Rose Hip Fruit Leather

Living in Southeast Alaska, we have an abundance of wild Sitka roses growing in the area, which produce unusually large, sweet rose hip fruit.  There are plenty of recipes for making tea and jelly with them, but I'd been trying to come up with a more substantial recipe since I moved to the area.  About a year ago, I got the idea to try making fruit leather.  Unfortunately, there aren't any recipes for rose hip fruit leather, so I've had to improvise, and over the years have come up with a pretty good method for it.

To start with, you need to gather a good quantity of rose hips, since you have to remove the leaves, stems, seeds, and any damaged parts of the fruit.  They should be picked fairly late in the season, right around the time of the first frosts - here, it can be anywhere between late September and early November.  Look for ones that are bright red/orange, and firm but not rock-hard to the touch - when you squeeze them lightly, they should have a little bit of give to them.  Don't pick ones that are blackened, browning, or underripe - depending on the year and the weather, rose hips can spoil on the vine, but ones that are ready to be picked should come off fairly easily in your hand.

Wash the rose hips to get any dirt or debris off of them.  Pick them stem off of the top, the dried leafy part off of the bottom, and, for Sitka roses at least, you can sometimes pull out some of the seeds or pollen puffs at this early stage of cleaning.  Then, once they're clean, slice the rose hips in half and put them in a large pot.

Add a little water - between 1/2 and 1 cup - and simmer on the stove top until the rose hips are soft and easily workable.  The easiest way to remove the seeds is to soften the rose hips and put them through a food mill - the old-style hand-crank mills have holes the perfect size for removing Sitka rose seeds.

The pureed rose hips will be more of an orange color after cooking, but the food mill should separate out the seeds from the pulp.  Grind the rose hips in small, 1/4-cup batches - once the rose hips get plastered to the grates of the mill, reverse the mill to scrape up the seeds, and run it again.  After a few minutes of milling and reversing, you'll be left with the seeds binding together into clumps, and the fruit flesh milled away.  The fruit puree is sweet enough to work with as it is, but if you'd like to sweeten further, you can add white sugar, pectin, and/or spices, and cook it a bit longer on the stove to get all of the sugar and additives dissolves.

The best fruit leather is produced by dehydrators.  Unfortunately, because of the extremely high humidity all year round in this part of Alaska, dehydrators rarely work here as well as they do elsewhere.  Because of this, I've developed an oven-drying technique for fruit leather.  You have to watch it to keep it from over-drying, but it produces good results.  Spread the fruit puree on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, and level it with a bent icing knife (or a regular knife, or the back of a spoon in a pinch) so it has the same thickness all the way around.  Bake it in the oven at 150-200 degrees Fahrenheit for 4-5 hours or until it can be handled without falling apart or sticking to the parchment paper.  If it's done on top, but still sticking a bit, you can carefully peel it off and flip it over so the bottom side can be exposed to the warm air to dry faster.

The final product will be darker, and a bit wrinkled from the parchment paper's shrinkage as it absorbed water, but if you didn't overcook them, they should be easily malleable and workable.  I find it easiest to store by cutting it into strips, parchment paper and all, and rolling them up to be stored in a sealed glass jar.  That way, they will neither gain nor lose humidity, and can be kept for quite a long time.

Rose hips are super-high in Vitamin C, and when cooked like this, make a great winter snack.  Unfortunately, I tend to eat mine really fast, and usually run out in January or February - long before I can make more.  If you're more frugal, though, and make lots of them, you can store them until the next fall, when rose hips are back in season.

Nehrim: At Fate's Edge

I've heard about several Total Conversion mods for various Elder Scrolls games over the years, and decided to finally try one myself.  Nehrim: At Fate's Edge is one, made by a small, devoted German team and built on the Oblivion engine.  They did a lot more than just build a new map, though - they completely reprogrammed the class, race, and leveling systems, and did some tinkering with the skill trees, too.  Their stated mission was to make something more like Morrowind, or the Gothic series, at which I have to say they succeeded.

My point in this post isn't as a game review, though.  The main changes made to the leveling system are that 1) you level up by gaining experience, not increasing skills, and 2) the game doesn't level with you; you have to be a certain level to travel to certain areas without getting killed by the first monster you meet.  Because of this, zone names clearly list the recommended levels for being there.  Despite this, no one has created a map that shows the various zones and their level requirements.

So I did.

(Click for a larger view)

The exception to having listed levels is most of the Northrealm - there isn't too much up there to explore, but since the zones don't supply their own levels listings, I've estimated based on my experience.

Besides the leveling system, the Nehrim developers did a very good job designing an interesting story and very carefully building an intricate world.  They designed some new creatures...

... did some interesting things with physics...

... and created some gigantic interior spaces.

I only have two real complaints with the game.  Being German developers, they hired German voice actors, which, while very professional and authentic, works a bit better in theory than in practice for the English translation.  Conversations are subtitled, like in Oblivion, but cutscenes are not, and there are a lot of those: other characters standing around arguing in German while your character is frozen for the duration.  I'm sure it would add to the plot and immersion, if you can understand them, but my German is not that good.  Because of this, I had to get most of my understanding of the plot from following Journal updates, so I could have missed out on a good portion of it.

