Meatless Monday: Chickpea and Tomato Soup with Pimentón

I needed to look up some Portuguese recipes for a friend last weekend and obviously I turned to the very helpful Leite's Culinaria website. I did find the recipes I was looking for, plus a lot more. One of them was this simple, yet delicious soup recipe, originally from Tamasin Day-Lewis's book "Supper for a Song: Creative Comfort Food for the Resourceful Cook". I've adapted the recipe a little to suit our tastes, and we'll be definitely making this again. Puréeing some of the chickpeas/garbanzos to thicken the soup was a neat idea, and you can add more or less pimentón (aka smoked paprika) depending on the freshness and strength of your paprika powder.

While it's filling, it's also gluten-free and vegan, so perfect recipe for a Meatless Monday.

Chickpea and Tomato Soup with Smoked Paprika
(Kikerherne-tomatisupp, kergelt suitsune)
Serves four

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
2 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
400 g can tinned chickpeas/garbanzo beans, drained
1 tsp Pimentón de la Vera (smoked paprika)
2 bay leaves
1 Tbsp tomato paste
400 g can chopped tomatoes
1 litre of hot vegetable stock/bouillon
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
some parsley leaves, to serve

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion, garlic, celery and rosemary and fry for a few minutes, until the aromatics are beginning to soften.
Add the chickpeas, smoked paprika, bay leaves, tomato paste and chopped tomatoes. Give it a stir and bring into a boil.
Add the stock, season with salt and pepper and bring into a boil again. Then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for about 10-15 minutes.
Remove the bay leaves.
Using a hand-held/immersion blender, purée some of the soup, leaving some of the chickpeas whole.
Divide between warmed soup bowls, garnish with parsley and serve.

Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale

Beef nachos $12.50

Many a poor and thirsty student has ended up at the Lansdowne. For years it was famous for its $5 meals, and students from both USyd and UTS flocked there for a cheap feed and a schooner.



Prices have increased since then, but only slightly, and renovations have turned the first floor of the Lansdowne Hotel into a bright and airy space.



The main dining room has a school

Kammadhenu, Newtown

Egg hopper $3

The crispy bits are always the best part. That's what makes the hopper — a popular Sri Lankan breakfast or dinner — so delicious. It's nothing but crunch, a thin batter that is delicately lacy around the edges. The batter is fermented from rice flour and coconut milk, giving a slightly sour taste similar to sourdough. Hoppers can be cooked as plain or sweet, but we like ours with

North meets South: Lingonberry and Coconut Friands

Friands again. I wrote about these dainty Australian cakes just a short time ago when posting a recipe for blueberry and lemon friands. This is the same basic recipe, but I wanted to use coconut this time and paired the pure white coconut with bright red lingonberries. The combination worked like a dream!
I am pretty sure that lingonberries - while widely available and used here in Estonia - are hard to come buy Down Under, so in a way it's a North-meets-South fusion recipe :)

Again, it's an excellent recipe for using up those egg whites, when you're tired of making meringues and mini-Pavlovas.

Coconut and Lingonberry Friands
(Pohla-kookosefriandid)
Makes 8 regular-sized friands

100 g unsalted butter, melted
125 g icing sugar/confectioner's sugar
30 g plain flour/all-purpose flour (50 ml or 3 Tbsp + 1 tsp)
50 g finely ground almonds
50 g grated/desiccated coconut
3 medium-sized egg whites
a very generous handful of lingonberries

Preheat the oven to 200C. Generously butter eight non-stick friand or muffin tins.
Sift the icing sugar and flour into a bowl, add the almonds and mix.
Whisk the egg whites in another bowl until they form a light, floppy foam.
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, pour in the egg whites, then lightly stir in the butter to form a soft batter.
Divide the batter among the tins. Sprinkle some berries (I used about a tablespoon for each) and flaked coconut over each cake.
Bake in the middle of a pre-heated 200 C oven for about 20 minutes, until just firm to the touch and golden brown on top.
Cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then turn out and cool on a wire rack. To serve, sprinkle with more coconut

Cho Dumpling King, Haymarket Chinatown

Cho Dumpling King is always surrounded by a queue of people. Often you'll find a staff member acting as bouncer to the crowds. She hands out menus with brusque efficiency, and it's only when you've placed your order that she'll put your table numbers down in her notepad queue.

The restaurant name is a bit of a misnomer. There are no dumplings to be found here. Instead it's a mix of Taiwanese

Estonian zucchini and cheese soup

Being one of the very few English-language blogs that focus on Estonian food (among other things), I tend to get quite a few emails with Estonian recipe requests or more general enquiries about Estonian food. Usually they are from people who have visited Estonia and tasted something they liked (KAMA!!!), and are now looking to recreate the dish at home. There are also quite a few expat Estonians writing to ask about dishes their grandmother used to make them in the US/Australia/etc when they were younger. Or people whose fiancée, husband, wife, adopted child, neighbour or best friend is of Estonian heritage and they'd love to make them something from Estonian culinary repertoire to surprise the given fiancée, husband, wife, adopted child, neighbour or best friend. I love those letters!

Here's an email I got last August:

Hi,

I was just searching for Estonian Cheese Soup after hearing it mentioned in this story on NPR. Surprisingly, I couldn't find anything about it, but it brought me to your website and I just spent an hour going through it's great pictures and recipes. Great site!

Do you have any idea on what soup that may be? I'd love to whip one up.

Keep up the great work and thanks in advance for any help or leads you have for me.

Gavin G.

Estonian cheese soup? I was baffled. I wasn't entirely sure there is such a thing. Sure, we make various soups with addition of cheese. I've blogged about a simple goat cheese and beet soup and creamy fish soup that both have some cheese in it. However, there's nothing particularly Estonian about these two soups. So I asked around and it turns out that I'm a lousy pub-goer. You see, many Estonian pubs serve something called cheese soup (juustusupp), apparently. And as I'm more of a café-chick than a pub-girl, I had no idea.

