Month: April 2017

Smoked Baltic Herring and Pasta casserole

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Smoked Baltic Herring and Pasta Casserole

We need to talk about fish.
You can read from several Estonian official newspapers and brochures that we are very proud of our fish. And yes. There is a reason to be proud.
When you are planning  to visit our Estonian lovely islands you just have to try the local fresh whitefish or smoked eel and flounder. Furthermore, in the Eastern part of Estonia  with numerous beautiful lakes you can buy fresh bream, pike, perch….from local fishman .
But in my blog you can only see few fish recipes.

There are two reasons. Firstly, there just are not much fish.   75% of local fish is exported to foreign countries. On the one hand, it is good, But where is the joy in visiting an estonian store, and being forced to choose from fishes like trout and salmon.. from Norway 🙂  not local …

Seasonally you can buy Baltic Herring.

Continue reading “Smoked Baltic Herring and Pasta casserole” →

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#recipeswap Croatian Zagreb schnitzel

horvatia (3)What do you know about Croatia?
My husband (he is the huge sport fan) answered:

Ooo. Of course I know. They are great basketball players.
And he called to me the entire team 🙂
How do not you know Dražen Petrović (was a Croatian professional basketball player)?
And their football is quite good as well, Take Modric Jersey and Ivan Rakitic, for example. But we are better, he laughed. In March we had friendship play between Estonia and Croatia, and we won 3:0.(this was miracle :))

Mom, what about Dalmatian, asked my daughter.

What do you know about Croatia?
I asked from my friends: Ooo. Of course I know. Dubrovnik and Krk. These  are very popular holiday destinations. Capital city is Zagreb, small beautiful country with amazing sandy beach on the Adriatic coast and handsome mountains.

So, I believe, you understood me. Croatia is country, where tall athletic men walking with spotty dogs on the beach 🙂

I am never been in Croatia, it is in my holiday bucket list. And when Tea from Little Finger proposed me cooperation, to swap recipes. I agreed, because Tea blog is wonderful and I do not know anything about Croatian food.

So, please let me introduce to you Zagreb schnitzel. Other amazing Croatian recipes you can find from Tea blog Little Finger. Continue reading “#recipeswap Croatian Zagreb schnitzel” →

#recipeswap Tea made Estonian Blueberry Cake

IMG_20170423_185244_202Some time ago Tea asked me to do some cooperation 4and switch traditional recipes. So, soon I will present to you some Croatian food, But today, please welcome Tea and Estonian Blueberry Cake.

read more https://spicepicableme.com/2017/04/23/estonian-blueberry-cake/

In a cooperation with Estonian food blogger Ruta (click to: https://estoniancuisine.com/) a new project was born. One in which we give each other traditional recipes form our countries and try to recreate them in our kitchens. I got this beautiful blueberry cake which consists of qaurk, a sort of fresh cheese, and it’s the first time I made anything like this.

The cake is light and refreshing, perfect for springtime.

Source: ESTONIAN BLUEBERRY CAKE

Nettle and Goutweed Soup. Nõgese- ja naadisupp

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Weed Soup. Nõgesesupp

The World is strange. Estonian woman squishing snails with rainboots heels , but only few hundred kilometers to the south there’s another woman preparing an appetizing dish out of those same snails. Gardeners all over the world are cussing those pesky creatures but the Estonian woman would simply pluck the weeds and….would use the outcome to cook a delicious meal

I am not going to talk about the benefits of nettles, wood sorrel, dandelion leaves and goutweed. You can read this from Wikipedia:) But believe me, they are healthy. The first  source of vitamins in spring.

Goutweed tastes like carrots and celery. Nettles are a  bit sweet. Dandelion tastes like honey,. And wood sorrel is sour.
Nettles need to be kept in the boiling water 1-2 minutes. Goutweed and wood sorrel are eatable when fresh.

NB! Use only young, fresh, new, small weeds, grown in a pure and clean environment.

