Pleased to meet you, Quinoa: quinoa and mango puddings

During the last couple of months I've been coming across various bloggers singing praises to quinoa [keen-wa], the ancient grain* from the Andes mountains of South America. Quinoa was part of the holy nutrious trinity (the other two being corn and potatoes) of the Inca civilisation, and it has recently caught the attention of health-concious foodies. It is gluten-free and has a very high protein content. More importantly, the protein in quinoa has an amino-acid profile fitting the high 'ideal protein' standards set by the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the UN, as well as other stuff that's good for us.

Couple of months ago I finally picked up a packet of organic quinoa from my local health food store, and last weekend I finally got around to cooking with it! My first quinoa recipe is from Ilva of the delightful Lucullian Delights. And - considering that I really enjoyed the slightly nutty taste and mild texture of quinoa (as did my three guinea pigs) - this is just the first appearance of my new friend, Quinoa, in my kitchen and on this blog.

Quinoa & mango creams
(Kinoa-mangokreem)
Source: Ilva of Lucullian Delights (slightly adapted, as I couldn't find lemon balm)
Serves 4-6



1 ripe and sweet mango (I used one of those super-fragrant Pakistani mangoes that have arrived in the shops in Scotland)
100 ml pre-cooked quinoa
300 ml water
3 Tbsp honey
6 Tbsp Maizena cornflour/cornstarch
a generous squeeze of lemon juice

If you need to cook the quinoa, then take 1 part quinoa seeds and 2 parts of cold water. Rinse quinoa thoroughly, and put into a saucepan with water. Bring to the boil, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes or so.
For the cream, pureé the mango flesh, then mix with water and honey and cooked quinoa in a saucepan. Bring slowly to the boil.
Mix cornflour with some cold water until you've got a runny paste, then stir this into the mango and quinoa mixture. Bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes, until the cream thickens.
Season with lemon juice and pour into 4-6 dessert glasses. Cool before serving.

Thank you again, Ilva!

* Quinoa is actually not a grain, but a pseudocereal, yet in culinary terms you can treat it like any other grain.

Other wonderful dishes inspired by Ilva:
New potatoes and smoked bacon with fresh bay leaves (May 2006)
Spicy cauliflower with tomatoes (November 2005)

Colorful Quinoa Salad with Crayfish and Avocado

This is my favourite salad at the moment - I served it twice during our daughter's birthday weekend, where it was very quickly eaten by everyone. Even my dad, a typical Estonian male (read: pork and potatoes kind of guy) had two large helpings of this salad. I've been asked to make it for a friend's birthday party this coming weekend. Thinking of that, I might just bring it to my mum's birthday table in a fortnight as well - it's really delicious and light and unusual. You see, quinoa isn't widely known - or consumed - here in Estonia, and turns out it's actually really suited for our Nordic taste buds :)

Note here that the original plan was to make a cous-cous salad with shrimps and avocado, served with some creamy dressing. But the crayfish tails looked more appealing in the shop, and I had run out of cous-cous at home, so I ended up serving this delightful combination of ingredients instead.

As avocados lose their appetizing green colour with time, it's best to make this salad right before serving. This should not be a problem, as it's supereasy to make and takes almost no time whatsoever (apart from some slicing and cooking the quinoa). The quinoa can be actually still slightly warm when mixed with other ingredients.

What's your favourite way with quinoa? I've already bought another packet, you see, and would appreciate any serving suggestions!

Colourful Quinoa Salad with Crayfish and Avocado
(Kinoasalat vähisabade ja avokaadoga)
Serves ten

250 ml quinoa (a cup)
500 ml vegetable stock (2 cups)
0.5 tsp salt
2-3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil or cold-pressed avocado oil
1 lemon, juiced
500 g crayfish tails, drained (I used hand-peeled tails in brine)
3 to 4 ripe avocados
3 to 4 roasted red peppers (from the deli counter)
a large handful of finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
freshly ground black pepper

Rinse the quinoa under cold running water, using a fine mesh sieve (this is an important step, as otherwise the quinoa can be bitter). Drain.
Place the quinoa and stock (or water and Marigold bouillon powder) in a saucepan. Season with salt, then bring to the boil and simmer on medium heat for 15-20 minutes, until quinoa is soft and the water has evaporated.
Stir in the oil and half of the lemon juice. Place the quinoa into a large serving bowl.