Basically, these are simple soups that have been enriched with either cheese spread (sulatatud juust) or smoked cheese (suitsujuust). Back in August, when I was trying to come up with a soup recipe for Gavin, I made this courgette/zucchini soup with smoked cheese (the type of smoked cheese we use in Estonia can be seen at the bottom of this page, it weighs 280 g and contains 18% milk fats).

I hope you'll enjoy this, Gavin!

Courgette and Smoked Cheese Soup, Estonian style
(Suvikõrvitsa-suitsujuustusupp)
Serves four



a dash of olive oil
1 onion
1 large potato
1 medium green zucchini/courgette
1 litre hot vegetable or chicken stock
280 g smoked cheese (preferably Estonian)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
parsley and croutons, to serve

Peel the onion and potato, chop finely and sauté in some oil for a few minutes. When the potato is slightly golden, then add chopped-up zucchini/courgette (no need to peel). Heat for a few minutes, stirring every now and then.
Add the hot stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce to the simmer and let it bubble until the vegetables are soft.
Blend until smooth, adding the chunks of smoked cheese to the soup while doing this.
Re-heat gently, season to taste.
Garnish with crispy bread croutons and a parsley leaf.

Restaurant Arras, Walsh Bay, Sydney

Don't look for a seat belt. Restaurant Arras is simply one helluva ride. Head chef and co-owner Adam Humphrey believes that all food should be fun, injecting the British dishes of his childhood with whimsy and humour.



A historic former bond store houses Restaurant Arras, awarded one hat in the SMH Good Food Guide in 2008, 2009 and 2010. The heritage-listed building is a moody mix of

Pickled beets and blue cheese quiche

Have you got a glass of pickled beets lurking in the back of your fridge? If yes, then you could use them for making this colourful and lovely quiche. The otherwise sweet beets have quite a piquant flavour when pickled, and that works well with the saltiness of the blue cheese. I used Valio AURA, one of my favourite blue cheese (made in Finland), but it will work with any other crumbly blue cheese, too..

Beetroot quiche with blue cheese
(Pirukas marineeritud peedi ja sinihallitusjuustuga)
Serves six to eight
Adapted from Valio, Finland



Pie crust:
100 g butter, at room temperature
150 g all-purpose flour (one cup)
a pinch of salt
2 Tbsp cold water

Filling:
250 g pickled beets, drained and sliced
200 ml single cream
2 eggs
0.25 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp dried basil or 1 Tbsp fresh basil, chopped
150 g blue cheese (Valio Aura)

Mix butter, salt and flour, then add the water and mix until a dough ball forms. Press onto a 24 cm pie dish, and place into the fridge to rest. (If you wish, blind bake for 10 minutes at 200 c/400 F).
Mix all the filling ingredients, pour onto the (pre-baked) pie shell.
Bake at 200 C/400 F for about 30 minutes, until the filling is set and the top is golden.

Honey Granola Recipe - simple, but delicious

I've been making my own granola for years now, using different recipes so we wouldn't get tired of this specific breakfast staple. I've made malted granola, chocolate granola, rye granola, honey granola - to name just a few. However, I've just realised that I've only shared one of the recipes with you - malted granola - back in January 2009.

Here's another recipe - slightly simpler than the malted granola one, using honey as a sweetener. I like this one with just raisins, but feel free to add your choice of chopped dried fruits to the granola at the end.

Honey Granola Recipe
(Lihtne mesine granola)

250 g old-fashioned oats (about 3 cups)
100 g almond slices
8 Tbsp runny honey
4 Tbsp neutral oil
4 Tbsp water
raisins or currants (optional)

Mix oats and almonds on a large baking sheet. Mix honey and oil in a small bowl, then add water and stir again. Pour the liquid mixture over the oats and mix until everything is well combined.
Roast in a pre-heated 150 C / 300 F oven for about 30 minutes, shaking the pan every now and then, until the oats are golden and slightly crispy (they crisp up even more when cooling down).
Remove from the oven and cool. Fold in the raisins.
Keep in an airtight container.

Balut at Diem Hen, Canley Heights

Balut. If the thought of eating brains wasn't terrifying enough for many people, the word "balut" is usually uttered with shock, repulsion or -- conversely -- back-slapping bravado.

What is balut? It's a fertilised duck or chicken egg, incubated for 17-21 days so an embryo develops inside. The egg is steamed and eaten as a high protein delicacy in Southeast Asia. It's called khai luk in

Mad Cow, Sydney

Use your brain, I say, what did offal ever do to you?

Hearts, livers, intestines and tongues... I find it odd that so many people who fear offal, or think of it as 'disgusting' are the same ones who will happily plough into hot dogs and chicken nuggets: high processed foodstuffs that are commercially manufactured using mechanically separated meat or meat slurries. Liquefied meat never looked

Chocolate lenten buns (semlor recipe)

Today is Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Tuesday in many parts of the world, but Estonians and Scandinavians are celebrating lenten bun day or semla day instead. I've been baking my own semla buns for umpteen years now and even shared two of the recipes with you - perfect simple buns and decadent lenten buns with marzipan and raspberries. I've just finished baking a batch of the former and will be stuffing them with lots of creme chantilly once the buns are cool enough. Cannot wait to devour them!!!

However, last year I also tried dark lenten buns, inspired by a recipe in a Finnish food magazine Ruokamaailma. There's chocolate everywhere - in the yeast dough, in the whipped cream, in the marzipan filling, so if you're into chocolate, you'll love this. I'd happily make them again (photos here are from February 2010), but I think I'd skip the marzipan-chocolate filling step completely.

Chocolate semlor recipe
(Tõmmud vastlakuklid)
Makes about 16 buns



Dark yeast dough:
350 g plain/all-purpose flour
50 g caster sugar
0.5 tsp fine salt
35 g Dutch-processed cocoa powder (75 ml/5 Tbsp)
one sachet of fast-acting instant yeast
75 g butter, softened
250 ml lukewarm milk (one cup)
egg, for brushing

Filling (optional):
50 g dark chocolate
75 g marzipan

Cocoa Creme Chantilly:
200 ml whipping cream
1 Tbsp Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 Tbsp caster sugar

icing sugar/confectioner's sugar, for dusting

Mix flour, cocoa powder, sugar, salt and dry yeast in a large bowl. Add the butter and using your fingers, work it into the flour mixture.
Pour in the milk and work the mixture into a nice yeast dough that doesn't stick to your hands and the bowl. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen cloth or clingfilm and place into a warm and draught-free place to rise. Leave until doubled in size:



Knead the dough lightly, then roll into a large 'sausage' and divide into about 16 equal-sized chunks:



Roll into small round balls, place onto a cooking sheet and leave to rise for another 15 minutes.



