Black Pudding Profiteroles

August 2011

This recipe was originally posted in December 2009. It's been fully updated, and new photos are included.

Remember the Chorizo Choux Puffs? When I published the recipe on my Estonian site, then one of the readers, Ilse, suggested using our Christmas favourite, finely chopped black pudding instead of chorizo. I liked the sound of that, so nicked the idea, adding a spoonful of roasted onion flakes for an extra depth of flavour.

The result? Soft and Christmassy choux puffs with character :) We shared these with some friends, who were just as keen on these large profiteroles as we were. Definitely a keeper and a great addition to any Christmas buffét table. You could even dip them into lingonberry jam - that'd be even more Christmassy!

This recipe was also included in my latest cookbook, Jõulud kodus ("Christmas at Home"), published in Estonian in November 2011.


NOTE that this recipe would work just as well with Blutwurst, morcilla, sundae, boudin noir, blodpudding, beuling, bloedworst etc.

Black Pudding Profiteroles
(Keedutainapallid e. profitroolid verivorstiga)
Makes about 24 large profiteroles


December 2009

175 ml water
75 g butter
0.5 tsp salt
120 g plain flour/all-purpose flour (200 ml)
3 large eggs
100 g black pudding, finely chopped (and skinned first, if necessary)
1 Tbsp roasted onion flakes (I like using Meira's)

Remove the skin from the black pudding sausages (not necessary, when they're thin-skinned) and chop finely.
Put water, cubed butter and salt into a medium saucepan and bring to a rolling boil. Take immediately off the heat and stir in all the flour. Return to the heat and "boil" for about two minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon, until you have a smooth paste that leaves the sides of the saucepan.
Remove from the heat and cool for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the eggs one at a time, wholly incorporating the first egg before adding the next one (this is best done with electric beaters). The resulting paste should be glossy and slowly drop from a spoon.
Stir in the finely chopped black pudding and the dried roasted onion flakes.
With a help of two tablespoons or a cookie scoop, place small heaps of choux paste onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake in the middle of a pre-heated 180 C/375 F oven for about 30 minutes, until the choux puffs are nicely puffed up and golden brown.


August 2011

Gingerbread muffins

Gingerbread muffins, anno 2011

This recipe was originally posted in December 2008. It's been fully updated, and new photos are included.

Everyone likes a good muffin, and during Christmas time, this should be a Christmas muffin :)

There are endless variations on the theme. You could bake small cupcakes and garnish them with something Christmassy. Or you could simply add your favourite Christmas spices (say ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom) into your regular plain muffin recipe (and still glaze them afterwards). Or you could throw in a generous handful of red berries (lingonberries or cranberries) into your muffin batter to give them the festive feel.

Here's a recipe for very simple muffins - made special by the use of dark muscovado sugar and a mixture of gingerbread spices.

Note I've measured the dry ingredients both in grams and in volume. A standard American cup is 240 ml, so 100 ml of muscovado sugar would be a half a cup minus a heaped Tablespoon etc.

Gingerbread muffins
(Jõulumuffinid)
Makes 12 medium-sized muffins


Gingerbread muffins, anno 2008

2 large eggs
85 g dark muscovado sugar (100 ml)
50 g butter, melted and slightly cooled
100 g sour cream or creme fraiche
120 g plain/all-purpose flour (200 ml)
1.5 tsp baking powder
25 g ground hazelnuts or almonds (50 ml)
2 tsp gingerbread spice or mixed spice or pumpkin pie spice

icing sugar, for dusting

Whisk eggs with sugar. Add the melted butter and sour cream. Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, fold into the egg-sugar-butter-sour cream batter.
Spoon into muffin cups and bake in the middle of 200 C/400 F oven for 10-12 minutes, until muffins are cooked.
Let cool a little, then dust with icing sugar.


Gingerbread muffins, anno 2011

This recipe was also included in my latest cookbook, Jõulud kodus ("Christmas at Home"), published in Estonian in November 2011.

Christmas Recipes: Beetroot and Orange Salad with Ginger Dressing

Photo by Andres Teiss

A lovely wintry salad, that can be served as a starter (ideal for a buffét table, being such an eye-catcher!) or as a side dish (I can see a simply roasted and then sliced duck breast alongside this salad). It's best to use roasted beets, but if you're pinched for time, use steamed or boiled beets that you can buy in a good shop.

The sweetness of the beets goes well with the slightly acidic notes of the orange segments, the ginger in the dressing makes it again very suitable for a Christmas table.

