Trying to think what to make for breakfast this Sunday? Here's what we had last weekend.. No tomatoes and mushrooms, and ciabatta instead of white sliced toast, but otherwise pretty close and rather nice..
Almost a full English breakfast
Trying to think what to make for breakfast this Sunday? Here's what we had last weekend.. No tomatoes and mushrooms, and ciabatta instead of white sliced toast, but otherwise pretty close and rather nice..
Cranachan - a perfect dessert to finish a Burns' Supper
Selkirk Grace:
Some hae meat and cannot eat.
Some cannot eat that want it:
But we hae meat and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be thankit.
Scots - whether real or adopted or simply fans of all things Scottish - all around the world are celebrating the 252nd birth anniversary of their beloved Bard, Robert Burns tonight. A proper Burns Supper includes, of course, a Selkirk Grace (see above) and a haggis & neeps & tatties and an Address to a Haggis and a Toast to the Lassies and several other must-haves - and during my seven years in Edinburgh I had a pleasure of attending several Burns Suppers, some ticking all the right boxes. Lovely memories indeed...
Now, back in Estonia, I must settle for a slightly more low-profile celebration. I cannot get my favourite haggis here, and at this point of time (just 10 days after the birth of our second child), I'm in no shape to make my own :) I might make a cock-a-leekie soup for supper, and finish the meal with a lovely glass of cranachan (going easy on whisky this year, of course).
Cranachan is one of the most popular Scottish puds - and the ingredients - whisky, oats and raspberries - are all excellent in Scotland. You may have encountered this dessert under other names - Cream Crowdie (containing some soft cheese 'crowdie') or Tipsy Oats, for instance. Raspberries are an important component of Cranachan, suggesting that originally this dessert was served during the height of summer, when raspberries are in season. However, it's now served often during Hogmanay (the Scottish new year's celebrations) and during the Burns Supper (but then raspberries freeze rather nicely).
Cranachan
(Šoti viski-kaerahelbedessert)
Serves up to six
100 g medium ground or pinhead oatmeal (rolled oats, if these are easier to get hold of)
3 Tbsp Scotch whisky (I love a smokey whisky here)
400 ml whipping cream
100 g caster sugar (or less, to taste)
300-400 g raspberries
Put the oatmeal or oats on a heavy non-stick frying pan and toast slightly over a medium heat (stir regularly to avoid burning!)*. Take off the heat, drizzle the whisky over the oatmeal and stir to combine. Let stand and cool.
Whisk the cream and sugar until soft peaks form. Stir in the whisky-infused oatmeal and divide between dessert glasses.
Top with plenty of raspberries.
Place into the fridge for about 30 minutes before serving, so the flavours could mingle and develop.
Then serve and enjoy!
* If you want a crunchier pudding, then toast some of the sugar alongside the oats - this gives you a more caramelised oat mixture.
* If you want a crunchier pudding, then toast some of the sugar alongside the oats - this gives you a more caramelised oat mixture.
And then we were four ...
Just to let my dear blog readers to know that blogging has been - and will be - a bit erratic recently due to that little fellow on the picture. Our second child - a boy named Aksel - was born early on Saturday morning after a very quick delivery in a nearby birth clinic. We got home on Sunday already, and we're all doing great. However, little Aksel will be surely keeping me away from the laptop for a while, alongside with our soon-to-be-two-daughter Nora, who needs special attention and affection just now.
We're still cooking and taking pictures, of course, and blogging will resume in due course :) Hang on there!
Russian syrniki aka curd cheese patties
A little something from the Russian kitchen - fried thick curd cheese patties that are best enjoyed while still hot with a generous dollop of soured cream or a jam of your choice. You'll find curd cheese or quark cheese (tvorog, read more here) in Russian or Polish or German shops. Remember, the higher the fat content, the tastier the end result - or try farmer's cheese instead. Ricotta is too smooth and lean to work, in my opinion.
