One of the biggest surprises for me on HIVE was the reception to my cooking. I've always cooked for myself and I've worked in plenty of kitchens but I never really considered myself much of a cook; rather I liked my food and I thought no one else would- which may have been influenced by a string of very negative comments about my cooking by an ex partner... 😂
When @carolynstahl encouraged me to make an entry for this week's HIVE Top Chef, I was humbled; yet encouraged. (Thank you 😌)
Upon reading the topic for this week's contest, I was a little more intimidated. "Traditional" food. I'm a white kid living in the United States of America. We literally have no traditional food; rather we have just stolen all of our food from other cultures. My family has an interesting history of fleeing Estonia from the Nazi party during WWII, ending up here after some years spent as traveling refugees, moving back to Estonia, and finally moving back here shortly after I was born. Enough for me to consider myself more Estonian than of the USA; yet not enough for me to learn much about traditional Estonian food.. especially anything at all about vegetarian Estonian food; considering my family is chock-full of meat eaters.
I know that I have a lot of Norse/Viking blood in myself, and I know a bit of that culture. In terms of food, however, I knew mostly that meat was a HUGE part of their traditional cooking.. so I wasn't sure how to play that. HOWEVER, I'm also aware that Viking tradition was also "eat whatever you have, however you can"- which is certainly something I picked up from my ancestry.
So, I settled on that as "traditional" for myself. And, honestly, I realized that is something "traditional" for myself. My cooking mainly consists of looking in my fridge and thinking, "how can I use this all at once?". And that's what I decided to create; throw a bunch of things in a stew and cook it. That's what the vikings would do, so that's what I will do.
Vegan Viking Hodgepodge
I really wanted to cook this over a fire in traditional Viking style. I don't know why; it just seems like it would be better. Give it a natural "smokey" kind of taste. I live in a large apartment complex and we have an outdoor firepit. After looking around my belongings for a good while to try to find something I could place the pot on over the fire, I went outside and saw that the pit was occupied. So, back to the stovetop.
Be warned I cooked this for approximately 5 hours. You don't have to. I decided to cut my vegetables into larger chunks and let them simmer as long as possible.
Ingredients
Let it be noted this is not an "ingredients" list with the intentions of what you should use. This is simply what I used. To keep with the "traditional" aspect, this is meant to be altered and a traditional viking meal would just be to throw everything you have into a pot. So, if you want to make this- just use whatever you have! Hence the "hodgepodge".
- 1/2 head of red cabbage
- 3 large celery sticks
- 2 russet potatoes
- 1.5 large onions
- a good chunk of ginger
- 10 cloves of garlic
- 6 thai chili peppers
- 2 large carrots
- 1 12oz dark beer
- 3 cups vegetable stock
- 3 TBSP red pepper flakes
- 1 TBSP turmeric
- 2 TBSP chili powder
- 2 TBSP adobo powder
- 1 TBSP merken
- salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
- 1 cup red lentils
On account of what I mentioned above, about the versatility of how to cook viking food; I will be recording my "instructions" as more of a this is what I did style rather than a do this format :)
- I chopped up my potatoes, carrots and celery into rather large chunks. I already knew I would be planning on cooking this over the course of several hours, so I figured a larger size wouldn't hurt and I figured it's what my ancestors would do.. some 1100 years ago. I don't know why, but large chunks just seems more appropriate.
- I threw those in a pot to clear my cutting board, and proceeded to chop my onions. I've been told I cut onions wrong; so no need to point it out. I don't care 😂 hard to break old habits.
- (3) I crushed up my garlic and threw it in. As I tend to do, I threw most pieces in whole(yet crushed) and cut a few of the larger pieces in half.
- (4) I cut off the stems of the chili peppers and cut them into small chunks; yet larger than I would if I were doing something such as sautee'ing them or using them in really any other dish. In general, everything that went into this is in larger chunks than I normally would. Oh, and yes, of course I put the seeds in!
- (5) I cut my head of red cabbage and half, chose the smaller half and sliced it into ribbons. I then peeled the skin off my chunk of ginger and peeled slices of the meat into the pot on top of the cabbage. The more ginger, the better..
- (6) With all my vegetables in the pot ready to go, I turned on a burner on my stovetop and placed the pot on it. I added 2 1/2 cups of my vegetable broth for the time being. I wasn't sure how much I was going to end up using as I knew I would have to continue to add liquids to the hodgepodge as time dragged on.
