food

If there's somebody who is into beetroot as much as I am, then it's Alanna of A Veggie Venture blog. Alanna has got an impressive 41 beetroot posts on her blog already, which is way more than I've got (11 at the last count). But then, you see, Alanna has been blogging for 2,5 months more than I have, so I've still got time to catch up :) Another fellow beetroot admirer is Bea of La Tartine Gourmande , who's also got 11 beetroot recipes on her blog. If there was a Beetroot Appreciation Society, then we three should be honorary members from the beginning. (If you'd like to join, then give us a shout - we'll consider everybody's beetroot credentials!) Last month Alanna posted a recipe for beetroot pesto that I adapted for last week's movie night . I had lots of leftover odd beetroot pieces after making those cute beetroot and blue cheese mini tartlets , so this recipe was brilliant. It was a tasty and gutsy and hearty vegetable dip that was very w...

If my first task as a Daring Baker was to make Jewish Purist's Bagels , then my second task was to make a Strawberry Mirror Cake . The cake was chosen by Peabody , and you can find the recipe (which is rather lengthy!!!) here on her blog. I had never seen or heard of a strawberry mirror cake before, but apparently it's a classic fancy cake. It's also on the menu of Ritz Carlton Hotel in Bahrain , if you cannot be bothered to make one yourself :) Well, the point of being a Daring Baker is to bother to make a cake even if the recipe seems a bit daunting. With 4 full pages of instructions, a frightening Bavarian cream and lots of gelatine, this recipe definitely scared me a bit. Yet I made it, and despite of some cursing and swearing in my kitchen (not a frequent sight, believe me), I ended up with a huge multi-layered strawberry mirror cake. Our friends Kristiina, Gretel, Peter and Kristel came to judge the cake (thank you for your help!!!), and everyone seemed to like it....

Last night a group of friends came over for some food and watch a great film . We were 13 in total (plus 5-month old twins and a 7-month old girl), and I wanted to food to be light and summery. I served them Johanna's wasabi and caviar potatoes , a version of Alanna's beetroot pesto , my small beetroot & blue cheese tartlets , and blue cheese and raisin Danish pastry rolls , and two versions of zucchini carpaccio . As for sweets, I had made a version of Dagmar's mocca pavlovas , and K. made a large batch of his brilliant canelés . We also had five types of frozen desserts : Vietnamese coffee ice cream , Gooseberry sorbet , Coconut sorbet , Blackcurrant sorbet and Watermelon sorbet . All home-made :) I'll share the frozen dessert recipes soon, as well as wax lyrical about Alanna's beetroot pesto (I simply cannot have two beetroot posts in a row, can I?) and Dagmar's choco-coffee pavlovas. Here are my versions of zucchini carpaccio. Although the zucchini car...

Me and my never-ending supply of beetroot recipes, eh? Here's an incredibly simple recipe that I made on Monday night, when a computer guy came to fix some issues with our wireless rooter. These were perfect, as he could munch on those while fiddling with the router - they're just a mouthful or two each, you see. I'll be making them again for a movie night with girls on Thursday.. It's best to use those oblong red beets for this recipe, as they slice into even and beautiful thin slices. To bring out the natural earthy sweetness of beetroots, wrap them in foil and roast them rather than boil them. Assembling and baking the tartlets takes just under half an hour, as long as you remember to roast the beets in advance. I'm using one of my favourite blue cheeses here, Finnish Valio Aura , which is a strong-flavoured blue-veined cow's milk cheese that has been aged for 6 months. Beetroot & blue cheese tartlets ( Väikesed peedi-sinihallitusjuustu pirukad ) Yields a...

