food

Yes, it's that time of the month again when Daring Bakers strike across the foodblogosphere! And I'm one of them. Since joining the ranks of Daring Bakers I've made Jewish Purist's Bagels , then a fancy Strawberry Mirror Cake , followed by a delicious Milk Chocolate & Caramel Tart a la Eric Kayser , and last month I was baking very comforting Sticky Buns & Cinnamon Buns . This month a lot of Daring Bakers are making Bostini Cream Pies . October challenge was set by Mary of AlpineBerry , and you can find the recipe here . Mary tells you all about the background of Bostini Cream Pies, but apparently it's an adaptation of Boston cream pie (vanilla layer cake with cream and topped with chocolate glaze). Boston cream pie is an American classic - the official state dessert of Massachusetts, no less - created by French chef M. Sanzian at Parker House Hotel in Boston a while ago. Bostini Cream Pie is similar, yet different. The dessert was nice - a combination of...

Kalyn kindly trusted me with hosting this week's Weekend Herb Blogging. It has been quite a task! There were 45 entries from far away corners of the world, including New Zealand, Alaska, India, France, Philippines, Spain, Scotland, England, Croatia, Brazil, Canada and USA. To make this round-up more digestible, I've grouped the entries by the main ingredients. However, I didn't want to make it too easy for you either, so I've listed the ingredients alphabetically, in Estonian ;) I have provided the English equivalents, of course.. Happy browsing! AEDOAD - GREEN BEANS Lia of Swirling Notions blog has been cooking with Romano Beans . Lia grows them herself, and is actually looking for more recipe ideas for using these particular beans. So if you know a recipe or two, go and tell Lia! APTEEGITILL - FENNEL Katerina (Vancouver, Canada) of Daily Unadventures in Cooking shares a recipe for Fennel Risotto with Goat Cheese . She's using fennel both as a herb and as a ve...

Here's my entry for the 10th installment of Waiter, there is something in my ... (WTISIM) foodblogging event, a brainchild of three fabulous British foodbloggers Johanna , Jeanne and Andrew . This month's edition is hosted by Andrew, who has asked us to send in our recipes for LAYERED CAKES . I decided to try meekook or a layered honey cake that is available in most cake shops and is a popular birthday table option. It consists of six thin cake layers and six simple sweetened sour cream layers. Our layers were slightly thicker than we expected them to be, but the taste was exactly right. Enjoy! MEEKOOK aka Estonian Honey Cake* ( Meetort ) Serves 12-16 Source: Koogiraamat (Lia Virkus & Angeelika Kang), 100 Rooga * I have a confession to make. The cake I'm shamelessly submitting to the WTISIM Layered Cake was made from beginning until the end by my dear K. You see, I had chosen the recipe and had all intentions to make it on Saturday (i.e. this) morning. But then I sta...

There's a smart little paperback by Nicholas Glee, called Don't Sweat the Aubergine: What Works in the Kitchen and Why , that I love. It's trying to de-mystify various kitchen conundrums - to wash the rice or not before cooking? to sweat the aubergine/eggplant with salt first? do you simmer your stock for 1, 2,6 or 10 hours? and such like. But it was the title that intrigued me enough to actually order the book. You see, most of the recipes using aubergines ask to salt, rinse and dry the aubergine before cooking. There are two major explanations for that. Explanation 1: apparently it eliminates the bitterness in aubergine - but then most 'modern' aubergines aren't bitter to start with. Explanation 2: it helps NOT to soak up too much oil afterwards. Mr Glee isn't convinced. Neither does he buy into Delia Smith's explanation that salting concentrates the flavour . He does recommend simply cutting up the aubergine, tossing with oil, salt and pepper and roas...