Bounteous bites

White chocolate and coffee truffles with dried strawberries

2009-01-24T04:42:00.005+02:00

I’ll first allow myself a few words to excuse my great absence.
Not been ill nor lost my passion for cooking, nothing of that sort.
Something worse.
:O

The last six months I’ve actually lived in Chile as an exchange student, on the oooother far side of the Earth from my sweet home Estonia. And with a lot of, well, experiences to experience, not much time is left for cooking and less for experimenting, especially with all those chileans around me shouting „haznos algo estoniano porfa!“

But after my first six months here I finally made something worth writing about. I expect to have a lot more to write during the almost six more months that are still left to live on this hemisphere! (Gosh, I’ve totally forgotten my English, couldn’t I just write in Spanish mejor?)

White chocolate and coffee truffles with dried strawberries
(30)

200g + 160g white chocolate

½ dl heavy cream1

½ tsp instant coffee powder (or espresso powder, or experiemnt with coffee extract)

1 tbsp hot water

about 20 g dried strawberries

(toasted) coconut flakes

Chop 200g of white chocolate in little pieces.
Bring cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate, mixing well until the chocolate is melted.
Mix instant coffee powder with hot water and add the mixture bit by bit to the chocolate, tasting to have just as much coffee taste as you like (adding it all makes the coffe taste quite strong, but good;))
Chop the dried straberries in small pieces and add to the mixture. Let the mixture stay in the fridge for a half an hour.
While the chocolate is in the fridge, toast the coconut on a pan over low heat (I used the minimum heat of a gas stove) until golden and leave to chill.
Form little balls of the chocolate mixture and return to the fridge to harden.
Melt the rest of the chocolate over a waterbath or in the microwave and put the toasted coconut in a small bowl (if you melt the chocoalte in the microwave, you’ll have to melt it again halfway through the truffle making process as it will begin to harden)
Dip the truffles first into the chocolate, then roll them in the coconut and leave them onto parchment paper or aluminium foil (I use a teaspoon to roll a truffle in the chocolate, drop it over the toasted coconut and then with a fork roll it over in the coconut, without letting the chocolate touch the bowl nor the fork to keep the coconut free of clumps).
Let the truffles harden in the fridge and keep in the fridge or at room temperature.

The bitterness of the coffee (and coconut toasted without sugar!) balances well the overly sweet white chocolate, enough to allow to use sweet dried strawberries that give a summery and jolly touch to an otherwise kind of adult version of white chocolate truffles. Would be nice to wrap this chocolate mixture around a whole dried strawberry and make bigger truffles, this way the strawberry taste would come out clearer too, because these truffles don’t scream „strawberry!“, rather „coffee! Yum! Bittersweetsweet! One more!“

Tomato cake, the sweet and spicy type

2008-07-07T09:30:00.000+03:00

First point. I've now understood that vegetables do deserve their places in sweet cakes. They make them moist and therefore good. And I understand that before I've even tried beetroot-chocolate cake or chocolate cake with sauerkraut.

Second point. I haven't yet understood why vegetable cakes always hide their flavour behind a heap of spices or chocolate. Would they really be that bad otherwise? I haven't tried a version without them myself, but it seems as though we're just using the vegetables, isn't it? I mean, I'd be insulted, it's like dating a man but begging him to wear a paper bag on his head.

Third point. In case of a tomato flood at your house (I'm looking forward to ours...), this recipe is a great way of smuggling tomatoes into a dish. Just peel fresh tomatoes by scaring them with boiling water until the skin wants to come off by itself.

Spicy tomato cake with curd cheese frosting
(Adapted from Maria Öhrn's 'Tårtor' (Cakes))

100 g butter at room temperature
2 1/2 dl soft brown sugar (I used 2 dl of caster sugar and 1/2 dl of dark syrup instead)
3 eggs
3 dl pureed canned tomatoes (beware, they have to be in their own juice, not marinated)
5 dl flour
1/2 tbsp baking soda
1/2 ml ground nutmeg
2 ml ground cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
100 g walnuts (I used hazelnuts instead - a very tasty adaption!), chopped to pieces

frosting:
400 g curd cheese (cream cheese could be used instead)
2 dl heavy cream
sugar
vanilla
1 1/2 tsp lime juice

Beat the soft butter together with the sugar until fluffy.
Add eggs one by one and then pureed tomatoes.
Mix flour with spices and baking soda, then add to the batter. Add chopped nuts.
Grease a 24 cm springform pan and pour the batter into it. Bake at 175C for 40-50 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely.
Beat the heavy cream and sugar with an electric mixer until whipped, then add curd cheese. Flavour with extra sugar (if needed), vanilla and lime juice.
Cut the cake into two and spread the frosting both between the layers and on top. The cake is good served immediately, but it's better after a few hours.

It's primarily a spice cake. I tried to trace tomato flavour (thinking of tomato juice), but it was quite hard. I think I noticed a bit of it, but that's as far as my noticing goes; I can't be sure:D

The spice combination kind of gets it and the cake is nicely moist, even if it doesn't look so apparent on the photos. The curd cheese frosting came out really nice and fitting, but I tend to think that sour cream could have been a cooler ingredient here. Even more in harmony with the whole spicy cakey thingy (and it's not that I thought about our family's all-time-favourite tomato salad with sour cream...).

Roasted banana ice cream with poppy seeds

2008-07-03T11:11:00.002+03:00

Mayhaps you too went to search for some good bursting red tomatoes this one morning and encountered a bunch of blackened bananas instead. No bursting red tomatoes. Sad moment. The bananas looked kinda scary as well. Another sad moment.

But the thing with bananas is that they tend to be villainy. I mean, scaring me like that and then turning out to be perfectly lovely on the inside.

Makes me think I never really cared about the tomatoes anyway.

This is my first attempt at cooking a recipe from apparently the Bible of ice cream, David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop. But still I couldn't help but mess with it, dear me.

Roasted banana ice cream with poppy seeds
(adapted from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop, via butter sugar flour)

3 medium ripe bananas (totally ripe suits as well;))
75 g brown sugar
3 dl milk
1 dl curd cheese (using cream cheese would also be good)
2 tbsp caster sugar
2 tsp lime juice
vanilla (1/2 tsp extract)
1/4 tsp salt
at least 1 tbsp of poppy seeds

Preheat the oven to 200C.
Slice the bananas and place into a small baking dish together with the brown sugar. Bake for about 40 minutes, until the bananas are caramelized. Turn once during cooking.
With the help of a food processor, blender or immersion blender, puree the bananas together with the syrup from the baking dish, milk, curd cheese, sugar, lime juice, vanilla and salt until smooth. Add poppy seeds.
Chill the mixture in the fridge until cold.
Churn in an ice-cream machine until thick or place in a plastic container, pop it in the freezer and give it a good whip every hour or every few hours, depending on the temperature of your freezer.

The words banana ice cream never make me drool, actually, as I tend to think of store-bought ice cream pops that carry the same unmistakable banana essence flavour that all banana-FLAVOURED sweets have in them.
Maybe you've seen yellow banana-shaped jellybeans. Well, there must be a reason to their shape. Nobody would understand they're supposed to taste like bananas, is what I'd reckon.

But roasting really intensifies the taste of the bananas. It's not just banana-flavoured ice cream, it's actually banana ice cream. Which, you know, is a totally drool-worthy dish. The poppy seeds? They were the only thing I felt was missing from the ice cream, that's it.

The recipe will also be taking part of the fab event Frozen Desserts, hosted by Mike of Mike's Table.

Rosy rhubarb truffles

2008-06-25T13:10:00.004+03:00

I'm excited. First it was coco-nutty prunes in white chocolate and the road towards salvation (read: knowing the perfect ways to make truffles from fruit and berries) started showing itself. I mean, there are actually a million possibilities.

Then rhubarbs came.

And then I realized how much I really love ~~myself~~ the concept.

Rosy rhubarb truffles

300 g rhubarb stalks (two bigger ones or three smaller ones)
2 dl sugar

2-3 tbsp rosewater

white chocolate

(chopped almonds or almond slices)

Peel the rhubarb stalks (if the stalks are young, you can just cut them without peeling) and cut to bite-size pieces. Place the pieces into a saucepan and add the sugar and rosewater on top.
Cover with lid and heat until syrup forms from the sugar and rhubarb juice. Boil at low heat until tender, but not broken (about ten minutes), occasionaly gently stirring or turning the pieces around.
Let the rhubarb cool down in the syrup, preferrably let it soak overnight.
Pat the pieces a bit dryer on paper towels and reserve the syrup for later use. Melt white chocolate over a waterbath and dip each piece into it (if you wish, also dip them into almond pieces after the chocolate), then place on foil for hardening. Keep in the fridge, but take out a bit before serving.

The rhubarbs are tender, with rosy cheeks and sweet white coats. The rose flavour is quite moderate and although the filling is sweet in itself, it really needs the extra sweetness from white chocolate, rhubarb being sour in its very essence. You could add more sugar or more rosewater if you want a more instense bite, I don't mind!:)

Last time I added almond bits to coat the chocolate and the sensation was even better with a crunchy addition, so I'd definitely do it next time too. The leftover syrup can be made into a very good drink by adding water.

Next I'm thinking pears poached in black tea with bitter chocolate and hazelnuts. And then from there...

This post will take part of the first round of the event Original Recipes, hosted by Lore of Culinarty.

Granny got twisted

2008-06-19T14:30:00.000+03:00

Now, don't be afraid if you've never heard of mayo cookies before. They're perfectly alright, perfectly sweet and actually quite perfectly perfect.
(And if you're still afraid, consider the ingredients of mayonnaise for a second - they're actually all used in sweet cookies too, you see! yeaaah!)

My grandmother is an expert and no matter how many times I try, I'll never get them that right. Maybe that's why I decided to give her mayo cookies my own twist, adding white chocolate on top (the best of ideas - she'd be proud of me). The first time I made them, I accidentally made them according to her original quantities which resulted in the whole kitchen being filled with cookies. Oh, you know, grannies and their recipes...

The quantities are reduced here, you shouldn't be afraid of flooding your kitchen with cookies if you plan to make them. (not that that's a bad thing, it just came unexpectedly to me)

Mayonnaise cookies with white chocolate

100 g mayonnaise
100 g butter, at room temperature
4 dl flour
2 dl sugar
1 egg

White chocolate

Mix butter well with sugar, until the mixture becomes fluffier.
Whisk in mayonnaise and then the egg. Finally add the flour.
Place the dough into the fridge for 30 minutes.
Make small balls of the dough between your fingers, place them onto a buttered baking sheet and flatten with a fork.
Bake at 190C until slightly golden at the edges, about 9 minutes. Let cool.
Melt white chocolate over a waterbath and decorate the cookies with it. Spread it on top or make other decorations. Let them cool for the chocolate to harden.

I must admit it - the batter tastes funny. But that's okay, because the cookies end up being sweet in that good childhoody way. That's the best way to put it, actually, the flavour is difficult to describe. But they're utterly delicious and the white chocolate gives them another sweet kick, making the final result girly and - again - childhoody.

Fennel bites with liver pâté

2008-06-15T14:03:00.002+03:00

I sometimes have this habit of eating while I'm reading. Or rather, reading while I'm eating. Or, well, I don't know. I often spend my mornings like that when I don't have time for both eating slowly and devouring the morning newspaper, two things that make a morning complete (add morning workout and I'm in heaven).

But this one day I was deep in a book when my stomach called for lunch, so I just prepared some easy bites for myself to enjoy while reading on. Non-fat for fingertips, full-fat delight for that stomach of mine.

And those bites now totally want to visit a party with snacks.

Fennel bites with liver pâté
Fennel bulb
Liver pâté
Fennel greens, dill or chives for decorating

Cut the fennel bulb in half and cut its layers into nice bite-size 'boats'.
Top the fennel bites with liver pâté. Use a pastry bag for this or make a nice heap with a teaspoon.
Place fennel greens, dill or chives on top for great taste and decoration.

It's amazing how the flavours suit together. The sweetness and freshness of the fennel is just what a bite of liver pâté needs in order to be reached for again and again. It balances the strong and rich pâté perfectly. That's why I was especially fond of the thick fennel slices - the pâté does want something fresh at its side (hence the usual company of cucumber).
I used dill on top of the bites and believe I'd enjoy it more than just fennel greens as it makes the flavour pattern wider.

Yep, I recommend.

This post will take part of the first round of the event Original Recipes, hosted by Lore of Culinarty.

Warm curd cheese toasts with feta cheese and smoked sausage

2008-06-12T14:07:00.000+03:00

Curd cheese toasts (or rather 'kohupiimasaiad') are sweet (sorry if I'm confusing you, but usually they are) Estonian treats we usually make during wintertime when stale bread seems to be lying around everywhere and curd cheese just happens to be in the fridge. They're delicious for a dessert and delicious for breakfast the next morning. Check out Pille's recipe, for example, cause this will be the last time you hear about sweet curd cheese toasts from me today.

INSTEAD, our curd cheese toasts went un poco loco. That's what confused appetite does to a person, because I really craved something savoury.

You could try using ricotta instead of curd cheese here. Or even cream cheese for a richer treat. Though as long as I've got curd cheese, I wouldn't even look towards those two...

Warm curd cheese toasts with feta cheese and smoked sausage
(makes 6 toasts)

about 6 slices of bread

250 g curd cheese
1 egg
1/2 - 1 onion (according to your love for onions)
butter
about 1/2 tsp dried herb mix of basil, oregano and marjoram (you could also use only one of them)
20 g smoked sausage of salami (I used deer sausage)
50 g feta
about 1 dl grated cheese
salt, pepper, sugar

Dice the onion and sautee it in butter until it becomes transparent and slightly golden, about 10 minutes.
Finely dice the sausage and also dice the feta.
Mix the egg into the curd cheese, add the herb mix, sausage, feta and sauteed onion. Flavour with salt, pepper and a bit of sugar.
Lay bread slices onto a greased baking sheet and spread the mixture onto them.
Bake at 200C for 10 minutes, then add the grated cheese on top of the toasts and bake for 5 more minutes. Serve warm.

Nothing is overpowering the taste in those toasts, just like in good pizza. The bread is crisp, the filling warm and creamy. They're good just on they're own, with slices of fresh tomatoes on them or together with a fresh salad for a lunch-er lunch.

Weird how dishes as ordinary as kohupiimasaiad can sometimes surprise so much:/
Just the weirdness I love!

Appetising lettuce rolls with smoky red fish

2008-06-10T20:00:00.003+03:00

All kinds of snack rolls are essentially cool. But as is the case with most dishes, there's something inside us screaming 'I WANT TO EAT SEASONAL'! And despite all the coolness factor in ham rolls with cheese filling, I don't quite feel like them now. Come on, it's not even raining. And the hold-your-skirt-or-you'll-go-home-without-it wind does not really count.

Even though I didn't know it before, I now know that lettuce can be rolled into a cool summery appetiser.

That's why they invented the phrase sex, drugs 'n' lettuce rolls, baby!

Lettuce rolls with smoky red fish

lettuce leaves
light grapes
raisins

about 200 g garlic flavoured cream cheese
1/2 dl diced tomatoes
1/2 dl pieces of smoked red fish
1 tbsp raisins

Mix cream cheese with diced tomatoes, smoked fish and raisins.
Spread the mixture onto lettuce leaves and make them into rolls. Place them into the fridge for a half an hour (I didn't do that, but it will make the filling stiffer).
Cut the rolls into bite-sized pieces and top with a grape and a raisin.

They actually have this fresh feeling to them, which is unusual for this kind of appetisers. There's just about enough smoky fish flavour that is complemented by the sweetness of the raisins. The grapes are good on the rolls, but I'm wondering if olives would do an even better job. Next time, right?

Overdose of sweet from coconut honey

2008-06-06T20:41:00.006+03:00

When I take home a can of coconut milk, it's almost always with the thought 'I have no idea where it's going to take me this time'. Sorry if I'm making it sound like an adventure story, but guessing where the canful will eventually end up is like guessing where Indiana Jones will find himself after climbing down a suspicious ladder.

Poor coconut milk found itself in a jar this time, stuck in there together with some sticky good honey and vanilla seeds.

Never seen Indiana Jones in a sweet situation like that after climbing down any ladder, that's for sure...

Coconut honey with vanilla

3 dl coconut milk
1 dl honey
half a vanilla pod
1 tbsp butter

Measure coconut milk and honey into a saucepan. Cut the vanilla pod in half and add.
Boil the mixture without a lid over low heat until it turns thicker, about 15 minutes.
Add butter.
Pour the mixture into a jar, close it and leave to cool at room temperature. Store in the fridge.

So what does it taste like? Imagine the word pair 'coconut honey' melting on your tongue, sweet and gooey, girly from the touch of vanilla.

I had my first taste on a chocolate dessert with bilberries, but I imagine it being syrupy good on ice cream or just plain yoghurt. And I'd like to drizzle it onto a bowlful of fresh strawberries. How's that for adventurously good?

This recipe will also take part in the A Fruit A Month event hosted by Tasty Palettes, themed Coconut. Coconut's a fruit, my friends, a fruit:)

Coffee curd cheese with clove-scented bananas and almond praline

2008-06-05T09:03:00.000+03:00

When concerning recipes, I often start my thought process from flavour combinations, as opposed to types of dishes or preparation methods. It gives the thought more free will and results in fantastic ideas more often (though some of them might be impossible to make or far too difficult for me...far too difficult to make them perfect)

Just as I stated, there's no escape from curd cheese on this blog and this time it's a tribute to the combination coffee-cloves-bananas-almonds. Actually the bananas are the X in this equation, successfully replaced by nectarines, peaches or apricots.

Curd cheese with coffee, clove-flavoured bananas and almond praline
(serves 3)

400 g curd cheese (smooth type, paste)
about 1 tsp coffee essence (can be substituted with instant coffee powder)
about 2 1/2 tbsp sugar
vanilla
1 banana
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp ground cloves
almond praline (e.g. this)

Mix curd cheese to taste with instant coffee powder or coffee essence, sugar and vanilla.
Combine sliced banana, sugar and ground cloves on a skillet. Heat until the sugar has turned into a light caramel around the banana slices. Occasionally stir and turn the slices around.
Crush the almond praline to little pieces.
Serve the curd cheese with warm banana slices and crushed praline.

