Puff pastry pinwheels with black pudding and lingonberry jam

Black pudding (aka blood sausages) with lingonberry jam are one of the staples on Estonian Christmas table and I like using these two elements in other dishes as well. Here's a small pastry that I've been baking for 5 years already. The initial idea isn't mine. Back in November 2008 I took part at a two-day cooking course ("Modern Christmas menu") at one of the vocational training schools here in Tallinn, and we had a brain-storming session with other participants trying to come up with new twists of old favourites. One of the other participants mentioned using black pudding and lingonberries for making small pastries - I cannot remember any longer, if she was talking about something she has made already or something that could be made, neither can I remember if she was talking about the idea in general or making puff pastry pinwheels in particular. In any case, I've been rolling puff pastry sheets with crumbled black pudding and lingonberry jam and some dried marjoram ever since (here's a photo evidence from November 2008, another one from December 2008 and here's one from October 2010).

So if you've got some black pudding and lingonberry jam left over after the Christmas feast, then you can use these two to make some delightful puff pastry pinwheels. And let your guests guess what's inside - most of them seem to think it's raisins ;)

Puff pastry pinwheels with black pudding and lingonberries
(Lehttainarullid verivorsti ja pohlamoosiga)



puff pastry - either regular or yeasted puff pastry
lingonberry jam
dried marjoram (oregano will do as well)
black pudding

For brushing:
egg, whisked with some water

Roll out the puff pastry into a rectangle about 3-4 mm thick.
Spread with a thin layer of lingonberry jam, then scatter the crumbled black pudding on top. Sprinkle with some dried marjoram.
Roll tightly, starting from the longer end, into a long "sausage". Cut into 2 cm lengths. Place into paper muffin cups and transfer onto a cooking sheet.
Brush with eggwash and bake in a pre-heated 225C/435F for 10-15 minutes, until the pinwheels are nicely golden brown.

Serve either warm or at room temperature.

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

Orange salad with pomegranate seeds, perfect for the festive season

Citrus fruit and Christmas go hand in hand, no? Well, in my house they do. I like serving an orange salad during the festive season - either as a starter, like this beetroot and orange salad with ginger yoghurt dressing or this fennel and orange salad with a simple vinaigrette or even this super-simple orange and red onion salad. Or as a dessert, in a form of a simple "Orange Ambrosia, for instance.

When flipping through the pages of one of my current favourite food magazines, the Swedish-language Lantliv mat & vin, I was immediately drawn to a pretty orange and pomegranate salad. And although Christmas is still a few weeks away, we've had some snow in Estonia already - and it's snowing outside as I'm writing this post - so this salad has been sitting prettily on our table twice during the last week or so. And it'll be definitely making an appearance or two during December.

It'd make a lovely light dessert, or simply one of the dishes on your festive buffet spread. It's also vegan and gluten-free, so suits all kind of special diets.

If you're making this in Estonia and are looking for crushed cardamom seeds, then I recommend buying MEIRA cardamom - it's coarsely ground. If you're looking for fine cardamom "dust" (sorry, powder), then Meira is not for you :) Alternatively, buy whole cardamom pods and grind your own. You'll need seeds from about 20 cardamom pods to get about a teaspoon of ground cardamom. 

Orange salad with pomegranate seeds
Apelsinisalat granaatõunaseemnetega
Adapted from Lantliv Mat & Vin, Nr 6/2012 (Apelsinsallad)
Serves 4, can be easily multiplied

 

 4 large sweet oranges
1 ripe pomegranate
1 Tbsp (brown) sugar
1 tsp ground cardamom seeds

Peel the oranges with a sharp knife, then cut into thin slices, crosswise. Arrange nicely on a large plate.
Remove the pomegranate seeds and scatter on top of orange slices.
Mix the ground cardamom with sugar and sprinkle on top of the fruit.
Serve at once or leave to macerate for an hour or two in a cool place, covered.

My recipes in Home & Garden (Kodu & Aed), October 2012

This is the cover of the October issue of one of the best-selling home magazines in Estonia, Kodu and Aed (Home and Garden) and it has my name on the cover page :)

"How come?", you wonder.

In early September I got a phone call from their editor-in-chief, Ms Veigel, asking if I'd be interested in being the editor of the food section. The phone call was totally unexpected and came out of the blue - but as I am unable to return to my academic post at the University just now, I decided to say yes. It all went very quickly then - turned out they wanted me to be in charge of the October issue already and I had about a fortnight to come up with the menu and do the photoshoot. With the help of Juta Kübarsepp, the photographer, we ended up with the following "Pille Petersoo sügismarjamenüü" aka my autumn berries menu. The concept behind the menu was that while Estonians are very good in forageing for wild forest berries (cranberries, blueberries, bilberries, cloudberries, lingonberries and such like), they often overlook the berries in our own garden. Hence I focused on black aronia aka chokeberries (a popular and very beautiful hedge plant, the berries are mainly used for making cordial), sea-buckthorn berries (the super-berry of 1990s and 2000s over here) and rowanberries (the berries of rowan or mountain ash; see also and article in The Guardian).  All three are pretty abundant, especially if you live in a small garden town or on the countryside, yet the vitamin-rich and antioxydant-rich fruit of those trees/bushes are too often left for birds to eat (while trendy urbanites spend a fortune on exotic super-berries like acai, goji, golden inca etc).

