food

I've been asked to come up with various Christmas menu options - but by the readers of my Estonian site as well as some university friends. One of the menus is fish-centered, so for the last week I've tried to come up with a suitably festive main course. Although various white fish (pike-perch aka zander, Northern pike etc) are more traditional here in Estonia, then fresh Norwegian salmon is easily and universally available across the country. Therefore I've decided to use a red fish at the centre of my fish menu. Inspiration for this comes from a Finnish Ruokamaailma magazine, but I've tweaked it sufficiently to consider the recipe my own. I served it last night to a group of friends who came over for some food and board games, and it was very well received :) So, for Christmas 2008 the Beetroot Princess suggests: Oven-baked salmon with beetroot ( Ahjulõhe peediga pühadelauale ) Serves 6 1 kg salmon filet, trimmed 2 tsp salt 0.5 tsp freshly ground black pepper 2 Tbsp ...

Oh man, Thanksgiving was delightful. Please enjoy this photo of my apple tart ( this recipe ) that I made. Now, excuse me while I go pass out for 3 days straight. See you on Monday, guys!

So, last night as Summer and I indulged in a pie extravaganza, I asked her if there was anything else I could help her out with before I went home, knowing she had a big day of cooking ahead of her. She shrugged, looked around, and said I could make the cranberry sauce. She handed me a battered old cookbook and pointed out the recipe. I know that yes, the simplest cranberry sauce comes from a can, but everybody always makes fun of that cylinder of jelly- the idea of making my own cranberry sauce is very appealing. And it only took a few seconds to throw everything together. You need: 2 cups of granulated sugar 2 cups of water 1 lb. of fresh cranberries and- optional, Summer likes to add chunks of fresh orange to hers. Just bring the water and sugar to a boil, and boil for 3-5 minutes. Add cranberries, bring back to a boil, then lower heat a little bit and allow to cook without stirring for a few minutes until the cranberry skins begin to pop (I had to do a little bit of stirring...

Well, between planning a blogger get-together in December, scrambling around to get Thanksgiving stuff done, and dealing with our crazy toddlers, Summer and I have been pretty busy. The other day we took a coffee break and walked over to Stumptown, and on the way back we happened by a large pile of free stuff on the side of the road. Score! Summer snagged a handful of old Martha Stewart Living magazines from the mid 90's (and hey- don't get all butthurt. 1998 was a decade ago, okay?), and one of them had instructions for decorating gorgeous pies. It was perfect- Thanksgiving was on its way in, and here we were, staring down inspiration for some of the cutest pies we'd ever seen. One of the designs really jumped up at us- a simple braid of pie crust ringing a cute little pie. Summer and I are both suckers for braids, and we couldn't resist. Summer invited me over for a pie-decorating party (she knows how much I love to decorate pies. Seriously, it's awesome....

You know those cookies that, when you bite into them, they give you a feeling of complete comfort? The kind of cookie that is rather impossible to eat only one of? The cookie that doesn't try to be fancy or complicated, but is just perfectly good in all its wonderful simplicity? Well, these are those cookies. Since we get very few trick-or-treaters at our house and our kids brought home a ton of neighbor-acquired loot, we were left with an enormous amount of candy from Halloween. It has been very slowly diminishing from cookie jars during the past month, but we still have more than we know what to do with. When asked sweetly by my toddler if we could make some cookies a couple of nights ago, I thought it would be a wise idea to bake them using some of the excess confections. We had an unopened bag of these candy corn-striped white chocolate kisses, so these delicious peanut butter kiss cookies were born. And sigh, I hate to admit it, I really do, but I ate about twelve of these. PM...