The bananas turn really soft in the caramelizing process and adopt quite a strong clove flavour that goes together incredibly well with the coffee flavour of the curd cheese. There's basically everything one could want from a dessert - the creaminess of the curd cheese, the stickyness of the bananas and the crunch of the praline, plus three intense tastes that dissolve into one another.

Forest pesto

2008-06-01T08:04:00.003+03:00

My affection towards fresh bright green fir shoots has not decreased since fir shoot butter. Just mixing them with butter was an easy task, but I needed something more.

I hope you're not so pesto-conservative as to throw me with rocks if I call my creation pesto. Forest pesto, because fir shoots are picked from the forest (the air is the cleanest there, so you should do that if you can) and also because hazelnuts are called 'forest nuts' in Estonian. Clever, huh?;)

Forest pesto

50 g bright green fir shoots
25 g hazelnuts
1 garlic clove
1 tbsp grated parmesan
about 4 tbsp olive oil
salt

Process the fir shoots, nuts and garlic together with a bit of oil in the food processor or with an immersion blender. The mixture should be quite smooth.
Add cheese and enough olive oil to get a right consistency. Flavour with salt.

Use just as you would use basil pesto. On pasta, on bread...especially on bread and definitely with the addition of cream cheese and some slices of bursting red tomatoes.

The flavour is incredibly fresh.
Imagine standing in a fir forest. Take a deep deep breath. Good, isn't it? Now add a bit of a sour tone to it, the mildness of hazelnuts, the flavour of good parmesan, a bit sharpness from garlic and you're ready.
Then serve this feeling with bread, cream cheese and tomatoes.

If you have never tried fir shoots, I demand you to do so now! No excuses!

Hazelnut rum balls

2008-05-29T01:11:00.005+03:00

Chocolate-y rum balls made with cookie and cake crumbs are quite a classical favourite treat for me. I think I've tried almost every kind they sell in Estonia, I've chosen my favourites and over time I've eaten a ton. A big ton, not a small one. A ton of rum balls.

Although I've never succeeded in making the perfect rum ball at home, I've now succeeded in making quite a perfect variation of it. Hazelnuts have always seemed like good company for a decent rum ball and condensed milk is probably good company for anyone interested in the very quintessence of company.

Pardon for the blurry pictures. I had a bunch of wide-smiled compliment-throwing hungry friends over and they didn't like the idea of leaving any truffles alone.

Hazelnut rum balls

2 dl ground hazelnuts (if you have time - from about 200g hazelnuts, dry-roasted on a skillet and rubbed while warm in a cloth to remove peels)
1 dl cookie or cake crumbs
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tbsp butter
1 dl sweet condensed milk
vanilla
rum essence
dark chocolate and hazelnuts for decorating

Mix ground hazelnuts, cookie crumbs and cocoa powder well.
Melt butter and mix well with condensed milk. Add rum essence and vanilla, then pour the mixture over the dry ingredients and mix very well.
Place the mixture into the fridge for a half an hour, make small balls from it and then let them harden in the fridge again.
Melt dark chocolate over a water bath, dip the balls into the chocolate and place them onto foil or parchment paper. Before they harden, decorate each ball with a hazelnut. Store in the fridge.

Although the taste differs according to the crumbs you use, the flavour of hazelnuts is still nicely obvious. Teasingly flirtatious with the rum flavour in the truffles, it really creates a good mild combination that goes together really well with chocolate.

The balls are best eaten when they've spent a day in the fridge. The taste is smoother, the texture is harder, the delight is grander.

The rum balls will also be taking part of this month's Waiter, there's something in my... event, themed Dried fruit and nuts which is hosted by Andrew of Spittoon Extra.

And in the Monthly Mingle event, hosted by Mansi of Fun and Food, themed Appetizers and Hors'Doeuvres.

I really have to make these rum balls when no guests will be coming around;)

Lemon truffles with a pepper-warm coating

2008-05-25T10:13:00.005+03:00

Sneaky truffles, I'd say. In a sense that their lemon-y filling and pepper-warm coating together create an almost healthy feeling in your mouth. Lemon-y and warm. Just like a cuppa hot tea, only that actually you eat a handful of truffles!;)

Lemon and black pepper are another great combination magnifico that I strongly advise to try in all variations that come to mind!

Lemon truffles with a pepper-warm coating
(makes about 30)

200 g white chocolate
½ dl double cream
at least 1 tbsp lemon juice

160 g white chocolate
¼ - ½ tsp black pepper

Chop the chocolate to little pieces.
Heat the double cream to boiling point and pour it onto the chocolate ight away. Mix well, until the mixture is smooth. Add lemon juice. Place the mixture into the fridge for about a half an hour.
Make little balls out of the mixture and then place them into teh fridge to harden for some more time.
Melt te remaining chocolate over a waterbath and add pepper to it. Coat the truffles with this chocolate and let them harden on foil or on parchment paper. Store in the fridge.

White chocolate, that often feels so cloy, gains freshness and vividness from the lemon juice. If white chocolate were a lady of respectable age then in these truffles she'd certainly be young again...:) At first the pepper is a balancing flavour but in the end it leaves the mouth sighing warmly in the most pleasant way possible. Contrasts and novelty. Freshness and warmth.

One thing's for sure. Black pepper declares itself as a true dessert spice. I recommend to remember that;)

This entry also participates in the most gorgeous food blogging event of all, Sugar High Friday. This time the host is the wonderful Helen of Tartelette and the theme (again!) CITRUS.

Favourite ice tea smoothie

2008-05-22T21:30:00.006+03:00

I'm quite a fan of tea. Not an expert, rather quite far from the worst expert ever there is. But I love my tea: sometimes with herbs or flowers we've picked ourselves, sometimes great quality black, usually green and always without sugar.

And I crave quite everything flavoured with tea (especially when it's this cake). This dessert however, breakfast or whatnot is as easy as it gets, but it's great when made with different teas. You know, something different each time!

Favourite ice tea smoothie
(serves 1)

2 dl yoghurt
1 dl strong tea (any kind), cooled
about 1 1/2 - 2 tbsp sugar
(vanilla)
(ice cubes)

Mix tea with yoghurt, adding as much sugar as you like. If desired, flavour with vanilla.
Enjoy with a straw or with white moustache!;) Add ice cubes, if desired.

The smoothie is only as good as you make it;) Good tea equals good smoothie, subtly sweet, thin enough to drink smoothly through a straw. I guess it's a good variation of iced tea for those hot hot days that are yet to arrive..

But it's also a contribution to the Spring Tea Party event held by Erin of The Skinny Gourmet. Now I want to see what people come up with when thinking 'tea'!

Pineapple and lime curd with apricots

2008-05-19T18:47:00.000+03:00

Warm weather magically disappeared with a 'puff', leaving behind rain and wind and bad mood.

Hey, khm, with no sun here the least I'm worth is a good long TROPICAL VACATION, right?

But with none coming around...I'm gonna have to do with some tropical curd instead, dreaming of ripe (preferrably peeled and sliced) pineapples falling right into my hands from up above while I myself am sunbathing in my new pretty blue bikinis. (Yes, that would totally fix my mood)

So...

Pineapple and lime curd with dried apricots

5 dl pineapple juice
10 dried apricots
3 eggs
100 g butter
2 1/2 dl sugar
vanilla
1/2 dl lime juice

In a saucepan, combine pineapple juice and dried apricots. Boil vigorously without lid until the apricots are soft and the juice is reduced to about 1/2 dl, 20-30 minutes.
Measure out 1/2 of reduced juice and dice the apricots into little pieces.
Melt butter in a saucepan, add sugar and slightly beaten eggs, whisk until combined. Then add reduced pineapple juice and lime juice. Whisk at moderate heat until the mixture thickens.
Flavour with vanilla and add apricot pieces, making sure they do not stick to each other.
Pour the curd into jars, close them and leave to cool to room temperature, then store in the fridge.

The curd has really got a nice pineapple flavour to it, with a huge hint to lime. The apricot pieces are soft and full of taste when stumbled upon with your teeth! It's gorgeous like the classical lemon curd, only better;)
Good with cookies, ice cream, between cakes, pancakes, good to dunk a spoon into to enjoy the sensation of a whole mouthful. Just good.

And this good curd will also take part in the brand new event Putting up hosted by Rosie of Rosie bakes a peace of cake and Pixie of You say tomato...I say tomato that is all about preserves!

Spring shoots!

2008-05-18T13:48:00.003+03:00

In april and may, whenever I walk past a fir hedge, I can't help but instinctively reach my hand for some bright green fir shoots. Ah, I don't think I'm the only one doing that (and I mean doing that after the age of ten;)). They are, after all, so pleasantly sour and packed with vitamins.

Fir shoots are actually a funny subject. Because whenever I tell someone that one can use them in actual dishes, in addition to just nibbling on them from time to time while outside, people answer 'ohhh, hmmm, yeees, I've never actally thought about it'.

But fir shoots are really healthy as well, when not polluted by a nearby street. Syrup and tea made with them should work well when trying to get rid of cough and cold, but also tiredness and nervousness. They liven blood circulation and even have a slightly antibiotic effect!
(yes, now would be the right time to stop asking the question 'are you sure it's okay to eat them?')

Here's my first experiment with fir shoots:)

Fir shoot butter

Bright green fir shoots
Butter at room temperature
(sea)salt, pepper

Rinse the fir shoots
If you want a soft butter, throw the shoots into boiling water, boil for about 10 minutes, then chop into little pieces. Using fresh shoots will result in a crunchier, but brighter butter.
Mix the chopped fir shoots with soft butter and flavour with salt and pepper.

It's great to eat the butter with a simple crunchy bread, but I can imagine it being wonderful with meat, vegetables or young potatoes..oh yes. A scrumptious sour fir-y taste, somehow homely.

Next I'd like to throw some fir shoots into casseroles and salads. I've also found recipes for flavoured oil, tea, syrup, chicken roast, marmalade and ice cream coctail using fir sprouts. If you're interested, I'm ready to translate or try them out:)
And if you've got ideas of your own...I'm one big ear!

Curd cheese mousse with blackcurrant sauce and kiwis

2008-05-13T16:36:00.002+03:00

If there was one thing I'd eat for the rest of my life, it would be curd cheese. Or, well, curd cheese and rye bread. But still. I eat it in all kinds of combinations and for me it's mild flavour is so ordinary that I never use recipes. I just enjoy. Enjoy and ENJOY.

But from time to time a combination just nails it. Just like yesterday. And it makes me wanna share. Oh yes it does.

Although the sauce has quite a strong blackcurrant flavour on its own, it's lost a bit if the mousse has a strong cocoa flavour. Therefore, I suggest using a bit less cocoa powder.
Don't be bothered by the blackcurrant pieces in the jam - there actually an extra!

Curd cheese mousse with blackcurrant sauce and kiwis.
(serves 3-4)

400 g curd cheese
1 dl double cream
sugar (about 1/2 dl)
vanilla
1-2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
blackcurrant-cream sauce (see below)
2-4 kiwis

Mix curd cheese with sugar and vanilla.
Beat double cream with an electric mixer until fluffy and add (or if you're lazy - just mix it in and beat the mousse a bit).
Add cocoa powder to taste, mix well.
Peel and slice kiwis.
Serve the mousse with warm or cold sauce and kiwi slices. Add cookie pieces, if desired.

Blackcurrant-cream sauce

1/2 dl blackcurrant jam
1 dl double cream
cinnamon, if desired

Take a small pot and heat the jam until it's liquified.
Add double cream, mixing. If desired, add cinnamon.
Boil the sauce for 5 minutes, then serve warm or cold (might get too thick when waits overnight - then just add liquid) .

The blackcurrant-kiwi-cocoa combination truly is a nice find I've been wanting to try for quite some time and it really worked out well! An upside-down version could also be nice - with kiwi sauce and fresh blackcurrants...(summer, summer, come sooner!)

The mild mousse is well complemented by the strong-flavoured, but slightly sour sauce and exotic kiwis. Adding cookie bits adds crispness, serving the dessert while the sauce is still warm and adding some cinnamon to the sauce makes it more interesting.

More curd cheese coming to you soon enough;)

Apples in uniform

2008-05-12T23:11:00.006+03:00

What's in an apple? C-Vitamin? Seeds?

Sometimes when you just incidentally happen to eat a whole bowlful, there's also stomach ache in apples. Well...yeah.

But with these apples it's certain - no seeds, no ache (I solemnly swear..), enough C-Vitamin to keep you going and on top of all that there are...apples:)

The first time I tucked fruit into uniform was when I had leftover dough from a pie shell and - I tell you - it's the best way in the universe for using up that leftover dough you'd otherwise end up eating bit by bit, cursing yourself more and more and in the end - having less uniformed fruit to eat;)

Apples in uniform
(serves four)

4 small apples
about 170 g sweet patee brisee
3 tbsp sugar
¾ tsp cinnamon

Peel the apples and cut the bottom parts a bit flatter so they stand up better. Core them, but don't cut through the bottom.
Divide the dough into four and roll each part into quite a thin circle; leave a bit of dough for decorating.
Fill the apples (as much as you can) with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon.
Place the apples onto the dough circles and then wrap them up. Make sure the dough is of the same thickness everywhere and that it's as smooth as possible - you get four nice balls.
Make (2) leaves for each "apple" from the leftover dough and press them onto the "apples". Use a knife to make the leaf pattern.
Bake the apples in a buttered oven dish at 175C for about 30 minutes until they look golden.
Eat while still warm, serve with vanilla sauce or -ice cream.

How sad that I don't have a photo of the finished dessert! Cause the apples are just so nicely golden and round that they make you want to juggle, roll them in your hands or just eat up at once. Below the crisp surface there's a soft apple and the filling has turned into a sweet dark sauce, that complements the slightly more sour apple very well.

A bit of ice cream or vanilla sauce and this dessert should do the trick:)

Parsnip soup with smoked cheese and soy sauce

2008-05-02T21:04:00.000+03:00

Call it spring stress, call it searching for my muse, call it a stupid gap, but here I am - back after two months without a single post about food. I am terribly sorry, for I must be to be polite, but fortunately (so you can cheer and forgive me right away) I can say that I've found the muse and have some great stuff to show you.

Only that...I have to make most of them again to make pictures. Silly silly me.

This soup stayed a dream for quite some time, until one day I got it all right and I literally went 'mmmmmmmm' till my bowl was empty. I couldn't believe it! There was actually competition to my all-time-favourite carrot soup with coriander and aniseed.

Keep the stock light and your heart open for the best experience.

Parsnip soup with smoked cheese
(serves 4)

300 g parsnip, diced
1 onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, diced
2 dl chicken broth
4 dl milk
100 g smoked cheese, diced
1 tbsp butter
salt, sugar
soy sauce

Melt butter in a soup pot, add diced parsnip, onion and garlic, cover with lid and sautee about 10 minutes, until the onion is transparent.
Add broth and boil for 30 minutes, until parsnip is tender.
Puree the potful, then add the smoked cheese and puree until very smooth.
Pour everything back to the pot, add milk, stirring and flavour with salt and a bit of sugar. Heat up.
When serving, sprinkle with soy sauce.

The soup is full of taste. It has got this sweet flick to it, from the natural sweetness of the parsnip (which, much like the carrot, can cheer up any savoury dish) and also from the essential dash of sugar. The smoked cheese makes it creamier, gives it an attitude, intensifies the taste.

The soy sauce, as the final key to the taste combination, gives the soup the sparkle of life. I wanted to taste a bit with every mouthful, so I just added some more when I'd done with half of the soup. Don't mix it, enjoy it as a contrast, a treat. I'm not a fan of soy sauce, but I love it with red fish and I adore it on this soup.

Blogging By Mail: Little things

2008-04-02T19:29:00.007+03:00

I was excited enough to even forget posting about my BBM package from Glenna of A Fridge Full of Food when I got it last week. And although we now have REAL REAL spring weather, there were big heaps of snow outside at that time.

It was like Christmas. It was the first proper snow of the winter. It was the biggest present I was carrying, climbing over the heaps of snow in our local park-forest. Magic, I tell you.

The moment I got home I RIPPED THE PACKAGE OPEN.
Wonderful! She nailed it!

I've been wanting to try cake decorating and Glenna totally saw it happening. She sent me a package of decorating bags together with a bunch of different tips and four bottles of icing colours.

PLUS a package of Gourmet Jelly Candy. I've been taking these candies to school with me, as a little dessert, one every day. The lollipops are still waiting for me...

Thanks, Glenna, you're sweet!
Oh, I hope my package will reach its recipient in one piece too. Wouldn't want to see all that sweet stuff shaped like one big pancake... Thank you, Stephanie, for organizing the swap!

A cheesecake for the minority: Licorice!

2008-03-01T11:28:00.002+02:00

Although I'm ill as in really ill right now and almost can't taste a thing, here's a treat I made a month ago. So I TOO could remember what good food tastes like:)

Ohh, licorice.

There's just too little variety in Estonia. Whenever I go to Finland, I know exactly what I'm going to buy. Always the same licorice candy mix from the ship's Tax Free. Then definitely a package of licorice chewing gum. And if I'm lucky - some licorice ice cream, a tube of licorice sauce to bring home or even a licorice flavoured Tupla chocolate.

Nevertheless I've come upon very few recipes using licorice (candies) as an ingredient. I made a licorice cheesecake with gelatin for a friend mad about the candy two years ago, but at last I made my first baked licorice cheesecake that had been developing itself in my head for too long a time.

I didn't tell my parents of the origin of the cake before they had eaten their first bites. The funny thing...they both liked it. Although neither of them belongs to the licorice-loving minority...very very weird indeed. But positively surprising.