Add the drained crayfish tails:


Halve the avocados, remove the seeds and scoop out the flesh. Cut the avocados into chunks or slices and sprinkle immediately with the rest of the lemon juice. Add to the serving bowl.
Slice the roasted red peppers, add to the serving bowl.



Add the parsley, season with pepper and salt, if necessary. Stir gently until combined. Serve.
Fold gently so all ingredients are mixed. Sprinkle with finely chopped parsley and serve.

Beet and Quinoa Salad

I'm on a quinoa mood these days. First I gave you colourful quinoa salad with crayfish and avocado, then a vegan quinoa salad with coriander/cilantro and lime. Both have been served with a success on several occasions at our house, and I have it on good authority that my brother-in-law served the crayfish version to a grateful audience on his recent birthday party as well. Having been so successful with the first two quinoa salads, it was only natural that I decided to serve some kind of quinoa salad at the Easter Sunday brunch. It's was universally enjoyed by our over dozen guests and thus provided another great opportunity to introduce this rather unknown "grain" here in Estonia.

The recipe is very slightly adapted from a book by a New York based holistic health and nutrition councelor Marika Blossfeldt (you can read more about her practice here), who also runs an international center for the performing, visual and healing arts here in Estonia).

As it happens, the salad is vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, lactose-free and very pretty on top of that :)

Beetroot and Quinoa Salad
(Kinoasalat peediga)
Serves 6 to 8, or more as part of a buffet

200 g quinoa (1 cup/250 ml)
2 cups water
0.25 tsp salt
200 g cooked beetroot, grated
1 small fennel, thinly sliced and cubed
1 small bunch of scallions/spring onions, chopped
large handful of fresh basil, chopped
1 to 2 lemons, juiced
4 Tbsp olive oil
freshly ground black pepper

Rinse the quinoa under cold running water, using a fine mesh sieve (this is an important step, as otherwise the quinoa can be bitter). Drain.
Place the quinoa and stock (or water and Marigold bouillon powder) in a saucepan. Season with salt, then bring to the boil and simmer on medium heat for 15-20 minutes, until quinoa is soft and the water has evaporated.
Stir in the oil and the lime juice. Place the quinoa into a large serving bowl. Stir in the grated beets, chopped basil, spring onions and fennel. Season with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and serve.

Colorful Quinoa Salad with Coriander and Lime

I know, I know - it hasn't even been a fortnight since I posted a recipe for a colourful quinoa salad! But trust me, this one is quite different from the quinoa-with-lobster tails-and-avocado. Yes, the quinoa and the bright colours are still here, but today's salad is vegetarian (vegan, actually, as well as gluten-free and lactose-free), and tastes just as delicious, so it's also worth sharing.

This particular salad is based on a 2005 recipe from BBC Good Food. Although there aren't many components, the lime and coriander/cilantro leaves give this one plenty of flavour, so it all but a bland salad. Definitely worth trying, if you're looking for a ways to introduce the healthy quinoa to your table.

Colourful Quinoa Salad
(Värvikirev kinoasalat laimi ja koriandriga)
Serves 6

a cup of quinoa seeds (about 200 g)
2 cups of vegetable stock (500 ml)
2 roasted red peppers (from a jar is fine), sliced
3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
3 scallions/spring onions, sliced
one lime, juiced and zested
a handful of fresh coriander/cilantro, chopped

Rinse the quinoa under cold running water, using a fine mesh sieve (this is an important step, as otherwise the quinoa can be bitter). Drain.
Place the quinoa and stock (or water and Marigold bouillon powder) in a saucepan. Season with salt, then bring to the boil and simmer on medium heat for 15-20 minutes, until quinoa is soft and the water has evaporated.
Stir in the oil and the lime juice. Place the quinoa into a large serving bowl. Let it cool a little, then, using your forks, stir until fluffy.
Fold in the rest of the ingredients, season and serve.

