Tag: Side dish

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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Broad Beans Fritters. Oakäkid

oakotlett1(1)before potato arrived from America, ancient Estonians ate beans and peas. From old cookbooks, You can find a lot of dishes from peas and barley. Nowadays, vegetarian dishes are once again in vogue and peas and bean are ruling 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Nettle Potato Fritters. Nõgese kartuli kotletid

nettlefritters (20)

Nettles are very important and has been used in Estonian folk medicine centuries.
Folk wisdom teaches that nettle contains vitamins C and K, B vitamins, as well as minerals like calcium, magnesium and iron, to name a few
The nettle takes away fatigue, abdominal pain and water swelling, reduces and stops bleeding, reduces the appearance of diabetes mellitus

And did you know: nettles contain vitamin C 2.5 times more than the lemon (660 mg%).

But of course, you can use any weed to replace nettles. Goutweed taste like carrots and celery. Nettles are a little bit sweet. And wood sorrel is sour.
Nettles keep 1-2 minutes in the boiling water. Goutweed and wood sorrel are edible fresh.

NB! Use only young, fresh, new, small weed, growing in the pure environment.

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Nettle Salad. Nõgesesalat

n6gesesalat1(17)Spring means a lot of weed…
But I have a solution, Just eat them:)
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 taste like carrots and celery. Nettles are a little bit sweet. And wood sorrel is sour.
Nettles keep 1-2 minutes in the boiling water. Goutweed and wood sorrel are edible fresh.
NB! Use only young, fresh, new, small weed, growing in the pure environment.

 

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Estonian flat bread. Vatskid

all ingenious is simple and all simple is ingenious.

Last year I introduced to you Pletskid- Estonian flat bread from very difficult and poor time. When people had just few potatoes and little bit oil.
Vatskid are from South Estonia, as well, but little bit more advanced version. From times when people had at least some buttermilk 🙂

Vatskid was baked on oven on the cabbage leaf. Believe, the most complicated in this recipe is to remove leaves from cabbage  🙂 Cabbage leaf helps keep moisture.

But, of course you can bake them on the ordinary way in hot skillet (without oil) or in the oven.
vatsk1 (6) Continue reading “Estonian flat bread. Vatskid” →

Buckwheat and Quark Fritters. Tatra- kohupiimapallid

tatrapall1 (5)Good dish for “meat free Mondays ” 🙂

Notice, that if you change balance of buckwheat and quark  in favour of buckwheat, you receive more crispy result. Eat warm, because cold dish become crispy, as well (what is not bad at all).

In my picture are balls. But if you prefer to serve them as burger, form loaves.

I’m not a big fan of frying these fritters as I barely have time, plus I get my sufficient amount of fat from other sources anyway. 🙂

Therefore, I’ve adapted the  recipe for baking in the oven.

In case you want to fry on to the skillet: leave dough in to the refrigerator at least for  an 1 hour, before frying.

I decided, that buckwheat flour is too expensive, so I did this by myself from buckwheat groats 🙂 In this case  I suggest to use closed mill: blender or similar. otherwise count with cleaning… 🙂
Groats are so light, that they are jumping out from your mixer:)

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Estonian Potatoes and Groats Mash. Mulgipuder

mulgipuder1 (4)Mulgi-Mulgimaa is a district in South-Estonia with its own culture, food and dialect.

My mother is Mulk and so am I. Mulgipuder means Mulgi’s porridge. This dish is very old though. In former times when people had wood burning stoves, the porridge was placed on a stove in the morning where it had time to cook and get simmer and better. People just had more time.

Mulgid (the people who lived in Mulgimaa) were wealthy. But because in early times animals were more important than people, they were usually to ones who got to eat the porridge first. And if there was anything left from the dish it was passed on to the rest of the family. Like my mother used to say – the Mulgi’s porridge was a pig food (Bon appétit! Sorry!)

Despite all, I and Estonians love this dish. It’s very, very nourishing and filling with an option to cook it completely vegan-friendly!

Potato and pearl barley porridge, i.e. potato-barley mash, originates from Southern Estonia. People in Southern Estonia (the Mulgi people) started boiling potatoes and pearl barley together in the second half of the 19th century as the combination was very filling. By the last quarter of the 19th century, this porridge was known all over Estonia. In the second half of the 20th century, this dish reached cafeterias as well and it has by now become a national dish that is served at various official events.

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Buckwheat Salad. Tatrasalat

One more recipe about ” what to do with boiled buckwheat”.

I love buckwheat and in my opinion, it is goes with everything. This is one possible combination

boiled buckwheat
red onion
pickled cucumber
boiled beetroot
tatrasalat 1(6)
You can serve this with oil- acid sauce, but I like more mayonnaise- sour cream (smetana/creme fraiche) sauce. It makes salad more creamy and nutritious
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Millet Fritters. Hirsikotletid

hirsikotlett1 (5)My husband eats almost everything. And my husband eats everything as long as it’s drowning in mayonnaise or sour cream.
 The only two dishes that still give him traumatizing flashbacks from the past are milk soup and millet.

The latter mainly because he used to serve in a Soviet army somewhere in the Middle East many years ago where one of the main dinners he got to eat a lot was millet porridge which he found terrible.

So, now I did attempt to turn his mind over. And I succeed.

I have been able to successfully change his mind about this dish though. Millet however is not a grain that can be found growing in Estonia which is unfortunate as this interesting yellowish sweet cereal is also very healthy.

In children stories we used to dream about the country, that had “porridge mountains and milk rivers”, and all these mountains have drawn yellow. Like millet.

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Oven Baked Syrniki. Ahjus küpsetatud Sõrnikud

s6rnik1(10)
Syrniki. Sõrnikud http://www.estoniancuisine.com

Sõrnikud made its way to Estonian cuisine from Russia.

As these fluffy quark fritters are very delicious Sõrnikud were quickly adapted by Estonian sweet teeth.

Sõr /сыр means in Russian cheese and/or quark. So, these are small cheesecakes 🙂 🙂


I’m not a big fan of frying these cakes as I barely have time, plus I get my sufficient amount of fat from other sources anyway. 🙂


Therefore, I’ve adapted from the original recipe to make Sõrnikud suitable for baking in the oven.

 

 

This January, I would like to introduce you to a foreign dish that throughout the years has become more and more popular in Estonia to the point where I and my fellow Estonians consider it being part of our national cuisine.

 

 

Continue reading “Oven Baked Syrniki. Ahjus küpsetatud Sõrnikud” →