UPDATE 10.8.2007 - you can read Andrew's saucy sauce round-up here . For the seventh (already??) installment of Waiter, there is something in my ... foodblogging event, Andrew has chosen SAUCE as the theme. And there's a catch, you see. Andrew wrote: "A wide open theme I hope you agree. Plenty of room for experimentation, family favourites and the tried and tested. You can use fruit. You can use meat. You can serve it over meringue or pasta or even splash it over a chunk of juicy steak. They can be tart and fruity or mellow and creamy. It can be ethnically Estonian or lip-smackingly Kiwi; 'Sauces' - versatile and delicious. What can you come up with?" You see, he has specifically mentioned that the sauce can be ethnically Estonian . How could I be expected to make anything else then? I mean, coming up with a delicious Caribbean rum sauce or a classic French velouté would be bound to disappoint Andrew, don't you think? I therefore present you with a tr...

Mary of Alpineberry is hosting the 33rd round of Sugar High Friday and she has chosen Tropical Paradise as the theme. And voila - I've got a delicious cake recipe I made earlier this year that I've wanted to blog about. I haven't been to the tropics myself (yet), so I don't have a first hand knowledge about the true nature of the tropical paradise, or what would the typical dishes be. But bananas are definitely tropical, and the Finnish recipe I used as a basis for my cake was called Caribbean Banana Cake, so that will have to do. We loved it. The mixture is not so different from my moist rhubarb muffins , so I bet this recipe would work well as Caribbean banana & ginger muffins, too :) Caribbean Banana & Ginger Cake ( Kariibi banaanikook ) Adapted from Pirkka 5/2004 Serves 12 3 over-ripe bananas 2 Tbsp lemon juice 200 grams sour cream or yogurt 300 ml sugar 3 eggs 400 ml plain flour 3 tsp baking powder 2 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp ground ginger 2 Tbsp Buderim candie...

This Sunday is the second 'anniversary' of my kama post , the Estonian ingredient with a difference. Kama is an mixture of various roasted and ground grains & pulses - usually peas, barley, rye and wheat - that is traditionally mixed with sour or curdled milk or kefir or such like. Since that original posting I've been asked by various readers of Nami-nami to send them a packet or two , and I've happily obliged. Many of these recipients have had an Estonian connection, which explains their interest in kama. There's Anne , whose father is Estonian (she wrote about the kama delivery here and my kama & mascarpone truffles here ). (And Clivia , whose boyfriend has Estonian roots, bought a bag of kama on her trip to Estonia last summer ). Then there was an American-Estonian reader in Palo Alto, CA , who asked for no less than 4 packets of kama. This was followed by a daughter of an Australian-Estonian lady in Queensland, who asked for a packet on behalf of he...

The President of Estonia went on a state visit to Spain earlier this month, where he discussed the establishment of a cyber centre in Tallinn , energy policies and the the strength of Europe . And of course, ate a lot and well. Below is the menu served at the official dinner hosted by the King of Spain, Juan Carlos I, and Queen Sophia. Let me just tell you that I've only got hold of the menu thanks to my 'best contact in Spain', Ximena . She had to mobilise her extended Spanish family and engage in 'espionage worthy of cold war days' in the process! But here's the menu, for your perusal. Enjoy! Sounds pretty good, don't you think? Photo by Erik Peinar, courtesy of the Office of the President . Official dinner at Palacio de Real Madrid on July 9, 2007 Cold melon and raisin cream soup Confit of sea bass with dill and summer vegetables Poularde chicken, roasted with thyme and roast potatoes Cold chocolate soufflé with caramel threads Wines: Old Sherry Martí...

Some real-time foodblogging here: we have literally just finished eating those sticky, glossy, fat wild boar sausages for dinner. They were lip-smackingly good. Very, very, very highly recommended.. Sausages (pork, wild boar, turkey, beef - it's your call) and balsamic vinegar - that's all there is to it. You'll find Ximena 's auntie Begoña's recipe here .

Being a foodblogger is a great. Not only do you learn to cook better yourself, you also meet wonderful people from all around the world, and you get given food gifts from all over the world, too. First there's European Blogging By Mail, which has brought me wonderful gifts from Johanna , Shalimar and Meeta . Then there were all those unexpected delightful gifts from Dagmar and Stevi and Eden last summer. And during the last few months I've received other numerous gifts. To start with, there were those cans of sweet piquillo peppers from Ximena (who, obviously, is the author of that gorgeous postcard as well): The peppers were wonderful. I didn't even try Ximena's recipe for slowly cooked piquillos, as I liked them so much just on a slice of bread.. Then there are all those gifts from Johanna . I received a much-wanted book, Kaffehaus by Rick Rodgers , some Belgian hot chocolate, fancy coffee spoons and some spices from her in return for writing a Culinary City S...