Nami-Nami Easter Brunch 2010

Hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend, wherever and however you celebrated it! We hosted our traditional Easter Sunday Brunch yesterday, with 11 adults, 6 children and 3 toddlers around the table. Last year I tried to follow a green/yellow colour scheme. This year I simply chose dishes that made me think of spring :)

Here are the dishes from yesterday:

We started with Mimosas again:


Baby spinach with hot-smoked salmon, quail eggs, green beans and asparagus spears:


Quinoa salad with beets, fennel and basil


Savoury cheesecake with chives and goat's cheese:


Ottolenghi's cucumber salad with chilli and poppy seeds


Bean salad with lemon and parsley:


Estonian national fish, Baltic herring, with cherry tomatoes and herbs (recipe from an Estonian foodblogger Mari-Liis):


Home-made Estonian cheese with curd cheese, eggs and caraway seeds, served with dark rye bread:


Choux puffs with ricotta, mint and green pea filling (recipe from the latest issue of the French Regal magazine; the only dish that didn't rock and won't be repeated)


As for the sweet dishes, our friends Paavo & Kristiina brought along a delicious paskha:


I made a traditional British Simnel cake, topped with 11 chocolate eggs that we bought from the gorgeous Péclard café in Zürich last weekend:


And last, but not least, a delicious cake with coconut, lemon curd, elderflower cream and lemon balm leaves (recipe from the Swedish BAKA magazine):

From the (future) archives:

We've hosted an Easter brunch for friends annually since 2007 (I moved back home to Estonia and in with K. from Scotland in October 2006, so it's 'our thing'). I see I have a lot of catching up to do :)

• Easter brunch 2024
• Easter brunch 2022 - just a small family gathering for a change
• Easter brunch 2015
• Easter brunch 2014
• Easter brunch 2013
• Easter brunch 2012 
• Easter brunch 2011
• Easter brunch 2010
• Easter brunch 2009
• Easter brunch 2008
• Easter brunch 2007

Marika Blossfeldt's 'Essential Nourishment' and a recipe for Kabocha Apricot Soup (book giveaway)

NB! I've got one copy of this wonderful book (in English!!!) to give away to Nami-Nami readers. See details below!

I had seen the Estonian version of this book at my friends' place, and loved it. So when Marika, who divides her life between Estonia and New York, and whom I've met couple of times, asked me if I'd love a copy of the English version, I said yes. The book's full title is "Essential Nourishment: Recipes from My Estonian Farm. Your feel-good guide to healthful eating and energized living, one delicious meal at a time". It's divided into three major sections - Nutrition and Nourishment; Lifestyle; Food Guides and Recipes. Marika has been trained in integrative nutrition - meaning a reasonable and wholesome approach to eating and living healthily, and the resulting combination of information on nutrition and a collection on recipes is excellent.

I've got my own favourites - her beet, fennel and quinoa salad is wonderful, as is the recipe for Rye Porridge with Sesame Seeds. Our good friends regularly make her Zucchini Walnut Muffins and Carrot Ginger Soup (I'm especially partial to those muffins - our friend Peter bakes them in mini muffin tins, and they're addictive!) There are several healthy- and delicious-sounding recipes I'm looking forward to trying as soon as the festive season is over - Polenta with Roasted Sunflower Seeds, Quinoa Pilaf with Shiitake Mushrooms, Dandelion Greens in Creamy Sesame Sauce, Chickpeas with Sweet Potatoes, to give you just an idea.

But when I asked Marika which recipe she'd like me to share with my many American readers, she suggested this nourishing soup. Hope you'll enjoy it - and why not serve it as a starter this Thursday?

Kabocha Apricot Soup
serves 6

What could be a better treat than a squash puree soup on a chilly autumn day? Although the original recipe calls for kabocha squash, any winter squash or pumpkin can be used. The dried apricots add a little twist of sweet and tart and a hint of sophistication.

