A nutritious full of flavours vegetable soup
This one is lovely served with salty or spicy meat. It’s of course just gorgeous with no meat! It goes great alongside some simple roasted potatoes or spicy roasted cauliflower! Sour cream is…
Traditional Estonian recipes create every dish of Estonian food to be made by following a few simple rules that are easy enough for beginners but interesting
Potato salad can be made in so many different ways but this Estonian version is the best, obviously. It's been a staple dish to serve on special occasions like birthdays or Christmas for a long time. In our family, it has evolved over the years, so now it contains some additional ingredients such as sweet corn. Living in the UK, I have had to find suitable alternative ingredients to make it as authentic as possible.Being naturally gluten free, you need to just make sure that when using mayonnaise and sausages, they are also gluten free. It can be served as a side or as a main for lunch or dinner however you prefer it.
During Christmas all self-respecting Estonians feast on black pudding, roasted pork, sauerkraut and roasted potatoes. These are accompanied by lingonberry jam and pickled clove-scented pumpkin. At the end of the feast we nibble on piparkoogid (that's Estonian gingerbread cookies) and caramelised almonds and sip copious amounts of hõõgvein (mulled wine/glühwein/glögg). And then we're off to do some cross-country skiing in the midst of our beautiful pine forests to burn off all those calories. Well, some of us :) I must admit this was the first time I pickled my own pumpkin - usually we have my mum's or grandmother's pumpkin on the Christmas table. I'm not even particularly keen on pickled pumpkin per se, but couple of yellow chunks alongside another portion of black pudding is kind of semi-required. My university friend Piret dropped by the other day and brought me a small pumpkin from her parents' country home. When trying to think what to do with this beauty of a pumpkin, somehow, this year, I really wanted to make my own pickled pumpkin. Here's the recipe I came up with. And it's not half as bad, believe me.. Pickled Yellow Pumpkin, Estonian Style (Marineeritud kõrvitsasalat) Makes 3 half-litre jars 1 kg prepared pumpkin/winter squash (see below) 1 L water 200 g sugar 1-2 cinnamon sticks 5 black peppercorns 1 whole cloves 5 allspice berries fresh gingerroot, about 2-3 cm, peeled and sliced (optional) 2 Tbsp vinegar (30% strenght) Cut the pumpkin into wedges, then peel, remove the soft bits and seeds. Cut the flesh into small chunks or sticks (even julienne, if you can be bothered). You need about 2 pounds or 1 kilogram of pumpkin chunks/sticks. Mix water, sugar, cinnamon stick, gingerroot, black peppercorns, allspice and whole cloves in a large saucepan. (You may add a teaspoon of salt to the marinade, but it's not necessary). Bring to the boil, then add the vinegar and then your pumpkin. Simmer on a moderate heat until pumpkin pieces have become translucent, but not too soft and mushy. Transfer the pumpkin with a slotted spoon into sterilised jars, then pour the hot marinate over. Close and keep in the fridge or very cold larder. Wait for about a week before eating, so the flavours could really mingle.
Estonian Meatball Soup: This soup is a perfect option during cold winter months! Enjoy our easy recipes!Visit our website: www.happyfoodstube.com/estonian-meatball-soup-frikadelli-supp
Exciting hot pink potato salad made with a combo of potatoes, roasted beets and a tangy yogurt-mustard dressing.
Grandma Selma would say that dumpling soup is always better the next day. Overnight the dumplings will tighten up resulting in a more chewy texture and the broth will develop a better flavour overall.
A fresh, light retro cookies for the tea party
Exciting hot pink potato salad made with a combo of potatoes, roasted beets and a tangy yogurt-mustard dressing.
I love those Estonian birthday salads - the classic potato salad (a version of what's known as "Russian salad" or "Salad Olivier" elsewhere) and rosolye. But for everyday simple salads these are too time-consuming - cutting the numerous ingredients into uniform tiny cubes takes time and patience, and sometimes I don't have that. That's when the more humble and quicker versions come handy. Here's a quick salad recipe that either makes a light lunch on its own, or a more substantial meal alongside grilled meat or meatballs, for example. I also love this salad on a thick slice of sour rye bread.. Beetroot and Potato Salad (Peedi-kartulisalat) Serves 4 2 boiled beetroots, peeled 6 boiled potatoes, peeled 1 large salad onion salt sour cream fresh chives, finely chopped Peel the beets and potatoes and either chop into small cubes or grate coarsely. Finely mince the onion. Mix beets, potatoes and onions in a bowl. Add enough sour cream to bind everything together. Season with salt. Let the flavours develop for 30 minutes in a refridgerator. Sprinkle plenty of chopped chives on top before serving.