Here's the menu, photos by Juta Kübarsepp. 

Gravadlax with sea-buckthorn juice and berries:

My autumn berry menu began with lightly salted salmon filet (rainbow trout would be excellent, too), that had been seasoned with salt, sugar, pepper and concentrated sea-buckthorn juice. After 24 hours in the fridge, the fish was thinly sliced and garnished with whole sea-buckthorn berries.

Beef or venison "olives" with rowanberry gravy, accompanied with carrot ragout:

The sliced beef or venison is topped with sliced carrot, onion and some rowanberries, then rolled up, fried in the mixture of butter and oil, and then simmered in liquid until done.  The carrot ragout is a simple mix of sliced carrots, onions, oil, water, rosemary and seasonings. Earlier versions of both recipes have been featured here on Nami-Nami about five years ago (see here).

Black aronia smoothie and whipped semolina pudding with apples and black aronia berries:


The smoothie is a mix of banana, a handful of black aronia berries, a spoonful of kama or oat bran or oats, a cup of kefir or plain yogurt, sweetened with honey or maple syrup. The whipped semolina pudding (mannavaht) is made with water, apples, black aronia berries, sugar and (wholemeal or spelt) semolina/cream of wheat.

Sea-buckthorn smoothie and sea-buckthorn kissel with crispy rye bread crumbs:

The smoothie is a mix of banana, regular or oat milk, (frozen) sea-buckthorn berries or undiluted juice, sweetened with honey or maple syrup. The fruit soup (kissel) contains water, sugar, pureéd sea-buckthorn berries and potato starch/flour (cornflour would do), served with curd cheese mouse and garnished with crispy rye bread crumbs.

How do you like the menu? Are you familiar with any of the berries and if yes, then how do you tend to use them in the kitchen.

We shot the November issue last week and are shooting the December one in a few days, so there's a lot of cooking and writing going on at our house just now.

Oven-baked toffee apples (from the recipe archives)

September 2010

This recipe was originally posted in September 2008, but it's still a big favourite with our friends and family, so I decided to showcase this again. It's a wonderful twist on the traditional oven-baked apples, that should appeal to everybody with a sweet tooth.

Oven-baked Toffee Apples
(Ahjus küpsetatud õunad mandli-iirisekattega)
Serves 4 to 6

September 2008

4 to 6 large firm apples

Toffee-almond topping:
50 g almond slices
50 g unsalted butter
200 ml soft brown sugar
200 ml whipping or double cream
1 Tbsp potato starch or cornflour

To serve:
vanilla ice cream

Peel the apples (NB! this is optional, see comment below*), halve and core them. Fit them snugly into a buttered oven-dish, cut-side down.

Mix brown sugar and potato flour/cornflour in a small saucepan. Add butter, almond slices, and fresh cream. Bring slowly into the boil, stirring regularly. Spoon the toffee mixture onto the apples.

Bake in the middle of a pre-heated 200 C / 400 F oven for 20-30 minutes (cooking time depends on the apples), until apples are cooked and toffee topping has thickened. KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE PUDDING and take care not to burn the toffee sauce!!!

Cool a little and serve with ice cream or soft whipped cream.

* In general, I tend not to peel apples from my mum's or grandma's garden, or apples from a reputable organic source. However, peeling apples beforehand does make for neater presentation and easier eating afterwards.

 

This recipe was also included in my first cookbook, Nami-Nami kokaraamat ("Nami-Nami Cookbook"), published in Estonian in December 2010.

Apple and Cheddar Cheese Scones

Poster designed by Marju Randmer of Tassike.ee

My local farmers market, Viimsi Taluturg, hosts a big apple feast tomorrow, called Ubinapäev. If I remember it correctly, its the third year in a row. And for the second year in a row, a group of local foodbloggers, including yours truly, sets up a apple cake stand, Toidublogijate õunakoogikohvik. There are five of us, just like last year, and as last year was lots of fun and a great success (we sold all the cakes within 2 hours or so), we're more than happy to participate this year as well. So all of you who are in Tallinn or Viimsi tomorrow, are most welcome to come by and have some apple cake. But come early :)

Today's recipe is for apple and Cheddar cheese scones. The ones on the picture were made exactly a year ago, and come highly recommended. If it weren't for the prohibitive cost of Cheddar cheese over here, I'd make these for the apple cake stand tomorrow. These are excellent - slightly sweet, slightly savory, full of roasted apples and strong-flavoured cheese - a great snack first thing in the morning or with your afternoon cup of tea.

The original recipe appeared in Melissa Clark's "The Perfect Finish" (2010, Apple and White Cheddar Scones), but I've played with the amounts and ingredients a little. Smitten Kitchen and Leite's Culinaria have blogged about the same recipe from the same book (these are helpful when you're looking for US measurements). And a search for apple cheddar scones gives numerous results on the FoodBlogSearch, if you're looking for something slightly different.