1 kabocha squash, about 2 pounds (1 kg), cut into quarters, seeds and fibrous parts removed
4 cups (1 l) water
1 onion, cut into wedges
12 dried apricots, cut into halves
1 piece fresh ginger, about 2 inches (5 cm) long, sliced
1 tablespoon butter
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped scallions

Place the squash in a steamer basket inserted into a large pot. Add 3 cups (750 ml) of the water and steam for 20 minutes. Reserve the cooking water. Place the cooked squash onto a plate to cool. Use a spoon to scrape the meat from the peel.

Boil the onion, apricots and ginger in the remaining 1 cup (250 ml) of water for 10 minutes.

Combine the squash with the onion mixture. In batches, pour into a blender or food processor and puree, adding some of the reserved squash cooking water for a smooth blend.

Return the puree to the pot. Add the butter and bring to a boil. Add more cooking water if the soup is very thick. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour into soup plates and garnish with chopped scallions.

ENJOY!

NB! In the month of November Marika offers her book for sale on her website at a discounted rate. You will receive a signed copy and shipping is absolutely FREE in the United States: http://www.marikab.com/store/2021318/product/en
Hint: this beautifully designed cookbook might just be the perfect Christmas present for all your health conscious friends and family members.
European readers, you can order Marika's book on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de

Furthermore, I've got ONE copy of this book to give away to a Nami-Nami reader (I'll ship anywhere in the world). To win one, just leave a comment with your name, location and the name of your favourite healthy cold weather dish. I'll randomly choose a winner on Monday morning (November 28th).

Italian-style chicken with capers, anchovy and tomatoes

After lousy November and December (read: dark, wet, cold, windy) we are now in the middle of beautiful January (read: bright, snow, cold). Proper winter weather, which I enjoy, even though it's much harder to push a pram on a snow-covered street, and it's occasionally slippery and icy - sometimes I think that holding on to a pram is the only thing that keeps me upright and in balance :) Ah, the joys of snow-filled cold Nordic winters :)

You need proper hot food to keep your body and soul warm on days like these - and this chicken stew is just the thing. Rosemary and tomatoes, capers and anchovies give this dish plenty of character and a strong Mediterranean feel, almost taking you back to those sun-drenched summer days and warm sea breeze.

I used a whole chicken, cut up to feed six, but you can easily use just drumsticks or bone-in thighs or just breasts, if you're ready to give up some of the chicken flavour.

The recipe is adapted from a recent issue of a Danish food magazine, Mad (that's 'food' in Danish, not a state of mind ;)) They suggested serving this with quinoa. Though I loved quinoa, it seemed too mushy to accompany this dish, so I opted for good Italian bulgur wheat instead.

Italian-style chicken with capers, anchovy and tomatoes
(Mõnus tomatine kanahautis kapparite ja rosmariiniga)
Serves six
Takes about an hour

1 whole broiler chicken, cut up into 8 or 10
some olive oil
4 good anchovy fillets, chopped
6 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
2 onions, peeled, halved and sliced thinly
250 ml (a cup) of dry white wine
300 g cherry tomatoes, halved
400 g can chopped tomatoes
2 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 Tbsp capers, rinsed and drained

Heat oil on a large heavy sauté pan. Brown chicken pieces on all sides (do that in batches, avoid over-crowding the pan). Put browned chicken pieces on the side.
If the pan looks too dry, add another splash of oil. Add anchovies, sauté for a minute. Add the onions and fry gently for a few minutes. Add garlic, fry for another minute. Do not brown!
Return the chicken pieces on the pan, pour over the wine. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, until the wine has reduced by half.
Add the tomatoes (both crushed and halved), season with salt, pepper and rosemary. Simmer gently for 25 minutes or so, until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has thickened.
Add capers, taste again for seasoning and serve.

