Cabbage Soup. Värskekapsasupp

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Cabbage Soup. Värskekapsasupp

Do you know old story about Axe Soup?

Long long time ago. Poor Soldier came from War.
He was tired and hungry.

Knocked on the door and asked for food. The hostess was stingy and said that she is poor herself and have not any food.
Ok, said Soldier. But do you have an axe? Lets cook an ax soup, then.
This sounded interesting, the hostess heard for the first time about ax soup  and agreed.

Soldier put cattle on the stove and added water and an ax. Let it simmer, tasted and said: it is too strong. To make this lighter, we have to add something. Do you have some meat?
Yes, agreed hostess and went to the pantry for meat.  During this time soldier hid  an ax and changed water.
Hostess brought meat, soldier added this in to the cattle. Let simmer, tasted and asked. This is still too strong. You have very strong ax,.. To make this lighter, please bring some barley…
then they added some vegetable to make soup ” lighter”.

Finally was soup ready.  Look, said Soldier: we cooked this so long, that ax is just dissolved!
Hostess tasted soup and was amazed: so delicious, who might have known that ax is so delicious!

This is story about envy, greed and deceit. And how to cook something about nothing 🙂

Now you probably already know, that I prefer dishes which take time max 30 minutes. And this soup is the same. You can cook it in a decent manner: prepare stock and use meat and spend hours to have perfect dish.

But at the afternoon, you have not time. And this is the simplest version to prepare soup. In my opinion cabbage suits with sausages. But you can cook vegan version, or use minced meat or bacon or…. whatever you like.

Cabbage Soup

  • Servings: 4-6
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Cabbage Soup. Värskekapsasupp

Ingredients

    per eater
  • 1 potato
  • 1/2 carrot
  • 1/2 onion
  • ca 100 g cabbage
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • meat “leftovers”, use what do you have at home. Ham, sausage, meat,…
  • salt, pepper, bay leaf

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Cultured (Fermented) Dairy

Estonian Cuisine use lot of fermented dairy products. You can find from this post useful recipes and information

Frugal Hausfrau

Dairy foods that have been fermented with lactic acid bacteria such as LactobacillusLactococcus, and Leuconostoc. The fermentation process increases the shelf life of the product, while enhancing the taste and improving the digestibility of milk. Wikipedia

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Chicken for St Catherine’s Day. Kadripäevakana

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Chicken for St Catherine’s Day. Kadripäevakana

One traditional Estonian St Catherines Day dish is chicken filled with sauerkraut. This is little bit more modern version.

We have not so big families anymore to eat whole chicken 🙂 So little bit revised version.

For this dish you need sauerkraut. Look for recipe, how to make sauerkraut by yourself.

Chicken for St Catherine’s Day. Kadripäevakana

  • Servings: 3-4
  • Difficulty: easy
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A light dinner.

 

 

 

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Chicken for St Catherine’s Day. Kadripäevakana

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“Curly Top” Cake. Kräsupea kook

krasupea1(10)Father’s Day in Estonia is always celebrated and observed on Second Sunday of November each year. So, Happy Fathers Day!!!
And lets bake one cake for all fathers 🙂

This is “retro” cake. A sour cream layer cake with a topping made from chunks of white cake mixed with sour cream that looks like a curly hairdo (kräsupea). This cake from times, when in stores were nothing.
My cake look very decent 🙂 ( to get better photo 🙂 ). I did not made last layer from cake cubes but as usual layer.

For lazy people tip: you can use just cookies and do not waste time for baking layers.
For better result leave cake to set overnight.

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Apple Pie by Virve. Virve õunakook

One of the easiest cake in the world.  I prefer yeast puff pastry with butter.

Apple Pie by Virve

  • Servings: 6
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A Easy Apple Pie.

Important:
1. Puff pastry is blend. Do not use mild apples or season them with ginger, lemon.
2. If you prefer soft apples in cake, preheat and cook them before.

