Samples/Demo foods

This can be really hard, as most Viking Age foods are not easily picked up and eaten in hand.  Any of the fritters are good, meatballs on toothpicks are good too.  In addition, we've come up with a few other plans that seem to work well.  You'll need to supply napkins, as this is still a little messy.  I made this plan for a party late at night, and it worked out great.  Fritters are the best drunk-food ever, btw. 

Here's my menu: 

1. Rye bread with cream cheese and smoked salmon (this is the only one with all purchased components, it was very popular).

2. Small square of cabbage with a "sausage" patty, topped with a condiment that had the following fermented together, kale leaves and stems (finely chopped) with garlic. LOTS of garlic. Patties were spiced with either cilantro or fennel and mustard. 

3. Cabbage rolls. One leaf of cabbage filled with cooked and fermented barley, with sour cream, yogurt, salt, and one of the following

A. ground pork seasoned with cumin and coriander and garlic

B. cilantro and onions

But I ended up making WAY too much filling for those, and so we added eggs and fried them into patties. 

4. Plums, sliced thick and grilled on the bbq, served with mild cheese and honey.

5. Lactic acid fermented cherries on flatbread with skyr 

6. "Brined" pork. 

1. The bread I bought is from Germany, it is made with whole grains which are mostly not ever milled, they are left whole and baked. It is quite sweet, and doesn't hold together well.  This is one of those "entry level" dishes that gets people to try more interesting things.  It is really good for demos and convincing people.  It is all familiar things, and they like it. All the ingredients are plausible.  

2. This one is likely the most complex thing I made.  Let's go part by part.  

A. The Viking-possible "kimchee".  I finely chopped both the leaves and stems of some purple curly kale.  I combined this with a LOT of garlic, some chopped, some whole, and a bunch of finely chopped carrots.  I added our usual brine, and fermented (in very hot weather) for almost 2 weeks. This stuff is DELICIOUS, very tangy and garlicy. 

B. I made little "sausage" patties.  These were very small, about 1.5 inches across, smaller if I could make them.  There were two versions.  One was flavored with onions and cilantro, the other with whole yellow mustard seed and fennel (I bashed the fennel up a bit), and garlic. I put the patties on the bbq, very briefly on each side, as these cook FAST. The second one tastes very much like modern sausage.  

I served these on a small square of cabbage, simply for ease of picking up.  They are really good, the raw cabbage is crunchy, the pork fatty and delicious, and the kimchee salty and sour.  

3. Cabbage rolls!!! 

Filling.  We cooked barley until it was about the consistancy of rice.  In our case, it was too dry, and so the next step didn't work.  If you want to ferment it, you'll need it to be covered in liquid. Mix in yogurt, and let is stand at room temp overnight.  In the morning, keep cooking or drain until it is rice-like again.  We didn't get any fermentation as ours was too dry.  We mixed in a bunch more yogurt in the morning, and salt. 

Vegetarian filling: I added finely chopped onions, garlic, and cilantro.  

Meat filling: I cooked ground pork with salt, and ground cumin and coriander.  This was mixed with the filling, plus sour cream, shredded fermented carrots, and more cumin and coriander. 

The filling was rolled in large cabbage leaves, and then baked for about an hour. 

Now, I made WAY too much filling, and ran out of big cabbage leaves.  So, I mixed the left-over with eggs, and fried them into fritters.  That was the best plan ever. 

4. Desert time!

I thickly sliced big eating plums (3-4 slices per plum). I put them on the bbq for a few minutes until the softened.  I got some mexican cheese at the store, a mild white cheese (Cotija maybe?). I served each plum over a slice of cheese with some honey drizzled on top.  Also good with a little salt. 

5. This one was the most risky, I think. It was also highly delicious. 

The cherries.  I couldn't get pie cherries, so I used some bing cherries.  I pitted them, and put them in a jar. I covered the cherries with water, and added a teeny bit of salt and the starter.  It fermented for about a week.  These are DELICIOUS.  

I served these on top of some modern flatbread (no pocket pita), with Gersvinda's homemade skyr.  

6. Brined pork.

We put a large amount of small cuts of pork into a large ziplock bag. Over it we poured the standard preserving brine, and the usual starter. We kept it in the fridge for about 72 hours.  Obviously there wasn't a lot of fermentation happening, but the brining is delicious, and it does have an interesting tang. 

At the event, we cooked the pork on the grill until just done in the middle.  We sliced it into bits and piled it in a big bowl and watched everyone eat it with great relish :)