Pesche alla Piemontese or Baked Peaches with Amaretti biscuits

I'm baking lots of apple cakes and plum pies these days, trying to alternate the baking days with simple fruit dishes :) Two days ago I served luscious figs with goat's cheese and Jamon Serrano. Tonight the fruit was peach, and I made a classic Italian dessert, Pesche alla piemontese. You need the crispy and light Italian almond biscuits, Amaretti, for this recipe.

Pesche alla Piedmontese
(Küpsetatud virsikud Amaretti küpsistega)
Serves 4

4 large ripe peaches
100 g Amaretti almond cookies/biscuits
2 Tbsp brandy or cognac
2 Tbsp butter, softened
1 egg yolk

To serve:
whipped cream with vanilla and sugar

Wash the peaches, pat dry, halve and remove the stone. Place on a oven dish, cut-size up.
Crush the cookies into fine crumbs. Drizzle cognac on top and leave to soften for a couple of minutes. Stir in the butter and egg yolk and stir until combined.
Divide the mixture between the peaches.
Bake in the middle of 180 C / 350 F oven for about 30 minutes, until the peaches are soft and the Amaretti topping is golden.
Serve warm or at room temperature, with a spoonful or two of whipped cream.

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Figs with Jamon Serrano & Goat's Cheese

It's not easy to get good-quality figs in Estonia. But when you see them, you crab them straight away and make something delicious. Like this simple, yet elegant starter, for instance. The figs are from Turkey, and they were huge, beautiful, fragrant and delicious.

Figs with Jamon Serrano & Goat's Cheese
(Viigimarjad Serrano singi ja kitsejuustuga)
Serves 4

4 large ripe figs
about 75 g soft goat's cheese
4 thin slices of Jamon Serrano or other cured ham
runny honey
fresh thyme
freshly ground black pepper

Rinse the figs, pat dry and cut almost into quarters, leaving the base intact. Place on a serving tray, opening the figs slightly.
Cut the cheese into chunks, divide between the figs. Place a piece of ham onto each fig.
Drizzle with runny honey, garnish with a thyme leaf or two and grind some black pepper on top.

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Crab Apple Cake (or Apple Cake from Paradise)

Crab apples (Malus paradisiaca) are quite popular in Estonian gardens, as they're rather decorative throughout the year - gorgeously pink blossoms during the spring and early summer, attractive tiny red fruits during the autumn (don't you agree?). However, their use is rather limited - they're too tart for eating as a dessert apple, they're a pain to clean for preserving. The traditional way of preserving them is pickled whole in a sweet-and-sour marinade and used as a garnish on various dishes during winter. Not bad, but a bit boring IMHO.

A sweet soul brought me two kilograms (that's just over four pounds) of crab apples the other week, and I wanted to make a jam according to a recipe given to me years ago. I began quartering and coring the tiny apples, and quickly gave up. Way too much hassle, you see. I decided to do something different and a lot easier - a crab apple spread. (You can see the result here). I fell immediately in love with the colour - and the flavour - of that spread. So when a local newspaper asked me to provide an apple cake recipe for one of their forthcoming issues, I knew I'd be patient enough and quarter and peel those tiny apples anyway.

I quickly sourced another batch of crab apples, and used them in one of my good and trusted apple cake recipes instead of regular apples. I think that simple cake looks simply spectacular because of the crab apples.

Crab apples, by the way, are known as 'paradise apples' in Estonian. So I could call this a Paradise Cake or Apple Cake from Paradise:)

Crab Apple Cake
Serves about 10



The pastry:
200 g unsalted butter
200 g sour cream
350 g all purpose/plain flour
0.5 tsp salt

The filling:
about 400 g crab apples (cleaned weight)
sugar, according to taste (I used 4 Tbsp)
cinnamon

Also:
1 egg white, for brushing

Melt the butter, then mix with sour cream, flour and salt until combined. The dough is very soft at this stage. Cover the bowl with a cling film and place to the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, quarter and core the crab apples.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the very nicely malleable dough into a large rectangle (about twice the size of your small to medium sized baking sheet). Carefully lift the dough and transfer half of it onto your baking sheet, leaving the other half to hang over the edge.*
Spread the apples over the pastry, then season with sugar and cinnamon. Fold over the other half of the pastry, and press the edges firmly together.
Brush with a egg white.
Bake in the middle of a pre-heated 200 C/400 F oven for about 35-40 minutes, until the apples are cooked and the cake is lovely golden brown on top.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool a little before cutting into squares.

* You can also simply divide the dough into 2 pieces and roll into 2 rectangles - one for the base and the other for the top.

PS You can obviously make this cake with regular apples instead - it'd be just as tasty, if not looking just as spectacular.

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Toast Skagen Recipe

Photo updated in October 2010

Toast Skagen is a very festive and popular Swedish starter. It's not cheap - both good shrimps (preferably from the waters around the Smögen island) and whitefish roe (ideally from European whitefish/Vendance (Coregonus albula) or Powan (Coregonus lavaretus)) are pricy. But if you are looking for that special starter for a special occasion, then this is very elegant, good-looking and delicious*.