Apple and Cheddar Cheese Scones
(Õuna-juustukakud)
Makes 6 large scones


3 to 4 large apples (about 450 g/1 pound in total)
200 g all-purpose flour
4 Tbsp + 1.5 Tbsp caster sugar
0.5 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
85 g cold butter, cut into cubes
100 g strong/mature Cheddar cheese, coarsely grated
4 Tbsp (1/4 cup) fresh cream (single or double)
2 large eggs, divided

Line a baking sheet with a parchment paper. Peel the apples, remove the cores and cut apples into thin sectors. Place on the baking sheet on an even layer, and bake at 180 C/350 F for about 20 minutes.
Remove from the oven, let cool.

  

Mix the dry ingredients (flour, 4 Tbsp of sugar, baking powder and salt). Place the cubed cold butter into your food processor. Add the apples, grated cheese, fresh cream and 1 egg. Scatter the dry mix on top. Using the slowest setting, quickly mix the dough until it just comes together.

 

Line a baking sheet with a clean parchment paper.

Place the scone mixture onto a lightly floured table, sprinkle some flour on top as well. Gently roll  it into a round disk, about 3.5 cm high. Cut into 6 sectors and transfer these onto the baking sheet, leaving some space between the scones.

Whisk the remaining  egg with a pinch of salt. Brush the scones with the egg wash, then sprinkle with the rest of the sugar.

Bake in the middle of a preheated 180 C oven for about 30 minutes, until the scones are lovely golden brown.

Let cool a little, then transfer onto a metal rack to cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

Coconut and Blueberry Cake

I'm on a blueberry mood just now. As I told in my previous post (baked blueberry cheesecake with a sour cream jelly topping, remember) we're having a very good year of blueberries and bilberries in Estonia just now, so the amount of blueberry dishes that are being cooked and baked in Nami-Nami kitchen just now is quite considerable (take note of these yeast rolls with blueberry, vanilla and curd cheese filling, for instance). And the season is not even over yet, although other lovely berries - tart lingonberries/cowberries, for instance, are ripening quickly.

This simple coconut and blueberry cake was featured on our table twice during last week alone. Simple, quick, tasty, and has already received positive feedback from my Estonian readers, so it comes with good recommendations. Because of its simplicity, I'd describe it as rather a midweek cake and not a fancy weekend affair.

Coconut and Blueberry Cake
(Kookoshelbe-mustikakook)
Serves 10
Adapted from the Swedish food magazine Allt om Mat.



75 g butter, melted
2 large eggs
100 g caster sugar
100 g all-purpose/plain flour
100 g coconut flakes (unsweetened)
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
half a lemon, juice and finely grated zest

Topping:
200 ml (about a cup) blueberries/bilberries
2 Tbsp (demerara) sugar

Butter and line the base of a 24 cm springform tin with parchment paper.
Mix the dry ingredients (flour, coconut flakes, baking powder, salt) in a medium bowl.
Whisk the eggs and sugar in your mixer until light, thick and fluffy. Gently stir in the melted butter and the dry ingredients, then season with lemon juice and zest.
Pour the batter into the cake tin. Scatter the blueberries on top, sprinkle with demerara sugar.
  

Bake in the middle of a preheated 175 C/350 F oven for 30 minutes, until the cake is fully cooked and light golden on top.

Cool a little, then cut into slices and serve.



More blueberry/bilberry recipes:
Blueberry and sour cream tart
Baked blueberry cheesecake with sour cream jelly topping
Blueberry and lemon friands
French blueberry tart
Blueberry pancakes
Baked semolina pudding with custard and blueberries
Blueberry syrup
Blueberry jam

Blueberry Cheesecake recipe

Need a rich and gorgeous-looking cake to serve with coffee or finish your next dinner party? I wholeheartedly recommend this chocolate-blueberry-sour cream cheesecake. There's a Digestive and dark chocolate base (graham crackers would work just as well), topped with blueberry and cream cheese layer. These two layers are baked in the oven. When the cheesecake is cooled, it's topped with a third layer, a sour cream jelly layer, which provides a stunning contrast in colour as well as a cooling flavour and texture contrast. Our family and friends were very pleased with the cake.

You can use both blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum) or bilberries (Vaccinium myrtillus) for making this cake. The first are more common in the US, are larger and whitish inside, the latter are more common in Europe (Scottish blaeberries, French myrtilles, Estonian mustikad), are smaller and blackish-blue inside (see here for a very good comparison of the two). I used the latter - simply because it's the bilberry season just now, and it's a very good year for local bilberries (reflected also in the prices at the market.


Note that the anthocyanin content of fresh bilberries is almost 4 times higher than in blueberries, so if you can choose between the two, go for the smaller wild berries. 

The cheesecake keeps for a few days in the fridge.

Blueberry Cheesecake
(Mustika-toorjuustukook)
Adapted from Allt om Mat (a Swedish food magazine)
Serves 8 to 12

 

Cookie base:
200 g Digestives or graham crackers
50 g dark chocolate, chopped
75 g unsalted butter, melted

Cream cheese layer:
400 g cream cheese
200 g sour cream/creme fraiche
100 g caster sugar
250 g blueberries/bilberries
2 Tbsp cornflour/cornstarch
grated zest of 1 small lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla sugar

Sour cream jelly layer:
200 g sour cream
170 g caster sugar (200 ml)
3 gelatine leaves

Pre-heat the oven to  175 C/350 F.
Cover the base of a 24 cm/10'' springform tin with parchment paper.