Now brush with a beaten egg wash and bake in a preheated 220 C/430 F oven for about 15 minutes, until the buns are nicely cooked. Transfer onto a metal rack to cool, and cover with a kitchen towel (this keeps the buns soft and moist).



Cut a top off each lenten bun.

If you are making the marzipan and chocolate filling, then scoop out about a heaped teaspoonful of the bun. Melt the chocolate, add finely chopped marzipan and the scooped-out bun parts and combine. Distribute the mixture into the hollowed-out parts of the buns.



Combine sugar and cocoa powder in a mixing bowl. Add the cream and whisk until thick and fluffy. Spoon onto the filled buns and top with the cut-off slices of buns. Dust with icing sugar and serve.

La Casa Ristorante, Russell Lea

Polpette della Mamma $14
Mama's original style meatballs served with woodfired bread
The meatballs, says Tony Ruggeri, started off as a joke. He and his sister Carmel, co-owners of La Casa Ristorante, had always kidded around about putting their mum''s meatballs on the menu of their new restaurant. As the restaurant opening drew near, Tony said, why not? Let's put them on.

"Meatballs? Are you

Blueberry and Lemon Friands

Ever heard of friands? These are the Australian "cousin" of the famous French financiers, the little moist egg-white cakes. Both are excellent for using up all those egg whites in the kitchen if you're tired of making Pavlovas and meringues! There are some differences, however. Whereas the financiers tend to use browned butter and are plain, the friands are made with melted butter and usually with the addition of fruit or berries. Another difference is the shape - the financiers are (traditionally) baked in oblong rectangular forms (to look like gold bars, apparently), the friands are usually baked in small oval tins (though you can use regular muffin tins or even tiny fluted tins like this talented Estonian food photographer did). Dorie Greenspan has written more about those two pastries.

I've adapted a recipe from BBC Good Food magazine. Note that I used ground whole almonds - hence the slightly darker colour of the cakes. The texture has more, well, bite to it as well, but you can obviously also use ground blanched almonds.

Blueberry and Lemon Friands
(Mustika ja sidruni friandid)
Makes 8 friands, suitable for freezing



100 g unsalted butter, melted
125 g icing sugar/confectioner's sugar
30 g plain flour/all-purpose flour (50 ml or 3 Tbsp + 1 tsp)
80 g finely ground almonds
3 medium-sized egg whites
finely grated zest of one lemon
a generous handful of blueberries or bilberries

Preheat the oven to 200C. Generously butter eight non-stick friand or muffin tins.
Sift the icing sugar and flour into a bowl, add the almonds and mix.
Whisk the egg whites in another bowl until they form a light, floppy foam.
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, pour in the egg whites and lemon rind, then lightly stir in the butter to form a soft batter.
Divide the batter among the tins. Sprinkle some berries over each cake.
Bake in the middle of a pre-heated 200 C oven for about 20 minutes, until just firm to the touch and golden brown on top.
Cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then turn out and cool on a wire rack. To serve, dust lightly with icing sugar.

Chilli Cha Cha, Haymarket

Somtum Pu papaya salad with fermented crab $11.90
You can smell a great papaya salad even before it arrives at the table. It's the strong whiff of fish sauce, the tingle of chilli, and for full flavour seekers, the salty pungency of fermented crab.

Diving into this birds nest of papaya salad is guaranteed to awaken the palate. Crunching your way through a tangle of shredded papaya, crunchy

Savoury cream cheese balls with spiced sprats

Wait, I know what you're thinking! Those kama and mascarpone truffles again? Nope. I know they look similar, but today I'm blogging about little savoury delights I've adapted from an Estonian foodblogger Elis. Last Thursday the Republic of Estonia celebrated its 93rd anniversary and some of my girlfriends came over to celebrate the occasion - and also say hello to our little baby boy. When trying to think of Estonian nibbles to serve, I came across Elis' recipe for sprat and cream cheese balls and was sold at once. It's a play on a popular rye bread and sprat canapé, and I knew that my guests would love them. I was right - these went down a storm. I used slightly more cream cheese than in the original recipe.

I must warn you - unless you live in Estonia and have easy access to rye bread and spicy sprats ('vürtsikilu'), you won't be able to make it (though you can follow this recipe and make the spiced sprats yourself). But this might inspire you to try making something similar with anchovies or similar product that's more readily available in your part of the world.

Savory cream cheese balls with spiced sprats
(Kilupallid)

Makes about 20

100 g spiced sprats filets, finely chopped
150 g cream cheese, at room temperature
1 egg, boiled, peeled and finely chopped
3 Tbsp scallions/green onions, finely chopped
grated rye bread

Mix all ingredients (except rye bread) until combined (I used a wooden spoon, but food processor would work as well). Cover the mixture with a clingfilm and place into the fridge for 30 minutes.
Take small amounts of the cream cheese mixture and roll into small balls between your palms.
Roll in grated rye bread and place onto a serving platter.

Joe Papandrea South American butcher, Bossley Park

Entraña
A shopping adventure with Mr and Mrs Pig Flyin last weekend led us to Uruguayan butchery, Joe Papandrea in Bossley Park. We'd made our way there on recommendation of friends, who'd rejoiced when they finally found the South American cuts of meat they'd been missing from home.


Joe Papandrea Wholesale Quality Meats

The Bossley Park Shopping Complex is a strip of shops fronted with

Estonian Soda Bread Recipe

If you think you've already seen a recipe for Estonian soda bread here @ Nami-Nami, then you're not mistaken - I indeed blogged about it some three years ago. However, that recipe was with ricotta/curd cheese, and this one uses kefir or cultured buttermilk. There isn't such a huge taste difference - and they're both quick to make and delicious to eat. Caraway seeds are a traditional flavouring, but if you're not keen on that spice, you can leave it out.