Beet and Orange Salad with Ginger-Yoghurt Dressing
(Peedi-apelsinisalat ingveri-jogurtikastmega)
Serves 4

500 g roasted, steamed or boiled beets
2 large oranges
a handful of walnuts, coarsely chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper
fresh mint leaves

Ginger-yoghurt dressing:
200 ml plain yoghurt
1 tsp ground ginger or finely grated fresh ginger
salt, to taste

Peel the beets, cut into thick slices or small segments. Peel the oranges, filet them (e.g. remove the membranes). Combine beets, oranges and walnuts on a serving tray, season with salt and pepper and fold in the mint leaves.
Combine the dressing ingredients, pour over the salad or serve on the side.

Christmas Recipes 2011: Curried Parsnip Soup

Photo by Andres Teiss

I am not claiming that this curried parsnip soup is a traditional Christmas soup in Estonia or anywhere else in the world. However, after living in Scotland for seven years, I do associate parsnips - at least in their roasted incarnation - with Christmas feasts, and the warming curry spices make it immensely suitable for a lighter (and healthier) festive starter. I've used individual spices - ginger, cumin and turmeric - to spice up this pretty soup, but you can simply substitute your favourite curry powder mix for these spices.

Again, this recipe was one of the six recipes that I was recently asked to develop for a particular supermarket here in Estonia, which are included in their 2011 Christmas Newsletter. The photos for the newsletter were shot by Andres Teiss, and he has kindly allowed me to use those for my blog posts as well.

Curried Parsnip Soup
(Karrivürtsidega pastinaagisupp)
Serves six


Photo by Andres Teiss

1 to 2 Tbsp oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 garlic glove, minced
750 g parsnips (peeled weight)
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground ginger
1 litre hot vegetable stock
salt and pepper, to taste
fresh coriander/cilantro leaves, to garnish

Cut the parsnips into chunks.
Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan. Add the onion and sauté for a few minutes. Add the garlic, fry gently for another minute.
Add the spices and parsnip, stir to coat evenly with the spice mixture. Pour in the stock, season with salt and pepper. Bring into a boil, then reduce heat and simmer gently for 20-30 minutes, until the parsnip is soft.
Remove the saucepan from the heat. Process the soup until liquified (you can use either a hand-held immersion blender or a liquifier blender). Reheat the soup, season to taste, if necessary.
Garnish with a fresh coriander/cilantro leaves and serve.


Photo by Andres Teiss

Christmas Recipes: Chocolate Mousse with Cranberry Fruit Soup

Photo by Andres Teiss

Last year we had a first proper snowfall in mid-November, and that snow never really went away until late Spring. We had a beautiful winter wonderland for months. This year is totally different - it's early December, it's still green outside, and I get to pick fresh herbs from my garden. That's a perk, for sure, but I do miss snow that makes our dark winters so much lighter and more enjoyable. However, the Christmas is soon around the corner - with or without the snow - so I'll be posting mostly Christmas recipes during this month. I recently had to develop six recipes for a particular supermarket here in Estonia, which are included in their 2011 Christmas Newsletter*. This lovely and different dessert - luscious chocolate mousse with refreshingly light cranberry fruit soup (or kissel) - was one of them.

It's best to make the chocolate mousse on the previous day, as it has time to cool and set then. However, I prepared all six dishes, including this mousse, within two and half hours, so it can be made on the night of serving as well - just it'll be a wee bit more stressful :)

* The photos for the newsletter were shot by Andres Teiss, and he has kindly allowed me to use those for my blog posts as well. 

Chocolate Mousse with Cranberry Fruit Soup
(Šokolaadivaht jõhvikakisselliga)
Serves six to eight


Photo by Andres Teiss

Chocolate mousse:
200 g dark chocolate (I used Estonian "Bitter" chocolate), coarsely chopped
1 large organic egg, separated
1 to 2 Tbsp brandy, cognac or liqueur
200 to 250 ml (a cup) whipping cream

Cranberry fruit soup:
1 l cranberry juice drink (I like Granini)
sugar, to taste
3 Tbsp potato starch or cornstarch + few Tbsp cold water

To garnish:
fresh or frozen cranberries

To make the chocolate mousse: place the chopped chocolate into a heatproof bowl and either melt in the microwave or place over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from the heat, add the alcohol and stir in the egg yolk.
Whisk the egg white until stiff foam forms, then gently fold into the chocolate mousse.
Whisk the cream until it turns thick, smooth and forms soft peaks. Fold about one third into the chocolate mixture, then gently fold in the rest of the whipped cream.
Cover the bowl with a clingfilm and place into a cold fridge for couple of hours.

To make the cranberry fruit soup, pour the juice drink into a medium-sized saucepan. Add some sugar to taste, if you wish so. Bring gently to the simmer, then add the starch and water slurry, stirring while doing so. If you're using corn starch, then bring again into a boil and simmer gently, stirring, until the fruit soup thickens. If you're using potato starch, then bring again _almost_ to the simmering point and then promptly remove from the heat. Cool completely.

