Persimmon with honeyed yoghurt

How do you enjoy the persimmons, in season right now?

Here in Estonia we can by mostly the heart-shaped hachiya variety, which is astringent when raw, but meltingly sweet when ripe. We usually just wash them and cut into wedges, but there's also this super-easy and lovely way of serving them, adapted from the Australian Persimmon Inc page here.

Remember, only try this with perfectly rip persimmons unless you want to be utterly disappointed.

Persimmon with honeyed yoghurt
(Hurmaa mesise jogurtiga)
Serves 4

400 grams Greek yogurt
1 large hachiya persimmon
4 tsp of runny honey
fresh thyme leaves

Divide yoghurt between four small dessert bowls or glasses.
Wash and dry the persimmon (no need to peel!), cut into thin wedges. Top the yoghurt with 2-3 persimmon slices. Drizzle some honey on top, garnish with fresh thyme leaves and serve.

Previously on Nami-Nami:

• Persimmon and cottage cheese dessert (December 2008)

Genius Apple Rollups aka Crispy Apple Bread Cigars

Those baked apple pie roll ups by Spend With Pennies turned up on social media last week and I decided to give them a go. It's a very good year for apples in Estonia this year, we're inundated with them! A good reason to try out as many new and old apple recipes out there :)

For the original recipe, see Spend With Pennies blog. Here's what I did, using homemade apple jam of course :)

Crispy Apple Roll-Ups
(Moositäidisega saiarullid)
18 "cigars"

18 sliced of white bread
thick and chunky apple jam
50 g butter, melted
cinnamon
demerara sugar or golden caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 180 C/370 F. Take a medium-sized shallow oven dish and brush lightly with melted butter.

Pour the melted butter onto a small shallow dish.

Remove the crusts off the sliced bread, then roll each slice with a rolling pin until flattened thin. Put a heaped tablespoonful of apple jam alongside one end of the flattened bread (see this pic on my Instagram), then roll tighly. Roll the rolled bread quickly in the melted butter, then place into the oven dish, "seam" underneath.

Repeat with the rest of the bread slices and apple jam. When all "cigars" are done and neatly tucked into the oven dish, then sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar (go easy on the sugar, be generous with the cinnamon).

Place the dish into the preheated oven and bake for about 15-20 minutes, until the bread cigars are golden and crispy.

Remove from the oven, let cool a little. Enjoy - eating either with your fingers, or nicely plated with some vanilla ice cream.

Berry muffins, fit for the Queen

For some reason, our northern neighbours, the Finns, call dishes containing raspberries and blueberries (well, actually bilberries) kuningatar-this and kuningatar-that, the prefix kuningatar- meaning the queen. I'm yet to conduct research why this is so (any Finnish readers out there who know? Ritva, perhaps?), but here are some delicious summer muffins containing blueberries and raspberries - and would hence be called kuningatarmuffinsit or "queen's muffins" in Finland :)

I call them simply:

Summer Berry Muffins
(Kuningannamuffinid)
Yields 12 regular muffins

100 g butter, at room temperature
125 g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla sugar
2 eggs (L)
50-100 ml (about 4-7 Tbsp) milk, buttermilk or kefir
120 g all-purpose flour or fine white spelt flour
60 g wholemeal flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
200 g blueberries and raspberries
pearl sugar (optional)

Cream the butter and sugars until white and soft (I use the paddle attachment of my standing mixer). Add the eggs, one at a time, and whisking thoroughly after adding each egg. Pour in the milk.

Mix the dry ingredients (flours and baking powder), fold into the egg, butter and sugar mixture.

Finally, gently fold in the berries.

Line the muffin pan with paper muffin liners, then divide the muffin mixture into the muffin cups. Sprinkle with pearl sugar, if you feel like.

Bake at pre-heated 200 C (390 F) for 15-20 minutes, until the muffins have risen and are lovely golden brown.

Let cool a little and serve.

These are best on the day they are baked. Here's a sneak peek to the inside of the muffin: my instagram muffin-pic. 

Anne's shrimp and mango salad

We had some friends over today and I needed something bright and yummy (and without gluten) to be served on this sunny day. I was browsing my to-do(-again) lists, and opted for a refreshing mango and shrimp salad that I've made before. It's light, it's easy, and it's quite an eye-catcher, so perfect for a summer get-together. As I suspected, it was very well received - though you might hold back with the chilli when catering for kids as well ;)

The original recipe is from Anne's blog, and she's actually blogged about it a couple of times (see here and here)

Shrimp and Mango Salad
(Kreveti-mangosalat)
Serves four

300 g peeled cooked shrimp
300 g mango cubes
1 red chilli
1 small red onion
2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
a small handful of fresh coriander leaves/cilantro
a generous pinch of pink peppercorns

If you use frozen shrimp, then defrost them overnight in the fridge or put into a bowl of lukewarm water for a few hours. Drain thoroughly.

Defrost the mango cubes or cut to the fresh mango into small cubes.

Thinly slice the chilli (discard the seeds). Peel the onion, cut either into a small dice or cut into two lengthwise and then into thin slices.

Mix mango, shrimps, chilli, onions and coriander leaves in a bowl. Drizzle with lime juice and sprinkle some crushed pink peppercorns on top.

Serve immediately.

