The Birthday Party & Smoked salmon pâté

It's not every day that a girl gets to celebrate her 25th birthday all over again, so I had a small party at my place on April 24th. I only decided that I'm not too old to make a bit of fuss about my birthday a few days earlier, but despite the rather short notice, a very impressive 22 friends turned up. I had fantastic time, got lots of flowers (including a very special bunch delivered very early in the morning by a courier;), lots of chocolates to satisfy my chocoholism, and some lovely presents. Thank you all who came by, emailed/called/texted me or left birthday wishes on my blog..

Here's what my friends were nibbling while drinking bubbly and chatting away:

* Grissini sticks wrapped in paper-thin prosciutto slices
* Crostini with pesto (spread on crostini before they are put in the oven)
* Crostini with a salad of salted Estonian chantarelle mushrooms (yum!), minced shallots and sour cream
* Carrot sticks with hummus
* Salmon and cream cheese canapés that I tested just few days earlier.
* Crostini with goat's cheese, smoked salmon and parsley (below)

And then there was the mocca and almond cake, obviously. Devoured in an instant:)

Smoked salmon pâté
(Suitsulõhepasteet)



This simple but gutsy spread was inspired by a recipe in Rachel's Favourite Food for Friends. I replaced crème fraîche with sour cream and used goat's cheese instead of cream cheese. I'm not a great friend of fennel either (although I love dill), so my pâté had parsley in it. As it can be made up to a week in advance, it's great for parties.

100 grams of organic smoked salmon
50 grams Welsh soft goat's cheese
100 ml sour cream
a handful of parsley
sea salt
crushed black pepper
a squeeze of lemon juice.

Whiz up chopped salmon, goat's cheese, sour cream and parsley in a food processor. Season with salt and pepper and refresh with a squeeze of lemon juice.
Spread on crostini or crackers and garnish with some parsley.

For more great finger food ideas, check out this recent post by Angelika of the Flying Apple and all those fabulous canapé recipes by Johanna of the Passionate Cook.

Roasted pork fillet, Malaysian style

I finally got lucky and bought a nice piece of pork fillet from the Puddledub Pork & Fifeshire Bacon Co at the farmers' market last weekend. Usually I never make it to the market early enough, you see, and although the stallholder has offered to put some aside if I ask him too, I haven't taken up the offer yet. The market takes place on Saturday mornings, after all, and sometimes staying in bed until noon is just too tempting.. The pork fillet led to this exotic (to an Estonian, at least) pork dish. It was easy to make, and the I loved the subtle sweet heat of the roasted pork, and the pink tenderness of it. I altered the marinade a little, adding some lemongrass, and replacing sugar with the Hummingbird Sweet Chilli Sauce from Scotland's enterprising wunderkind Fraser Doherty's Doherty's Preserves. I served the whole lot with sprouting broccoli again.

Malaysian BBQ Pork
(Ahjus röstitud malaisiapärane seafilee)
Adapted from pure points 2 cookbook
Serves 4



~ 500 gram of pork fillet, trimmed of all fat

For the marinade:
1 Tbsp honey
150 ml dark soy sauce (I used Kikkoman)
50 ml medium-dry sherry
150 ml stock (I used Marigold Swiss vegetable stock powder)
1 Tbsp sweet chilli sauce
1 cm piece of fresh ginger, finely sliced
1 shallot onion, finely chopped
1 lemongrass (outer layers removed), finely chopped

For the garnish:
chopped spring onion (optional)

Mix all the marinade ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes. Let cool.
Put the pork fillet in a shallow dish, cover with marinade and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight. Turn the meat every now and then to ensure even flavouring.
Take the pork fillet out of the marinade, reserving the marinade.
Place the meat on a rack over a roasting tin, and pour about 1 cm boiling water into the tin to keep the moisture.
(Note the inventive use of Christmas cookie cutters in the absence of roasting rack in my kitchen).
Put the roasting tin into the oven, and roast in the middle of a 200°C oven for about 30-40 minutes, basting with marinade half way through.
Meanwhile, strain the marinade into a small saucepan, bring the liquid to the boil and simmer for about 15 minutes, until the marinade has reduced by about 1/3.
Serve the sliced pork (either hot or cold) on a bed of slightly steamed bok choy, spinach or sprouting broccoli. Drizzle some reduced marinade on top.

Nuts coconuts

One of the positive aspects about living in a beautiful town like Edinburgh is the amount of visitors. This year's visitors' season has definitely began, and I'll be hosting various friends from home and abroad quite frequently for the next few weeks. My first visitor this spring is a former colleague of mine, Hille. We used to share an office back in 1999-2000, and we had another colleague at the head office who was called Sille. Imagine the confusion:)

Having guests is great - especially if they bring you some rye bread, cheese, salami and chocolates from home. However, having guests will have probably a somewhat detrimental effect on my blogging. Acting as a tourguide and a B&B hostess (as well as trying to do my paid day job) can be exhausting. I tend to stick to tried and tested favourites as opposed to spending too much time trying to come up with new dishes. Since Hille's arrival, I've made penne alla vodka again, using smoked pancetta (note that I've replaced the original picture in that post and edited the recipe slightly - so go and re-read it:). This kept us suitably warm for the couple of hours we spent at Calton Hill enjoying the Beltane Fire Festival. On Tuesday night I made haggis, neeps & tatties again, followed by cranachan a la Sue Lawrence, with caramelised oats instead of oatmeal and mascarpone cheese to make it creamier.

We have also been out and about a bit, enjoying various cuppas at Peckham's and BeanScene, and great smoothies at Centotre on George Street to recover after some window-shopping. On Monday we feasted at Nile Valley, a Sudanese restaurant near the University. A spicy lamb stew for Hille and a delicious okra dish (okra, cruncy carrots and soft mushrooms in a slightly spicy sauce) for Pille, whereas we both devoured the coconut icecream above. I dislike both Bounty bars and Raffaello chocolates, but this creamy and overly coconutty ice cream I liked. It was a perfect pud to kickstart a long salsa night that followed:)

* The title refers to a rather unusual show I saw at the Edinburgh International Festival last summer, "nuts coconuts: the story of the 'Gibraltar Follies' variety theatre company" . The programme for this year's Edinburgh International Festival is out now.