IKRA - Russian eggplant caviar/Russian aubergine caviar

Someone was looking for a "soft aubergine/eggplant spread with tomatoes" and I knew exactly what they were talking about. There's a dish in Russia, our Eastern neighbour, which is called IKRA or fake caviar.

I got this recipe from Russian friend Galina back in Edinburgh sometimes around 2000. Still makes a regular appearance in our kitchen.  It's lovely on a slice of toast, or as a condiment or spread on a mezze-table.

Russian aubergine spread IKRA

1 large aubergine/eggplant
1 large onion
2 garlic cloves
2 tomatoes
1 Tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar or lemon juice
salt and freshly ground black pepper
fresh parsley or dill

Prick the aubergine with a fork here and there, then place into a preheated 200C/400F oven and bake for about 60 minutes, until fully cooked and slightly charred on the outside. Flip over once or twice during baking.

Remove from the oven, let it cool. Then cul half lengthwise and scoop out the flesh. Place into a cutting board and chop finely. Place into a medium-sized bowl.

Peel the onion, cut into halve and then chop finely. '

Peel the tomatoes (make a small X-cut at the bottom, place into a boiling water for about 30 minutes, drain and peel). Dice the tomatoes finely.

Mince the garlic.

Mix the aubergine, onion, tomatoes and garlic in the bowl, add the oil and vinegar/lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Cover the bowl with a clingfilm and put the ikra into the fridge for a few hours, so the flavours can mingle and develop.

Sprinkle with chopped fresh herbs just before serving.

Layered Vegetable Salad with Smoked Salmon

(From the Nami-Nami recipe archives.)



"Kasukas" - "fur coat" - is a name for a layered vegetable salad that is very popular here in Estonia, especially during the cold and dark season. The salad has chopped cured herring as the bottom layer, topped with layers of grated or chopped beets, carrots, potatoes and other vegetables and "glued together" with thin layers of mayonnaise. The recipe - or rather an alternative way to serve the popular "rosolje" salad - came to Estonia from Russia in the second half of last century. In Russia "fur coat" aka "shuba" is still one of the most popular salads on the festive table (here's a lovely English-language blog post about the traditional "cured herring under fur coat"), and the un-layered "rosolli" is also a must on Finnish Christmas tables). Whereas I love beets, I dislike cured herring, so I tend to skip that salad on buffet tables. When making this at home, I'd usually make a double portion and divide the salad between two glass bowls - one with herring and the other without. Until I came across a version using smoked salmon in Natasha's Kitchen blog. That was about a year and a half ago, and since then I've made this salad over and over again and converted many kasukas-haters into kasukas-lovers.

Traditionally this salad is made and served in a big glass bowl that proudly shows off all the layers, and then it's spooned into serving plates (rather like a trifle). For a neater presentation, you may want to use individual glass bowls instead (see top photo). A note to my Estonian readers - I like making this with külmsuitsulõhe aka cold-smoked salmon (Pepe Kala makes a wonderful one!), rather than with kuumsuitsulõhe aka hot-smoked salmon.



Layered Smoked Salmon and Vegetable Salad
(Suitsulõhega kasukas)
Serves about 6 to 8



200 g smoked salmon
400 g potatoes
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
200 g cooked beetroot (roasted, steamed or boiled)
250 g carrots
about 300-400 g good-quality mayonnaise
2 eggs

Boil (unpeeled!) carrots and potatoes until soft, but not mushy. Drain, cool a little, then peel.
Hard-boil the eggs, then cool and peel.

To compose the salad:
1. Cut the salmon into small pieces and scatter evenly at the bottom of a 2-litre (approximately 2-quart) glass bowl.
2. Grate the potatoes coarsely, scatter over the salmon.
3. Scatter chopped onion over the potato layer.
4. Gently spread about half of the mayonnaise over the onion layer.
5. Grate the beetroot coarsely, scatter over the mayonnaise layer.
6. Grate the carrots coarsely, scatter over the beetroot layer.
7. Spread rest of the mayonnaise over the beetroot layer.
8. Finely grate the eggs, scatter over the mayonnaise layer.

