Nami-nami in Print and in Press

I've collected here print and online mentions of my English-language NAMI-NAMI foodblog as well as my Estonian-language NAMI-NAMI recipe collection, as well as direct links to articles written by me and food photos taken by me and/or K.

Happy browsing!

(UPDATED MAY 2009)

Everyone's a Critic, October 7, 2008
Nami-nami foodblog was mentioned in Debbie Elkind's article Everyone's a Critic published in an Australian SBS Online..

10 December 2007
Nami-nami foodblog was listed as one of the finalists in the 2007 Food Blog Awards
Rural category, alongside Lucullian Delights, Farmgirl Fare and Garlic Breath. I did not win, unfortunately, but it was such an honour to be a finalist in the annual food blog awards. You can read more here.

9 November 2007
The food section of Guardian Unlimited Blogs, aptly named Word of Mouth, mentioned my K's cannelés post in "Our Faves" section :)

21 October 2007
Wynn Williamson of the Wide Open Education site mentions Nami-nami alongside Delicious Days, Jamie Oliver and YumSugar on his list of favourite food sites.

15 October 2007
The Swedish MatFeber site has again featured one of my photos, that of the beetroot pickled eggs.

15 October 2007
Guardian's Word of Mouth blog posted an article by a very mycophobic Jack Arnott, who also linked to my wild mushroom hunting post, though he claims that mushrooms would 'give him shivers. Oh well, we all have our weird habits and phobias I guess..

14 October 2007
The food section of Guardian Unlimited Blogs, aptly named Word of Mouth, mentioned my wild mushroom hunting post in "Our Faves" section :)

9 October 2007
BaltLantis picked up my Sea-buckthorn Jelly post, adding it to their recipes section.

4 October 2007
Kalyn featured my Cinnamon Roll photo in her BlogHer post about Daring Bakers.

17-23 September 2007
I'm doing the week-long eGullet foodblog - you can follow the thread here.


18 September 2007
Tea Austen Weaver of the lovely Tea and Cookies blog featured Nami-nami in her CHOW Grinder article How Do You Say "Yummy" in Estonian?

13 September 2007
Liz Crain of the Oregon-based Culinate food site interviewed me recently. You can read the interview - Food for the taking: An Estonian blogger forages the forests and the fields - here.

11 September 2007
Amy Sherman (of the Cooking with Amy fame) mentions my blog in her Epicurious Blog post on Daring Bakers and credits me for sharing both my successes and failures. It obviously pays off being honest about burnt recipe notes :) Thank you, Amy!!!

9 September 2007
An American expat living in Tallinn, Rachel J. K. Grace, mentions Nami-nami foodblog in her interview to Expat Interviews, Baltic Yank: American expat Rachel in Estonia.

20 August 2007
Two of our photos (this taken by me, this by K) were used to illustrate Ryan Nadel's article Darker fruits could fight cancer in Australian crowd powered media NowPublic (Click on the slideshow to see the photos).

15 August 2007
My post & photo about Nigella Lawson's raw beetroot salad with dill and mustard seeds was featured by the Swedish news and lifestyle blog Matfeber. The same article (and photo) was co-published by the online edition of Swedish daily newspaper, Express.

8 August 2007
My photo of traditional Estonian rye bread was used as an illustration alongside Joel Alas' article about bread in Estonia in the English-language newspaper The Baltic Times.

July/August 2007
I was asked to test and review a recipe for the July/August 2007 issue of Oma Maitse, the local equivalent of the BBC Good Food magazine (see page 5 for a short bio, and p. 25 for my opinion of this recipe.)

23 July 2007
Elion Digitark, the web forum for the largest Internet provider in Estonia recommends my English-language foodblog as a good source of recipes, especially highlighting my experiments with kama:
"Nami-Nami - toidublogi, mida peavad eestlased, kuid inglise keeles. Juttu nii retseptidest, kui kogemustest erinevate toiduainetega. Korduvalt on selles blogis olnud juttu näiteks kamast."

4 July 2007
I was asked to translate the menu of President Ilves' and President Bush's lunch in the White House for the national weekly newspaper Eesti Ekspress, and was credited for the translation.

22 June 2007
Kristjan Pillak mentions my Estonian language recipe site in his article Jaanipäeval grillimiseks retsepte in the summer website of the national weekly newspaper Eesti Ekspress, providing links to 14 different shish-kebab or šašlõkk-recipes on my site.

17 May 2007
A full page article, Turulkäik Londoni moodi, about our visit to the London Borough Market was published in a national weekly newspaper Eesti Ekspress. Alongside were two photos taken by K.

10 May 2007
A full page review of our visit to the Petersham Nurseries Café, called Restoranitrende Londonist was publised in a national weekly newspaper Eesti Ekspress. Alongside were three photos taken by K.

19 February 2007
I guest-blogged over at Johanna's blog The Passionate Cook, writing a Culinary City Snapshot of Tallinn.

20 December 2006
Kristjan Otsmann recommends my Estonian-language recipe site as one of eight particularly useful sites for Christmas ideas in his article 8 veebilehte jõuludeks in the national weekly newspaper Eesti Ekspress:
"Kui inglise keel valmistab raskusi, siis saad abi kodumaistelt http://www.nami-nami.pri.ee/ või http://www.kokaraamat.ee/ lehtedelt."

1 November 2006
My fellow foodblogger Alanna of A Veggie Venture very kindly mentions my blog in her article Gather ’Round the Computer: Foodies come together in the blogosphere in Sauce Magazine.

24 May 2005
Kadri Vilen praises my Estonian-language recipe site in her article Vilunud kokkajaks tänu Internetile in Arvutimaailm (Computer World).
"Edasi võiks nimetada Nami-nami retseptikogu - sisaldab üle 6000 retsepti. Enamik on pärit rahulolevate kokkajate sulest ning seotud kokandussõnastikuga - tundmatud komponendid seletatakse kenasti lahti.
Eraldi on välja toodud nii tähtpäevadeks sobilikud kui rahvuspühadeks kõlbulikud kodumaised road. Tegemist ühe entusiasti suurekspaisunud projektiga. Tänuväärne üritus."

21 November 2003
Volks Vaagen writes in his article Internetti retseptijahile in a national daily newspaper Eesti Päevaleht about various online recipe sites. My Estonian language recipe collection is praised for citing sources for various recipes, its set-up and logic, good number of ethnic cuisines represented, and for its useful food dictionary:

"See retseptikogu on aus. Ja aususe eest müts maha! Viited selle kohta, mis allikatest on veebil esitet retseptid võetud, ei ole köögindussaitidele tavaline, samas annab äärmiselt hää viite teostele, kust leida muudki huvitavat. Nami-nami on lihtne oma ülesehituselt, kerge kasutada, suhteliselt kiire. Võiks öelda, et tegu on isegi minimalistliku lehega veebikujunduse mõttes, aga sellevõrra lahedamalt kasutatav. Leht mõtleb nendele köögitajatele, kes vajavad kiiresti retsepti või ideed samaks päevaks, sestap antakse päeva retsept eraldi ja targasti tehakse. Rahvusköökide (säälhulgas Eesti) arv on enam-vähem optimaalne. Neid võiks ju ka alati rohkem olla. Aafrika kööke napib, kreooli köök aga sisuliselt puudub. Arvan, et see on ainult aja küsimus, millal need read täienevad, kuna kõikidel külastajatel on võimalus oma retsepte anda ja see on suurepärane! Kokandussõnastik on vajalik ka kõige kogenumale kokale."

22 April 2003
Britta Hansmann mentions my Estonian-language recipe site in her article Kilomeeter kokaraamatuid in Arvutimaailm (Computer World):
"Nami-nami — kaks ja pool tuhat süstematiseeritud retsepti. Otsing, hüva nõu. "

Salted Herring, Estonian Style

Did you know that Estonia has a 'national fish', in a similar vein to countries having chosen a 'national flower', a 'national drink', a 'national bird' etc? Well, we do since 2006 and it's a Baltic Herring (Clupea harengus membras). However, the big cousin on that tiny fish - Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) is very popular as well, and here's the most popular way of serving Atlantic herring in Estonia. You need salted Atlantic herring filets for this dish, available either at deli or fish counters or in a canned versions in your supermarket aisle. If the fish is too salty, then soak it in milk or several rounds of cold water first.

