My favourite fish salad, using smoked seabass

There's a smoked fish salad that I've been making for years. Here's the routine. On a Saturday morning, the kids and I (and usually my K. as well) head to the local farmers market, Viimsi Taluturg.  There are several stalls selling excellent fish, and one of them, Pepe Kala, sells excellent hot-smoked seabass. It's my choice of fish for this salad, although other smoked specimens would work just as well.

We head home, unpack our lot. I'll open the paper-wrapped smoked seabass and start cleaning the fish. I must work quickly here, or otherwise our 3-year old daughter eats most of the fish and I'll have none left for making the salad (she loves fish!). I'll then mix the salad (recipe below, of course) and enjoy. Sometimes we eat it as it is, sometimes we put that on top some toasted rye bread (photo above), sometimes we use it as a filling for paper-thin crepes, sometimes we enjoy it with some just-out-of-the-oven jacket potatoes. It's versatile and it's delicious.

Will keep well in the fridge (covered, of course) for a few days.


Smoked Fish Salad
(Maitsev suitsukalasalat munaga)
Serves four

1 medium-sized smoked fish (hot-smoked seabass is good)
4 eggs
1 or 2 (red) onions
handful of fresh dill and chives
some mayonnaise and/or sour cream
freshly ground black pepper

Hard-boil the eggs, then cool under cold running water. Peel the eggs, and smash with a fork in bowl.
Peel the onion(s), chop finely.
Clean the smoked fish carefully, discard the skin and bones. Chop the fish into smaller pieces.
Finely chop the herbs.
Mix the eggs, onions, smoked fish and herbs in a bowl. Fold in just enough mayonnaise or sour cream (or indeed, both) to bind the ingredients.
Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Gingery oatcakes or oaty gingersnap cookies? You'll decide.

In theory, a batch of cookies spiked with ground ginger would be most suitable for Christmas, no? I guess so. Somehow, however, I've baked two batches of these simple gingery oatcakes/oaty gingersnap cookies during this week alone, and wouldn't mind baking them again soon. I blame the long and exhausting frosty winter we're having here in Estonia - temperatures have been falling below -10 Celsius again this week. Some delicious cookies help to forget (at least for a brief moment) that all you really-really want by now is some sun and spring and birdsong and, well, end of winter..

Note that these cookies do not contain any eggs, so they're perfect if you're cooking for someone who's allergic to eggs.

Oatcakes spiked with ginger
(Ingveri-kaeraküpsised)
Inspiration: Finnish Valio
Makes about 40 cookies



125 g butter, at room temperature
100 g caster sugar
100 g (wholemeal) flour
100 g old-fashioned rolled oats
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger
3 to 4 Tbsp double/heavy cream

Cream butter and sugar. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl, then stir into the sugar and butter mixture. Finally add the cream and stir lightly until combined.
Form the cookie mixture into small balls (about a heaped teaspoonful each) and place them onto a parchment-covered baking sheet, leaving plenty of room between the cookies, as they spread out during baking.
Bake in a preheated 200 C oven for about 8 minutes, until light golden brown on edges.
Remove from the oven, leave to cool for a few minutes, then transfer onto a metal rack to dry and go crisp.

Savoury chive and goat cheese cheesecake

Another recipe request of a kind. A reader from Denmark, Nina, noticed this savoury cheesecake on Nami-Nami's 2010 Easter brunch table and has now written me already twice, begging for the recipe. After another cold and dark winter, I can finally sense some spring in the air (or at least, some imminent spring), and am therefor happy to share this unusual and delicious spring-time recipe. As for inspiration, the recipe was adapted from the French Regal magazine, one of the few food magazines that we subscribe.

Savoury chive and goat cheese cheesecake
(Murulaugu-toorjuustukook)
Adapted from the French food magazine Regal (issue 16)
Serves 8 (fits a 20 cm springform tin)

Crumb base:
125 g graham crackers or water biscuits
60 g butter, melted

Cheese layer:
300 g soft/cream cheese
300 g soft/spreadable goat cheese (I used Soignon)
1 small garlic clove
200 ml single/pouring cream
4 gelatine leaves
a generous bunch of chives
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Garnish:
handful of chives

Process the crackers/biscuits into fine crumbs, then mix with melted butter until combined. Line a 20 cm springform tin with baking paper, then press the crumb mixture evenly onto the base. Refrigerate.
Make the cheese mixture. Finely mince the garlic, mix with soft cheese and goat cheese until combined. Fold in the chopped chives.
Soak gelatine leaves in cold water for about 5 minutes.
Heat the cream, then add the soaked and squeezed gelatine leaves, one at a time. Stir the cream and gelatine mixture into the chive and cheese mixture. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Carefully spoon the cheese mixture over the biscuit crumb base, smooth the top.
Place overnight into the fridge (about 12 hours, ideally).

To serve, remove the tin and transfer the cheesecake onto your serving tray. Snip the remaining chives into 2-3 cm/1 inch lengths, place in the middle of the cake.