Please accept this Official Entry into the "Vikings Feast" TD
This is my entry titled, "Viking Warrior Goddess Pork Leg".
Although I'm fascinated by new Scandanavian cooking and the gastronomic revolution happening in Copenhagen right now, I decided to go Old Viking for my entry. I looked at the list of available ingredients to the Vikings and created a cook from that -- kind of like a mystery box challenge. I used modern counterparts of Viking ingredients and cooked them with modern methods and facilities. I also added some foraging and gathering on my own two acres. First I made a rub from seasonings readily available to Old Vikings -- except for the black peppercorns. I had a hard time getting my head around using such a limited spice selection for my gorgeous, traditionally-raised, heritage Tamworth pork leg so I took liberty to add black peppercorns. Seasoning seeds are mustard, fennel, coriander, cumin, dill and celery.
Ground the seeds, black peppercorns and coarse Celtic sea salt in two batches, then added onion powder.
This rub tasted amazing just as it was, the smell was fresh and intoxicating! Who knew Vikings had all the ingredients necessary to make an exceptional rub? I present to you my can of Viking Goddess Rub. I could have used another tbsp of finished rub to cover the leg better, but since I only had that amount, I filled in two gaps with onion powder.
2 tbsp onion powder
2 tbsp mustard seed
2 tbsp dill seed
1 tbsp fennel seed
1 1/2 tbsp coriander seed
3/4 tbsp cumin seed
1/8 tsp celery seed
1 1/2 tbsp black peppercorns
sea salt to taste
Also "made" some Viking Goddess Ale but couldn't get into it yet because I had to drive to town on a short errand as soon as the pig leg hit the fire.
I present my Tamworth leg.
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A Viking pig leg with Viking Goddess Rub on it!
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All dressed up and into Dragona it goes.
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Ahhh, errand done, let's get down to business.
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This is the beauty returned from fire.
Please use the photo below for voting.
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Day two of this cook brings foraging and gathering, an important Viking task. Two years ago I spent some time looking at wild edible plants and discovered wild carrot or Queen Anne's Lace. Wild carrots are what our modern carrots were cultivated from. If you intend to gather these make sure you learn the differences between it and a similar-looking poisonous plant found in swampy areas. The little purple centre in the flower head is one of the identifiers that it is the edible plant.
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We have a bi-annual bearing Yellow Transparent apple tree that we more or less ignore. We picked some the first and third year we lived here, made great applesauce, but after that I found myself with too much to do so it's been neglected since then. This is the last year for that, though, the apples are too good to let go to waste, it's a huge tree and bears a considerable bounty every second year! Didn't even find worms in the ones I cut, but they were a little scabby. No big deal for that and they have a ton of tart/sweet flavour.
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Here's some of what I'm working with for the rest of the cook.
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Washed the wild carrots many times. I've tried to eat them raw in the past but they were too woody. I wondered if they might 'melt down' in a long and slow cook similar to brisket and pork shoulder. Spent a lot of time cleaning and preparing these carrots and by the end of that I had serious doubts I would be eating more than one or two. One of the Viking articles I read said they ate a lot of plants we would not consider eating now. This could be one of those -- but why is there so much information on the internet about these supposedly "edible" wild carrots? I was going to find out once and for all. Put them in the smoker to low and slow while I continued my prep work.
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I chose barley as the starch, added finely chopped onion and celery and butter to flavour it. Started it on the stove to get it boiling and then into Dragona it went, too.
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Now for dessert. Chopped hazelnuts and prepared my foraged apples.
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While doing prep my buzzer rang, time to check the barley. Mmmmm mmmm good! So far two for two, Vikings had everything available to make pork leg and barley delicious!
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Finished dessert prep and started it on the stove in CI.
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Hot CI with butter, frozen cherries and frozen cranberries.
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Apples, hazelnuts, a pinch of sea salt and honey from a friend's hives hot and ready go into Dragona for smoking.
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Finished wild carrots. They were almost as woody out of the fire as they were going in. There is a tiny circumference of carrot, maybe 20 thou thick...... okay, maybe a bit thicker but you get the idea..... that is soft, fragrant and reminiscent of parsnips. I would have to be starving to call that edible, though. You could break your teeth on them even after cooking and I can imagine what they would do to your intestinal tract.
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And here is my finished meal -- a Viking feast of smoked pork leg, barley and apple dessert. I didn't like the way the photo turned out after all that Viking Goddess Ale. Chose the whole pork leg from Dragona's fire for voting purposes.
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The pork was really good, that's a rub I'm thrilled to know how to make. I'm going to make a mushroom sauce for the leftover barley today or tomorrow. I used to make barley as a carb side ages ago, it's time to start doing that again. The dessert was delicious on its own and combined with the barley. Overall a successful cook if you ignore the carrots.
Thanks for looking!
