Beetroot borani recipe (borani chogondar)

Any regular reader of Nami-Nami has noticed the respectable number of beetroot recipes on this blog. My friend Alanna of A Veggie Venture blog even calls me "Beet Princess" (she reserved the title of Beet Queen to herself, and indeed, her list of beetroot recipes is pretty impressive, too :)

Here's my latest discovery among beetroot recipes. I was browsing Sam and Sam Clark's latest book, MORO EAST, and this Persian dish caught my eye. Borani is a general term for yogurt-based vegetable "salads" and dips in Persian cuisine. We really enjoyed this, eating it with simple oven-baked potato wedges on our sunny patio. It'd work well on a meze/mezze board with some toasted flatbread, or alongside some grilled or fried fish, oven-roasted lamb or even grilled chicken. It's extremely versatile, as you can imagine.

I will surely be making this borani chogondar again over the summer (I loved the colour!!!), perhaps alongside the spinach version (borani esfanaaj) and the aubergine/eggplant version (borani bademjan).

Make it at least a few hours in advance, so the flavours can develop.

If you're a fellow beet lover, you may want to check out the Beautiful Beet Recipes Pinterest board, where you'll find 100+ great pins leading you to some wonderful foodbloggers' recipes. If you'd love to contribute to that board, then just leave your Pinterest handle in the comments and I'll send you an invite!

Beet Borani
(Peedi-borani)
Serves 6 to 8 
Based on Sam & Sam Clark's recipe, with some modifications



500 g young beets
400 g thick/strained Greek/Turkish/Persian yoghurt
1 large garlic clove (crush to a paste with a generous pinch of salt)
a pinch of sugar
a small bunch of fresh dill, finely chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a splash of wine vinegar or lemon juice, to taste

To garnish:
100 g feta cheese, crumbled
a small handful of walnuts, chopped
a sprinkling of nigella seeds (also known as black Kalonji onion seeds)
a few dill fronds

Scrub the beets, but don't peel them. Place into a boiling water and simmer for 1-1,5 hours, until cooked. Drain and cool and peel, then cut into chunks and place into a food processor.
(Note that you can also roast the beets, or, in a hurry, use boiled un-vinegared beets).
Process the beets, then add the yogurt, crushed garlic and a pinch of sugar, process again until smooth.
Add  the chopped dill, then season to taste with salt, pepper and vinegar/lemon juice.
Transfer onto a serving bowl, cover with clingfilm and put into the fridge for a few hours so the flavours can mingle.
When ready to serve, garnish with crumbled feta, chopped walnuts and some dill fronds. Sprinkle black nigella seeds on top.

 

See other beetroot borani recipes: 
Smoke and Umami
Café Leilee
The Salty Pear
Liz Z  (Liz uses mint to flavour her borani)
Chef Yusuf

Crispy rye bread canapés with cream cheese and smoked salmon

I did a bit of catering on Saturday for a group of friends*, and this smoked salmon and cream cheese paté/spread on crispy rye bread buttons was one of the dishes I brought along. It disappeared very quickly and I wish I had made a double batch - it's an excellent nibble indeed - savoury (smoked salmon), creamy (cream  cheese), crispy (rye bread buttons), fresh (cucumber slices). I also think the contrasting colours look very pretty.

Although I love this spread on crispy rye bread buttons, it works also beautifully with sliced (and toasted) ciabatta or baguette, of course. Here's a photo from last June:


Cream cheese and smoked salmon paté
(Toorjuustu-suitsulõhepasteet)
Makes about a cup

100 g good-quality cold smoked salmon
150 g cream cheese, at room temperature
a small bunch of dill
lemon juice, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

To garnish:
cucumber or lemon slices
fresh dill or chives
finely grated lemon zest

Chop the smoked salmon into small chunks, place into the food processor together with the cream cheese. Add some lemon juice for seasoning and the dill. Process until smooth.
Taste for seasoning - add more lemon juice and season with pepper.

If you're serving this with crispy rye bread buttons, then you need some sliced rye bread (I like a very dark bread here and used "Fazeri must leib"). Cut out small squares or circles and toast them in a preheated 200 C/400 F oven for about 6-7 minutes, until crispy. Cool, then spoon the cream cheese and smoked salmon paté on top and garnish before serving.

You can make the paté up to a day in advance, but don't spread it on toasted rye bread until up to an hour before serving, or you lose the crispiness.

* The other two dishes were tiny spicy chorizo profiteroles and an Estonian crumb cake, cut into tiny slices.

Easy entertaining: whole hot-smoked trout or salmon with caviar dressing

Want something super-delicious, rather elegant and extremely simple for your next festive spread? Here's an excellent idea I got from my friend Annika. Annika is Estonian, but she works and lives in Sweden. She introduced me to this very popular Swedish and Finnish "sauce" that's traditionally served alongside smoked or grilled trout or salmon at a party she hosted at her Tallinn holiday flat at the end of last year.

Since then I've served this on several occasions and always to a great success. You need a good-quality smoked trout or salmon to start with - I've used a whole hot-smoked trout*, that we "carve" at the table, but you can also serve it alongside portion-sized pieces of smoked fish. Although salted trout or salmon roe is nowhere as prohibitively expensive as "proper" caviar, it's still very festive and elegant and makes people feel that they're really being pampered :)

If you're based in Tallinn or nearby, then I whole-heartedly recommend the whole hot-smoked trout from Pepe Kala OÜ. You'll find their stall at Tammsaare tee 89 during the week, or come and meet them at Viimsi Taluturg (Viimsi farmers' market) on Saturday mornings from 10 am till 2 pm. They also have excellent lightly salted trout roe.  




Creamy caviar dressing
(Kalamarjakaste)
Serves 6

200-250 g thick sour cream or creme fraiche
1 Tbsp finely chopped onion (shallot is fine)
150 g lightly salted trout or salmon roe (or slightly less, depending on your budget and taste)
2-3 Tbsp finely chopped fresh dill
freshly ground white or black pepper, to taste

Mix all ingredients together, spoon into a nice bowl and serve alongside the whole smoked fish. 
Ok, how easy and effortless was that? :)

Here's another excellent Swedish dressing recipe that goes well with smoked salmon: Dill and Mustard Sauce

What's your super-easy and quick entertainment dish? Feel free to leave a link to the recipe in the comments!