This beautiful appetiser was developed by one of the best-known Swedish culinary heroes, Dr Tore Wretman (1916-2003), who served a version of this dish in his Stockholm restaurant already in 1958. Skagen, by the way, is a name of a beautiful fishing port on the Northern coast of Denmark, which has been popular with Swedish and Danish artists for centuries. Who knows, perhaps Wretman was inspired by one of his trips to the area :)

* Yes, I've slowly began to like shrimps.

Toast Skagen
(Toast Skagen krevetivõileib)
Serves 4




4 slices of good-quality white bread, crusts removed
butter for frying
300 g peeled cooked shrimps/prawns (fresh is best, but in brine will do)
5 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2-3 Tbsp finely chopped fresh dill + extra for garnishing
100-150 g bleak/whitewish roe
one lemon, quartered

Melt the butter on a frying pan and sauté the bread slices on both sides until golden. Place on a kitchen paper to drain excess fat.
Drain the shrimps, cut into smaller pieces (optional; I left them whole, as they look prettier). Mix mayonnaise, mustard and dill, fold in the shrimps. Taste for seasoning - if necessary, add some salt and pepper.
Spoon the mixture on top of the bread slices.
Garnish with a large spoonful of caviar and some dill. Serve with a lemon quarter.

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Rustic Apricot Tart

We ate quite a few of those delicious Bergeron apricots while in France, and back home, I was craving for more. So I made this ridiculously easy rustic apricot tart. This is the only free-form tart I've ever made, but I've made it several times, so it's quite a favourite. Once you've got the pastry out of the way, it's really just the matter of piling the fruit on top of it.

Note that this is just as lovely, if not better, on the following day. The apricot might look slightly worse for wear, but the pastry improves from some standing, as the moisture in the air makes it nicely crumbly and soft.

Delicious with either a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream.

Rustic Apricot Tart
(Aprikoosipirukas)
Serves six to eight



Pastry:
150 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
100 g caster sugar
1 large egg
a pinch of salt
250 g all purpose/plain flour
0.5 tsp baking powder

If using a food processor, place sugar, salt, baking powder and flour in the processor and blitz to combine. Add butter and process until fine crumbs form. Add the egg, pulse couple of times until the mixture looks moist. Take out of the processor and knead with your hands until combined. Press into a flat disk.
Place the pastry on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and a light dusting of flour. Roll out into something reminding you of a circle, about 5-6 mm (1/3 inch) thick.

Topping:
10-12 large apricots, stoned
100 ml all-purpose/plain flour (just under a cup)
100 ml caster sugar (just under a cup)
100 ml ground almonds/almond meal (just under a cup)

Mix flour, sugar and ground almonds until combined, pour into the middle of the pastry circle, leaving about 5 cm (2 inches) clean border around it.
Now layer the apricots of top, making about three layers, each one smaller than the one just under it.
With the help of the baking paper and floured hands, fold the edges of the pastry over the apricots (see the picture below).
Bake in a preheated 200 C / 400 F oven for about 20-25 minutes, until the apricots are soft and the pastry golden brown and cooked.
Remove from the oven, let cool a little and then gently transfer onto a cake plate.

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Blackberry Mousse Recipe

I am slowly getting back into the blogging mood. We had two exceptional meals during our French trip, one by Anne-Sophie Pic, the other by Jacques & Régis Marcon. Both meals deserve their own blog post - and let me tell you that I've been daydreaming about their food since we returned :) However, as we're in the middle of jam-making and pickling season here in Estonia, the food at home has been exceptionally low key and simple.

Blackberries do grow wild in Estonia, but they're nowhere as popular - or well known and easily found - as they are in Britain, for instance. I managed to pick up a punnet of blackberries at the Central Market few days ago. As they're quite an infrequent visitor in our kitchen, I decided to divide the berries into three portions and make three different dishes. The first one up - a simple creamy mousse.

If you're wondering about the hat on the picture, then that's the required chapeau I wore at the wedding in France :)

Blackberry Mousse
(Õhuline põldmarjavaht)
Serves 4

150 g ripe blackberries
40 g sugar (about 1/3 cup)
quarter of a lemon (grated zest and juice)
200 ml whipping cream
1 Tbsp brandy (optional)

Place blackberries, sugar, lemon juice and zest in a large bowl and crush with a back of a wooden spoon.
In another bowl, whish the cream until soft peaks form. Pour over the berries and continue whisking until the mousse is thick and airy. Fold in the brandy.
Spoon the mousse into dessert bowls and garnish with whole blackberries.
Serve at once or chill until ready to serve.

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French holiday

Just a quick note to explain the hiatus on this blog. We were in France for a while to attend a French-Russian wedding of some friends in Sauzet, have delicious lunch/dinner/breakfast at Maison Pic in Valence (and meet the most adorable Anne-Sophie Pic in person), enjoy the exquisite food at Régis & Jacques Marcon's restaurant in Saint Bonnet le Froid, and eat couple of those juicy and oh-so-pretty peche de sanguine.

Normal blogging will resume soon.

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