Licorice cheesecake with chocolate and lingonberry jam

180 g chocolate cookies
50 g melted butter
100 g licorice candies (regular)
1 dl heavy cream
500 g cream cheese
3 eggs
1/2 dl sugar
vanilla
1 1/2 dl lingonberry jam
50 g grated dark chocolate

Crush the cookies into a fine powder and add the butter to make the crust. Grease a springform pan (mine was 27 cm), press the crust onto the bottom and up the sides. Bake at 175C for 10 minutes.
Chop the licorice candies into little pieces and combine with the heavy cream in a saucepan. Boil on low until the cream is quite dark (the candies don't have to be dissolved completely).
Pour the mixture into a food processor and process until quite smooth.
Add cream cheese, eggs, vanilla and sugar. Process until smooth and incorporated well.
Warm up the jam (on the stove/in a microwave) and spread on the pre-cooked crust.
Pour the filling over the jam and sprinkle the grated chocolate on top.
Bake for about 40 minutes more.

The overall impression of the cake is quite chocolate-y (I already hear you shouting 'haha chocolate again - and you said you weren't a chocoholic!'). The flavours of chocolate and licorice suit each other very well and a plus side of the melting-in-your-mouth chocolate coating is also that it covers the grey-ish cheesecake (you see? there's a reason for the chocolate!).

The licorice taste isn't overpowering or anything in the final result, but moderatlely present - that explains why my parents didn't spit their mouthfuls out, but rather asked for more.
I hoped the lingonberry jam would be seen more between the layers, but it kind of melted into the crust. Nevertheless it gives it's slightly bitter accent to the cake.

When in search for licorice recipes on the web, I did notice some of them: Licorice pudding from The Well-Seasoned Cook, Licorice ice cream published in the Courier Mail and Martha Stewart's Black Licorice Creme Brulee Tarts.

Maybe you've got your own to share?
Oh, well, I'm off to tea and napkins...

A thought: Coca Cola 'sorbet'

2008-02-21T20:52:00.000+02:00

I don't drink Coca Cola. The sugar almost hurts in my throat if I do so and I don't stand it.

After all, I'm well aware that there's more acid in Coke than in acid rains;)

And when I heard a lecture held by the head of Coca Cola Baltic in autumn (that was supposed to be about business, but in fact was p.u.b.l.i.c.i.t.y.), he said that 'all our products is healthy' and that he himself gave it even to his tiny daughter. Felt sorry for the girl. The worst lecture I've ever attended. Not trying to impress - really.

But, hehe, what's this health anyway, right?

I made Coca Cola 'sorbet'. It's rather just an idea - incredibly easy to execute, but definitely an interesting finish to some desserts or a way to enjoy the perhaps favourite taste - consuming less, but experiencing more. Can this even be called a recipe?
And I'm not playing hypocrite here - I liked it.

Coca Cola 'sorbet'

Process Coca Cola in an ice cream machine if you've got one. Or freeze it, processing it in a food processor/blender or with an immersion blender (have the drink in a suitable bowl for that) every 30-60 minutes until it has reached suitable consistency.

As a sorbet, Coca Cola doesn't seem so sweet and that's probably why I liked it that way. It's better to concentrate on the actual citrusy flavour. Good just by itself, but even better with some berries or poached fruit.

Enjoy!;)

Hazelnut cookies with black pepper and a dash of rosewater

2008-02-19T10:56:00.005+02:00

I am often skeptical about all sorts of cookies. I frown. I try to imagine them in my mouth. I assure myself they're not good for anything and then go and eat some yoghurt instead. But being a food blogger, there are a number of other food bloggers I'd believe even if they told me that salmon flavoured hot chocolate was a real treat. Or, maybe, let's just limit that to 'a dash of pepper exalts the flavor of hazelnuts like no other'.

Clotilde was so very right about that statement when altering a cookie recipe by Laurence Salomon. This was already my second batch! And I seldom make a second batch! Nevertheless these got overbaked a little - never pick up your phone when you know you have to take your cookies out of the oven in no time!

Hazelnut cookies with black pepper and rosewater
(Clotilde's adaption from Laurence Salomon's 'Fondre de plaisir')

100 g whole hazelnuts
200 g wheat flour
70 g oat flakes
120 g sugar
1 tsp baking soda
a good pinch salt
1/4 tsp (freshly ground) black pepper
130 g butter, chilled and finely diced
2 tbsp rose water (can be replaced with plain water)

Toast the hazelnuts in a dry skillet until fragrant. Rub them in a clean dishcloth while they're still warm to remove the husks and chop roughly after they've cooled down
Combine the hazelnuts well with the rest of the dry ingredients, from flour to pepper, in a medium mixing bowl.
Add the diced butter and rub it into the dry ingredients with your fingers or a wire pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
Add the rose water and stir it in until the dough comes together just enough that you can gather it in two balls.
Cover the bowl and set aside somewhere cool for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 150°C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Shape the dough into balls a bit larger than walnuts, flatten them slightly, and place them on the prepared baking sheet, leaving them a little elbowroom to expand.
Bake for 25 minutes, until golden and set. Let stand for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transfering to a rack to cool completely.

The cookies are crumbly, they're moderately sweet, they're unique in their own way. The pepper completes the taste instead of fighting it and does create a nice warm feeling in the throat. Weird to say this, but it kind of warms up the taste too. Rosewater is recognisable but not striking.

In the end you'll get a small bowlful of hazelnut cookies. Not pepper cookies. Not rosewater cookies. Hazelnut cookies - crumbly and wonderful, with little surprises, perfect enjoyed together with cold milk.

And perfect for a cosy girls' night.

Rye bread pudding with berries

2008-02-16T21:43:00.003+02:00

Leftover rye bread usually turns into leivasupp (literally 'rye bread soup') at our household, but this time I felt like making something else. And, I like the kitchen full of something elses. This particular something else here is a perfect opportunity to use up those summer berries stacked in the freezer.

Rye bread pudding with berries

200 g rye bread slices
2 dl apple juice
4 egg yolks
4 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
100 g cream cheese
4 dl (frozen) berries (I used morellos and bilberries)
1 tbsp sugar

Soak the rye bread slices in the apple juice, stirring occasionally, for an hour.
Beat the yolks together with the 4 tbsp sugar and cinnamon with an electric mixer. Add cream cheese and beat until incorporated well.
Make sure there aren't any big pieces in the bread and apple juice mixture, then mix the two bowlfuls together.
Grease a 24 cm pie pan and cover the bottom with berries, sprinkle 1 tbsp of sugar on them, then pour the bread batter over them.
Bake at 200C for 20 minutes, serve warm with vanilla ice cream or vanilla sauce.

The berries on the bottom turn into mild chunky jam, a succulent memory of summer. The rye bread pudding on top is moist in a good cream cheese-y way and the yolks sure have used their charm somewhere in there too.
As I mainly used fine rye bread this time, it's taste (and color!) was a bit lighter, but next time I'd like to go for darker bread with seeds. Oh yes. I've tried making rye bread pudding a few times before and always cursed myself for it afterwards, but this one here worked like a charm.

The dessert is great for eating while still warm, but it's good when cooled down to. You just need to have a cup of milk beside to keep you happy;)

Creamy broccoli soup with pesto oil and pumpkin seeds

2008-02-11T15:56:00.000+02:00

I didn't even have the time to say 'broccoli is a supervegetable' to myself subconsciously while eating this soup on Saturday, because I was too busy enjoying.
Considering how super broccoli really is, that has to mean something.

Creamy broccoli soup with pesto oil and pumpkin seeds
(serves 4)

500 g broccoli
2 medium potatoes
chicken stock
100 g cream cheese
salt, white pepper, sugar

for serving:
basil pesto
olive oil
pumpkin seeds

Cut off broccoli florets, chop broccoli stems and potatoes. Put the potatoes, broccoli stems and 1/2 of the florets into a saucepan, cover barely with chicken stock. Boil, covered with a lid, for 20 minutes.
Puree the potful, add the cream cheese and flavour with salt, white pepper and a dash of sugar.
Pour the soup back into the pot, add the remaining florets and heat for 5 additional minutes.
Mix a bit of oil into the pesto. Serve the soup with pumpkin seeds and pesto oil drizzled on top.

The soup is very creamy indeed. If the florets are cut small, there's enough for almost every mouthful. They remain a bit crisp and are a good crunch together with the pumpkin seeds in the overall creamy-creamy soup. The potatoes give good body and the pesto attacks an otherwise mild soup with a strong taste, creating a great combination.

I suggest using light stock if you don't want overpower the delicate taste of the broccoli. The supervegetable needs its attention!:)

Domino cookie truffles: no messy business for Valentine's

2008-02-08T22:10:00.001+02:00

Last year it was loaded-with-sugar-and-ready-to-kill pink marshmallows, this year I'm probably going to please my friends at school with these Domino cookie truffles on Valentine's Day. I just can't go empty-handed:)

Fazer's Domino cookies are a dream come true for many cookie lovers (not really for me...er...I'm not that much of a chocolate lover...well I can pretend; but their taste does kick ass for sure). And the taste of Domino cookies in a truffle...I guess I'll have more friends on Thursday than I ever imagined:D

Domino truffles
(inspiration from Bakerella's Oreo truffles; makes about 50)

350 g Domino cookies (2 small boxes)
175 g cream cheese
about 200 g dark chocolate

Crush the cookies into a fine powder in a food processor.
Add the cream cheese and process until the mixture is very creamy.
Place the mixture into the fridge to harden.
Form balls (or other shapes) from the mixture and place them into the fridge to harden for some more time.
Melt chocolate over a water bath, dip all truffles into the chocolate and place them onto a plate/cutting board covered with foil. Place into the fridge to harden.

No kidding, these cookies have the distinctive Domino cookie taste that will hit you as a wonderful surprise. They're chocolate-y, very creamy. Very creamy. Sweet enough and silky when melting on your tongue. Very creamy. The chocolate coating will remain slightly softer than on a usual chocolate truffle and stick loyally onto it.

...and there's one more great thing. THE GREATEST, if you ask me. Usually forming truffles is a messy business, chocolate sticking to fingers when warming up and stuff and stuff like that. I hate it (I mean - I don't hate licking my fingers clean all the time, that's great, but, everything else there is to it - I hate).

This truffle mixture ISN'T ANNOYINGLY STICKY.
I'm amazed.

Brown butter flavoured butter

2008-02-07T21:04:00.000+02:00

Elegant, yet sinfully simple.
Er...just let me go and get myself a slice of bread!

Or, let's be serious. I'm a butter person. There's a reason why there's the word 'või' (butter') in the Estonian word 'võileib' (translates as 'sandwich', but literally means 'butter bread').

When I was little, I used to eat rye bread with a thick butter layer, taking tiny bites at a time. Then I got older and discovered the charm of cream cheese, but from time to time I still get a rye-bread-with-butter-now! craving or enjoy soft brown bread with a layer of butter and sprinkles of sea salt.
Last March Ideas in Food came out with the idea of brown butter flavoured butter. There's yet much to discover about the opportunities of using this ingredient, but -well- I do like a little treasure hunt. This one's a treasure for sure.

Brown butter flavoured butter
(Ideas in food)

Good quality butter
Sea salt

Divide the amount of butter into two.
Melt one part of the butter on a skillet and brown it until quite dark brown. Cool it (over an ice bath).
Dice the remaining butter and add, whisking.
Flavour with salt to taste.

The butter has a deep, an earthy taste of browned butter to it. Perfect for a festive table or just over bread for a weeknight dinner. I've only had the chance to eat it with brown bread and rye bread, but I imagine it complementing my broccoli with pistachio butter...

A rustic take on chocolate brownies

2008-01-29T19:32:00.000+02:00

How much do you love chocolate?

(Don't shout! Don't shout! Come on...it was a rhetoric question!)

I've never been a champion at munching chocolate by chunks. Well, I'd like to nibble on some flavoured chocolate or have chocolate omelette for breakfast from time to time, but a cheesecake/apple cake/another good cake will always stand above chocolate cakes in my top 10.

Regular chocolate cakes don't really attract me that much, BUT I'm momentarily sold when I see something different. It has to be different different. It has to confuse my taste buds before I've even read through the recipe. This cake, my darlings, qualified enough to spend time at the back door of my mind for a long time.

It's a brownie recipe that uses barley flour as the only flour. I wouldn't have believed it could work out so well without all the fancy gluten. But it did. It's a cake that bloody could. Barley flour's got my soul now!

Chocolate brownies with barley flour
(Estonian magazine Oma maitse )

200 g butter
150 g dark chocolate
2 dl coarsely chopped walnuts
1 dl dried cranberries or cherries
3 eggs
2 dl sugar
2 dl barley flour

Melt butter in a saucepan and add chocolate chunks. Stir over low heat until incorporated well. Remove from heat.
Beat the eggs with sugar with an electric mixer until stiff.
Add the chocolate mixture, whisking, then add the flour and chopped walnuts and berries (if using cherries, cut them into two). Mix carefully.
Bake at once in a greased baking pan at 180 for 20-30 minutes (I used a 24 cm pan).
Let cool before serving.

The cake is, essentially, a brownie full of deep chocolate taste, but isn't as smooth as usually, but a bit grainy inside. Barley flour gives it a more crumbly texture and an intense, a bit rustic flavour that suits so well with walnuts. Dried cherries or cranberries add sweetness, but aren't very recognizable on the whole.

I found a most suitable way for completing the taste of the cake by adding some neat slightly flavoured cream.

Cinnamon-vanilla cream topping

1 dl heavy cream
100 g cream cheese
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp sugar
vanilla
pinch of salt

Combine cream cheese, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and salt in a bowl, beat with an electric mixer until fluffy.
Add heavy cream and beat some more until you reach your desired consistency.

The cream completes the strong flavour of the cake perfectly and creates a fluffy contrast with the dense chocolate brownie. The flavour itself is kind of a shadow of a flavour, but this is the aim here - to let all the rustic delight stand out.

Right now I'd say I love chocolate pretty much!:)

A delicious way of killing your cold

2008-01-23T14:21:00.000+02:00

Usually people catch a cold. But, no, not me. I have a cold. Be it summer, be it winter, I've almost always got a runny nose. So I especially should try and eat myself healthy.

On Tuesday I made another try. I found myself eating a whole head of garlic! Yes, a whole head!:) But before you judge me and run away, consider this - it was a delicious way of getting better!

Oven baked garlic, my friends, has a wonderful scent.

Oven baked garlic
(from "Küüslauguraamat", serves 4)

4 heads of garlic
olive oil
salt
(dried herbs to your liking)

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Without peeling them, cut the garlic heads into two and place on the baking sheet (the cut side up)
Drizzle the garlic with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Add any herbs you want.
Bake at 200C for 20 minutes

It's best to eat the garlic while it's still warm. This way the cloves are quite mushy and are easy to mash with a knife, but they get firmer as they cool. Just slip the cloves out of their peels and serve over crispy bread. Or go fancy and add them to a salad or serve beside a meat dish. I plan to make a cream cheese spread with them soon, I'm sure of that. So what your fingers get a bit oily - lick them clean! The oil's flavoured with the delicious deep flavour of the garlic. The taste is mainly 'roasted', but there's a 'healthy' moment in the mouth too. It's all mushy. It's good.

I'd already made the recipe when I discovered the event Think spice...garlic hosted by Sunita. What a timing! This is my contribution - as garlicky as it gets:)

My favourite quick carrot soup

2008-01-20T23:59:00.000+02:00

You say 'pureed soup' - I think 'carrot soup with coriander and aniseed'

For me, it's the quintessence of pureed soup, it's a liquid dream, it's the warm comfort of a cold evening, the cooling pleasure of a hot afternoon. It's versatile, it's under my skin.

I've almost always got organic carrots in the fridge that we've grown ourselves. They're full of taste and have got a homely flavour. Making this soup is very easy and, fortunately, someone has usually peeled the carrots before I get my hands on them:) In wintertime, it's great to enjoy it warm, but it's just as wonderful when eaten cold. I especially love that during summertime! We do have 1-2 weeks of hot weather here!;)

Chicken broth can be replaced by vegetable broth, heavy cream or sour cream can be used in place of cream cheese. Whatever you've got handy! Cream cheese can also be flavoured with herbs /onion/garlic/whatnot.

Carrot soup with coriander and aniseed
(serves 4)

400 g carrots
1 onion
1 tbsp butter
8 dl chicken broth
ground coriander seeds
ground aniseed
4 tbsp cream cheese
1 tsp sugar
salt, pepper

Slice the onion and the carrots, sautee in butter in a saucepan until onion is transparent, about 10 minutes.
Add the broth and boil until carrots have turned quite tender, 20 minutes will do fine.
Puree the potful, then return to the saucepan.
Add cream cheese and flavour with coriander, aniseed, salt (if needed), pepper and sugar to taste. Heat, but don't let the soup reach boiling point.

The soup is creamy, even a little portion of cream cheese does wonders! The flavour of carrots is sweetish, but the spices push it to a limit. Coriander and aniseed are not very strong flavourers, they're rather mild, so they suit carrot perfectly. What pleasure!

This time I served the soup with some crispy rye bread cubes, but it's equally good with white bread cubes or grilled chicken. More often than not I like to eat it plainly, without a topping, because the soup itself completes the taste. That sounds weird enough:)

So I guess it's also the perfect recipe for this month's Monthly mingle, themed Comfort foods. Although it's not something from my childhood or anything I'd eat together with my family, I'm sure this soup will guide me through the best and worst moments of the life still ahead of me:D

Cream cheese ice cream

2008-01-16T19:17:00.000+02:00

Cream cheese, just like my favourite - curd cheese - makes everything better.

I adapted the recipe from the lovely Tartelette, my step-parent in the Adopt a blogger event. She's great! I've enjoyed reading her blog for several several months now and in addition to her professional photos I like her attitude towards cooking.
Actually I made this ice cream quite some time ago, but it looks like the event was timed perfectly before me writing about it...

But I did not dare call it cheesecake ice cream. What would make it cheesecake ice cream for me? First - for me cheesecake is primarily baked cheesecake. Could I make an ice cream that tastes like that? Amy suggested adding chunks of it. In case you're wondering, I'm drooling right now:) So - more cream cheese into the ice cream, chunks of baked cheesecake and chunks of cookies too. I'm up for the challenge!