To serve, take two large spoons and spoon large dollops of chocolate mousse into serving bowls. Pour cranberry fruit soup around the mousse and garnish with some fresh or frozen berries. .

Book project No 2: Christmas at Home (Jõulud kodus)

Remember my first cookbook, "Nami-Nami kokaraamat" and its launch party on December 1st almost a year ago? The cookbook has done well, I'm happy to say - and I'm already working on the third book. Yes, the third one, as despite giving birth to a second baby earlier this year (and thus having two kids under-3 crawling and running around in the kitchen) I also managed to work on my second cookbook. Or kind of cookbook. My dear publishers, Varrak, kindly asked me in late Spring if I could co-author a Christmas book with Irina Tammis - she'd write the section on Christmas crafts, and I'd write the festive recipes. I was thrilled to say yes and so it happened that I was baking gingerbread and roasting black pudding in the middle of the August heatwave this year :)

The book came out in the beginning of November - first as part of the Suur Eesti Raamatuklubi (the Large Estonian Book Club, where it is the star book of November), but is now available in most bookstores in Estonia. RRP is 15.90 EUR and, obviously, it makes a wonderful Christmas gift to your loved ones (if you speak Estonian, that is :))

Here's a list of Christmas recipes - I've provided links to relevant recipes in English here on the Nami-Nami foodblog - and some pictures as well. Note that all recipes were re-tested and (usually) re-photographed during the summer, so the edited recipe in the book is necessarily not exactly the same as here on the blog.

RECIPES:

• Puff pastry pinwheels with lingonberries and black pudding

• Choux pastry puffs with black pudding
• Rosemary-scented devils on horseback
• Festive chicken liver paté with glögg jelly
• Gravadlax with star anise and oranges
• Spicy mixed nuts
• Lacy cheese crisps
• Orange Ambrosia with coconut and red berries
• Beetroot and mushroom salad
• A layered smoked salmon and vegetable salad

• Pork roast
• Crispy black pudding
• Oven-roasted vegetables
• Christmas goose
• Oven-baked salmon with scalloped beetroot
• Cabbage, three ways (sauerkraut braised in beer, red cabbage with prunes and sweet-and-sour white cabbage)
• Jansson's Frestelse
• Hasselback potatoes (aka accordion potatoes)
• Spicy Swedish meatballs

• Pear and blue cheese quiche with gingerbread spices
• Sauerkraut and chocolate cake

• Small blue cheese and marmalade tartlets
• Joulutortut aka Finnish Christmas stars

• Thumbprint cookies for Christmas
• Saffron buns with coconut topping
• My favourite Christmas fruitcake

• Gingerbread cookies (incl. glaze and various ways of shaping the cookies)
• Sliced Christmas almond and gingerbread cookies
• Gingerbread muffins
• Soft gingerbread cake with cream cheese frosting and red berries

• Gingerbread cheesecake
• Caramelized spiced almonds
• Clementines in Christmassy wine syrup
• Risalamande (a Danish sweet rice porridge with warm cherry compote)
• Mulled wine poached pears
• Eggnog

You can see the book advertisement on the publishers' website here. Of course, I'm happy to answer any questions about the cookbook and the recipes - and if there's a particular recipe that catches your idea, but isn't yet available in English on the blog, please let me know. The Christmas is just around the corner and I'd be happy to share the recipe!

Clementines in star anise and cinnamon syrup

For the first post of 2011 I chose a dessert from our new year's eve table. For various good reasons we didn't host a big new year's eve party this year, and instead had a quiet (and still lovely) evening with good friends living nearby. We were 6 adults (including one Swede), 1 schoolgirl and our little daughter. We shared a feast of cold cuts, some American and Swedish lobsters and, a layered beetroot and salmon salad, and a bit of this and that - all delicious. I was asked to contribute something sweet. I didn't want to bake a cake - exhausted from all the Christmas baking, I guess - and then decided to bring two desserts instead. Both of them were inspired by a Swedish food magazine Lantliv Mat & Vin (4/2010) that K. had recently brought back from a business trip to Stockholm. One of dishes was poached pears in a vanilla and ginger syrup, the other was clementines macerated in a spiced white wine syrup. I didn't want to open another bottle of wine, and had an half-empty vermuth bottle on hand instead, so I adapted the Swedish recipe accordingly (drastically reducing the amount of sugar, to start with!).

I loved the result - slightly spiced, slightly sweet - and a very pleasent new way of serving the clementines/mandarines that are sold everywhere at the moment.