We love them for breakfast, but syrniki also make an excellent mid-day or mid-afternoon snack.
Syrniki
(Sõrnikud)
Serves 4
500 g curd cheese
2 egg yolks (or 1 egg, if you wish)
60 g plain flour (100 ml), or slightly more, if necessary
a generous pinch of salt
1 Tbsp sugar (for sweet syrniki)
flour for breading
oil for frying
Combine curd cheese, egg yolks, salt and sugar, if using.
Sprinkle some flour on the work surface and on your hands. Form small patties from the curd cheese mixture (add a spoonful or two of flour, if the mixture is too loose), flatten them slightly. The curd cheese patties should be about 1 cm thick.
(You could put them into the fridge for about and hour - it helps them to stay in shape).
Heat some oil on a frying pan over moderate heat. Fry the syrniki on both sides for 3-5 minutes, until they're golden brown.
Serve when still warm.
Baked apple pudding
Another super-easy and lovely dessert idea (these days I seem to be drawn to uncomplicated and super-easy puddings. Must be the dark winter nights). Oven-baked apples - though not necessary exclusively a winter dessert - do make more sense during winter than during summer and autumn (the home-grown apples taste simply too good when in season that they're best enjoyed as they are).
However, here's a good way to a) use baked (plain) apples or to b) use up any leftover baked apples you've made. It's not even really a recipe, more like a serving idea...
I used plain baked apples...
Baked apple fluff
(Ahjuõunakreem)
Serves 4
3 to 4 larger apples
200 ml whipping cream
1-2 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar or vanilla extract
Wash the apples and bake in a pre-heated 200 C / 400 F until soft. Cool completely, then grate coarsely.
Season the cream with sugar and whip until fluffy and soft peaks form. Season with vanilla and gently fold in the grated baked apples.
Serve in pretty dessert glasses.
I used plain baked apples...
Baked apple fluff
(Ahjuõunakreem)
Serves 4
3 to 4 larger apples
200 ml whipping cream
1-2 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar or vanilla extract
Wash the apples and bake in a pre-heated 200 C / 400 F until soft. Cool completely, then grate coarsely.
Season the cream with sugar and whip until fluffy and soft peaks form. Season with vanilla and gently fold in the grated baked apples.
Serve in pretty dessert glasses.
Clementines in star anise and cinnamon syrup
For the first post of 2011 I chose a dessert from our new year's eve table. For various good reasons we didn't host a big new year's eve party this year, and instead had a quiet (and still lovely) evening with good friends living nearby. We were 6 adults (including one Swede), 1 schoolgirl and our little daughter. We shared a feast of cold cuts, some American and Swedish lobsters and, a layered beetroot and salmon salad, and a bit of this and that - all delicious. I was asked to contribute something sweet. I didn't want to bake a cake - exhausted from all the Christmas baking, I guess - and then decided to bring two desserts instead. Both of them were inspired by a Swedish food magazine Lantliv Mat & Vin (4/2010) that K. had recently brought back from a business trip to Stockholm. One of dishes was poached pears in a vanilla and ginger syrup, the other was clementines macerated in a spiced white wine syrup. I didn't want to open another bottle of wine, and had an half-empty vermuth bottle on hand instead, so I adapted the Swedish recipe accordingly (drastically reducing the amount of sugar, to start with!).
I loved the result - slightly spiced, slightly sweet - and a very pleasent new way of serving the clementines/mandarines that are sold everywhere at the moment.
Clementines in star anise and cinnamon syrup
(Mandariinid jõuluses veinileemes)
Serves ten or more
20 to 30 small seedless mandarines or clementines
Syrup:
250 ml dry vermut (I used Filipeti)
500 ml water
200 g sugar
3 star anise
2 cinnamon sticks
First, prepare the syryp. Measure the vermut and water to the saucepan, add star anise and cinnamon sticks. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, peel the citrus fruit, removing all the white pith carefully (I had small Moroccan clementines - a bother to peel, but at least there was no pith to remove).
