. Normally I would be a little hesitant to embrace something so...trashy. But it's Norway and I need comfort. And it's good on the crust.

But now onto the serious stuff. Pizza two: Roasted beet and feta pizza.

This pizza came out so great. The combination of sweet beets, pungent roasted garlic, and the briny tang of feta was really terrific. It's also a sauce-less pizza, so you don't have too many flavors competing. Just olive oil and a bit of thyme on the crust.

I adapted the recipe (for roasted beet, goat cheese & arugula pizza) from fellow bloggers A Good Appetite. It's pretty likely I wouldn't have modified much if I were in my kitchen at home, but here I made changes based on Norwegian price and availability. Namely, I used the spinach I already had in the fridge instead of arugula, and I opted for feta in place of goat cheese. (You don't want to know how expensive the chevre here is...) I also followed the suggestions A Good Appetite made for if they were to make the recipe again.

My recipe goes as follows:

• Dough for one pizza (that said, size varies...my dough generally adopts an oblong 12-by-16 inch shape when rolled out thin...and that worked for these ingredients)
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Thyme
  
• One medium beet (2.5 inches in diameter?), cut in half then in 0.125 inch slices)
• One medium onion, again cut in half and then in slices
• 5-ish cloves of garlic, unpeeled
• 0.25 cup of slice/shredded mozzarella
• A stick of feta about 0.75 inch thick and 3 inches long (or equivalent...that's an awfully weird measurement)
• Two plentiful handfuls of spinach, washed and drained

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Place beet, onion and garlic on a baking pan or parchment paper and lightly drizzle with oil. Salt to taste. Roast for maybe 25 minutes or until they're done roasted. Remove from oven and let cool a bit. Squeeze the garlic out of its peels and chop roughly.
   
2. Meanwhile, roll out dough. Lightly drizzle with olive oil and a generous pinch of thyme.
   Arrange spinach on dough and layer mozzarella over it.
3. Top pizza with beautiful beet slices and onions and garlic. Crumble and sprinkle feta over all.
4. Bake until edges of pizza beginning to brown, 20 minutes or so.
   

The results are pretty fabulous, but I'd make a few changes. First off I wished the cheese taste was more prominent, but I feel like the strong taste of feta would be overpowering, so next time I make it I'll use chevre since it's less...assertive I guess. And I think the taste of arugula would be a nice addition, as the spinach doesn't really add much flavor to the dish. Though the relatively tastelessness of spinach allowed me to add more, boosting the "health" of this pizza, right? I negated the spinach with the use of more pizza dressing for crust dipping. Sure, I can eat ranch dressing with my gourmet pizza. I do what I want!

For my last blob of dough I'll be making a pretty basic pizza with the rest of the sauce and mozzarella, as well as feta, sun-dried tomatoes, and yellow bell pepper. Wish I had basil, though.

Though I think I will pinch off a small bit of the dough to make a dessert pizza. Here's my vision: knead a bit of sugar and cinnamon into the dough and roll out. Smear with a bit of black currant jam, top with brunost (Norwegian sweet brown cheese, known at gjetost stateside), and crown with thin slices of apple. Bake. Will let you know if it turns out.