How to make Rosolje (Estonian Beetroot & Potato Salad)
Tucked away in Tallinn is the minute but fascinating (to me) Estonian Economic History Museum - and there to browse through were these wonderful publicity and staff photo albums. In many of the albums are examples of publicity and packaging, real rare survivors - and these are wonderful examples of 1930s commercial art and graphics. The show the typical products Estonia produced at the time and exported to many markets, such as the English. They included canned vegetables and fruit, and tinned pork. I was fascinated so I hope the Museum doesn't mind me sharing this page with you all.
Pickles, dumplings, and garlic bread-Estonian style. Pub food often gets forgotten when talking about traditional cuisine. It’s no secret that Estonians have had a long love affair with beer, but what are they eating while enjoying a pint? While partaking in an unofficial gastronomic pub-crawl of drinking establishments, certain Estonian pub favourites continue to
A autumn dinner. Bitterness of rowan berries and sourness of apples complements sweet pork.
Photo for Nami-nami food blog. Foto Nami-nami retseptikogu jaoks. Eestikeelne retsept siin.
Ingredients: Chicken broth: Dumpling batter: Supp (Soup): Directions: Find Chef Paul Lillakas on Instagram: @paullillakas
Here's a simple Estonian cucumber salad that my mum used to make quite frequently when we were younger. We never knew there was a 'recipe' involved - just a technology - but recently more detailed instructions have appeared here and there, most notably in a rather elaborate cookbook Eesti Rahvusköök or "Estonian national cuisine", also available in English and German. So why not share it with my English readers as well. What's special about this salad, you may wonder? Well, although I love the crispiness of a fresh cucumber, sometimes I don't miss that in a salad. By mixing the cucumber slices with salt first, and then shaking the mixture vigorously, the cucumber slices soften nicely, and become almost silky in texture. How's that for a cucumber salad? :) Note that caraway seeds are optional. I love them in this salad, but many people outside the region are suspicious of caraway seeds, so these can be omitted. I make mine without caraway seeds sometimes as well. And if I don't feel like, I don't add vinegar either. It's still delicious and makes a nice side dish to grilled and barbequed meat and fish. Shaken Cucumber Salad (Klopitud kurgisalat) Serves 4 Ready in 15 minutes 1 large seedless cucumber (about 300 g) 0.5 tsp salt 0.5 tsp caraway seeds, slightly crushed (optional) 0.5 tsp 30% vineger finely chopped fresh dill Rinse and peel the cucumber, cut into thin slices (ca 3 mm, so not paper-thin). Place in a bowl with a lid, season with salt and caraway seeds. Mix to distribute these evenly and leave to stand for 10 minutes. Now cover the bowl with a lid, and shake the bowl vigorously for 30-60 seconds. This will soften the cucumber slices. Drain, discarding the cucumber 'juice'. Season with vinegar (the salad should taste very subtly acidic), scatter the dill on top and serve.
Kruubisupp, Gerstensuppe, pearl barley soup, Jõudu tööle!
A delicious, light recipe perfect for a dinner.
Ooooooh Pickled Gherkins Gherkin - what a funny name isn't it? :) Ingredients: As many small gherkins as you want For 1 l water: 1.5 tbsp corser/sea salt 0.5 tbsp sugar handful dill handful black currant leaves 2-3 garlic cloves / halved Add cold water in a big bowl and leave the gherkins there for 1 hour. Cook the water with salt and sugar. Let it cool down. In a large jar place some black currant leaves, some dill and garlic. Put 1 layer of gherkins on the top. Then add again black currant leaves, dill and garlic and put another layer of gherkins on the top. Do it as long as the jar is full. Add some black currant leaves on the top. Add salt/sugar water. Leave it overnight in fridge. You can already enjoy them the next day. This recipe is linked to Foodie Friends Friday
Planning a picnic soon? Or need something to nibble while working away at the desk? Try these savoury oatcakes with cheese. They're soft and slightly chewy, quite filling and very easy to make. The recipe is adapted from a Finnish magazine. I used an Emmenthaler-type cheese, but good old Cheddar or Monterey Jack would work just as well. Cheesy Oatcakes (Kaerahelbeküpsised juustuga) Makes about 2 dozens 100 g old-fashioned oats 135 g plain/all-purpose flour 2 tsp baking powder 75 g cheese, grated 250 ml / 1 cup milk 40 g butter, melted 0.5 tsp salt Mix oats, flour and baking powder in a large bowl. Add the grated cheese, milk, melted butter and stir, until everything is combined. The batter with be rather soft. Take spoonfuls of the batter and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in a preheated 225 C/450 F oven for about 15 minutes, until the cookies are golden. Transfer onto a wire rack to cool.
A crêpe with kama mousse and blueberries. Kama is a roasted mixture of various finely ground grains that is usually mixed with sour milk and sugar - the quintessential Estonian food :-) For the mousse I just mixed it with plain yoghurt and some whipped cream.