- (7) Cooking with beer was a big viking tradition. They would frequently make their own beers, commonly dark ones. I don't like dark beers; for drinking anyway; and I certainly didn't feel like going out to buy one. Lucky for me, I had this non-alcoholic dark stout leftover from a pack I bought on a sober trip. I should have known at the time I wasn't going to like it; yet I had drank every type of this company's other N/A beers and loved them so I had decided to try this one. They've been in my kitchen ever since. I'm happy I found a use! ... oh yeah, I poured it in with the pot.. 😂
- (8) I used water to cover the rest of the vegetables to the appropriate level. I knew the vegetables would reduce in size; yet I also knew I would lose liquid. I added my red pepper flakes, adobo, chili powder, turmeric, salt, pepper and merken. If you don't know, merken is a traditional Chilean seasoning. My partner is Chilean and she introduced me to it; and on her last trip to the USA she brought me a fair amount. It's absolutely amazing. I believe it's made from Goat Horn Chilis.
- (9) At this point I brought it to a boil and then reduced it to medium-low heat to let it simmer. I would occasionally visit it to stir and check the level. I ended up needing to add a fair amount of water/broth throughout the process. Other than the stirring and the addition of liquids, it remained unaltered for about 3.5 hours.
WARNING: This shit smells delicious!
My room mate and his girlfriend came home during this time and they were obsessing over the smell. I had gotten used to it, but after I took my dog out and came back I could see what they meant. Anyways
- (10) After said 3.5 hours, as I was tasting/testing the texture, I decided to add a cup of split red lentils. This had not been previously planned. I liked the idea of just a straight up stew, but I figured I'd stick with tradition and improv halfway through. And I'm glad I did.
- (11) During this time I chopped up my dill. I had some leftover from pickles and I knew vikings were big into herbs and the like. That had been planned from the beginning. Cilantro followed suit; that had not been planned.
The hodgepodge, post herbs, in it's final stages.
- (12) I let the pot simmer for roughly another hour. At that time, I took if off the heat, served myself a bowl, and let the rest cool before transferring it to containers to refrigerate/freeze. Obviously this made quite a few servings. I have a habit of making large amounts of food and putting it away; especially if it's healthy. This is to prevent me from eating something quick & shitty for me when I get hungry and don't feel like cooking.
This turned out AMAZING
I'm realllllly hyped on the way this came out. I'm not a stew or soup guy! At all! Like, I love it; but I never cook it. I haven't made a soup in probably 6 months. And that last one... well I learned my lesson about freezing soup in a mason jar. Idiot.
I was a little pissed at myself for not having sour cream. The reason I'm pissed at myself is that this is like the 10th time I've been upset about not having sour cream. I've been to the store dozens of times in between. And. Just. Can't. Remember.
So anyways, this was my "traditional" dish! It doesn't look to impressive and wasn't too complicated to make; so I don't know how well of an entry this is but I really don't care. I had a blast making something different than my normal cooking and it was entertaining to think of what my ancestors ate. I REALLY wish I had cooked it over a fire. I think that would have been super exciting for me.
Oh, and one thing that makes these one-pot dishes amazing... easy clean-up
This is my first HIVE Top Chef entry and I'm excited to keep trying! Loving this wonderful community more every day. Thank you all and happy HIVEin!
Your food looks really tasty. I hope I can have some.
Thank you!! It was really fun to make. Delicious and very spicey!
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First of all I am so excited that you entered. You are obviously a cook and a great blogger. Your personality shines through your post. I love the Viking thing. I wish you the best!
Thank you! It was kind of a scramble as I hadn't realized the deadline. But upon researching a little about viking food, I was like "oh yeah perfect". Thanks for letting me know about the contest! I'm looking forward to doing it in the future :)
I am wrapped up with the woodburner lit and I think this is all I'm missing! 😁
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Ohhh yes that's awesome! This is certainly a meal to be had in front of a woodburner.. thank you for your support!! I am pleasantly surprised by the results :)
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Right now, imagine yourself walking in and slipping on sour cream, or some kid throwing it in your face. Fully visualise it - the door opening, the tiles or the lino, the noise, the lights - and the slip. I guarantee you'll remember the sour cream - so much so you'll come back and say 'wow, River, not only are you are amusing, but helpful for my memory as well!'.
I love a hodgepodge! I can imagine a Viking saying in his viking voice: 'Wench, bring me my hodge podge, and take this stupid horned hat off me so I can put my feet up after a day of slaying and rowing, in no particular order'. The addition of some kind of ale is definitely called for with this one.
My grandparents came from England and Germany after World War One - the most traditional food I can remember, growing up, is my English grandmother's bangers and mash, or my German grandmother's kartoffelpuffer, saueurkraut, liebkuchen or strudel.