Revisiting an old favourite: Salmon with a Creamy Orange Sauce and Rosemary

I already posted a recipe for this dish during my early foodblogging days (in July 2005, to be precise). However, it never had a decent photo to illustrate it, plus I've changed the cooking temperatures a little, so I hope you don't mind me writing about it again. Also, I do believe that this fish dish deserves attention. It is an elegant salmon dish, you see, with a lovely creamy, sweet and herby sauce dressing the fish. We had it for dinner last weekend, eating it with some steamed quinoa, and it was a thoroughly satisfying simple meal.

Do try it as well. Oily fish is good for you, you know...

Salmon with a creamy orange sauce & rosemary
(Rosmariini-apelsinilõhe; original recipe: Apelsin- och rosmarinlax, Arla Sverige)
Serves 4 (can be easily halved)


4 pieces of salmon fillets (ca 500 g in total)
1 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
250 ml (1 cup) single cream
3-4 Tbsp orange juice

First, remove any pin-bones from the salmon fillets with pliers (see photo below).
Put fish fillets into an ovenproof dish, season with a mixture of salt, pepper and rosemary. Cover and let marinate for 30 minutes in the fridge.
Mix the single cream with orange juice and pour over the fish.
Grill in a pre-heated 200˚C oven for 15 or so minutes, until fish is cooked through and the creamy orange sauce has thickened a little.
Transfer the fish onto warm plates and serve with plain rice or quinoa, spooning the extra sauce over the fish.

Something exotic: Coconut Chicken Curry, Trinidad style

I've got quite a few Estonian recipes lined up for you during the next few weeks - so much so that I thought it might be a good idea to post something exotic for a change. Although while I certainly do want you to come here whenever you want to read about and cook something Estonian, I don't want to be typecast as 'that Estonian blogger who only posts about Estonian salted broad beans, nettle soup, beef liver gravy, and desserts made of kama.

I can do more than that :)

Here's a recipe for a Coconut Chicken Curry adapted from Globetrekker TV I made last weekend. We both enjoyed this mellow and fragrant curry, and will be making it again when we fancy something more exotic.

Coconut Chicken Curry, Trinidad style
(Trinidadi kana-kookoskarri)
Serves 4



500 grams chicken breast or thigh fillets (I used the latter)
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 lemongrass stalks, inner parts finely chopped
2 Tbsp rum*

2 Tbsp oil
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1 Tbsp curry powder**
250 ml coconut milk
1 red chilli pepper

a small bunch of fresh coriander/cilantro, finely chopped

boiled rice or quinoa to serve

Cut chicken pieces into bite-sized chunks. Mix rum, finely minced garlic and lemongrass stalk in a small bowl, add chicken chunks, toss, cover with clingfilm and put into the fridge to marinate for at least an hour or overnight.
Heat oil in a heavy saucepan, add onions and sauté for 5 minutes on a low heat. Increase heat, add chicken pieces and fry until the colour has changed, stirring to enable even browning (about 8 to 10 minutes).
Add curry powder, stir for a few seconds, then add coconut milk and finely chopped chilli pepper.
Simmer on a low heat for another 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens and chicken cooks through. Remove from the heat, stir in chopped coriander/cilantro and serve with boiled rice or quinoa.

* I used Havana Club Añejo Reserva rum
* I used Caribbean Poudre de Colombo Curry Spice Blend from Seasoned Pioneers, which contains cumin seeds, coriander seeds, fenugreek, black peppercorns, turmeric and cloves. My dear foodblogging friend Johanna gave it to me as a gift this summer.

Culinary overview of 2010

Inspired by similar posts by Alanna and Anne.

JANUARY 2010



I blogged about many of my favourite dishes back in January - chicken with 40 gloves of garlic (photo above) and dulce de membrillo and coconut & beetroot soup, to name just a few. Our beautiful daughter Nora Adeele turned one, and we celebrated it with marzipan-topped Princess cake.

FEBRUARY 2010



Favourite recipes back in February were colorful quinoa salad with lobster tails and avocado, cream cheese spread with horseradish and beetroot (photo above), yummy chocolate muffins, decadent Lenten buns with raspberries, Hummingbird's raspberry cheesecake brownie. It was a loooong, cold and snowy month, hence the number of baked cakes :P

MARCH 2010



In March I loved the caramelised rye bread ice cream and ate lots of Georgian food (incl. fried Suluguni cheese and egg and walnut salad). Anticipating the Easter, the month ended with another lovely pashka recipe (photo above).