It's best served warm - I usually devour it with some butter and honey (see photo above) or lingonberry jam.

The original recipe is from an Estonian cult baking book, Ida Savi's "Saiad, pirukad, koogid" (1989). I haven't changed it, really, as if it ain't broke, don't fix it :)

Estonian Soda Bread
(Odrajahu-hapupiimakarask)

a 23x23 cm square tin, buttered

250 ml cultured buttermilk, kefir or fermented milk (1 cup)
1 large egg
1 tsp salt
1 tsp caster sugar
2 Tbsp vegetable oil or melted butter
1 tsp caraway seeds
175 g barley flour (about 300 ml, I used wholemeal)
90 g wheat flour (150 ml)
1 tsp baking soda

Pre-heat the oven to 200 C/400 F.
Sift both flours and soda into a bowl.
Whisk the egg with salt and sugar, add the kefir, oil/melted butter, caraway seeds and the flour mix. Stir until just combined.
Pour into a buttered tin and bake in a pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes, until the soda bread is golden brown on top.

Pho Pasteur, Haymarket, Sydney

Bánh hỏi chả giò seafood spring roll with steamed rice noodle $9.00

How can you not love a dish involving spring rolls? I'm a sucker for bánh hỏi chả giò at Vietnamese restaurants, the perfect excuse to crunch into spring rolls under the guise of eating a salad.

We've stopped in at Pho Pasteur on George Street several times lately, always filled with a gaggle of office workers, uni students,

Balkan Oven Burek Bakery Cafe, Rockdale

Rockdale is worth exploring on foot, a fascinating blend of cultures that sprawls across both sides of the Princes Highway. You'll find Halal butchers next to Asian grocery stores, and restaurants that specialise in Chinese, Thai, Bangladeshi, Greek and Himalayan cuisine. There's a giant used furniture shop on the corner, a supermarket selling Pakistani groceries in bulk, and Lebanese bakeries

Sydney Seafood School: Mark Best

"Noone ever died from good food," says Mark Best, as he adds another generous handful of salt to a pot of boiling water.

The crowd laughs with relief. I'm at the Sydney Seafood School and tonight's class is being led by Mark, chef and owner of three-hatted restaurant Marque.

The Sydney Seafood School underwent a major facelift in 2009, led by hospitality design specialist Michael McCann. The

Greenhouse by Joost, Sydney

Greenhouse by Joost is the latest pop-up restaurant to hit Sydney, an eco-friendly vision that doubles as a unique interactive art installation.

The converted shipping container looks right at home in Campbell Cove, its facade painted with butterflies and children. The entrance on the side is covered with miniature strawberry pots.




Melbourned-based Dutch artist Joost Bakker had always

Crispy Chicken in Sweet and Sour Sauce

My Estonian Nami-Nami site is currently hosting a Chinese food Cook-Off, and this crispy chicken in sweet and sour sauce has proved immensely popular. I won't give you a recipe here, but send you to my dear friend, the very passionate Johanna, who blogged about Crispy chicken balls with home-made sweet & sour sauce exactly three years ago.

The only changes I made to Johanna's recipe was to use 2 large chicken breasts (about 500 g) instead of four to feed four people, and I doubled the amount of sauce. Excellent - K. had a whopping three helpings and our daughter loved the sauce-covered crispy chicken pieces a lot as well.

Thank you, dear Johanna! Who knows, perhaps we can cook some Chinese food in your Singapore kitchen together one day ;)

Eestikeelne retsept: Krõbe kana magushapus kastmes

Stomachs Eleven: Lunching heaven

The best part about a weekend lunch is being able to sleep-in, skip breakfast and scoot to your fabulous host, arriving ravenous and ready for maximum feasting.

I say this because today's was a Stomachs Eleven meet-up, a group of food-loving friends who each take turns to host a dinner or lunch. Today we headed to the home of Silvrlily and Super Mario.


Slicing the vegetable terrine

Pig

Cabbage & buckwheat kasha recipe

It's time for another buckwheat recipe here on Nami-Nami. The inspiration for this recipe is from an Estonian author Aive Luigela (we share the publisher :)), but I've adapted it slightly. It's an excellent dish for those who are trying to shed some post-Christmas (or post-pregnancy) pounds - light in calories, yet surprisingly packed with flavour.

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 Cabbage
(Kapsa-tatrahautis)
Serves 4

2 Tbsp oil or butter
150 g buckwheat groats
300 g white cabbage, shredded
750 ml (3 cups) boiling water
0.5-1 tsp salt
1 tsp caster sugar
fresh lovage or dill, chopped

First, you may need to toast the buckwheat. The buckwheat we usually use in Estonia is pre-roasted and dark brown, 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 the oil in a large high frying pan/sauté pan. Add the buckwheat and sauté for a couple of minutes, stirring every now and then.
Add the cabbage and boiling water. Season with half a teaspoon of salt. Cover the saucepan with a lid, reduce heat and simmer on a low heat for about 30 minutes, until the cabbage is soft and buckwheat cooked.
Season with sugar and more salt, if necessary. Sprinkle fresh herbs on top and serve.

Smoked salmon and potato gratin

It's not always about lamb's tongue in Nami-Nami kitchen, you know. Most of the time I cook - and we eat - perfectly "normal" food. Here is one of my favourite weekday dishes. It's not exactly quick - that is to say, it won't be on your table within half an hour of walking in the door - but if you're at home anyway, just unable to stand in the kitchen watching keenly over your Sauce Bearnaise, then this is for you. It needs about 15 minutes of active involvement and then it simply cooks in your oven. Ideal for a mum like me :)

I've made this both with hot smoked salmon and cold smoked salmon over the years. I slightly prefer the latter one, but it's lovely with both.

Smoked salmon and potato gratin
(Kartulivorm suitsulõhega)
Serves 4

750 g potatoes
100 g smoked salmon, sliced
handful of fresh dill, chopped
2 large eggs
200 ml fresh cream
100 ml milk
freshly ground black pepper

Wash the potatoes, peel and cut into thin slices or matchsticks (I used the thick julienne cutter in my food processor).
Butter a medium-sized oven dish (I used a 30 cm round dish). Scatter half of the potatoes in the dish, sprinkle with dill and layer with salmon slices. Top with the remaining potatoes.
Season with black pepper.
Whisk eggs with cream and milk and pour evenly over the potatoes.
Bake in a pre-heated 175 C oven for about 1 hour, until potatoes are cooked (the exact time depends on the thickness of your potato slices or matchsticks).

Malaysia Kitchen Food Market

Satay
String brightly coloured lanterns across a hidden laneway, add funky mirrored tables and plastic stools in colours of citrus and lime, and you have Sydney's newest food market, Malaysia Kitchen.




For three days only, Sydneysiders will be able to enjoy a tasting plate of three or four Malaysian dishes for only $10, dining al fresco for a weekday lunch or dinner.

Malaysia Kitchen is

Lamb's tongue

Homemade Estonian rye bread, sliced lamb's tongue and horseradish, beetroot and cream cheese spread.

There may have been a time when I was (at least occasionally) a kind of culinary trendsetter among Estonian foodbloggers, introducing exciting new flavours. Not any more - being stuck at home in a suburb without a car and two little kids means that I am the last one to visit newly opened cafés, I miss all the exciting restaurant review events and am the last one to hear about the best source for exciting ingredients. Take lamb's tongue. There were several local foodbloggers singing praise to this humble delicacy (first Piret, then Tuuli, followed by Zoozi), and I spent days restlessly dreaming about those little tongues. Finally, on Saturday, I demanded a trip to a new (and currently the best) market in town and returned with a whole kilogram of lamb's tongue (it's _very_ cold here and our little son turned 1 month old only today, hence the reluctance to venture out earlier). What a delight (if you like tongue, that is)!



My dear K. was kind enough to take a nice photo of them (above; apparently inspired by the movie "Saw III" that he saw recently - I cannot comment, as I refused to join him and watch this), and then let me proceed with the dish. Well, preparing lamb's tongue for use in other dishes (like the open sandwich on top and below) is the easiest thing ever. Here's what you do.

Lamb's tongue
(Keedetud tallekeel)

1 kg lamb's tongue (I had 17 pieces)
cold water
1 large onion, halved (no need to peel)
1 large celery stick (break into 3-4 pieces)
2 bay leaves
10 whole black peppercorns
5 whole allspice berries
few parsley sprigs
1 tsp salt

Rinse the tongues under cold water, place into a large saucepan and cover with fresh cold water. Bring it to a slow boil, skimming off any froth that emerges on top.
Then add the onion, celery, bay leaves and seasoning. Reduce heat and let simmer for about 50-60 minutes, until cooked (test with a sharp knife).
Cool a little, then peel the tongues (as the tongues are quite small and there are many of them, it will take a bit of time).
Serve as they are (sliced thinly, on top of an open sandwich) or use to make salads or whatever else you fancy.



Have you had lamb's tongue before? And what's your favourite way to prepare/eat it? I'm already looking forward to buying and preparing lamb's tongue again, so any cool suggestions are welcome.

Other foodbloggers writing about lamb's tongue:
Ryan @ Nose to Tail at Home
Florian @ Food Perestroika

Bau Truong, Cabramatta

 Salt and pepper duck tongue $20
So we all know about duck breast, legs and liver, but what about duck tongues? At Bau Truong, these usually discarded organs are dusted with seasoned flour, deep-fried and served up as the traditional Vietnamese dish, Luoi Vit Rang Muo, or salt and pepper duck tongue.

The duck tongues aren't half as intimidating when they arrive - the magic of deep-frying tends

Freebie Friday: Win VIP tickets to Taste of Sydney 2011

Welcome to this year's first Freebie Friday! We're giving away tickets to Taste of Sydney 2011 held again at Centennial Park. Taste of Sydney is one of twelve Taste Festivals hosted around the world, in cities that include London, Milan, Edinburgh, Dublin, Dubai, Cape Town and Amsterdam.

This year's line-up of participating restaurants and chefs are:
Etch and Charlie & Co - Justin North

Chickpea and tomato soup with Moroccan spices

Here's a delicious chickpea/grabanzo soup recipe adapted from this book by the lovely Irish chef, Rachel Allen. It's quick, flavoursome, vegan and gluten-free (unless you serve it with crispy bacon or some herb croutons) and easy to make. It's been a while since I made it - seeing one of the few Estonian male foodbloggers making this the other day (check out the video!) - brought it back to our table. Our daughter loved it, K. loved it, and I loved it - so it's definitely a keeper. Hope you enjoy it, too!

I used canned chickpeas - dried ones are much harder to come by here in Estonia. If you prefer using dried chickpeas, then take 150 grams of pulses, soak them overnight in cold water and then boil in unsalted water for about half an hour.

Moroccan chickpea and tomato soup
(Maroko kikerhernesupp)
Serves four



2 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp cumin seeds, slightly crushed
400 g can of chopped tomatoes
a generous pinch of sugar
400 g can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
600-750 ml vegetable or chicken broth
juice of half a lemon
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro/coriander or parsley

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan. Add the onion and celery sticks, season with salt and pepper. Cover the saucepan with a lid and sauté over low heat for about 10 minutes, until the onion and celery are soft, stirring every now and then (do not burn!)
Add the cumin seeds, fry for another minute to release the aromas.
Add the tomatoes, sugar, chickpeas and hot stock. Simmer on low heat for 5-10 minutes.
Season with lemon juice, stir in the chopped herbs and taste for seasoning. Serve.

Cafe Giulia, Chippendale

The biggest problem with Cafe Giulia is deciding what to choose. The blackboard menu stretches across six columns of food and drink items, a bewildering bonanza of choices that renders newcomers helpless with indecision.



