Pille

Oh, that's exciting! I just bought a savoy cabbage with the view of making cabbage and wild mushroom rolls this Sunday (they forecast slush & snow for the weekend, so it's time to start cooking those Estonian winter classics). Meanwhile, here's a photo of some cabbage rolls with meat & rice stuffing I made last season - who said that cabbage rolls need to use white cabbage?

I'm also very excited about this foodblog. I can only imagine the interesting mix of influences on the way you're eating, having lived in so many different places! I've never been to the US (where most of the egulleteers seem to be based), but I've been to Mexico . Flew over in September 2005 for a huge fancy wedding in Mexico City. I spent a week in Mexico City, Tepostlan etc, and it was a wonderful trip. Apart from the bit where the bride got cold feet 2 nights before the wedding, and all 650 guests had no wedding to attend!!!

So pleased to hear that I managed to inspire you and that the cake turned out well, Eskay. You just made my day! I see you grated your beetroot finely - I quite liked the coarsely grated version, but yours is more elegant, I must admit. Ling - there's a recipe for chicken liver and raisin tart in Jill Norman's "The Cook's Book" - your foie gras tatin reminds me of that one. I've got the tart bookmarked, and now I'm even keener to try it that before. Such an interesting concept..

It looks very cool but if you hadn't said it was mousse I would have thought it was some type of bread. It looks like it has been baked. What is it actually like? ← Well, first it's sprayed (?) out of the Gourmet Whip, and then microwaved for 45 seconds. Our was a bit denser than it should have been, the one on the photo looks a lot lighter & natural sponge like in texture. Oh well, we'll try again and hopefully have better luck next time

Three recent desserts: on Sunday I baked a Beetroot & Ginger Cake: We bought the ISI Gourmet Whip last Friday, and straight away tried the Piña Colada Espuma (recipe from the booklet accompanying the purchase): We really liked it. Yesterday night we tried Ferran Adria's recipe for Pistachio Mousse in The Cook's Book (ed. Jill Norman). It does resemble (well, at least a little) the original creation, don't you think? Will have to try this one again, with couple of changes..

A very simple dinner last night. My mum had given me some overgrown zucchini, which I grated and mixed with an equal amount of mince meat (half beef, half pork), 2 eggs and seasonings. Drizzled with mayonnaise and served with chopped scallions and pickled cucumbers: Won't win any prizes for its look, but my bf ate about 10 of them in one go

I baked a beetroot & ginger cake yesterday: Recipe from a Finnish Pirkka-magazine. We all liked it, and will be making it again.

You're welcome, Jensen!

That's such a cute bowl, nonblonde007! My dinner from last night was Salmon with Cajun Blackening Spices, Peter Gordon's recipe from Jill Norman's The Cook's Book. Here are salmon pieces marinating: and here they are fried and ready to be consumed: Loved it - tasty and very exotic (hey, I'm in the north of Europe, and Cajun qualifies as extremely exotic here )

I love that photo, Gabriel - I've never seen so many bagels before!!!

Whoah...those mushrooms are so pretty! I've never seen anything like that! ← I know! Looks almost magical -kind of like from LOTR ← Ehee - nope, definitely not from LOTR, but from a lovely conifer forest in the middle of tiny Estonia

A pear and blue cheese tart (recipe here on my blog): I used Finnish Aura Gold blue cheese, the filling is seasoned with what you'd call 'pumpkin spice' in the US. I really liked it, and it's versatile. I can imagine serving this as a starter, or as a dessert, or simply as an accompaniment for wine.

Great topic! Now that the autumn is here and the days are getting colder and darker, we're eating much more soup around here. My two recent favourites are both very, very 'regional'. Both are vegetarian: Borscht (recipe here on my blog): Sauerkraut soup (recipe here on RecipeGullet):

We went foraging for wild mushrooms last Saturday, and came back with 1.5 kilograms of Lactarius deterrimus mushrooms, close relative of Lactarius deliciosus aka Saffron Milkcaps (mushrooms were weighed after the cleaning). So last night's dinner was a cheesy wild mushroom and potato gratin: Really, really nice - those mushrooms have a beautiful orange colour, and a very nice, almost flowery, taste. For dessert we had some apple cake. I think apples will be the theme of our desserts for the next month, as I got 2 huge baskets from my mum last weekend..