NB! As the mayonnaise is seasoned already, there is no need to season any of the layers with salt and pepper!

Cover the bowl with clingfilm and put into the fridge for a few hours for the flavours to combine (and the beetroot colour to stain the other layers :)) The salad can be happily made on a previous day as well, as it keeps rather well.

This recipe was also included in my latest cookbook, Jõulud kodus ("Christmas at Home"), published in Estonian in November 2011.

Recipe for Beef Stroganoff with Chantarelle Mushrooms

Recipe by Nami-Nami. Above photo by Juta Kübarsepp for the September 2013 issue of Kodu ja Aed ("Home and Garden", an Estonian monthly magazine. I've been their food writer since October 2012)

Boeuf Stroganoff, a popular family classic, gets an seasonal-autumnal touch here from fresh chanterelle mushrooms. As I've mentioned in another post, stroganoff doesn't usually include mushrooms over here. Yet I can see why mushrooms are often paired with beef in this classic Russian dish. While cultivated mushrooms are all right during the winter season, it'd be silly to use the pale and rather bland-tasting white button (or even small brown cremini) mushrooms when the local forests are full of wonderful wild mushrooms. Hence the use of chanterelle mushrooms here instead.



Beef Stroganoff with Chanterelle Mushrooms
(Kukeseentega böfstrooganov)
Serves 4

vegetable oil for frying
300 g beef sirloin or tenderloin or "stroganoff" or stir-fry strips
salt and black pepper
1 Tbsp mild paprika powder
1 onion, finely chopped
300 g fresh chanterelle mushrooms
3 Tbsp concentrated tomato purée
200 ml fresh cream*
fresh parsley, finely chopped

If you're using sirloin or tenderloin, then cut the meat into thin stirps about 1 cm wide and 5 cm long (1/2 inch wide by 2 inch long). Clean the mushrooms thoroughly, cut into smaller pieces, if necessary.

Heat oil in a large skillet on medium-high heat. Add the beef strips and brown quickly on all sides (in batches, if necessary). Transfer the meat onto a plate, sprinkle with salt, pepper and paprika pwider.

Add a little more oil to the pan, reduce the heat to medium. Add the onion and fry gently until softened.

Increase the heat to medium-high again, add the chanterelle mushrooms and fry for 4-5 minutes, until mushrooms are cooked.

Add the tomato concentrate, cook for a minute. Return the seasoned beef strips to the pan, alongside any liquid that's dripped into the plate. Add the cream and cook gently until heated through, the sauce has thickened and the meat is tender.

Taste for seasoning, add more salt and/or pepper, if necessary. Sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately.

We like to eat our stroganoff with mashed potatoes, but buttered wide egg noodles would also work well.

* You can use single cream, double cream, pouring cream, whipping cream, even half-and-half. Any of those would work well, giving you a lighter or richer stroganoff.

More Stroganoff recipes:
Kurzeme stroganoff aka Latvian pork stroganoff with pickles @ Nami-Nami
Oven-baked pork stroganoff with mayonnaise @ Nami-Nami
Mushroom stroganoff (vegetarian recipe) @ Nami-Nami
Classic beef stroganoff @ The Cook Who Knew Nothing
Mushroom stroganoff (vegetarian recipe) @ Cook Sister
Skinny mushroom stroganoff (vegetarian recipe) @ Skinny Taste
Ribeye and mushroom stroganoff @ Farmhouse Delivery Blog
Beef stroganoff @ Simply Recipes
Beef strogranoff @ My Baking Addiction
Beef stroganoff with gnocchi @ Eat, Live, Run
Chicken stroganoff @ Kayotic Kitchen
Venison stroganoff @ Hunter. Angler. Gardener. Cook
Maria's Russian beef stroganoff @ Natasha's Kitchen
Stroganoff (recipe in Finnish) @ Pastanjauhantaa
Savumakkara-stroganoff (recipe in Finnish) @ Hellapoliisi
Böfstrooganov (recipe in Estonian) @ Da Vahtra Residence
Böfstrooganov (recipe in Estonian) @ Ise tehtud, hästi tehtud
Böfstrooganov sinepi ja kartulipüreega (recipe in Estonian) @ Puhas rõõm