At the end of the month we spent a week in Davos, Switzerland. Unfortunately I was down with a nasty cold most of the time, so I missed many of the culinary delights on offer. I did manage to try some spätzle and raclette, of course, as well as some of the local cakes.

APRIL 2010



The highlight of the month was our traditional Easter brunch. As the cold and snow melted away, I fell in love with light salads again. I loved the quinoa salad with beetroot and fennel, Ottolenghi's cucumber salad with poppyseeds. I've made the Georgian spiced and creamy mushrooms on several occasions - and it's been a great hit with Estonian foodbloggers as well ;)

For my birthday at the end of the month I made three different birthday cakes, including my usual mocca cake and the popular Brita cake.

Last, but not least - in April we got four new pets, called Evita, Carol, Daisy and Madame Fifi. Here are the first three (a pure or mixed Araucanas):



and here's Madame Fifi (a French Marans) posing in front of their cool bright orange Eglu:



(And they do belong to the culinary overview of the year, as these lovely chicken have been providing us with free-range eggs that come with a dark yellow yolk and are hidden inside a beautiful pale blue or olive green egg shell :))

MAY 2010



In May I shared more lighter recipes - gnocchi Puttanesca, wild garlic tzatziki, chickpea and tuna salad. Oh, and I provided some ideas for Estonian snacks to help you host an Eurovision fan party - the idea came to me after several e-mail requests for such post :)

JUNE 2010



As the summer season began, I blogged about a new cool café in Pärnu, the "summer capital" of Estonia (one of their popular cakes is pictured above). We loved the cooked whole fish under a salt-crust, and Ottolenghi's roasted eggplant/aubergine with saffron yogurt. The Italian tonnato mayonnaise was a frequent dish on our table during the summer, and the Estonian pork shashlik was a must-try on our Midsummer table.

We also celebrated Nami-Nami's 5th birthday, asking you to name your favorite recipes on the blog. You gave fantastic feedback, thank you!

JULY 2010



July was hot! hot! hot! I almost stopped cooking during the month, as the temperatures were simply too high for a Northern girl like me :D I did blog about grilled chicken liver with sherry and honey marinade, and then moved on to pretty much uncooked dishes. Cottage cheese and egg salad, Danish sweet buttermilk soup with summer berries, watermelon salad, cold beetroot soup, harissa-spiked hummus.

And of course, as any other true Estonian, I ate lots of kama with local wild and cultivated berries (photo above) :)

We also took a daytrip to Helsinki, visiting Café Stringberg for a coffee (our little must-do in Helsinki) and having lunch at one of the hottest eateries in town, Juuri (they're famous for their Finnish tapas, sapas, but these weren't served during lunch-time, unfortunately):



AUGUST 2010



I August we really reaped the benefits of our vegetable garden. Just look at the beets we harvested (above), coming in all shapes and colours!!! Favourite recipes back in August were this tomato salad (we had LOADS of tomatoes as well), oven-baked zucchini/courgettes and tomatoes with feta cheese, cherry and plum compote (our orchard is too young to pick our own stone fruit just yet, but soon, hopefully). We had some friends over for the first ever Nami-Nami tomato tasting party (photo below; hopefully this will become an annual tradition):



It was an exceptionally good year for wild mushrooms in Estonia this year, and we ate lots of them, of course! If I get hold of some black trumpet mushrooms again next year, I'll be definitely making this black trumpet chantarelle salad again - loved the flavour and the bite! I also shared a recipe for lovely simple scones and Snickerdoodle cookies.

SEPTEMBER 2010

September was eventful. In the beginning of the month we spent over a week in Germany and France (with a short detour to Switzerland), attending our friend Margit's wedding in Köln. Of course we sampled lots of culinary delights on the trip, most memorable being maultaschen in Heidelberg:



a proper Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte in a Bizenberger family café in the Schwarzwald area of Germany:



The traditional and the more modern porcini & parmesan cheese flammeküche at L'auberge Saint-Martin in Kinzberg.



