Estonian zucchini and cheese soup

Being one of the very few English-language blogs that focus on Estonian food (among other things), I tend to get quite a few emails with Estonian recipe requests or more general enquiries about Estonian food. Usually they are from people who have visited Estonia and tasted something they liked (KAMA!!!), and are now looking to recreate the dish at home. There are also quite a few expat Estonians writing to ask about dishes their grandmother used to make them in the US/Australia/etc when they were younger. Or people whose fiancée, husband, wife, adopted child, neighbour or best friend is of Estonian heritage and they'd love to make them something from Estonian culinary repertoire to surprise the given fiancée, husband, wife, adopted child, neighbour or best friend. I love those letters!

Here's an email I got last August:

Hi,

I was just searching for Estonian Cheese Soup after hearing it mentioned in this story on NPR. Surprisingly, I couldn't find anything about it, but it brought me to your website and I just spent an hour going through it's great pictures and recipes. Great site!

Do you have any idea on what soup that may be? I'd love to whip one up.

Keep up the great work and thanks in advance for any help or leads you have for me.

Gavin G.

Estonian cheese soup? I was baffled. I wasn't entirely sure there is such a thing. Sure, we make various soups with addition of cheese. I've blogged about a simple goat cheese and beet soup and creamy fish soup that both have some cheese in it. However, there's nothing particularly Estonian about these two soups. So I asked around and it turns out that I'm a lousy pub-goer. You see, many Estonian pubs serve something called cheese soup (juustusupp), apparently. And as I'm more of a café-chick than a pub-girl, I had no idea.

Basically, these are simple soups that have been enriched with either cheese spread (sulatatud juust) or smoked cheese (suitsujuust). Back in August, when I was trying to come up with a soup recipe for Gavin, I made this courgette/zucchini soup with smoked cheese (the type of smoked cheese we use in Estonia looks like this:
 
It weighs 280 g and contains 18% milk fats) and is nowadays produced by Tere AS.

I hope you'll enjoy this, Gavin!

Courgette and Smoked Cheese Soup, Estonian style
(Suvikõrvitsa-suitsujuustusupp)
Serves four



a dash of olive oil
1 onion
1 large potato
1 medium green zucchini/courgette
1 litre hot vegetable or chicken stock
280 g smoked cheese (preferably Estonian)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
parsley and croutons, to serve

Peel the onion and potato, chop finely and sauté in some oil for a few minutes. When the potato is slightly golden, then add chopped-up zucchini/courgette (no need to peel). Heat for a few minutes, stirring every now and then.
Add the hot stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce to the simmer and let it bubble until the vegetables are soft.
Blend until smooth, adding the chunks of smoked cheese to the soup while doing this.
Re-heat gently, season to taste.
Garnish with crispy bread croutons and a parsley leaf.

Chickpea and tomato soup with Moroccan spices

Here's a delicious chickpea/grabanzo soup recipe adapted from this book by the lovely Irish chef, Rachel Allen. It's quick, flavoursome, vegan and gluten-free (unless you serve it with crispy bacon or some herb croutons) and easy to make. It's been a while since I made it - seeing one of the few Estonian male foodbloggers making this the other day (check out the video!) - brought it back to our table. Our daughter loved it, K. loved it, and I loved it - so it's definitely a keeper. Hope you enjoy it, too!

I used canned chickpeas - dried ones are much harder to come by here in Estonia. If you prefer using dried chickpeas, then take 150 grams of pulses, soak them overnight in cold water and then boil in unsalted water for about half an hour.

Moroccan chickpea and tomato soup
(Maroko kikerhernesupp)
Serves four



2 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp cumin seeds, slightly crushed
400 g can of chopped tomatoes
a generous pinch of sugar
400 g can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
600-750 ml vegetable or chicken broth
juice of half a lemon
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro/coriander or parsley

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan. Add the onion and celery sticks, season with salt and pepper. Cover the saucepan with a lid and sauté over low heat for about 10 minutes, until the onion and celery are soft, stirring every now and then (do not burn!)
Add the cumin seeds, fry for another minute to release the aromas.
Add the tomatoes, sugar, chickpeas and hot stock. Simmer on low heat for 5-10 minutes.
Season with lemon juice, stir in the chopped herbs and taste for seasoning. Serve.

Salmon and Mushroom Solyanka (a thick Russian soup)

If you look around Estonian foodblogs, then we all seem to feast on thick and filling Russian-style mushroom soups at the moment - Tuuli has been cooking up mushroom borscht and mushroom rassolnik, Aet has a mushroom solyanka simmering in her saucepan. We had friends over for dinner last night, and as I had got a large bowl of blanched and slightly salted wild mushrooms from K's mum yesterday morning, and made a Russian-style mushroom soup as well, but with addition of fish.