Converted from a 100-year-old butcher shop, Cafe Giulia has been a long-running favourite with locals and uni students. Regular lunch-goers know to arrive early to avoid

Nasu dengaku or miso-glazed aubergine

You'll get two Japanese recipes in a row now - on Friday I blogged about tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlets, Japanese style) today's blog post is dedicated to nasu dengaku or miso-glazed aubergine/eggplant. I first made this for the Japanese feast at our place back in summer 2009 (pictured above), but I've made them on several occasions since (and it has become one of my favourite cousin Ingrid's favourite dishes ever).

It's an easy and very flavoursome dish to make. All you need is some nice small aubergines (slim Japanese ones are best, but ordinary bulbous ones will do), some miso paste (I used hatcho and shiro miso pastes) and sesame seeds. I was lucky to use an additive-free dark hatcho miso that's typical to the Aichi Prefecture in Japan (thank you, Ryoko!!!):



Here's the recipe, should you want to make this at home, using the non-Japanese eggplants:

Nasu dengaku
(Eestikeelne retsept)
Serves four to six



1 large or 2 smaller eggplants/aubergines
vegetable oil

Miso-glaze:
6 Tbsp miso paste
4 Tbsp mirin or sweet rice wine
2 Tbsp sake or dry sherry
2 Tbsp caster sugar

Topping:
sesame seeds

Rinse and dry the eggplant and cut into 1 cm thick slices, crosswise. Make some slashes with a sharp knife onto one side of the vegetable slices. Brush both sides with oil, then place onto an oven sheet and bake in a 200 C oven for 15-20 minutes, turning once - you want the aubergine slices to be nicely brown on top. (Alternatively - fry on a griddle pan until golden brown on both sides).
Place the grilled/fried aubergine slices onto a large oven sheet - or even better, onto a heat-proof serving tray - on one layer:



Make the miso glaze. Mix all the ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring slowly to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer, stirring all the time, until the glaze is thickened slightly and nice and shiny. Remove from the heat.



Spread a spoonful of miso-glaze on each aubergine/eggplant slice, sprinkle some sesame seeds on top.

Put under a hot grill for a few minutes, then serve either hot or at room temperature.

Golden Moon, Sydney

Peking Duck is my happy place. Part theatre, part luxury, eating a dish based purely on the crisp tiles of duck skin is like ordering a cake and having nothing but the icing for the first course - a deliriously decadent prospect.


Peking duck (2 courses) $49.80

At Golden Moon, the ducks are wood-smoked in brick ovens, visible through the glass windows of the open kitchen. A waiter trundles a

Tonkatsu or fried pork cutlet, Japanese style

Dinner on Wednesday - tonkatsu aka fried pork cutlet with brown tonkatsu sauce and shredded cabbage. Tonkatsu is a popular Western-style dish in Japan, and it's basically thinly sliced pork that's been dredged in flour, dipped into egg, breaded in panko breadcrumbs and then fried until crispy and golden brown. You can read all about this particular dish either here or here. I'll be definitely making this again, as I loved the super-crispy and almost crunchy coating achieved by the use of panko breadcrumbs as opposed to ordinary breadcrumbs.

Tonkatsu
(Tonkatsu ehk paneeritud sealiha Jaapani moodi)
Serves 4

ca 500 g pork fillet
all-purpose flour
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2-3 eggs
panko breadcrumbs (I used shop-bought panko breadcrumbs*)

For the tonkatsu sauce:
ketchup
soy sauce
Worcestershire sauce
freshly ground black pepper.

Cut the pork filet into thin slices, about 5 mm thick.
Take three bowls, filling one with flour (seasoned with salt and pepper), one with whisked egg and one with Panko breadcrumbs.
Dredge the pork slices first in flour, then dip them into egg and finally into breadcrumbs. Make sure that the pork slices are evenly coated.
Heat a generous amount of oil in a heavey frying pan over moderate heat. Fry the breaded pork slices until golden brown on both sides (about 3-4 minutes per side).
Place onto a kitchen paper to drain any excess fat and keep warm.

To make a cheat's tonkatsu sauce, mix ketchup with some soy and Worcestershire sauce and season to taste with black pepper. Drizzle over pork slices.

Traditionally this is served with shredded white cabbage (you may want to crisp it up by soaking the cabbage in cold water; drain thoroughly).

* Available in Piprapood, Tallinn.

Tehran, Granville

Tehran, Granville
WHAT IS IT?
A suburban restaurant serving Iranian/Persian and Middle Eastern cuisine.

WHAT’S IT LIKE?
A row of colourful cushions on the front benches welcome homesick patrons or diners curious to try Persian cuisine. The menu is a double-sided A4 laminate with 18 dishes, each accompanied by a colour photograph.


Zereshk Polo $10Saffron rice with dried wild berries and

Silk Road Chinese Halal Restaurant, Haymarket

There are 116 different dishes on the foldout menu at Silk Road - each dish illustrated with a helpful photo - but I only want one thing. The Chinese hamburger.

"You really want the Chinese hamburger don't you," says Josh, as we work out which dishes to share.

I do. And I'm not budging.



Deciding on the rest of the dishes to order is no easy task, a kaleidoscope of dishes that cover the

Aseana Food Village, Randwick

The proper way to prepare teh tarik is by pouring the strong milky tea at great height from one metal cup into another, a thunderous waterfall that creates a foaming bubble of froth. It's a traditional method not always practised in Sydney restaurants, and so I'm mesmerised as we watch the spectacular tea pouring process in action at Aseana Food Village.



Aseana Food Villages sits away from

Almost a full English breakfast

Trying to think what to make for breakfast this Sunday? Here's what we had last weekend.. No tomatoes and mushrooms, and ciabatta instead of white sliced toast, but otherwise pretty close and rather nice..

Thanon Khao San, Sydney

In a city over-run with Thai restaurants, the best Thai restaurants in Sydney converge around two city blocks that locals simply know as Thainatown.

I-San Thai was one of my favourite eats - cheap, cheerful and free of the incessant queues that plague Chat Thai around the corner - but sadly closed in late 2009. Thanon Khao San now takes it place, a little fancier and more upmarket than its

Cranachan - a perfect dessert to finish a Burns' Supper

Selkirk Grace:

Some hae meat and cannot eat.