Clementines in star anise and cinnamon syrup
(Mandariinid jõuluses veinileemes)

Serves ten or more

20 to 30 small seedless mandarines or clementines

Syrup:
250 ml dry vermut (I used Filipeti)
500 ml water
200 g sugar
3 star anise
2 cinnamon sticks

First, prepare the syryp. Measure the vermut and water to the saucepan, add star anise and cinnamon sticks. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, peel the citrus fruit, removing all the white pith carefully (I had small Moroccan clementines - a bother to peel, but at least there was no pith to remove).
Place the mandarines/clementines into a heavy glass jar or bowl, fitting them tightly next to one another. Pour over the syrup (slightly cooled), so all the fruit would be covered.
Leave to macerate/season for a few hours.

Pehme piparkook or Soft Gingerbread Cake - one of my favourite Christmas cakes

I've been making this very cake for Christmas for about 6-7 years now, and it's still one of the favourites with friends and family. I made it again for a friend's birthday party last weekend, tuning the recipe a bit - reducing the amount of sugar (you could use even less, I bet), and replacing melted butter with mild-tasting oil in the batter.

There are two things to keep in mind. First, the cake is eggless (so suitable for people with egg allergies!) and the raising agent is baking soda/bicarbonate of soda. As with other similar batters, it's important to bake the cake straight away after mixing the batter - the baking soda starts to react with acid in the batter (kefir in this case) within 15-20 minutes, and if you don't bake the cake during that time, you'll end up with a very flat christmas cake :( Secondly, you could use a much larger cake sheet, but i like this in the specified size - the cake will be about 4 cm in height, which is good for me.

Soft Gingerbread Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
(Pehme piparkook toorjuustuglasuuriga)

Makes a large cake that'll easily feed about 20

400 g plain flour
300 g caster sugar
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground cloves
1 Tbsp baking soda
0.5 tsp salt
500 ml (2 cups) kefir or cultured buttermilk
150 g lingonberry jam (IKEA stocks some)
100 g rapeseed oil or light olive oil

Cream cheese frosting:
200 g plain cream cheese, at room temperature
50 g unsalted butter, softened
150 g icing sugar/confectioner's sugar

Decorating:
lingonberries or cranberries
hazelnuts, toasted

Preheat the oven to 200 Celsius. Line a 25x30 cm cake tin with parchment paper (or simply butter it well).

Make the cake batter first. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Combine kefir, lingonberry jam and oil in a large measuring jug. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, stir quickly so the batter comes together. Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean when pierced into the middle of the cake.
Let the cake cool completely (wrap in clingfilm if not decorating straight away).

For the frosting, combine the butter, cream cheese and icing sugar in a bowl - I use a wooden spoon for that, but you could also use an electric mixer. Spread the frosting over the cake.

Decorate with red berries and toasted hazelnuts or something else festive :)

Stewed red cabbage with prunes

Christmas is just around the corner, so I'll be focusing on various festive dishes for the next week or two. We'll definitely have some traditional roast pork with sauerkraut and black pudding for a couple of times. But we've got a big family and many festive meals ahead, so there's plenty of room to play. For the last few years we've also roasted a goose, and my favourite side dish to a goose is stewed red cabbage. Here's the way I've been making it couple of times now - and I love it. The prunes add a sweetness, orange juice some freshness and a good balsamico a lovely tang. And it's a light and virtually fat-free side dish - a great alternative to the usual rich Christmas fare.

Stewed red cabbage with prunes
(Hautatud punane kapsas ploomidega)
Serves eight

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 red onions, halved and sliced
1 kg red cabbage, shredded
250 g dried plums/prunes, halved
200 ml (just under a cup) of orange juice
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1-2 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper

Heat oil on a large saucepan. Add onion and fry for a few minutes, until onion starts to soften.
Add the cabbage and sauté for 5-7 minutes, stirring regularly.
Add the prunes, orange juice, balsamic vinegar. Season with salt.
Cover with a lid and simmer on a low heat for about an hour or so, stirring every now and then, until the cabbage has softened, but still retains some bite. (Check the liquid level at the end, and add some water, if it looks too dry).
Season to taste, and serve.

NB! You can prepare this a day or two in advance. Gently re-heat thoroughly before serving.

This recipe was also included in my second cookbook, Jõulud kodus ("Christmas at Home"), published in Estonian in November 2011.

New York Times on Estonian Christmas Sausages

Photo: Pille by Nami-Nami

Yesterday's New York Times ran an article about making verivorst aka black pudding, the traditional Estonian Christmas sausage, in the Estonian House in New York. You can read the article here: Without Blood Sausage, It Just Wouldn’t Be Christmas.

Enjoy :)

Gingerbread Ricotta Cheesecake

This recipe is targeted more to my Northern European readers, who just might have a small disc of gingerbread dough hiding in the back of the fridge. (You know, for those who were just too busy during Christmas to "bake through" all the home-made gingerbread dough they made in early December). This is a great way to use up any leftovers. I've made it with both proper curd cheese and the ricotta that's becoming widely available here in Estonia, and actually prefer using ricotta here. Instead of individual spices, feel free to use a mixed spice, apple pie spice, pumpkin pie spice or gingerbread spice of your choice.