You'll get a best result if using various wild mushrooms. Gypsy mushrooms (Rozites caperatus; kitsemamplid), Russula-mushrooms, Lactarius-mushrooms - all would be perfect, but cultivated mushrooms would work as well (perhaps a mixture of white mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms for some texture?). I had mainly meaty Lactarius scrobiculatus mushrooms (võiseened/kollariisikad)*, with an odd Russula thrown in.

Check your mushroom guide for instructions (some mushrooms - like gypsy mushrooms and many Lactarius-mushrooms can be cooked fresh, some need to be blanched first.

* Note that Wiki considers this an inedible mushroom (well, "Western authors" do). It's much liked over here for its meaty texture and characteristic flavour. It does need to be thoroughly blanched and cooked first, however, and smaller mushrooms are preferred to larger ones.

Mushroom and Salmon Solyanka
Serves four to six



1 large onion, peeled and chopped
about 400 g fresh (wild) mushrooms - pre-blanched, if necessary
2 Tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
3 Tbsp concentrated tomato pureé
1 litre fish stock
4 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and chopped
300 g salmon filet, cut into 1 cm cubes
2 small pickled cucumbers, halved lengthwise and cut into slices
2 Tbsp capers
a small bunch of dill
salt
black pepper
lemon juice, to taste

Heat oil in a saucepan, add onion and mushrooms and sauté for about 5 minutes.
Stir in the tomato paste, cook for a minute or two.
Pour in the fish stock, bring to the boil. Add the potato cubes, then simmer for about 15 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked.
Add fish, capers, cucumber slices and most of the dill. Simmer for another few minutes, then remove the saucepan from the heat.
Season to taste with lemon juice, salt and pepper (solyanka needs a slightly sour note!).
Sprinkle some extra dill on top, garnish with lemon slice or wedge and serve.

Cold Beetroot Soup (kind of Chlodnik or Холодник)

Although the tropical heat wave has given way to a beautiful Estonian summer (temperatures at around 25 C, with some
showers), it's still warm here in Estonia. Perfect excuse for eating lots of cold summer soups. My cold soup repertoire isn't huge, I must admit. I love Ximena's gazpacho (and will be making it again and again in a week or so, when our tomatoes are ready). I also love this simple cold kefir soup with herbs and radishes. But radishes are finished for this year, so I needed a new cold soup recipe. The recipe here is slightly adapted from this Russian foodblog, and we loved both the flavour as well as the stunning colour. Our little daughter, who's almost 1 year and 6 months now, heartily approved as well!!

I love roasting the beets, as this gives them an exceptionally sweet and earthy flavour. If you're short for time, then this works with boiled (and even ready-grated and vacuum-packed) beets as well.

Cold Beet Soup with Kefir
(Külm peedisupp)
Serves four to six



3 small beets, each about the size of a tennis ball
2 short green cucumbers ("Lebanese cucumbers")
handful of green onions, chopped
3-4 Tbsp finely chopped fresh dill
1 litre kefir
1 Tbsp grated horseradish
salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2-4 eggs

Wash the beets, wrap in foil and roast in a 200 C oven for about 45 minutes, until cooked through (test for doneness by piercing with a sharp knife). Cool completely, then peel and grate coarsely.
Hard-boil the eggs, then cool under cold water. Peel and cut into half lengthwise.
Wash the cucumbers, cut into small dice.
Take a large bowl, throw in the grated beets. Stir in some of the kefir, then season the soup base with horseradish and some salt and pepper. Add the rest of the ingredients, except boiled eggs. Taste again for seasoning - you may want to add more salt or pepper, or perhaps even some lemon juice.
Serve very cold, topping each portion with a boiled egg half or two.

Keeps well in the fridge for a day or two.

A Simple Goat's Cheese and Beet Soup

Remember I promised to start a Beetroot Dish of the Month feature? Well, it's time for this month's beetroot recipe :) A very simple, yet delicious beetroot soup. The potato acts as a thickener, and the goat's cheese gives the soup a wonderful silkiness and smoothness.

As always, I LOVE the colour :)

Goat's Cheese and Beetroot Soup
(Peedi-kitsejuustusupp)
Serves 4 to 6

500 g beetroot, peeled and cut into small chunks
3 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 onion, peeled
1.5 litres vegetable bouillon
150 g goat's milk cream cheese (f.ex. Soignon), at room temperature
1 tsp dried herbs (I used Meira's Mediterranean herb mix)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring the bouillon into boil, add the vegetables and cook for 15-20 minutes, until vegetables are soft. Blend until smooth and creamy (f.ex. in a blender or food processor).
Return the puree into the saucepan and add the goat's cheese, spoonful by spoonful, as well as any seasoning. Simmer for another 5 minutes.
Serve with crusty bread and garnished with fresh herbs.

