Six years of Nami-Nami food blog

Yep, it's exactly six years since my first post here. Back then I was a carefree PhD student living in Edinburgh, Scotland, cooking in a rented under-equipped kitchen and taking pictures with the tiniest of digital cameras. Now I'm back home in Estonia, and a lot has changed. Amongst other things, I'm a happy mum of two gorgeous kids:



owner of a handy vegetable patch and tomato greenhouse:



keeper of four lovely chicks:



and author of one beautiful cookbook:



and hopefully also a good partner to my lovely K - I wouldn't be still blogging if it weren't for his support and enthusiasm and good appetite :)

I have enjoyed those six years of foodblogging immensely - especially the encouragement from fellow readers and meeting of other foodbloggers - both in Estonia and abroad. I hope you've been enjoying reading Nami-Nami and will be coming back for more..

Previous blog anniversary posts:
2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006

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Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread

Is there a self-respecting food blogger out there who has not yet tried Joy the Baker's fabulous cinnamon sugar pull-apart bread? Not here in Estonia, I suspect - this cinnamon bread has popped up on pretty much every Estonian blog on my reading list :) I've made it thrice myself, and love it. I've used three different dough recipes - my cinnamon roll recipe, my korvapuusti dough recipe and finally slightly adapted version of Joy's recipe. The last one was the winner for this particular one :) I've simplified the process considerably, however. I'm quite experienced in making and comfortable with using sweet yeast dough and I would say the complicated dough-making process involving several steps described by Joy isn't simply justified. It's a simple pastry, the fabulousness of it is in the way it's shaped, and not in the way the dough is made.

Special thanks to Jaanika (blogging @ Maitse asi) who came up with an excellent Estonian name for this type of bread!

It's best on the day it's made (and probably won't last much longer anyway), but you can wrap it in a clingfilm and keep it for up to two days at the room temperature.

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread
(Kaneelilõõts)
Makes 1 loaf



360 g plain flour (600 ml)
4 Tbsp caster sugar
1 packet of instant dry yeast (11-12 g)*
0.5 tsp salt
125 g (125 ml or half a cup) milk
50 g butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Filling:
200 g caster sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
0.5 tsp ground nutmeg
50 g butter, melted

* Note that I've used instant yeast that can be simply mixed with dry ingredients. If you're using active dry yeast, you need to activate and proof it first. 

In your mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, instant yeast and salt.
Break the eggs into a small bowl. Heat the butter and milk in a small saucepan until the butter has melted. Cool a little, then whisk in the eggs. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir and knean, until combined and the dough breaks loose from the sides of the bowl. (If it's too dry, add a spoonful of milk; if too sticky, add a spoonful of flour).
Cover the dough with a clean kitchen towel and leave to rise until doubled in side in a warm draught-free room. (Or, if you prefer, let rise for about an hour at the room temperature, then transfer into your fridge overnight. Then you can quickly and easily bake warm cinnamon sugar pull-apart bread for breakfast).
Mix the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg for the filling in a small bowl. Melt the butter (you can brown it a little, if you prefer the flavour).
Take a loaf tin (mine was 22x12x7 cm), butter it generously or line with a parchment paper.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the yeast dough into a rectangle about 30x50 cm. Brush the surface with melted butter and sprinkle the cinnamon sugar evenly on top.
Cut vertically into six even strips. Gently lift them on top of each other, then cut into six square towers again.
Place these, side down, into the loaf tin. Cover with a kitchen towel and leave to rise for 30-45 minutes.



Bake in a preheated 200 C/400 F oven for 30-35 minutes, until dark golden brown on top (just golden brown isn't enough - the bread will be still slightly under-baked inside then).
Remove from the oven, leave to cool in the tin for 20-30 minutes. Remove from the tin and serve, letting everybody pull a slice of delicious cinnamon bread :)

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Recipe request: buckwheat and beef liver

A Flickr user emailed me this morning, saying that he/she saw this picture and that he/she would love to make it. Instead of translating and typing in the recipe for him/her, I'm blogging about it. It was a delicious dish, and although not necessarily a summer dish, it's definitely lovely and worth making during the colder times. (Incidentally, I had buckwheat for dinner last night, served with a creamy meatball sauce).

