Coffee curd cheese with clove-scented bananas and almond praline

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)

1. Mix curd cheese to taste with instant coffee powder or coffee essence, sugar and vanilla.
2. 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.
3. Crush the almond praline to little pieces.
4. 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.

Favourite ice tea smoothie

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)

1. Mix tea with yoghurt, adding as much sugar as you like. If desired, flavour with vanilla.
2. 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'!

Curd cheese mousse with blackcurrant sauce and kiwis

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

1. Mix curd cheese with sugar and vanilla.
2. 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).
3. Add cocoa powder to taste, mix well.
4. Peel and slice kiwis.
5. 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

1. Take a small pot and heat the jam until it's liquified.
2. Add double cream, mixing. If desired, add cinnamon.
3. 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

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

1. 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.
2. Divide the dough into four and roll each part into quite a thin circle; leave a bit of dough for decorating.
3. Fill the apples (as much as you can) with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon.
4. 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.
5. Make (2) leaves for each "apple" from the leftover dough and press them onto the "apples". Use a knife to make the leaf pattern.
6. Bake the apples in a buttered oven dish at 175C for about 30 minutes until they look golden.
   
7. 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:)

A thought: Coca Cola 'sorbet'

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!;)

Rye bread pudding with berries

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

1. Soak the rye bread slices in the apple juice, stirring occasionally, for an hour.
2. Beat the yolks together with the 4 tbsp sugar and cinnamon with an electric mixer. Add cream cheese and beat until incorporated well.
3. Make sure there aren't any big pieces in the bread and apple juice mixture, then mix the two bowlfuls together.
4. 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.
5. 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;)

Cream cheese ice cream

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

1. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar
2. 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.
3. 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!
4. 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).
5. 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!

The darkest spicy tipsy apples

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

1. Take a pot large enough to fit all the apples onto the bottom of it.
2. Add all ingredients (but not the apples) to the pot and bring to a boil.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Remove from heat and let the apples cool in the poaching liquid.
6. 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

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

1. Break chocolate into squares.
2. Beat the eggs together with the sugar until slightly fluffy.
3. Sift in cocoa powder and add chocolate chunks.
4. 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.
5. 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?

Rosewater and black tea granita

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

1. Mix water, rosewater and sugar in a bowl/pitcher. Add teabags.
2. Cover with foil and leave the bowl on a sunny windowsill for 3 hours.
3. Discard teabags and add cream.
4. 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.
5. 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?

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

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)

1. Mix yoghurt, water, sugar, rosewater and cardamum well
2. 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.

Curd cheese mousse with black tea

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

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

Brie cheese goes international

'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

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: Coriander and coconut syrup over sunny strawberries

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.

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!

Fruit stuffed fruit

...stuffed marzipan stuffed chocolate.
Ooh. Today I'm proud of myself. Just like for the first time in my life I had prepared something...elegant. If that's the word. I wasn't sure what I was going to make or how I was going to make it, but I took out a can of apricot halves, some chocolate, marzipan and dried apricots. And then I stared at them, just stared at them for a little while before my mind cleared up.
Ding!
And that's what I got.


Chocolate balls filled with apricots and marzipan
(yields six balls)

12 canned apricot halves
6 dried apricots
120 g marzipan
100 g dark chocolate

1. Drain the apricot halves on paper towels so that they're quite dry.
2. Place dried apricots between two apricot halves.


3. Roll marzipan into a thin sheet and divide it into 6, then wrap each 'apricot' into marzipan. Be sure there are no holes in it.
4. Melt chocolate over a waterbath and dip the marzipan covered apricots into it to be wholly covered with chocolate (I found the best way to do so was to use a tablespoon to roll them around in chocolate). Place them onto baking paper or foil and then into the freezer at first so that the chocolate would quickly harden.
5. After about 5 minutes you can put them into the fridge to keep them there.



The inside of the treats is flavoured by marzipan that has turned soft due to apricot juice. When broken, marzipan flavoured juice flows out just like a sweet sauce. And chocolate melting into marzipan when bitten...could it get any better? I believe it's possible to add even more twists to the dessert. What about adding a bit apricot jam between the dried apricots and apricot halves? Or what about adding almond slices instead? Adding them would enrich the treat with yet another different texture.

With this post I'm also joining the fabulous event Waiter, there's something in my... stuffed fruit/vegetables! hosted by Jeanne of Cook Sister

Head isu!

Sweet bread puddings with condensed milk, peanut butter and plums

Making the Estonian bread pudding Saiavorm has certain rules for me.
It's half soft. It's half crunchy. It's got something with sour taste in it. It has sugar sprinkled on it. It is flavoured with vanilla (is there something that ISN'T flavoured with vanilla at this house?). Its top is golden brown. It's eaten with cold milk poured over it. Its serving size is really big just big enough to fill the belly.

But who actually cares? I may add berries, pears or even salted fish into my bread pudding if I want to (the salted fish was a metaphor, really). I do love to add some curd cheese, cream cheese, sour cream or yoghurt to the egg and milk mixture to make the lower part of the pudding taste more than just...divine tasting soaked bread. This time the quantity of bread is much smaller than usually as I used a muffin pan, but at the same time the dessert has a gourmet-like twist in taste. I'd call it progress, wouldn't you?:)


Sweet bread puddings with condensed milk, peanut butter and plums

100 g white bread
100 g plums (fresh/frozen)
1 tbsp peanut butter
3-4 tbsp sweetened condensed milk
1 1/4 dl milks
1 egg
1 yolk
vanilla
sugar for sprinkling

1. Chop the plums and divide the pieces between muffin pan holes (there's no need to melt frozen plums - they'll do just fone on their own).
2. Dice the bread and add to the plums.
3. Mix the rest of the ingredients (except sugar) together and pour onto bread.
4. Sprinkle the puddings with some sugar and bake at 190C until baked from the inside and golden brown on the top, circa 25 minutes.
5. Serve warm with cold milk.



The sweetness of the puddings comes from the condensed milk, but as there's not much of it, you may add sugar to taste. Peanut butter mysteriously makes the taste better from the background, it can't be noticed right away, but makes its every effort to improve your eating experience. And yes - half soft, half crunchy. Easy, it is, but someone should explain that to the cooks of the school diner too - there's so much more to saiavorm than just soaked bread (and they should know that for heaven's sake!).

I'm only worried about one thing. The only peanut butter that is sold in every bigger store here in Tallinn was peculiarly runny this time. There's nothing written about it on the jar, but if they're adding more oil to it now...
Argh.

SHF#30 - Vanilla flowers over cherry sauce

I didn't get around any edible flowers for Sugar High Friday#30 Flower Power hosted by Monisha of Coconut Chutney(a really lovely blog as I've discovered recently). So I decided to just make one. It's the simplest cake - the simplest-simplest cake turned into what's a surprising dessert. It's what you have in your fridge and in your pantry - thrown together. And noone will notice you didn't have to go through a three hour shopping trip to find ingredients for a spectacular extravagant dish. Oh no. Slice-slice-slice-slice and place-place-place-place. Fantasy might just save some money to go shopping and buy...a special treat for yourself. I know, It's hard to believe I'm that selfish. But wouldn't you want to be too? Now don't go shaking your head!


Simple mix-together vanilla cake

130 g flour
200 g butter, melted
4 eggs
2 dl milk
90 g sugar
vanilla
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