OTHER BEETROOT SOUP RECIPES @ NAMI-NAMI:
Dashing Coconut and Beetroot Soup (January 2010)
Creamy Beetroot Soup with Horseradish (January 2008)
Beetroot Soup with Goat Cheese (November 2007)
Delicious Vegetarian Borscht (September 2007)

A Dashing Coconut and Beetroot Soup

Don't you just think that the colour of this soup is dashingly beautiful? I certainly do.

The flavour's wonderful as well, so I'm heartily recommending this. (As you can see, I'm still loving beets in 2010 - just like I did in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. This is the second beetroot soup I've made this year - I made my meatless borscht last week and will certainly be making another beetroot soup soon (beet being one of the few vegetables available at the moment that actually still has some taste and flavour)). The recipe is adapted from a great book, Entertaining Vegetarians by Celia Brooks-Brown, who says that the combination of coconut and beets is typical to Southern India.

You can serve this with some crusty bread for dinner, but it's stunning enough to be served from tiny espresso cups for a larger crowd.

Coconut and Beetroot Soup
(Peedipüreesupp kookospiimaga)
Serves 4 to 6 (or even a crowd, if served from small cups or glasses



2 to 3 Tbsp olive or rapeseed oil
1 tsp whole cumin seeds
4 large garlic cloves, sliced
500 g boiled beetroot, grated coarsely
200 g extra creamy or 400 g regular coconut milk
500 to 600 ml vegetable stock
half a large lemon
salt and freshly ground black pepper

To garnish:
Lebanese cucumber, cubed
fresh coriander/cilantro or parsley, chopped
a pinch of salt

Heat oil in a saucepan, add garlic and cumin seeds and fry for about a minute, stirring,
Add the beets, stir for a minute. Season with salt and some grated lemon zest.
Add the coconut milk and stock. Bring to the boil and simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes.
Blend until smooth.
Return to the saucepan, re-heat. Season with lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Garnish with fresh cucumber salsa (mix all ingredients).

One very knobbly Jerusalem artichoke, one very silky mushroom soup

Have you ever seen a recipe for Jerusalem artichoke/Sunchoke/Topinambur-something that begins with "Wash and peel the Jerusalem artichokes". I have. While I obviously understand the washing bit, then I'm a bit unsure about the peeling. See the specimen above? That's just one example of an artichoke I had to deal with earlier today, when preparing lunch for K's mum who came to visit her grand-daughter (who's doing splendidly, by the way:)). Have you ever seen such a knobbly Jerusalem artichoke before? It was beautiful - crisp and fresh, but had I attempted to peel it, there wouldn't have been much left. So I gave it a very good wash and scrub, and simply chopped it. And that's what I'll do from now on - I'll only buy Jerusalem artichokes with thin and beautiful skin, so I can omit that tricky "peel the artichoke" bit...

The inspiration for combining mushrooms and Jerusalem artichokes came from one Estonian monthly, but I've changed the process and proportion so considerably so there's no need to credit anything specific :)

Jerusalem artichoke and mushroom soup
(Maapirni-seenesupp)
Serves 4

250 g Jerusalem artichokes (aka topinambur aka Sunchokes)
250 g mushrooms
1 medium yellow onion
2 Tbsp butter
600 ml water
400 ml whipping/heavy cream (use single/light cream, if you prefer)
salt
freshly ground black pepper
fresh thyme, to garnish



Wash and peel (or not :)) the Jerusalem artichokes. Peel the onions. Clean the mushrooms. Chop all into small chunks.
Heat the butter in a heavy saucepan, add the artichokes, onion and mushrooms and sauté for about 5 minutes. Season with some salt.
Add hot water, bring to the boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the Jerusalem artichokes are softened.
Transfer into a blender and purée until smooth.
Return to the saucepan, add cream and reheat. Season with salt and pepper (and some dried porcini or chantarelle powder, if you wish), garnish with fresh thyme and serve.
Some shaved Parmesan cheese would also be nice.

Estonian Milk Soup with Pasta Shapes

This week is school holidays in Estonia, and my 10-year-old nephew stayed with us for a few days. We went for walks, swimming at the local swimming pool, did some homework together, he spent hours entertaining our little daughter. Of course, we also cooked and ate food together (nachos, enchiladas, quesadillas and other food with high kid appeal). Our last meal together was lunch on Wednesday and I offered to cook him something special. His request: makaroni-piimasupp or pasta and milk soup. I was baffled - I hadn't had that humble soup for almost two decades and I didn't think today's kids eat it. I was proven wrong :)

Furthermore, I had no intentions to blog about this particular milk soup and didn't focus too much on getting a good picture. But then somebody saw the picture in Flickr and asked for the recipe, so here you go after all...

