Category: Sour cream, Smetana, Creme Fraiche

Chicken fillet with juniper berries and mushroom. Kanafilee kadaka ja seentega

junipermushroom (11)Simple and delicious everyday dish. Gin and juniper berries enhance and boosting chicken and mushroom sweet flavour. Juniper berries impart a sharp, clear flavour.
NB! For cooking use only the mature, dark berries

 Juniper berries contain essential oils, sugars, resins, colourants, fatty acids, organic acids, carbohydrates and trace elements (Manganese, Iron, Copper and Aluminum). Juniper berries have anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial effects during colds. Berries also stimulate urine and saphenia and promote digestion.

It is also believed that juniper cleans and strengthens one’s body energetically. For humans, it has the best effect by breathing in, but it can also affect objects around that person. Juniper branches burnt in the house may clean up the bad aura.       junipermushroom (12)

More than 400 spices of mushroom grow in Estonia and almost 100 of them are edible. And proximate 25 of them are very good edible mushroom.
I know and foraging for food more than 10 spices.
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Salted mushroom:
How to remove additional salt are a lot of tips.
My South Estonian relatives told me that they boiling salted mushroom in milk. And after that no saltness and mushroom look and taste like a fresh.
The second option is to boil mushroom just in the water.
And the simplest one.  Put mushroom to soak the night before.

Fresh chanterelle: The mushrooms are cleaned without water, with only a clean, dry towel and paring knife. Heat the chanterelle in a skillet without fat/butter until water has evaporated.

Frozen mushroom: melt, fry slightly.

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Braised turnips with cranberry sauce. Stoovitud kaalikad jõhvikakastmega

turnipstew (5)Sweet and sour braised turnips can be served as a side dish with some meat or main dish.

I do not know. Does it is international that children just do not like some food? Like blue cheese and olives? ( or children who grow up in the Mediterranean are fond of olives??)turnipstew (11)

When I was a child I hated braised and boiled carrots and turnips. And, blue cheese and olives, of course 🙂
Now I am grown up and I can say that there is nothing better than braised turnips.

Sweet of turnips are balanced with cranberry acid. And this is the perfect side dish. This time I served it with grilled cheese.turnipstew (9)
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Crunchy Marzipan and Bilberry Cake. Marjakook martsipaniga

marzipancake (28)Amazing berry cake with crispy bottom and top and juicy filling. Marzipan is very sweet and tartness of berries balancing and complements the light sweet almond taste of the marzipan.
Marzipan is one of the oldest sweets made in Estonia, and it was first used as a medicine as it was thought it has healing properties and was sold in the Town Hall Pharmacy of Tallinn. As the legend has it, the sweet was invented by a man who worked at the pharmacy. However, the city of Lübeck in Germany also claims to have invented the treat.

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Marzipan

The word “marzipan” is derived from German Marzipan or Italian marzapane, most likely after St. Marcus; the Estonian name is martsipan. This product is an elastic paste made of grated, powdered almonds and powdered sugar. Read more about marzipan

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Simple Mushroom Salad. Lihtne seenesalat

mushrsalad (5)I have been writing that Estonia has an abundance of forest, we like to pick berries and mushrooms.
But Estonia is a maritime country. The Baltic Sea surrounds Estonia from the north, west and southwest.

In August the night is dark and the sky is full of stars. In August we have an amazing tradition. At sunset Come to the shore of the Baltic Sea and enjoy a bonfire or light one yourself. The sea unites all of us.

Read more about this The Night of Ancient Lights

But August is the chanterelle month, as well. Mushroom Salad Sandwiches or filled pancakes are the best picnic food.
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 The simplest Salad recipe.

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Salted mushroom:
How to remove additional salt are a lot of tips.
My South Estonian relatives told me that they boiling salted mushroom in milk. And after that mushroom look and taste like a fresh.
The second option is to boil mushroom just in the water.
And the simplest one.  Put mushroom to soak the night before.

Fresh chanterelle: The mushrooms are cleaned without water, with only a clean, dry towel and paring knife. Heat the chanterelle in a skillet without fat/butter until water has evaporated.

