Modern Recipe: It's Adelle's Birthday!

I asked Adelle's to share her favorite recipe with honey in honor of her birthday. It's a pretty simple recipe... Enjoy!

1) Acquire honey

2) Open jar

3) Eat honey

Modern Recipe: Baklava!

It's my friend Leif's birthday today. I asked what his favorite recipe with honey is. Baklava! Probably the most popular recipe with honey in it... nuts, cinnamon, orange, and honey! What's not to love?

Ingredients 

Makes 3 Dozen

1 (16 ounce) package of phyllo dough

1 pound chopped walnuts

1 cup butter

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Zest from half an orange

1 cup of water

1 cup white sugar

½ an orange, sliced

½ cup honey

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F(175 degrees C). Butter the bottoms and sides of a 9x13 inch pan.

Chop nuts and toss with cinnamon and orange zest. Set aside. Unroll phyllo dough. Cut whole stack in half to fit pan.
 
Cover phyllo with a dampened cloth to keep from drying out as you work. Place two sheets of dough in pan, butter thoroughly. Repeat until you have 8 sheets layered. Sprinkle 2 - 3 tablespoons of nut mixture on top. Top with two sheets of dough, butter, nuts, layering as you go. The top layer should be about 6 - 8 sheets deep.
 
Using a sharp knife cut into diamond or square shapes all the way to the bottom of the pan. You may cut into 4 long rows the make diagonal cuts. Bake for about 50 minutes until baklava is golden and crisp.
 
Make sauce while baklava is baking. Boil sugar and water until sugar is melted. Add orange slices and honey. Simmer for about 20 minutes.
 
Remove baklava from oven and immediately spoon sauce over it. Let cool. Serve in cupcake papers. This freezes well. Leave it uncovered as it gets soggy if it is wrapped up.

Modern Recipe: It's Steve's Birthday!

I asked my friend Steve what his favorite recipe using honey is in honor of his birthday. Gulab Jamun is one of my favorites too! Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 cup Milk Powder
1/3 cup Maida/Plain Flour
¼ tsp Baking Soda
A pinch of Salt (Optional)
1 tbsp Yogurt or 2 tbsp Full Fat Milk
1 tsp Ghee or Oil
Few slivers of Pistachio or Almonds for garnishing

For Syrup:
1¾ cups Honey
1¼ cups Water
8 Green Cardamoms, peeled and seeds crushed to fine powder
A generous pinch of Saffron
1 tsp Rose Water (Optional but recommended)
Method:
Prepare the sugar syrup:

1. Add honey and water in a wide pan and heat it on a medium flame.
2. Once the honey dissolves completely, add cardamom powder and bring it to boil by stirring every now and then. Let the honey syrup thicken slightly, about 2-3 minutes after coming to boil. You don’t need to boil it until it reaches one thread consistency.
3. Turn off the flame and run the honey syrup through fine sieve to remove any impurities.
4. Transfer the honey syrup back into the wide pan and mix in saffron and rose water if using. Let it cool down to room temperature.

Prepare the Gulab Jamuns:

1. While the honey syrup is cooling down, prepare the Gulab Jamun mixture. Sieve milk powder, plain flour, baking soda and salt into a mixing bowl.
2. Mix in yogurt or milk and ghee/oil and start to mix the ingredients lightly to make soft sticky dough. I didn’t need to add more than a tbsp of yogurt and a tsp of ghee but if you find the mixture too dry and crumbly, just add little yogurt or milk about ½ tsp at time until you get a sticky soft dough. Make sure that you don’t over mix or knead the dough as we don’t want the gluten to form. The plain flour used acts as a binding agent and if you over mix the dough then the gluten formed will make the mixture dense and the gulab jamuns will not absorb the sugar syrup well.
3. Grease your palms with ghee or oil and pinch marble sized dough and roll it into smooth round or oval shaped balls. Make sure that the balls are small as they double in size once they are fried and soaked in honey syrup.
4. Keep in mind that the dough balls should be smooth without any cracks as they will split and crumble when deep frying. Arrange the balls on a plate and cover it with a kitchen towel to prevent from drying out.