And last, but not least - a trip to the famous Bernard Antony, Eleveur de Fromages in Vieux-Ferrette was all worth it!



Back home, things were getting exciting, too. Our daughter began attending a small local nursery (luckily, she loves it!), I went back to work after a long maternity leave. We had another tasting party at home, this time getting to know the infamous Swedish "delicacy", surströmming (an event that's NOT going to be repeated any time soon).



The garden was still providing us with excellent vegetables - like these beautiful eggplants/aubergines. My favourite recipe back in September was definitely this super-easy but very flavourful cauliflower cheese with lots of mustard.

OCTOBER 2010



October was a good month for good recipes, if I may say so. The American apple pie, pumpkin scones, the Dutch apple cake and this coconut dhal (above) are all worth repeating again and again.

NOVEMBER 2010



As the nights got darker and days shorter, I began cooking more substantial meals again. I loved this roasted cauliflower with bacon and garlic (thank you, Jaden, for inspiration!), the beet and blue cheese risotto, the Danish brunsviger cake (photo above). I also posted a recipe for a Latvian dish, Kurzeme stroganoff, that hopefully many of you will try.

I took my dear K. for a special birthday dinner at Bordoo, the new restaurant of one my favourite chefs, Tõnis Siigur. The 6-course tasting menu was nothing less than spectacular and I'm looking forward to going again a.s.a.p.

DECEMBER 2010



The last month of the year just flew by. On December 1st, my first cookbook (photo above) hit the bookshelves here in Estonia, and we had a lovely book launch party that evening (the book has been doing pretty well, thank you for asking ;)). I spoke in several radio channels during December (KUKU, R2, Vikerraadio), and the Estonian print media (and bloggers!) have been very generously reviewing and covering the cookbook as well. I feel so honoured and blessed! (Again - a HUGE thank you to dear Ximena for making the book look so special and beautiful!).

Although December has been very much centered around the cookbook, I did manage to attend a special dinner at NEH and a foodbloggers' lunch at CHEDI (serving excellent modern Asian food), visited the brand new (and very cool!) Sadama turg (Harbour market) and even blog about some dishes (these cheese popovers and soft gingerbread cakei are especially recommended.

We hosted a Christmas Eve dinner to our families again (food was pretty traditional, too). And on the Christmas day we got home two new chickens - a blue and black Orpington (still nameless; these two are to keep Evita and Carol some company over the winter).

Rhubarb & coconut cake - or is it a coconut & rhubarb pie?

Last Thursday, my Edinburgh friends Dianne & Peter came for dinner. They're the lovely couple that gave me a roof over my head during the last two weeks in Edinburgh, so when they told me they'd be in Tallinn, I quickly grabbed the chance to reciprocate their kind hospitality. We had a joyous meal together, catching up about the life in Edinburgh - much appreciated, as I'm off to visit my old hometown next week! Foodwise, coconut was the dominant theme. For starters, we had local, Estonian asparagus with coconut milk and lime. For main course, there was salmon with lots of coriander/cilantro* and quinoa (no coconut there, but coriander goes well with coconut milk, so it still counts:), and for the dessert, I served a rhubarb & coconut cake with whipped cream.

I used some rosy pink rhubarb bought at the local market (yes, I finally ran out of the farm-sourced rhubarb), and the cake didn't only taste wonderful, but it also looked lovely pink (see the flecks of rhubarb?) - white (the coconut filling) - yellow (the pastry base). And it tasted even better on the day after, as the coconut flavour was much more pronounced then..