Lemony bread and butter pudding with custard and berries

It's been a while since my last proper blog post, I know. It's not that I've neglected my food-loving readers, I've just been focusing on my Estonian readers during the last months. Apologies :) But here I am, attempting to start blogging again with this fun take on bread and butter pudding.

Why bread and butter pudding? We were sorting the bread and butter recipes over on my Estonians site with one of my editors, Kaare, and while doing the research, I came across this shortcut version in the British food magazine Delicious. Meanwhile, if you read Estonian, you can check out Kaare's great article on this humble - yet versatile dessert: Millal Sa viimati saiavormi sõid?

Lemony bread and butter pudding with custard and berries
(Saiavorm sidrunivõide, vanillipudingi ja marjadega)
Serves 6 to 8

400 g good white bread (brioche, challah or such like)
butter, softened
500 ml (2 cups) fresh vanilla custard
200 ml double cream/whipping cream
300 g berries (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries)
6 Tbsp lemon curd or toffee/caramel sauce

Preheat the oven to 160°C . Thickly slice the bread and butter one side of each slice. Cut each slice into large triangles or halves and layer in a 2 litre ovenproof dish.

In a 1-litre jug, mix the vanilla custard and fresh cream, then pour in around the bread slices, pressing the bread down gently. If you can, leave to stand and absorb for about half an hour. 

Scatter berries on top, tucking them between the bread slices. Spoon dollops of lemon curd or caramel sauce on top.

Bake in a preheated oven for 40-50 minutes until the bread slices on top are golden brown on edges and nicely crispy.

Leave to rest for 10 minutes before serving. Serve with a jug of cream or milk (pictured). 

How do you make bread and butter pudding?

Gravlax with sea-buckthorn berries

Sea-buckthorn is a popular autumn berry here in Estonia. I'm afraid it's not so widely known in the US where most of my blog readers are based. However, given that Doctor Oz has been touting sea-buckthorn as one of the superberries, this may change :) 

Sea-buckthorn berries have a pleasant, but very tart flavour. They can be used instead of lemons - and here sea-buckthorn juice is used as a replacement for lemon juice in curing some nice salmon. 

Use highest quality fresh fish to make this dish. 

Gravlax with sea-buckthorn

(Õrnsoolatud lõhe või forell astelpajuga)

Serves four to six

500 g fresh salmon filet

2 Tbsp natural/unsweetened sea-buckthorn juice

2 Tbsp kosher salt or Maldon sea salt flakes

1 Tbsp caster sugar

1 tsp freshly ground black or white peppercorns

handful of sea-buckthorn berries

Remove any bones with pliers. Brush with sea-buckthorn juice. 

Combine salt, sugar and pepper, spread the curing mixture over the fish and rub it gently in. Cut the filet into two even chunks, place them together, flesh sides touching. 

Wrap the salmon tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours or up to 48 hours. 

Unwrap salmon, discarding the curing mixture (rinse quickly, if necessary, and pat thoroughly dry). 

Tp serve, place gravlax skin side down on a cutting board. Cut the gravlax into thin slices with a fileting-knife (a long, narrow-bladed knife), cutting against the grain, and slightly diagonally. 

Other sea-buckthorn recipes:
Mulled sea-buckthorn drink @ Nami-Nami

Sea-buckthorn jelly with kama mascarpone mousse @ Nami-Nami
Sea-buckthorn and Amaretto cheesecake @ Nami-Nami
Sea-buckthorn and apple tart @ Nami-Nami
Sea-buckthorn sorbet @ Nami-Nami
Cardamom panna-cotta with sea-buckthorn and apricot compote @ Nami-Nami
Sea-buckthorn juice @ Russian Season
Sea-buckthorn @ Real Epicurean
Gelbe grütze @ Küchenlatein
Coconut cream custard on sanddorn mirror @ Vegalicious Recipes
Sea buckthorn curd with raspberries @ Swedish Food
Sea-buckthorn cheesecake @ Bumpkin Mag
Sea-buckthorn mousse @ Andie's Veggies
Sea-buckthorn kissel with Greek yoghurt @ Suvi sur le vif

Whipped semolina pudding with apples and black aronia berries

Recipe by Pille @ Nami-Nami. Above photo by Juta Kübarsepp for the October 2012 issue of Kodu ja Aed ("Home and Garden", an Estonian monthly magazine. I've been their food writer since October 2012). 

Back in July 2013, The Wall Street Journal touted the slightly astringent and tart black aronia as possibly the next superberry. While WSJ listed it alongside other health-giving berries, Fox News wrote more directly: Aronia: The North American super berry with cancer-fighting properties., calling aronia the "King Kong of antioxidant berries" (other than that, it's actually a pretty good and informative article). In a word - it's a great berry that's very good to you!

Black aronia berry has been popular here in Estonia for decades - it makes a beautiful hedge plant, especially in the autumn:



See what I mean? The aronia plant has most beautiful dark red leaves in the autumn!

Usually the berries are used to make cordial, though they can be used in so many other ways. I often throw a handful of berries into my smoothie, and I've provided links to various recipes below. Here's a simple autumnal pudding, using apples, aronia berries and cream of wheat/semolina.