OK OK OK... well, I can't say I really imagined the scenario. I planned on it! But I read your comment when I was busy and I read it, and planned to imagine it, but I was distracted and this is the first time since I've really sat on my computer.
Now, that being said.. earlier today I stopped at the store to buy dog food. Just dog food. Wasn't even thinking, "what else do I need?". On my way to the checkout, I found myself diverting towards the dairy section to get sour cream. I immediately thought of you and your comment.
So, no, I never got around to the full experience. BUT, it DID work!!! So thank you!!!!!
Your Vegan Viking Hodgepodge, had my mouth watering, that was until you stated that you had no sour cream. 😁
Sour cream goes so well with so many different dishes, but with this dish, I think it wasn't missed too much.
Cooking large amounts of food is a hard habit to break. For so long we prepared enough food for a family of six.
More often than not we still have at least a meal's worth of leftovers, which I love.
After a few minutes of heating up the goods, presto, there's another meal.
I always refer to these meals as free food.
Hahaha I'm not sure if you're a fan of the sour cream idea.. or the other way 😂 I think there might have been a typo. Me not having sour cream stopped your mouth from watering? Or you think it doesn't go well with this dish?
Haha I think it could easily go either way. I know vikings were super into dairy/cream so I thought it was fitting. I also thought the cream would thicken it a little bit; which is what I tried to do with the lentils but I wish I had used more. Additionally this shit turned out HOT, more than expected, which for me isn't a big deal but I'm sure others could use some sour cream to mellow it out.
But really, it doesn't matter to me haha. Either way!
And yeah! It's not only a hard habit to break; it's also just so much easier. Especially with limited cookware. The amount of attention it would take to cook a single serving of some of the shit I cook with wide-bottomed pans, without burning or drying it out, would be almost impossible. Not to mention the mess and the time. I like making "complicated" meals but I'm not trying to do it three times a day. Or even once a day, for that matter.. I'll take my three containers of leftovers ahahah.
And if you're like me, it's also a lot easier to keep your veggies from going bad that way. A lot of my cooking is influenced by "well fuck I should probably just use that whole pepper because I'll forget about it otherwise", then I match the ratio with other ingredients, and then....
"free food" I like that! Thanks for checking it out!!
I think that sour cream goes with just about anything and it would have made this dish even more delightful. But the dish looked so good, not having SC was not a big deal.
My wife just made a wonderful fried rice dish, and I ate it five different times over the past several days.
Some dishes seem to get better the second, third, and fourth time around.
Whenever @farm-mom goes back to NJ for a few days to visit with family and friends and I stay home, she always makes plenty of food and I'm in leftover heaven. I come inside and in a matter of minutes, I'm ready to sit down in front of the TV and chow down. What's not to like about having food at the ready!
Damn that sounds amazing. I need to get more into that habit. My take on that habit is making enough food to last that amount of time and planning on having it when I'm lazy. That turns into me always being lazy and I eat nothing but that same food until it's gone so I don't have to cook again.
See the last 36 hours. I've eaten nothing but this stew/whatever it is. I used my laziness as an excuse to not have to go to the store. "I can't buy more food til I finish what I have". Which is a week's worth of stew hahahah.
Fried rice dishes are the shit. I never make them although I really should more often. My lady and I are separated by border issues caused by covid so I'm just kinda spending my free time cooking weird shit hahaha.
NJ eh!? Not too far away.. cheers from VT!
Stew makes a great leftover.
When I have to cook for myself I stick to the basics, PBJ on toast is one of my go to meals, the only part that gets a little tricky is not burning the toast.
I can usually make a pretty good egg salad, but some times I run into some problems.
Another meal I will try to cook for myself are hotdogs, but that requires some real culinary skills.
Now you know why I love left overs so much. 😁
I thought I replied before to compliment you on that absolutely INCREDIBLE egg cooking technique but now I don't see it showing up. Maybe I never finished the comment. Not sure what happened there. Either way, you are clearly a magnificent and innovative chef.. I have never seen such ingenuity when it comes to eggs. Incredible!!!
Vegan Viking Hodgepodge? Count me in!! 😋
This soup looks strong on nutrition and taste. Would love a bowl of it after some hard work. Just perfect!
It's great!! I have tons of leftovers too, if you find yourself in Vermont 😂
Beer Viking soup, oh boy! This is manly and spicey, and as a ginger likely descended from vikings, I'm sure my ancestors enjoyed a dish very similar to this. Gotta have a full belly before you leave home because villages aren't going to pillage themselves.
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Nice to meet you, fellow viking descendent. I haven't met many before! And yeah, those royals aren't going to blood eagle themselves!!