Although the soup has some sugar in it, it's more of a "savoury" soup, served as a meal on its own, preferably with some ham sandwiches on the side.

Estonian Milk Soup with Pasta Shapes
(Makaroni-piimasupp)
Serves 4

500 ml water (2 cups)
1 tsp salt
100 g short pasta (1 cup)
750 ml full-fat milk (3 cups)
a generous pinch of sugar
1 Tbsp butter

Bring water to the vigorous boil, add salt and pasta shapes. Reduce heat to simmering, then boil for 5-7 minutes, until pasta is al dente.
Pour in the milk, give it all a stir and boil for another few minutes, until pasta is fully cooked.
Season with a pinch of sugar and some more salt, if you wish. Stir in the butter and serve.

Time for soup: lentil and coconut soup

Proper autumn has come somewhat suddenly this year. I've got vague memories of enjoying the warm autumn sun and a cup of coffee on our newly installed patio only recently. But that's all history now - the winds are really chilly and strong, there's hardly been a day without rain during the last week or so. We've turned on the heating indoors and I'm wrapping our daughter into several layers whenever we're going outdoors. It's been already snowing in the south of Estonia, and we've had night frosts as well. Winter's soon here...

Which means it's a perfect time for filling and chunky soups that heat both your heart and your body. Here's something I made for dinner just few days ago.

Lentil and Coconut Soup
(Läätsesupp kookospiimaga)
Serves 4

2 cm piece of ginger, peeled and grated
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped
1 Tbsp oil
1 tsp turmeric
200 g red lentils ("Egyptian lentils"), rinsed and drained
500 ml (half a litre or two cups) hot vegetable stock
400 g can crushed tomatoes
250 ml (one cup) coconut milk
fresh coriander/cilantro for garnish

Heat oil in a heavy saucepan, add ginger, onion and garlic and fry on a medium heat for a few minutes, stirring regularly. Do not burn!
Add turmeric, hot stock, tomatoes and rinsed lentils. Give it a stir, bring into a boil. Then reduce heat, cover the saucepan partially with a lid, and simmer on a low heat for about 20 minutes, until lentils are soft.
Stir in the coconut milk, heat through.
To serve, divide into soup bowl and garnish with a coriander leaf.

Silky Onion Soup with Crispy Croutons

I'm definitely on the "Take Five Ingredients" mood these days. Cooking with a small baby is possible, of course, but I haven't got the time or energy to think up elaborate menus and spend hours in front of the hob these days. Nor do I want it, to be honest. Simple, comforting, delicious dishes are much more attractive - and feasible - at the moment.

Here's a very simple and delicious and comforting soup recipe for these cold wintry nights. (Yes, there's still snow out here, even if the days have got a lot longer and there's definitely spring in the air during the daytime).

Silky Onion Soup
(Sametine sibulasupp)
Serves 4

50 g butter
500 g onions
2 tsp sugar
1 l / 4 cups vegetable or chicken stock
200 ml (just under a cup) whipping cream
1 to 2 Tbsp plain/all-purpose flour
salt and white pepper, to taste

For garnish:
crispy croutons
grated hard cheese
fresh chives, chopped

Peel the onions, halve and cut into slices.
Heat a heavy saucepan and melt the butter in the pan. Add onion slices and sauté on a low heat for 10-15 minutes, until the onions and softened and slightly caramelised. Do not burn them! Add sugar after about 7 minutes, stir.
When onions are softened, then pureé them with an immersion/stick/hand-held blender until smooth. (For an especially smooth result, press the onion pureé through a sieve).
Return the onion pureé into the saucepan, add the stock and bring into a boil.
Mix the flour with the cream and stir into the soup base. Simmer gently until the soup has thickened slightly (the flour does it).
Taste for seasoning, add salt and white pepper, if necessary.
To serve, ladle the soup into warm bowls, scatter over croutons and chopped chives and grate some cheese on top.

Spicy Lentil Soup with Lime

First of all, thank you all for your lovely wishes and kind messages on the previous post. Little Nora Adeele and I spent 10 days in the maternity clinic growing and recuperating (with K. by our side every night, feeding me and the clinic staff with his delicious cannelés). We've been back home for over a week now, and I'm happy to report that our wee girl has already gained 400 grams on top of her birth weight, purely on breast milk diet, so she's doing well.