How do you take your tea? Russian Revels and their Tea Horse tea

Although I like my coffee - a lot - I've been drinking more tea again recently. My tea-loving friends are to blame - first KAFO sent me nine jars of their just t's Black Label No X teas  to try (I'm still in love with their Luxury Earl Grey tea that I used to me those dainty Earl Grey cookies). Then a Tallinn-born and London-based food blogger Katrina of The Gastronomical Me mentioned that she and her food-loving friend Karina have created a tea blend.

Tea blend? I knew that film stars, singers, models and such like always end up creating their own perfume, but apparently that's so old-fashioned. Nowadays you blend your own tea :D

Karina and Katrina together run a supper club in London, called The Russian Revels, hosting Russian feasts with Slavic generosity, Soviet attitude and British humour. These two Russians joined forces with London-based tea club Tea Horse and  came up with their own tea blend, called "Russian Revels". The tea was included in the March 2013 taster box:

"A bright Ceylon Uva black tea is blended with lemon and cloves for a refreshing and lightly spicy infusion. Enjoy black, with a splash of milk or a slice of fresh lemon for an extra citrus zing."

I know I spent seven years in bonnie Scotland, but never got used to drinking tea with milk. Instead I've been enjoying this tea for almost daily now, always with a slice of lemon, like instructed. Lovely - the cloves add a surprisingly mellow, yet distinct flavour - nothing chai-like at all.

If you're based in the UK and if you like your tea, you may want to give the Tea Horse's subscription a go.



Disclaimer: I was sent the 75 g packet of tea for free by aforementioned Karina. Thank you!

Canteen classics: Solyanka, Estonian style

 
(This recipe was originally posted in December 2006. Fully updated in May 2012).
 
Here's a recipe for a soup that must have frequently featured in one disguise or another in every single canteen and many households across the former Soviet empire: solyanka (see also this informative article about Russian soups). A hearty soup originally from Russia and Ukraine that can be just as humble or elegant as you want. If you're a flashy Slav, you use seven types of meat (incl. kidneys) and throw in a handful of black olives, a slice of lemon and a generous pinch of capers. If you're a more modest Estonian, you stick to sweating onions and a choice of sausages. You can add cabbage or other vegetables, make a vegetarian, fishy or meaty solyanka.

Whatever you do, you must use salted/brined cucumbers (aka pickles), which give the soup its characteristic salty-sour note.

Solyanka, Estonian style
(Seljanka eesti moodi)
Serves: 4

3 large onions (about 400 grams in total)
4 Tbsp oil
100 ml boiling water
100 grams of concentrated tomato puree
1 litre beef stock (use boiling water and 2 beef stock cubes, if necessary)
3 bay leaves
10 black peppercorns
3 salted cucumbers, halved lengthwise and sliced
300-400 grams of cooked lean meat products (choose a mixture of Frankfurters, Polish kabanos or Krakow sausages, sliced cooked beef, mild chorizo sausages etc - 2-3 different types)

To serve:
sour cream or smetana or thick plain yogurt

Quarter the onions and slice thinly crosswise.
Heat oil in a heavy saucepan, add onions and fry gently for 5 minutes. Add peppercorns and bay leaves alongside 100 ml of boiling water and simmer for 15 minutes, until onions have softened.
Add tomato puree and stir until combined.
Add the hot stockm sliced cucumbers, and chopped meat products.
Bring slowly to the boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer gently for about10 minutes, so the flavours can develop.
Taste for seasoning - you can add some lemon juice to sharpen the soup.Serve with a dollop of sour cream and some rye bread.