This must be one of the quickest - and most colourful - side dishes I've made in a while. Having spent all day at yet another cookery course today, testing several sweet Christmas tarts and fancy cakes, I needed something savoury and easy tonight. I went for one of my stand-bys - battered and pan-fried white fish (I used a pangasius filet, which I dipped into a mixture of egg-flour-milk), and chose this colourful recipe I spotted in a Finnish magazine yesterday. It was a success - quick, different, slightly tangy, slightly sweet, and very beautiful. Stir-fried Cherry Tomatoes with Basil ( Vokitud kirsstomatid basiilikuga ) Adapted from Suomen Kuvalehti Gourmet 4/2008 Serves 4 4 Tbsp (olive) oil 500 g cherry tomatoes 1 garlic clove handful of fresh parsley 20 large fresh basil leaves 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves 2 tsp caster sugar salt coarsely ground black pepper Rinse the tomatoes and dry thoroughly. Chop the garlic, parsley and basil finely, place into a small bowl. Heat oil in a wo...

The other day, while my husband was outside raking leaves, our next door neighbor handed him a huge bundle of persimmons from his tree. When he brought them inside, I immediately began coming up with things I might be able to do with them. I fell in love with the idea of a steamed pudding baked in an antique mold, but decided against it once I realized the dessert would take almost three hours to finish (truth be told, I am not the most patient of bakers). The more I searched for recipes, the more I realized that persimmons are not the most popular of fruit to bake with. It seems that there is only a small handful of recipes that are changed slightly and used all over the place: persimmon bread, persimmon cookies, and the pudding, none of which I was very keen on making. What was I to do? They were just too pretty to not use in something . Thankfully, ole' Martha Stewart had the answer, and a very simple one at that. Tucked within the pages of her classic cookbook, I found the reci...

Oh, pie. Those of you who know me well know of my pie obsession, an obsession that has no obvious root but was suddenly sparked about ten years ago. Back then, I never baked them, just fully enjoyed their comforting taste, frequently given to me for free by a rebellious waitress at a local diner. A couple years down the line, pie nights with friends began, a gathering in which each of us would bring our favorite pie (I used to joke that I could easily guess a person's favorite by what their personality was like). And then Los Angeles' House of Pies was discovered, which quickly became a weekly spot for friends to play board games and laugh over flaky pie crust. As you can see, pie eating was a part of my social life. Even with all that pie love back then, it wasn't until I baked a pie from scratch all by myself that I truly discovered my deep love. I do not mean buying a frozen crust and a can of filling, but working a dough together with my hands, rolling it out, chopping...

As I mentioned in the previous post, I had a carton of buttermilk that I needed to use right away. After making the buttermilk biscuits , I started browsing online for other buttermilk recipes and came across a recipe from the Washington Post for a Kentucky Buttermilk Cake. I had these tiny tube pans from an estate sale that I had yet to use, so I made two of these sweet, simple cakes. This cake tastes very much like a classic pound cake, which means it can easily be changed around and fancied up to your liking. Make two or cut one in half and layer it with jam or whipped cream and top with berries or shaved white chocolate. Or you can add chocolate chips, nuts, rosewater, butterscotch extract, etc. to the batter- you get the idea. If you are curious as to why the cakes are two completely different colors, it was a complete mystery to me until I was washing the pans last night and noticed that I had not two, but three tube pans- two of the were stacked inside one another, causing it t...

When I first started reading English-language cookbooks I was baffled by coffee cake recipes that had no coffee inside. You see, in Estonia we bake and eat lots of cakes (I've baked a cake to go with coffee each day this week), but they're not called "kohvikook" or "coffee cake". They're called just cakes, and we enjoy them with coffee. Meanwhile, I've been baking a coffee cake - that is, a cake that contains coffee crumbs - for over a decade now. And here's a recipe - originally from a Finnish food magazine in early 1990s, and I've made it over and over again. There's something about eating a coffee cake while drinking coffee, you see. Note that I use simple ground coffee in the cake, not the instant kind. K. originally thought there were poppy seeds in the cake :P Coffee Cake Recipe ( Kohvikook ) 250 g unsalted butter, at room temperature 250 ml / 1 cup / 225 g caster sugar 3 eggs 500 ml / 2 cups all-purpose/plain flour 2 tsp baking pow...

