Granny Trude
The finest in homemade fare

Although the world currently seems rather a miserable place, Granny Trude isn’t letting things get her down. She’s been creating and experimenting in her kitchen. The result is the most delicious Christmas gifts for family and friends. You really do need to try these! 
 

By Granny Trude

My dears,

Last month I was still feeling so joyful, enthusing to you all about my visit to Hamburg and my grand-daughter’s amazing cargo pedelec. And now there’s pretty much just one topic again: coronavirus. And that makes me really sad. After all we have so many other problems in the world that need to be solved! Those are what we need to spend the time on! Not for discussions about whether they should bring in compulsory covid vaccination, whether Christmas markets are allowed to go ahead, or whether New Year’s Eve fireworks are a good idea. At the same time the intensive care units in hospitals are overcrowded again – you can only hope that you don’t have an accident, or suffer a stroke or heart attack.

But despite all the sadness we also need to look ahead, after all Christmas is around the corner, the festival of love. And I certainly want to get myself into a bit of a Christmassy mood, that’s very important to me – for the sake of my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

My choice of gifts this year has been a little different. They have a more modest character and of course they are homemade. I’ve already baked my stollen – and on top of that I’ve got another “greeting from the kitchen” for everyone. I’ve found the perfect recipe – for both old and young!

Plenty of flavour in every drop

This year the grown-ups are getting liquid herbs from me. I’m totally thrilled about this idea and I’m already in love with the little jars! It’s all the “fault” of the big rosemary bush on the south side of my house. Firstly it’s starting to look very much like the rosemary hedges in Italy, and secondly it urgently needed some support. As a result I had huge amounts of rosemary sprigs that needed using. I did some research and discovered that it has been possible to buy herbs in liquid form for quite some time. And after a bit of trial and error I had figured out how!

My recipe for a personalised Christmas gift!

For about 16 jars of liquid herbs (the size of pesto jars, see below) you need

• A heavy-duty mixer or other food processor that blends efficiently. You can buy small sterile jars with a capacity of around 100 ml, or you could for instance use pesto jars, which hold 130 grams. Add a pretty label, and it looks very attractive. And of course it would be more sustainable. I had a few small jars left over in my jam jar collection.
• 1000 ml water, room temperature
• 200 ml white balsamic vinegar
• 220 ml corn oil (or alternative flavour-neutral oil)
• 4 slightly heaped tsp salt
• 4 slightly heaped tsp thickener for cold food, such as locust bean gum powder from the health food shop
• 40 rosemary stalks, around 20 cm long, just the needles

Here’s how:

• Strip the needles from the stems, which smells quite amazing. It makes your fingers a little oily and sticky.
• Add a drop of water and stir the thickener until smooth.
• Put all the ingredients in your mixer or blender and blend for at least two minutes to make a puree.

All done! The liquid herbs will definitely keep for a few weeks and should ideally be kept in the fridge. Unfortunately I don’t have experience of longer storage times. If the gift recipients cook frequently, then the jars will soon be used up anyway.

Ring the changes

Curious as I am, I tried the recipe again with dill, which did I have to buy at this time of year. And I might tell you, the liquid dill is absolutely fantastic! What a colour – it’s ever so pretty and a really dazzling green. It’s impressive just for its stunning colour! I did have to use 16 large bunches of dill without the thick ends for the same amount of ingredients, but it was really worth it.

Basil, tarragon, lovage, parsley – I plan to try out the recipe with these herbs as well. The main thing is that they are fresh and not dried.

Of course I still need to think of something for my younger family members. I’m sure this will sound familiar:

Sweet spread with hazelnuts and white chocolate

I wanted to try out something new and I experimented a little here too. The result is the most delicious nutty chocolate spread that I’ve enjoyed as a snack for a long time – incidentally without palm oil. I hope that my grandchildren and great-grandchildren feel the same way about it, because it isn’t quite as sweet.

Here’s what you need for around eight small jars:

• A mixer or an alternative food processor that can be used for blending. If you have a food processor with scales and boil function, even better, then you won’t need a bain-marie.
• 1200 g hazelnuts
• 120 g or approx. 140 ml corn oil (or alternative flavour-neutral oil)
• 12 bars of white chocolate, ideally fair trade, 1200 g

And here’s how:

• Roast the hazelnuts at 200 degrees in the oven, upper/lower heat.
• Skin the nuts, which can easily be done by rubbing them in your hand. Put them in a wire sieve and shake to remove the rest of the skin.
• Use the food processor to chop coarsely, and if you wish toast them a little in a pan until they give off an aroma.
• Then put them back into the food processor and grind finely.
• Add a small amount of the oil: 80 g (or approx. 100 ml) and mix in thoroughly.
• Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie (large pot!) with the rest of the oil.
• Add to the creamed hazelnuts in the food processor and mix on a medium setting.

You should advise your gift recipients not to store the paste in the fridge, because it won’t be spreadable if they do. And I would certainly recommend using smaller jars, because the spread doesn’t keep as long as a shop-bought one.

As you can see, my dears, I’m trying to take my mind off all the depressing news with activities in the kitchen. I’m managing to do this very well – and most of all I am really looking forward to spending Christmas with my family.

Look after yourselves and don’t be disheartened!
Wishing you all the best.
Yours, Trude