Black aronia and apple whipped semolina pudding
(Aroonia-õunavaht)
Serves 4 to 6

1 l (4 cups) water
500 ml (2 cups) of cleaned black aronia berries and apple chunks
100 g caster sugar
a pinch of salt
200 ml semolina/cream of wheat (wholewheat or spelt semolina is fine, too)

Put the aronia berries and chopped apples into a saucepan, pour over the water. Bring into a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, until the aronia berries have softened.

Take a bowl (or another saucepan) and cover with a sieve. Pour the cooked apples and black aronias - and their boiling liquid - onto the sieve and using the back of a wooden spoon, press as much of the fruit through the sieve. Season the mixture with sugar and a pinch of salt. Bring into a boil.

Pour semolina quickly into the boiling mixture, stirring vigorously to avoid any lumps. Then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 10-15 minutes, stirring every now and then, until semolina - and the pudding - thickens. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool for about half an hour. Whisk until fluffy and light - this is best done with an electric mixer.

Serve with milk.

More recipes using black aronia berries aka chokeberries:
Black aronia muffins @ Nami-Nami
Black aronia and kefir smoothie @ Nami-Nami
Aronia jam @ Blooms 'n' Food
6 recipes @ Deep Roots
Aronia jam @ Sto kolorow kuchni (recipe in Polish)
Black aronia soda @ ferdakost
Vispipuuro omenasta ja marja-aroniasta by Riikka @ (recipe in Finnish)
Vispipuuro marja-aroniasta @ Omenaminttu (recipe in Finnish)
Vispipuuro marja-aroniasta ja mustaherukasta by MariMaalla @ Lily (recipe in Finnish)
Aroniaglögi @ Omenaminttu (recipe in Finnish)
Aronia-omenakisselli @ Omenaminttu (recipe in Finnish)
Aronia and rye foam by Malitsu @ Mämmi

(From the recipe archives: this post was originally posted in September 2013)

Best rhubarb muffins recipe ever

I just baked a batch and had to dig out this recipe from the depths of Nami-Nami and share this with you again :) The post is actually from 2007, the photo below from 2009. They are still my very favourite rhubarb muffins!!!



We are still enjoying the rhubarb bounty. Here's a recipe for really moist rhubarb muffins that I made twice last week. Firstly, they were served at a 'girly' housewarming/birthday party last Thursday, attended by all my aunties (that's three maternal and one paternal), my parents (my dad was unable to attend the 'real' birthday party on a previous weekend), as well as some of my first cousins (not all 11 though:). Instead of birthday cake, I made lots of these rhubarb muffins that day, served as a pyramid on a cake stand. Very pretty!! But in the midst of all the buzz and excitement, we forgot to take a picture. Not that it mattered much, as it gave me a good excuse to make these very same muffins again on Sunday.

These muffins, let me tell you, are the moistest muffins you'll make. They're so moist, that even if you eat them on the following day, they taste like they're freshly baked. Delicious!

Rhubarb muffins
(Maailma parimad rabarbrimuffinid)

Serves 12

2 medium eggs
125 g sugar (150 ml)
150 g plain flour (250 ml)
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
150 grams sour cream (20%)
50 grams butter, melted and cooled
400 grams rhubarb, (peeled and) chopped

Cinnamon and demerara sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Whisk eggs with sugar until pale and frothy.
Mix the dry ingredients. Add to the egg mixture together with sour cream and melted butter. Fold in the rhubarb.
Fill 12 hole muffin tray (they'll be pretty full, as rhubarb gives a lot of bulk initially, but shrink while the batter rises), sprinkle with cinnamon and demerara sugar
Bake at 225 C for 13-15 minutes, until muffins have risen and turned golden brown.
Cool a little before serving, as the rhubarb pieces can be very hot!

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

Other muffin recipes @ Nami-nami:
Apple muffins (March 2007)
Cocoa and raspberry muffins (August 2005)
Dark chocolate and cherry muffins (April 2006)
Dark chocolate and chilli muffins (July 2005)
Savoury muffins with beetrot and blue cheese (October 2006)
Savoury muffins with feta cheese and sun-dried tomatoes (June 2006)

Mascarpone and cottage cheese with raspberries

Trying to reduce the amount of carbohydrates, yet missing something sweet and luscious? Then try this low-carb, gluten-free, wheat-free mascarpone and raspberry pudding - either for breakfast, for dessert or just a quick treat between meals.  It's not dairy-free, however - there's some creamy mascarpone cheese and full-fat cottage cheese in there!

I love the dairy products we get here in Estonia. You get excellent butter, kefir, buttermilk, yoghurt, curd cheese and cottage cheese over here - though the cottage cheese we ate daily in Israel back in 2012 (pictured on the left) was even better. The curds in the Israeli cottage cheese were larger, and much softer than here in Estonia - they really did melt in your mouth!  But apart from that, you cannot fault the Estonian dairy products. We use them a lot and in various delicious ways - just browse through the Estonian recipes on my blog to see all the cakes, desserts and pastries - and even savoury dishes - requiring curd cheese (tvorog/quark/rahka) or the farmers cheese/cottage cheese.

I adopted the recipe from Madbanditten, a popular Danish LCHF-blog. Jane (the blogger) added some sweetener into the dessert as well, which I didn't have nor missed at all - mascarpone is so rich and creamy that it fully satisfies your tastebuds without any added sweetener :)

Simple mascarpone and raspberry pudding
(Kodujuustudessert)
Serves 2

100 g full-fat cottage cheese (also known as farmer's cheese)
100 g mascarpone cheese
0.5 tsp vanilla extract or powder

To serve:
raspberries

Combine cottage cheese and mascarpone in a bowl, add vanilla and mix again. Fold in some raspberries, serve at once or keep covered in the fridge until ready to eat.