UPDATE 22.8.2007 One of my Estonian readers tried this pie and really liked it. You can see her photo here . ***** I posted the above teaser picture yesterday and asked you to guess what it was. Well, I'm sorry to tell that none of the seven readers who left their guess in the comments got it right. It's not a cherry pie, nor raspberry pie and it's definitely not a rhubarb pie (we don't really eat rhubarb after St John's night over here). And there's no meringue involved either. It wasn't even a sweet pie, but a savoury one. But even if I had told you that, I doubt that you had guessed the ingredients - it's a beetroot & potato pie :) And what a brilliant pie it was. Apart from being tasty (though you do need to like beetroot to like a beetroot pie, of course), it also looked beautiful, and my whole extended family wholeheartedly approved. The recipe is very slightly adapted from the Finnish Herkkutori site and the recipe below will yield 6 gener...

Our little 'garden' (alias numerous terracota pots just outside the back door) is doing well. We've picked our first strawberries, are keeping an eye on the growing tomatoes, and hope to harvest some baby beetroots soon. But most successful has been the zucchini container (or 'courgette container', as it would be known in the UK). I've got three yellow zucchini plants in one large container, and they obviously seem to thrive there. I've already harvested one good-sized zucchini ( click here or see the photo on the right), and we've been eating quite a lot of zucchini blossoms . Whereas I've always known that young zucchinis are wonderful, then zucchini blossoms have been a new discovery for me. And what a delightful discovery they've been - they've got a delicate zucchini flavour, beautiful shape and unusual texture. We've only harvested male blossoms, as we want to harvest as many zucchinis as possible from our 'garden'. Kalyn ...

Some of you may have noticed the above 'teaser photo' on my blog few days ago. Well, these tiny chantarelle mushrooms are not picked by myself. We tried, believe me. After spotting chantarelle mushrooms from Southern Estonia at Tallinn Central Market on St John's eve, we headed straight to the forest . Yet all we got was a lone porcini and a kilogram of wild strawberries (I'm not complaining, don't get me wrong:) We tried again last weekend, yet had to settle for some russula mushrooms , some wild blueberries and forest raspberries and then overcome our sadness by playing with small chicks . We did pick enough lime blossoms to comfort us through the winter, and spotted our first native orchid species , so it was quite a productive weekend after all. Estonia is a funny place in that sense. It's small and compact (45 000 sq km), yet has such variations in climate. And mushroom seasons.. Southerners have been forageing for yellow chantarelles for weeks now, north...

Click on the photo to view the slideshow! There's Weekend Herb Blogging , Weekend Cat Blogging and even Weekend Dog Blogging , so why not Weekend Chicken Blogging ? Oh well, I gather that most foodbloggers don't keep chicken as pets, and neither do we. But we did go to K's country house again (the one in Lalli ), where a neighbour has a huge flock of chicken. It's not a farm as such, as they don't keep chicken for commercial purpose, but we do get our eggs from them whenever we're visiting. The eggs are smaller than the ones available in shops, but they've got the deepest yellow yolks (just check out the colour of the frittata here), and taste wonderful. Last Saturday, we paid a visit to the chicken as well. There were loads of them - the farmer was unable to tell us the exact number:) Also, they're various local old breeds, so almost each one is different and unique. And they're all happy and very much free-range - free to roam the grounds as they...

