Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Nami-Nami Easter Brunch 2009



Here are couple of photos from our Easter Brunch 2009. We've had friends over for Easter brunch before, but never so many at once. But K's colleagues were keen to greet our little daughter Nora Adeele, and so it happened that last Sunday we had 14 adults and 5 children (incl. our own) over for some food.

In Estonia, Easter is all about eggs and curd cheese/farmer's cheese. And I mean real eggs, not the chocolate ones (as far as I remember, all British food magazines were focusing on chocolate at this time of the year. Not here, luckily). So our table was laden with curd cheese and eggs, and we tried to keep the colours spring-like (green and yellow).

To start with, we had Mimosas with freshly squeezed orange juice and some Cremant:


K. had contributed two dishes to the buffet table, both from a French food magazine Regal that we get by subscription. First bright green Pea Soup Shots, served, appropriately, in small shot glasses:


His other dish was also beautifully green: Courgette 'Maki' rolls, stuffed with goat cheese, hazelnuts, dried figs and chopped mint:


I made a peppered beef filet, using whole black, white and pink peppercorns. I must admit I was pretty pleased with the result - the meat was perfectly pink, and oh-so-meltingly tender (I served it thinly sliced, and the dish was cold):


There were two types of marbled eggs. My old favourites, beetroot-marbled eggs (the purple ones), and an idea that I got from the above-mentioned Regal food magazine, marbled eggs dyed with turmeric:


More nibbles - small pieces of feta-spinach frittatas and Molly's tuna bouchons (not photographed):


There was a layered salad with surimi ('crab noodles'), eggs, onion and cheese:



And of course there was Pashka, the traditional Easter dessert made with curd cheese. I made two pashkas for that brunch - my usual one (still a favourite), as well as a chocolate pashka. The first is garnished with chopped lemon balm and orange zest, the second one is decorated with candied kumquats:




The very yellow dessert was sort of pineapple 'carpaccio' sprinkled with mint and sugar:


And the green dessert was: Matcha Madeleines:


Here's another view of the whole spread:


And of course, there were the Easter eggs, lots of them:


What did you have on your Easter table? It'd be nice to read about that (you can leave a comment with the menu or a link to your blog post).

19 comments:

A_and_N said...

Thats no brunch ;) Thats a whole day's meal! Everything looks fantastic! Do you have the recipe for the Maki rolls?

Shelly said...

What a beautiful table! Any chance of you posting the recipe for the Courgette Rolls? :)
I was sick on Easter so it was just me and my boyfriend having a simple meal of roast chicken (stuffed with meyer lemon, fresh rosemary and garlic), with gravy, polenta, and brocolli.

Noblese said...

Wow, that looks Yummy! That's a meal in its self. Would like to have the recipes.

Alanna Kellogg said...

Stunning, Pille!

nikkipolani said...

I really like your idea of the soup "shots" - were these served warm or cool? I don't have the whole spread of our Easter lunch, but here are most of the dishes I made. Plus, I made that pea soup you posted some time ago (the one with basil and feta).
http://nikkipolani.wordpress.com/2009/04/13/something-new-for-easter/

David T. Macknet said...

Looks like you had a beautiful Easter, Pille. Wonderful food!

Abra Bennett said...

I love the yellow and green idea, it makes your table really pretty!

We were with French friends, and thus had a typically French meal which included very young lamb, plus my lemon strawberry tart. I put the story and pictures on French Letters here http://frenchletters.wordpress.com/2009/04/13/a-french-easter-feast/

Missy said...

Wow, what a spread! It looks divine:)

Marika said...

Haha... kes tegi masu-muna?

Saee Koranne-Khandekar said...

What a spread that is! Absolutely LOVE your blog; it's such an inspiration, I'm heading to the kitchen straightaway!

thepassionatecook said...

wow! i can't believe you found the time to cook that much!!! we had an easter brunch as well, but in the form of a pot-luck buffet - delicacies from austria (biensur!), spain, chile and the maldives... prett amazing, but yours is unbeatable!

Deeba PAB said...

What a rocking good spread..couldn't believe my eyes at first. Very pretty, very Spring & very apt! Wonderful!!

Anonymous said...

All this food looks SOOOOOOO delicious! It is very different form what we eat in Italy for Easter though...
Ciao.
Orchidea
www.viaggiesapori.blogspot.com

Nadya said...

That table is gorgeous! I'd also like to recreate the Maki rolls. I can probably puzzle out the filling, but is there a trick to slicing the courgettes and getting them to roll properly?

I am in the US so we had the traditional ham (a gorgeous one from a local butcher, not the supermarket), scrambled eggs, homemade cinnamon rolls, and a salad I made up of asparagus, strawberries & toasted walnuts. Details are here: http://www.unibrain.org/2009/04/12/easter-brunch-dead-simple-asparagus-strawberry-salad

Ewa said...

Hello Pille!
I loved your Easter table a lot! I guess mine was far less modern than yours...
About Polish Easter Sunday food & traditions I wrote in my last post: http://milk-and-pumpkin.blogspot.com/2009/04/polish-easter.html (there you can find many pictures of the dishes, too)
Best spring greetings,
Ewa

Shayne said...

it all looks great and I want one of the goat cheese rolls so much!

Melanie said...

Very beautiful and looks like a lot of love went into to it. I love the zucchini rolls stuffed with goat's cheese!!Yum.

Anonymous said...

Oh kui hea oleks Su külaline olla!:)

Dazy said...

This would be my son's version of Heaven! I think I'd enjoy it, too!