Chia, banana and coconut pudding recipe

It took me a while to like chia seeds. I was well aware of all the benefits of enjoying some chia seeds every now and then (if you're not, then check out this article over at Huffington Post), but they reminded me of frogspawn and I wasn't really interested. Yet somehow a packet of chia seeds did find a way into my kitchen cupboard recently and I've been adding a serving (2 Tbsp) here and there. And you know what - they still look like frogspawn when mixed with liquid and left to stand for a while - but they taste actually nice and I quite enjoy the texture now.

Today's recipe is for a simple banana, chia and coconut pudding. Many bloggers use almond milk (see a list of similar recipes at the end of this post), but I never have that at home, so I use coconut milk instead. Enjoy this for breakfast, dessert or a quick snack.

You'll need an immersion blender for making this pudding.

Banana, chia and coconut pudding
(Banaani-chia-kookosepuding)
Serves 1

1 very ripe banana
100 ml coconut milk
2 Tbsp chia seeds
a dash of vanilla extract

Peel the banana, cut into chunks and place into a tall glass or jug. Add the coconut milk and blent until smooth.
Add the chia seeds, blend for a second, just to distribute the chia seeds evenly. Season to taste with vanilla.
Leave to stand for an hour, so the chia seeds can suck in some of the coconut milk.
Serve with a small spoon.



Similar recipes:
Three-ingredient banana chia pudding @ Run Eat Repeat
Banana chia pudding @ Healthy Living How To
Banana coconut chia seed pudding @ Slender Kitchen
Chia seed breakfast bowl @ Oh She Glows (Angela has great topping suggestsions as well!)

The 2-ingredient banana pancakes

First there were the 3-ingredient cookies, consisting of bananas, oats and raisins. Now we're making 2-ingredient pancakes, consisting of bananas and eggs :)

I discovered the recipe in the summer, when it appeared on my friend Liina's blog, and since then we've made them quite a few times - mostly when we have over-ripe bananas on the counter, or simply want a sweet dessert that's ready in minutes. I've seen versions adding some coconut meal, ground almonds or oats, but as long as you make the pancakes small (mine are about 5 cm or 2 inches in diameter), they'll stay together with just two ingredients as well.

These are not vegan, as they contain eggs, but they do suit most other popular diets out there. Plus the kids love them!

Note that you need ripe bananas - the riper your bananas, the sweeter and nicer the pancakes!

I've served them with a sprinkling of cinnamon and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Banana and egg pancakes
(Banaanipannkoogid)
Serves 3 to 4



4 smallish bananas
4 eggs

(coconut) oil, for frying

Peel the bananas, place into a medium-sized bowl and squash with your fork. Add the eggs, whisk with your fork until combined.

Heat some (coconut) oil on a frying pan over medium low heat. Drop small amounts of batter (about 2-3 Tbsp) onto the pan and fry until golden brown on both sides, flipping half-ways.

Enjoy!



More of those pancakes:
Liina @ Da Vahtra Residence (recipe in Estonian)
Triin @ Mõtted ja maitsed (recipe in Estonian)
Jenni @ Liemessä Ruokablogi (recipe in Finnish)
Marika @ Viljavapa keittiö (recipe in Finnish)
Panda @ Piece of Panda (recipe in Finnish)
Jenni @ Pikkuisen pippuria (recipe in Finnish)
Emmi @ Emmin ja Terhin treeniblogi (recipe in Finnish)
Tine @ FITinspiration (recipe in Danish)
Lauryn @ The Skinny Confidential (recipe in English)
Eugenie @ Eugenie Kitchen (recipe in English)
Adam @ Lifehacker (recipe in English)

Apple crumble, the perfect autumn dessert

Recipe by Pille @ Nami-Nami. Above photo by Juta Kübarsepp for the November 2012 issue of Kodu ja Aed ("Home and Garden", an Estonian monthly magazine. I've been their food writer since October 2012). 

As for the perfect autumn dessert, you cannot go wrong with a classic apple crumble. Surprisingly apple crumble - or crumbles in general - aren't particularly well-known in Estonia - we're more cake and pie and tart type of people, I guess. I love adding oats to my crumble topping - or any other porridge flakes (rolled spelt or rye flakes work brilliantly, for example). Oat addition makes the crumble somewhat healthier and the topping more crunchy. If you have some red-skinned crab apples - like the ones on the photo above - add those to the apple mixture for extra colour.

I served the crumble with a cinnamon and cream cheese whipped cream - a wonderfully aromatic addition to the crumble.

Apple crumble
(Õunakrõbedik)
Serves six

600 g tart apples (f. ex. Antonovka, Granny Smith)
25 g seedless raisins
25 g caster sugar
ground cinnamon

Crumb topping:
100 g all-purpose wheat flour
50 g porridge oats or rolled rye or spelt flakes
100 g cold butter
50 g demerara brown sugar

Peel* and core the apples, cut into smaller chunks or sectors. Place into a bowl, toss together with raisins, sugar and cinnamon. Transfer into a buttered 24 cm pie dish or 4-6 portion dishes/ramekins.