My other complaint is that they dramatically overuse a "cave-in" plot device to move the main quest line along.  At least once per Act, you will be required to go underground to do something seemingly simple.  Expect a cave-in, followed by further complications.  It happens every time.

In conclusion:  I enjoyed the game.  The gameplay changes were well implemented, and the plot was engaging and well-written.  I just wish I understood more of it.  And don't get too attached to anyone; people in Nehrim die like they're in Game of Thrones.

As a last note, while SureAI has done some previous works with the Morrowind engine, their upcoming game, based on Skyrim, looks to be worth the wait as well.

Halloween Treats

Earlier this month, I stumbled across a Halloween cookbook display at the library, and it got me thinking that I ought to do something festive.  I picked up the book Ghoulish Goodies, by Sharon Bowers; the cover is interesting enough to draw people in, but I knew the best cupcake baker in town would be attending the same party as me, and I didn't want to try to compete with her (good thing, too - her cookie monster cupcakes would've been hard to beat), so I decided to go with something a little different.

These aren't like the witches' fingers cookies that you're used to seeing.  In fact, these aren't cookies at all.  They turn out more like a spicy cheesy-mustard bread dough, with the rosemary and pepperoni on top as garnish.  I found the dough to be sticky, but otherwise very easy to work with, and didn't have any trouble piping it with a ziplock bag as suggested.  Mine came out bigger than expected - they do rise quite a bit while cooking - so I'm more inclined to call them ogres' toes than witches' knuckles. 

I made a double batch, which was a good call - the picture above is about 1/2 of a batch's worth, and is all that was left after the party.  As the recipe says, though, they do reheat really well in the oven, and remain soft and chewy on the inside.  

More Harry Potter-themed Treats

Wandering the internet, I stumbled across a list of Harry Potter-themed cocktails and mixed drinks, and I couldn't resist sharing it here.

At our last Yule Ball, our bar was pretty much mix-it-yourself, but some of these definitely sound tempting.  They even include GIF videos of how to mix the four House drinks - though there's no mention of what they use to give them the smoking potion effect.  Dry ice?  Try them out and see!

Fancy new dragon!

So, this one has nothing to do with food, but I'm excited it's finally arrived.  About a year ago, Cuarto, a Russian artist, posted a prototype picture of this dragon figurine, which promptly went viral and sparked an overload of people trying to order them.  After about 9 months on the wait list, my turn finally came up, and I ordered a dark blue one:

My camera, of course, is nowhere near as good, but you still get the idea.  All of the joints make it fully posable - a little too posable, in fact, as trying to move one part of it tends to make the rest of it shift, too, so it spends as much time falling over as standing up.  Nonetheless, it's a really fun investment. 

At 15 inches long, it's the perfect size to be manipulated by hand while still being well-proportioned.

It also came with a spare head with closed eyes, and a dozen different colored gems that could be placed in the sockets - standing in as a dragon's hoard in the picture below.

The last photo is a new feature, which I didn't take advantage of: adding wings.  Since they're not flexible, and they require an extra joint in the model's shoulders, I felt they'd be a bit out of place, but I can see how they add to the dragon aura.

I'm considering ordering a second, but there's still quite a wait for them, so I haven't convinced myself yet.  In the meantime, I still need to acquire a bit more of a dragon hoard...

Harry Potter / Hogwarts Yule Ball Treats

Well, the Yule Ball was quite the success, not least because of all the delicious food!  If the deviled eggs are too much work, here's a few other ideas for HP parties:

The Forbidden Forest cake - a Black Forest cake, with a layer of brandied cherries in the middle, and snowy meringue "trees" topping it, plus one giant black Aragog made out of paper.

Hogwarts Crest Baked Brie - a round of Brie cheese, wrapped in pie crust, complete with the four House crests.  This one has food coloring added, so you know which corner to take a slice out of!

Here, in the foreground, are Pumpernickel Wands with spicy horseradish dip, which make for a great combination.

Not pictured are the Eyes of News (lightly pickled grapes) and Jelly Frogs (gummi frogs set in green Jell-O), along with the non-magic food brought by the Muggle contingent.

And, last but not least, the Potions Bar:

The small vials are various flavorings (vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, Grenadine, etc.); the tall ones are drink bases (soda water, tonic water, and ginger ale); and the colored flasks are Jolly Rancher-infused vodka (12 candy pieces per 8 oz. of vodka) kept cool in the freezer.  

And, just for fun, here are some photos of dogrons (dog-dragons):

And that's how you host a successful Yule Ball!

Harry Potter / Hogwarts Houses - Deviled Eggs

For a friend's upcoming Yule Ball celebration, everyone was invited to bring a Harry Potter or Hogwarts-themed treat.  Getting a bit overenthusiastic, I decided to make deviled eggs, dyed to match the four House color themes - red and gold for Gryffindor, blue and bronze for Ravenclaw, yellow and black for Hufflepuff, and green and white for Slytherin - and individually flavored to boot.

