Sea Buckthorn in Honey
It's not really a recipe, anybody can mix sea buckthorn with honey and get the final product. But let me show you my experience and maybe you'll find out something new. Or you could suggest other simple and good recipes with these miraculous berries.
For several years I've been looking at the piles of sea buckthorn for sale in the market, but I never had the courage to buy it. Well, not until I read about the benefits of buckthorn. It's a very important source of vitamin C and A, plus many others (folic acid, potassium, calcium etc), a very powerful antioxidant and immune stimulator, it helps digestion and transit. And the list goes on ... google it and read more.
I didn't want to heat up the berries and I really liked the idea with the honey. Mixed with honey, sea buckthorn retains its nutrients, it's made quickly and has become my favorite. The ratio I used was 1 liter of honey to 1 kg of sea buckthorn. I keep it in the fridge, let's hope it doesn't ferment until winter. The slightly tangy, sour taste combined with the aromatic honey is perfect for me. Even Maria ate about three of these sweet berries and liked them. This is great for a child, as long as they are not allergic. So, if you give it to a child, test it first with a really small amount.
I also discovered in a discussion on a forum, this syrup recipe: 1 amount of sea buckthorn juice + 2 amounts of honey. The mother who wrote this recipe said she doesn't make a lot of it because it might ferment and she keeps the extra amount of juice in the freezer. So I also made sea buckthorn juice, cold pressed, and froze to use it in syrups and lemonade (yes, it'll be delicious if you add a little sea buckthorn juice to it).
Make sure to buy clean sea buckthorn. It mustn't be sticky and juicy. If it's sticky and juicy, it means it was picked by hand.
A lady in the market explained to me that it must be cut with the scissors, this way the berries won't crush when picked.
At home, clean it from any grass or other leaves.
Place the sea buckthorn in a large sieve or in some pot with holes (a vegetable steamer or a pasta pot with a strainer). Wash thoroughly under running water, then drain well.
I weighed the honey in a bowl.
Then I added the well drained sea buckthorn to the bowl with honey.
Mix with a spoon (preferably made of wood, not metal) so that each berry is well coated in honey. Be careful not to crush the berries.
Pour into jars, leaving about 1 cm headspace.
I had about 1.7-1.8 liters of mixture.
Place immediately in the fridge and keep there throughout the winter (and not only). Use it for daily consumption.
We also had some with a cup of tea. Maria and I really liked it. Dad and Sofi weren't very fond of it, but they said it tasted good.
I hope it won't ferment, if anything I'll update the recipe later.
Here is sea buckthorn juice, freshly cold pressed, put in plastic cups to go in the freezer.
All winter long we use this juice to make lemonade or fresh syrup with honey.
I put the remaining pulp left after squeezing the juice to dry. We are trying to make sea buckthorn tea. I will tell you how it was.
Enjoy!