Make the cookie base: Place Digestives and chopped dark chocolate into your food processor and process till fine crumbs form. Add the melted butter and process again till combined and moist. Press the cookie mixture onto the base of your prepared tin. Bake for about 10 minutes in the pre-heated oven.

Meanwhile, make the cheesecake layer. Use a kitchen tissue to wipe the bowl of your food processor clean. Place all the ingredients into the bowl and process till smooth and dark purple in colour. Spoon the cheesecake mixture onto the pre-baked cookie base, smoothing the top. Return to the oven and bake for about 40 minutes, until it looks set (it'll set further when cooling).
Remove from the oven, let cool to the room temperature, then cover with kitchen foil or clingfilm and place into a fridge or a cold larder overnight (or for at least 4 hours).

Couple of hours before serving, cover the the cheesecake with the sour cream jelly layer.  Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for about 5 minutes.
Mix sour cream and sugar in a small saucepann and heat slowly on a low heat, stirring regularly, until the sugar has melted. The mixture should be about 60-70 C (140-158 F). Now squeeze the gelatine leaves dry, one at a time, and stir into the sour cream mixture until amalgamated.
Pour the sour cream mixture carefully on top of your cooled cheesecake and return to the fridge for an hour or two.

To serve, carefully transfer the cheesecake onto your serving tray. Decorate with more berries and serve, cutting into slices of your preferred size.

More blueberry/bilberry recipes:
Blueberry and sour cream tart
Blueberry and lemon friands
Simple coconut and blueberry cake
French blueberry tart
Blueberry pancakes
Baked semolina pudding with custard and blueberries
Blueberry syrup
Blueberry jam

More cheesecake recipes:
Nami-Nami's favourite cheesecake 
Raspberry cheesecake brownie
Rhubarb ripple cheesecake
Sea-buckthrorn and Amaretto cheesecake
Cold wild strawberry coulis with warm marzipan cheesecake
Baked rhubarb cheesecake
Baked lemon cheesecake
Chocolate cheesecake
Lingonberry cheesecake

Watermelon and feta salad with roasted pumpkin seeds and balsamic vinegar

August 2012

Watermelons are at their best just now - juicy and sweet, very flavoursome. Coincidentally, we've also had few rather warm days here in Estonia, with temperatures reaching 30 C. I imagine the watermelon vendors are doing a brisk business, and our family and friends are helping them rather nicely.

 
August 2010

I had some girlfriends over for an al fresco lunch at our patio on Tuesday, and they brought along a large watermelon. We ate half of it au naturel, but were too stuffed to finish the rest. I cubed it, and chucked the cubes into the fridge. Yesterday, my mum and two of my aunties came over for an al fresco lunch (yes, it's that time of the year - and as I do like entertaining, my extended family and friends are all very welcome), so I used those chilled watermelon cubes to
 a) make a simple watermelon juice (process the fruit until smooth, then press through a sieve and serve over ice cubes, diluted with some soda water, if too thick).
 b) make this watermelon salad.  It's an old favourite of mine that I've been making for years, and yes, the recipe was included in my first cookbook. The salty feta, juicy-fresh watermelon and nutty crispy pepitas - all drizzled with a piquant balsamic dressing - are simply wonderful together. 

More watermelon salad recipes:
Watermelon, feta and lime salad @ Nami-Nami 
Watermelon, feta and olive salad @ Nami-Nami
Watermelon Salad Thing  @ Lootie + Doof (very cool!)
Tomato and watermelon salad @ Steamy Kitchen
Kurgi-arbuusisalat mündi ja basiilikuga  @ Pisike ja Pisut Segi

 
August 2010

Watermelon and feta salad with roasted pumpkin seeds and balsamic dressing
(Feta-arbuusisalat röstitud kõrvitsaseemnetega)
Serves  8 

Balsamic dressing:
1 dl balsamic vinegar (a good supermarket brand is ok, nothing fancy)
85 g (100 ml, 7 Tbsp) caster sugar

Salad ingredients:
3-4 Tbsp pumpkin seeds (hulled, of course)
1 smaller watermelon
200 g feta cheese
handful of fresh mint and/or basil leaves

Start by making the dressing. Combine sugar and balsamico in a small saucepan and bring quickly into a boil. Let bubble on a high heat for a minute, then transfer the balsamic syrup into a small bowl or jug and let cool.
Toast the pumpkin seeds on a hot skillet until aromatic and toasty. Take care not to burn them!

Cut the feta cheese and watermelon flesh into cubes (re: the size - it's up to you). Transfer onto a serving plate or shallow bowl, drizzle with balsamic dressing and scatter pumpkin seeds and mint/basil leaves on top.

Serve immediately, and let everybody help themselves to more balsamic dressing, if they want.