As we're still learning each other's daily routines, my cooking has been erratic and quick. Something that can be whipped up within minutes and then left unattended until I can finally eat it, with baby on one arm and spoon in another. This soup is a good example. I made it yesterday - it demands about 10 minutes hands-on time (for peeling and chopping the onions and carrots), and then couple of stirring motions every now and then. I've had many a lentil soup this winter, and this is definitely one of the favourite ones, with lime juice adding a lovely and different zing to it.

Spicy Lentil Soup with Lime
(Vürtsikas läätsesupp laimiga)
Adapted from Olive (October 2007), a British food magazine
Serves 4

1 Tbsp oil
grated fresh ginger (about 1 cm chunk)
1 tsp cumin seeds
a generous pinch of chilli flakes
1 medium-sized onion, peeled and roughly chopped
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into small pieces or coarsely grated
150 g red lentils ('Egyptian lentils')
1 litre vegetable stock (I used Swiss Marigold)
1 lime

Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan. Add grated ginger, cumin seeds and chilli flakes and heat for about a minute, stirring to avoid burning.
Add onions and carrots and heat for about 5 minutes on a moderate heat, stirring regularly.
Add lentils and the stock.
Bring into a boil and simmer on a low heat for 15-20 minutes, until lentils are softened.
Blend the soup into a silky pureé and season with lime juice (and salt and pepper, if you think it's necessary).
Garnish with some chilli flakes and lime zest and serve.

Creamy Fish Soup

I just realised that I've been posting nothing but dessert recipes in November. That's no good, is it? Hence this creamy-cheesy fish soup recipe today. A similar recipe has appeared in several Finnish food magazines and at least one local magazine. With a few tweaks here and there, I ended up with this lovely, creamy fish soup. Feel free to experiment with differently seasoned cream cheese. I used trout, as it's lighter, but salmon would work well, too..

A lovely weeknight dinner, and it should appeal to small picky eaters, too.

Creamy Fish Soup
(Juustune forellisupp)
Serves 4

1.5 litres fish stock
5 potatoes, peeled and cubed
200 g tub cheese spread (something like this), I imagine)
170 g tub flavoured cream cheese (I used tomato & pesto)
300 g fish filet, cubed (salmon, trout)

To serve:
fresh dill, chopped
black pepper, coarsely ground

Bring the fish stock* to the boil. Add potato cubes and simmer, until tender (10-15 minutes).
Meanwhile, cut the fish into large cubes, taking care to remove any pin-bones.
Remove the saucepan from the heat, stir in the melted cheese spread and cream cheese, spoonful at the time.
Put the saucepan back onto the heat, add the cubed fish. Simmer on a low heat for a couple of minutes, until the fish is cooked through.
Ladle into soup bowls, sprinkle with chopped dill and grind some black pepper on top.

* If using home-made fish stock, then good for you. If you're using good-quality fish bouillon cubes, then take just 1 cube for 1.5 litres of water - the fish and cheese give plenty of flavour -and saltiness - themselves and you don't want the soup to be too salty.

Silky pumpkin soup with nutmeg

Photo by Juta Kübarsepp, for the October issue of Kodu & Aed, 2012

As somebody aptly commented on my Flickr photo page, it's that time of the year :) When heading to the market these days, you'll see piles of beautifully bright orange pumpkins and winter squashes everywhere. I got one from my mum just over a week ago, and we enjoyed a number of different pumpkin dishes during the week. I made a pumpkin and ginger loaf, two types of pumpkin jam (one with ginger, one with flowering-quinces).

And this soup. There are two things with this soup that make it different from other pumpkin soups I've tried so far. Firstly, it's fat-free, making it perfect for those who are preparing for the Christmas or Thanksgiving feasts laying ahead of us (and if you're omit the cream drizzle, it's vegan, too). Secondly, it uses nutmeg as a seasoning - giving the soup a lovely and different twist.

Fat-free Pumpkin Soup with Nutmeg
(Kõrvitsasupp muskaadiga)
Serves 4

500 ml vegetable stock (2 cups)
800 grams cubed yellow pumpkin or winter squash (cleaned weight; just under 2 lbs)
2 medium-sized onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
0.5 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
salt, if necessary
freshly ground black pepper

To serve:
4 Tbsp double cream (optional)

Bring the vegetable stock into boil.
Add the pumpkin, onion and garlic. Bring to a boil and simmer gently for 20 minutes, until the vegetables are soft.
Blend the soup into a fine purée (I used a handheld immersion blender).
Reheat the soup, season with grated nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Divide the soup into heated bowls, drizzle some cream on top and serve with crusty bread.

