Tag: Estonia

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)

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Crispy Waffles with Mineral Water. Vahvlid

minwaffle1 (5) Waffles have a very important role in Estonian history.
At the end of the 80s when the Soviet Union started to collapse, people began to private business. Private business was until then prohibited but the end of the 80s was the perfect time to start it.

And a lot of Estonians earned their ” first million” to baking.. waffles…

This was the easiest way to earn some money. Everyone had at home waffle baker, everyone knows recipes and making waffles was very easy.

A few years later this business was out of fashion 🙂 and people became set up more advanced businesses: shops and plants.

And what is the saddest, we throw away our old waffle makers “ESTA” or “Volta”. This is very sad because using modern waffle makers you NEVER get the similar result we used to. Old-time waffles were very thin and light and very crispy.

Now are these old waffle makers rarity and possible to get only in the black market paying a high price.

One option to achieve a similar result is to use mineral water instead of milk
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Continue reading “Crispy Waffles with Mineral Water. Vahvlid” →

Simple Bitter Sweet Black Currant Cake. Mustsõstrakook

blackcurcake (1)Simple and delicious cake for people, who do not want or like very sweet cakes.

The bitterness of the chocolate, sweet and sour berries creating a wonderful combination.

Quark makes this cake lighter and healthier

And make quark by yourself. Trust me: It is much simpler to make than you might think. I won’t tell if you don’t 😉
Look at for recipe.
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Continue reading “Simple Bitter Sweet Black Currant Cake. Mustsõstrakook” →

Home Made Rye Bread Kvass. Leivakali

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Kvass is a fermented beverage, which is made is made from fermented black or rye bread, spring water, and herbs. During the Soviet Union, kvass was nicknamed “The Communist Coca-Cola” (because of colour). In those times we could freely buy Pepsi, but not Coca-Cola.

In my childhood almost every street corner boasts the ubiquitous yellow kvass tanks, which dispense the thirst quencher throughout the day. At that time, we did not know anything about hygiene… This time was used glass drinking glasses ( no plastic!), and after each drinker, the glass was simply flushed with cold water..:) (those were just the times! And no one had a Covid19…)
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But kvass was very delicious. And the most important. This is very easy to make it by your self.
Look how to do rye bread by yourself

Bread leftovers use for rye bread pudding.

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Home Made Rye Bread Kvass. Leivakali

  • Servings: 1-litre
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

A Kvass is a fermented beverage, which is made is made from fermented black or rye bread, spring water, and herbs.


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Ingredients

  • 2 litre water
  • 400 g fermented rye bread
  • 100 g honey ( or less if you do not like very sweet)
  • 10 g yeast
  • (mint or black currant stalks or leaves)

 

Directions

  1. Bring water to the boil and pour over dried and roasted rye bread
  2. Let set under lid few hours.
  3. Strain and add honey, yeast ( and peppermint stalks)
  4. Let the mixture ferment for 5-6 hours.
  5. Strain the mixture into the towel-covered sieve and drain properly. And pour into bottles. Close the cap
  6. Keep refrigerated and drink after 2-3 days.

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Kama Quark Cream. Kama kohupiimakreem

kamakreem1(2)The Kama is the Estonian “muesli”.

Historically kama was a non-perishable, easy-to-carry food that could be quickly fashioned into a stomach-filling snack by rolling it into butter or lard; it didn’t require baking, as it was already roasted. Today the Kama is a perfect summer dish. Just add quark cream and dessert is ready!

The Kama is not translatable and technically not a dessert, but rather an ingredient sometimes used in desserts. It’s actually a mix of different flours – usually barley, rye, oat and pea. The Kama, like many Estonian foods, emerged because a lack of ingredients made people imaginative. After using all the different grains, they would simply mix the leftovers together.

You do not have the Kama 🙂 ?! Look at for recipe.
Honestly. I do not know what to replace it with 🙂

Because the specific taste of Kama gives the necessary and specific and delicious taste.

Did you know?
In Estonian Kama means in slang “stuff, things” and the same time the Kama means ” drugs”…:)
And the Kama is not only “muesli”: In desperate times, people turn to cheap comfort food. In the 1970s, cocoa prices skyrocketed, pushing chocolatey sweets out of reach for millions of people. In the Soviet Union, states lacked buying power because the government centralized foreign trade. Chocolate became extremely scarce in the Baltic countries.
During the shortage, an Estonian candy company began experimenting with kama—a grain blend of rye, wheat, barley, and pea—to find chocolate alternatives. Read more
https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/kama-bar-soviet-chocolate-kamatahvel

Continue reading “Kama Quark Cream. Kama kohupiimakreem” →

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)

Top 10 Estonian Summer Dishes. Eat Summer Dishes Like Estonian.

I love Estonian Summer. everything is green and flourishes and smells. White and short nights and long warm days.
And finally, you can see the sun 🙂
Of course, there have been records, very warm and very cold summers. But in average summer temperature is +23-25 C degrees.  And after few days of warm days starts whining…. too hot 🙂

The Estonian climate is very humid, which means that our warm feels very warm and our cold feels very cold.

As everywhere, Estonians eat and drink during summertime food, which does not need long preparation time and time in front of the hot stove.
There are few Estonian favourite Summer Dish

Different salads and grilled meat and fish. For example Chicken In Yoghurt Marinade
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Continue reading “Top 10 Estonian Summer Dishes. Eat Summer Dishes Like Estonian.” →

Simple Strawberry salad with yoghurt Cheese

cheesesalad (1)Beautiful and colourful delicious salad. Salty cheese and sweet strawberries complement each other.

Depending on the season you can add some tomatoes and cucumbers as well
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Mix together
strawberries
greens
yoghurt cheese
seeds
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For dressing
puree 100 g strawberries
season with
honey
salt and peppercheesesalad (11)