HINT: if you're in a hurry, you can omit the balsamic syrup bit and simply drizzle the salad with a good aged balsamic vinegar or use one of those thickened balsamic syrups from a bottle. 

 
August 2010

Sunday pancakes with crushed berries

If you're thinking that those are tiny green gooseberries and our famous cloudberries, you're wrong. The green berries are actually blackcurrants* (Ribes nigrum) - yes, you read it correctly - and perfectly ripe ones at that. The green blackcurrant variety is called "VERTTI", and it was released by MTT Agrifood Research Finland in 1986. The berries have the typical pleasant blackcurrant flavour, but are sweeter, a bit milder and less sour - perfect for eating straight off the bush! (On the upside - the birds don't seem to want them, as they're having hard time spotting them in the first place. More berries for us!).

The yellow berries are simply golden raspberries or yellow raspberries, an albino variety of your regular red raspberry (Rubus idaeus). It's a local variety called "HELKAL", developed at the Polli Horticultural Research Centre in Southern Estonia during the last century and officially registered in 2004.

Once you've filled your stomach with the fresh berries au naturel, you can get a wee bit more adventurous and mash some of the berries with some sugar:

 

And enjoy with your Sunday morning pancakes. Isn't it just a glorious and unusual colour?

Enjoy! Bon appetit! Head isu! :)

* I came across this interesting bit of information about blackcurrants in the US. Fascinating!

Blackcurrants were once popular in the United States as well, but became rare in the 20th century after currant farming was banned in the early 1900s, when blackcurrants, as a vector of white pine blister rust (männi-koorepõletik, mida põhjustab roosteseen, mille vaheperemeheks on sõstrapõõsas), were considered a threat to the U.S. logging industry. The federal ban on growing currants was shifted to jurisdiction of individual states in 1966, and was lifted in New York State in 2003 through the efforts of horticulturist Greg Quinn. As a result, currant growing is making a comeback in New York, Vermont, Connecticut and Oregon.  However, several statewide bans still exist including Maine and New Hampshire. 
Since the American federal ban curtailed currant production nationally for nearly a century, the fruit remains largely unknown in the United States, and has yet to regain its previous popularity to levels enjoyed in Europe or New Zealand. Owing to its unique flavour and richness in polyphenols, dietary fibre and essential nutrients, awareness and popularity of blackcurrant is once again growing, with a number of consumer products entering the market. 

Source: Wikipedia

Cardamom and red currant cake

The red currants are all ripe and ready now in our garden, and we're using them a lot for making different cakes and desserts. Here's the most recent one - a simple red currant cake, served with homemade and freshly churned red summer berry and mascarpone ice cream.  So simple and so delicious. The original recipe from a Swedish food magazine glazed the cake with a toffee-cream cheese topping, but we never got around to making the glaze - the cake was lovely the way it is presented here:



I must admit that not many of these berries make it to the kitchen, as both our kids love eating fresh berries straight off the red currant bush (the same fate falls upon black currants, raspberries, garden strawberries and small Alpine strawberries - and any other edible berries in our garden):
 
Aksel, 1 y 6 m (July 2012)

Here's our daughter (now 3 y 5 m) doing exactly the same thing last year:
Nora, 2 y 5 m (July 2011)

Cardamom works really well with red currants. If you're making this cake in Estonia or Finland and not podding and crushing your own cardamom pods, I suggest using Meira's ground cardamom - it's much more flavoursome than the other readily available competing brands, mainly because Meira's cardamom is not ground to a fine dust but left rather coarse.

Cardamom and red currant cake
Adapted from the Swedish Allt om Mat magazine (original recipe)
Makes 20-24 cake slices

 

150 g butter, melted
50 ml (3 Tbsp + 1 tsp) milk
3 large eggs
250 g caster sugar (about 300 ml)
275 g all-purpose/plain flour
1 Tbsp vanilla sugar or 2 tsp good-quality vanilla extract
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cardamom
300 ml (a heaped cup) of red currants

Pre-heat the oven to 175 C/350 F. 

Whisk eggs and sugar until pale, thick and fluffy in a big bowl.
Mix melted butter and milk until combined. 
Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, vanilla sugar and cardamom) in a medium bowl, then gently fold into the egg mixture, alternating with the butter and milk mixture.
Line a 25x35 cm cake tin with a parchment paper, spoon the batter into the cake tin.
Scatter the red currants on top.

Bake the cake in the middle of a preheated oven for about 25-30 minutes, until light golden brown on top. Remove from the oven and let cool either lightly or completely before cutting into squares and serving.

More excellent recipes using redcurrants:
Red currant meringue pie (Nami-Nami)
Simple and versatile redcurrant jelly (Nami-Nami)
Red currant jam (David Lebovitz)
Red currant tart  (Delicious Days)
Red currant mini cakes (La Tartine Gourmande)
Red currant sorbet  (Delicious Days)
Peach redcurrant crumble (Mowielicious)

A simple marzipan and gooseberry cake recipe

The gooseberry season has begun and here's one of my favourite cakes for using up those gooseberries (you'll find more delicious ways of using gooseberries at the end of this post). It's a simple sponge cake, made special by the generous amount of sour gooseberries and tiny chewy bits of cooked marzipan.

