Sourdough kolbulle: a fire-kissed dish with foraged flavours

Utemagasinet has published a recipe from outdoor cook Lena Flaten at Flammans Skafferi in Storlien, who makes dishes over open fire using foraged ingredients. This time it is a sourdough kolbulle, a good fit for anyone who enjoys cooking outdoors.

The base is a bubbling sourdough starter that has been fed and left to become roughly the texture of sponge cake batter. It rests for about four hours, then a little salt is added and it is stirred gently. The batter is spooned into hot oil, around a good centimetre deep and at roughly 160 degrees, forming buns of seven to nine centimetres. They are fried until golden, turned once and drained on paper or a rack.

The topping is what makes it especially forest-close: fried boiled potato, fireweed (rallarros) shoots and orpine (kärleksört), thinly sliced dried reindeer meat, lingonberries and grated hard cheese. The recipe explicitly says you can use other goodies from the kitchen cupboard, so it is more an idea than a strict template.

I think this is a lovely example of how outdoor cooking can be more than sausages and stick bread. The sourdough can be brought along or fed in advance, and what grows around you becomes part of the dish. Frying in hot oil over an open fire does call for care, so keep an eye on the temperature.

Source: Utemagasinet