Other pumpkin/winter squash recipes @ Nami-nami:
Pickled pumpkin (Estonian Christmas recipe)
Pumpkin Risotto & Arancini Balls
Old-fashioned Pumpkin Soup with Semolina
Pumpkin Soup with Thyme
Johanna's Roasted Pumpkin and Blue Cheese Quiche

Cold Kefir Soup for Hot Summer Days

I start with an apology. I cannot remember where I got this recipe from. But it was in my old recipe card box, and the only note was 'Uzbek recipe?' (refering to Uzbekistan, the country in Central Asia; well, actually it said 'usbeki retsept?' on my recipe card, but you know what I mean). I don't know about that - apart from the Cayenne pepper, it sounds very Estonian to me. And on a hot summer day last week, I made this soup - it took me 5 minutes in total, and I fell in love with it all over again.

If you live in the US, you'll find kefir in Whole Foods and international food stores. Lifeway Foods does a decent one. Here's what they've got to say about kefir:

A creamy probiotic dairy beverage similar to but distinct from yogurt. Lifeway believes it offers the largest selection of kefir in the world. Low-fat or non-fat pasteurized milk is the basic ingredient in kefir. Its effervescent quality stems from the kefir culture, which contains ten active "friendly" microorganisms, compared to two or three in yogurt.

What I've got to say about this soup, is following: it takes 5 minutes to put together; it tastes fresh and refreshing; it's highly versatile - you can use any herbs you like or have around; it looks pretty gorgeous; it's good for you; it's very easy to digest :)

Cold Kefir Soup
(Külmsupp usbekkide moodi)
Serves 4

1 litre of plain kefir
250 ml/1 cup cold water
salt
Cayenne'i pepper
2 green 'English' cucumbers
1 bunch of crisp radishes
3 - 4 scallions/spring onions (incl. green parts)
4 Tbsp or more fresh chopped herbs - parsley, dill, coriander/cilantro

Mix kefir and cold water, then season with salt and Cayenne'i pepper to taste.
Wash and dry the cucumbers and radishes, then cut into small cubes or slices. Chop spring onions/scallions and herbs finely. Divide between four soup bowls. (Add an ice cube to each bowl, if it's really hot outside).

Pour the cold kefir mixture over, and serve the soup at once.

See also:
Ximena's El gazpacho de Escolástica, or the best gazpacho in the world
Ajoblanco: the other Spanish chilled soup

Leivasupp - Estonian Bread Soup

I'm cooking more and more traditional Estonian fare these days, and really enjoy (re)discovering our humble but delicious cuisine. Here's another pretty unusual recipe for you - a bread soup. And before you start thinking something along the lines of bread-thickened gazpacho and garlic and olive oil, note that this is a SWEET bread soup. It contains rye bread, sugar, cinnamon, raisins and fruit juice. Although it may sound weird to you, it's actually very delicious :) It's an excellent idea for using leftover dark rye bread that's so popular here in Estonia and other Nordic countries, and more easily available across various ponds and oceans as well. We eat it as a dessert after a meal, although it would also make a lovely dessert or mid-afternoon pick-me-up.

The bread should be naturally leavened sour dough rye, and may contain caraway seeds, but not various other seeds (so the German style square rye bread slices with lots of seeds are no good).

Estonian Sweet Rye Bread Soup
(Leivasupp)
Serves 4



400 grams stale rye bread, cut into chunks
1,5 litres of water
a scant cup of raisins, rinsed
100-150 ml (about half a cup) sugar
a cinnamon stick
200 ml cranberry/redcurrant/apple juice

Soak the bread in water until soft. When bread is all mushy, bring the mixture into a boil and simmer, until soft and liquid. Press through a fine sieve and put the bread pureé back into the saucepan.
Add the raisins, cinnamon stick and sugar, sharpen with juice. Bring slowly into a boil and simmer for about 5 minutes.
Remove from the heat, fork out the cinnamon stick and cool the dessert soup.
Ladle into small bowls, serve with a dollop of sour cream, whipped cream or milk.

PS The photo above was made when the soup was still slightly warm, and it's pretty smooth and liquid. Leave it overnight, and the soup is much thicker, and you can see the raisins more clearly. Plus you'll be able to eat it with milk.

Kissel aka Cranberry Fruit Soup

Kissel ('kissell' in Estonian) is a sweet soup (dessert soup or fruit soup, however you call it) popular in these parts of the world. A thinner kissel (my mum makes an excellent rhubarb one - rabarbrikissell - for instance) can be drunk straight from a cup as sweet injection. A thicker kissel is served alongside many puddings - and as I'm planning to tell you about a very special Estonian pudding in a few days, I'm going to tell you about kissel first. Note, however, that it's not the first time a kissel appears here on Nami-nami, oh no. Last September I told you about a curd cheese and apple souffle, which was also served in a bright puddle of fruit soup, too.

