Wild berries & jam

Last weekend Wil and I went to the forests in order to search for the first chanterelles. We didn't find any mushrooms, but came back with a basket full of rasp- and blueberries. They were everywhere!

We also surprised a wild boar family. There is no photo of that because I was busy peeing my pants. Wild boars can be quite dangerous when you surprise them, especially when they have litter.

In the end they were just pretty cute and funny and even more scared than we were...

Over 1kg of berries!

Back home I decided to make jam out of our berry harvest.

I've never really done it. Therefore I just got one of those packs of preserving sugar 1:1.

You just follow the instructions on the package and after 4-8 minutes you have jam. Easy as that.

I would recommend to look out for the 2:1 (2parts fruits : 1part sugar) or even 3:1 packs. It's less sweet then. The jam still turned out fantastic, but yeah, it could have used a little less sugar.

Also, next time I'd rather try the "ancient" method and make jam oldstyle, by making a syrup out of regular  sugar and water and then adding the berries. Aside from getting the exact temperature for the syrup, it's as easy as making jam with preserving sugar...

My raspberry-blueberry jam on cream-cheese and homemade sourdough-bread.

I thought I also share some more images of our foraging adventures...

On an earlier trip we also found a whole bunch of wild strawberries. They taste really funny. They pretty much taste like artifical berry-flavor in chewing gum or drinks. 

That same day we also picked camomile and corn flowers for tea...

cornflowers are probably my favorite flowers. They look so beautiful,
especially with those bright red poppies!

In other news: I have a new camera! Ah! You can't imagine how happy I am about this. I even got a smoking deal on ebay. The camera was sold used but is pretty much brand new.

Green asparagus & strawberry salad with arugula

Just a quick post, since I'm super busy getting everything ready before leaving for Canada next week.

I made this green asparagus & strawberry salad last night. I didn't  have high hopes, but have to say it turned out really good. Both go very well together and a the arugula adds a nice spicyness.

Look closely and you may spot some of the hollandaise sauce and balsamico...

I sliced the strawberries and had them marinate for a couple of minutes in a dash of 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of sugar and black pepper. The amount of sugar depends on how many strawberries, how sweet they are already and whatever you prefer. 

In the meantime I steamed the asparagus and wahsed the arugula.

Salt the asparagus, then pour asparagus, strawberries and arugula in a bowl and mix. 

Season everything with salt and pepper, if necessary.

I made my quick sauce hollandaise to pour over the salad, not the whole amount, though, that would have been too much...half maybe, or even less (you can find the recipe here!). Together with balsamico vinegar sprinkled over it in the end it serves as a nice and rich salad dressing. You can also just use olive oil instead and add some grated parmesan or gruyere cheese. 

That is a little lighter, easier and less time consuming to prepare.

Enjoy, your ultimate spring salad!

Notes: 

I already knew that strawberries taste really well with balsamico and/or pepper. But, boy, it's the first time I noticed how nicely they taste with a bit of salt...