More solyanka recipes:
Salmon and wild mushroom solyanka @ Nami-Nami
Frau T's solyanka  @ Urban Foodie
Solyanka @ Eastern Europan Food (About.com)
Russian meat solyanka  @ Food.com
Solyanka @ Pavel Chuchuva (in Melbourne)
Simple Solyanka @ Windows to Russia

My favourite beetroot soup, vegetarian borscht

October 2011

Here is one of my very favourite soups of all time, which I make about once a month (at least!). It's a vegetarian version of the famous Russian-Ukrainian beet soup, borscht. My version is delicious and heartwarming - brilliant for cold autumn days and dark winter nights. Yet it's light and refreshing enough, so it would also be good during summer. I tend to use sauerkraut during winter and plain white cabbage during summer (and prefer the first one).

Depending how good your knife-skills are, but it could be on your table in about 40 minutes or even less. I use the food processor to shred (or 'julienne') the vegetables.

My favorite beet soup
(Mõnus peedisupp, täitsa lihavaba)
Serves 4 to 6 as a main course


September 2007

400-500 g (about a pound) of beets
2 medium onions
2 large carrots
400-500 g (about a pound) white cabbage or mild sauerkraut
2 Tbsp olive oil
1.5 litres vegetable stock
1-2 Tbsp lemon juice or wine vinegar
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

sour cream, to serve

finely chopped parsley or dill, to garnish

Peel the beets, onions and carrots. Cut all vegetables into thick matchsticks (you can use a food processor here to speed up the process). If using fresh cabbage, shred it thinly.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add carrots, beets, onions and a pinch of salt and saute for about 5 minutes, stirring every now and then.
Add the shredded cabbage or sauerkraut, then pour in the hot stock. Bring to the boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer on a low heat for about 20-30 minutes, until vegetables are softened.
Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice, keeping in mind that a proper borscht should have a slightly acidic taste.
Serve with a dollop of sour cream (or omit, if you want a vegan soup) and sprinkle with some chopped parsley or dill.
Serve with some crusty (rye) bread.

UPDATE 21.9.2007
Hedgehog made this soup, too - check out her post here.

NOTE: This soup recipe was originally posted in September 2007. It's been fully revised and updated in November 2011.

Easter paskha for chocolate lovers

Chocolate paskha, 2011, decorated with dried apricots

It's Easter Sunday this weekend and many a festive table will have a paskha (also spelled as 'pascha') as a centerpiece. We will, for sure.

Paskha is a sweet and rich curd cheese dessert that's traditionally served during Easter. I've shared two favourite recipes with you before - my traditional uncooked paskha with pistachio nuts and craisins and creamy cooked paskha with egg yolks. Here's another delicious paskha, especially for those of you who love chocolate!

Chocolate paskha
(Šokolaadisõbra kohupiimapasha)
Serves 8


Chocolate paskha, 2009, decorated with candied kumquats

500 g curd cheese (kohupiim/tvorog) or ricotta
100 ml whipping cream
100 g dark chocolate, chopped
75 g butter, cut into cubes
50 g caster sugar
handful of dried apricots
handful of dried seedless raisins

Place raisins and apricots into a colander, pour over boiling water and drain thoroughly. Put aside.

Place cream, chocolate and butter into a small heavy saucepan and heat gently, stirring with a wooden spoon, until chocolate and butter are melted and you've got a luscious brown sauce. Remove the pot from the heat and immediately fold in the curd cheese, sugar, apricots and raisins. Mix until combined.

Line a special paskha-dish or a fine sieve with a double layer of cotton muslin that you've rinsed under cold water and wrung dry. Pour the curd cheese mixture into the dish, place a small plate on top. Place the filled paskha-dish over a bowl to collect any whey liquid that will drip out of the paskha.

To serve, turn the paskha onto a plate, remove the muslin and paskha dish or sieve.