But for now, I recommend this - mouthwatering!

Cream cheese ice cream
(adapted from Tartelette, serves 4-6)

4 dl milk
1 1/2 dl heavy cream
1 3/4 dl sugar
2 egg yolks
90 g cream cheese

Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar
In a saucepan over medium heat, warm up the milk and the cream, then slowly pour a small amount on the egg yolks to temper, then add the remaining part.
Stir the mixture well and pour it back into the saucepan, cook over medium-low heat until the cream thickens. Don't let it reach the boiling point!
Remove from heat and whisk in the cream cheese (It's easier to do so if you first add some of the mixture to the cream cheese so it's not so solid).
Cool the mixture to room temperature. Then cover and refrigerate until cold. Process in an ice cream maker or beat with an electric mixer every 30 min-1 hour (depending on the freezer's temperature - just check your ice cream!) until the consistency is right.

I really was pleased with the result, considering I'm an ice cream amateur. This time I got the consistency right, at least:)

There's cream cheese flavour, alright, but I'm greedy for more! It's sweet, yes, creamy, mild, perfect with a sour pie. It tastes...jolly. It's an amusement park ice cream with a small hint of upper class.
Now, I'm making myself a schedule for WHEN there's time for another batch of ~~cream cheese~~ cheesecake ice cream!

Layered cake with prunes, walnuts and a cream that will cause many 'oohs', 'aahs' and 'I-didn't-know-that-was-comings'.

2008-01-13T15:06:00.000+02:00

A position of honour (at least by me) on our kitchen shelf belongs to the book 'Eesti kokkade kokaraamat' which contains recipes composed by 26 Estonian chefs. These range from simpler recipes to Barbeque entrecote with basil marshmallow, ginger-hoisin sauce and roasted tomato seeds (just a sidemark: can you imagine that?).

This cake is adapted from the creation of Maren Rits, the chef of restaurant 'Postipoiss' and is unique for its use of Merevaik, an Estonian creamy processed cheese.

As my springform pan is 27 cm, I only cut the cake into 2 layers, although the recipe said 4 (how small does a pan have to be?). I also reduced the amount of prunes by half as there didn't seem to be much more room for them, but feel free to add as much as you like. And I didn't use muscovado and demerara sugar...but substituted with what I had.

Layered cake with prunes
(adapted from Maren Rits's recipe in 'Eesti Kokkade Kokaraamat")

130 g butter, room temperature
230 g light muscovado (I substituted with 180 g regular sugar + 50 g soft brown sugar)
3 eggs
100 g flour
1 tsp baking powder

400 g prunes (I used 200 g), chopped
100 g walnuts, chopped
2 tbsp demerara sugar (I left out)

200g sweet condensed milk
400 g creamy processed cheese (i.e. Estonian Merevaik)
100 g light syrup

Slightly beat the eggs with sugar, add butter and beat with an electric mixer until fluffy.
Add flour mixed with baking powder.
Bake in a springform pan at 180C for about 25 minutes.
Let the cake cool down and cut into layers (2-4) depending on the thickness of the cake.
Beat condensed milk, processed cheese and sugar syrup together with an electric mixer until incorporated well.
Spread the mixture between layers and on top of the cake, sprinkling prunes, walnuts and demerara sugar on the cream.
Let the cake stand overnight, serve on the next day for best results.

Now that's one sweet cake! Although it turned out looking quite different from the photo in the book, we really liked it. The cream tastes more of condensed milk than of the cheese, but the processed cheese definitely gives the cream an intense flavour, the source of which is very hard to detect, and makes it a bit sticky. Between the layers the cream is soft, but on top of the cake it has become thick and looks a bit like sugar icing.

The cake, the cream, the prunes and the nuts - there are so different textures together in every bite that it's just pure pleasure! With only 200 g of prunes there was a piece of them in almost every bite and that was enough for us. The overall sweetness (quite overwhelming!) is counterbalanced only by the slightly bitter walnuts. I didn't sprinkle any sugar between the layers - the cake certainly does not need more sweetness, but I believe 2 tbsp of demerara sugar would rather serve as a flavour nuance and crunchy bits in a cake that is generally very soft.

For a drink alongside the cake I'd recommend cold milk. I guess strong coffee could work as well (not that I ever drink it, of course!).

Fennel and pear soup

2008-01-10T11:43:00.000+02:00

I guess you all have some dishes you make just for yourselves. Maybe you mix together a chocolate dessert when home alone, maybe you have your special sandwich that everyone stares with a you're-really-eating-that face while you're at it.

For me the lonely dishes are pureed soups. Yes, really. My mother refers to them as baby food. My father...well he rather has a problem with what I put into the soups. Or...into almost any savoury dish.

The soups may be lonely, but...at least I can have the whole potful for myself. I must thank Janelle of Let's talk of tomatoes for this lovely soup - half the amount made a good portion of warm food for two days:)

Fennel and pear soup
(Talk of Tomatoes, serves 6)

2 bulbs fennel
1 onion
2 (comice) pears
2 tbsp butter
9 dl chicken broth
2 tbsp flour
salt, white pepper, sugar
1 dl light cream

Trim the base and stalks of fennel, thinly slice bulb. Do the same with the onion.
Add fennel, onion, butter and 2 tbsp water into your soup pot. Cover and cook over medium heat for 5-7 minutes.
Add 2 tbsp flour, heat stirring for 1 minute.
Add peeled and chopped pears and broth. Cover and simmer until pears are soft, for 5 minutes.
Puree the potful (You can leave some of the soup as it is to have some pices in it).
Return the soup to the pot, add cream and flavour with salt, white pepper and a bit of sugar.
Simmer 6-8 minutes, serve. (optional garnish: fennel fronds).

The more I ate, the more I liked it. When the soup reached a kind of moderately warm temperature, I decided to start loving it. The obvious wonderful flavour of fennel in creamy consistency, supported by the faint presence of pears. If I hadn't known there were pears in the soup, I probably wouldn't have guessed the 'secret ingredient', but they do deserve the name 'secret ingredient', as they seem to somehow bring out the best in fennels.

Do add a bit of sugar! Although there are pears in the soup the sweetness - on the whole - needs your tiny support. The soup tastes good when it's cooled down too, but I'd still recommend this 'moderately warm' temperature - it'll wake up your taste buds!

Spicy chocolate truffles, if you still miss Christmas

2008-01-08T10:39:00.000+02:00

A part of my holiday gifts were these spicy chocolate truffles. They were a bit different from truffles I'd made before because the filling was softer, silkier. With 2007 and all the Christmas mumbojumbo gone, spicy desserts still make their appearances in our kitchen. All year round, actually, all year round...

So for me any time is right for writing about a truffle with a taste of Christmas.

Spiced chocolate truffles

125 g dark chocolate
125 g milk chocolate
1/2 dl light cream
juice of one orange
75 g sugar
50 g butter

flavouring options for 1/3 of the mixture
1/4 tsp ground aniseed
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon + 1/8 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp Cointreau

coating
about 250 g dark chocolate
50 g milk chocolate, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, cloves, aniseed, nuts...

Break chocolate to pieces
Bring cream, orange juice and sugar to a boil together and add to the chocolate, stirring until incorporated well.
Add butter and mix well.
Divide the mixture into 3 parts and choose a flavouring option for every one of them. Let the new mixtures stand in the fridge for some 30 minutes.
Make balls or other shapes (you might want to distinguish the different flavours) of the mixtures and let them harden in the fridge.
Melt dark chocolate over a waterbath and dip all the truffles into the chocolate, then let them harden on a non-stick surface like foil.
Decorate truffles with different flavour differently. You can roll them in powdered sugar or cocoa powder or decorate them with melted milk chocolate. Before hardening you can add cloves on top of clove truffles, aniseed on top of aniseed truffles or just different nuts.

I made truffles flavoured with aniseed, cloves and cardamom/cinnamon. Loved them all! The flavours came through very well and I just couldn't help but pick the aniseed ones.
I really liked the softer filling and it surprised me every time I bit into a truffle. All the superhigh gigaquality truffles that cost a lot of money are usually a lot harder to bite in, for whatever reason. Everyone needs a change, right?

But it was a bit hard to form the balls so I kept running between the stove and the freezer! I guess it's good to combine running with chocolate once in a while...

The darkest spicy tipsy apples

2008-01-05T21:59:00.000+02:00

Or, at first glance, more like beets with stalks on.

There must be a heap of recipes for pears in wine on the Internet and everywhere and everywhere, especially around Christmas holidays and New Year's Eve. Yet I'm here. Hmmm... but probably just because my apples turned out very cool-looking.

I don't have exact measurements, unfortunately. I used little-ish homegrown apples and threw in...everything. Feel free to use pears instead.

Spicy apples in red wine and blackcurrant juice

Apples (I had 10 small ones)
About 1/2 l of blackcurrant juice
About 7 dl of red wine
1 vanilla bean
cloves, about 10
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick

Take a pot large enough to fit all the apples onto the bottom of it.
Add all ingredients (but not the apples) to the pot and bring to a boil.
Meanwhile peel the apples, but leave their stalks on. Cut the core out from the bottom and also cut a slice off the bottom so that they stand better.
Add the apples to the pot and boil them at low heat for about 30 minutes, until tender. As the liquid probably doesn't cover all the apples, turn them around for some times to get an even colour.
Remove from heat and let the apples cool in the poaching liquid.
Serve with vanilla sauce.

Blackcurrant juice is a strong flavourer. The apples do look like beets, but taste a lot like a lighter version of spiced blackcurrants. Tender, juicy. Screaming for vanilla sauce. They're as dark as it gets.

I guess it was the perfect dessert for surprising my granny. She knows how to prepare stunning dishes out of nothing, but after so many years of eating and cooking apples... who could have thought to throw the apples into some juice?

A tortilla that’s not a real tortilla and definitely not a tortilla that I’d call a tortilla

2008-01-03T11:58:00.000+02:00

I love reading foreign food magazines. That I can read. But usually buying them aqcuires a thick wallet. When we went to Spain last autumn, I grabbed four food magazines when we were still at the airport. Well, I rushed a bit with that...as I acidentally grabbed one in Catalan...

But this year a friend gave me a three month subcription of the Spanish food magazine Comer Bien for birthday. Yay. That was sweet! Believe me, I’ve ticked a lot of recipes, but this far I’ve only got to making just one thing from all my Spanish magazines...

And in case you’re not fond of the word omelette in this context, well, you can call it a heated dessert or something:)

<Chocolate omelette
(adapted from Comer y Beber magazine, October/November 2006, serves 4)

4 eggs
100g sugar
100g dark chocolate
2 tsp cocoa powder

Break chocolate into squares.
Beat the eggs together with the sugar until slightly fluffy.
Sift in cocoa powder and add chocolate chunks.
Prepare an omelette from the mixture on a larger skillet (Do not overbake, or the chocolate inside won't be runny anymore). Cut into four.
Serve alone or with a sauce. I'd recommend vanilla sauce or some fruit sauce.

I used a small skillet for making the dessert for just two people and it was so easy to make. Warm chocolate desserts usually take time, but this one is ready in minutes. The flavour is eggy, yes, but it doesn't really taste like an omelette. Creme brulee tastes eggy too, remember?

It's definitely mainly a chocolate dessert, with the chocolate chunks inside pleasantly warm and slightly runny.

You hungry?

This was 2007...in pictures

2008-01-01T12:34:00.000+02:00

Happy new year!:)

Not another gingerbread cookie

2007-12-19T20:28:00.000+02:00

This year it only took 8.5 hours. We're getting better!

Like I said last year, I have this tradition of baking gingerbreads with my good friend Marie. Usually we're not finished until early morning hours, because we take our time. And we mess with all kinds of stuff and ideas and stuff. Some day I will have the courage to speak about how pathetic amateurs we were at first...but I can't admit it just yet.

Now, trust me on this. YOU HAVE TO MAKE FILLED GINGERBREADS. We fill them with every possible thing we can find, but maybe it's safer to know what you're putting in your treats at first...

For sweet ones I recommend peanut butter and bananas, but also chocolate chunks, dried fruit, nuts, berries. Peanut butter is compulsory, by the way.
But be brave and try savoury ones too - liver pate is the best thing for savoury Christmasy snacks!
That's how we make them...

If you want to give some good candies as presents (or something small), you could try making these gift boxes.

Just bake 6 squares for each (and some spare ones too, we needed 4 spare squares for 5 boxes! amateurs!) and heat some sugar to a caramel on a skillet for 'glue'. Put together 5 of the squares, fill the box with desired treats and then 'glue' on the last one. Then it's time for the icing to make the boxes look real (this one here is quite ordinary, but you get the idea).

Gingerbread balls are still a favourite. These are the ones I nibble the most. Making them is like therapy and eating them is even more so. If you've bought or made dough that's too sticky or is difficult to handle by some other reason, just MAKE BALLS. Really. Save yourself from all that depression.

I don't think gingerbread baking is over for me just yet, we've still got plans on doing it at my granny's in the countryside. Perfect Christmas.

A glance back and a deeply unconventional sauce.

2007-12-18T20:52:00.000+02:00

There's a food blogging veteran gene in me now. At least a small one. Because it was yesterday one year ago that I started writing on this blog with no high expectations but a lot of words in my head waiting to be written.

In between all this mumbojumbo I've left behind about 70 recipes, half of which, I guess, have been my own creations. I've eaten my full in Georgia and in Norway, met other Estonian bloggers and finally, quite accidentally, got into a cookbook with three recipes of mine. Not bad at all!

If I look back...I started off with an unusual rhubarb-kamacake, other favourites have been onion marmalade with balsamico, tosca cookies, lime cream tartelettes, honeyed onion and apple soup with caraway, poppy seed cake with curd cheese, curd cheese mousse with black tea, broccoli with pistachio butter, cashew nut fudge with rosewater, roasted spiced sweet potatoes, healthy onion tart. Ohh. Only droplets in a sea for me.

Thank you so much to everyone who's been visiting me! As I have the privilege, I'll just use it...is there something that you've liked particularly? Haven't liked? Is there something you've tried making? Something you'd like to say? I'm quite all ears:)

But now - on to the recipe. How would you like to make...

...this?

Applesauce aka Several cm thick black thingy in the bottom of the saucepan
(serves as a job for 2 people for several days)

4 dl applejuice
1 dl sugar
cinnamon stick
half of a vanilla pod

Measure all ingredients into a saucepan and heat them to a boil.
Go do some stuff. Let the sauce boil vividly, but check it out once in a while.
If the sauce has been boiling for 10 minutes, decide it still needs some more time and go do some more...stuff.
After some time, go check out the sauce.
Try to make and end to the thick smoke coming from the saucepan with the help of running water.
Give up and throw the saucepan out of the window, into the snow.
Swear.
Swear some more.
Open all windows in the house (don't forget to open the one you can't close later, so you have to turn the radiator on the maximum to avoid freezing to death in your living room).
Wave your hands to get the smoke out of the windows (doesn't help).
Fetch the saucepan from the snow and look into it.
Swear some more.
Try to clean it. Somehow. Or throw it away.

These things just happen, I know. I'm ashamed. Deeply. I am. But that is to show that not every day is a day of chocolate balls filled with apricots and marzipan.

But what's next here? There are piles of gingerbread cookies and candies downstairs and I promise I'll tell you about them as soon as I have the time. Yet I declare there will be a second year as surely as the first one's over now:)

Ohio Shaker lemon pie: A whole lot of lemon and a little bit more

2007-11-21T18:52:00.000+02:00

I'm warning you: this pie contains whole lemon slices.
If you're lemon-phobic, do leave now. If not, then this is what you've been waiting for for your whole life.

Who are the Shakers, by the way? They are a religious group, officially named the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Coming. What's important to me, is that they created this pie, in order to not to waste a bit of lemons.
I first found it mentioned over at Ben bakes a cake.
(The pic's really lousy this time, I know)

Ohio Shaker lemon pie
(adapted from Epicurious)

300-400 g pâte brisée
2 lemons
4 dl sugar
4 big eggs
1/4 tsp salt

Blanch the lemons for 30 seconds in a large saucepan of boiling water, then drain them and rinse under cold water.
Cut off the ends of the lemons, discarding them and then cut the lemons cross-wise into paper-thin slices (I used an electrical slicer, but a lot of patience and a sharp knife can complete the mission, too). Remove the seeds.
Put the lemon slices into a bowl, trying to collect all the juice that has flown out of them. Cover with sugar and let the mixture stand for one whole day, stirring after the 1st hour.
Next day roll out half the dough on a lightly floured surface and fit it into a 22-24 cm pie plate, leaving an overhang.
Remove the lemon slices from the liquid that has formed to the bowl and arrange them in the pie shell.
Add the eggs and salt to the sugar, whisk until combined well and pour the mixture uver the lemon slices.
Roll out the remaining dough so that it would also leave an overhang. Cover the pie with it and fold the overhang under the bottom crust, pressing the edge to seal it.
Cut slits in the crust with a sharp knife, forming steam vents, and bake for 35 minutes in the middle of the oven at 220C.
Reduce temperature to 175C and bake for 20-25 minutes more, or until the crust is golden.
Let the pie cool and serve it at room temperature. I'd definitely say a heap of ice cream is a must!

A charming idea, if you asked me. By the time the cake is ready, it's filled with creamy lemon curd, although the lemon slices still remain...slices. If you're not the type who likes eating a cake with a fork and a knife...you have to put whole slices into your mouth. It's funny how they really are so delicious, pith and all. At the same time the cake still is a little bit more sour than the usual lemon curd, but in a baffling way.

Do add good vanilla ice cream to the servings! The crunchy crust and the sweet-cold ice cream create such contrasts with the intensively tasting filling that it's simply heavenly. Thin lemon slices slipping out from between the crusts are just waiting to be popped into your mouth!

What if I used limes instead of lemons? Now that would be incredible. A must-try, I guess.

