Cheesy Feet (aka feet-shaped cheese biscuits)

If someone has slightly 'aromatic' feet, then we call these 'juustud' or cheese(s) in Estonian (as in 'take your cheese away from me!'). Imagine my delight then when I spotted cheesy feet biscuits on page 253 in Nigella’s Feast: Food That Celebrates Life. As I like cheese – and cheese biscuits - a lot, I spent few frustrating hours in the web looking for such feet-shaped cookie cutters.

It wasn't easy – even the US websites were either out of stock or had only odd-looking and odd-shaped feet cutters available. I eventually managed to find the ones I liked from The Professional Cookware Company and in return for £6.95 plus £4.95 P&P (ouch!) I was sent a delightful ‘Feet Cookie Cutters 3 Piece Set’:

Last night I tried and tested my new cheesy feet cookie cutters, using a recipe for cheese and caraway biscuits from March 2003 issue of Elukiri – a monthly magazine for elderly Estonians :) Caraway is probably the most common seasoning for cheese biscuits back home and it's no wonder, as these two produce a very tasty combination indeed. The following recipe results in particularly cheesy and airy dainty biscuits:

Estonian Cheese Biscuits with Caraway Seeds
(Köömnesõbra juustuküpsised)



For the cheesy dough:
125 g (4.4 oz) grated cheese
2oo ml plain/all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
100 g (3.5 oz) cold butter

Grate the cheese, mix with flour. Add the salt and then mix in butter with a knife. Using your hands, bring everything together into a dough and put it into a fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough out to the 3-4 mm thickness (this is easiest to do between 2 sheets of cling film) and use feet-shaped cutters to cut out lots of biscuits. Transfer onto a baking tray.

For the glossy top:
1 egg yolk
1 tsp milk or cream

Mix and brush thinly over the biscuits.

For sprinkling:
Caraway seeds (my favourite!)
Poppy seeds
Sesame seeds

Bake in a pre-heated 200˚C oven for 10-12 minutes until biscuits and slightly golden. Enjoy.

PS You can obviously use more regular cookie cutters for these biscuits instead of feet-shaped cutters. Though I don't guarantee that they'll look as cute then:)

* It's Take 1 this time, as I plan to try and test (or should it be 'try and taste'?) other cheese biscuit recipes in the near future.

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By the way – does anyone know where I could find cookie cutters shaped like these?

I spotted these lovely bikini clad ladies on page 61 of London Evening Standard on Friday 17 June 2005. Apparently these are served as part of Pret a Portea afternoon tea (£31) at the Berkeley in Knightsbridge, London and are designed by Cucci.
I can imagine making lovely Christmassy gingerbread bikini clad ladies cookie presents for some friends – just need to get hold of a cookie cutter like that.

Flowering tea

I was re-flipping through the pages of May 2005 issue of delicious. the other day when I spotted a short story ‘Green brews’ in the foodie file. section. The piece says: ‘You’ve got to be as mad as a hatter if you replace your builder’s for the pricey Anhui Jin Shang Tian Hua tea. The green tea leaves are steamed to make them supple, then hand-stiched into straw sunhats with a pod at the top containing dried chrysanthemums. The second infusion is better than the first as it’s more subtle. £47.50 for 125g, from Fortnum & Mason.’ Ouch. My dear friend Ryoko was teaching Japanese language to Chinese university students for the last two years, and has just brought me a lovely box of that very tea as a present after returning to Edinburgh:
I know that it was cheaper in China, but I’m nevertheless not sure if I dare to drink it just like this any more :) But it is stunning to look at when the tea leaves and the flower bud open in a teapot, and it tastes like a good jasmine tea does.

(Sorry, my only see-through tea pot is an ancient Bodum with a red plastic lid and is totally unsuitable for public showing. I’ve chosen the replacement (staying with sleek Danish design, it’s going to be an Eva Solo tea maker), but now need to wait for a flight connection at Kastrup airport in Copenhagen in order to buy it duty free…)

And a dash of vodka, please, or Nigella Lawson's Pasta alla Vodka

While travelling or living abroad (including Scotland, although it feels more like home after six years) and telling people that I’m from Estonia, I am usually asked whether we drink lots of vodka in Estonia. I guess it’s because we’re neighbours with Finland and Russia, both known for their fondness of vodka (indeed, BBC Radio 4 stated yesterday afternoon that each Russian – including children and the elderly - consumes 15 litres of vodka annually!). I sometimes take offence to this question, as I don’t think that we drink lots of vodka back home. At least my friends don’t. We drink copious amounts of mulled wine – hõõgvein – during the dark long winter nights, cold beer during summer (and always after sauna) and wine on other occasions. But upon reflection, my parents’ generation probably prefers vodka to wine – out of old habit, as good wines were unavailable during the Soviet era and vodka was pretty much the only drink one could find in the shops. Though even vodka disappeared after Gorbatchev came to power in 1985..

Anyway, back to my own ‘vodka-fuelled’ weekend. On Saturday night my Japanese friend Ryoko came over for a chat and a light meal. I had been spent couple of leisurely hours at the Meadows at the G8/Make Poverty History event, and was too lazy to cook anything substantial. I also want to finish off the bottle of vodka in my cupboard ASAP to avoid questions about Estonians’ favourite tipple, so I made again – second time within a week - penne alla vodka from Nigella’s Feast. Or to be more precise, I made fusilli bucati corti alla vodka. It’s really easy to make and there’s something naughty about adding vodka to pasta. According to Nigella, the dish originated in Rome in 1960s, and though ‘it sounds the unlikeliest of inventions, but it works strangely well: the vodka gives a grainy depth balanced by the acid fruitiness of the tomatoes (think Bloody Mary), both mellowed by a slug of cream and the butter that is melted on to the pasta before it is combined with the sauce’ (p. 132).

Pasta alla vodka
(Viinamakaronid)
Serves 4 as a light meal or 2 as a main course with some left over.



1 tbsp olive oil
1 chopped onion
1 chopped garlic clove
pinch of salt
400 g can chopped tomatoes
a pinch of chilli flakes
1 tbsp double cream
500 g short pasta (penne, fusilli)
4 tbsp vodka
2 tbsp butter
grated Parmesan cheese

Make the sauce first, as it can be easily reheated.
Heat the oil, add the onion, then garlic and salt, and sweat until onion is soft and translucent. Don’t burn.
Now add the chopped tomatoes, pinch of chilli flakes and simmer on a gentle heat for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
[Until this point the sauce can be made in advance].
Cook the pasta al dente.
Just before the pasta is ready, stir the cream into the [re-heated] tomato sauce.
Drain the pasta, pour the vodka and stir the butter into the pasta.
Mix with the creamy tomato sauce and serve with extra parmesan cheese.

My Romanian friend Ruxandra served it with creamy goat cheese instead of parmesan back in May, and it was delicious as well.

UPDATE 22.4.2006 Have swapped the picture for a nicer one. Also, I tend to add slightly more vodka nowadays, use mascarpone instead of double cream and sprinkle lots of fresh parsley on top. Still a real keeper, almost one year on:)