If you're interested, here's how I did it:

I started with, obviously, eggs.  Aged eggs are better - the ones I used for this had been in the fridge for 1 to 3 weeks (I used several cartons overall).  Eggs that have sat for longer will separate from their shells more easily, leaving you with a perfectly smooth hard-boiled egg white when you're finished.

To begin, hard-boil the eggs normally.  Put them in the pot, cover them with about 1-2 inches of water to spare, and set them slowly to boil.  Once boiling, let cook for 1 minute, then take off the heat, cover, and let sit for 12-15 minutes, and they'll be cooked through.

Slice them in half, and separate the yolks into their own bowls.  This is a good time to start splitting them between 4 different bowls, if you'd like to do them in 4 different colors and/or flavors.

Once you have the whites and yolks separated, rinse the whites to get any traces of egg yolk or shell shards off.  Then you'll be ready to dye them.

To create the dye, put enough water to cover the eggs into a small bowl or dish.  Add 2-3 teaspoons of vinegar to help the dye set, and then add color.  I used regular liquid-drop food coloring for these; don't be shy about adding plenty of it, up to 1/3 of the dripper bottle.  The eggs will still take a while to set up, especially for the more intense red and blue, but the more color you add, the darker the eggs will get.  I let the red eggs soak for about half and hour, and the blue ones for almost 45 minutes.  The yellow ones went faster - more like 15 minutes.  You can try to use natural coloring - beet juice makes a deep red-pink, and squid ink would make a nice black - but you'd have to get creative for the Ravenclaw blue and Slytherin green.

Let the eggs whites dry on some paper towels while you go on to the yolk mixtures.  A shorter version would be to just dye the egg whites - yellow, red, blue, and green - and mix all the yolks into a single type of filling of your choice.  For the more detailed version, here's my four different deviled egg fillings.

For Ravenclaw, I decided on a sunny roasted-red-pepper-and-orange-zest filling.  For 6 egg yolks, add 2 Tbsp roasted red pepper pesto; 2 Tbsp mayonnaise; 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard; 1 Tbsp orange juice; 1/2 tsp orange zest; 1 tsp cayenne pepper; and 2 tsp smoked paprika.  The red pepper made the filling orange to begin with, so I only had to add 1 drop each of blue, green, and red food coloring to get the filling the correct shade of orange-bronze.  I used sliced almonds for garnish.

I'd never really used a pastry bag before, but decided to go for it, and found it surprisingly easy - most deviled egg fillings are the perfect consistency for it, and it adds a nice touch to the finished product.

For Gryffindor, I chose a mild cheese-and-garlic filling (I'd originally meant to do so for Ravenclaw, but the red pepper filling comes out too dark for Gryffindor's gold).  For 6 egg yolks, it takes 1/2 a package of Boursin garlic-and-herb cheese; 1 1/2 Tbsp of mayonnaise; and 1/2 tsp fresh minced garlic.  To get a brilliant yellow, I added 10 drops of yellow food coloring.  A mix of fresh herbs (I used basil, mint, and parsley) can be added on top for a little more color.

Slytherin got a spicy wasabi filling, which goes with the green theme.  For 6 egg yolks, add 3 Tbsp mayonnaise; 1 Tbsp wasabi paste (or equal amounts of wasabi powder and water) or to taste; 1 Tbsp very finely minced green onion; and 1 Tbsp very finely minced cucumber.  If the onion and cucumber aren't chopped as small as you can get them, they can clog your pastry bag; unless you're just filling your eggs with a spoon, in which case it doesn't matter so much.  1 drop of blue food coloring and 12 drops of green will finish it off.  Some wasabi peas or edamame make for a good topping.

For Hufflepuff, I went with a sweet honey-mustard filling.  With 6 egg yolks, use 3 Tbsp mayonnaise; 1/2 Tbsp Dijon mustard; 1/2 Tbsp yellow mustard (I only had stone-ground, so used that instead); and 1 Tbsp honey.  To make the yolks an inky black, I used black paste food coloring, which is very potent.  1/2 tsp is sufficient to get it very dark, at which point it will also stain your hands, and lots of other things, so be careful.  Top with crushed pretzels, if desired.

Through no fault of Hufflepuff's, the honey-mustard filling came out too runny and I didn't notice until after I added the black food coloring, so it was messy business trying to mold it properly.  The solution I tried was to add a few tablespoons of tapioca starch (any starch would also work ), put it in a small pan, and heat it a few minutes over medium-low heat; it almost immediately began to thicken and cling together, which made molding it a snap.  The too-runny black coloring had already stained the yellow eggs a bit, though, as you can see below.

And that's how I did it!  My one last word of advice, if you want to keep a crisp presentation: the eggs will stain each other if different colors touch, so be careful about putting them right next to each other until they're ready to eat.  For the curious, I modified all of these recipes from ones found in the book "D'lish Deviled Eggs", by Kathy Casey.