Nordic Troll Cookies (aka Peppernuts)

Ingredients:
1 cup soft butter (which, incidentally, is 236 grams)
1 cup organic raw sugar fair traded from Malawi
2 free range eggs
1 tsp ground cardamom
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp cocoa powder, heaping
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp Grains of Desire seasoning (black pepper, nutmeg, cloves, orange rind, red rose petals, grains of paradise, ginseng)
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
1 overfull tsp honey
2 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

preheat oven to 350 Farenheit.

Mix spices, sugar, salt, vanilla, eggs and butter in a bowl. Mix well. Mix a bit extra because the sugar might need love to disolve.

Slowly add flour. When about half through the flour, add the honey. Don't ask why I added it there. It smelled like it needed honey. Then add the rest of the flour. Dough should be stiff. I used 2 3/4 cups flour, next time I'd probably use 3 cups. Or... roll them around in flour before putting them on the cookie sheet instead of just flouring my hands.

Anyway....

Cover your hands in a mix of flour and cocoa powder. Don't use confectioner's sugar as this would make the Peppernuts far too sweet. These are spicy cookies, not sweet ones. Pinch about a half to a full teaspoon of dough and roll it around in the flour mix until it's covered. Put it on a cookie sheet. These beauties need almost no room between them for cooking, so don't be afraid to let them get a little cosy on the cookie sheet.

Cook for 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Yum yum yum! Let cool on cookie sheet for a bit.

Note #1: If you do not use lots of flour for rolling the cookies, they will be very buttery on the bottom and a bit squishy. They are cooked, they just didn't get enough flour to absorb the butter.

Note #2: Any time I discuss spices my measurements are guidelines. I do own measuring spoons but as I grind my spices myself it is usually easier for me to just pour the whole spice into my hand and approximate. A lot of my cooking is based on my knowledge of which spices blend well with which foods, as well as being able to smell what is missing. I try not to post recipies until I've made them two or three times because often I want to create something I've had somewhere before or something ethnic and I need to A) do my research and B) try it on Russell a few times before it is good enough to share with everyone else.

Note #3: If you did not understand the troll reference, you need to find a 60 year old Norweigan immigrant man and ask him to tell you stories about trolls. You need to do this in the winter when stories about the country's monarchy will feel more real. Troll mythology, which is a fun precursor to Birkebeiner legend, is best told in the cold by a roaring fire, just as the sun is setting.

Asian Rice

You need:
2 1/2 cups Thai rice (a mix of glutinous rice and jasmine rice works)
1/4 cup wild rice
3 1/4 cups water
mix in a pot and boil.
Add a touch (1/2 tsp approx.) of peanut oil
Slowly add spice mix as it cooks:
2 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp mint
1/4 tsp coriander
2/3 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp black pepper
4 or 5 opened green cardamon pods
1 tsp brown mustard seed
1 tsp fecungrec
1 1/2 tsp sesame seeds
Crush all spices with a mortar and pestle. Crush them well. Add slowly to rice and stir. Once rice hits a rolling boil, turn heat down to medium low and cook until the water's mostly gone. Turn down to low. Once water is gone, stir and let sit with a cover. Serve. (Hint: do not cover while cooking.)

Would go well with yellow or green curry, any kind of korma and peshwari naan.

Enjoy!