The cake is excellent with some lingonberry jam.

Gingerbread Ricotta Cheesecake
(Kohupiimakook piparkoogipõhjal)
Serves eight to ten



about 350 g gingebread dough
500 g ricotta cheese
4 large eggs
85 g caster sugar (100 ml)
0.5 tsp ground cinnamon
0.25 tsp ground cloves
a sprinkling of cardamom

Roll out the gingerbread dough into a circle about 28 cm across, then use this to line a 24 cm buttered and lined springform dish.
Whisk eggs and sugar until pale and frothy, fold in the ricotta and the spices. Spoon the filling over the gingerbread base.
Bake in a pre-heated 200 C oven for about 40-45 minutes, until the filling looks more or less set (yet still slightly wobbly - it'll cool and set once out of the oven).
Cool completely before cutting into slices and serving with lingonberry jam.

Apricot and Mulled Wine Fruit Soup

Hope you've all had a lovely Christmas with lots of delicious food! We celebrated the Christmas Eve (the main event in Estonia) with a large traditional meal at our home, and we've also had several other festive dinners over the last week. I'm now ready for some non-Christmassy food, though there are still some festive recipes I'll post over the next week.

First up is a simple fruit soup (kissel) that I made last Christmas.

You'll need a carton of light non-alcoholic glögg for this - I'm pretty sure your local Scandinavian store or IKEA food isle serves something suitable.

Apricot and Mulled Wine Fruit Soup
(Jõulune aprikoosikissell vahukoorega)
Source: Finnish Valio
Serves 6

1 litre of light (non-alcoholic) glögg or mulled wine
250 g dried apricots
3-4 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp potato starch or cornflour

Heat glögg and apricots in a saucepan. Simmer on low heat, covered, for about 30 minutes, until apricots are softened. Blend with an immersion blender until smooth.
Mix potato starch or cornflour with couple of spoonfuls of cold water, stir into the fruit soup. Bring just to the boil (when using potato starch) or cook for a few minutes (when using cornflour), stirring.
Remove from the heat, divide between dessert glasses and let cool.

Serve with some softly whipped cream (or a vegan substitute).

Eggnog Recipe

After reading about the popular American Christmas tipple, eggnog, for years, I finally took the plunge and made some last weekend. We loved it, and I'm probably making another batch tonight for tomorrow's Christmas Eve dinner, and then another one for the New Year's Eve party. The recipe below is based on Melissa's and Elise's recipes, and make an excellent Christmas-time drink.

Eggnog
(Eggnogi jõulujook)
1 litre (serves about 6)

4 large eggyolks
100 g caster sugar
500 ml milk (2 cups)
1 vanilla pod
1 cinnamon stick
250 ml whipping cream
2 Tbsp bourbon whisky
2 Tbsp dark rum

freshly grated nutmeg, to serve

In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks until frothy, then slowly beat in the sugar, whisking until fluffy.
Combine milk, cinnamon stick and vanilla pod (halved lengthwise) in a thick-bottomed saucepan. Slowly heat mixture on medium heat until it is steaming hot. Do not boil! (If you're not in a hurry, then remove the saucepan from the heat and let infuse for 30 minutes. Slowly reheat again before proceeding).
Temper the eggs by slowly adding ladlefuls of hot milk mixture into the eggs, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.
Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until it begins to thicken slightly, and coats the back of the spoon (candy thermometer should show 71C). Do not allow the mixture to boil, or the heat will curdle the egg yolks!
Remove from heat and immediately stir in the lukewarm cream (this will bring the temperature down and keep it from curdling).
Remove the vanilla pod and cinnamon stick. Cool until lukewarm, then stir in the bourbon and rum.
Chill before serving. NB! Grate some nutmeg on each serving!!

Nice Christmas Fruitcake

I say 'nice' in the title, as I cannot remember eating a Christmas fruitcake that I really liked when I lived in the UK (and I tried quite a few during my seven years there), but I LOVED this one. I know you're supposed to bake your fruitcake weeks in advance, and let it age and develop in a cool storage before eating it. I baked the one on the photo on Monday, and am dangerously close to having none left by tomorrow evening. That's why bought another several bags of dried fruit today, mixed them with booze. Will be baking another one of this tomorrow, just to make sure I have some to take along to the first of the many Christmas parties this weekend...