You'll need a small sheet pan for this cake, about 25x35 cm (10 inch x 14 inch) in size.

Trivia: Did you know that the French call gooseberries the "mackerel berries" (groseille a macqueraux)? Neither did I...

Marzipan and gooseberry cake 
(Tikri-martsipanikook)
Serves about 20

4 large free-range eggs
250 g caster sugar (about 300 ml)
150-200 g marzipan
250 g all-purpose/plain flour (about 400 ml)
a pinch of salt

Topping:
500 ml gooseberries, rinsed, topped and tailed (2 cups)
50 g cold butter (about 2 Tbsp)
demerara brown sugar or pearl sugar

To serve:
icing sugar/confectioner's sugar
vanilla custard/creme anglaise (optional)

 

Whisk the eggs and sugar until pale, thick and fluffy.
Grate the marzipan coarsely (you can put the marzipan into freezer for half an hour to make grating easier), or simply cut or crumble into small chunks. Fold into the egg and sugar mixture.
Fold in the flour and salt, stir gently until combined.
Line a Swiss roll tin (ca 25x35 cm) with a parchment paper or butter generously and dust with flour or semolina.
Spoon the batter into the prepared cake tin. Scatter the gooseberries on top, then sprinkle with sugar and dot with small pieces of butter (feel free to use your grater here again).
That's how it will look:

 

Bake in a pre-heated 200C/390 F oven for about 35-45 minutes, until the cake is golden brown.

Let cool a little, then cut into squares and dust generously with an icing sugar.

Other gooseberry recipes:
Gooseberry tart with a sweetened condensed milk topping
Gooseberry fruit soup aka gooseberry kissel
Carrot and gooseberry jam
Gooseberry chutney
Red gooseberry sorbet
Coconut gooseberry clafoutis @ The Kitchn

Recipe for an ice-cold wild strawberry coulis with warm marzipan cheesecake

We've had better summers than the current one. It's been raining a lot, the temperatures are a few degrees below the usual over-20C, and the sunshine has been limited. Quite sad, actually, but apparently that's the case with most central and northern European countries this year.

However, on Saturday morning the rain had stopped, the skies had cleared and the sun was out, so we packed our little family into the car, picked up one of the grandmothers and drove out of town to forage for wild strawberries. Couple of hours and a healthy dose of fresh country air later we returned home with just about a kilogram (over 2 pounds) of the precious berries. (Note that I'm talking about the real wild berries, Fragaria vesca, not the oblong cultivated Alpine strawberries, Fragaria vesca var. semperflorens).

 
Wild strawberries, picked in June 2007 

Usually I make wild strawberry fridge jam, but I had done that on Friday night with 2,5 kilos of wild strawberries we had bought at a market. The next usual step would be to mix the berries with a sprinkling of sugar and some grass-fed milk, but I had done that already, too. We also had friends coming over for dinner on Saturday night, so I wanted to do something special and different this time.

Remembering that the Swedes love their smultron a lot as well, I turned to their popular Allt om Mat recipe site, and came across this wonderful recipe for an ice-cold/semi-frozen wild strawberry soup with warm marzipan cheesecake.

Warm marzipan cheesecake with cold wild strawberry coulis 
(Jäine metsmaasikasupp sooja martsipani-toorjuustukoogiga)
Serves 6


Cold strawberry coulis:
200 ml water
125 g caster sugar (150 ml)
500 ml wild strawberries (2 cups)
0.5 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Warm marzipan cheesecake:
100 g marzipan
200 g cream cheese (Philadelphia or such like)
2 free-range eggs
2 Tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

To serve:
wild strawberries 

First prepare the ice-cold wild strawberry soup/couilis. 
Bring water and sugar into a boil in a small saucepan. Boil for a minute, then remove from the heat and stir in the wild strawberries:

 

Using an immersion blender/hand-held blender, process the berries and the syrup until smooth (if you dislike tiny seeds, you can press the whole thing through a fine sieve, but I found it totally unnecessary).
Season to taste with vanilla and lemon juice, then place into the freezer for a few hours.
Give the mixture a stir every now and then.

About 45 minutes before you intend to serve the dessert, make the marzipan cheesecake. 
Preheat the oven to 175 C/350 F.
Grate the marzipan coarsely or simply use your fingers to divide it into small crumbs. Mix with the rest of the ingredients and process until smooth (again, I was using my immersion blender).
Divide the mixture between six buttered small ramekins or silicone muffin/friand tins.
Bake in the middle of the pre-heated oven for about 25 minutes, until the cheesecakes look cooked and are light golden brown.
Remove the marzipan cheesecakes from the oven and let cool for 10-15 minutes.

To plate and serve:
Remove the cheesecakes carefully from the tins and place on six dessert plates. Pour the ice-cold wild strawberry coulis around the warm cheesecakes.
Garnish with wild strawberries - ideally on straw, to bring back those innocent childhood memories :)

More posts about wild strawberries:
Wild strawberry fridge jam
Picking wild strawberries in 2006
Wild strawberries and cream
Fraises des bois  @ David Lebovitz
Wild strawberries from the garden @ Chocolate & Zucchini
Maapealne paradiis ehk seitse liitrit metsmaasikaid  @ Koopatibi küpsetab (in Estonian)

Endomela ice cream shop in Akko, Israel, and a recipe for a wonderful apricot sorbet

 
You'll find the recipe for this wonderfully aromatic and flavoursome apricot sorbet at the end of this post.  