My first time of posting on this thread, too - mainly as I haven't got the book However, I did bake Cinnamon Rolls & Sticky Buns from the book last weekend. Here are the sticky buns: and here the cinnamon rolls: Whereas I did like the sticky buns, I wasn't impressed with the cinnamon rolls, and won't replace my regular cinnamon roll recipe (Swedish style) with Peter Reinhart's just yet. I guess I need cardamom in my cinnamon buns and not fondant glaze on them To sum it up, I wasn't planning to buy the book based on these two recipes (yes, I did like sticky buns a lot, but they're way too rich for regular consumption ), then I'm reconsidering the decision after seeing all those gorgeous other breads here! Some amazing stuff, people!! I82Much - I didn't think it was much work at all making sticky buns. It's just the regular cinnamon roll recipe, plus 5 minutes mixing sugar, syrup and butter.

I wholeheartedly recommend Lobstersquad blog, too. Her writing is really good, her stories about life in Spain are entertaining, and her illustrations are absolutely stunning. Plus she draw the logo for my own little foodblog , and I had a chance to meet her this summer in Estonia. Wonderful person as well!

What a great variety of breakfasts!! Here's mine from this morning: curd cheese toasts (very Estonian): I had two of those. My bf had four, with some home-made cherry & almond jam

Gorgeous, Bruce!!! I've never had bahn mi in my life , but I'm certainly tempted. Not from last night, but from last weekend - a coconut chicken curry, where the chicken was first marinated in a mixture of rum, garlic and lemongrass. Recipe here. It was supposed to be served with rice, but we didn't have any, so we had it with quinoa instead. Very nice, and not too spicy (I'm Estonian, after all )!

I've been a lurker, not knowing absolutely anything about Estonian cooking, but I just wanted to say thank you for your lovely blog. This particular description of yours is very intriguing to me. ← Hiroyuki - I'm just a beginner in Japanese cooking - until now I've been focusing on buying cookbooks about Japanese food - but hope to learn more soon. I'm glad you enjoyed my little blog! I was in Edinburgh just few weeks ago, BinkyBoots - although I'm glad I'm living in Tallinn now, then Edinburgh will always have a special place in my heart Shelby - thank you! It's been a pleasure to do this blog! --From Beard on Bread.Recommended liquids include flat beer, buttermilk or potato water. The entire mixture is incorporated into a dough that requires yeast for leavening. The two alternatives you discovered sound interesting, too. Whatever I decide to do, I appreciate the inspiration. Thank you for a truly educational food blog--and a charming one at that! ← Pontormo - James Beard's instructions aren't so dissimilar to the ones I found, although it does sound that he prescribes double the time for leavening. Whichever one you choose, I hope it'll work out for you. Note that the starter may require few rounds of breadmaking before it's really happy & active I hope you'll have a chance to visit Estonia soon, Monovano (and let me know when you do)! Thank you, hsm!

