Pille

I've made few more preserves recently. Apple & Lingonberry Jam: Plum & Vanilla Jam: Cloudberry Jam: Bilberry Jam: And also Bilberry Syrup

I agree - these pizzelle cones are brilliant, dystopiandreamgirl!

Amapola & GTO - thank you! I haven't tried to reheat the pie, but it was very tasty served cold. Though I cannot see why it couldn't be re-heated either, so do give it a go, Amapola. And love the pies, GTO, and the fingerfood, Little Ms Foodie - very pretty!

Thank you, Chufi & Prawncrackers!!

We had a beetroot and potato pie few days ago - and it was really delicious and had a definite wow-factor! Recipe here.

The weather has been quite nice here, so I made a batch of Hibiscus & Strawberry Sorbet last week: And on Friday I made a Rustic Apricot Tart, as described by Dave Harfield on his foodblog last week: Both were keepers

Just to let you know, Dave, that your Apricot Tart - or mine - is in the oven right now. Cannot tell you how it was until Sunday, as we're off to our country cottage early tomorrow morning, and take the tart along.. It looks very promising, however, so thanks for the recipe!

I don't do it, but I know people who make wine from them. My mum makes a delicious chokecherry cordial (adding cherry leaves), and we dilute it with water for a refreshing drink. They're also nice in jam (f.ex. with apples). Quite popular here in Estonia, althought it's a cultivated shrub here and doesn't grow in the wild, as far as I know..

Here in Estonia (North-Eastern Europe then ) forageing for food is quite popular, especially wild autumn mushrooms and wild summer berries. Local web forums are currently speculating about the best places to go to look for cloudberries, blueberries and yellow chantarelles, which have ripened a few weeks earlier this year. And if you cannot make it to the forest, we get them from old ladies at the market I lived in Edinburgh for the last seven years, where I led a fairly typical urbanite life (i.e. supermarkets, delis, farmers markets). Since I moved back home just under a year ago, I've been enjoying my forageing trips again enormously. I've been forageing for various wild mushrooms (see here and here or Flickr photos). This year was the first year to find yellow morels - it hadn't just occured to us to look for mushrooms in spring. Then there's wild greens: nettles (good in soups), ground elder/Bishops weed (first time I used this, turned into a delicious Greek-style hortapita pie), dandelion greens (salads), wild garlic (great in spring salads!). My uncle collects maple sap and birch sap - does that count? And finally, there's lots of wild berries. I'm forageing for wild strawberries (see here and here), cloudberries (see here), as well as bog blueberries, cranberries, lingonberries.

A kilogram of wild strawberries is a lot indeed. But if you stare closely at this: then you realise that: and in just about an hour you'll have this: And that's just under a kilo, we weighed it. We swapped some for hot smoked fresh flounder, and turned 750 grams into a "fridge jam". We had a long and mild spring with relatively few frosty nights this year in Estonia, so it's been a really good wild strawberry year. Even cloudberries and blueberries and bog bilberries are already ready and plentiful, and there are reports of lots of yellow chantarelles. I'm hoping to make it to the forests and bogs this weekend to check it out.. You can read more about my wild strawberry picking adventures this year (here) and last year (here). Note that I'm talking about proper 'real' wild strawberries here (Fragaria vesca) and not any semi-cultivated ones, eventhough Harold McGee claims in his "On Food and Cooking" that there's none left in Europe. He's obviously never wandered outside European cities

Chufi - we've obviously got a very similar dessert taste Here are my Meringue Nests with Cream & Berries: and here are Nigella's Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes: I made the latter just after Easter, hence the use of miniature chocolate Easter eggs Great cupcake recipe indeed!! And here are some other recent desserts from our kitchen: Marzipan Cake with Strawberries & Cream: My Favourite Flourless Oat Cookies: Apricot Tartlets with Pistachio Paste: Vareniki with curd cheese filling and home-made apricot jam: And last, but not least, we picked a kilogram of wild strawberries about 10 days ago and made a batch of wild strawberry jam:

Thanks John... I'll keep digging. Big communal table ringing anyone's bell? Maybe I'm crazy... ← I had a great meal at La Cave de l'Os à Moëlle just over a year ago (see here), and would definitely go back, as it was such an incredibly good value for money as well. It's cave-like and has communal tables, and a good wine cellar, but I cannot remember a team of husband & wife

Thank you, Dave - it looks fab (and suitably rustic )! It's quite interesting to have a layer of ground almonds, sugar & flour under the apricots - I wouldn't have thought of that, but I can see it gives a nice extra layer to the cake. I hope to make it this weekend - and I like tart tarts too

I'm really looking forward to your Country Apricot Tart recipe - there are some great French apricots available at the market here in Tallinn at the moment, and I'm keen to try a nice French tart with them. And I'm not envious at all that you get to eat all those cep mushrooms. I've been eating lots of fresh yellow chantarelle mushrooms during the last few days, and the wild mushroom season lasts until late autumn, so I'm all fine

I'd recommend another Contini family business, Centotre, for a leisurely brunch - their Cenerentola fruit cocktail is wonderful, as are their croissants and bruschetti. And I always try to go back to The Witchery restaurant when in town - it's such an enchanted place, and I've only ever had very good food there.

I would recommend browsing through my foodblog, Nami-nami, but then I would have to, wouldn't I It's all in English, and I've got few restaurant and cafe reviews, as well as some information about the food scene in Tallinn in general. The "Location: Estonia" and "Restaurant Review" categories may be useful, as well as "Tallinn: Culinary City Snapshot" piece I wrote for a fellow blogger. Links are all on the right-hand sidebar.

I've started to 'preserve summer' already, even though we usually do it in July-August here in Estonia. Made 1 litre of wild strawberry jam (see here) on Sunday and three different types of sour cherry preserves (see here) last week. I did make couple of jars of rhubarb & ginger jam few weeks ago (see here), but sadly we've finished these already..

Too bad, Russ. I picked a kilogram of wild strawberries last weekend (see here) and I could have sent you some But I guess 'continental US' is a bit far after all (Actually I've already made jam out of these, but I'm off to pick another kilogram on my secret wild strawberry field this weekend)

Chufi, your whole feast looks impressive, but these two are my absolute favourites! Any chance of getting the recipe/ingredient amounts for the fava bean/mint puree?

I promise that this is the last post about eggs on my Easter table in 2007 : Beetroot Easter Eggs aka Pickled Red Beet Eggs

← Nice to 'meet' you too, Paul! I said we'd have lots of eggs Here's a snapshot:

I made a tsoureki today and it was nice but I can't seem to get the texture to be slightly stringy and chewy as opposed to the uniform texture I keep getting. I'm curious How does yours come out? Any advice? I haven't had tsoureki in Greece , but my Greek friends in Edinburgh were really pleased with my efforts and ate all of it in no time whatsoever (two days in a row as well). Apparently it tasted just like grandmother's, said one. Maybe he was just trying to be nice to me In any case, the tsoureki wasn't too fluffy or light, if I remember correctly, but I wouldn't describe it stringy either (chewy, maybe)..

Last night - a molten chocolate cake. There was no extra dark chocolate in the house, so we used Manjari 64% instead. It was really nice and easy. However, next time we'll use a darker chocolate, and take it out of the oven 2 minutes earlier..

Yes, Ludja, we used bread without caraway seeds - I should have mentioned that.. We grated the bread with a coarse grater first, and then fried in some butter and with sugar. We've used the fried rye bread crumbs for yogurt topping as well - just as nice as muesli! You're also right about cranachan (one of my favourite puddings when I lived in Edinburgh ) - the principle is very much the same.

I layered home-made apple and cranberry jam, whipped cream and rye bread crumbs in a glass last week: That's an Estonian pudding and it's called a shy peasant girl And my bf made a really lovely creme caramel last weekend, adapting a recipe from Tessa Kiros' Falling Cloudberries. Pretty good for a first-timer, eh: