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.
A light dinner.
Continue reading “Chicken for St Catherine’s Day. Kadripäevakana”
For some reason we have three different foods: meat balls, served usually in sauce. Small meat balls: frikadellid, we are using in soup. And ” kotlet”- what is flat shape minced meat “ball”. Kotlet is served as main dish with potato and sauce and salad.
Today I will share the recipe, which you probably will never do. The Kama.
Kama is Estonian traditional finely milled flour mixture. Estonians buying Kama mixture from shop.. and the easiest way is to try this, probably visit Estonia. But I still give you the recipe.
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 Kama is a perfect summer dish. Just add some fresh or fermented milk and sugar or salt, mix, and ready!
Today Kama is used for making cakes, mousse, desserts and salty snacks…
And what is interesting. In Estonian Kama means in slang “stuff, things” and the same time Kama means ” drugs”…:) Continue reading “Estonian Secret. Kama. Estonian “muesli””
My father was born in 1943. So, he was a child after the war. This was a terrible time. Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union, Hunger and poverty. In March 1949, 20,722 people (2.5% of the population) were deported to Siberia.
Started collectivization. Forcibly was established collective farms, which means that all farmers must give all animals to collective farms. All over the countryside, the establishment of kolkhozes was announced and the majority of the peasants joined ‘voluntarily’, fearing that they would be deported if they did not sign up. During the 1950s, masses of farm animals would starve to death in late winter or early spring because of a lack of fodder. Collective farmers did not get first years any salary.
Because was lack of eggs and everything, children invented ” bread”, to have something to eat. They mixed potatoes, flour and oil and baked this on to the wood burning stove iron.
Continue reading “How to make Estonian Potato Flat Bread. Kartulipletskid”
Sõir, Estonian Quark Cheese with caraway seeds is very known in South Estonia. And this is my father recipe.
Traditionally was it a dish for Midsummer and Pentecost.
Do you know, that in Latvian is cheese – Siers and in Russian сыр. And even in English, cheese sound very similar. So, all these cheeses are related 🙂
Important:
quark must be as dry, as possible. And better is fat-free quark
Ricotta is no alternative to use. Make your quark yourself
Be sure your quark is natural and Do NOT consist gelatine or whatever.
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.
Continue reading “How To Do Estonian Quark Cheese with Caraway Seeds. Sõir.”
Which and who is the right Mom?
In Estonia Mother’s Day (emadepäev in Estonian) is celebrated on the second Sunday of May.
The Mother of the Year is award given annually by the Estonian Womens Union, already more than 25 years.
This year suddenly rose up question. Does nominee of this award, the Mother of the Year, must be officially married.
Because nowadays, in the 21st of century there are a lot of single mothers, divorced mothers, gay mothers…..
Continue reading “Estonian Quark and Rhubarb Pie. Pidusai by Terhi”
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.
A fresh, light Sandwich Cake for a dinner.
Continue reading “Sandwich Cake with Egg Butter. Võileivatort”
Estonian Black Bread is fermented Rye Bread.
For this bread, we have even the own word: LEIB.
“white wheat bread” we call “Sai”.
Of course, shops are full of different loaves of bread, even with nuts and chocolate.
But some years ago, our first lady Evelin Ilves promoted the homemade bread. So, today, I believe, all Estonian woman has their own home-made bread recipe.
Each Estonian eat ca 10 kg white wheat bread and 30 kg black rye bread per year, so Rye bread is very popular and I can say, that this is something very “Estonian”.
24th February is Estonian Independence Day, our republic become 99 years old 🙂
so this is the best day to bake the Estonian traditional rye Leib.
Kohuke- chocolate glazed quark snack is very popular dessert for children breakfast.
Kohuke is basically freshly pressed sweet curd covered in chocolate or caramel. There are plain as well as flavoured varieties filled with things like berries, chocolate, coconut and kiwifruit.
Kohuke is popular throughout the Baltic countries and can be found in Russia and other Eastern-European states as well. These little things actually don’t have much of a history – they’re about 70 years old and were something of a cult food during the Soviet regime. They disappeared as soon as they hit the shelves of Soviet stores in the 50s due to the constant shortage,
Because of quark, Kohuke is rich with protein and because of chocolate, it is energy bar:)
Let’s do Kohuke at home as pop-cakes.
Continue reading “Estonian Secret: Kohuke. Chocolate Glazed Quark Snack”
t’s impossible to write a blog about Estonian food without talking about quark. To be honest, I’m not quite sure whether should I say ”quark”, ”curd” or ”Fromage blanc”.
The quark in every country has a different acidity, texture and consistency due to the processing of the product.
Quark is not
.. ricotta. ricotta. Ricotta is made from whey, which gives the cheese its specific taste and texture.
… cream cheese. Cream cheese is usually a salty soft product made from cream and milk. It has a different consistency, texture and acidity. Usually in cream cheese has added salt
… mascarpone. Mascarpone is not a fermented product. Protein is curdled with acid.
Estonian quark is fat-free, made from skimmed milk and mesophilic starter. The latter means that the quark is fermented at a low temperature.
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!
Estonian Cuisine. Eesti Toit. 