I must admit that I'm not a big fan of 'raw' fish, and salted herring belongs to that category of fish, too (I know it's cured, but it's hot heat-treated). But I served this at our Christmas Eve Dinner, where it was universally praised and finished very quickly. You cannot beat an old traditional favourite, can you..

PS I warn you, there are some pretty strong flavours combined in this dish, so it's not a dainty and elegant fish first course, but a full-on one!

Salted Atlantic Herring, served Estonian style
(Heeringas hapukoorega)
Serves 6-8

4 lightly salted Atlantic herring fillets
3 shallots or 1-2 medium onions
a scant cup of sour cream
2-3 hard-boiled eggs
fresh dill, finely chopped

Cut the herring filets into 1x2 cm pieces and place on an oblong shallow serving dish (it's usually fish-shaped, though ours wasn't).
Peel the onions and slice very thinly. Spread over the herring pieces.
Spoon the sour cream on top.
Peel the hard-boiled eggs, chop the egg whites and yolks separately.
Garnish the dish with lines of green dill, yellow egg yolks and white egg whites.

Keep in the fridge until serving with slices of rye bread as part of a Nordic buffet. Though you might prefer it as an accompaniment to boiled new potatoes (also a very Estonian thing to do). 

WISH YOU ALL A JOYFUL NEW YEAR'S EVE TONIGHT!

honey!

My buddy called me up this morning to invite me over for a play date with our kids; and to hand off some of this amazing honey he received as a thank-you from his elderly neighbors after shoveling their walk during the snow storm. The neighbors are backyard beekeepers! My friends are already concocting plans to have their own flock of backyard chickens in the spring, and trading eggs for honey. I am seething with jealousy, of course.

So, I made it home with a large baby food jar of honey, and I haven't the faintest idea of what I'm going to do with it. I have all the time in the world, of course- honey lasts for years. But I'm so excited! Any type of backyard cultivation gets me pumped, homegrown eggs are delicious, everyone knows that backyard gardens are the way to go, and backyard honey! Oh, my lord. My friend was explaining to me the different flavor notes in the honey, (let's just say he has a very refined palate- he's a wine buyer.) and speculating on the various flowers the bees could be getting their pollen from. The smell is intoxicating, and the flavor is light and almost tangy. It's not as viscous as some honeys I've tried, maybe because it's so fresh?





So, dear readers- I leave it up to you. Aside from drizzling it into my nightly chamomile, over a piece of warm toast, or into the bottom of a hot toddy- what on earth should I do to feature this lovely honey? I'm hoping to think of something really creative, where honey will be the star of the show. Feel free to drop your suggestions, and as I use it up, I'll post my concoctions here.

my mom's christmas cookies.

Merry Christmas! We're still alive, haha. And still snowed in, if you can believe it. Summer managed to make it to California, but my unplowed hill has kept me from driving anywhere for days and days. It's a miracle we managed to make it out yesterday (with lots of cursing, pushing, and shoveling) to get to my parents' house for Christmas, but I'm not trying to go anywhere else until this ice has melted. My little Subaru with no chains is no match for ARCTIC BLAST '08®!!!!



I've never really understood why some people guard their family recipes so closely- the crotchety grandmas who won't give up the recipe for whatever awesome noodle casserole, or so-and-so's aunt who makes the best pound cake ever but won't tell anyone what the secret ingredient is. Is that kind of exclusivity really necessary when it comes to food? Maybe it's because I've grown up on the internet, where every kind of information possible is free and easy to find. So that whole, "secret recipe" attitude has never made any sense to me. I'm happy to share! I'll make recipe cards for all my friends! When I find something delicious, the last thing I want to do is keep it to myself. That said, I still asked my mom if it was okay for me to print this recipe here. Thankfully, she approved.

