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Fried Cabbage Soup-(Brynt Vitkalssoppa)

Source of Recipe

Sweden
Choose a cabbage with a firm white heart and remove the outer leaves. (reserve for Kaldolmar). Shred the white heart finely, removing the thick pieces of stalk. Blanch the cabbage in boiling water for three to five minutes. Drain thoroughly. Melt two tablespoons of fat in a saucepan. Add cabbage and one tablespoon treacle (or golden syrup), and stir constantly until the cabbage takes on a light brown color. Now add three pints of beef bone stock made from the marrow bone. Put on the lid and simmer gently for two hours. Season and serve with sausage meat dumplings.

If you are somewhere in this world where golden syrup is not readily available, this homemade version is a good substitute. Of course in terms of fragrance, you can't beat the commercial ones.

I made this especially to make mooncake but with the price of a tin of golden syrup being so expensive nowadays, I have been using this for any baking or cooking that calls for golden syrup in lieu of the store ones.

It is not labour intensive even though it requires 45 minutes cooking, as once the caramel is done, the syrup is left alone to boil quietly. I did admit I stuffed up as I extended the time to 1 hour and the next day after cooling, the syrup was admittedly very hard. But no matter, I did another half a recipe, halved the cooking time, poured the 'hard' syrup in and the golden syrup came out as good as !

Homemade golden syrup

Ingredients
200g sugar
50g water


1 kg sugar
600g boiling water
2 slice lemon


Method
1. Pour 200g sugar and 50g water into a large saucepan. On medium heat, twirl the pot around and caramelise the sugar until a dark golden colour.

2. Add the boiling water, the kilo sugar and lemon slices.

3. On low heat boil for 45 minutes until thick (stir it ocassionally if you must or leave it alone to do its own thing).

4. Cool and pour into sterilised jars or bottles. Label and store in a cool place.