A healthy onion tart, three ways

2007-11-17T23:36:00.000+02:00

A bag of onions makes me happier than a bag of candy.

Like...really. As I'd managed to somehow eat all our onions, I was happy as hell to eye a bunch of them when I went to the kitchen, looking for food. I knew exactly what I'd make - and it's not just that the recipe is called 'healthy onion tart' (it wouldn't be healthy if I ate half of it anyway).

I've made it several times and been really happy with it, although I've always been annoyed with the crazy salt amount the recipe calls for. How is it that cookbook authors sometimes really mess up? How is it that they sometimes manage to leave some parts of the recipes out? Or some ingredients? Don't they like...read their work over again and again?
Whatever. But that's lame. Let's just stop whining and stuff our mouths full.

Healthy onion tart on an oat flake and carrot crust
(adapted from '100 pirukat', serves 8)

Crust:
1 dl oat flakes
1 dl flour
1 dl grated carrots
100 g baking margarine (or butter) at room temperature
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Filling:
3-4- onions
1 tbsp butter
2 dl milk
2 eggs
3/4 tsp salt

Mix grated carrot, oat flakes and margarine.
Mix flour with salt and baking powder, add to the mixture.
Take a 24cm round baking pan and press the dough onto the bottom and sides of the pan (it's easier to do so when you've chilled the dough in the fridge for some time). Place the pan into the fridge for a half an hour.
Meanwhile slice the onions and cook them with the butter until they're golden.
Mix eggs with milk, add salt.
Bake the crust in the middle of a preheated 200C oven for 15 minutes.
Spread the onion slices onto the baked crust and pour the milk-egg mixture over them.
Bake at 180C for 20 more minutes.

Feel free to add herbs to the onions (thyme, maybe? rosemary? sage? or oregano?) or cheese on top of the tart when it has been baking for some time already (I allow you to keep the name 'healthy' even when you add cheese;))
I'd definitely go for some green salad on the side for serving, be the tart warm or cold. I love to warm up the cold tart in the microwave, too. The onions are so mild, the crust is sweetly speckled from grated carrot. It's not very crisp - the crust - only the bottom and the sides are, the filling kind of melts into its upper layer.

Long long time ago - in the summer - I used the very same recipe for onion tartelettes.

I think I pre-baked the crust for some 5 minutes and added 1-2 tbsp of both onions and milk-egg mixture to each tartelette, also adding cheese in the middle of baking. They were marvellous snacks to eat with fingers! As this method used up all the crust dough, there was left-over filling and I baked it in bread slices that I placed in a muffin pan. For bread and onion tartelettes I added cheese right away.

Talking about 'marvellous'? These were perfect when eaten warm and definitely on a green salad! I don't think there's a need for a more accurate recipe. Just...look!

This post will also be taking part of the 11th WTSIM event Topless tarts, hosted by Jeanne from Cook sister. Fortunately being underage can't stop one from participating...:D

All the flavour of peanut butter in a flourless cookie

2007-11-14T10:59:00.000+02:00

Crunchy, but soft on the inside. Crumbly and so so full of that creamy peanut butter flavour that you might just as well send around the jar and let everyone stick a spoon into it!

These cookies, adapted from Nicole at Baking Bites, are flourless. No flour - no problem. No problem whatsoever. If you honestly have never baked before or - honestly - have failed doing it every single time, then it's time to get your fingers dirty. You can lick them clean, afterwards, of course:)

I made the cookies for a friend who came for a visit. 'She'll be here in 15, I'll just quickly throw a batch of cookies into the oven' But...I did it faster.
According to what you like, you can add 2 dl of chocolate chips/chopped chocolate or some peanuts. Or you can add both.

Flourless peanut butter cookies
(adapted from Baking bites, makes about 20)

180 g peanut butter
1 3/4 dl sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or other vanillla flavouring)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
(optional: 2 dl chocolate chips, peanuts)

Preheat oven to 175C.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease it with butter.
Beat together all ingredients until smooth (add chocolate chips or peanuts at the end of mixing)
Drop by tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheet and flatten slightly with a moistened finger.
Bake about 10-13 minutes until golden brown at the edges.
Cool on the baking sheet for some minutes, then cool on a rack completely.

I'd recommend a shorter baking time for a chewier cookie, but that's already up to you. If you love peanut butter, you'll never get lonely with these cookies around. As my friend was a bit late...I didn't get either...
Check the clock! Have 15 minutes? You know what to do!

Roasted spiced sweet potatoes

2007-11-11T15:09:00.000+02:00

Now, read these comments from Epicurious.

'This recipe converted me from a lifelong dislike for sweet potatoes'
'I really liked the sweet potatoes and I usually don't like sweet potatoes'
'This recipe converted my sweet-potato hating husband'
'My husband, who doesn't particularly like sweet potatoes, thought it was delicious'
'I don't really like sweet potatoes, so this recipe was a pleasant surprise'
'My husband who really doesn't care for sweet potatoes enjoyed them'

And now, analyze. Is there something similar to them, maybe?
Hmmmm...
You got it! And though I didn't need any converting, I really liked the dish.

Roasted spiced sweet potatoes
(adapted from Epicurious, serves 4-6)

1 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried hot red pepper flakes (less if you don't love the heat)
1 tsp salt
900 g sweet potatoes
3 tbsp vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 220C
Coarsely grind coriander, fennel, oregano and red pepper flakes in a coffee grinder/spice grinder or with a mortar and a pestle. Mix with salt.
Peel the potatoes and cut lengthwise into wedges (depending on their shape, you may also first cut them into two, so that the wedges are not very long - that's what I did)
Take a large roasting pan and add the potato wedges, spices and oil. Mix well.
Roast in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes, then turn the wedges over and roast for another 15-20 or until they're tender and slightly golden.
Serve alongside meat or with a yoghurt/sour cream dip.

The wedges were quite spicy for someone like me - I don't usually eat the spicy stuff. So next time I'd certainly add less pepper flakes.
When I finished preparing the spice mix, air around me was thick with fennel aroma, but in the end, the dish wasn't that much about fennel, the herbs and spices cooperated well - making the end result very good indeed and not specifically pointing out any of the flavourers. Under the spicy not-very-crispy crust, the insides of the wedges were like sweet potato mash - so soft and tender.

I prepared a quick yoghurt sauce for eating with the wedges, but I imagine they'd be wonderful with some meat, too. Still, I'd prefer for snow to fall down before trying that version out...

Green coucous with celery root and pesto

2007-11-04T14:08:00.000+02:00

I have eaten about 400 g of couscous in my life, so I'm obviously no expert. But I feel I've found my perfect way of having it (already? how dull it's gonna be later on!) - with a good splash of pesto and a good deal of onion and garlic. This time I also added celery root (which kind of just got into the way...) for an extra green dish. But probably just because my father would then only try a bite...did this subconsciously, of course. And who could blame the great ideas of subconsciousness?

Green couscous with celery root and pesto
(serves 2-3)

100 g couscous
1 dl water
oil, butter
1 medium onion
1 garlic clove
about 100 g celery root
2 tbsp pesto
salt, sugar
(for serving: feta cheese, sliced cucumber/cucumber salad)

Heat about a tablespoonful of butter on a skillet, add chopped onion, garlic and celery root. Cover with a lid and reduce heat to low. Cook until onion becomes transparent and slightly light brown. Add salt and a bit of sugar to the skillet, mix well and cook for one more minute.
While the vegetables cook, bring the water to a boil with a dash of oil. Also add salt, but consider the saltiness of your pesto and the fact you flavoured the vegetables too.
Remove form heat, stir in couscous. Cover with a lid and let steep for some minutes.
Return to heat for a few minutes, adding the pesto. Use a fork to stir and separate the grains.
Mix in the contents of the skillet.
Serve warm. I love adding feta cheese and cucumber slices.

Lately it has often happened that I've not eaten warm food for several days, so this was a true pleaser, considering the slow arrival of winter outside (the so-called snow can only be referred to as the Estonian word 'plöga').

The dish is fragrant and has a lovely green colour, tastes the way a comfort food should taste. The salty feta and mild-fresh cucumber make a perfect extra. Hey, wait, maybe it was the colour that drove my dad away? We have, after all, been living in a world without pesto, a world of potatoes and pork. I'm the villain, you see, trying to destroy everything.

An maybe I'll even succeed one day, but there is quite much green couscous to eat on the way.

Hazelnut cake with curd cheese and black tea cream : My layered cake dream just came true

2007-11-02T12:14:00.000+02:00

I've kept my promise.
I'VE KEPT MY PROMISE!

Who would have guessed? I made this yum curd cheese mousse with black tea in late August and promised to make a layered hazelnut cake with black tea egg-buttercream filling. And...well...I almost kept it. That's a start, right?:)

Maria Öhrn is a fabulous Swedish cookbook author. I browsed through her 'Tårtor' (or 'Tordid' in Estonian, I don't know if it's been translated to English) in a bookstore, said some kind words about it and ended up getting two of these books for my birthday.

Woosh.
Better 2 than none, right? Anyway, although the book contains only about 30 recipes, they are all so very different and most of them have this nice twist to them. I love twists. I could eat twists every day. For this layered cake I used Maria's recipe for hazelnut cake (originally paired with canned pears and Nutella!)

Hazelnut cake with curd cheese and black tea cream
(cake base recipe from Maria Öhrn's 'Tårtor' (Cakes))

200 g hazelnuts
1 dl potato starch
1 tsp baking powder
1 ml salt
6 egg yolks
6 egg whites
2 dl sugar
2 tbsp milk
1 batch of curd cheese mousse with black tea
for decorating: black tea glazed apples and caramelized hazelnuts

Grind hazelnuts well using a food processor or a coffee grinder
Mix hazelnut flour with potato starch, baking powder and salt.
In a clean and dry bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.
Beat the yolks slightly with sugar using a whisk, add dry ingredients and milk to the mixture
Gradually add the egg white.
Pour the batter into a greased 24 cm springform pan. Bake at 175C for about 45 minutes (it took me only about 35). Let the cake cool completely
Cut the cake into two layers and spread the curd cheese mousse between them and on the top and the sides (Use quite much of it between the layers). Chill at least for a couple of hours before serving.
If you wish, decorate with black tea glazed apples and caramelized hazelnuts, setting the apples in the center of the cake and the nuts along the sides. This can be done either before or after chilling the cake.

Black tea glazed apples
(adapted from Epicurious)

2 smaller apples
1 dl sugar
2 teabags of black tea
powdered sugar

Combine sugar with 2 dl of water in a saucepan and add teabags.
Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves, reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile peel the apples, slice both into 8 wedges and cut out the cores.
Remove teabags from the syrup and add apple wedges. Simmer at low heat for about 15 minutes.
With a slotted spoon, transfer the apples onto a rack (used in the oven) set over a baking tray and drain them for 10 minutes.
Preheat your oven's grill function. Then sprinkle the apple wedges with some powdered sugar and put both the rack and the baking tray into the oven (you need the tray so that the liquid that drips from the apples doesn't stick to the bottom of your oven). Grill for 3-5 minutes. Let cool.

Caramelized hazelnuts

1 1/2 dl hazelnuts
2 tbsp powdered sugar
a pinch of salt

Use unpeeled nuts for a rustic effect or peel them. To do that, just roast them on a dry skillet for some time and then rub the peels of with the help of a kitchen towel.
Combine all three ingredients on a pan over moderate heat.
When sugar starts to melt, reduce heat to low and stir the nuts constantly until they are covered with caramelized sugar
Pour the nuts onto a piece of foil in a single layer and cool.

My expectations were sky-high, because OF COURSE I'd tried bits and pieces of the cake when I cut it into 2 layers and it was, even at that moment, moist and rich in hazelnut flavour. I love that cookbook. In the end, it worked out really well for me, the flavours melted into each other and each bite was moist and had the sensational taste of 'I did it'. The flavours of black tea and hazelnut are both strong and I have a hunch there's something similar to them. I got the permission of making the cake again. Honoured, really, I'm honoured:D

I love how the decorations came out. The apples are really into tea, I'd say, and could make a great dessert by their own. Not peeling the hazelnuts was also a good choice, for this rustic appearance is perfect for an autumn-y cake. And if this cake doesn't say autumn then they're certainly is no autumn outside.

And I'd eat this cake every time somebody brings a store-bought obviously &#"@! vegetable fat cake with &#"@! vegetable fat cream to a family gathering. And I really don't care about good will if the cake is really lousy.
This cake isn't. Hah.

The overwhelming taste of cashew nuts, with just a dash of rosewater

2007-10-31T20:55:00.000+02:00

I haven't yet recovered from the rosewater virus. After rosewater lassi I made rosewater and black tea granita and the illness probably isn't going to stop after this fudge either...

This fudge is actually called Kajoo Barfi, it's an Indian dessert, rather a candy, that's especially popular in southwestern parts of the country.

Cashew nut fudge with rosewater (Kajoo Barfi)
(Julie Sahn's Classic Indian Cooking, Epicurious)

4 3/4 dl cashew nuts
1 3/4 dl sugar
1 tbsp butter
2 tsp rosewater

Place cashew nuts in a bowl and pour boiling water over them, soak for 1 hour.
Drain the nuts and grind them to a fine paste in a food processor or in a blender. Add sugar and turn your food processor/blender on once more to mix it with the paste.
Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat for 2 minutes. Add the nut paste. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook the paste for 20 minutes, frequently stirring it and scraping the sides and bottom of the pan. The fudge has to become thick and sticky.
Meanwhile prepare a surface for the fudge: a greased cookie sheet, a greased baking pan, foil or silicone mat. It has to be about 22 cm x 22 cm (9 inches)
Mix in the butter and pour the fudge onto the prepared surface and spread it evenly. Let cool thoroughly.
When cool, brush with rosewater
Cut into squares or diamond-shaped pieces. The recipe suggests about 4 cm (1 1/2 inch) pieces, but I like smaller ones better.

I decided to brush only half of the fudge with rosewater (on the right in the picture on the right:)), worrying about what my family would say. I accidentally used all of it, though! The fudge took more time to dry, but the amount of rosewater was actually perfectly OK. The fudge itself is chewy and sweet, quite soft too, I'd say. An overwhelming taste of cashew nut must be one of the best tastes in the world - this is one good recipe for achieving it.

And this fudge is something I could eat...forever.

Warm sweet-savoury feta cheese

2007-10-25T23:29:00.000+03:00

An impressive appetizer that's ready in 5 minutes.
OK, so you'll be washing the dishes afterwards, but that like...doesn't count. Let someone else do that.

It's a dish inspired by Cretan cuisine, both salty and sweet and can confuse your taste buds to the point where they stop analyzing and just start enjoying. As the flavour is quite intensive, I wouldn't serve as big portions as the original recipe suggests. I cut them in two - this wasn't all I was eating, OK? This is actually called an appetizer, not a Huge Main Dish. The aniseed's flavour - that's not less intensive. So if you're not too fond of it, add just a teeeny bit or skip and be proud of it.

Grilled feta with honey and aniseed
(Epicurious, serves 4-8)

400 g feta cheese, cut into pieces
4 tsp olive oil
3 tbsp honey
1 1/2 tsp whole aniseed
ground/crushed black pepper

Preheat your oven's grill element
Divide feta between 4-8 small baking dishes and brush or drizzle with oil
Grill about 3 minutes, the cheese should turn golden (Mine didn't, but tasted good anyway)
Meanwhile, combine honey and aniseed in a saucepan and heat until hot or do the same thing in a small bowl with the help of a microwave oven.
Drizzle 1/2 - 1 tsp honey mixture (according to the size of the serving) onto every portion and sprinkle with ground/crushed black pepper.

The feta, salty as ever, doesn't get any milder in my opinion, but rather gets this strangely addictive extra nuance of good gooey sweetness. I like how the texture changes in the grilling process and the cheese is a bit grainy afterwards. If the dish is almost empty, there are still tiny pieces of feta that have been soaking in honey and have the richest taste. Aniseed, though voluntary for all the (silly) picky eaters, gives the cheese a very different flavour and is a must if you want to impress someone. Including yourself.

If served warm, I'd recommend serving the feta with crisp bread. I also imagine it over some green salad with just a drizzle of olive oil for the summer. When the dish has cooled, the cheese becomes firmer, but the good flavour remains. I Enjoyed the leftovers with some juicy oven-baked salmon this evening - a good combination.
Thank God I'm not a picky eater:)

Lime marmalade

2007-10-22T23:55:00.000+03:00

A friend gave me four limes that she had but knew she wouldn't use, making me responsible of preparing something mouthwatering out of them that she'd love too. It's not easy to find recipes JUST for limes, but when I found a recipe for lime marmalade, I was Yes yes yes yes I'm going to make it.

To reduce bitterness, I planned to leave the white rim out of the marmalade. Doing this took more time, but was worth the effort. I didn't reboil the jars in a water bath, but if you want to preserve the marmalade for a longer period (let's say you already want to make Christmas gifts), do it. As it has a heap of sugar in it, I believe well-sealed jars should keep well without doing it too.

Lime marmalade
(adjusted from Food down under)

4 limes
3/4 l water water
about 8 1/2 dl sugar

Wash limes very carefully. Remove the green zest (make sure you only remove the green part) and cut into thin strips.
Remove the white layer and slice pulp into thin slices, discarding seeds.
Place the slices and zest in a bowl, cover with the water and let the mixture soak overnight.
Next day pour the mixture into a large pot and cook, covered, for 20 minutes.
Measure the cooked mixture and add the same amount of sugar. I had 8 1/2 dl of the mixture, so I added 8 1/2 dl sugar to it.
Cook over moderate heat, stirring, until sugar dissolves.
Boil rapidly, stirring frequently, until the mixture reaches the jell point. (I think that took me up to 40 minutes)
Remove from heat and skim off foam.
Pour into clean jars (I had enough for 3 little ones) and seal. (If you want to boil them in a water bath, leave a 2 cm space between the marmalade and the lid)
Process in a water bath: place the jars into a big pot so that water covers them and boil for 10 minutes.