Frozen mushroom : melt, fry slightly.
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For Salad:

Chop prepared mushrooms
Chop boiled eggs
Chop onion

Mix everything with sour cream and season with salt and pepper.mushrsalad (6)

Seto Summer Fish and Strawberry Salad. Seto kala ja maasikasalat

fishstrawsalad (2)This is a classical Seto salad.  Traditionally it is made with herring, but I got freshly smoked Peipsi Lake vendace …

Look at this! See, if it is not appetizing : ) 🙂

A combination of strawberries and fish may seem strange. But sour and sweet berries complement saltness of fish very well. The onion adds a structure and a sparkle.
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And rye bread. This is just a base. The heart of this salad.

  • Cleanse fish. Herring or other smoked and salty fish
  • Toast rye bread and cut into slices
  • Cut strawberries into slices
  • Chop chives
  • Chop (red) onion. If you are going to use “white” onion, I suggest to marinate it for a couple of the minutes in strawberry juice.fish (7) For salad dressing
    season sour cream with pepper and (taste your fish !!) with salt.

And some horseradish makes it even better…fishstrawsalad (4)fishstrawsalad (12)

How to Do Yoghurt Cheese. Hapupiimajuust

yoghurtcheese (23)Yoghurt Cheese became popular at the beginning of the 20th century. This cheese is best in salads and a good alternative to Sõir.

Technology is very similar to Sõir ( Quark Cheese ) and homemade quark. The difference arises from the raw material used. Different raw materials give a different taste

You need:
sieve with fine holes
clean fabric, cloth, towels. For better result soak it in the salty water
Pot with a thick bottom. Be careful: milk boiling over and stick to the bottom with seconds.

Time?
It takes ca 15-20 minutes to make cheese + time for drain and for drying. Total time ca 1 hour.
But for longer preservation, leave cheese under the press to set. And then dry cheese into the oven 50 C convection 20-30 minutes.

From these amounts you receive two palm-size loaves.

If you have children, don’t hesitate to ask them to join the process. Making quark is fun and educating. You can learn a lot about food chemistry, cooking, health and fermentation!

NB! DO NOT use products with signs UHT (ultra-high temperature), ESL (extended self-life), aseptic, thermalized… You need living bacteria and natural product.

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Sour Milk Flat Scones. Hapupiimakakud

odrakakakud (15)Very simple and delicious dish. Sour Milk Scones are very easy to make and bake and it is a perfect idea to ask children to help you.

This is an ancient recipe from South Estonia, Võrumaa. Sour Milk Flat Scones are Predecessor of pancakes and later scones. In the old days, they were baked in hot ash or on hot stone clay.
ethnographer Aliise Moora’s book “Older food of the Estonian peasantry” reads that Estonian peasant woman made a flat loaf of rye or barley flour dough, pressed fingerprints and shook on the salt. The cakes were baked against a fire, either on a stone, on a tree, or on the bottom of a pot. The Paistekakk was smeared with a piece of lard during baking and meanwhile turned over. The Paistekakk was also baked for breakfast, as is customary for pancakes.
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Simple Yeast Free Cabbage Hand Pies. Pärmivabad kapsapirukad

handpies (26)Waiting for a white ship is something Estonian. This is a concept and myth about freedom.

The concept dates from 1861 when several hundred followers of the religious prophet Juhan Leinberg (the so-called prophet Maltsvet), mostly peasants, waited for a few weeks near Tallinn for a white ship to take them away to a more prosperous and free country. The concept soon spread widely because it was used in literature.

After the Soviet regime was restored in Estonia in 1944, the concept quickly acquired a specific meaning – the white ship stood for the end of Soviet power, either by means of the intervention by Western countries or by diplomatic pressure. Waiting for the white ship was a popular concept especially in the post-war decade, and the ruling regime had to work strenuously against it.

When outside is winter, without snow and cold.  Concept about waiting for liberty and changes is still actual. Please, spring, come as soon as you can!

24 February is the national day of Estonia, marking its declaration of freedom in 1918. Celebrate with us !

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Simple and Delicious Sour Milk and Semolina Cake. Lihtne hapupiima- mannakook

Simple and Delicious Sour Milk and Semolina Cake. This one of the cakes that makes your fantasy work.
You can bake it as simple version  or add lot of different ingredients and additives and get every day new cake.
Why not to add some berries. Or nuts. Or during wintertime little bit candied fruit and ginger and cinnamon. …
This cake would like to have the accompany a sauce or jelly or kissell.

Or just some fresh strawberries 🙂

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Sour Milk Cake

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