In my mind, these cookies are like the UBER CHRISTMAS COOKIE- the platonic cookie, in other words- THE PERFECT COOKIE. The Christmas cookie which puts all others to shame, the Christmas cookie that Santa Claus wants. That doesn't mean this recipe is the end-all of Christmas cookies, or even that they're the best cookies I've ever had. It just means that I have a treasure trove of warm fuzzy Christmas memories of rolling out and cutting these cookies with my mom, every year since I can remember. It simply ISN'T CHRISTMAS without them. And now, happily, I have a copy of the recipe to tuck into my own little box so I can do the same thing with my son. Awww, but enough waxing poetic about the holidays.

When I called to ask my mom for the recipe, she told me that her written recipe was titled "Aunt Debbie's Butter-butter cookies." I said, "Does that mean they have twice as much butter?" No- they don't. We don't know why they're called that, but WHY NOT?

Aunt Debbie's Butter-butter cookies.

2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 c. softened butter
3/4 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp. (more or less) milk

In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg). In another large bowl, cream sugar into butter. Add egg and stir, then begin to stir in the dry mix, 1/4 at at time. Halfway through adding dry ingredients, add the tablespoon of milk. Continue to add dry ingredients until fully incorporated. If dough is too dry, sprinkle in a little more milk. Dough will be very thick and shouldn't be sticky. Form into a large ball, cover in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least an hour or two (though we always just do it overnight).

Preheat oven to 350ºf, and remove dough from refrigerator. Roll out to about 1/4 of an inch thick and cut out shapes with cookie cutters. Bake for 10-13 minutes or until the bottoms just begin to brown but cookies remain very lightly colored. Allow to cool for a few minutes before removing from cookie sheet, then let them finish cooling on a plate or tray until it's time to decorate. (We always let them cool on brown paper grocery bags, just because it's handy.)

Pipe or spread on your favorite frosting (honestly, I prefer the vanilla stuff from a can. I know.) and sprinkle with decorator's sugar or sprinkles.



Serve with a glass of milk and a Bing Crosby Christmas album. Try not to eat the whole plate.

Christmas 2008

It's the 2nd Christmas Day already, and finally I've got a spare moment to wish you all a Joyful Christmas and tell you a little about our Christmas meal. In Estonia, we celebrate Christmas Eve - that's when Father Yule (Jõuluvana) brings us presents (I've added a photo of my two nephews opening theirs a year ago). For a third year already, K. and I have had our families over for a big traditional Christmas meal. That's 10 persons altogether - my parents, K's mum and auntie, my sister with her family, and us two. Luckily we've got a big enough table to seat us all comfortably, and as we both enjoy cooking to our loved ones, hosting a Christmas dinner has been a pure pleasure.

This year we decided to start with some fish dishes. There was salmon in a red wine vinegar (a Finnish recipe that translates as 'Glass-blower's fish'), as well as lightly-salted Atlantic herring with sour cream and onions (a VERY Estonian dish that I'll tell you more about later). For those of us not too keen on fish, there were also devilled eggs on the table. These three dishes were eaten with dark rye bread and accompanied by a very nice Swedish-produced Blossa glögg (a special Christmas drink).



For the main course I roasted a big piece of marbled pork shoulder (Boston butt is the name of the cut, if I'm not mistaken. Definitely the best-selling cut here in Estonia, but not widely known outside I'm told) that I rubbed with a mixture of rosemary, garlic, Dijon mustard, honey and salt, and roasted at 160 C for a couple of hours. Very juicy and tasty - and a big hit with my pork-loving dad :) This was accompanied by the usual Estonian Christmas trimmings: oven-baked potato wedges with caraway seeds, sauerkraut braised in dark beer, black pudding, oven-baked carrot sticks with cumin seeds (well, not strictly Estonian, but these were a great addition), lingonberry jam.

[Here we had a small - but welcome - pause, opening the presents under the Christmas tree, citing poems and singing some Christmas carols].