Rona - I sure hope so Thank you for your kind words! Now, my foodblog is semi-offically over, but Snowangel has kindly allowed me to use this space for another few hours. Some of you have asked for recipes - most of them are available on my Nami-nami foodblog, but I've also added some recipes to RecipeGullet. Here are the links: Estonian sauerkraut soup My simple apple cake Semolina breakfast porridge with eggs I promised to show you how to make Estonian naturally leavened rye bread - as pictured on one of the teaser photos. Bread - rukkileib - is the most important element of traditional Estonian eating. When we start eating, we say 'Head isu!' or bon appetit, but when you enter the room where somebody is eating, you'd wish them 'Jätku leiba!' or 'may you have enough bread'. The word for bread - leib - actually only means a rye bread (whether 100% rye, like the bread I make, or a mixture of rye and wheat). What is known as bread in most other countries - the one made with wheat flour - is known as 'sai' in Estonia. There's also 'sepik' which is made with barley flour or coarser wheat flour. I don't have time for a proper step-by-step tutorial for that, but those of you who are interested, can probably find it on my other blog within a week (or fortnight, at the most). But I compiled this bread-making collage for you: It's a no-knead bread, though not as the very famous one everybody has been talking about (inc here on eGullet) There's very little hands on time, but it does take quite a lot of time to ferment. The basic ingredient list is basic: rye starter, warm water, rye flour, sugar, salt, more flour. On the day one (let say, on Friday morning before going to work), you take a big bowl, mix the starter (mine lives in a small jar in my fridge; the lid has small holes pierced in), 1 litre of warm tap-water, and so much flour that the mixture reminds you of sour cream (ca 300-400 grams). Cover (I use cling film), and place in a warm area to ferment for 24 hours (close to a radiator, next to your fireplace, on a floor with under-floor heating). No need to do anything with it during this time. (The sourness of the bread depends on this process - the longer the fermenting period and warmer the place, the more sour the resulting bread will be). After this time (alas, Saturday morning), take the jar you keep the starter in (there is NO need to wash it between fillings), and put few ladlefuls (about 150 grams, perhaps?) into the jar. Put the jar into the fridge again until your next bread-making session. Now, take the mixing bowl and add 4 tsp of salt and 150-200 grams sugar. Mix. [Now the optional part - you can add caraway seeds - a typical bread flavouring here, and compulsory element in my opinion; sunflower seeds, linseeds/flax seeds, oats, oat bran, - whatever you fancy]. Add more rye flour, stirring with a wooden spoon. The exact amount depends on zillion factors (incl whether you added any seeds or oats), but you want a mixture that isn't too runny nor too thick and heavy Take two bread tins - I use Kaiser loaf pans, and butter them thoroughly. Divide the bread mixture between the two (filling them about halfways). Smooth the top with a wet hand. Cover again with cling film and leave to raise in a work place for the whole day (6-10 hours, depending what time did you get up on Saturday morning ). Heat the oven to 200-220 C. Place the bread tins into the middle rack (removing the cling film, of course). During the first 20-30 minutes the bread develops a crust. After that you can cover the bread with foil to avoid burning it. Bake for 60-70 minutes in total (sorry, this depends again on the oven. I bake my breads at 200C for 60 minutes, and that works out well). Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 7-10 minutes. Now turn the breads out of the tins onto 2 sheets of parchment paper, schmear with butter on all sides, and wrap into the baking paper (and then on foil). Leave to cool for a little before eating. Bread like this keeps fresh and moist for a week (you can put it in the fridge on day 3 or 4). It slices well, and tastes heavenly. Now, the tricky part: I got my rye bread starter from a kind fellow Estonian blogger back in April, and have been using the same starter from the beginning. If you'd be in Estonia, I could easily give you one, but most of you aren't. I've got two tips from various local cookbooks, but I haven't tried them myself, so I don't guarantee they'd work: Version 1. Mix rye flour and water into a thick mixture. To encourage fermenting, you may add something sour - grated sour apple or even apple juice, sour rye bread pieces, sauerkraut liquid or sour milk/kefir. Leave to ferment for 1-2 days in a warm place. The starter is done, when it deflates after rising." Version 2. Mix some kefir/sour milk, few smashed boiled potatoes and enough rye flour to get a thick mixture. Sugar can be added, too. Leave to rise and deflate in a warm place. Hope that helps. In any case, it's been fun blogging with you, dear fellow eGulleteers!

LucyLou - thank you for the recipe! I'll be certainly trying this out during the next few weeks. Ahh, Michelle, thank you! How exciting to hear that you've been to Tallinn, Blue Dolphin, and that you think I've captured the sense of place as you remember it! (PS Tallinn is with double NN at the end, everybody!!! The Russian transcription is with one 'n', which seems to cause a lot of confusion across the world ) We do lead busy lives indeed, but the next few months are a bit busier than usually because of the cookery diploma and the photography course I'm taking. But as they say in Estonian, "Kes palju teeb, see palju jõuab" - who does a lot, manages a lot Now, the recipes. I will blog about the pear and blue cheese quiche over at Nami-nami this week. I thought I'll leave it for Christmas, but then so many people have seen the photo on my Flickr photo stream and asked for the recipe, so I better oblige And do try the beetroot and blue cheese tartlets and the feta and red onion tart - they're both wonderful.