The type of dried fruit you use is entirely up to you. I used dried sweetened cherries, seedless raisins, dried apricots and dried pineapple pieces on Monday. At the moment I've got all these plus dried papaya pieces macerating away. As for the booze, anything rum-based will work best, I think. I've used rum-based Blossa glögg, Havana Club rum or even Vana Tallinn rum-based liqueur (those who've been to Estonia know what I'm talking about :)) If you don't like rum, use brandy instead.

English Christmas Fruitcake
Makes one large loaf or two smaller ones



250 g butter, at room temperature
200 g caster sugar (225 ml)
4 large eggs
275 g plain flour (500 ml/2 cups)
2 tsp baking powder
150 ml brandy or rum
600 g of dried fruit of your choice (about 1 litre/4 cups)

Chop the dried fruit into smaller pieces, if necessary, and pour over the brandy or rum. Leave to macerate and soften for at least few hours, preferably overnight.
Cream soft butter and sugar until pale. Whisk in the eggs, one at the time, incorporating each egg before adding the next one.
Mix flour and baking powder, then stir into the egg and butter mixture.
Fold in the dried fruit (plus any booze that's left in the bowl).
Spoon the batter into a buttered large (2-quart) baking tin.
Bake in a preheated 175 C oven for about one hour, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool, then wrap into a parchment paper and foil and leave to age for a few weeks (or a day, if you're like me:))

Holiday baking: Rugelach with prune filling

It's been a over a year since I made some delicious rugelach-cookies with hazelnut filling. After seeing a very talented young American pastry chef, Heidi Park (now based here in Tallinn), sharing her recipe for rugelach-cookies in a local food magazine, I felt the urge to make these again. I used my old recipe, and adapted the filling from Martha Stewart's recipe for Prune Rugelach.

Very pleased with the final result, so sharing it with my dear readers :)

Rugelach with Prune Filling
(Rugelach-küpsised ploomitäidisega)
Makes 32 small pastries

For the pastry:
200 g butter, softened
200 g full-fat Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
2 tsp caster sugar
200 g all-purpose/plain flour, sifted
a pinch of salt

For the filling:
200 g dried plums/prunes
100 ml brandy or cognac

Breadcrumb mixture:
4 Tbsp breadcrumbs
4 Tbsp caster sugar
0.5 tsp cinnamon

For glazing:
1 egg white, beaten with a little water

On the night before:

Pour brandy over the prunes and let soak for up to 24 hours.

Cream the warm butter and cream cheese until well blender. Beat in the sugar, then stir in the flour and salt. Mix until the dough begins to hold together, press into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and chill overnight in the fridge.

On the day of baking:
Combine the breadcrumbs, sugar and cinnamon.

Puree the prunes with the brandy until smooth.

Divide the dough ball into two and return the other half into the fridge. Roll out the pastry on a slightly floured surface into a thin circle about 25 cm /10 inches in diametre. Using a sharp knife or a pizza-wheel, cut into 16 equal wedges.

Brush the surface of the wedges with half of the prune puree, then sprinkle half of the breadcrumb mixture on top, spreading evenly as you go. Using your hand or a rolling pin, press the filling tightly down into the dough (there seems to be a lot of filling, but it'll make the pastries only nicer!).

Carefully roll up each wedge tightly, starting from the wider, outside end. You'll end up with 16 mini croissants. Brush with egg white wash.

Cover a baking tray with parchment paper and bake at the middle of a preheated 180 C/350 F oven for 20-30 minutes, until the rugelach are golden brown.

Leave to cool slightly, then transfer to a wire rack.

Repeat with the second half of the pastry - even straight away or on the following day.

Almond and Clementine Cake, Claudia Roden style

Christmas and clementines go together. At this time of the year, the shops are flooded with tiny clementines from Morocco and slightly larger specimens from Spain, and I keep buying wooden trays of the orange fruit. Mostly we simply eat them au naturel, but I've been experimenting with few dessert and cake recipes as well.

There's a lovely recipe for flourless almond and orange cake in Claudia Roden's excellent book on Jewish food that I had been wanting to make for ages. The idea of boiling whole oranges and using the whole lot - zest, pith, fruit - in a cake sounded intriguing. Nigella Lawson has adapted the recipe and uses clementines, but I followed Claudia's original instructions here. However, I used clementines instead of oranges, and an excellent Swedish clementine-flavoured glögg Blossa instead of orange flower water. We loved the resulting cake a lot - slightly bitter (from the zest and pith), very moist and just rather unusual. We'd definitely make this again - and perhaps try the original version with oranges as well. (Mmmm - perhaps even those gorgeous red 'blood oranges' when they appear in the shops in a few months?).

You want clementines with thin skin here and as little white pith as possible. That's why I chose the thin-skinned Maroc-clementines here. Oh, and it'll be a much easier job if the clementines have no or just a few seeds.