Intrigued by buckwheat? There are plenty of buckwheat recipes here @ Nami-Nami. Note that buckwheat is naturally gluten-free, so it's a suitable and tasty grain alternative to all those who need to avoid gluten.

Buckwheat with beef liver
(Tatrahautis veisemaksaga)
Serves four
Slightly adapted version of Kaie Mei's recipe in Oma Maitse (January 2010)



1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 carrots, scraped and chopped finely
oil for frying
250 g buckwheat kasha, rinsed and drained
500 ml (2 cups) vegetable stock
300 g beef liver
salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve:
fresh herbs
sour cream

First, you may need to toast the buckwheat. The buckwheat we usually use in Estonia is pre-roasted and darkish brown ('kasha', see photo on top), so this can be skip this stage. If you're using the "light" buckwheat groats, then roast them on a dry hot skillet for about 5-6 minutes, until it's nicely toasty and aromatic.

Heat oil on a deep frying pan, add the onion and sauté for a few minutes. Then add the carrots and fry for a few more minutes.
Add the buckwheat groats, stir-fry for a minute.
Add the stock, season with salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer on a low heat for 15-20 minutes, until buckwheat is cooked.
Meanwhile, cut the beef liver into small dice. Season and sear quickly on a hot frying pan for about 4-5 minutes, until browned all over. Add the cooked liver to the buckwheat and sauté for a few more minutes, until the buckwheat and liver and tender.
Serve, sprinkled with herbs and a dollop of sour cream.

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Watermelon lassi

Just like that, and ever so suddenly, the summer is here. We've just had almost a fortnight of very high temperatures (about 30 C/85 F) and constant sunshine (almost 24/7 - us being rather high up North :)). It's hard to believe that just a few months ago the summer seemed soooo far away. Last winter was long, cold and harsh and unwilling to ever end. After still complaining about the amount of snow in early April, I felt ashamed about complaining about the heat of last summer (temperatures hovering around 30 C aren't exactly my cup of tea - and last summer was especially difficult for me as I was expecting our second baby). And yet I was already ready to complain about the heat last weekend :)

Luckily, the temperatures dropped a little last night, and we finally got some long-awaited rain this morning (I've got a vegetable garden as well, remember, so occasional moderate rain is very much needed and welcomed). But should the heat wave return, then here's one of the easy summer smoothies that helped me stay cool and sane a year ago :)

Watermelon lassi
(Arbuusi-jogurtijook)
Serves 1

150 g watermelon (weight after cleaning)
100 g plain yogurt
1 Tbsp sugar (optional)
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp finely chopped fresh mint

Cut the watermelon into chunks and blend until smooth. Stir in the yogurt, sugar and lemon juice.
Pour into cold classes, sprinkle some mint on top and serve at once.

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PaperChef June 2011: Rye bread toasts with chocolate, strawberries and lime

It's time for a Paper Chef, a food blogging event with pedigree (launched by Owen back in 2004, now co-hosted with Ilva and Mike. I'm embarrassed to admit that I've only participated twice before - #8 (spinach, olives, Cheddar cheese, potatoes/cream) and #15 (limes, beetroots, pears and aphrodisiac of your choice)), but with Ilva asking us all so nicely to participate, I couldn't say no :)

The ingredients this month - bread, berries, chocolate and lime. I won't dwell on the difference between bread ('leib') and white bread ('sai') in Estonian - suffice to say that even after living in an Anglophone country for seven years, I automatically thought of our dark Estonian rye bread when I spotted 'bread' in that list of ingredients. Only later did it occur to me that I could have gone the 'white bread' (aka 'wheat bread') route, perhaps with summer pudding with lime-macerated berries and white chocolate and mascarpone mousse? Mmmm...