For dessert? I made a very-very nice - and rich - Marbled Blackcurrant and Chocolate Mousse Cake, followed by coffee and tea, and piparkoogid aka gingerbread, of course, using the same recipe I did last year.



Hope you all had a lovely Christmas with lots of good food and loved ones! Häid jõule!

cheddar broccoli soup.

Yeah yeah yeah, soup. I don't even have anything funny to say about it. I'm just about all out of sense of humor after a few days of this:



We're still huddled under layers of snow and ice (literally- outside it goes snow-ice-snow, and tonight we'll probably get a new layer of ice on top of that.) and trying to find ways to keep warm. A hot mug of cheddar soup definitely solves that problem.



You'll need:

1 pound of cheddar cheese, grated finely (we used Tillamook.)
1 finely chopped onion
2 cloves of crushed garlic
"a big chunk of butter"
a handful of flour
3-4 cups of stock
1 cup of milk
3 smallish heads of broccoli, chopped into small bites
bay leaf
white pepper

First, lightly steam the broccoli and then rinse in cool water to halt the cooking process. Set aside. In a large soup pot, melt a hunk of butter and saute onions and garlic until glassy. Toss in a few pinches of flour and whisk until you have a roux. Toast the roux lightly, then add stock a little at a time, stirring continuously with a whisk. Add milk in the same manner, then a bay leaf. Begin to sprinkle in cheese, still stirring continuously. Incorporate the cheese as it melts. Continue to stir, season with some white pepper. Stir in broccoli and allow it to heat up. Let soup thicken a little and spoon into mugs.



This was incredibly rich and very delicious. As my husband pointed out- you don't really have to dress up a pound of cheese- it kind of does the work for you. Plus, if you eat enough of it, you'll have plenty of extra padding to protect you from freezing cold weather.

Edited to add: This has been one of our more popular recipes, and I've gotten a lot of emails about it. Please keep in mind that the cheese must be grated rather finely, and you need to add it very slowly, being sure to mix it in thoroughly before adding more, or else it will not incorporate and you'll end up with stringy, lumpy soup. It's not difficult, it just requires patience. Good luck!

gingerbread cake.

Oh, Portland- you've surprised us this year. Instead of the usual couple inches of snow during January, you have covered yourself with a very thick blanket of snow mid-December and have been wearing it for a week now. When I looked out our bedroom window yesterday morning, I couldn't believe it was the same old street I have been looking down upon the past few years. It looks like an image from an old Christmas movie: families bundled up in big coats and scarves, holiday lights strung on houses, and snow everywhere. I must say, I am quite smitten with this change in you and quite sad that I am going to be missing out on the white Christmas you are surely to bring as I pack up and head out to sunny California tomorrow.

Do you know what's delicious during days like this? Homemade gingerbread cake with cups of black tea. I baked one a couple of days ago using one of my favorite recipes and have been enjoying it greatly. What better way to spend a snowy morning then with warm blankets, cake and tea with cream & honey, and the murmur of a cozy house.



Gingerbread Snacking Cake: from Martha Stewart Living

Ingredients:

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
1 cup boiling water
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup unsulfured molasses (I ran out and used 1/2 cup molasses and 1/2 cup pure maple syrup and it worked perfectly)
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
2 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9-by-13-inch cake pan; set aside.

In a bowl, combine boiling water and baking soda; set aside. In a large bowl, sift together flour, ground spices, salt, and baking powder; set aside.

With an an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream butter until light. Beat in brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in molasses and grated ginger, baking-soda mixture, and flour mixture. Beat in eggs.

Pour batter into prepared pan; bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack. Cut into squares; dust with confectioners’ sugar.

chocolate crinkles.

How did I get so behind on my Christmas baking? Usually around this time of year I am a crazy baking machine, pumping out all sorts of festive cookies and spicy breads. Instead, I am all too behind on buying and wrapping presents, packing for going home for the holidays, and very slowly trying to put our all-too-messy home back together. It also doesn't help that there has been an unusual amount of snow and ice around town, resulting in poor driving conditions for Alice, my dear photographer, to make her way over to my house. And as much as I love the idea of baking during snowy weather, one will usually find me piled under soft blankets on the sofa, happily enjoying the beautiful view out the window.