I like my kissel a bit on the sour side, so I tend to use redcurrant juice, cranberries, rhubarb or lingonberries as a starting base. I found some local cranberries (Vaccinium oxycoccus, which are tiny compared to the huge US cranberries, Vaccinium macrocarpon - see photo here) in a freezer (picked by ourselves, of course), and used these. The resulting kissel had a perfect balance of acidic and sweet, plus a beautiful, beautiful colour..



Cranberry Fruit Soup
(Jõhvikakissell)
Makes 1,5 litres

500 ml (2 cups) cranberries (fresh or frozen)
1.5 Litres of water
300 ml (1¼ cups) caster sugar
100 ml potato starch
100 ml cold water

Bring water into boil in a large saucepan, add cranberries and cook for about 5 minutes, until the berries are softened.
Drain(keep the juice!), pressing the cooked cranberries through the sieve. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.
Add sugar, simmer for 5 minutes.
Mix the potato starch* with cold water. Take the saucepan off the heat and pour the starch mixture in a thin stream into the cranberry juice, stirring constantly to avoid lumps.
Place the saucepan back to the hob and heat gently, until the first bubbles appear.
Remove from the heat, and pour immediately into small bowls or a jug. Sprinkle some caster sugar on top (this keeps the 'skin' from forming).
Cool before serving.

* You can also use Maizena/cornflour, but it won't give you as clear kissel. Also, if using cornflour, remember you must cook the kissel for a few minutes to start thickening.


Cranberry kissel with curd cheese. All three photos by K.

It's Soup! Creamy beetroot soup with horseradish and caraway seeds

You cannot have too many beetroot recipes, can you?

Ok, I know that people who dislike beetroot might disagree with me, but now, in the midst of dark and cold winter, this wholesome root vegetable is a rather heavily used ingredient in our kitchen. We both like it, you see - both the earthy flavour and the gorgeous colour. This particular soup has a definite North-Eastern European feel to it because of caraway seeds and horseradish, so it's quite distinct from the previous beetroot soup recipes I've blogged about (e.g. Beetroot Soup with Goat's Cheese and Delicious Vegetarian Borscht). The recipe is adapted from the sunny Australia, however: Better Homes and Gardens.

Note that I'm obviously in the mood for some horseradish kick these days - it's my third horseradish dish in a week, following the Coconut and Tomato Soup with Horseradish and the Fierce Smoked Mackerel Spread on rye bread.

Enjoy!

Creamy Beetroot Soup with Horseradish and Caraway
(Kreemjas peedisupp mädarõikaga)
Serves 4



1 Tbsp vegetable oil (I use rapeseed oil)
1 small onion, chopped
750 grams beetroot, grated coarsely
1 Litre vegetable bouillon
2 tsp caraway seeds, toasted
2 Tbsp grated horseradish (fresh is best, canned will do)
200 ml sour cream
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cook the onion over low heat for 10 minutes until soft.
Add the beetroot, vegetable stock and caraway seeds and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 40 minutes, until beetroot is very soft.
Leave to cool and process in batches until smooth. (For extra smooth result, press through a fine sieve as well).
Return to the pan and re-heat gently.
Stir in the horseradish and sour cream before serving.
Garnish with a dill sprig.

It's Soup! Coconut and Tomato Soup with Horseradish

With temperatures finally dropping below zero here in Estonia, we're craving soup again. And our first soup in 2008 was this little sweet number from the Finnish Ruokala.tv site (Kati Forsin tomaatti-kookoskeitto), but I played around with the preparation instructions a little. The subtly sweet coconut soup gets its kick from grated horseradish, as opposed to the much more 'usual' chilli flakes or grated ginger or lemongrass. The girl behind the recipe, Kati Fors (the Tango Queen of Finland in 2005, no less!), suggests adding chicken strips or shrimps, if you prefer a slightly more substantial meal.

Oh, and it's on your table in about 5 minutes. How good is that for a weekday supper?

[Siinkohal tänusõnad Qsti'le, kes sellest supist novembris oma blogis kirjutas. Olin retsepti küll juba varem Nami-nami retseptikogusse lisanud, aga supi tegemiseks tuli väike lisainspiratsioon just sellest blogist. Igatahes: suur aitäh, hea lihtne retsept oli!]

Coconut and Tomato Soup with Horseradish
(Tomati-kookosesupp vähese mädarõikaga)
Serves 2



400 grams canned chopped tomatoes
400 grams coconut milk
1 Tbsp grated horseradish
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
olive oil
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Heat about a tablespoon of oil in a saucepan, add the garlic and fry on a moderate heat for a few minutes until softened.
Add the tomatoes, coconut milk and horseradish, season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, simmer for a minute or two.
Blend until smooth (optional).
Check for seasoning and serve, with an extra grinding of black pepper on top.

