For me moving to the countryside meant something like returning to something ancient which is very difficult to describe. While launching Taste of Memories I have started to search, cook and bake old family recipes, but I realized that starting our new life in my grandmother’s village means also a learning process. Almost every week I learn something new: about the natural rhythm of life, the roots and a knowledge that even if it was once familiar to me I completely forgot about it. I am grateful for all my neighbors and village people who inspire me and share their experiences with me every day.
For instance, Marika, the old lady next door was completely right when she looked at me doubtful when I planted tomatoes in April. “Don’t you afraid of that they would freeze? When I was a child I was taught that tomatoes can be planted after the first mess in May…”Although April was sometimes quite warm and gave me the wrong hope of a warm spring weather, the end of the month was so cold that my tomatoes froze. I learnt the lesson.
I like the voice of the cows and it is an amazing feeling that they give the milk I put into my coffee or the crêpe dough. This week I hear them more and Ani, the owner tells me the reason: if they don’t let all cows out to the field, only a few, the other ones kept in the barn will keep calling the others. I learn that milk and sour cream is more yellow in spring because cows eat a lot of green.
And obviously this is not a kind of milk you take from the shelf in a supermarket. If I forget to ask for it, it can happen that it is sold out. One afternoon I arrive too late, but I have to leave the next morning early and I would love to have my usual latte. Ani assures me that i can go over at 6.45 they will have already fresh milk. Exactly the agreed time I open the front door when I realize that there is a bottle, carefully slipped into our garden next to the fence. The milk is so fresh that it is still warm. Incredulously and touched, I prepare my coffee with the freshly milked milk.For me, preparing clabber was a rediscovery. I loved it, when I was a child. My parents used to fill up the dark-brown glazed pottery mugs and put them next to the window to rest for a couple of days. Later when I was grown-up I was surprised to find it again in Austria where it is very popular in guest houses in the mountains. Served ice-cold there is nothing more refreshing for a wanderer.
It is very easy to make it, the only important thing is that you need fresh farm milk to do it. I use a glazed pottery jug which Ani gave me as a gift because it is smaller than the one I inherited from my grandmother and I can make smaller portions. If you find one like this at home and you used as decoration or a vase before, it is recommended to boil it before using it for clabber. Fill up a pan with water which is big enough for the jug to fit in. Fill up the jug with water as well and heat it up slowly until it boils and cook it slowly for an hour then let it cool down. Your jug is then ready for making clabber. Pour the milk in and let it rest for 1-2 days at room temperature. On the top the creamy part will be the sour cream that you can use for cooking, below you find the sour, fresh, tasty clabber. It is delicous for breakfast or as a dessert. Especially if you hand some fresh strawberries and honey by hand…