Almond and Clementine Cake
(Mandli-mandariinikook)
Serves 10

400 g clementines (about 8-9 small fruit, preferably organic and unwaxed)
6 large eggs
250 g sugar
250 g blanched ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
2 Tbsp orange flower oil or citrus liqueur

Wash the clementines carefully in hot water. Place in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring into a boil and simmer on a low heat for about 60-90 minutes, until the clementines are soft.
Drain the clementines and cool a little. Cut into halves, remove any seeds. Place the clementines into a food processor and blend into a coarse purée.
Whisk the eggs and sugar into a thick and pale foam.
Blend ground almonds with baking powder, then fold into the egg foam.
Stir the orange flower water or Blossa glögg into the clementine mixture, then gently fold into the rest of the ingredients.
Pour the batter into a buttered and lined 26 cm springform tin.
Bake in a preheated 180 C oven for about 45 minutes, until the cake is golden brown on top. Test for doneness with a wooden toothpick - it should be clean after inserting into the middle of the cake.
Cool before transfering the cake onto a serving tray.

Janssons Frestelse aka Jansson's Temptation - a tasty potato gratin from Sweden

Jansson's frestelse, 2011

Did you know that the 'ansjovis' in Jansson's Temptation, the ever-popular creamy Swedish potato gratin, is not anchovis (Engraulis encrasicolus), but sprat (Sprattus sprattus)? Sprats in brine have been called 'ansjovis' in Sweden since 17th century, which is obviously rather confusing for an English-speaking recipe translator. That's why you see 'anchovies' in most English recipes. However, the Swedish 'ansjovis' are pickled in a rather sweet brine, so substituting regular anchovies wouldn't give you the same flavour sensation. It'd be still a tasty potato gratin, but not the same..

Luckily you can find Swedish ansjovis at the food aisle of your nearest IKEA - alongside cloudberry and lingonberry jam and gingerbread cookies.


(For my readers in Estonia - I used "Kipperi anšoovis" - a sprat preserve with a highest sugar content).


Janssons Frestelse
(Janssoni kiusatus)
Serves 6


Jansson's frestelse, 2009

1 kg potatoes, peeled and cut into thick matchsticks
3 large onions
100 g spiced and pickled Swedish 'ansjovis' (sprat filets)
500 ml (2 cups) whipping cream/heavy cream
3-4 Tbsp breadcrumbs
butter
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Peel the potatoes and cut into thick matchsticks (I used my food processor for that).
Peel the onions and cut into thin slices. Fry in butter for about 5 minutes, but do not brown.
Butter a large oven dish, spread half of the potato over the base. Cover with fried onion slices, place 'ansjovis' filets on top.
Cover with the rest of the potatoes. Season moderately with salt and pepper.
Pour over the cream - you may need a bit more or a bit less - it depends on the size of the dish you're using. You want the cream to almost cover the potatoes.
Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top and dot some butter slices over the breadcrumbs.
Bake in a preheated 220 C oven for about 1 hour.
Remove from the oven, let cool for about 5 minutes, then serve either alongside a green salad or a meat roast.

This recipe was also included in my second cookbook, Jõulud kodus ("Christmas at Home"), published in Estonian in November 2011.

Easy Canapés: Medjool Dates with Goat's Cheese

Here's another canapé idea that I brought back from London. Simple, yes, but with good creamy'n'tangy goat's cheese and soft'n'sweet Medjool dates it's an excellent combination. Although dried dates can hardly be called seasonal, then there's something very Christmassy in them, in my opinion, so this would be an excellent hors d'oeuvre with a mug of hot mulled wine or glögg between now and Christmas.

Medjool dates stuffed with goat's cheese
(Kitsejuustuga täidetud datlid)
Makes 12

12 large soft Medjool dates*
100 g creamy and tangy goat's cheese
couple of sprigs of fresh thyme

Using a small knife, carefully make a slit into each date and remove the stone.
Cut the goat cheese into 12 disks and insert a piece of cheese into each date.
Place on a serving tray, garnish with fresh thyme and serve.

* I haven't seen Medjool dates anywhere in Estonia, so I bought couple of packets in London. You could use the dried dates available here, but these are about 3 times smaller than Medjool dates and nowhere near as soft.

Christmas 2008

It's the 2nd Christmas Day already, and finally I've got a spare moment to wish you all a Joyful Christmas and tell you a little about our Christmas meal. In Estonia, we celebrate Christmas Eve - that's when Father Yule (Jõuluvana) brings us presents (I've added a photo of my two nephews opening theirs a year ago). For a third year already, K. and I have had our families over for a big traditional Christmas meal. That's 10 persons altogether - my parents, K's mum and auntie, my sister with her family, and us two. Luckily we've got a big enough table to seat us all comfortably, and as we both enjoy cooking to our loved ones, hosting a Christmas dinner has been a pure pleasure.

