Another Easter Sunday, another traditional Easter brunch at the Nami-Nami household. We were no less that 25 this time, including lots of kids. The number keeps growing and growing - no wonder considering that our own little family consists of five persons already! Had all the invitees made it, we would have been no less than 36 :)
The weather was bright and sunny, but pretty cold. It was snowing in the morning, and the children actually made two snowmen while playing outside during the afternoon! Not something you associate with Easter Sunday, I'd say, but then Easter was pretty early this year. Still, some of the guests ventured outside for a while and were basking in the sun on our south-facing patio. Very spring-like :)
As always, I tried to devise a menu that'd be light and spring-like, colourful and bright. I outsourced some of the dishes, and prepared some myself on Saturday evening and the rest on Sunday morning. Considering how quickly everything disappeared, we hit the spot (or perhaps I simply didn't make enough food?).
Here's the full menu:
We started - as always - with Mimosa cocktails, this time made with freshly squeezed blood oranges:
Our friends Kristiina and Paavo and their daughter Gretel brought along this beautiful citrus salad. Kristiina simply makes the best salads in our neighbourhood!
There was a colourful dish of fresh trout/salmon, avocados and arugula leaves, drizzled with a lime and olive oil, the recipe from one of the top Estonian bloggers, Mari-Liis:
I made small cucumber bites with herb and garlic cream cheese (a last-minute idea from Annie's Eats):
Small tattie scone buttons with smoked salmon mousse:
Marinated sprats (Sprattus sprattus balticus), bought from the Ristemäe Talu stall at my local farmer's market. A great mix of small fish, herbs, lemon and seasoning:
Another sprat dish, this time a tart using spiced canned sprats in oil on a bed of sautéed leeks and onions - a recipe from another great Estonian food blogger, Sille:
Deviled beet eggs, of course:
A small bowl of tiny chorizo meatballs for all the kids out there:
A big tray of simple roasted cauliflower (two huge heads of cauliflower, olive oil, salt'n'pepper) - not a morsel was left!
And another hit, prepared by our friends Liina and Tauno and involving caramelised onions and fried kid liver and hearts (kid = cabrito = young goat):
The desserts included this really lovely carrot and cream cheese cake with lime:
The traditional paskha, made again by our dear friends Paavo, Kristiina and Gretel:
and a huge pile of Estonian profiteroles aka choux puffs filled with cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk:
I'll try to blog about some of the dishes over the next few weeks or months - and if there's anything that you'd definitely want me to blog about, let me know in the comments. I may not be able to do it this week, but I'll try my best.
What did you eat on Easter Sunday?
See overviews of our previous Easter brunches:
Easter brunch 2012, featuring crostini with dill-marinated pork tenderloin, Ms Marmite Lover's focaccia shots, marinated olives, Estonian mushroom salad, cold-smoked salmon, a delicious paskha, cardamon-scented apricot and curd cheese cake, and much more.
Easter brunch 2011, featuring a pretty (imitation) snow crab salad, beet quail eggs, two types of home-made Estonian cheese "sõir", smoked salmon with horseradish dip, wild garlic (ramp) pesto with almonds, crostini with white cheese and red onion jam, puff pastry rolls with feta, white bean salad with chorizo, Limoncello, coconut and white chocolate tart.
Easter brunch 2010, featuring spinach and hot-smoked salmon salad with quail eggs, green beans and asparagus, Marika Blossfeldt's quinoa salad with beets and fennel, savory cheesecake with goat cheese and chives, Ottolenghi's cucumber salad with poppyseeds, bean salad with lemon and parsley, Baltic herring with cherry tomatoes and herbs, Estonian home-made cheese "sõir", paskha, traditional Simnel cake, and another cake with coconut, lemon curd, elderflower cream and lemon balm.
Easter brunch 2009, featuring bright green pea soup shots, zucchini rolls stuffed with goat cheese, hazelnuts, figs and mint, peppered beef fillet, marbled beetroot eggs and marbled turmeric eggs, layered surimi "crab" and egg salad, pineapple carpaccio with mint sugar, matcha madeleines, and two different paskhas.
We also hosted Easter brunches in 2007 and 2008, but somehow I didn't document their properly. I can see on Flickr what was on the table back in 2007, but that's about it.
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