LEMON SQUARES

I have been promising to blog this recipe for months. Sorry it took so long. I know you will find it worth the wait. We love it for Sunday dinner dessert.

Enjoy.

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 1/2 cups almond flour

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

stevia equivalent to 1/2 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Combine all the Crust ingredients and press into an 8" x 8" baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. While the crust is baking, assemble the lemon topping mixture:

Lemon Topping Mixture:

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

stevia equivalent to 1/2 cup sugar

3 large eggs

the zest of a lemon

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Combine all the lemon topping mixture ingredients in a blender.

When crust has baked for 15 minutes, pour the lemon topping mixture over the crust and return the crust and lemon topping mixture to the oven to bake at 350 degrees for another 15 minutes. Remove from the oven.

Let the finished product cool in the baking dish for 30 minutes, and then chill it in the refrigerator until chilled through - about another 30 to 45 minutes. Cut into squares. (Nice to have dessert finished and waiting while you eat your dinner, right?)

Rowanberry jelly

European rowans (Sorbus aucupari, sometimes called European mountain ash) grow well in the Icelandic climate and are common garden trees. In the autumn after the first frost and thaw you can see thrushes feasting on the berries and getting quite drunk on the fermented juice.

Humans also eat rowan berries, especially in jams and jellies (raw berries will cause indigestion, so don't let the lovely colour tempt you to try them uncooked).

The slightly bitter flavour makes rowan preserves an excellent match with strong cheeses and game, such as wild goose and reindeer, and it's also good with lamb.

If I can get enough rowan berries from a non-polluted source I plan to try making this jelly:

2 litres rowan berries with stalks
500 gr apples with skins (Jonagold is recommended as being flavourful and rich in pectin)
750 ml water
900 ml sugar for every 1 litre of juice

Pick the berries and freeze them overnight. This removes the worst of the bitter flavour of the berries.
Bring the water to the boil in a cooking pot and add the berries, stalks and all, and the coarsely chopped apples with skins and cores (only remove the seeds and stalks). Simmer gently for about 20 minutes.

Mash the stewed berries and apples with a potato masher and strain through a fine strainer lined with cheesecloth, or use a fruit press to extract the juice and then strain through a cheesecloth. Measure the juice and add 900 ml of sugar for every 1 litre of juice.

Return to the cooking pot and cook over low heat for 15-20 minutes or until a drop of the liquid sets when dripped on the back of a cold spoon. Pour into sterilized, hot jars and seal immediately.

Preservative may be added.

Sourdough rye bread

This bread relies on fermentation for both rising and sweetness. I have not tested this recipe.

2 kg. rye flour
1 litre of water or a 1:1 mixture of water and whey
1 tsp salt

Put the rye flour into a large bowl. Warm the water and add the salt and then add the water to the rye flour and mix well together. Turn out onto a floured table and knead until smooth and free of cracks. Rub a little bit of cooking oil on your hands and form the dough into a loaf. Put the loaf into a well-oiled container - Icelanders often use tins, but a cooking pot or a casserole dish may be used as well. It has to fit inside another, larger container. The dough must not fill the container as it will rise (the genius who wrote the recipe book unfortunately does not say by how much).

Put a damp cloth on top of the container and leave to rise in a warm spot overnight. When the dough has risen, put baking paper on top of it and then close the baking container (with a lid, or if that‘s not available, with aluminium foil). Now put the baking container into another container that is both deeper and wider, with a rack or metal trivet in the bottom so the water will flow under as well as around the bread container. Pour water into the second container until it reaches the middle of the first one. Close the second container tightly.

Cook over low temperature for 3 hours, or bake at around 120 °C for the same amount of time. After 3 hours, remove the bread from the container, turn it over and return to the container, close both containers tightly and return to the heat/oven for 3-4 hours. Remove and cool.

Stone bramble jelly

Stone bramble berries have a somewhat bitter flavour that goes well with lamb and all kinds of game, for example reindeer and wild goose.

I can usually only get a very small amount of them, but I often mix them with redcurrants to get a very nice, beautifully red jelly.

Pick stone bramble berries. It takes a considerable amount of berries to get a good amount of juice, but I can't tell you exactly what amount of berries will yield what amount of juice.

Flush the berries with cold water and put in a cooking pot. Bring to the boil on low and cook gently until the berries burst and release their juice. Pour the berries and juice into a cheesecloth strainer and strain away the juice. The cheesecloth may be squeezed to extract more juice.
 
Measure the juice and put it in a cooking pot and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and add 1 kg of sugar for every litre of juice (if it’s less than a litre, then add 100 grams of sugar for each 100 ml of juice). Stir to dissolve the sugar. The juice must not boil after the sugar has been added.

Pour into sterilised jars while still hot and close the jars immediately.

Preservative may be added.

Apple Blackberry Crisp

I have been wanting to post this recipe for about three weeks. The trouble was, every time I baked one of these delicious desserts, we devoured it so quickly that I could never get a picture of it!

Enjoy.

Ingredients:

5 (preferably organic) Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and chopped into bite sized pieces

1 pint fresh blackberries

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract (no sugar – check the label)

2 tablespoons blanched almond flour

1 cup blanched almond flour

¼ teaspoon kosher or sea salt

¼ teaspoon baking soda

2 ½ tablespoons olive oil

Stevia equivalent to 2 tablespoons of sugar

Preparation:

Place apples and blackberries in a large bowl

Sprinkle with lemon juice, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons blanched almond flour, tossing to incorporate all ingredients

Place apple-blackberry mixture in an 8” x 8” baking dish and set aside

To make topping:

Iin a medium bowl, combine almond flour, salt, baking soda, and oil.

Crumble topping over apple-blackberry mixture.

Cover with tinfoil and bake at 350° for 60 to 75 minutes until fruit is juicy and bubbling.

Remove from oven and uncover.

If topping is lightly browned, allow to cool for 10-15 minutes.

If topping is not yet browned place in oven uncovered for 5 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Note: Remember: Lightly browned is what you're after.

Delicious warm or cold.

New Recipes Coming Soon

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Keep logging on to JeenasKitchen.blogspot.com

New Recipes coming very soon!
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Chef Jeena has been creating many brand new recipes for you to enjoy.
Both meat and non-meat (vegan) recipes to be updated very soon.

To start with: Aromatic Tarragon Chicken in Coconut Sauce Recipe
Beef and Caramelised Onion Meatballs Recipe
Vegan Chocoalte and Cherry Brownie Recipe

Aromatic Tarragon Chicken in Coconut Sauce



Beef & Caramelised Onion Meatballs



Vegan Chocolate and Cherry Brownies



Bookmark today, new recipes coming very soon!

Holiday notice

I am going on holiday on Friday and will be back on the 24th. Until then I will not able to reply to any e-mails or comments, but send them in anyway and I will look at them when I get back.