 Decorate as you please - I love the contrast of chocolate-coloured paskha and something orange (apricots, candied kumquats etc).

Cod liver paté on toast

I've briefly mentioned cod liver on Nami-Nami previously - here and here, but it deserves a new post :) There are almost no blog posts on the topic - a FoodBlogSearch enquiry ends with plenty of posts about cod liver oil capsules, and just one food blog posts apart from mine, written by Rosie Dequattro (now available only in in cache) and a mention of foie de morue by Clotilde back in 2004 (!). I always keep a can of cod liver chunks in oil in the larder, as it's a great stand-by to have when you have unexpected friends. Or when you simply need a lunch in a hurry.

I got the recipe from my mum, but it's the same universal recipe used in pretty much every cod-liver-loving family in Estonia (or Russia, for that matter, as Rosie's post reveals). I love it on toast, but you can also serve it to fill vol-au-vents or top small crostini.

Cod Liver Paté
(Klassikaline tursamaksasalat)



190 g can cod liver chunks in oil (look for it in Russian markets)
1-2 eggs, boiled, peeled and finely chopped
a small (shallot) onion, finely chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Drain the cod liver, then place in a small bowl and mash with a fork. Add the egg and onion, season with salt and pepper. (You can add some mayonnaise, if you want a smoother paté, but it's not really necessary).
Garnish with fresh herbs (dill, parsley and chives are especially fine here) and serve.

Russian syrniki aka curd cheese patties

A little something from the Russian kitchen - fried thick curd cheese patties that are best enjoyed while still hot with a generous dollop of soured cream or a jam of your choice. You'll find curd cheese or quark cheese (tvorog, read more here) in Russian or Polish or German shops. Remember, the higher the fat content, the tastier the end result - or try farmer's cheese instead. Ricotta is too smooth and lean to work, in my opinion.

We love them for breakfast, but syrniki also make an excellent mid-day or mid-afternoon snack.

Syrniki
(Sõrnikud)
Serves 4

500 g curd cheese
2 egg yolks (or 1 egg, if you wish)
60 g plain flour (100 ml), or slightly more, if necessary
a generous pinch of salt
1 Tbsp sugar (for sweet syrniki)

flour for breading
oil for frying

Combine curd cheese, egg yolks, salt and sugar, if using.
Sprinkle some flour on the work surface and on your hands. Form small patties from the curd cheese mixture (add a spoonful or two of flour, if the mixture is too loose), flatten them slightly. The curd cheese patties should be about 1 cm thick.
(You could put them into the fridge for about and hour - it helps them to stay in shape).
Heat some oil on a frying pan over moderate heat. Fry the syrniki on both sides for 3-5 minutes, until they're golden brown.

Serve when still warm.

Salmon and Mushroom Solyanka (a thick Russian soup)

If you look around Estonian foodblogs, then we all seem to feast on thick and filling Russian-style mushroom soups at the moment - Tuuli has been cooking up mushroom borscht and mushroom rassolnik, Aet has a mushroom solyanka simmering in her saucepan. We had friends over for dinner last night, and as I had got a large bowl of blanched and slightly salted wild mushrooms from K's mum yesterday morning, and made a Russian-style mushroom soup as well, but with addition of fish.

You'll get a best result if using various wild mushrooms. Gypsy mushrooms (Rozites caperatus; kitsemamplid), Russula-mushrooms, Lactarius-mushrooms - all would be perfect, but cultivated mushrooms would work as well (perhaps a mixture of white mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms for some texture?). I had mainly meaty Lactarius scrobiculatus mushrooms (võiseened/kollariisikad)*, with an odd Russula thrown in.

Check your mushroom guide for instructions (some mushrooms - like gypsy mushrooms and many Lactarius-mushrooms can be cooked fresh, some need to be blanched first.