Combine the flour, rolled grains and sugar in a bowl. Cut the butter in with two knifes or a pastry cutter or simply using your fingers. (Or simply put everything into the food processor and pulse until you've got pea-sized pieces). Spread the crumb topping over the apples.

Place in the pre-heated 200C/400F oven and bake for about 30 minutes, until the apples are soft and the topping golden brown and crispy. Let cool for about 15-30 minutes before serving.

Serve with cinnamon-flavoured cream cheese, vanilla custard, vanilla ice cream or simple whipped cream.

* There's no need to peel organic apples from your own backyard or a reputable orchard.

More crumble recipes:
Rhubarb crumble @ Nami-Nami (gluten-free, if using certified gluten-free oats)
Raspberry and coconut crumble @ Nami-Nami
Pumpkin and apple crumble @ Nami-Nami
Apple cinnamon crumble @ Two Peas and Their Pod
Speculoos + Apple Crumble @ Dorie Greenspan
Butterless apple crumble @ Chocolate & Zucchini

Green smoothie recipe

Recipe by Pille @ Nami-Nami. Above photo by Juta Kübarsepp for the September 2013 issue of Kodu ja Aed ("Home and Garden", an Estonian monthly magazine. I've been their food writer since October 2012)

Here's a recipe for a healthy and delicious pick-me-up smoothie for those days that kids have been driving you crazy, the to-do-list doesn't seem to get any shorter however hard you try, and you simply have no time to cook anything decent for yourself. It's the matter of peeling three fruits and throwing them into the blender (and rinsing the blender afterwards). I'll find time for that any day :)

The green smoothie - if the name didn't give it away already - is the one third from the left on the above photo. Feel free to guess what the other three are ;)

Green smoothie
(Roheline smuuti)
Serves 2

2 kiwis
1 banana
1 avocado
200 ml orange juice*

Peel the banana, kiwis and avocado. Place the flesh into your blender. Add the orange juice and process till smooth. Serve at once.

If you want your smoothie thinner, then add more orange juice, ice or ice-cold water.

* Ideally freshly squeezed, but any good-quality bottled juice will work as well.

Blueberry cake with sour cream filling and coconut topping

We love crumb cakes here in Estonia. Quite a lot. They're cheap, quick, and an excellent way of using up all those jams and preserves and marmalades we're busy making in July and August and September each year. I've stocked my larder with considerable amounts of wild strawberry fridge jam, apricot jam, sour cherry jam with almonds, and cloudberry jam thus far. And while we consume a jar each weekend, spreading generous amounts of last summer's flavour on our Saturday morning pancakes, we still have plenty of jars of canned goodies to spare. That's when you'll make a good old-fashioned Estonian crumb cake with jam filling.

But sometimes you want something different. Although I've got a good variety of crumb cake and blueberry cake recipes up my sleeve, I was immediately drawn to this simple crumb cake with blueberries on Ragne's foodblog (a popular Estonian food blog). I made it couple of times before tweaking a bit. A bit more sour cream in the filling filling makes the cake even creamier, a generous helping of coconut in the topping makes it more flavourful, and a teaspoonful of vanilla in the cream can do no harm either. Note that the cake isn't very sweet - there's less than a cup of sugar, a scant 170 grams, in the whole lot. If you have a really sweet tooth, you may add a wee bit more sugar, but trust me, it's lovely with the amount specified!

Remember: an American cup is about 240 ml and a stick of butter is 113 grams. That - and your high school math - should help you when doing the conversions :)

Blueberry sour cream cake with coconut crumb topping
(Purukook mustikate, hapukoore ja kookoshelvestega)
Serves about 12

Crumb mixture:
180 g all-purpose flour (300 ml)
85 g caster sugar (100 ml)
0.5 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
150 g cold butter, cut into cubes
50 g unsweetened desiccated coconut (optional)

Filling:
2 large eggs
85 g caster sugar (100 ml)
250 g sour cream or Greek yoghurt
30 ml all-purpose flour (50 ml)
1 tsp vanilla sugar or extract
200 g blueberries or bilberries

Line a 30x40 cm Swiss roll tin with a parchment paper. Put aside.

Preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F.

Start with the crumb mixture. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt until combined. Add the cubed butter and pinch with your fingers until a coarse wet sands forms (I usually use my food processor for that).

Take about two-thirds of the mixture and scatter into the baking tin. Press with the palms of your hand until compact.

Whisk eggs with sugar, sour cream/yogurt, flour and vanill until combined. Spread over the base. Scatter blueberries on top.

Fold coconut flakes into the remaining third of the crumb mixture (if using), then scatter the crumbs over the blueberries.

Bake in a preheated oven for about 40 minutes, until the crumb topping is lovely shade of golden brown.

Cool before cutting into small squares and serving.

More crumb cake recipes:
Classic crumb cake with jam filling @ Nami-Nami
Mascarpone and curd cheese crumb cake @ Nami-Nami
Purukook @ Siit nurgast ja sealt nurgast (recipe in Estonian)
Blueberry crumb cake @ The Pioneer Woman

More blueberry cake recipes:
Coconut and blueberry cake @ Nami-Nami
Blueberry cheesecake @ Nami-Nami
Blueberry sour cream tart @ Nami-Nami
French blueberry tart @ Nami-Nami
Buttermilk-blueberry breakfast cake @ Alexandra's Kitchen
Simple blueberry cake @ Bake or Break

Blueberry and feta salad

We've had a few good sunny and warm weeks here in Estonia, with temperatures hovering above 20 C on most days (that should be around 70 F). Warmer on some days, with occasional showers. A nice summer indeed.