Yesterday, though, snow was replaced by rain and higher temperatures, so I caught up a bit on some baking and Alice was able to make it over in the early evening to photograph my sweets. I ended up making a couple things that usually always make me think of this time of year: chocolate crinkle cookies and gingerbread cake (which will be blogged later this evening.) What I adore about these cookies is how they look like little hills covered in snow, just perfect for the holiday season. What I also love is just how very, very good they taste: chewy and deeply chocolatey, with a perfect texture and a wonderful sweetness from the sugar on top.

*Note: Keep in mind that these cookies take some time to chill. I recommend either making the dough early in the morning or late at night before going to bed.





Chocolate Crinkles: from All Recipes

Ingredients:

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions:

In a medium bowl, mix together cocoa, white sugar, and vegetable oil. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the cocoa mixture. Cover dough, and chill for at least 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Roll dough into one inch balls. Coat each ball in confectioners' sugar before placing onto prepared cookie sheets.

Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Let stand on the cookie sheet for a minute before transferring to wire racks to cool.

kale with pancetta.

Look, I'm going to be frank. I love vegetables, ALL vegetables, but do you know what else I love? Pig fat. The marriage of hearty winter greens and fat from some smoked pig is a thing of beauty, I have to say. So, yesterday afternoon, when my son asked for a bacon sandwich for lunch, I was happy to oblige. I had some leftover pancetta from pea soup the other night, and some unused kale from the wedding soup.



I fried some pancetta for my son's sandwich and pulled it out, leaving a pan full of rendered fat. In that pan, I tossed some chopped garlic, and then a moment later, some chopped kale. I sauteed it for a few minutes and tossed in some chopped pancetta, because really- I was already halfway there, right?



I really, really enjoyed eating this. What I'm not happy about is the blanket of snow on the ground that's keeping me from going jogging the morning after, haw haw.

italian wedding soup.

Okay, okay- I swear we don't eat nothing but soup! Really! It's just been so cold and icy, and we've been all hunkered down in our little cave- soup is easy, healthy, and great leftover. So, here's another.



Last night was my husband's company holiday party, and, well- to put it lightly, they know how to throw a rager. We stayed out late, stumbled out of our cab at 3 a.m., and I was feeling it pretty hard today. I didn't feel like making ANYTHING for dinner, but luckily my husband came home with the goods for this amazing soup. It was perfect- filling without being too heavy, brothy without being too weak, filled with healthy vegetables, but satisfying in a way that only meatballs made of sausage can be. I'd never even heard of Italian wedding soup before, but apparently it has tons of variations, with the main elements being meatballs and greens. We used pork sausage and kale for ours.



Italian Wedding Soup

3/4 lb. bulk Italian sausage, or ground meat. (If you buy ground meat like beef or chicken, I'd recommend seasoning them before you cook them, mix with some finely chopped garlic and onions, some basil, and "italian seasoning." Use an egg and some bread crumbs to hold them together.)
1 yellow onion, diced
1 large carrot, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
1 medium to large zucchini, diced
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 a bunch of kale, roughly chopped
1 large can of diced tomatoes
1 sprig of fresh rosemary
some fresh thyme
8 cups of vegetable or chicken stock
a pinch of chili flakes
salt & pepper to taste
2 cups of orzo pasta

In a very large pot, fry the meatballs until browned. Remove from pot and save on a plate. Saute onions, carrots, celery, zucchini, and garlic until onions become glassy. Dump in the tomatoes to deglaze the pan, stir, and add stock. Add a pinch of fresh thyme, but save the rest for garnish. Season with salt & pepper, chili flakes, and rosemary. Add kale, simmer for few minutes. Add meatballs a few minutes before serving to ensure they're cooked all the way through. Cook pasta in a separate pot, drain, and add before serving.