This year we decided to start with some fish dishes. There was salmon in a red wine vinegar (a Finnish recipe that translates as 'Glass-blower's fish'), as well as lightly-salted Atlantic herring with sour cream and onions (a VERY Estonian dish that I'll tell you more about later). For those of us not too keen on fish, there were also devilled eggs on the table. These three dishes were eaten with dark rye bread and accompanied by a very nice Swedish-produced Blossa glögg (a special Christmas drink).



For the main course I roasted a big piece of marbled pork shoulder (Boston butt is the name of the cut, if I'm not mistaken. Definitely the best-selling cut here in Estonia, but not widely known outside I'm told) that I rubbed with a mixture of rosemary, garlic, Dijon mustard, honey and salt, and roasted at 160 C for a couple of hours. Very juicy and tasty - and a big hit with my pork-loving dad :) This was accompanied by the usual Estonian Christmas trimmings: oven-baked potato wedges with caraway seeds, sauerkraut braised in dark beer, black pudding, oven-baked carrot sticks with cumin seeds (well, not strictly Estonian, but these were a great addition), lingonberry jam.

[Here we had a small - but welcome - pause, opening the presents under the Christmas tree, citing poems and singing some Christmas carols].

For dessert? I made a very-very nice - and rich - Marbled Blackcurrant and Chocolate Mousse Cake, followed by coffee and tea, and piparkoogid aka gingerbread, of course, using the same recipe I did last year.



Hope you all had a lovely Christmas with lots of good food and loved ones! Häid jõule!

Something Danish for your Christmas table? Risalamande or Rice and Almond Pudding with Warm Cherry Compote

October 2012, photo by Juta Kübarsepp for the December issue of Kodu ja Aed, 2012

From the recipe archives (originally posted in January 2007)

At the tender age of 18 I moved to Denmark for a year as an exchange student. Wide-eyed and over-excited, I enjoyed the experience a lot. It was quite a life-changing experience. I didn't see my friends and family for almost a year, so I had to adjust to the new environment, make new friends and generally grow up quickly. At the age of 18, this was definitely something to cherish.

A new country meant lots of new foods, too (and over 10 kg extra weight upon return, sadly). Usually, the Danes would try to impress the exchange students by introducing them to 'typical' Danish items of kartofler med frikadeller (potatoes with meat balls) and rugbrød og leverpostej (rye bread and liver pate). Although delicious, these didn't impress me as such, as they're staple foods in in Estonia, too. But I had my first quiche, my first hotdog, my first spring roll and my first lasagne while in Denmark.

Whereas I broadened my international culinary horizons during that year, I also fell in love with one particularly Danish dish. You see, the Danes have the most delicious pudding for Christmas - risalamande or enriched rice pudding served with warm cherry compote. Risalamande contains either chopped or flaked almonds, and one whole almond is hidden in one of the bowls. The person who finds the almond will receive a special gift. You need to eat this pudding carefully, as you need to tell a whole almond from a chopped one by gently 'testing it' on your tongue. I guess you'll lose the gift if you can't show a whole almond, you see?!

I distinctly remember that when my host-mother 'mor Kirsten' served risalamande for the Christmas meal, every single child at the table found a whole almond in their pudding and none of the adults did.

What a coincidence, eh??

[PS Fancy a rice pudding and some chocolate? Try Pierre Hermé's Chocolate Rice Pudding (Feb 2006)]

Risalamande
(Mandliriis kirsikastmega)
Serves 8

December 2009

Rice porridge:
1 litre of full milk (2.5% or 3.5% fat)
150 grams short-grain porridge rice
1 vanilla pod

To enrich the porridge:
500 ml whipping cream (35%)
100 grams of almond flakes (or blanched and chopped almonds)
1 whole almond (blanched or not; you may need more if you've got children eating)
2 to 3 Tbsp sugar

Cherry compote:
a large jar of stoneless cherries in syrup (370/680 grams)
1 heaped Tbsp cornflour/corn starch/Maizena
2 Tbsp cold water

First, make the rice porridge. Slowly bring the milk to a boil. Rinse the rice in cold running water, drain and add to the boiling milk together with the vanilla pod. Stir gently until the milk comes to the boil again, then reduce heat, cover and simmer gently for 45-60 minutes, until the rice has absorbed all the milk and become soft. Cool completely.

Whisk the cream and sugar, and fold into cooled porridge together with almonds. Add more sugar, if you wish.

To make the cherry compote, bring the cherries and syrup to the boil in a small saucepan. Mix the cornstarch with cold water, stir into the cherry compote and simmer for a few minutes, until the sauce thickens a little.

Serve the cold rice and almond porridge with a warm cherry compote. And remember the extra gift to the lucky one with a whole almond in their pudding!
 

December 2008