The weather also determines the food, of course. Ice teas, panzanella and fattoush salads, gazpacho-style and kefir-based cold soups (sweet and savoury) - all these feature heavily. Ice-cream as well, both homemade and shop-bought (Estonian major ice cream makers have come up with some nice flavours, and there's the expensive, but delicious, local organic ice cream brand now, La Muu). Various berries from the farmers market stalls and straight from the bush in our backyard.  Proper summer food :)

I love watermelon and feta salads and have shared few recipes here on my blog: watermelon and feta salad with olives, watermelon and feta salad with lime, watermelon and feta salad with roasted pepitas and balsamic glaze. Still, I was thrilled to discover an alternative fruit and feta cheese salad using blueberries instead. I spotted the recipe over @ the improvised life, and vowed to make it as soon as bilberry season begins. At the end I ended up using large blueberries instead, as I thought they'd be easier to chase with a fork and a knife on a plate than our smaller forest bilberries.

(See the end of the post for more blueberry and feta salad ideas).

Blueberry and Feta Salad with Mint
(Mustikad feta ja mündiga)
serves 1, can be easily multiplied

a large handful or two of blueberries
crumbled feta cheese
few mint leaves, chopped, if too large
sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
extra virgin olive oil

Place the blueberries into a shallow plate, crumble the feta cheese on top and sprinkle with mint. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle about a teaspoonful of olive oil on top.

Serve immediately.

More blueberry and feta salad recipes:
Blueberry and feta salad with poppyseed dressing by Laura @ Real Mom Kitchen
Blueberry, cucumber and feta salad by Stacie @ One Hungry Mama
Blueberry feta salad with toasted pecans by Courtney @ The Fig Tree: Vegetarian cuisine from around the world
Blueberry, almond and feta salad @ Savvy Mom
Blueberry and grapefruit salad with mint and feta by Briat @ Thought for Food
Blueberry feta cheese salad by Alessandro @ Curative Cuisine
Watermelon, blueberry and feta salad @ Skinny Muffin
Cold pasta salad with asparagus, blueberries, feta and basil by Rowena @ She Knows
Blueberry, cucumber, feta salad by Sharib @ My Judy The Foodie
Salad with feta, blueberries and almonds by Catherine @ Albion Cooks
Blueberry and feta salad by Sues and Chels @ We are NOT Martha

Raspberry and Coconut Crumble Recipe

This recipe was originally posted in August 2008. Fully revised and updated in July 2013.

If you are looking for recipes using those lovely raspberries in your backyard or farmers market, then may I suggest this raspberry and coconut crumble. It's easy to put together and it's a great alternative to more cake-like concoctions.

I've served it both with vanilla ice cream and thick yogurt/sour cream, and currently prefer the latter, as it's not as sweet then - just fruity and summery :)

Raspberry and Coconut Crumble
(Vaarika-kookosevorm)
Adapted from Swedish Allt of Mat magazine (12/2008)
Serves 6



400 g fresh or frozen raspberries
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp potato starch/potato flour or cornflour

Crumble topping:
150 g butter
180 g coconut flakes (unsweetened, I used MEIRA)
85 g (100 ml (less than half a cup) caster sugar
60 g (less than half a cup) plain/all-purpose flour

To serve:
whipped cream (season with vanilla, if you like)

Gently mix raspberries with sugar and potato flour and scatter on a buttered pie dish.

Melt the butter. Combine coconut flakes, sugar and flour in a medium-sized bowl, pour over the melted butter and stir until combined. Crumble the mixture on top of raspberries.

Bake in the middle of a pre-heated 180 C/350 F oven for 15-20 minutes, until the coconut crumble is light golden brown.

Serve warm or cold with some whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or Saare Smetana.



More raspberry recipes @ Nami-Nami:
Raspberry cheesecake brownie
Raspberry and vanilla friands with raw cacao nibs
Kefir jelly with raspberry jam
Chocolate brownie with raspberries
Raspberry and mascarpone fluff
Raspberry focaccia
Chocolate and raspberry muffins
Bakewell pudding

Recipes combining raspberries and coconut @ other foodblogs:
Raspberry and coconut macarons @ Smitten Kitchen
Vegan Coconut Raspberry Ice Cream @ Two Peas and Their Pod
Raspberry tart with coconut crust @ Lottie and Doof

Pineapple carpaccio with mint sugar

Photo by Juta Kübarsepp for Nami-Nami/Kodu ja Aed, 2013

I know all my far-away readers - at least those on the Northern hemisphere -  are feasting on rhubarb and early strawberries already, but neither one is ready for consumption here in Estonia just yet. The local rhubarb should be ready in a fortnight or so, strawberries in 5-6 weeks. Until then I'll resist buying the imported stuff. Pineapple, however, doesn't grow locally anyway, so I must buy the imported fruit if I want to enjoy some.