One of my weekly routines is skipping breakfast at home on Saturday mornings and heading out to the downtown farmer's market. My husband usually gets a breakfast burrito or a hash from a couple of carts, but I am quite loyal in buying a biscuit with honey, whipped butter, and fresh fruit from Pine State Biscuits' stand. Sure, their restaurant is on my side of town, but there is something different about eating my warm buttery biscuit outside while watching the hustle and bustle of people going by. Yesterday afternoon, while cleaning out my fridge, I found a carton of buttermilk that needed to be used immediately. So, of course, what came to mind? Recreating my own flaky and buttery buttermilk biscuits at home. I have made biscuits many times at home (frequently using Bobby Flay's recipe ), but I am quite sure that these were the best ones that have come out of my oven. Instead of stuffing them with fresh fruit, they were piled high with homemade applesauce that I had made ...

I just realised that I've been posting nothing but dessert recipes in November . That's no good, is it? Hence this creamy-cheesy fish soup recipe today. A similar recipe has appeared in several Finnish food magazines and at least one local magazine. With a few tweaks here and there, I ended up with this lovely, creamy fish soup. Feel free to experiment with differently seasoned cream cheese. I used trout, as it's lighter, but salmon would work well, too.. A lovely weeknight dinner, and it should appeal to small picky eaters, too. Creamy Fish Soup ( Juustune forellisupp ) Serves 4 1.5 litres fish stock 5 potatoes, peeled and cubed 200 g tub cheese spread (something like this ), I imagine) 170 g tub flavoured cream cheese (I used tomato & pesto) 300 g fish filet, cubed (salmon, trout) To serve: fresh dill, chopped black pepper, coarsely ground Bring the fish stock* to the boil. Add potato cubes and simmer, until tender (10-15 minutes). Meanwhile, cut the fish into large c...

I am pretty sure that it goes without saying that few things signify this time of year more than pumpkin pie. Whether it was purchased from the freezer section of a grocery store or baked at home by my grandmother, I am quite sure I have eaten some every year around this time since I was born. And when it comes to Thanksgiving, there have always been two dishes that have held the most importance to me: sweet potatoes smothered in some kind of marshmallow topping and pumpkin pie with whipped cream piled high on top. What can I say? I am rather old fashioned. This year will mark the fourth year that I will be cooking Thanksgiving dinner by myself (although this will be the first year that my mom will be in town helping out). I usually have always used this recipe (Martha, you know I love you), but this year I wanted to try something new. While at the farmer's market a couple of weeks ago, I spotted a stand with a ton of inexpensive sugar pumpkins and a pile of printed out recipes ne...

Here we go again- yet another week where I bought more bananas than I could possibly digest. For a long while, I never seemed to be buying enough of them; now I always seem to have piles turning a nasty shade of brown up in my hanging fruit basket. So yet again, I am left with the choice to either throw them out or bake something with them- of course, I chose the latter. I don't know why, but there is something that just sounds so nice about banana cookies. I picture them being gobbled up by kids on picnics to the park or written about in old children's books. Perhaps I am just silly like that. Anyways, these cookies are quite delicious. They remind me a lot of banana nut muffin tops, only a bit chewier and less crumbly. They have a rich natural banana flavor and cake-like texture- Believe me, I think you're going to like 'em. Banana Cookies: recipe from Simply Recipes Ingredients: 1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter, room temperature 1 cup of sugar 1 egg, room temper...

I am hesitant about calling these cupcakes, even if the recipe does come from a specific cupcake cookbook. With the suggested cinnamon frosting, sure, but really, these are absolutely perfect on their own. In my humble opinion, frosting is going a bit too far- these sweet Autumny treats shine with their simplicity of combining two flavors that go together so well: pumpkin and chocolate. All they require is a light dusting of powdered sugar and a cool fall night. Actually, neither of those are required, but they sure can't hurt. Please note, these are vegan. If you do not have soy milk (and don't mind dairy), feel free to add a little regular milk. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes (or Muffins): adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World Ingredients: 1 cup canned pumpkin puree 1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil 1 cup granulated sugar 1/4 cup soy milk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 3/4 teaspoon ground ...