Place the mandarines/clementines into a heavy glass jar or bowl, fitting them tightly next to one another. Pour over the syrup (slightly cooled), so all the fruit would be covered.
Leave to macerate/season for a few hours.
20 to 30 small seedless mandarines or clementines
Syrup:
250 ml dry vermut (I used Filipeti)
500 ml water
200 g sugar
3 star anise
2 cinnamon sticks
First, prepare the syryp. Measure the vermut and water to the saucepan, add star anise and cinnamon sticks. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, peel the citrus fruit, removing all the white pith carefully (I had small Moroccan clementines - a bother to peel, but at least there was no pith to remove).
Place the mandarines/clementines into a heavy glass jar or bowl, fitting them tightly next to one another. Pour over the syrup (slightly cooled), so all the fruit would be covered.
Leave to macerate/season for a few hours.
Culinary overview of 2010
Inspired by similar posts by Alanna and Anne.
JANUARY 2010
I blogged about many of my favourite dishes back in January - chicken with 40 gloves of garlic (photo above) and dulce de membrillo and coconut & beetroot soup, to name just a few. Our beautiful daughter Nora Adeele turned one, and we celebrated it with marzipan-topped Princess cake.
FEBRUARY 2010
Favourite recipes back in February were colorful quinoa salad with lobster tails and avocado, cream cheese spread with horseradish and beetroot (photo above), yummy chocolate muffins, decadent Lenten buns with raspberries, Hummingbird's raspberry cheesecake brownie. It was a loooong, cold and snowy month, hence the number of baked cakes :P
MARCH 2010
In March I loved the caramelised rye bread ice cream and ate lots of Georgian food (incl. fried Suluguni cheese and egg and walnut salad). Anticipating the Easter, the month ended with another lovely pashka recipe (photo above).
At the end of the month we spent a week in Davos, Switzerland. Unfortunately I was down with a nasty cold most of the time, so I missed many of the culinary delights on offer. I did manage to try some spätzle and raclette, of course, as well as some of the local cakes.
APRIL 2010
The highlight of the month was our traditional Easter brunch. As the cold and snow melted away, I fell in love with light salads again. I loved the quinoa salad with beetroot and fennel, Ottolenghi's cucumber salad with poppyseeds. I've made the Georgian spiced and creamy mushrooms on several occasions - and it's been a great hit with Estonian foodbloggers as well ;)
For my birthday at the end of the month I made three different birthday cakes, including my usual mocca cake and the popular Brita cake.
Last, but not least - in April we got four new pets, called Evita, Carol, Daisy and Madame Fifi. Here are the first three (a pure or mixed Araucanas):
and here's Madame Fifi (a French Marans) posing in front of their cool bright orange Eglu:
(And they do belong to the culinary overview of the year, as these lovely chicken have been providing us with free-range eggs that come with a dark yellow yolk and are hidden inside a beautiful pale blue or olive green egg shell :))
MAY 2010
In May I shared more lighter recipes - gnocchi Puttanesca, wild garlic tzatziki, chickpea and tuna salad. Oh, and I provided some ideas for Estonian snacks to help you host an Eurovision fan party - the idea came to me after several e-mail requests for such post :)
JUNE 2010
As the summer season began, I blogged about a new cool café in Pärnu, the "summer capital" of Estonia (one of their popular cakes is pictured above). We loved the cooked whole fish under a salt-crust, and Ottolenghi's roasted eggplant/aubergine with saffron yogurt. The Italian tonnato mayonnaise was a frequent dish on our table during the summer, and the Estonian pork shashlik was a must-try on our Midsummer table.
We also celebrated Nami-Nami's 5th birthday, asking you to name your favorite recipes on the blog. You gave fantastic feedback, thank you!