* Note that Wiki considers this an inedible mushroom (well, "Western authors" do). It's much liked over here for its meaty texture and characteristic flavour. It does need to be thoroughly blanched and cooked first, however, and smaller mushrooms are preferred to larger ones.

Mushroom and Salmon Solyanka
Serves four to six



1 large onion, peeled and chopped
about 400 g fresh (wild) mushrooms - pre-blanched, if necessary
2 Tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
3 Tbsp concentrated tomato pureé
1 litre fish stock
4 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and chopped
300 g salmon filet, cut into 1 cm cubes
2 small pickled cucumbers, halved lengthwise and cut into slices
2 Tbsp capers
a small bunch of dill
salt
black pepper
lemon juice, to taste

Heat oil in a saucepan, add onion and mushrooms and sauté for about 5 minutes.
Stir in the tomato paste, cook for a minute or two.
Pour in the fish stock, bring to the boil. Add the potato cubes, then simmer for about 15 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked.
Add fish, capers, cucumber slices and most of the dill. Simmer for another few minutes, then remove the saucepan from the heat.
Season to taste with lemon juice, salt and pepper (solyanka needs a slightly sour note!).
Sprinkle some extra dill on top, garnish with lemon slice or wedge and serve.

Cold Beetroot Soup (kind of Chlodnik or Холодник)

Although the tropical heat wave has given way to a beautiful Estonian summer (temperatures at around 25 C, with some
showers), it's still warm here in Estonia. Perfect excuse for eating lots of cold summer soups. My cold soup repertoire isn't huge, I must admit. I love Ximena's gazpacho (and will be making it again and again in a week or so, when our tomatoes are ready). I also love this simple cold kefir soup with herbs and radishes. But radishes are finished for this year, so I needed a new cold soup recipe. The recipe here is slightly adapted from this Russian foodblog, and we loved both the flavour as well as the stunning colour. Our little daughter, who's almost 1 year and 6 months now, heartily approved as well!!

I love roasting the beets, as this gives them an exceptionally sweet and earthy flavour. If you're short for time, then this works with boiled (and even ready-grated and vacuum-packed) beets as well.

Cold Beet Soup with Kefir
(Külm peedisupp)
Serves four to six



3 small beets, each about the size of a tennis ball
2 short green cucumbers ("Lebanese cucumbers")
handful of green onions, chopped
3-4 Tbsp finely chopped fresh dill
1 litre kefir
1 Tbsp grated horseradish
salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2-4 eggs

Wash the beets, wrap in foil and roast in a 200 C oven for about 45 minutes, until cooked through (test for doneness by piercing with a sharp knife). Cool completely, then peel and grate coarsely.
Hard-boil the eggs, then cool under cold water. Peel and cut into half lengthwise.
Wash the cucumbers, cut into small dice.
Take a large bowl, throw in the grated beets. Stir in some of the kefir, then season the soup base with horseradish and some salt and pepper. Add the rest of the ingredients, except boiled eggs. Taste again for seasoning - you may want to add more salt or pepper, or perhaps even some lemon juice.
Serve very cold, topping each portion with a boiled egg half or two.

Keeps well in the fridge for a day or two.

Buckwheat Kasha with Mince

Following from yesterday's buckwheat theme, here's another recent buckwheat dish we recently enjoyed. We do love buckwheat kasha or porridge as it is, and eat it occasionally as a side dish to some grilled pork. But sometimes it's nice to spice it up with a little extra. Adding pork or beef mince to the kasha is one way of making a humble side dish into a delicious main course.

Note that buckwheat is naturally gluten-free, so it's a suitable and tasty grain alternative to all those who need to avoid gluten.