Endomela is a play of three Hebrew words, Ein-Dome-La. The meaning? "Similar to none" or "Unlike no other". This is the name of a small ice cream parlour in Akko (known as Acre in English), a small town in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel. Akko was first mentioned on the tribute-lists of pharaoh Thutmose III in the 16th century BC, and is considered to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in this part of the world. A place with history indeed.

We visited Akko in the midday heat in the middle of the hot Israeli summer, so it was hard to grasp that the city is a home to some 45 thousand inhabitants. I guess that most of them were hiding in the safety of their cool and possibly air-conditioned homes and not wandering around the streets.

We were in Akko for a reason, of course. As we were exploring the culinary delicacies Israel has to offer, we had arrived to have a light lunch at a famous seafood restaurant URI BURI, meet the man behind the restaurant, Uri (Jeremias) Buri (pictured just below), visit his ice cream shop and enjoy a private tour of his recently opened beautiful boutique hotel Efendi and finish with a "light" tapas-style lunch at the hotel restaurant. I'll write about the fish restaurant and the hotel another time, today I'll give you a peek into his ice cream shop, the smartly-named Endomela.



Here's Uri Jeremias aka Uri Buri and me in front of his ice cream shop in Akko. American journalist Eric Westervelt described Uri Jeremias in his article for NPR.org as having stepped out of a Tolkien novel, with "his thick, long, elfish beard, ample paunch and mischievous smile". My 3,5 year old daughter is convinced that I was served ice cream by Santa Claus/Father Christmas himself :)

Uri (Jeremias) Buri had been making and serving ice cream at this fish & seafood restaurant for years, but as the restaurant's kitchen is tiny, he had to move out his ice cream business into separate premises. He opened Endomela within a short walking distance from his restaurant just over a year ago. In addition to a number of sweet sorbets, ice creams and frozen yoghurts, he also makes some intriguing savoury combinations. We had a taste of this wasabi-sorbet, served with smoked salmon, as well of arak-flavoured sorbet destined as a palate-cleanser between various fish courses at his restaurant. 



Uri scooping some of his lovely ice cream for us. (Photo by Noa Magger). We got to sample pretty much all the available flavours.


Endomela's ice cream selection. (Photo by Noa Magger).

All ice cream is made at the premises and in small batches. At the time of our visit, they were churning a very refreshing pineapple sorbet. My very favourite one was Endomela's mint ice cream - so fresh and minty, definitely not your regular beach-front chocolate and mint concoction (you can see it on the right on the photo above). Uri told us he uses a combination of spearmint "Nana" (Mentha spicata, Israelis call it sweet mint or nana) and the highly aromatic Emperor's mint or Roman mint (Micromeria sp)  to achieve the immensely refreshing and bright minty flavour.

The runner-up was Endomela's apricot sorbet. Yet pretty much everything else we tried was wonderful as well - cardamom ice cream, passionfruit sorbet, halva ice cream, lime and poppyseed frozen yoghurt - you name it.

I've made apricot ice cream before, but not apricot sorbet, and that's what I decided to replicate at home first. As the reigning king of all things ice cream and sorbet, David Lebovitz, was also taking part in our trip to Endomela, I decided to use his recipe as a base. I know David provides his recipes both in Imperial and Metric, but his starting point is still the pound and not a kilo, so I did some minor revisions (if I'd ask for 900 grams of apricots or 110 grams of chocolate chips in a store, I'd get very weird looks. While these amounts would make perfect sense to someone who's grown up with pounds and ounces, then 900 grams (2 pounds) of apricots and 110 grams (1/4 of a pound) of chocolate would make perfect sense. For us, it's a weird 100 grams less than a kilo and a funny 10 grams more than 100 grams, if you know what I mean). I also reduced the amount of sugar just a tiny bit, as the apricots I was using were very sweet and very ripe (ripeness and the amount of fruit sugar are related, you see).


The Bergeron apricots @ Marche de Saint-Antoine, Lyon, France. August 2009
 
My favourite apricots for making all kinds of desserts are the French Bergeron ones. This time I used a lovely Spanish alternative - dark orange, very sweet and just a perfectly slightly acidic. You may add more sugar or a dash of lemon juice to the sorbet mix, depending on the type of apricots you're using.

Apricot Sorbet
Slightly adapted from David Lebovitz's excellent book The Perfect Scoop
Makes about 1 litre



1 kg very ripe apricots (that's just over 2 lbs)
250 ml/1 cup water
200 ml/170 grams caster sugar (that's 1 cup minus 3 level Tbsp)
0.5 tsp vanilla extract

Split the apricots in half, remove the stones, and cut each half into thirds.
Place the apricot pieces and water in a medium saucepan, cover. Cook over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until apricots are softened and begin to fall apart.
Remove from the heat, stir in the sugar and let the mixture cool to room temperature.
Once cool, pureé the mixture in a food processor or blender until smooth. Season with vanilla. Cover and chill thoroughly in the refrigerator, preferably overnight.
Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Similar posts:
Erin Zimmer of Serious Eats writes about Endomela: Snapshots from Israel: Uri Buri and his ice cream.
Other posts about my trip to Israel.
Other ice cream and sorbet recipes here on Nami-Nami.
More ice cream and sorbet recipes on David Lebovitz's blog.