Rhubarb & coconut cake*
(Rabarbri-kookosekook)
Serves 8



Pastry:
200 grams plain flour
2 Tbsp sugar
a pinch of salt
100 grams butter
1 medium egg
a dash of cold water

Rhubarb layer:
400 grams rhubarb, chopped

Coconut topping:
75 grams butter, at room temperature
200 grams sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
250 grams natural yogurt or thick sour cream
2 medium eggs
200 grams grated coconut
2 Tbsp plain flour

For the pastry, mix flour, sugar and salt, add the butter and work with a knife until you've got fine crumbs. Add the egg and combine - if necessary, add a bit of cold water. Wrap into a cling film and put into the fridge for 30 minutes.
Butter a 24 cm springform tin. Roll out the dough into a slightly bigger circle than the cake form, and line the cake form with the pastry. Pierce with a fork, and blind bake at 200C oven for 10-15 minutes, until golden.
Meanwhile, cut the rhubarb into 1 cm slices (there's no need to peel your rhubarb, as long as it's young and slender).
Mix the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add yogurt/sour cream, vanilla extract, eggs, then add coconut & flour (I combined used the flat beater of my KitchenAid for this).
Spread the rhubarb slices on the pre-baked pastry case. Pour over the coconut filling and bake at 200 C oven for 30-35 minutes, until the cake is slightly golden.
Cool a little, remove from the cake tin and serve with whipped cream or some vanilla ice cream.

* I'm still to figure out what's a cake and what's a pie. I blame my mother tongue - they're pretty much all 'cakes' ('kook' in sing., 'koogid' in pl.) in Estonian :)

Other coconut recipes @ Nami-nami:
Coconut brownies (February 2007)

Other rhubarb recipes @ Nami-nami:
A creamy rhubarb pie (June 2005)
Moist rhubarb muffins (May 2007)
Rhubarb crumble (May 2007)
Rhubarb jam with ginger (May 2007)

Oven-roasted salmon with coriander/cilantro

How time flies!! Remember the asparagus with coconut & lime starter and rhubarb & coconut pie dessert I served at a dinner party in May? Well, between these two courses I served a rather tasty and healthy oven-roasted salmon with coriander/cilantro. I wanted something that would connect the coconut & lime starter with the coconut & rhubarb dessert. As Dianne, one of the guests that night, doesn't eat red meat, then I knew it had to be a fish course. At the end I came up with this recipe - combination of various coriander/cilantro salmon recipes in the web, and lime is the ingredient that appeared both in the starter and in the main course dish. Coriander is not a very widely used herb here in Estonia, though it is increasingly available at some supermarkets, and can be found under the name kinza at the markets, where Russian-speaking ladies sell it (it's widely popular in Caucasus, for example - Georgian chakhohbili wouldn't be the same without it). I hated coriander in the beginning, but have grown to like its piquancy over the last few years, and now grow some on my windowsill.

I used salmon steaks, but it would work just as well with fillets. Also, I served it with quinoa, which worked well, but steamed rice or boiled new potatoes would go well as well. Or simply a nice crusty bread, if you prefer.

Oven-roasted salmon with coriander/cilantro
(Koriandrilõhe)
Serves 4


Click on the photo to enlarge

4 salmon steaks or fillets

Coriander/cilantro marinade:
100 grams fresh coriander, chopped
2 fat garlic cloves, chopped
the zest and juice of 1 lime
5 Tbsp olive oil
sea salt
coarsely ground black pepper

few tomatoes on the wine, optional

Mix all the marinade ingredients together. Season salmon steaks lightly with salt and pepper on both sides, place in a greased oven dish. Spread the coriander marinade over, tuck the squeezed lime halves in the dish as well. [This can be done few hours earlier; cover the dish with a clingfilm and place in the fridge].
Add few smaller tomatoes for extra colour. Cover with foil and roast at 225 Celsius oven for about 15 minutes, depending on thickness, until fish is cooked. Avoid overcooking, as overcooked salmon is simply dry & nasty. (You may want to remove the foil about 5 minutes before end, just to get some golden colour).

Other salmon recipes @ Nami-nami:
Creamy salmon & potato gratin (February 2007)
Oriental salmon with honey, mustard & soy sauce (February 2006)
Salmon fishcakes with green peas (November 2006)
Salmon kulebyaka (February 2007)