I had a sea-buckthorn jelly with a mascarpone and kama mousse - healthy and beautiful: You can read more here on my eG foodblog

There are two basic ways of salting mushrooms, Michelle. The more traditional way is to simply layer mushrooms (NB! the ones that need to be cooked/boiled to remove any bitterness etc, shoud be boiled before salting, too!) and coarse salt (generously!) into a container, then put a heavy press on top, and place the container into a very cold basement or a fridge. Mushrooms prepared this way are very salty, and need to be soaked in water before they can be used. A slightly more modern way is to cover mushrooms with a salty brine. Bring 1 Litre of water and 2 Tbsp of salt to the boil, add (pre-boiled and drained, if necessary!) mushrooms, simmer for 5 minutes. Then layer mushrooms (not too tightly!) into sterilised jars, bring the brine to the boil again, and then pour over the mushrooms. Close the jars thoroughly. Mushrooms which have been salted like this can be eaten straight away - either as a zakuska straight from the jar (well, drain them first), or mixed into salads or added into mushroom gravies. No need to pre-soak to remove saltiness like the first, 'dry' version.

I didn't have any lunch today, as our pancake brunch was quite substantial. And for dinner tonight we decided to have something exotic and something Estonian. First, the exotic part. I went to the Stockmann foodhall, and picked up a packet of chicken thigh filets. I also had some coconut milk, lemongrass, fresh coriander/cilantro and red chilli peppers in the house, so I ended up making this Trinidadian coconut chicken curry, though adapting the recipe a little, of course We didn't have any rice in the house, so we steamed some organic quinoa instead. I really liked it - it wasn't as hot as I thought it would be, and the flavour was pleasantly Caribbean, at least what I imagine Caribbean food to be.. Some of you may still remember that we bought some sea-buckthorn berries at the market last weekend, and I promised I'd make a dessert out of this superfood (at least Wikipedia claims so and it's hugely popular for its health benefits here in Estonia). So for dessert, I made a jelly with sea buckthorn berries (115 grams berries were pureed with an immersion blender, then pressed through a fine sieve, then I added hot water to make up 300 ml, sweetened with some sugar and set with 4 gelatine sheets). And I served it with kama. Kama is a really lovely and slightly nutty-tasting and rather uniquely Estonian ingredient, which is made of roasted, boiled and ground mixture of peas, barley, rye and wheat (you can read more about kama here, here and here). It's not available abroad as far as i know, and I've recently sent out no less than 8 'kama care packages' to readers of my blog across the world, who had become intrigued after reading about kama on my blog. At least one eGullet reader, Eden, has had a chance to taste kama 'chocolate' bar, too The sea-buckthorn jelly topped with kama and mascarpone mousse: Really, really nice flavour combination. We decided to leave the jelly recipe as it is, but incorporate some whipped cream to the kama mousse next time, so it'd be easier to pipe and look smoother.

Estonian sauerkraut soup (Hapukapsasupp) Serves 4 as Main Dish. This is a hearty & homey soup suitable for a main meal. Serve with some rye bread, garnish with a dollop of sour cream (or a substitute, if you want a vegan soup). 400 g sauerkraut water 3 T vegetable oil 80 g pearl barley 40 g parsley root 100 g yellow onion 100 g carrots 700 ml vegetable stock/bouillon sugar, to taste salt, to taste black pepper, to taste finely chopped fresh parsley If the sauerkraut is too sour, then rinse it with cold water. Put into a saucepan with some water and oil, and simmer on a low heat for about 30 minutes, adding water, if necessary (you don't want to burn the sauerkraut). Boil pearl barley in a separate saucepan until al dente. Chop parsley root, carrots and onions into matchsticks, saute in a bit of oil for a few minutes. When cabbage has softened, add the stock and bring to the boil. Add the cooked pearl barley and sauteed vegetables. Season with sugar, salt and pepper and herbs (parsley is good here). Serve with finely chopped herbs and a dollop of sour cream. Keywords: Vegetables, Vegetarian, Soup, Easy, Main Dish, Dinner, Vegan, Eastern Euro/Russian ( RG2034 )