Apple Pie by Virve

Ingredients

  • 400- 600 g yeast-puff pastry with butter.  Frozen pastry thaw before use.
  • 1 litre thin chopped apples or rhubarb.
  • (sugar, if use rhubarb), cinnamon
  • 4 eggs
  • 4 table-spoon sugar
  • 4 table-spoon flour
  • almond chips, icing sugar

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 Kohupiimaküpsised American Style

Look and read how American baking kohupiimaküpsiseid 🙂 🙂

Learning2Cookblog

I love languages despite the fact that I can only (and barely) reliably speak one. Kohupiimaküpsised translates as cheesecake (or curd cake) on Google Translate. To me that is wonderful, but totally inaccurate! They are actually more like an American biscuit than a cake. I think this has to do with the fact that “England and America are two countries separated by a common language.” I am going to attribute that quote to me, as no other writer seems to want it. And it is very true. When an American says biscuit, they think of a delicious, quick bread bun, or roll. When a Brit says biscuit they think of a dessert or snack that is fairly sweet. Think of a chocolate chip cookie (biscuit), or a ginger snap, or a vanilla wafer. I am certain that the movie, “Free Willey,” caused quite the humorous stir in Great Britain, when…

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Puree Soup with Pumpkin and Smoked Cheese. Kõrvitsa püreesupp suitsujuustuga

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Puree Soup with Pumpkin and Smoked Cheese.

It reminds me story from childhood 🙂
I was I believe 5 years old and my sister 3. We went with our family to the forest. To pick blueberries and mushrooms. And middle in the forest. Big a compost or garbage ” mountain”. Full of pumpkins.
My mother took both berry buckets and father took two big pumpkins.
Walking. My sister starts to whine.. I am tired. Take me to the arms…
Father sigh, laid one pumpkin down and took sister.
Walking.
Now was my turn. I am tired. Please..please… I can not anymore.
And.
yes. We left both pumpkins in the forest…

 

Pumpkin became a commonly-used vegetable in Estonia in the 1920s–1930s. And now we love pumpkin 🙂

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Buckwheat and Mushroom Casserole. Vegetable Recipe. Tatra- seenevorm

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Buckwheat and Mushroom Casserole http://www.estoniancuisine.com

The first written notices approve that buckwheat was in Estonia already in 14 th of century. Later, in 19 th century became potato more popular, but still buckwheat is very common and popular in Estonian cuisine.

This is my favourite. Easy to cook and healthy to eat.
By book you should buckwheat before cooking, simmer in hot butter. But at least in Estonia buckwheat is too “dirty” and I  start buckwheat cooking from washing.

I wash buckweat, pour it in  to the boiling water, add some salt and after 15 minutes, strain. Then I heat buckweat in a pot until water has evaporated and add some butter.

Perfect dinner, if you cooked yesterday too much buckwheat:)

Estonian peasants regarded mushrooms primarily as a food consumed during famine or war periods. Mushroom foraging and cooking with mushrooms was more wide-spread in Eastern and South-Eastern parts of Estonia, which had received more Slavic influences. Mushrooms as food gained wider popularity in the 20th century, when they were introduced in magazines and various workshops as tasty and healthy vegetarian food.

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Simple Parsnip and Potatoes Rösti. Naeri ja kartuliröstid. Vegetable Recipe

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Parsnip and Potatoes Rösti http://www.estoniancuisine.com

I have a good relationship with vegetables. I love growing plants and I love to eat them. But the reason I prefer vegetables is taste. I love the taste of tomatoes or potatoes and this is the reason to enjoy them.
What I can not understand is ” like” food.  Why should carrot taste ” like meat” or zucchini ” like fish” or cauliflower as ” real bread”. Why?

I love the simplicity. And the pure taste.

If you have an electric grater, this is the simplest dinner to make. Because of all vegetables are white, you can add some pumpkin, beetroot or carrot to add some colour.

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