Buckwheat Kasha with Mince
(Tatrapuder hakklihaga)
Serves 6



250 g mince (I used a mixture of pork and beef)
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
2 carrots, peeled and coarsely grated
400 g buckwheat groats
oil for frying
1 litre of water, boiling
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil on a frying pan over high heat, add the mince and brown, stirring every now and then.
Reduce the heat to moderate, add the carrot and onions, season with salt and pepper
and cook for 5 minutes to slighly soften the onions.
Heat some oil in a large heavy saucepan, add the buckwheat groats and toast them for about 5 minutes, stirring to coat and toast evenly.
Add the fried meat and onion mixture to the buckwheat groats, give it a stir and pour over the boiling water.
Cover the saucepan and simmer on a low heat for 30-40 minutes, until buckwheat groats are soft.
Serve hot with sliced pickled cucumbers and cold horseradish and sour cream sauce*.

* To make the cold horseradish sauce grate some fresh horseradish, add enough sour cream to achieve the consistency and potency you like and season with salt.

LEFTOVERS? No worries - simply heat the cold buckwheat kasha in some oil or butter on the following day.

Russian Vinaigrette Salad, and confusion with culinary terms

Vinaigrette is the oil-and-vinegar dressing so popular across the world for livening up salad leaves, right? Wrong, at least as far as the vast Russia is concerned. And Estonia, for that matter. Most deli counters in supermarkets here would sell something called 'vinegrett' (that's vinaigrette in the local lingua), and it's not the dressing they're selling, but this bright Russian vegetable salad. My version is possibly a bit beetier (khm? is that a word?) than others, but I simply couldn't resist the colour.

Note the Russian vinaigrette salad is lactose free/gluten free/vegetarian/vegan, so should suite a wide array of diets- in addition of being really bright and beautiful to look at. I served it on crisp dark rye bread triangles, but usually it is eaten just as a side salad.

Russian Vinaigrette Salad
(Köögiviljavinegrett)
Serves 10 as a side dish



300 g boiled potatoes
200 g boiled beets
100 g boiled carrots
300 g sauerkraut
200 g pickled or salted cucumbers
150 g red or yellow onions or spring onions

Dressing:
5 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp strong mustard
a generous squeeze of lemon juice*
salt
sugar
coarsely ground black pepper

fresh herbs (e.g. dill, parsley, chives)

NB! All cooked/boiled vegetables must be cool before starting to prepare the salad.

Peel the potatoes, beets and carrots and cut into thin julienne sticks or grate coarsely. Cut the cucumbers into thin slices lengthwise, then cut into stick crosswise. Mince onion finely.
Mix gently all the vegetables (sauerkraut, beets, carrots, cucumbers, onions) in a large bowl, until well combined.
Season the vegetables with salt, then dress with oil, mustard and lemon juice. Check for seasoning - and add salt, sugar and/or pepper, if necessary. The vinaigrette salad should have a slightly sweet-and-sour flavour.
Put into the fridge for about an hour, so the flavours and colours could mingle.
Sprinkle generously with fresh herbs and serve.

* It is traditional to use vinegar, but we prefer the much milder lemon juice.

VARIATIONS TO THE THEME:
You may add any of the following ingredients:
* fresh or preserved green peas
* salted Baltic herring slices (place on top of the salad)
* chopped salted wild mushrooms (add about 25 g per person)
* chopped hot-smoked fish
* chopped fresh or pickled apples
* chopped bell peppers (add about 100 g to the above recipe)

Waiter, there is something in my ... dumplings! Curd cheese vareniki with home-made apricot jam

Oh, how time flies. It's already the sixth installment of Waiter, there is something in my ... foodblogging event, this time hosted by Johanna who, very appropriately for an Austrian, has chosen dumplings as a theme. Not any dumplings, but dumplings with filling that have been steamed, boiled or baked (but NOT fried). So dim sum, ravioli and tortellini were ok, but doughnuts, gnocchi or spätzle weren't. My instincts said that my favourite dumplings, pontšikud, wouldn't be ok, as a) they're boiled in oil, which Johanna might interpret as frying, and b) they've got no filling. To be on the safe side, I made a batch of vareniki - a popular boiled dumpling from Ukraine (read more here), stuffed with curd cheese cream and served with home-made apricot jam and pistachios. The name, vareniki, comes from the Russian verb 'to boil', so they're boiled dumplings. To me, they're big Ukrainian cousins of pelmeni, the small meat-filled Russian dumplings that I love. Although vareniki can be savoury, these particular ones are sweet - a lovely combination of vanilla-infused curd cheese filling and just a bit sharp apricot jam and ever-so-slightly crunchy pistachio nuts.