Never gift for Estonian womans red Dianthus… Today is International Woman Day. Have you heard about this? Necessary and nice holiday with “red background”but with good idea. Celeb…
I'm still all excited like a kid about discovering a Polish shop* nearby here in Edinburgh. Amongst other things that leave me cold (dried packet soups and ubiquous biscuits with a best before date in January 2048), they stock rather decent rye bread, vacuum-packed sauerkraut and salted cucumbers, plain and flavoured kefir, stuffed dumplings of various types, and the best sour cream in town. Though I have a nagging feeling that I'm one of the very few foodbloggers who gets all excited about a place that sells fermented milk, fermented shredded cabbage and fermented salty cucumbers:) It also sells proper milk curd, so I can make typical Estonian desserts without having to recreate the creamy yet grainy texture with a mixture of quark and ricotta instead. Not that it'd be difficult of course, and during my seven or so years in Edinburgh I've successfully settled for the 'fake milk curd' instead. But there is something more satisfying about using the real thing, and I've already tried some familiar dishes using milk curd. Milk curd on its own can be topped or mixed with jam and eaten as a humble weekday dessert, but when mixed with whipped cream it becomes a much more luscious pudding. Here it is served simply with berries, but it would also be a delicious filling for a simple sponge cake. One of my favourite 5-minute party cakes is a sponge layered and topped with coffee-flavoured milk curd cream, and topped with toasted flaked almonds. Estonian farmer's cheese cream with berries (Lihtne kohupiimakreem) 250 grams (low-fat) milk curd 250 ml whipping cream 1 tsp vanilla extract 3-5 tsp sugar Press the milk curd through a sieve, if it's too coarse and grainy. Add the sugar to the cream and whip until soft peaks form. Add the vanilla extract and curd cheese. Mix gently until combined. Spoon into glasses (tap on the work surface couple of times to smooth the top). Top with berries of your choice and put into the fridge until serving. Can be made up to a day in advance. * Bona Deli, 86 South Clerk Street, Edinburgh
Traditional Estonian Pea Soup takes time, but it is worth it
Estonia Salmon Cheese pate on rye crisps are delicious and super easy to make. Cold smoked salmon is a staple ingredient in Estonian cuisine.
Super healthy - green pea & mint soup! Full of plant proteins and really easy to make. A great way to get in the green goodness.
The Baltic sprat (Sprattus sprattus balticus) is a subspecies of the European sprat (Sprattus sprattus), also known as brisling or skipper. They are up to 12,5 cm long (about 5 inches), small, silvery and herring-like. The sprats are commonly marinated in a mixture of black pepper, allspice (aka Jamaican pepper), cloves, nutmeg, coriander seeds, bay leaves, salt and sugar etc. The result: spiced Baltic sprats aka vürtsikilud, a famous Estonian delicacy. Vürtsikilud aka spiced Baltic sprats are used to make some delectable small sandwiches here in Estonia, known as kiluvõileivad (literally, sprat sandwiches). I knew they were popular, but didn't realise they're so popular. You see - I've been to four different Christmas parties during the last week, and kiluvõileivad were served at three of them. Each time these were the first to disappear off the table (yes, I did keep an eye of them to verify that). When I shared the realisation on Nami-Nami's Facebook page, then oven 300 people clicked on the LIKE-button to declare their love for kiluvõileivad :) These aren't necessarily a Christmas food, you can serve them throughout the year, but somehow I've just noticed their particular popularity at this time of the year. You've actually seen them here on Nami-Nami before, they were part of our New Year's Eve party spread back in 2007 (see the blog post) - back then I garnished them with finely grated eggs. So I've been "guilty"of serving them during winter festivities as well :) In any case, I thought it's a good idea to share the "recipe" with you, my dear readers. Although hard-core fans of kiluvõileivad probably filet and pickle their own fresh Baltic sprats, then you can buy rather decent prepared and canned/packed Baltic sprats in the supermarket. I use the Briis brand, made in a nearby Maardu town, so they're almost local :) Do buy a packet or two next time you're in Estonia, ok! ;) Alternatively, you could try with Swedish "anchovies" (these are actually sprats or Baltic herrings), probably available at IKEA, but these are much sweeter in flavour. Estonian spiced sprat sandwiches (Kiluvõileivad) sliced dark rye bread butter, at room temperature cleaned spiced sprats fillets red onion and/or green onion tops, chopped hard-boiled (quail) eggs Remove the crusts of the bread and butter the bread slices. Cut into small rectangles, top with a cleaned spiced sprat fillet. Top with either sliced or grated hard-boiled (quail) egg, then sprinkle with chopped onions. Serve and enjoy.
Semla – A Swedish tradition