Old-fashioned Soups: Pumpkin Soup with Semolina

With Halloween just a fortnight behind us, there may still be an odd wedge of pumpkin in your fridge. I made a pumpkin risotto recently, and had had a lone half of a orange-fleshed pumpkin waiting in the fridge ever since then. I thought of re-making Johanna's roasted pumpkin and blue cheese quiche again. Or the simple pumpkin soup with vegetable stock. But eventually I decided to make something very unusual (to my international readers), yet typically Estonian. Milk soups - either with various grains (rice, semolina, pearl barley), pasta (macaroni or vermichelli noodles), or even vegetables (just like this beautiful summer soup by Deinin) are all common in Estonia. Granted, with the general increase of living standards and international influences, these humble soups do not enjoy the popularity they once did, but they're still very much part of the culinary heritage.

This milk soup with pumpkin and semolina can be eaten for breakfast, as a dessert or just as a light meal. It's best served warm, with a spoonful of jam, a dollop of butter or a drizzle of pumpkin seed oil (like I did), or even maple syrup (like K. did).

Ka Thredahlia tegi hiljuti kõrvitsa-mannasuppi - retsepti leiate siit. Ja ka Nami-nami blogisse võib kommentaare jätta eesti keeles:)

Milky Pumpkin Soup with Semolina
(Kõrvitsa-piimasupp mannaga)
Serves 4



500 ml milk (~ 2.5%)
300 ml water
350 g pumpkin flesh, coarsely grated
20 g or about 1.5 Tbsp wheat semolina (Cream of Wheat)
0.5 tsp salt
2 Tbsp demerara sugar

Bring milk and water to the boil in a heavy saucepan. Add pumpkin, reduce heat a little and simmer, stirring regularly, for about 15-20 minutes until pumpkin is softened.
Sprinkle in semolina, stirring to avoid lumps. Season with salt and sugar, reduce the heat further and cook for another 5 minutes, until semolina has expanded and softened.
Serve in small bowls.

Beetroot Soup with Goat's Cheese

Last night we celebrated K's birthday by inviting my parents and his mum and auntie over for a dinner. We started with this bright and nourishing beetroot soup, followed with a filling boeuf bourgoignon to please my dad (he did enjoy the beetroot & ginger cake he was served last time he visited, but he was still disappointed that there was no 'proper food' last time). We then entertained our dear guests with Piña Colada Espuma (second helpings for all the ladies, and if my dad hadn't been the designated driver, he would have probably helped himself to the seconds, too), and finished with a cup of coffee and a fancy peach souffle made by the birthday boy himself. A very enjoyable evening indeed..

I wrote about a beetroot soup only recently (Vegetarian Borscht, September 2007), but this is totally different, and just as nice. The recipe is straight off the Finnish Ruokala.tv site - Punajuuri-vuohenjuustokeitto* - the only difference is that I weighed the parsnip and celeriac to make the recipe more 'exact'. Not that it's necessary here, so if you wish, just play around with the amounts of various root vegetables in the soup. Also, the original recipe suggests you crumble the goat's cheese into the soup to make it more creamy, but I had bought a wrong goat's cheese for that purpose, so I just sliced the cheese and placed on top of the soup.

Maarja Sloveenias tegi ka seda peedisuppi ja kiitis heaks. Loe lähemalt siit.

Beetroot Soup with Goat's Cheese
(Peedi-kitsejuustusupp)
Serves 4-6



1 onion, finely chopped
olive oil
300 grams raw beetroot
50 grams raw parsnip
50 grams raw celeriac/root celery
1 Litre vegetable stock (I used 4 tsp Marigold vegetable bouillon and hot water)
100 grams soft goat's cheese, crumbled (or goat's cheese with rind, sliced)
salt
coarsely ground black pepper
fresh parsley, chopped

Peel the onion and chop finely.
Peel the beets, celeriac and parsley, and chop finely or grate coarsely.
Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan, add the onion and saute for about 7-8 minutes, until it starts to soften. Add the beets, celeriac and parsnip and heat for a few minutes, stirring every now and then.
Add the hot bouillon, reduce heat and cover. Simmer for 20-25 minutes, until vegetables are softened.
Cool a little, then process with immersion blender until smooth. Add the crumbled goat's cheese (reserve some for garnishing), season with salt and pepper.
Divide into small soup bowls, garnish with extra cheese and some herbs.

* Kui see retsept Eesti lugejatele tuttav tundub, siis tõesti on tegemist sama supiga, mida Angeelika Kang tegi esmaspäevases Terevisioonis ja mille retsept ilmus viimases Oma Maitse numbris. Aga meil oli menüü juba eelmisel nädalal paigas, nii et jäin oma esialgsele supivalikule kindlaks :)