Here's a quick dessert idea, originally popularised by Jamie Oliver. You'll find the recipe for "Pukka pineapple with bashed-up mint sugar" - that so Jamie, don't you think? - either in his book Happy Days with Naked Chef or on his website. I've been making this for years, and it's not the first time it's been mentioned here on Nami-Nami - I was served at our 2009 Easter Brunch. A great idea, really quick, and again, suitable for many popular diets (it's gluten free, vegan, raw*, etc).  Note that I gave up bashing up the mint and sugar long time ago, and simply sprinkle these on top. Works just as well.

* Use either a really sweet pineapple and omit the sugar, or use Sucanat or some of the other allowed sweeteners listed here.

Pineapple carpaccio with mint and sugar
(Ananassiviilud mündi ja suhkruga)
Serves 4



1 small, sweet and very ripe pineapple
2-3 Tbsp caster/superfine sugar
a handful of fresh mint leaves

Top and tail the pineapple. Cut off the skin and remove the "eyes". Then cut the pineapple into four wedges and remove the hardened core. Cut into thin slices, place onto a serving plate.

Chop the mint leaves finely, mix with sugar and sprinkle onto the pineapple slices. Leave to macerate for half an hour or serve immediately.

Similar recipes:
Pineapple carpaccio with mint sugar by Anna @ Morsels & Musings (same recipe)
Pineapple carpaccio with mint and rum marinade by Silvia @ Citron & Vanilla
Pineapple carpaccio @ Kitchen Delights
Pineapple carpaccio with saffron syrup and pinenuts @ MyFrenchKitchen
Pineapple carpaccio, candied ginger and lime by Anne @ A Foodie Froggy in Paris

Purukook or streusel cake - Estonian crumb cake recipe

This Estonian classic - purukook (crumb cake, streusel cake) - is another recipe request. Over the last few years I've got several e-mails asking for this simple cake recipe, yet somehow I've never managed to blog about it until now. The basic ingredients are few - butter, flour, sugar (for the crumb), and some kind of thick jam filling. That simple.

There are several "schools" of making purukook. Some use cold butter, some soft (I find using cold butter makes for a crumblier crumb). Some use just the crumb base, some add an egg to the bottom mixture to make it firmer (I do). Most jams would work, I prefer something tart like thick apple or apple and cranberry or apple and lingonberry jam. The cake on the photos is made with raspberry jam - in that case I also throw in a handful of shredded or desiccated coconut into the topping mixture.

I've got a special question to väliseestlased aka Estonian expats. Have you tried making purukook before? Is it something that was popular among the expat Estonians? Would love to know that.

Estonian crumb cake "Purukook"
(Klassikaline purukook)



400 g (3 1/3 cups) all-purpose flour (1/3 to 1/2 can be spelt or wholemeal flour)
85 grams (3 oz) caster sugar
a pinch of salt
200 g (7 oz or 2 Tbsp less than 2 sticks) cold butter, cubed
1 egg

Filling:
500 g thick jam/marmelade

Line a 25x35 cm cake tin or a Swiss roll tin with a parchment paper or butter generously.

Preheat the oven to 200 C/400 F.

Measure the flour, sugar and salt into a mixing bowl. Add the butter and using a knife or your fingers, cut and mix until the mixture reminds of a wet sand. (You can do it in your food processor).

Transfer about 1/3 of the mixture into a small bowl and put aside - this will be your crumb mixture. (Feel free to add a handful of desiccated coconut to this mixture, or perhaps some cinnamon or other spices).

Add the egg to the remaining mixture and combine until wet crumbs form. Scatter into the cake tin, spread evenly and then press down with the palm of your hand.

(If your filling is on the soft side, you may want to pre-bake the base for about 15 minutes, until golden.)

Spread the filling evenly over the (partially baked) base. Scatter the crumb mixture evenly on top.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes, until the crumb mixture is light golden brown.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool before cutting into small bars.

This recipe was featured on:
Countlan magazine, issue 4 (Summer 2013)

Similar recipes in other food blogs:
Purukook by Mari-Liis @ Siit nurgast ja sealt nurgast (recipe in Estonian)
Kodune purukook by Ragne @ Kokkama Ragnega (recipe in Estonian)
Purukook õunamoosiga by Sandra @ Taimetoit.ee (vegan, recipe in Estonian)
Mustade ploomide ja rummiga purukook by Sille @ Toidutegu (recipe in Estonian)
Šokolaadi ja Beluga läätsedega purukook by Anneli @ Kiilikese toidulaud (recipe in Estonian)
Rukkijahu-õuna purukook by Silja @ Jagatud rõõm (recipe in Estonian)

The 3-ingredient cookie

An excellent version with oats, bananas, dried cranberries and grated orange zest.

Have you heard about those three-ingredient cookies consisting of nothing but bananas, oats and an optional fill-in (chocolate, raisins or nuts, for instance)? No added sugar. No added fat. Suitable for vegans and all those on lactose-free, casein-free, gluten-free*, egg-free, dairy-free diets. Take 2 minutes of prep work and need about 15 minutes in the oven. That's less than it takes to unpack your regular grocery bags, so they're super-quick as well.

* You need to make sure you use certified gluten-free oats, also called 'pure oats'. 


I came across the recipe in The Burlap Bag. As the author Lauren notes, even if you eat all of those, you've basically consumed 2 bananas and a cup of oats, so this qualifies as health food in my opinion. They are soft and slightly chewy. They're not the best-oat-cookies-in-the-world (these are!), but they're pretty moreish and satisfying. Flavour- and texture-wise, these remind me of those soft apple and oat drops I've been making, just much quicker and simpler.