Although I left out the white layer under the zest, the marmalade is still a bit bitter, but that's not a bad thing as it's got the bitter taste of the zest itself. Even on a slice of bread the marmalade creates the effect of a lime bursting in the mouth. In a clean and nice way, of course. It's filled with strips of zest and looks good.

How to use it? Some of my marmalade is for sure waiting for a decent cake to crawl between its layers. Glazing some meat with it could be a good idea, too.

And my friend? She began screaming when she received a jar. And today she spent almost 5 minutes telling me how good the marmalade is and how her parents wanted her to call me and say thank you.
Oh, thank you:)

A rainbow of curd cheese

2007-10-16T20:51:00.000+03:00

Now that is one wicked cake.

Not in a bad way, but in the best of ways.

I discovered the idea of a rainbow-coloured cheesecake at Slashfood, where there's a recipe for Tie-dyed red velvet cheesecake, a huge hit at Walt Disney's Pop Century Resort in Florida. That's some serious Disney dream food porn, I tell you.

So I took the idea and altered one of my favourite curd cheese cakes for my nephew's second birthday. It's really really fun for children to take part in making this cake - my three-year-old niece absolutely loved splashing mixtures of different colour onto the crust and basically never stopped saying 'that cake is so lovely', adding 'we never make this cake at home' from time to time...

Rainbow-coloured curd cheese cake

(moderated from Pirukaraamat, serves 8)

Crust:
3 1/2 dl flour
4 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggyolks
2 tbsp lemon juice
2-3 tbsp water
1 tbsp sugar
pinch of salt

Filling:
3 dl curd cheese
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp light cream
3 eggyolks
2 dl sugar
2 1/2 dl sour cream
1 tbsp melted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla sugar
food colouring (5 different colours is good. So is less. So is more. You can also use one color in different amounts for different tones. Unsweetened cocoa powder serves as brown food colouring.)
(Chocolate streussels)

Mix flour with baking powder.
Add butter, yolks, sugar, salt and the mixture of lemon juice and water.
Press the dough onto the bottom and edges of a greased 24 cm pie mold / springform pan.
Mix together curd cheese, vanilla sugar, flour and light cream.
Beat yolks with sugar using an electric mixer, add butter and then add the mixture of them to curd cheese.
Divide the mixture between different bowls and add a different food colouring to each bowl.
Now start adding colourful splashes or stripes or drops or patches of whatever shape and size you like onto the crust. Try not to mix up the colours - you don't want a weird brownish cake, really. You can make interesting shapes as the last layer, write something or even draw a picture if you happen to be a professional artist. If you want, sprinkle with some chocolate streussels.
Bake at 175C for about 45 minutes
Let the cake cool completely before serving and cut it with a sharp knife. If the sides of the slices don't retain clear colours, try holding the knife in hot water before cutting a slice.

The cake is very creamy from the yolks and sour cream. It's sweet, it's good. Unfortunately I didn't have very interesting colours, but the splashing game is worth playing even when there are only two colours - kids love making it and kids for sure point their fingers towards the 'colourful cake' when they're asked if they're still hungry.

There are - of course - certain aspects...

When I made the cake together with my niece, it definitely took more time and the colour spots kind of flattened - resulting in a not that wonderful cross section of a slice. I tried making a small cake with batter of about the same thickness a week before and got this - looks better?

And another thing - could this amount of food colouring be a problem? I'm not a chemistry expert, but this stuff is not natural... This scared me a little - red spots on the kids' faces caused by me - not good! Luckily no red spots have been discovered so far and no moms have yelled at me.
But that's the only problem I can think of.

Rosewater and black tea granita

2007-10-13T20:50:00.000+03:00

There's somebody out there who thinks like me.

Oooohyes.

If the love for tea meets the love for rosewater then finding a recipe for Rosewater tea granita means that the actual dish may as well be in the fridge already.

The original recipe suggests to serve the granita with baklava. I believe it would make a good refreshing accompaniment to this nut and phyllo cake that's sticky from amounts of syrup, but on a weekday evening a refreshing dessert on its own is good enough already.

My recipe is approximated for the metric system, the instructions are made a bit easier. If you have a good bowl that you can use in the freezer as well, use it in the beginning already.

Rosewater and black tea granita
(Epicurious)

1 l pure water
1 1/2 dl sugar
1 tsp rosewater
5 teabags of black tea
1 1/2 dl light cream/ half and half

Mix water, rosewater and sugar in a bowl/pitcher. Add teabags.
Cover with foil and leave the bowl on a sunny windowsill for 3 hours.
Discard teabags and add cream.
Pour the mixture into a dish that you can use in the freezer. When the mixture has frozen by a couple of cm from the edge, break the ice cristals with a fork and mix the whole thing well. Do this after every 30-60 minutes until all of it has turned into nice cristals.
Scrape granita from the bowl with a fork and serve immediately - that's the easy version. You can also break the ice cristals finer in a food processor and then serve or put the dessert back into the freezer for serving later.

The important thing in the making process is that you mix the granita thoroughly. Otherwise you'll have a watery upper layer. It is later great to discover from the bottom of the bowl that - oh - this stuff does have a taste, but discovering that is hardly the idea:) So - do mix it well. If you don't do so, you'll have to let the mixture melt and then start the freezing process again.

Tastes good! Imagine some outdoor event at winter where they serve people tea for free - it's always black tea and has a heap of sugar in it. The granita is sweet as well, but instead of being in the mittens the coldness is in your mouth and what's warm is not the tea, but rather the heart. Rosewater is not a taste in the foreground, so it's okay to add it even if you're not a fan - the taste of 'free tea' gets a nice 'expensive' nuance from it.
I once also tried mixing the granita with some flavoured yoghurt and got a good cool dessert.

For me the punch line right now is that an ice cream truck just drove past my house. Don't you just hate the tune?

Broccoli pleasure for one

2007-09-29T00:09:00.000+03:00

I spotted the recipe for Broccoli with hazelnut butter on Epicurious. Although it was love at first sight, the reviews made me want it even more - someone actually wrote it was the only way to get his/her children eat their veggies.

But...
...someone forgot to buy hazelnuts. Not a big deal! I had just the amount of salted pistachios and figured these could suite the dish even better.

Although I made this dish for one, I'm going to include the original quantities for 6 people. It's so fast that cooking this for one is not a problem, but rather a blessing. Instead of steaming I just blanched the broccoli - steaming is a technique I have yet to study... I can't help but add salt to the boiling water - come on, what's a veggie without taste?

Broccoli with pistachio butter
(adapted from Epicurious; serves 6 (1))

900 g (150 g) broccoli
80 g (15 g) butter at room temperature
115 g (20 g) salted pistachios (weighed after shelling)
black pepper

Cut broccoli stems into 1/2 cm slices and florets into 2 1/2 cm pieces
Boil the stems for 3 minutes, then add the florets and boil for 5 more minutes
Finely grind half of the pistachios and mix with butter, season with pepper (the pistachios have enough salt to them already)
Drain the broccoli and mix well with the butter mixture.
Chop pistachios that are left over and add.
Serve warm

This is one of the easiest and most delicious broccoli dishes I have had and made. I will definitely make this again - probably tomorrow already:) The broccoli is just tender enough and pistachios add a crunchy effect. Plus the dish has the nicest green colour! I'm sure it would make a great side dish for chicken as well.
Do make your kids eat this.

Ever smelt a garden full of roses? Ever tasted one?

2007-09-24T22:46:00.000+03:00

I finally-finally got my hands on rosewater. Rosewater is a product that is basically made using rose petals and water. It was first produced in Persia and has been used in South Asian, West Asian and Middle Eastern cuisines for flavouring desserts. Its wonderfully floral scent is overcome only by the fact that eating or drinking something that's made with rosewater is like tasting a rose garden.

Imagine a warm summer day in a garden full of roses.
Now imagine you are tasting this day.
This is rosewater.

For my first attempt to use rosewater I chose a simple rosewater lassi - a sweet Indian yoghurt drink.

Rosewater lassi
(from the Estonian magazine Oma Maitse, serves 2-3)

5 dl unflavoured yoghurt
1 dl cold water
3 tbsp sugar
2 tsp rosewater
1/2 tsp crushed/ground cardamum
(ice and rose petals for serving)

Mix yoghurt, water, sugar, rosewater and cardamum well
If you wish, add ice cubes or crushed ice and rose petals for serving

I'd just call the recipe flowery breakfast, because that's what it is for me. It has quite a strong cardamum taste - if you like cardamum, you'll probably love it. I like using ground cardamum because then there's a splash of taste in every sip and no bits to get between your teeth. As for the ice - it's cold here in the North! No ice in my breakfast! I'll just have to wait for the summer for that...

Rosewater is not a very cheap treat, although only little portions are used at a time. If you grow your own roses, see these recipes for making your own rosewater.

Coco-nutty prune candy

2007-09-18T22:04:00.000+03:00

A few weeks ago I had cravings for ice cream with hot sauce. That's called a tooth-ache wish. I happened to have a bunch of prunes left over from my chocolate-y meat sauce and decided to boil them in some coconut milk. The coconut milk thickened and adopted the fruity sweetness of the prunes, which turned soft and velvety, being rich in creamy coconut milk.

I didn't eat it all, no matter how serious my cravings were.
I discovered the left-overs later when they had already cooled down. Instead of a sauce there were soft coconut-flavoured prunes. Ding! An idea! I would have walked..well...a mile to have got hold on to some white chocolate to dip these prunes into. It took me a week to get the chocolate, though...

Coco-nutty prune candy
(about 30)

2 dl prunes
2 dl coconut milk
about 120 g white chocolate
about 2 dl coconut flakes

Boil prunes with coconut milk for 10-15 minutes (don't cover).
Remove from heat and let the prunes cool. If there is too much coconut milk left, you can just pick the prunes out.
Melt chocolate over a waterbath. Prepare a small bowl with coconut flakes to roll the candy in and parchment paper/foil/silicone sheet to place the candy on for cooling.
Dip each prune into white chocolate, let excessive chocolate drip off, roll the candy in coconut flakes and place onto parchment paper/foil/silicone sheet to cool. (I used 2 teaspoons - one for dipping and one for covering so I didn't get a chocolate-coconut flake mess)

The candies can be stored in the fridge and taken out only some time before serving - that way it's better to eat them in several bites. If they're kept at room temperature, it's better to eat them in just one bite - or pieces might fall off them and...that's just not that comfortable.

How long should you boil the prunes? I have boiled them at quite a high temperature. The first time I made the candies, I used a small pot - the prunes didn't fit in one layer. I boiled them for 15 minutes and the coconut milk was still quite light-coloured. The second time I used a saucepan - the prunes didn't fill one layer. After 10 minutes I removed the saucepan from heat, because the coconut milk was quite brown already. So I recommend using a pot that just holds one layer of prunes and keeping an eye on it - don't let the coconut milk turn that brown, the taste will be better.

The candies have a mild coconut taste and are very velvety inside. White chocolate adds additional sweetness and makes the overall impression quite sweet. If you're an extreme sweettooth, try adding dark syrup when boiling the prunes. Using toasted coconut flakes would make the nutty accent yummily overwhelming.
Do try this at home!

A sweet mosaic of cookies

2007-09-13T21:17:00.000+03:00

I just couldn't resist buying the Australian cookbook Sweet Food when I first browsed through it in a bookstore (actually it was the second time, but first sounds so much more poetical). For me a big deal of the recipes inside are exotic, using ingredients that are unusual in an Estonian kitchen - macadamia nuts for example, which are quite often in the ingredient lists. Ask an average Estonian what a macadamia nut is - you'll probalby hear the answer 'Misasi?' or - in English - 'A what?'

One of the first recipes that caught my eye was of cracked cookies (the name may differ in the English version, as I'm re-translating the recipe from Estonian). Their appearance is just so...wow that I was sure I'd be making them before I'd even read through the recipe. The cool look is achieved by rolling balls of cookie dough in powdered sugar before baking - that will leave a two-coloured cracked effect.

I substituted the allspice in the recipe with a double amount of cinnamon and pecan nuts with walnuts. I do have a budget, you know.

Cracked chocolate cookies
(adapted from Sweet Food)

125 g soft butter
370 g soft brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
60 g melted chocolate
80 ml milk
340 g flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
salt
85 g chopped walnuts
powdered sugar

Beat together butter, sugar and vanilla until the mixture is light and creamy.
Add eggs one by one
Add chocolate and milk (I was afraid that chocoalte would turn lumpy when added to the cool mixture and mixed it with warm milk first).
Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, cinnamon and a pinch of salt onto the butter mixture and mix well.
Add chopped walnuts.
Cover the dough and place it in the fridge for at least 3 hours (you can also prepare the dough the evening before)
Preheat the oven to 180C and slightly grease 2 griddles.
Use a teaspoon for measuring and make balls out of the dough (the recipe said this technique would make about 60 cookies - I got over 80 though I scooped quite much dough every time)
Roll each ball in a small bowl with powdered sugar so that it's covered well and place the balls onto the griddles, leaving enough space between them
According to the recipe you should bake the cookies for 20-25 min. I baked my best batch only for 18 minutes - the edges shouldn't look very dark when you take the cookies out of the oven. Even if they don't get burnt - too much time mean rock cookies.
After removing from the oven, leave for about 3-4 minutes, then place on a rack and let cool.

I subconsciously tried to find the cookies I had baked for 18 minutes afterwards - they were softer inside and seemed to have more taste. The cookies were moderately sweet and had a charming scent of cinnamon. This is rather a cacao-holic cookie than a chocoholic one, if I'm allowed to say such a thing! And I do believe one can't refuse eating something that looks like a sweet mosaic. Even if he or she has accidentally used a too long baking time and it cracks under the tooth like a real one:)

I wouldn't say these were the best cookies ever, but they were good and looked like A-class celebrities. That's great enough for me!

TGRWT#5: Meat with chocolate - are you kidding?

2007-09-03T22:29:00.000+03:00

To try and eat meat with chocolate – that’s no easy challenge. Like – no way. But the more I thought about it, the more tempted I felt. Not only to test myself but also to shock others to see what they’d say and if they’d have anything to say at all. Well, they had. Amrita’s challenge for this months TGRWT#5 – combining meat and chocolate – has been the most intriguing one this far.

A traditional mole would have been a safer choice, I guess, because it’s widely known that it has chocolate in it and people actually eat it and like it and they actually do. No mole this time, amigos. I used an Italian recipe (Cinghiale in agrodolce) that actually called for wild boar (not a good idea to spend a pile of money if you’re mixing meat with chocolate for the first time – trust me), but used pork, I also lessened the amount of red wine vinegar. Otherwise I followed the recipe, word for word. Quite a scary afternoon.

Pork in chocolate and prune sauce
(adapted from Hans Joachim Döbbelin’s ’Italy’)

100 g prunes
75 g big raisins
600 g pork chops
75 g bacon
3 tbsp olive oil
salt
50 g bitter chocolate
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 dl red wine vinegar
3 laurel leaves
cinnamon

Soak prunes and raisins in lukewarm water
Cut the meat into slices
Chop bacon and heat it with olive oil until transparent
Add pork chops and fry them on both sides, then add salt and fry for additional 10 minutes on lower heat.
Drain prunes and raisins and grate chocolate (for me it was easier to just chop it into little pieces)
Heat sugar, laurel leaves and red wine vinegar on a pan until sugar dissolves, then add the mixture to the meat
Also add raisins, prunes, chocolate and some cinnamon, then heat almost until boiling point (don’t let it boil!)
Mix meat and sauce well and heat everything for another 15 minutes, not letting it boil.
Serve with pasta or be a traitor like me and serve with rice instead.

I don’t imagine eating something like this with pasta. Really really really. Pasta with sweet and sour chocolate sauce? No. Rice was definitely much better.

Cooking this dish filled the kitchen with overwhelming vinegar smell – that was a bit alarming, especially for my mother. ’If I had known you were going to use it for meat, I wouldn’t have bought you this bottle of vinegar,’ she said when she came home. And also – ’If you asked me to buy meat I thought you’d be making something really good, but you made something sour.’ Okay, not a very bad start.

The dish is best described as sweet and sour chocolate meat. The taste of chocolate, most of all, is strange. It may be strangely good, but it’s still strange, strangely chocolate-y. What I actually like the most, are the prunes – delicate, soft, somehow maintaining a good balance between tastes. I’d rather eat the meat and pick out the prunes (into my mouth, of course), adding some yoghurt to my rice instead of chocolate sauce! The meat has an interesting accent to it, but isn’t flavoured by the sauce in a taste-killing way.

When my parents came home, I kept repeating, ’Really-really, you don’t have to eat this, you can just have rice with smoked chicken, really. Really.’ But strangely this time they wouldn’t listen, although I refused to reveal the components of the dish and hid myself in my room, doing all kinds of, you know, important stuff. After they’d called me for several times to go and explain the mystery, I heard the words ’this meat was good’.

I’m in awe. I’m confused. Something’s wrong in the world.
My parents liked meat in chocolate sauce.

Curd cheese mousse with black tea

2007-08-29T19:56:00.000+03:00

Desserts flavoured with tea sound so exotic and exciting for me. Everything flavoured with tea, actually. I have made different experiments and in addition to my yoghurt sauce and green tea cake with cottage cheese I had another really successful one a few days ago.

Curd cheese mousse with black tea
(4 servings)

400 g curd cheese
2 eggyolks
2 eggwhites
2 dl milk
1 dl sugar
4 teabags
vanilla

1. Heat milk together with the teabags (use a teflon coated saucepan). When it has started to boil, remove it from the heat, cover and let stand for 5 minutes.
2. Discard the teabags, but try to press all the liquid you possibly can out of them.
3. Beat eggyolks in a bowl and add the mixture to them.
4. Pour the milk-eggyolk mixture back into the saucepan and heat (over medium heat) until it thickens, stirring to avoid clumps. Let the mixture cool down in the fridge while you prepare other ingredients.
5. Mix curd cheese with sugar and vanilla.
6. In a clean and dry bowl beat the eggwhites with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.
7. Mix the tea mixture with curd cheese, then gently add the eggwhite foam (add half of it at first).