Some cannot eat that want it:

But we hae meat and we can eat,

Sae let the Lord be thankit.

Scots - whether real or adopted or simply fans of all things Scottish - all around the world are celebrating the 252nd birth anniversary of their beloved Bard, Robert Burns tonight. A proper Burns Supper includes, of course, a Selkirk Grace (see above) and a haggis & neeps & tatties and an Address to a Haggis and a Toast to the Lassies and several other must-haves - and during my seven years in Edinburgh I had a pleasure of attending several Burns Suppers, some ticking all the right boxes. Lovely memories indeed...

Now, back in Estonia, I must settle for a slightly more low-profile celebration. I cannot get my favourite haggis here, and at this point of time (just 10 days after the birth of our second child), I'm in no shape to make my own :) I might make a cock-a-leekie soup for supper, and finish the meal with a lovely glass of cranachan (going easy on whisky this year, of course).

Cranachan is one of the most popular Scottish puds - and the ingredients - whisky, oats and raspberries - are all excellent in Scotland. You may have encountered this dessert under other names - Cream Crowdie (containing some soft cheese 'crowdie') or Tipsy Oats, for instance. Raspberries are an important component of Cranachan, suggesting that originally this dessert was served during the height of summer, when raspberries are in season. However, it's now served often during Hogmanay (the Scottish new year's celebrations) and during the Burns Supper (but then raspberries freeze rather nicely).

Cranachan
(Šoti viski-kaerahelbedessert)
Serves up to six



100 g medium ground or pinhead oatmeal (rolled oats, if these are easier to get hold of)
3 Tbsp Scotch whisky (I love a smokey whisky here)
400 ml whipping cream
100 g caster sugar (or less, to taste)

300-400 g raspberries

Put the oatmeal or oats on a heavy non-stick frying pan and toast slightly over a medium heat (stir regularly to avoid burning!)*. Take off the heat, drizzle the whisky over the oatmeal and stir to combine. Let stand and cool.
Whisk the cream and sugar until soft peaks form. Stir in the whisky-infused oatmeal and divide between dessert glasses.
Top with plenty of raspberries.
Place into the fridge for about 30 minutes before serving, so the flavours could mingle and develop.

Then serve and enjoy!

* If you want a crunchier pudding, then toast some of the sugar alongside the oats - this gives you a more caramelised oat mixture.

Eathouse Diner, Redfern

Low-key, cheerful and a little bit cheeky, Eathouse Diner is the kind of hangout everyone wishes they had in their neighbourhood. We follow the pointing finger instructing us to "eat here" and find ourselves in a deliberately kitsch American-style diner that is already half-full barely 15 minutes into service.



Turquoise walls trimmed with black-and-white check can't compete with the main

The Secret World of Culinary Bloggers

Readers of the Saturday Daily Telegraph in Sydney may have noticed the above article written by food editor Grant Jones on "The secret world of culinary bloggers", a somewhat odd title given the very public sphere in which we publish the minutiae of our lives and meals.

The feature makes some analysis of the growing influence of food blogs, including a quote that "one industry identity

Island Dreams Cafe, Lakemba

I'd known about Island Dreams Cafe in Lakemba in Sydney's south west for years, but never got around to eating there until last year. Island Dreams specialises in food from Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and it wasn't until I visited that I realised the local cuisine offers a unique take on many Malaysian dishes.

Island Dreams Cafe, Lakemba
WHAT IS ISLAND DREAMS?
A café

Little India, monkeys and the hunt for durian - Penang, Malaysia

Breakfast. If only I could wake up every morning with my head resting on a roti pillow.

After a mammoth day of feasting in Penang, we awoke determined to exercise a little more restraint with our appetites.

Wait, who am I kidding. We ate ourselves stupid. Yet again.


Kassim Mustafa


For breakfast we drove to Little India, a small but bustling area in the city of Georgetown, Penang.

And then we were four ...

Just to let my dear blog readers to know that blogging has been - and will be - a bit erratic recently due to that little fellow on the picture. Our second child - a boy named Aksel - was born early on Saturday morning after a very quick delivery in a nearby birth clinic. We got home on Sunday already, and we're all doing great. However, little Aksel will be surely keeping me away from the laptop for a while, alongside with our soon-to-be-two-daughter Nora, who needs special attention and affection just now.

We're still cooking and taking pictures, of course, and blogging will resume in due course :) Hang on there!

Lord Wolseley Hotel, Ultimo

In the back streets of Pyrmont, you'll find the narrowest pub in New South Wales, the Lord Wolseley Hotel. Built in 1881, the pub still remains much of a local secret, the front bar scattered with mostly male patrons, quietly downing ice cold schooners.

The bistro at the rear of the pub is bright and modern, with a small dining room situated on a mezzanine level, above the bistro counter.

Piroshki at Adelaide Central Market - Taldy-Kurgan

Take a yeasted bun, stuff it, deep-fry it and you have a piroshki, a glorious golden street snack that originated in Russia. Piroshki can also be baked or plain, but I know I'd choose a blistering baptism in bubbling hot oil every time.

Fresh piroshki are not so easy to find in Sydney, which is why my heart skipped a beat when we  stumbled on the Taldy-Kurgan stall in the Adelaide Central

Russian syrniki aka curd cheese patties

A little something from the Russian kitchen - fried thick curd cheese patties that are best enjoyed while still hot with a generous dollop of soured cream or a jam of your choice. You'll find curd cheese or quark cheese (tvorog, read more here) in Russian or Polish or German shops. Remember, the higher the fat content, the tastier the end result - or try farmer's cheese instead. Ricotta is too smooth and lean to work, in my opinion.

We love them for breakfast, but syrniki also make an excellent mid-day or mid-afternoon snack.