* Disclaimer: I spent six days in Israel in late June/early July as a guest of a non-profit social start-up Kinetis, more specifically their Vibe Israel programme. This particular trip hosted five international food bloggers and writers, introducing them to the multifaceted and pluralist Israeli culture and cuisine. Visit to Uri Buri restaurant, the Efendi Hotel and the adjacent ice cream parlour Endomela in Akko/Acre in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel was part of that trip.

Rhubarb and sour cream tart

Rhubarb season, which seems to have last for a few weeks now in England and in parts of the US, has just began in Estonia (remember, my homeland is at about 58.5 latitude, so quite far up north). During the last week or two, I've already baked two batches of my very favourite rhubarb muffins, cooked a batch of rhubarb kissel (kind of fruit soup), and devoured this spiced rhubarb sheet cake with my family. You'll find all Nami-Nami's rhubarb recipes in this post. Next up? Probably this rhubarb curd from my friend Alanna, and then perhaps Rachel's rhubarb and plum crisp from David's blog? We'll see.

If you do have a good rhubarb recipe suggestion, please share it in the comments!

Today's cake recipe has been another rhubarb favourite for years, and it's also much loved by the readers of my Estonian Nami-Nami site - about 48 people have commented the cake recipe, most of them saying how much they love it :)

Remember - as long as you're using nice and young rhubarb stalks (preferably red-skinned!), there's no need to peel the rhubarb first.  

The idea is from a Finnish Ruokala site (Antin raparperipiiras), but over the years I've modified it considerably to suit my taste, so am happily claiming this as Nami-Nami's rhubarb cake recipe :)

Delicious rhubarb cake with sour cream topping 
(Hõrk rabarbrikook hapukoorega)
Serves eight

Pastry:
100 g butter, at room temperature
85 g caster sugar (100 ml)
50 g sour cream
1 egg
180 g all-purpose flour (300 ml)
1 tsp baking powder

Filling:
250 g sour cream (20% dairy fat)
4 Tbsp caster sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla sugar or extract

Topping:
4 to 5 rhubarb stalks, cut into 5-8 mm slices
demerara sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 200 C/400 F. 

Cream the butter with sugar. Stir in the sour cream and egg, then fold in the flour that's been mixed with baking powder. Stir until combined - the pastry should be soft, but not watery. Using your hands, spread the pastry onto the base and sides of a 24 cm (9-to-10-inch) loose-bottomed springform tin.
For the filling, combine all the ingredients. Pour onto the pastry base.
Scatter rhubarb on top, sprinkle with some demerara sugar.
Bake in the middle of a preheated oven for about 30 minutes, until the pastry is golden and the filling is set.Cool in the tin, then carefully remove the tin and transfer the cake onto a serving plate.

A wonderful coconut and rhubarb tart

I admit that this is basically a re-posting - recipe was already featured on Nami-Nami back in 2007 - but it's been a while and I've tweaked the recipe during those years. Hope you'll forgive me :) I liked the original version quite a bit, but think this modified one is even better. Curiously, I've halved the amount of coconut. If you let it cool completely before tucking in - preferably overnight - it's still immensely coconut-flavoured, yet delicately letting the rhubarb shine as well. Double the coconut - and it's all too sweet and just not right..

So here you go, Rhubarb and Coconut Tart, version 2012.
(Rabarbri-kookosekook)
Serves 8

Crust:
180 g all-purpose flour (300 ml)
2 Tbsp caster sugar
a pinch of salt
100 g cold butter, cubed
1 egg

Filling:
300 g rhubarb, chopped into 1-2 cm chunks

Topping:
75 g butter, softened
170 g caster sugar (200 ml)
1 tsp vanilla sugar or extract
250 g plain yogurt or sour cream
2 eggs
100 g unsweetened shredded coconut

Start with the crust. Sift flour, sugar and salt into a bowl. Add the butter and pinch until crumbly. Add the egg, combine the pastry quickly. Wrap into a clingfilm and place into the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.
Butter a 24 cm loose-bottomed cake tin. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface, making the circle about 34 cm in diametre, then line the bottom and the sides of the cake tin with the rolled-out pastry.
Blind bake at 200 C/400 F for 10-15 minutes until lightly golden.
Meanwhile,  cream the butter, sugar and vanilla until combined. Add the yoghurt/sour cream, eggs, and coconut.
Cut the rhubarb into chunks.
Take the pre-baked tart shell out of the oven, spread rhubarb on top.
Spoon the coconut topping over the rhubarb, smoothing out the top.
Return to the oven for about 30-35 minutes, until the tart is lovely golden brown.

Cool (a little or completely) and cut into slices to serve.