For serving I’d recommend fruit or berries and lots of them! The more fruit the better goes for all dishes, right? I like to mix the mousse with apple cubes as I have plenty of apples lying around in the kitchen. At last. One small apple diced and mixed with each serving – now that’s delicious. I believe I’d like it with ice cream too.

The mousse has quite a strong taste of black tea, it’s moderately sweet and has a really light foamy texture. At the same time it’s a real pleasure for all you curd cheese lovers out there (although it’s my modest opinion that Estonian curd cheese is the best in the whole world – it’s the one thing besides our rye bread that I just couldn’t live without if I moved abroad).

Have you got any favourite fabulous recipes using tea?
My next idea is to make a layered hazelnut cake with black tea egg-buttercream filling. Just hope I have any time to cook in September...

Back to when I was five years old ... a childhood dessert reconstructed

2007-08-08T11:10:00.000+03:00

Waiting at the small kitchen table.
'Is it ready yet?'
-'Could you just wait a little more?'
And then, after some time, mom gives me a soup plate filled with white milk kissel with blasting vanilla flavour. The excitement! The sweet taste of a favourite dessert!

There was a time when milk kissel would have been my first (and last) choice for a dessert and this is the scene that come's to my mind whenever I'm remembered about it. But, unfortunately, my memories about the dessert end with that time. Milk kissel hasn't come around for - let me see - ages. It might be just that we've grown out of it, so I figured the dessert needed some reconstruction.

Here - renovated, all new, a modern milk kissel - here you go!

Coconut milk kissel
(adapted from '100 Magustoitu' by Lia Virkus and Pille Enden)
serves 4

1/2 l milk
1/2 l coconut milk
1 dl sugar
3/4 dl potato/corn starch
1 tsp vanilla sugar

1. Bring coconut milk and milk to a boil in a saucepan, add sugar
2. Dissolve starch in a bit of water and add to milk, stirring vigorously.
3. Let the kissel reach its boiling point, but don't let it boil, remove it from the heat
4. Flavour with vanilla
5. Let the kissel cool down, stirring occasionally to prevent the forming of 'kissel skin'
6. Serve with jam or with cinnamon sprinkled over the dessert.

To create the dish I just substituted half of the milk in the original recipe with coconut milk - the taste came through in perfect proportion with everything else. The dessert is silky, sweet and has a lovely scent of vanilla. I prefer eating it when it's still a bit warm, but it's also great when it has cooled down completely - especially on a hot day like this! And on a hot day like this it's essential to spend more time outside and enjoy quick meals - this dessert is one great example.

You know what? One day my kids are going to ask me for this milk kissel!:D

Brunost : Norwegian sweet brown cheese

2007-08-05T03:04:00.000+03:00

Yes, I do mean sweet when I say so!

Before visiting Norway in July I had never-ever heard of something like that and when I first encountered it at a hotel breakfast, my reaction was 'oh, cool, smoked cheese!'. Well...it wasn't. And I saw the guy beside me place a slice of it onto a chocolate spread sandwich!

The next encounter took me further. At a boat trip we bought waffles and guess what came along - the same brown cheese. I asked our guide about it and she said that they, Norwegians, would rather refer to it as 'caramel'. Aha! Still, days later we almost witnessed the making of the cheese at a museum and I learned more about the background of it - this time believing every word.

Brunost (Norwegian for 'brown cheese') is made by boiling whey, milk and cream together. The process is quite long and and finally almost all of the water will evaporate and lactose (milk sugar) will caramelise, giving the cheese its sweet taste. The mixture will then be cooled.

But buying brown cheese at a Norwegian supermarket for the first time can be difficult (or rather - it was) because there's so much to choose from. Products differ according to their (fat) contents and texture. The most popular is Gudbrandsdalost - some goat's milk is added to its contents. Geitost is wholly or partly made from goat's milk. Fløtemysost only uses cow's milk. There is also a spreadable version of the cheese that is achieved by using a shorter boiling time - this is Prim.

The most ordinary way to eat Brunost is with a slice of bread. Actually, Brunost and cheese slicer go together like rama lama lama ke ding a de dinga a dong, because it's the easiest way for handling the cheese - it's quite sticky, you know. True, it can be sliced with a knife when it's been taken from the fridge but after some time at room temperature it much rather resembles plasticine. Wonderfully and strongly tasting melting-in-mouth plasticine, sweet but at the same time a bit savoury, tasting both of caramel and of cheese, reminding a bit of certain toffee candies.

Deeply addictive!
If there's anyone who's got an actual recipe - I'd be delighted if you'd share!

TGRWT#4: Cauliflower gratin that leaves the breath fresh. No kidding!

2007-07-26T16:30:00.000+03:00

Another round of the event They Go Really Well Together has been announced and this time the host is Dennis of kookjegek.nl and the theme - mint an mustard. The event is about combining ingredients that have similar volatile aroma compounds and testing if they really do go together in real life.

While last round's strawberry and coriander combination seemed easy-peasy, my mind got quite stuck with this one. *** mint with *** mustard? Oh come on! But I managed to create a dish that I really liked and didn't sound like it originated from the Fear Factor TV show.
This dish can of course be prepared without peppermint - just drop cauliflower florets into boiling water without any additions. Or use broccoli instead of cauliflower. I must admit it was my attention at first, but due to the fact that there was no broccoli at the store where I went...well, cauliflower sounded nice and turned out to be successful in the dish.

I give you...

Peppermint flavoured cauliflower gratin with cheese and mustard

At least about 400 g cauliflower
100 g grated cheese
1/2 dl heavy cream
1 tbsp mild mustard
1 eggyolk
about 1 dl loosely packed dried peppermint leaves (or even better - use fresh ones, this is what I had at home)
salt
white pepper

1. Fill a saucepan with over one litre of water and add dried peppermint leaves. Boil from some minutes.
2. Cut cauliflower into florets and add to water, also add some salt. Boil for 5 minutes.
3. Meanwhile mix the eggyolk with mustard, then add heavy cream and grated cheese. Season the sauce with salt and white pepper.
4. Drain the cauliflower florets and discard peppermint leaves (or if you want to have a stronger peppermint flavour - you can chop some of them and mix into the sauce). Mix the florets with the sauce.
5. Grease a baking dish and fill it with the cauliflower and gratin sauce mixture. Bake at 200C for about 20 minutes.

I didn't actually recognise peppermint when I tasted a floret after boiling them and was a bit disappointed. But when it was time to try the finished dish, the taste was there! First the comfortable (and quite rich!) taste of cauliflower gratin with cheese, then came the taste of mustard trying to overwhelm the one of cheese and finally the taste of peppermint - somehow melting into the mustard taste and leaving a quite fresh feeling into my mouth.

I do feel I used the right amount of peppermint - it calmly reminded itself in the dish, without shouting I'm here! Mustards are of course different, I used Finnish mild mustard and the amount seemed okay. I even got a good comment from my mother - something like 'quite good' which means more than the usual Estonian 'normal' and should - I guess - be taken as a compliment.

Brie cheese goes international

2007-07-12T14:16:00.000+03:00

'Brie cheese visiting Estonia' is what I wanted to call this post. But I was so wrong. What you see here, is a true mixture of different cuisines - put together into one weird, but wonderful tasting dessert. Into one weird, but wonderful tasting quick dessert.

It's Brie cheese from France, Blackcurrant jam from my granny's garden here in Estonia and coconut flakes from...well, God only knows where.

Brie cheese fried with blackcurrant and coconut

A small Brie cheese (125 g)
Blackcurrant jam
Coconut flakes (not toasted)

1. Place the coconut flakes onto a saucer or into a small bowl
2. Slice the cheese into thin rounds
3. Spread some jam onto both sides of the rounds and then press them onto coconut flakes, so that they're well covered with them.
4. Heat some oil in a skillet and fry the cheese rounds until the coconut flakes have turned golden brown.

This dessert fits just great with some cold ice cream. The crispy edges of the cheese, the soft jam with its deep taste and the exoticness from coconut...I didn't know what to expect when I tried this idea, but was positively surprised.
Brie cheese has visited Estonia successfully:)

The reason why my post was so short this time is that I'm actually leaving for Norway in less than an hour. Don't forget to eat while I'm away for the next two weeks!

Sweet double bread pudding

2007-07-10T19:10:00.000+03:00

Made of leftovers.
And delicious.

Somehow, unexpectedly (I egoistically like to think it was because of my birthday), too much bread found its way to our house. What's worse - it found its way to our fridge. Now, bread in the fridge is not a nice sight for me, so I figured that the best way to get rid of it is just to go ahead and eat all of it.

What would usually happen? White bread would turn into sweet bread pudding saiavorm (read more here) and rye bread would turn into sweet rye bread 'soup' - leivasupp (my classical). But today I rebelled a bit and made an experimental bread pudding - which is going to be a keeper! Curd cheese can be replaced with sour cream, cream cheese or yoghurt (although I would never ever replace it!), light cream or even milk can be used instead of double cream. But...you do want double cream, you do.

Sweet rye bread and white bread pudding

150-200 g white bread
150-200 g rye bread
1 dl sweet apple puree/jam
2 eggs
2 dl double cream
1 dl curd cheese
3 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp - 1/2 tsp cinnamon
vanilla

1. Dice white bread and rye bread.
2. Grease a loaf pan and lay white bread onto the bottom of it.
3. Cover the bread with apple puree and top with rye bread pieces.
4. Beat eggs with curd cheese and double cream until smooth, add sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Then pour the mixture onto rye bread (Try to make sure that all of it gets soaked).
5. If you wish then sprinkle some sugar onto the pudding, then bake it at 180C for about 30 minutes.
6. Serve warm with cold milk (poured over it or on the side), with ice cream or with some kissel poured over it.

The bottom part is so soft and sweet enough to fill my appetite, I love the texture curd cheese gives to bread puddings (or anything, actually!). The top part is nicely brown and crunchy under one's tooth. Although it might seem that rye bread tends to burn dangerously during those 30 minutes in the oven, it's not like that - it just takes time for it to become crunchy and all. I wish I'd added a bit more cinnamon, 1/4 tsp is a bit too little for us who we are used to eating heaps of cinnamon on saiavorm.

What about next time? I said the recipe was a keeper! I'd really really like to add berries or fruit - I can feel the dessert calling for fresh blackcurrants picked from the garden or sour morellos. Or on another day - for bananas and blueberries.

Ahh, how I love our cuisine.

TGRWT#3 round-up: Strawberries and coriander

2007-07-02T03:56:00.000+03:00

Tu-dum!

It's finally time for the round-up of the third round of the flavour pairing event They Go Really Well Together (Originally created by Martin from Khymos.org) that was all about pairing strawberry and coriander.

Or should I say already?
It seems like I've been writing the round up for the whole night now. I'm kind of busy over here as I'm leaving for a training camp tomorrow morning (or should I say today?) and I haven't even finished packing! Luckily my mood couldn't be better than it is right now. Today was the most important day for all Estonians - the day of our song festival. Imagine over 26000 young people singing together as one, singing to their nation! It did get me crying there on the stage, seeing all the people standing up, holding hands.

But let's not get all that weepy now, we're here for some really good food and experimental dishes:)

This round brought together 14 participants. More than one half of them were skeptical at first, but chemistry has sure done it's job here! Although several had their unlucky attempts (including me!), they tried again and succeeded in creating a dish which made strawberry and coriander go really well together. Well, almost, it's a matter of taste anyway. But there was noone to claim that the combination had been inedible.

I'm really proud of all the participants, you've done a whole lot of work and what you've created is really interesting! It's been a pleasure reading all this, it's been a pleasure even in the middle of the night.
Let's dig in!

Johanna from Melbourne at Green Gourmet Giraffe got inspiration from her shampoo and conditioner bottles to prepare Berry Guacamole.

Although eating coriander was quite a challenge for her, she decided to try it. Again. Johanna substituted the usual tomato bits in her guacamole with strawberries and added fresh coriander. She suggests eating it with a simple toast with sauerkraut. Is there someone out there who wouldn't want to try this out (except for my parents, of course) ?

Johannas verdict:The guacamole was great – the sweet succulence of the strawberries contrast nicely with the creaminess of the avocado and the coriander adds an interesting flavour – but still seems a little soapy!

***

Martin of Khymos.org made foamy strawberries with coriander.

He added balsamico vinegar because it emphasizes the strawberry aroma and adds acid which he finds important. He warmed the foam up, well, because he could... I wish I had a whipper like he has!
Martin suggests that the reason why many people don't like the taste of coriander might just be because they've used too much of it in a dish. He advises to try it first in small amounts because the taste will come through well.

Martin's verdict:I was very satisfied and my wife liked it too! There’s a good balance between the strawberry and coriander aroma. Sugar rounds of the taste and the balsamic vinegar balances the sugar with it’s tangyness.

***

Helene from Germany at Neues aus der Küche (New from the kitchen) made a Strawberry and cilantro terrine.

After being disappointed at the combination of strawberry, cilantro and asparagus where cilantro appeared to be really soapy, he decided to just go for adding yoghurt and made a terrine using agar agar. Simple and wonderful, isn't it?

Helene's verdict: It went well, also the yoghurt flattened the dish. My family and I would vote for a simply strawberry salad with cilantro and perhaps a tiny bit of balsamico.

***

Amrite from Singapore at Le Petite Boulanger made a strawberry salsa.

Although she never would have thought the combination to work well, she gave it a try and liked it. A mixture of strawberries, corinader leaves, tomatoes, jalopeno peppers and onions was left to mingle overnight and was served on a bruschetta. Yum.

Amrite's verdict: The result was a fantastic salsa, which was surprisingly not sweet at all. It had a lovely savoury flavour to it, much like regular salsa, but the difference with this salsa was that it had a more delicate flavour. The coriander worked really well in it.

***

Sprenger Robert from Basel in Switzerland at lamiacucina made Strawberries with Campari and coriander filling.

His dessert uses coriander seeds, strawberries are filled with a smooth jelly. The original idea of strawberries with Campari filling is said to come from Ferran Adria himself, the chef of El Bulli. Don't you think it's really really really mouthwatering?

Robert's verdict: The resulting strawberries are a very tasty pre-dessert. The corinader seeds fit very well with the bitter Cmpari and the strawberry. May be, that the bitterness of the Campari did mask the strong taste of the coriander a little bit. Try it!

***

Klaus Dahlbeck from Germany at der Kompottsurfer prepared Roasted coriander ice parfait with marinated strawberries and green tea sauce.

He extended the combination to a triple pairing by adding green tea. This is even more experimental! He discovered that green tea should also be 'chemically ment to be' with strawberry and coriander.

Klaus's verdict: He was impressed by how well the flavours went together.

***

M from M's blog made Freeze filtered cold strawberry consomme.

He roasted all the ingredients, including strawberries and simmered them for one hour. To achieve a cristal clear consomme, he used the freeze filtering technique introduced by Ideas in Food. I'm very impressed by how much work went into this soup. Brilliant!

M's verdict:I didn't recognise the coriander seeds as such but I think that without the 'lemony' seeds the soup would have missed the 'sour' taste. I did like the taste of the soup - something for a warm summerday

***

Alexis and Giao from San Francisco at See Us Eat prepared Coriander custard with fresh strawberries.

They were worried that coriander might overpower the dish and decided to just infuse the custard with coriander seeds by heating them together with it. This fabulous dish definitely made me think of coriander creme brulee...with fresh strawberries of course!

Alexis's and Giao's verdict: This method proved effective in that the custard was subtle in coriander flavor, yet also unmistakable. True to the name of this event, coriander and strawberries really do go really well together.

***

Mari Gordon from the Netherlands at Mevrouw Cupcake made Strawberry Shortcakes with a Coriander Buttermilk Biscuit and Balsamic Cream.

She, although pretty ambivalent on the subject of molecular gastronomy, prepared a wonderful dessert containing both the leaves and seeds of coriander. A good idea for those who just cannot decide!

Mari's verdict: The result, however, was a curiously delicious adaptation of my favorite childhood dessert! The addition of coriander imparts the slightly sweetened biscuit with a savory fragrance. The dark balsamic syrup is pungent, spicy and sweet; but when added to the whipped cream, mellows, allowing the caramel and citrus flavor of the syrup to take center stage.

***

Jen from Sydney at Milk and Cookies prepared Avocados with Strawberry Salsa on Crispy Tortillas.

She just added coriander leaves to an existing strawberry salsa recipe. In fear, it's true, but she's more into molecular gastronomy now than she was before. Doesn't that prove something about the combination?

Jen's verdict: I could taste the strawberries with little hints of coriander here and there and combining the nutty flavour of the avocado somehow neutralised the flavours. I would say that if you did want to try the combination of strawberry and coriander but you’re a bit of a chicken, then this is a recipe you will be able to stomach.

***

Dennis from the Netherlands at Kookjegek made Strawberry and coriander smoothie and a Strawberry and coriander dessert.

As for the smoothie, he just mixed together strawberries, coriander, yoghurt, melon juice and some balsamico in a blender. Perfectly easy, isn't it? Balsamico was also used in his dessert for marinating strawberries that were later served with crème fraîche and coriander.

Dennis's verdict: He also thinks that balsamico is a good addition to the combination, coriander gave both his smoothie and dessert a nice after-taste.

***

Paula Schramm aka Jokerine from hdreioplus.de made Cilantro panna cotta with strawberry sauce.

She decided to go with the motto 'easy does it' and prepared panna cotta with a simple sauce, flavouring both of them with lemon. So nice that a woman in science has decided to join the event!

Paula's verdict: What I always liked about Panna Cotta was the soft creamy consistency. This is really brought out by the freshness of the lemon and cilantro. This recipe is definitely a keeper.

***

Stephanie from the USA at Cupcake, my love made Deep-fried strawberries with chocolate dipping sauce.

Now she is enthusiastic! For the strawberries, she made a deep-frying batter flavoured with cinnamon. But what is a strawberry without chocolate sauce? She ate her warm strawberries with a coriander-infused chocolate dipping sauce.

