life of howl

At the moment I'm working on a lifestyle volume entitled "CELTIC" which, as the title would suggest, is a food and lifestyle journal about the ancient Celtic ways of life. Today I was at home with a migraine, and decided to make progress on the recipe section of the journal.

I brewed up some homemade "hazelnut milk" following an old recipe I found on line, tweaking it slightly to suit my purpose.

"Nut milks, made from boiling together ground almonds or walnuts with boiling water were a common ingredient in Medieval cookery. We know that our ancient hunter-gatherer ancestors collected lots of hazelnuts during late summer. Making a milk from dried nuts is very easy and it's inconceivable that Stone Age and Iron Age peoples did not make hazelnut milk both as a drink and as a base for stews.

Ingredients: 200g ground hazel nuts, 500ml boiling water

Method: Combine the ground hazelnuts and boiling water and allow to steep for five minutes, stirring occasionally. You can then either sieve the mixture to remove any coarse grains or you can blend the mixture until smooth in a blender (this is the preferred option). There are many variations to the basic hazelnut milk recipe. Some require the use of stocks or broths to make the hazelnut milk. For desserts you can also make a sweetened hazelnut milk, with the addition of about 50ml of honey to the quantities above."

It is scrummy on its own, but also a wonderful alternative to regular milk in coffee or hot chocolate.