JULY 2010
July was hot! hot! hot! I almost stopped cooking during the month, as the temperatures were simply too high for a Northern girl like me :D I did blog about grilled chicken liver with sherry and honey marinade, and then moved on to pretty much uncooked dishes. Cottage cheese and egg salad, Danish sweet buttermilk soup with summer berries, watermelon salad, cold beetroot soup, harissa-spiked hummus.
And of course, as any other true Estonian, I ate lots of kama with local wild and cultivated berries (photo above) :)
We also took a daytrip to Helsinki, visiting Café Stringberg for a coffee (our little must-do in Helsinki) and having lunch at one of the hottest eateries in town, Juuri (they're famous for their Finnish tapas, sapas, but these weren't served during lunch-time, unfortunately):
AUGUST 2010
I August we really reaped the benefits of our vegetable garden. Just look at the beets we harvested (above), coming in all shapes and colours!!! Favourite recipes back in August were this tomato salad (we had LOADS of tomatoes as well), oven-baked zucchini/courgettes and tomatoes with feta cheese, cherry and plum compote (our orchard is too young to pick our own stone fruit just yet, but soon, hopefully). We had some friends over for the first ever Nami-Nami tomato tasting party (photo below; hopefully this will become an annual tradition):
It was an exceptionally good year for wild mushrooms in Estonia this year, and we ate lots of them, of course! If I get hold of some black trumpet mushrooms again next year, I'll be definitely making this black trumpet chantarelle salad again - loved the flavour and the bite! I also shared a recipe for lovely simple scones and Snickerdoodle cookies.
SEPTEMBER 2010
September was eventful. In the beginning of the month we spent over a week in Germany and France (with a short detour to Switzerland), attending our friend Margit's wedding in Köln. Of course we sampled lots of culinary delights on the trip, most memorable being maultaschen in Heidelberg:
a proper Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte in a Bizenberger family café in the Schwarzwald area of Germany:
The traditional and the more modern porcini & parmesan cheese flammeküche at L'auberge Saint-Martin in Kinzberg.
And last, but not least - a trip to the famous Bernard Antony, Eleveur de Fromages in Vieux-Ferrette was all worth it!
Back home, things were getting exciting, too. Our daughter began attending a small local nursery (luckily, she loves it!), I went back to work after a long maternity leave. We had another tasting party at home, this time getting to know the infamous Swedish "delicacy", surströmming (an event that's NOT going to be repeated any time soon).
The garden was still providing us with excellent vegetables - like these beautiful eggplants/aubergines. My favourite recipe back in September was definitely this super-easy but very flavourful cauliflower cheese with lots of mustard.
OCTOBER 2010
October was a good month for good recipes, if I may say so. The American apple pie, pumpkin scones, the Dutch apple cake and this coconut dhal (above) are all worth repeating again and again.
NOVEMBER 2010
As the nights got darker and days shorter, I began cooking more substantial meals again. I loved this roasted cauliflower with bacon and garlic (thank you, Jaden, for inspiration!), the beet and blue cheese risotto, the Danish brunsviger cake (photo above). I also posted a recipe for a Latvian dish, Kurzeme stroganoff, that hopefully many of you will try.
I took my dear K. for a special birthday dinner at Bordoo, the new restaurant of one my favourite chefs, Tõnis Siigur. The 6-course tasting menu was nothing less than spectacular and I'm looking forward to going again a.s.a.p.
DECEMBER 2010
The last month of the year just flew by. On December 1st, my first cookbook (photo above) hit the bookshelves here in Estonia, and we had a lovely book launch party that evening (the book has been doing pretty well, thank you for asking ;)). I spoke in several radio channels during December (KUKU, R2, Vikerraadio), and the Estonian print media (and bloggers!) have been very generously reviewing and covering the cookbook as well. I feel so honoured and blessed! (Again - a HUGE thank you to dear Ximena for making the book look so special and beautiful!).