Stephanie's verdict: My Fried Strawberries with Coriander Chocolate Sauce will easily become a dessert that you will not be able to take your mind off of, so I apologize in advance :0) But you're gonna love it!!!!!!

***

My contribution was Coriander and coconut syrup over sunny strawberries.

I made a syrup using coriander leaves, strained it and mixed with coconut milk. We ate it mixed with fresh strawberries, we ate it with everything.

My verdict: The flavours of strawberries and the syrup 'complete each other. It might be a matter of taste, but I was positively surprised. Coconut had been like a missing link in the combination for me. I believe the syrup is a keeper. On strawberries or on anything.

***

Sarina Nicole from Trinidad over at TriniGourmet made a strawberry-coriander cake with coconut glaze.

This lovely cake contains strawberry jam and ground coriander seeds. Sarina was happy to try adding coriander instead of allspice, because its slightly citric quality would lend itself well to this kind of dessert . And it seems like it did! And well!

Sarina's verdict: ...boy do I think this was the most successful pairing to date!

***

Tara, the wonderful host of TGRWT#2 from Australia at Should you eat that? prepared Strawberry and coriander crumble.

The filling for this dessert is made of diced apple that is caramelized together with crushed coriander and mixed with a strawberry sauce flavoured with balsamico and dried coriander leaves. Ooh. And the topping has crushed coriander seeds in it as well. I don't believe Tara would use the word hate when talking about coriander now...

Tara's verdict: The crushed seeds gave a lovely nutty flavour and aroma to the crumble and in all I think they added a different layer of flavour. It was delicious!

***

Now keep your eyes open as the fourth round has already been announced! Dennis of kookjegek.nl asks us to pair mint and mustard. I'll definitely try to figure something out!
Haven't read about the previous rounds? They're right here!
TGRWT#1: garlic, coffee and chocolate
TGRWT#2: banana and parsley

TGRWT#3: Strawberry and coriander - only 4 days left!

2007-06-28T00:05:00.000+03:00

A big thank you to everybody who has already sent in their recipes for They Go Really Well Together#3!
There are still 4 days left to write about a recipe using both coriander and strawberries. 4 day's - that's...96 hours?:)

So, let me know about your entry by the 1st of July.

Details of the event are right here.

Hope to hear from a lot of you!

A pie for the love of cheese

2007-06-27T12:56:00.000+03:00

Now, everybody who loves cheese, raise your hands!

Just as I had thought - these hands are impossible to count. My hands were up high as well - and although I don't eat awfully lot of cheese, I sometimes have cravings for it. Today was one of thesa days. I knew what I was going to make - a perfect cheese pie, but unfortunately I didn't know how. After reading some instructions for cheese pies I understood I couldn't go to the store. That didn't sound as desperate as you might think! After opening my fridge I came up with my own pie. 'Is it that perfect one then?' you might ask. Quite. Quite-quite.

At least it's got the perfect pile of cheese in it.

The taste of the pie is quite strong so it's important to choose cheese that is very much to your liking (choose cheese - now say that for fifty times and fast!:)). You may also reduce the amount of salt - I have, after all, caught the flu and eat saltier food that I would normally...mom was a bit whiny about the salt. Dill can be replaced with any other herb you like - this is just what I had at home and what I felt like.

Cheese pie with dill

3 eggs
250 g sour cream
150g + 100 g grated cheese
1/4 tsp salt
up to 1/2 dl dill

1. Mix the eggs with sour cream, add flour, salt, dill and 150 g grated cheese.
2. Take a springform pan (I used 24 cm) and grease it with butter or line with baking paper.
3. Pour the mixture into the pan and cover with remaining cheese.
4. Bake at 200C for about half an hour.

I ate a slice of pie warm with some simple green salad (green leaf lettuce + yoghurt + sugar). It was just the right thing to accompany it, as the pie is rich enough already. Soft on the inside, with a pleasant crust on top. Very cheesy and with a quite strong taste of dill.
It could make a perfect snack, if cooled and cut into small squares. I imagine serving them with a coctail stick and with pieces of sweet red pepper.

I think that the next time I crave for cheese, I'll try adding something else to the pie. For example little pieces of ham and basil instead of dill. Or maybe smoked sausage and oregano. Or maybe, who knows - I might just as well add carrot.

A cup of oat milk a day will keep the doctor away.

2007-06-15T09:47:00.000+03:00

I'm a true meat-eater and milk-drinker, there's no question about it. There's just the tiny detail that I like to experiment, giving daily food a little twist. I have previously made cashew and almond milk and had inspiration to prepare oat milk after noticing oat milk ice cream while I was in Finland last year during a training camp. I really would have wanted to try it, but honestly - I wouldn't have been able to eat a whole litre of it!

Browsing through the web, I've discovered oat milk is good for one in innumerable ways. It can be useful when you've caught cold, have bronchitis or just feel powerless after a stressful day. For treatment it should be drunk several times a day during a longer period. And what if you aren't able to sleep? In case of sleeplessness and when you've caught cold, drinking a cup of warm oat milk with honey before going to bed should help. The difference between dairy milk and oat milk is also that oat milk is lactose and cholesterol free and is high in fiber. Don't you feel like drinking it already? Oat milk is also a source of vitamin E. So how's it done?

Oat milk
(makes about 7-8 dl)

2 dl oat flakes
3 dl+7 dl water (at least)
1 1/2 tbsp honey

1. Soak the oat flakes overnight with 3 dl of water.
2. Blend the oat flake mixture until smooth and then blend all the ingredients together until smooth liquid forms.
3. Strain it through a fine cheesecloth (which I couldn't find, but used a soft cotton cloth instead)
3. Store the oat milk in the fridge, keeps for some days

I gave you the healthy point of view.
But there's also the tasty point of view.

Oat milk can be a substitution to cow's milk in all kinds of dishes. It gives them an interesting accent. To be honest, I'd rather use it for cooking (in porridges, ice creams, smoothies...) than drinking it by itself, I prefer drinking nut milk and I do drink cow's milk, as you can probably remember. But the taste of oat milk is great for some dishes.
Buying oat milk from a store? I'll leave that to people who have a money tree growing in the backyard. Too bad I've only got flowers and parsley.

TGRWT#3: Coriander and coconut syrup over sunny strawberries

2007-06-14T20:37:00.000+03:00

Pairing strawberry and coriander for the flavour pairing event They Go Really Well Together#3 has got me excited.
Well...not always. It's true that this dish was the first one that actually made me use fresh coriander leaves, but its seeds have been good friends of mine for a long time. So of course I thought these friends could give me a hand. But when I wanted to make strawberries with coriander-flavoured chocolate...no matter how much ground coriander seeds got mixed into the chocolate, no flavour whatsoever revealed itself. I know chocolate has a strong taste and I know that strawberries in chocolate taste heavenly even when only dipped into crushed almonds and even without doing that, but I got mad at coriander seeds (I got mad at coriander seeds) and just went and bought fresh leaves.

Luckily. Because this dish here ain't no weird experiment! This dish here makes my mouth water like Niagara Falls. I found the idea of adding coconut milk to coriander syrup on the Internet and created a recipe that would suit my taste the most.

Coriander and coconut milk syrup
(about 3 1/2 dl)

2 dl sugar
2 dl water
1/2 dl chopped coriander leaves
1 dl coconut milk

1. Combine sugar and water in a saucepan and heat, stirring until sugar dissolves.
2. When the syrup starts to boil, remove it from heat and add coriander leaves.
3. Leave the syrup alone to cool for 20 minutes and then strain it.
4. Add coconut milk to the strained syrup and mix well.

This syrup is moderately sweet and if tasted, coconut strikes first, but coriander taste will stay in the mouth afterwards. It isn't overwhelmed by neither of the components. I imagine it on pineapple cake, I imagine it on ice cream, I imagine it with bananas.

And I imagine it on strawberries. You can add whipped cream when serving this dessert, because a strawberry dessert is not a true strawberry dessert without whipped cream!

The flavours of strawberries and the syrup 'go really well together' and complete each other. Who could have guessed? Okay, but who could have guessed them to go that well together? It might be a matter of taste, but I was positively surprised. Coconut had been like a missing link in the combination for me. I believe the syrup is a keeper. On strawberries or on anything.

Now I'd like to remind that the deadline for sending in your strawberry and coriander recipes is on the 1st of July. Hope they go really well together!

Is it...is it really ICE CREAM inside there? Chocolate truffles full of surprise.

2007-06-12T13:13:00.000+03:00

I discovered this idea a lot of time ago on Epicurious and was stunned. Ice cream? Like in chocolate? At my very house? Back then I was s-t-u-n-n-e-d. I did try it once and failed completely. Completely. But the thing with people is that they're given a lot of second chances. So I decided to use mine wisely.

Bad news - making ice cream truffles wasn't easy-peasy (although there were some comments on Epicurious claming that - are these guys proffessionals or something?) Good news - people have shared tips and so will I. So here's a list of tips I collected from comments and remember from my own experience.

1. Use ice cream with dense structure, some brands have a lot of air whipped into them.
2. All the utensils you use should be really cold, i.e. consider keeping your spoons and baking sheet (or whatever you plan to place the truffles on - I love our silicon mat) in the freezer.
3. If the truffles aren't coated well, dip them for a second time - coverings will also stick better.
4. You can work practically in your freezer, taking every ice cream ball out individually. More running, but less melting - your choice.
5. Don't touch the ice cream with your hands in order to prevent melting.
6. Ice cream with higher fat content won't melt as fast as light ice cream - this is NOT the moment to be scared of a bit more fat in your dessert.
7. White chocolate may be easier to work with as it doesn't harden as quickly as dark chocolate
8. Melt chocolate in small batches because melting ice cream will make it less effective for coating. You don't want a bowlful of ice cream mixed chocolate (maybe you do, but I assure you - this is not the moment!).

Be sure to remember these tricks if you plan to try these truffles out. This is the overall idea. Find ice cream brands and chocolate that go together well, coat the truffles with chopped nuts, coconut flakes...or leave them without coating.

Ice cream truffles

Ice cream of your choice (preferrably high fat content and dense structure)
Chocolate
Vegetable oil (about 1 tsp for 125 g of chocolate)
(Chopped nuts/coconut flakes)

1. Scoop out little balls (about 1 1/2 - 2 cm) of ice cream and place them onto prepared baking sheet, foil or whatever dish you plan to place the truffles on and put it in the freezer. According to your speed - prepare several and then - into the freezer! New ones and again - into the freezer! That's to maintain the shape of the balls.
2. Let the ice cream balls stay in the freezer for several hours or even overnight to continue on the next day.
3. Melt chocolate over a waterbath (the first batch of it, not all of it) and add vegetable oil to it.
4. Dip ice cream balls into chocolate (using a fork is a good way to do so) and place them onto baking sheet or foil, then put them back into the freezer.
5. To coat the truffles with chopped nuts or coconut flakes, place these into little bowls and roll chocolate covered ice cream balls in them before letting them cool. Another way is to cover frozen truffles. Melt a new batch of chocolate and dip the truffles into it, rolling them in chopped nuts or coconut flakes afterwards, then freeze again.

Serving these to guests would be wonderful. Or rather seeing the first one of them biting a truffle, then squeaking in surprise. Excuse me for being an amateur cook, but I surely would squeak! Ice cream and chocolate melting into each other...just make a dish into just one bite and it will taste so much better!

And for breakfast? I'm craving oat flake scone.

2007-06-08T14:46:00.001+03:00

Well, summer mornings cannot be escaped, so I'm returning to them once again. With the intention of throwing all bread out of the kitchen cupboard to eat scones every day. With some quality butter and slices of tomato or cucumber or cheese or lettuce... every day. I've fallen in love with this recipe, that uses my A-list ingredients curd cheese, oat flakes and barley flour. Fortunately there's a morning every day.

This recipe does allow variations. If you haven't got curd cheese, you might as well use thick sour cream or sour milk. Feel free to add herbs or spices - for example caraway seems like a good option.

Oat flake scone

200 g curd cheese
1 1/2 tbsp oil
1 1/2 dl oat flakes
1/2 dl barley flour
1/3 tsp salt
1 garlic clove, smashed
1/4 tsp soda

1. Mix together all the ingredients.
2. Spread the dough onto a baking tray that is greased or covered with parchment paper (better option) and form it so that it's about 1 1/2 cm thick.
3. Bake at 220C for about 30 minutes.
4. Serve warm.

The outside of the scone is crispy and golden brown, the inside is soft - the favour of curd cheese. One garlic clove gives quite much taste, but if you want it really garlicky, you may add another. The scone has the flavour of roasted oat flakes, barley flour gives an additional earthly flavour, again. Just get some good butter and it's actually all you need to enjoy the scone, but a ripe tomato or two are a healthy and welcomed bonus!

So is riding roller-blades instead of a bus, as I discovered yesternight.

TGRWT#3 is here!

2007-06-06T18:22:00.000+03:00

This month Martin from Khymos.org asked me to host the fabulous They Go Really Well Together foodblogging event, which has only reached its third round.

Never heard of the event? Really? Or just curious whether it really is what you think it is? Well, TGRWT is about pairing ingredients that have similar volatile aroma compounds. Or in less words - smell alike. It is about bringing together certain ingredients just because chemistry tells you to do so. Why are we talking about smell, but not taste? It's been discovered that only 20% of what we "taste" is perceived by the tongue and 80% by the receptors in the nose. Ingredients that have similar volatile aroma compunds should, in theory, go together well. Wanna test?

Round one was hosted by Martin himself and used garlic, coffee and chocolate, round two was hosted by Tara from Should you eat that and mixed together banana and parsley. This month's theme is my favourite so far. Get ready for cooking with... (can you feel the excitement?)

Strawberry and coriander!

The rules of TGRWT#3 are as follows:

Prepare a dish using strawberry and coriander. Use an existing recipe or create your own. You can use whatever ingredients that you like besides these two in you dish.
Post about the recipe in your blog (with TGRWT#3 in the title!) and add a photo of it. Include a link to this post and a link to the round-up once it has been posted. Readers will be particularily interested in how the flavour pairing worked out, so make an attempt at describing the succession of taste and aroma and whether or not you liked the dish and why.
The deadline for posting is the 1st of July
Send me an email at evelingrauen (at) hotmail (dot) com with the following details: your name, the country/city where you are from, the name of your blog, the URL of your post and a picture of your dish to include in the round-up.
The round-up will be posted in a few days after the 1st of June
If you don't have a blog, but want to take part of the event, just email me your entry with your details and description of the dish - I will gladly include it in the round-up.

Now off you go to buy fresh strawberries and coriander! Or feel free to use coriander seeds, dried strawberries, strawberry juice...whatever you like. And don't forget - let me know how things worked out in the kitchen by the 1st of July.

Still curious?
Learn more about flavour pairings and what Martin has to say about the combination of strawberry and coriander in his blog.

Good luck! Don't burn your fingers!

An almost traditional green summer salad

2007-06-05T13:42:00.000+03:00

There's rhubarb season all over food blogosphere and I've been able to miss it. Well, not really as my fridge still is packed with rhubarb stalks all the time and every weekend comes with a new pile of them, fresh from my grandmother's garden. No way we could eat them all fresh by just dipping them into sugar. Although on a second thought... still, no. Rhubarb is a gifted fruit, managing well in both sweet and savoury dishes. This time however this fruit is just an addition to a lovely summer salad, something almost traditional.

To speak of traditions, our family's most traditional summer salad is simple chopped green leaf lettuce with sour cream and sugar, often with radish. This is what my grandmother makes. This is what my other grandmother makes. This is what my mother makes. This is what we all love.

Everything was just fine until I came with the idea of adding yoghurt instead of sour cream or adding pineapple or walnuts or whatever. And from time to time, instead of the old and safe we eat the new and improved. For me the old and safe is very often the base for lunch in summer, for who'd like to eat heavily with this weather. This my today's try. Which I ate. Alone. Double the recipe, for heaven's sake!

Green summer salad
(serves one as a light meal or two as a side dish)

3 dl chopped green lettuce (we prefer 'chopping' with scissors)
1/2 dl chopped green onions
1/2 dl chopped rhubarb
1/2 dl chopped radish
1/2 dl yoghurt
1/2 dl cottage cheese
1-2 tsp sugar
pinch of salt

1. For the salad sauce mix together yoghurt, cottage cheese, sugar and salt.
2. Mix all ingredients together or set them in layers

Although setting the ingredients in layers looks really nice and really really nice, I prefer mixing the salad, because, you know, eating is not only about aesthetics. The salad is quite sweet and that is what I'm used to, but I suggest using only 1 tsp of sugar if you're not a sweettooth when it comes to lettuce. But the freshness, the everything - summer wouldn't be here without this salad. For me it is time for some sun and workout now!

Drink your carrots!

2007-05-29T14:18:00.001+03:00

I simply love these summer mornings. First a run in the sun, then radio playing in the kitchen, watching people walking by in the street as I'm having a light breakfast... Really, what could be better? Sunbathing in the garden? Smelling grilled meat and fresh cut lawn while walking along streets in the evening?

As I have stated before, I love carrots. But it's true it's the first time I've actually drunk them. A milkshake is a perfect start for a day. More honey (or sugar instead) may be added for a sweeter drink, but how much sweetness does one need when there are birds singing, even shouting, outside and the sun touches the cheeks through the kitchen window during breakfast? Moderate sweetnees is very fine with me!

Carrot and orange milkshake
(serves 1)

50 g boiled carrots
1 dl milk
1 dl orange juice
1 tsp honey

1. Puree the carrots.
2. Add milk and puree until the mixture is smooth.
3. Add orange juice and honey.

The milkshake's texture is really silky. The flavour of orange juice is the one that strikes first, but the aftertaste of every sip is definitely the one of carrot's. The drink is just moderately sweet and really refreshing, a little bit foamy. It would go well as an evening 'snack' as it is healthy as well. A strawberry or an orange slice and some almond slices make a good presentation - for the milkshake to be as lovely as the weather outside.