The rules of Paper Chef do not say that you must restrict yourself to those four ingredients alone. However, I immediately remembered a little neat idea I had seen on the Finnish Herkut.net site a while ago - warm rye bread toasts with melted chocolate and sliced strawberries. I added some grated lime zest for, well, extra zest - and using just the four ingredients that were required - and loved the result! I can easily see serving this at one of the many patio parties or summer grill events that are about to follow.

A word of warning, however. While it's a dessert sure to please all the young ones, it's no S'Mores that you grab between your hands and eat without staining a thing (well, couple of cookie crumbs on the floor, perhaps). Our daughter Nora approached her warm rye bread with chocolate and strawberries with gusto, but in the process she managed to smear melted chocolate all over her :)



Rye bread toasts with chocolate, strawberries and lime zest
(Röstitud koorikleib šokolaadi ja maasikatega)

You can use any type of rye bread here - those flat rye breads, halved horizontally ('koorikleib') are ideal, or then thickly sliced naturally leavened rye bread. I used a recently introduced new product at the Estonian market - saib (sai+leib, get it?!) - tastes and looks like white bread, but it's made with 100% rye flour.



sliced rye bread
dark chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Callebaut bittersweet chocolate couverture chips)
strawberries,
lime zest, thinly grated

Toast the bread until slightly golden and aromatic. Immediately top with chopped chocolate and strawberries, leave for a few minutes, until the chocolate melts.
Grate some lime zest over the strawberries.
Serve at once.

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Strawberry and Almond Cake

Picture taken in July 2008

Do you use strawberries for anything else but various _cold and uncooked_ desserts and puddings? 

I realised that I _almost_ never cook strawberries, especially sun-ripened local ones. They're just too luscious and delicious as they are, and I usually run out of them before I manage to start thinking about including them in a cake (and in any case, my repeated attempts to include strawberries in a clafoutis have ended with a disaster). However, there is one baked strawberry cake that I've been making again and again over the years. The recipe is from an old issue of BBC Good Food, bylined by their previous editor Orlando Murrin. I've simplified the recipe a little over the years, and it's been on my early summer table at least one every year. It's delicious both warm or cold (I love it warm with a scoop of good vanilla ice cream).

I think I'll be baking one later tonight :Pc

Almond and Strawberry Cake
(Maasika-mandlikook)
Serves eight

175 g ground almonds
175 g unsalted butter, softened
175 g caster sugar
175 g all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 eggs, whisked
400 g strawberries
icing sugar/confectioner's sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line the base of a loose-bottomed 24 cm cake tin with greaseproof paper and butter the sides.
Mix almonds, butter, sugar, flour, cinnamon, baking powder and eggs in a food processor just until the ingredients are evenly combined.
Spread half the mixture over the base of the tin in a smooth layer. Lay the sliced strawberries on top. Spread the remaining cake mixture over the strawberries.
Bake for 45-50 minutes, until slightly risen and dark golden brown when cooked.
Cool in the tin slightly, then loosen the edges with a knife and remove from the tin.
Transfer onto a serving plate and dust with icing sugar.

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Rhubarb and rye bread soup

Couple of years ago, when I blogged about Estonian rye bread soup, the idea of a 'sweet' bread soup seemed very unusual to most of my (non-Estonian) readers. But trust me - the rye bread soup is cheap (usually using stale rye bread) and cheerful, and very tasty. Here's a seasonal version of the soup, using pale pink rhubarb stalks. Whereas the rye bread soup isn't particularly sugary-sweet anyway, this late spring/early summer version is even lighter and with a slight and welcome tang.

Rhubarb and rye bread soup
(Leivasupp rabarbriga)
Serves six to eight



400 g rhubarb, cleaned
200 g rye bread
1 litre water
100 g caster sugar
a cinnamon stick
some vanilla extract

To serve:
sour cream or yoghurt (optional)

Break the rye bread into chunks, place into a pan with 1 litre of cold water. Leave to soften for a few hours.
Bring slowly into the boil.
Cut the rhubarb into thick slices, add to the pan with sugar and cinnamon stick. Simmer the soup for 15-20 minutes, or until the bread and rhubarb are soft and mushy.
Season with vanilla.
Cool before serving.

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