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.

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.

Blackcurrant jam - Sólberjasulta

Blackcurrants have come to be regarded as a superfood. They are very high in vitamin C, as well as being a good source of potassium, iron and pantothenic acid (vitamin B5). They are also very tasty.

When I was growing up, my grandmother's house was surrounded by a hedge of blackcurrant bushes. I loved being able to go out into the garden and pick the ripe berries off the branches and pop them straight into my mouth.

1 kg blackcurrants
100-200 ml water
500-600 g sugar

Rinse the berries under cold running water and drain well. Put in a cooking pot and bring to the boil. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until the berries burst, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar until melted.

Pour into sterilised jars, filling them completely and closing them while the jam is hot. Should keep for a year, but if you want to make sure, add a preservative.

Redcurrant jam - Rifsberjasulta

I love redcurrants, both cooked and raw. I usually make redcurrant jelly, rather than jam, but the jam is good too, especially with smoked ham.

I sometimes make jelly from a mixture of redcurrants and stone bramble berries, which has a beautiful ruby-red colour and tastes delicious with strong cheese, and on the side with lamb and all sorts of game.

1 kg redcurrants
500-600 g sugar

Rinse the berries under cold running water and drain well. Put in a cooking pot and bring to the boil. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until the berries burst, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar until melted.

Pour into sterilised jars, filling them completely and closing them while the jam is hot. Should keep for a year.

To make redcurrant jam with a preservative, use

1 kg redcurrants
350 g sugar
1/2 tsp salicylic acid (or other preservative)

Make the jam as instructed above, them mix in the preservative before putting the jam in the jars.

Sætsúpa með sagógrjónum - Sweet Soup with sago

As with some of the other recipes on this blog, this is fairly recent, no older than 20th century and probably originated in Denmark. The soup is made with the kind of sweet fruit or berry concentrate that is meant for mixing with water for drinking. Because the concentrates come in different thicknesses and need different amounts of water for mixing to the right flavour I am not giving exact measurements. The soup can be made with different types of concentrate, but the Icelandic version is often made with mixed fruit concentrate.

When I say concentrate, I am not referring to the pure concentrated juices you can buy frozen or canned, but the sweetened stuff that is halfway to being syrup because of its sugar content, but I have no doubt that if pure juice concentrate were to be used it would yield a delicious soup. I suggest trying it with strawberry, raspberry, cherry or pomegranate concentrate, or some other red or reddish juice. If pure unsweetened concentrate is to be used, I suggest adding a little sugar to the soup.

To serve 4:

700 ml water
fruit or berry concentrate/syrup
50 ml white pearl sago (small pearls)
50 ml raisins or prunes
1 small cinnamon stick (optional)
2 cloves (optional)

Mix enough fruit or berry concentrate/syrup into the water to make the flavour slightly too strong for drinking. Bring to the boil and add the pearl sago, stirring constantly. Add the raising/prunes and spices and simmer for 10 minutes or until the sago is cooked.

For the Icelandic way of eating this soup, crumble some zwieback into the soup bowls before serving.

Crowberry soup

Crowberries grow all over Iceland and can in fact be found in many areas in the subarctic and temperate zones, including Denmark*, Alaska and northern Canada (according to Wikipedia, they are also found in the Andes). They are well worth picking because they make delicious jelly, a good drink concentrate**, taste good fresh with skyr, and then there is this soup:

1/2 to 1 kg crowberries, well ripened
1 litre water
1 cinnamon stick

2 tbs potato flour or cornstarch
100 ml cold water

100 g sugar, or to taste

Pick over the berries, removing any under-ripe berries and other unwanted objects (may include twig pieces, leaves, moss and spiders - that is assuming you didn't go to Vínberið*** and buy the berries already cleaned) and clean under running cold water.

Cook the berries in the water with the cinnamon stick for 20-30 minutes. Strain and re-heat to boiling. Mix potato flour/cornstarch and water into a paste. When the soup boils, stir in the paste and let boil again. Add sugar to taste. Serve warm with zwieback.
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Notes:
* I tasted Danish crowberries once, and they didn't have nearly as much flavour as the ones that grow in Iceland, and neither were they as juicy. I'm guessing it's the soil that makes the difference.

**you can also make crowberry wine.

***a grocery and confectionery shop in Reykjavík and the only local shop where I have seen crowberries for sale.

Icelandic blueberry/bilberry soup - Bláberjasúpa

It's almost blueberry season in Iceland, so here is a recipe to try.

What we call bláber (blueberries) in Iceland are actually the related bilberries. Either bilberries or blueberries can be used in this recipe.

Bilberries in the wild:


250 g blueberries or bilberries, fresh or frozen
1 + 3/4 litre water
approx. 150 g sugar
30 g potato starch or cornflour
100 m cold water

Drop the berries into boiling water and cook on low until they burst, 3-5 minutes. Mix together potato starch/cornflour and cold water into a smooth paste. Add sugar to the soup and stir until melted. Thicken with potato starch/cornflour mix. Serve and enjoy.

-Use more thickening mixture to make a blueberry pudding. Pour into a bowl before it stiffens and sprinkle sugar on top. Serve warm or cold with milk or cream (or half and half).