In May I made Strawberries in Hibiscus & Vanilla Syrup , following a recipe from Chez Pim . I loved the dessert - just like Pim said, the hibiscus syrup gave a certain depth, an extra flavour dimension, to strawberries without interfering with the neat strawberry flavour. I also wondered back then, if I could use the strawberry & hibiscus pairing in other desserts, like ice creams or sorbet, for example. But, alas, as I didn't have an ice cream machine, I didn't do any further experiments with flowers (that's what hibiscus is) and berries. I still don't have an ice cream machine, but will - if everything goes as planned - have one in a fortnight. Yet when I saw that Laura had chosen sorbet for the 13th round of Hay Hay Donna Day (as in Donna Hay , the Australian Kitchen Goddess who publishes impossibly beautiful food magazines), I wanted to take part. It would be a good opportunity to 'try' my sorbet version, and maybe - hsss! hope dies last - winning...

With local vegetables ripening in my container ' garden ' and appearing on every market stall, I'm trying to make the most of them. Among other new season's vegetables I've also bought some great cauliflowers from the market, and am looking for great new recipes. So far, I've tried cauliflower with sage butter & eggs and Ilva's spicy cauliflower with tomatoes . I've roasted cauliflower (wonderful!!) and I've given it an Indian touch in gobi matar (cauliflower & peas with cumin) . Here's the simplest way of serving cauliflower - boil, drain, melt, pour & sprinkle kind of dish - very common here in Estonia. But with good young cauliflowers, this is divine (if you like cauliflower, that is). What's your favourite way with cauliflower? And do you like cauliflower at all? I'd love to know! Cauliflower with browned butter & breadcrumbs cauliflower, cut into florets butter breadcrumbs couple of sage leaves Bring a large pot of...

I've got a problem with most oat cookie recipes I come across. They are way too complicated and contain way too many ingredients, whereas I want my oat cookies to be simple, bordering on the plain. Also, I don't want my oat cookies to be dentally challenging, i.e. too crunchy or hard, as most of the commercially available oat cookies are. Finally, I like my oat cookies to be sweet rather than savoury, so as much as I love the sensible and healthy Scottish oatcakes , these are best suited to transfer a tiny chunk of cheese into my mouth, and not as nibbled when I feel peckish and want something sweet to satisfy my sweet tooth. Here's my favourite oat cookie recipe that I've adapted over the years from the Finno-Ugric cookbook (Soome-ugri kokaraamat, 1995) that I've mentioned before . These cookies only contain the bare minimum of ingredients (no flour or baking powder in sight). They're crisp on the edges but with melt-in-your-mouth centres. And they are incredi...

K and I were hosting a very sweet couple from Norway and their two adorable children, a 4-year old Hanna and a 7-month old Fergus, over the last weekend. They left today for a six-day break on Saaremaa/Ösel , after which they'll head to Latvia for a few days and then back to Norway. As far as I could tell, they had great time in Tallinn, and we enjoyed hosting them. And cooking for them, obviously. Here's one of the cakes we made last Friday that we all liked. Easy and quick to make, plus tasty. Again, I had picked up some really nice and plump Provencal apricots from the market. Most of them were made into apricot jam by K (3 jars are stored in the fridge, one was mostly used on Sunday pancakes and some ended up accompanying vareniki ), but I managed to save some of the apricots for these tartlets. The original BBC Good Food recipe used marzipan, but as I had used up all the marzipan for the Marzipan Cake with Strawberries , I used some pistachio paste instead. And apricot...

Oh, how time flies. It's already the sixth installment of Waiter, there is something in my ... foodblogging event, this time hosted by Johanna who, very appropriately for an Austrian, has chosen dumplings as a theme. Not any dumplings, but dumplings with filling that have been steamed, boiled or baked (but NOT fried). So dim sum , ravioli and tortellini were ok, but doughnuts , gnocchi or spätzle weren't. My instincts said that my favourite dumplings, pontšikud, wouldn't be ok, as a) they're boiled in oil, which Johanna might interpret as frying, and b) they've got no filling. To be on the safe side, I made a batch of vareniki - a popular boiled dumpling from Ukraine (read more here ), stuffed with curd cheese cream and served with home-made apricot jam and pistachios. The name, vareniki, comes from the Russian verb 'to boil', so they're boiled dumplings. To me, they're big Ukrainian cousins of pelmeni , the small meat-filled Russian dumpli...