I added a soundrack a song that was Continue reading “Nettle and Goutweed Soup. Nõgese- ja naadisupp” →

Sandwich Cake with Egg Butter. Võileivatort

Easters are over and you have too many boiled eggs ?
Lets make egg butter. And for better serving Sandwich Cake.  Traditional Estonian Sandwich Cake is made from rye Bread (look for recipe), but you can use, of course, wheat bread. Because of Easters (and I believe, that as I, you have lot of hard-boiled eggs remaining :)), I used for decoration egg butter.

Depending on your taste, it is possible to make ham-based cake. Or vegetable spread based cake… anyway, choice is yours.
I divided the spreads and decorated Sandwich Cake with two filling.
6 slice of bread means in this recipe 3 layers, for more beautiful result remove bread crusts. If you going to eat cake soon, steep bread with milk or stock. If you have time to set, then steeping is not necessary. Butter gives enough moisture and juiciness.

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Sandwich Cake with Egg Butter. Võileivatort

Sandwich Cake. Võileivatort

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

A fresh, light Sandwich Cake for a dinner.

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Quark Cake by Janne

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Quark Cake by Janne

Impossible to write Estonian food blog without quark.
You can buy quark from shop, but this is very easy to do by yourself.
If you have children, call them to join. To make quark is fun process and lesson about chemistry, cooking, health and fermentation 🙂
Quark recipe you can find here.

Estonian quark is made from skimmed milk and mesophilic starter. This is fat-free and mesophilic means, that quark is fermented on the low temperature. And if quark ready, bake delicious quark- cake.

Quark Cake by Janne

  • Servings: 4-6
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

A fresh, light quark cake for easter

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Quark cake by Janne

Ingredients

  • 125 g room temperature butter
  • 1 dl sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 3 dl flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder

    • Filling

  • 250 g quark
  • 250 g sour cream
  • 1 dl sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tablespoon starch

Continue reading “Quark Cake by Janne” →

Filled Eggs

dsc01195Easters in Estonian ” Lihavõtted”. which mean in direct transaltion: take a meat, have a meat. Probably because after long winter was again possibility to eat some meat.

As probably everywhere we have tradition to paint eggs. My generations do not use synthetic colors, we paint eggs with onion skins or birch leaves.

And one more interesting fact. In Estonia we have day off only 14th of April.  We want to work so much..:)…

Filled Eggs can not miss from Estonian festive menu.

You can keep eggs simple, as in my picture. Or you can make them fancy, add some shrimps, caviar, fill eggs  by using squirt.

Filled Eggs

  • Servings: 4-6
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Filled Eggs are Mandatory snack in Estonian Festive menu

Ingredients

  • 3 hard-boiled eggs (15 min in cold water)
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 tablespoon mayonnaise

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#recipeswap Rhubarbsalad. Rabarberisalat

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Rhubarb Salad

In my childhood was the best dessert and treat rhubarb with sugar. Just so simple: we dipped rhubarb stalks in to the sugar.  Sour! Sour.. sour!!! 🙂

Dianna Donnely from https://realfoodmeals.com/2017/03/18/crunchy-cabbage-salad-with-sliced-almonds/ introduced delicious salad. I saw photos and was sure, that there are rhubarb .. But it was celery:)

So, I promised to Dianna that I will test similar recipe with rhubarb. (And replaced other ingredients the local)

Rhubarb is strange vegetable. The plant do not need (too) much care, so in all gardens are small place for rhubarb, which means that in May, June all Estonia has a flood of rhubarb. And we are looking for recipes.. ..what else to do. So, thank you Dianna for inspiration!

In my childhood was the best dessert and treat rhubarb with sugar. Just so simple: we dipped rhubarb stalks in to the sugar.  Sour! Sour.. sour!!! 🙂
From rhubarb leaves we are cooking soup. And with others.. baking lot of cakes. And rhubarb leftovers freezing for winter..
When you are looking for Estonian cake recipes, there are always written “apple or rhubarb”. This is means that the same cake you can bake in spring with rhubarb and in autumn with apples.

Continue reading “#recipeswap Rhubarbsalad. Rabarberisalat” →