Although December has been very much centered around the cookbook, I did manage to attend a special dinner at NEH and a foodbloggers' lunch at CHEDI (serving excellent modern Asian food), visited the brand new (and very cool!) Sadama turg (Harbour market) and even blog about some dishes (these cheese popovers and soft gingerbread cakei are especially recommended.
We hosted a Christmas Eve dinner to our families again (food was pretty traditional, too). And on the Christmas day we got home two new chickens - a blue and black Orpington (still nameless; these two are to keep Evita and Carol some company over the winter).
reade more...
JANUARY 2010
I blogged about many of my favourite dishes back in January - chicken with 40 gloves of garlic (photo above) and dulce de membrillo and coconut & beetroot soup, to name just a few. Our beautiful daughter Nora Adeele turned one, and we celebrated it with marzipan-topped Princess cake.
FEBRUARY 2010
Favourite recipes back in February were colorful quinoa salad with lobster tails and avocado, cream cheese spread with horseradish and beetroot (photo above), yummy chocolate muffins, decadent Lenten buns with raspberries, Hummingbird's raspberry cheesecake brownie. It was a loooong, cold and snowy month, hence the number of baked cakes :P
MARCH 2010
In March I loved the caramelised rye bread ice cream and ate lots of Georgian food (incl. fried Suluguni cheese and egg and walnut salad). Anticipating the Easter, the month ended with another lovely pashka recipe (photo above).
At the end of the month we spent a week in Davos, Switzerland. Unfortunately I was down with a nasty cold most of the time, so I missed many of the culinary delights on offer. I did manage to try some spätzle and raclette, of course, as well as some of the local cakes.
APRIL 2010
The highlight of the month was our traditional Easter brunch. As the cold and snow melted away, I fell in love with light salads again. I loved the quinoa salad with beetroot and fennel, Ottolenghi's cucumber salad with poppyseeds. I've made the Georgian spiced and creamy mushrooms on several occasions - and it's been a great hit with Estonian foodbloggers as well ;)
For my birthday at the end of the month I made three different birthday cakes, including my usual mocca cake and the popular Brita cake.
Last, but not least - in April we got four new pets, called Evita, Carol, Daisy and Madame Fifi. Here are the first three (a pure or mixed Araucanas):
and here's Madame Fifi (a French Marans) posing in front of their cool bright orange Eglu:
(And they do belong to the culinary overview of the year, as these lovely chicken have been providing us with free-range eggs that come with a dark yellow yolk and are hidden inside a beautiful pale blue or olive green egg shell :))
MAY 2010
In May I shared more lighter recipes - gnocchi Puttanesca, wild garlic tzatziki, chickpea and tuna salad. Oh, and I provided some ideas for Estonian snacks to help you host an Eurovision fan party - the idea came to me after several e-mail requests for such post :)
JUNE 2010
As the summer season began, I blogged about a new cool café in Pärnu, the "summer capital" of Estonia (one of their popular cakes is pictured above). We loved the cooked whole fish under a salt-crust, and Ottolenghi's roasted eggplant/aubergine with saffron yogurt. The Italian tonnato mayonnaise was a frequent dish on our table during the summer, and the Estonian pork shashlik was a must-try on our Midsummer table.
We also celebrated Nami-Nami's 5th birthday, asking you to name your favorite recipes on the blog. You gave fantastic feedback, thank you!
JULY 2010
July was hot! hot! hot! I almost stopped cooking during the month, as the temperatures were simply too high for a Northern girl like me :D I did blog about grilled chicken liver with sherry and honey marinade, and then moved on to pretty much uncooked dishes. Cottage cheese and egg salad, Danish sweet buttermilk soup with summer berries, watermelon salad, cold beetroot soup, harissa-spiked hummus.
