Seasoned tea

This picture has been waiting to be published for great many weeks. I have been busier than in a long time these past couple of weeks. October 25th I was in a job interview and only a couple of hours after leaving the school, the head called me saying that I got the job. This triggered a snowball effect. The town where I started work this Monday was so far from where I have lived the past five years that it wasn't possible to work from there. I had to start apartment hunting with my hubby. Over three weeks after that phone call, I am now posting this from our new home. (I even have a bigger kitchen now!) I made this warm drink just a day or two before that interview and having a mile long "to do" list and checking them off one by one throughout the weeks, publishing this finally is the next thing to cross off from my list. (I'm glad I'm back blogwise as well to something I consider normal life, although starting my very first job after graduation still takes some adjusting and I might not be able to post as often as I'd like.)

I spotted this recipe from the website of the magazine I'm subscribing, Kotivinkki. This was named tea glögg at their site. Glögg is a Nordic equivalent to mulled wine, at least that's what Wikipedia says about it. I prefer my glögg without alcohol and that is the kind that is typically sold in Finnish grocery stores too. The most usual base for non-alcoholic glögg is grape juice, although I've seen varieties with other juices too. This recipe, then again, uses tea as the base. This isn't really glögg in the real sense of it, at least to me, a glögg lover, but I did really like this drink as well. The words that in my opinion best describe this drink is liquid gingerbread. A cup of this warms you up nicely after a cold day. It's easy too, first of all, easy to make, and moreover, you only have to make it once and after that just boil some water to enjoy it...

... because, this recipe makes a concentrate. I made it according to the original recipe, but the amount has lasted more than four servings to me. I probably drink it a little blander than meant? It's been strong enough for me. The concentrate I bottled up and keep it in the fridge: still some left!

I didn't left my concentrate to acquire taste overnight, a couple of hours seemed to do the trick. The cinnamon stick is in the glass for photogenic reasons. But remember, they are re-usable!

Seasoned tea or Tea glögg or Liquid gingerbread

500 ml / generous 2 cups water

4 bags of black tea, e.g. English Breakfast (I used vanilla seasoned black tea)

1 cinnamon stick

I tsp cloves

2 T honey

Bring the water to boil and put the teabags and spices in. Take out the teabags after 5 minutes. Let the liquid acquire taste for a couple of hours or over night. Add the honey. Bland the drink with hot water to taste.

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"Fake" rye bread

Rye bread - A Finnish thing

I'm a subscriber (and I always struggle with spelling that word!) of a Finnish magazine Kotivinkki that also publishes recipes of really good-looking and tempting dishes. For some reason, however, I have not really tried out the recipes before. Maybe it's because I don't want to get my precious magazine all covered with flour and stains that I usually can't escape when cooking or baking from a cook book or some written recipe. I don't know. Anyway, this month's issue was dropped down to our mailbox and the theme of this month's recipes in the food section was something that finally made me use the magazine as my guideline in the kitchen. Bread.

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Apple tart with meringue

Autumn is a time for apples. As I a) had earlier made jam from apples, b) had only heard stories of apple pies made by other people and c) came across with a delicious looking recipe in the magazine I subscribe, the decision to bake something out of apples became reality on Saturday.


Base:
100 g of baking margarine
1 dl of sugar
2 egg yolks
200 g of Valio's apple-cinnamon flavored curd
3 dl of flour
2 tsp of baking powder

Filling: 850 g (4 big) of apples
1 tbl od lemon juice (I didn't have any, so I left it out)
1 dl of sugar
1 tbl of flour
2 tsp of cinnamon

Meringue:
2 eggwhites
2 tbl of sugar

Foam the margarine and sugar lightly. Whisk in the egg yolks. Add the curd and flour-baking powder mix. Mix the base smooth, fast. Use flour in your hand to spread the base onto the bottom and sides of a pie dish, diameter 27-28 cm. Place the pie dish in the fridge.

Peel the apples if necessary. Remove the cores and slice or dice the apples. Put the apple pieces and the other filling ingredients to a sauce pan. Let them simmer stirring occasionally for about 7 minutes on low heat. Let cool a little. Check the sweetness of the filling, use sugar according to the sourness of the apples. Pour the filling into the pie dish. Bake in 200 C for about 18 minutes.

Whisk the eggwhites into a hard foam. Add the sugar little by little. Whisk until the mix is shiny and stays in the bowl even when it's upside down. Spread the meringue on top of the filling. Put back into the over for about 6-7 minutes more.



It was yummy, I served the tart with caramel sauce, which complemented the flavors incredibly well.

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