Syrniki
(Sõrnikud)
Serves 4

500 g curd cheese
2 egg yolks (or 1 egg, if you wish)
60 g plain flour (100 ml), or slightly more, if necessary
a generous pinch of salt
1 Tbsp sugar (for sweet syrniki)

flour for breading
oil for frying

Combine curd cheese, egg yolks, salt and sugar, if using.
Sprinkle some flour on the work surface and on your hands. Form small patties from the curd cheese mixture (add a spoonful or two of flour, if the mixture is too loose), flatten them slightly. The curd cheese patties should be about 1 cm thick.
(You could put them into the fridge for about and hour - it helps them to stay in shape).
Heat some oil on a frying pan over moderate heat. Fry the syrniki on both sides for 3-5 minutes, until they're golden brown.

Serve when still warm.

Stomachs Eleven: Thai dinner

Hot, sour, sweet, salty and bitter, Thai cuisine is renowned for its balance of all five in every mouthful.

Last year, several members of our roving dinner party group, Stomachs Eleven, jumped at the chance to travel to the hometown of Thai local, the G-Man. Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it, as I was on my own fooding adventure around Malaysia, but everyone came back with photos and

Baked apple pudding

Another super-easy and lovely dessert idea (these days I seem to be drawn to uncomplicated and super-easy puddings. Must be the dark winter nights). Oven-baked apples - though not necessary exclusively a winter dessert - do make more sense during winter than during summer and autumn (the home-grown apples taste simply too good when in season that they're best enjoyed as they are).

However, here's a good way to a) use baked (plain) apples or to b) use up any leftover baked apples you've made. It's not even really a recipe, more like a serving idea...

I used plain baked apples...

Baked apple fluff
(Ahjuõunakreem)
Serves 4

3 to 4 larger apples

200 ml whipping cream
1-2 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar or vanilla extract

Wash the apples and bake in a pre-heated 200 C / 400 F until soft. Cool completely, then grate coarsely.
Season the cream with sugar and whip until fluffy and soft peaks form. Season with vanilla and gently fold in the grated baked apples.
Serve in pretty dessert glasses.

1m roti tisu - Kayu Nasi Kandar

Remember the one metre tall roti tisu I waxed lyrical over during a recent trip to Malaysia?

Grab Your Fork reader, Winnie, did. She was so intent on hunting down this gravity-defying spectacle she printed off several of my Malaysian posts and packed it in her luggage for a holiday to Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

"My husband and I trekked to Petaling Jaya for a late dinner on January 3, 2011,

Mamak Village, Glebe

Barely two weeks old, Mamak Village is good news to inner west locals keen on a Malaysian roti fix but not quite prepared to brave the queues at Chinatown stalwart Mamak. The set-up is smaller, but a gleaming stainless counter out the front offers a peek at the theatrical display of roti production for passersby.



Only a few tables line the narrow corridor, but most customers are shepherded

Sideways Deli Cafe, Dulwich Hill

You seem them every weekend. Local cafes spilling over with couples, families and friends, escaping the confinement and drudgery of the house for a leisurely weekend breakast.

The click-click of the coffee machine, the smell of fresh espresso and the magical appearance of breakfast placed in front of you. This is the joy of breakfasting out. 



Sideways Deli Cafe in Dulwich Hill is not

China Doll, Woolloomooloo, Sydney

Why does sitting near water make a meal feel so good? The clip-clop of heels on a wooden pier,  the sight of boats in the distance and an abundance of natural light and space could easily trick you into thinking you were still on holiday.

Last night we headed to China Doll to bid bon voyage to Lex, chef and food blogger, who will be heading off to Canada shortly on a working holiday.

It was

A Penang Food Tour: Assam laksa, durian and Penang Road Famous Cendol

Assam laksa. An aromatic swamp of mackerel, tamarind, pineapple, chilli and mint,  I was determined to overdose on it as much as I could in Malaysia.

But first, we needed breakfast before we could hit the road to Penang, where their version of assam laksa is said to be the best. In the quiet town of Ipoh we found a dearth of places open at 9am, eventually settling for the ever-present

Clementines in star anise and cinnamon syrup

For the first post of 2011 I chose a dessert from our new year's eve table. For various good reasons we didn't host a big new year's eve party this year, and instead had a quiet (and still lovely) evening with good friends living nearby. We were 6 adults (including one Swede), 1 schoolgirl and our little daughter. We shared a feast of cold cuts, some American and Swedish lobsters and, a layered beetroot and salmon salad, and a bit of this and that - all delicious. I was asked to contribute something sweet. I didn't want to bake a cake - exhausted from all the Christmas baking, I guess - and then decided to bring two desserts instead. Both of them were inspired by a Swedish food magazine Lantliv Mat & Vin (4/2010) that K. had recently brought back from a business trip to Stockholm. One of dishes was poached pears in a vanilla and ginger syrup, the other was clementines macerated in a spiced white wine syrup. I didn't want to open another bottle of wine, and had an half-empty vermuth bottle on hand instead, so I adapted the Swedish recipe accordingly (drastically reducing the amount of sugar, to start with!).

I loved the result - slightly spiced, slightly sweet - and a very pleasent new way of serving the clementines/mandarines that are sold everywhere at the moment.

Clementines in star anise and cinnamon syrup
(Mandariinid jõuluses veinileemes)

Serves ten or more

20 to 30 small seedless mandarines or clementines

Syrup:
250 ml dry vermut (I used Filipeti)
500 ml water
200 g sugar
3 star anise
2 cinnamon sticks

First, prepare the syryp. Measure the vermut and water to the saucepan, add star anise and cinnamon sticks. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, peel the citrus fruit, removing all the white pith carefully (I had small Moroccan clementines - a bother to peel, but at least there was no pith to remove).
Place the mandarines/clementines into a heavy glass jar or bowl, fitting them tightly next to one another. Pour over the syrup (slightly cooled), so all the fruit would be covered.
Leave to macerate/season for a few hours.

Yen for Viet, Marrickville

Is there a more perfect cuisine for summer than Vietnamese? Crunchy salads, sprigs of mint and splashes of sweet dressing, I know what I'm craving for whenever the mercury hits 30C.We turn up at new Vietnamese restaurant Yen for Viet to find a modern airy restaurant, the wall painted a cheerful cherry red, and hung with minimalist line drawings of cyclists and motorcyclists in Vietnam.The