And of course, as any other true Estonian, I ate lots of kama with local wild and cultivated berries (photo above) :)
We also took a daytrip to Helsinki, visiting Café Stringberg for a coffee (our little must-do in Helsinki) and having lunch at one of the hottest eateries in town, Juuri (they're famous for their Finnish tapas, sapas, but these weren't served during lunch-time, unfortunately):
AUGUST 2010
I August we really reaped the benefits of our vegetable garden. Just look at the beets we harvested (above), coming in all shapes and colours!!! Favourite recipes back in August were this tomato salad (we had LOADS of tomatoes as well), oven-baked zucchini/courgettes and tomatoes with feta cheese, cherry and plum compote (our orchard is too young to pick our own stone fruit just yet, but soon, hopefully). We had some friends over for the first ever Nami-Nami tomato tasting party (photo below; hopefully this will become an annual tradition):
It was an exceptionally good year for wild mushrooms in Estonia this year, and we ate lots of them, of course! If I get hold of some black trumpet mushrooms again next year, I'll be definitely making this black trumpet chantarelle salad again - loved the flavour and the bite! I also shared a recipe for lovely simple scones and Snickerdoodle cookies.
SEPTEMBER 2010
September was eventful. In the beginning of the month we spent over a week in Germany and France (with a short detour to Switzerland), attending our friend Margit's wedding in Köln. Of course we sampled lots of culinary delights on the trip, most memorable being maultaschen in Heidelberg:
a proper Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte in a Bizenberger family café in the Schwarzwald area of Germany:
The traditional and the more modern porcini & parmesan cheese flammeküche at L'auberge Saint-Martin in Kinzberg.
And last, but not least - a trip to the famous Bernard Antony, Eleveur de Fromages in Vieux-Ferrette was all worth it!
Back home, things were getting exciting, too. Our daughter began attending a small local nursery (luckily, she loves it!), I went back to work after a long maternity leave. We had another tasting party at home, this time getting to know the infamous Swedish "delicacy", surströmming (an event that's NOT going to be repeated any time soon).
The garden was still providing us with excellent vegetables - like these beautiful eggplants/aubergines. My favourite recipe back in September was definitely this super-easy but very flavourful cauliflower cheese with lots of mustard.
OCTOBER 2010
October was a good month for good recipes, if I may say so. The American apple pie, pumpkin scones, the Dutch apple cake and this coconut dhal (above) are all worth repeating again and again.
NOVEMBER 2010
As the nights got darker and days shorter, I began cooking more substantial meals again. I loved this roasted cauliflower with bacon and garlic (thank you, Jaden, for inspiration!), the beet and blue cheese risotto, the Danish brunsviger cake (photo above). I also posted a recipe for a Latvian dish, Kurzeme stroganoff, that hopefully many of you will try.
I took my dear K. for a special birthday dinner at Bordoo, the new restaurant of one my favourite chefs, Tõnis Siigur. The 6-course tasting menu was nothing less than spectacular and I'm looking forward to going again a.s.a.p.
DECEMBER 2010
The last month of the year just flew by. On December 1st, my first cookbook (photo above) hit the bookshelves here in Estonia, and we had a lovely book launch party that evening (the book has been doing pretty well, thank you for asking ;)). I spoke in several radio channels during December (KUKU, R2, Vikerraadio), and the Estonian print media (and bloggers!) have been very generously reviewing and covering the cookbook as well. I feel so honoured and blessed! (Again - a HUGE thank you to dear Ximena for making the book look so special and beautiful!).
Although December has been very much centered around the cookbook, I did manage to attend a special dinner at NEH and a foodbloggers' lunch at CHEDI (serving excellent modern Asian food), visited the brand new (and very cool!) Sadama turg (Harbour market) and even blog about some dishes (these cheese popovers and soft gingerbread cakei are especially recommended.
We hosted a Christmas Eve dinner to our families again (food was pretty traditional, too). And on the Christmas day we got home two new chickens - a blue and black Orpington (still nameless; these two are to keep Evita and Carol some company over the winter).