My two older kids love them (Karoliine, our youngest, is still to young to have any solids), and the grown-ups are pretty fond of them, too:

 

So here's the recipe. Again, a huge thank you goes out to The Burlap Bag for this great 'cookie' idea. Come autumn, I'll try their Autumn 2-ingredient Cookie, using pure pumpkin pureé.

Use really ripe bananas for making these - the riper your bananas, the sweeter the cookies.

3-ingredient oat cookies
(Kaerahelbeküpsised)
Makes about 16 bite-sized morsels

2 ripe medium-sized bananas
200 ml (4/5 of a cup) of quick-cooking oats
a handful of either raisins or dried cranberries (craisins) or chopped dark chocolate or chopped walnuts

Pre-heat the oven to 170 C/350 F. Line a cooking sheet with a parchment paper or simply grease your cookie sheet thoroughly.

Peel the bananas, place into a bowl and smash with a fork. Add the oats and the add-in (I love the tiny seedless currant raisins):

 

 Mix till combined. Take about a teaspoonful of the mixture at the time, form into a ball and transfer onto your cookie sheet.

 

Bake for about 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Cool slightly and enjoy!

Other foodbloggers making these:
Anne @ Anne's Food (9 March 2013, in English)
Martiina @ Tegemisi. Toimetusi (4 March 2013, in Estonian)
Gaili @ Tsheburashka (3 March 2013, in Estonian)
Kätrin @ Kätrin kokkab (13 March 2013, in Estonian)
Karen @ Kafka na praia (2 April 2013, in Brazilian Portuguese)

More moreish oatcake recipes:
My melt-in-your-mouth oat cookies
Cheesy oatcakes
Peppery oatcakes
Oatcakes with ginger
Apple and oat drops

Two years ago: Estonian Soda Bread Recipe
Four years ago: Raisin Fruit Soup Recipe (Kissel)

A healthy start to your day: buttered apple oatmeal porridge

Photo by Juta Kübarsepp for the January 2013 issue of Kodu ja Aed magazine; plate, mug and bowls by Estonian ceramic artist Marion Isabelle Varik of BlueDesign.

How many of you included "have a proper and healthy breakfast every day" among your New Year resolutions?

I did. In the morning chaos of getting three kids out of bed and dressed and ready, I often end up having breakfast consisting of just a cup of coffee and perhaps a tiny piece of leftover cake or a small tub of yoghurt. Yet that's never enough, and I feel sluggish and peckish by mid-morning already. I know a hot cereal (especially oatmeal) would be the best choice, but I don't really want the basic oatmeal porridge first thing in the morning.

I need to pimp up my porridge, so to say.

There's a great Scottish company, Stoats, that began serving freshly cooked oatmeal porridge at the music festivals and farmer's markets back in 2004, and became a huge success. One of the items on their menu both at the Edinburgh Farmers' Market and at their Meadows porridge bar was Cranachan porridge, or oatmeal served with raspberries, cream and toasted oats. I LOVED that one (there's a recipe on their website!), and this opened my eyes to the possibilities of different and delicious oatmeal. Here's a different "pimped up" porridge, served with buttered spiced apples - just as lovely and delicious.

Oatmeal porridge with buttered apples
(Kaerahelbepuder praetud õuntega)
Serves 3-4

Oatmeal:
250 ml water (1 cup)
250 ml milk (1 cup)
250 ml old-fashioned rolled oats (1 cup)
1-2 Tbsp sugar (optional)
1 tsp vanilla sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
a pinch of grated nutmeg
a pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients in a heavy saucepan and bring into a simmer. Simmer gently over moderately low heat for 7-8 minutes, stirring regularly, until cooked.

Buttered apples:
2 large crisp apples (Granny Smith, Antonovka)
2 Tbsp butter
0.5 tsp ground cinnamon
a pinch of grated nutmeg
2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Peel and core the apples, cut into thin wedges. Heat butter on a small frying pan, add apples and sauté gently for a few minutes. Season with cinnamon and nutmeg and continue frying for another 5-6 minutes over a low heat, until apples are nicely soft, but not mushy! Drizzle lemon juice on top, heat through.

Spoon the buttered apples over the oatmeal and serve immediately.

Need more oatmeal inspiration? Check out these recipes:
Oatmeal with peanut butter @ Nami-Nami
Oatmeal with banana and maple syrup @ Nami-Nami
Oatmeal with grated apple @ 80 Breakfasts
Savoury oatmeal with Parmesan cheese @  80 Breakfasts
Steel-cut oats with Muscovado glazed bacon @ 80 Breakfasts
Christmas oatmeal @ 80 Breakfasts
Oatmeal basics @ Kitchen Parade
Peanut butter oatmeal @ Kalyn's Kitchen
Brown sugar roasted fig oatmeal @ Joy the Baker
Whipped banana oatmeal @ Kath Eats Real Food
English porridge and Vanilla bean oatmeal @ Amateur Gourmet
Heavenly oat bran porridge @ Lottie and Doof via The Kitchn
Slow-cooker spiced porridge @ The Kitchn
Chai porridge oats with rhubarb @ Not Quite Nigella