Deep frying the Gulab Jamuns:

1. Heat oil in a pan for deep frying the gulab jamuns on medium flame and then reduce the flame to low. To test if the oil is hot enough, drop one ball into the oil. The dough ball should slowly float to the surface of the oil. If the dough ball sinks to the bottom and stays there, then the oil is not hot enough. If the dough ball quickly floats to the top as well as browns quickly, then the oil is too hot.
2. Ideally the dough balls should not crack when deep frying. If you find it spliting open or breaking when deep frying, mix 1 or 2 tsp of plain flour to the dough mixture and lightly mix them well. Pinch a small ball and test if stays in shape without cracking by dropping it into heated oil. If it slowly floats to the surface of the oil without cracking and evenly browns then you have mastered the art of making Gulab Jamun. :)
3. Gently drop 3-4 dough balls into the hot oil and stir with them with a slotted spoon so that they get evenly browned from all the sides. Be careful when stirring them with slotted spoon as they are quite soft and can break if you are not gentle. Once they turn golden brown, remove them from oil with a help of a slotted spoon and transfer them to the prepared sugar syrup.
4. Prepare all the Gulab Jamuns and let them rest in the sugar syrup for at least 1 to 2 hours before serving so that they absorb the sugar syrup well and become soft and melt in mouth treats.
5. You can serve these delicious melt in mouth Gulab Jamuns warm, cold or chilled on their own, garnished with slivered almonds or pistachio and a generous spoonful of honey syrup drizzled on top. One other most enjoyable way to serve them is warm with a scoop of cold vanilla ice cream! Heaven!

Medieval Recipe: Honey and Poppy Seed Dormice

This recipe is from guest contributor the Honorable Lady Desiderate Drake:

"The dishes for the first course included... some small iron frames shaped like bridges supporting dormice sprinkled with honey and poppy seed." - Petronius, Trimalchio's Feast

Ingredients

Chicken thighs and drumsticks
Olive Oil
Honey
Poppy Seeds

Preheat Oven to 350

Leave skin on chicken pieces. Rinse and pat dry.
Place chicken pieces on greased baking sheet or baking dish
Brush chicken pieces with Olive Oil
Bake chicken until skin is crispy and juices run clear (about 40 minutes)
Warm honey in small pan, until it is thin and runny (do not boil)

When chicken is done, brush each piece with honey and sprinkle with poppy seeds. 

Source: Pass the Garum: Eating Like the Ancients

Medieval Recipe: Posca

This is a contribution from guest writer the Honorable Lady Desiderata Drake.

Posca is an Ancient Roman drink very similar to sekanjabin, frequently mentioned as something soldiers drank, and as an ingredient in cooking. Soldiers would carry Posca with them, and add it to water when they found it. The vinegar would act as a disinfectant, making the water safer to drink. In its most basic form, it consists of vinegar (most likely red wine vinegar), and water, though honey and herbs and spices were sometimes added.

I experimented quite a bit with the ratios of vinegar and water, but my sweet tooth was not happy until I added the honey. Lots of honey. I added the mint and coriander to make the drink even more refreshing on a hot summer day.

Ingredients (makes enough for 4-5 gallons of water)

1.5 c Honey
.5   c Vinegar (Red wine vinegar, White wine vinegar, or Apple Cider vinegar)
1 T Ground Corriander
Mint to taste

1. Put all ingredients into sauce pan, and bring to a boil.

2. Remove from heat and let cool

3. Store mixture in glass bottle or other sealed container.

4. For one glass:
    Add 1-2 T to 12-16oz of water and stir. 
   
    For 5-gallon water cooler
    Fill water cooler with 4-5 gallons of water. Pour in entire Posca mixture (2 c.).
    Make sure lid is sealed on cooler, and shake cooler to mix.

Source: Pass the Garum: Eating Like the Ancients