A Scottish supper

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had another Estonian friend visiting and I treated Margit, her colleague and another MacEstonian to a Scottish meal. The Estonian visitors had heard rumours of haggis, the Scottish national dish of lamb bits and other things, so I decided to make some exactly a week ago. My choice of haggis is MacSween of Edinburgh, and I bought both a vegetarian and traditional version. These were served with neeps (alias mashed turnip, seasoned with butter, salt, pepper, and nutmeg) and tatties (potato mash, seasoned with salt, pepper, milk and butter).



We drank my current favourite whisky and Whisky Mac cocktails. For the latter you mix 1.5 oz Scotch whisky and 1 oz green ginger wine. I suspect my ginger wine (not easy to find!) wasn't the green one, as the cocktail was way too sweet compared to the one I usually get served in pubs (which I love).

And for the dessert, I made cranachan again, this time adding mascarpone cheese for the mixture.



Apart from mishaps with the whisky cocktail, the meal was lovely. My visiting friend was surprised that mashed turnip tastes so sweet and nice, and both of them bought some haggis to take home with. And they know where to find a recipe for cranachan..

Poppyseed lemon loaf

After making the delicious cranberry orange loaf the other day, I realised I needed to invest in a slightly larger loaf tin. It’s just that the one I had until now was a very small one, and although the cranberry loaf raised to the occasion, I could see that it was struggling for space. So I got a larger one from Tesco that looks sturdy and solid enough to last me for a while. This poppyseed lemon loaf was the first cake to be baked in my new loaf tin.

A recipe from the ‘White Christmas’ special issue of Estonian family journal Pere ja Kodu (December 2001). This indicates that it’s highly suitable for Christmas table (we’re supposed to have seven different cakes on Christmas table traditionally). However, I cannot think of a single reason why it wouldn’t be a nice addition to any other coffee table. The lemony tartness is universally tasty, even in the middle of the summer.

Poppyseed lemon loaf
(Sidruni-moonikeeks)
Serves 10



Cake:
125 grams of butter, room temperature
250 ml sugar
2 eggs
350 ml plain flour, sifted
3 Tbsp poppy seeds
1 Tbsp grated lemon zest
1 tsp baking powder
0.25 tsp salt
50 ml milk

Lemon syrup:
75 ml sugar
5 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon zest

Cream the softened butter with sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, incorporating them into the batter by whisking.
In a separate bowl, mix flour, poppy seeds, lemon zest, baking powder and salt.
Add milk and dry ingredients to the sugar and butter mixture.
Stir into a dough, pour into a buttered and floured (I use semolina for this purpose) 2 pound loaf tin.
Bake at 160˚C for 60 minutes.

For the syrup, heat the sugar, lemon juice and zest in a small saucepan on a low heat until boiling. Stir, until sugar dissolves and you get slightly sticky syrup.

Test if the loaf is baked, using a wooden stick. If it’s done, take out of the oven.
Now make ca 12 holes into the cake with the wooden stick, all the way to the bottom. Pour over the lemon syrup. Leave it to cool for half an hour.



Remove the cake from the tin and let it cool completely. Wrap in a foil and leave it for at least overnight, so the flavours could develop.

Political interlude and émigré goodie bag

United Kingdom is currently the presiding country of the European Union. Apart from the UK attempting to solve lots of worthy worldly causes (agree on the next EU budget, eradicate world poverty and provide more trade opportunities for Africa), this has personal implications for me. You see, lots of EU meetings take place in the UK, and some of these take place in Edinburgh. And that means that some of my friends inevitably end up in Scotland sooner or later discussing important EU matters.

So it happened that a good university friend of mine was in Edinburgh on a business trip from late Wednesday night until Saturday morning. I only got a final confirmation about her arrival on Tuesday morning. This was followed by a prompt email to my Mum, who compiled a quick goodie bag for her émigré daughter. This was picked up by my friend on Tuesday night, and gratefully accepted by me at a hotel lobby in Edinburgh late on Wednesday.

Here’s a typical Estonian émigré goodie bag:


On the top right there’s a huge 300 gram bar of Kalevipoeg chocolate. This is a lovely darkish milk chocolate with large hazelnut chunks. Very suitable for émigré Estonians, as it depicts the hero of our national epic, Kalevipoeg (Son of Kalev), making it a prime example of a patriotic chocolate. Similarities to the Finnish national epic Kalevala are purely coincidental, of course...

Then there are two pink bars of Geisha chocolate from the Finnish Fazer company. These are utterly delicious, with a soft nougat filling. Not really Estonian, but Helsinki and Tallinn are just 80 kilometres apart, so that’s close enough and shows strong Finno-Ugric unity…

Then three packets of hõõgveinimaitseaine alias mulled wine seasoning. It is getting unusually chilly in Edinburgh – there’s been frost for few mornings in a row now. And mulled wine is absolutely essential for survival in colder climates and mulled wine seasoning mixture is therefore part of any survival kit...

In a proud centre position is a huge loaf of sour rye bread. As Estonians, we have a very special relationship with our bread. We honestly and truly believe that it’s the best bread in the world. I am no exception. This is a fine example of the light rye bread with caraway seeeds – Tallinn’s fine bread - named after the capital of Estonia.

Next to the bread, a small packet of sweets. Well, those of you who read my story about the ubiquous Estonian roasted and ground grain mixture, kama, know about the kama ’chocolate’ bar – indeed, at least 2 other European bloggers have by now had a chance to taste kama ’chocolate’ bar. You may also remember my recipes for kama truffles and kama mousse. But that’s not all. We can stretch kama even further. Here’s a packet of kamabatoonid, alias chalky textured kama flavoured sweets. Definitely a very acquired taste and texture :), but again, totally essential in a goodie bag sent to any young Estonian abroad...

A loaf of white bread with sunflower seeds, päevalilleseemnesai. Not essential, but a nice touch from my mum.

Two packets of sliced Estonian smoked sausages. Go very well with Estonian rye bread (see above).

October-November issue of Vikerkaar, the official monthly magazine of Estonian Writers’ Union (a bit like Granta in Britain). Included in the goodie bag as it has my name on the cover page (the dark bit on the third line, you see) and an Estonian de-academised version of the conference paper I gave in Estonia in August printed inside. Very pleased with that one, as it’s nice to have something published in my mother tongue for a change.

There you go. It would be fun to read what other dislocated and displaced foodbloggers would (want to) find in their goodie bags. Maybe I should start a meme...