Cheese Bannock with wild herbs, olives, carrots and potatoes

Yet another bannock recipe... I really like Bannock, because it´s just so versatile... and the cost for this delicious dish is under 1 €, it is nourishing and does you good.

I took:

7 tablespoons wheat flour
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon curcuma
1 teaspoon jeera
1 teaspoon fenugreek
1 handful nettle seeds
1 tablespoon lesser celandine, finely chopped
1 tablespoon lungwort
a slice of Gouda, one finger thick, finely rasped
two slices of gouda, ca. 1 cm thick per cake
1 teaspoon pepper
1 handful of green olives, finely chopped
2 medium-sized peeled raw potatoes, finely rasped
1 small onion, finely rasped
1 piece of garlic, finely rasped,
1 big carrot, peeled and finely rasped
Water
salt to your liking
Sunflower oil for frying

Mix flour, soda, potatoes, carrot, onion, olives, garlic and rasped Gouda with the spices and herbs. Season with salt to your liking. Mix with water until you have a thick, but even dough. In the meantime, heat an iron pan. Add oil generously, until sizzling hot. With a spoon make cakes and fry swimming in oil at medium temperature from one side. While doing so, add the gouda slices and smear uncooked dough over them until covered. Turn the cake and fry the other side, too, until golden brown.

Enjoy!

You can also prepare them and just warm them by the fireside.

Yule celebration with the weirdos

 Okay, I admit, it´s a bit overdue. Okay, I am a lazy bum.;-D

How swiftly I remember, it was on 20th of December, and each separate dying ember ;-) sprang up anew or so. I had organized a wild pig for the party, booked the place, a beautiful location at the Forest Ranger Station and sustainability centre, and told the weirdos they could come along. We organized some good food and tasty drinks (25 l of home - brewed mead anyone;-)?). Everyone brought some more food and more drinks and a lot of fun along.

Of course it was raining and hailing cats and dogs and wild pigs. So props to Nick, who  kept his composure, even if it was in desperate need of a lot of alcohol that he managed to keep calm;-).

 Let me introduce you to Ingo, the dead pig.

We met at 11 am and first enjoyed a healthy breakfast with sausage, tea, and coffee...

  and bannock, of course.

 We kept the fire roaring but did not realize it was only slightly warm up there for Ingo. We had stuffed him with a filling with maroons, baked plums, celary, carrots, onions, a lot of garlic, honey and wheat. Turned out the filling was a bit English still, but the meat was really excellent.

 Kathrin enjoyed herself, I guess;-). We had spiced hot wine and apple juice with spices and mead and coffee.

 And we had a steady provision of food;-) man, I was that stuffed in the end, I had problems to walk!

 Peter and Olaf dropped by in full Viking attire.

The whole day through we talked and joked and had a watch over Ingo, who was slowly roasting at low temperature. You know what that meant...;-)

Chatting, cooking and eating...

 It was a friendly atmosphere the whole day through, with aload of different people.

 Levin and Manu, Nick and Irmy then brought out the instruments and had a session.

Then we had a feast on roast wild pig and drank and chatted the night away. Of course the numbers did not add up when payment arose, but the great day and company made up for it. It was well in the night, when Nick, Kathrin and I made for the long hike home.

And I will thrive on the memory for years to come.