Now, the recipe below will be vague and incomplete - apologies for that. K. made the apricot jam from the Provencal apricots available at the market these days, and he wouldn't share his secret recipe (though I suspect it's something like a scant 250 grams of sugar to 1 kg of pitted apricots, boiled gently for 20 minutes until thickened). I wasn't too happy with the dough recipe, so I'll be working on improving that (it was a bit too tough to my liking, so I'll replace milk with water next time to start with). But you'll get the recipe for the filling, which was great.

Vareniki dumplings with curd cheese filling, served with home-made apricot jam & pistachios
Serves 4



Dough (work in progress):
400 ml plain flour
1 tsp sugar
0.5 tsp salt
1 egg
100 ml milk

Filling:
250 grams quark or curd cheese (press through a sieve, if not smooth)
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg

To serve:
home made apricot jam and pistachio nuts
or
any fruit puree of your choice (strawberry puree would work well)
icing sugar

For the dough, I mixed milk with egg, seasoned with salt & sugar and added the flour, mixing until combined. Then I placed it in the fridge, covered, for about an hour.
For the filling, I simply combined all the ingredients (you could also add raisins or candied ginger or grated lemon zest, if you're so inclined).
To make the vareniki, roll the relaxed dough onto a thin disk (about 3 mm thick), then cut into 8-10 cm circles. Place a tablespoonful of filling into the centre, moisten the edges with water and fold in half, so you'll have half-moon shaped dumplings. Pinch the edge together with a fork.
Place into a freezer for 20-30 minutes (vareniki can be cooked from frozen, so you can leave them in the freezer for longer, if you wish).
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to the boil, add a generous pinch of salt.
Slip the dumplings into the boiling water, 3-5 at the time, depending on the size of your pot.
Boil for about 5 minutes or until the dumplings float (they'll definitely sink in the beginning).
Take out of the water with a slotted spoon, drain on a clean kitchen towel for a moment.
To serve, place on a small plate, spoon the apricot jam on the plate, sprinkle with pistachio nuts and dust with icing sugar.

Here are links to my previous Waiter there is something in my ... entries:
May 2007 (STUFFED VEGETABLES): Stuffed tomatoes with two types of salad - cod liver salad & cucumber and wild garlic salad
April 2007 (BREAD): a traditional Estonian quick mushroom bread, Seenekarask
March 2007 (EASTER BASKET): a selection of various Easter delights.
February 2007 (PIE): a great Russian puff pastry and fish pie, Salmon Kulebyaka.
January 2007 (STEW): my version (in collaboration with Anthony Bourdain:) of the French classic Boeuf Bourguignon.

UPDATE 05.07.2007:
you can read Johanna's round-up of all the different takes - sweet & savoury, familiar & exotic - on dumplings here.

BLAST FROM THE PAST:
A year ago I wrote about the English classic, Bakewell Pudding for Andrew's Blog Save Our Tart event.

Waiter, there is something in my ... salmon kulebyaka

For the first round of Waiter, there is something in my ... ! I made Anthony Bourdain's boeuf bourgoingnon. For the second round of this new foodblogging event - in February focusing on pies and hosted by CookSister's Jeanne - I made something from the Russian cuisine: kulebyaka. Kulebyaka should have been on my 2007 list of foodie resolutions, as I had been thinking about making it for months, but somehow it slipped my mind when I wrote the post. But better late than never, and now was my chance to make that festive Russian pie. Kulebyaka is a high and oblong closed pie with different types of fillings. When looking for the perfect recipe, I came across kulebyakas stuffed with fish, mushrooms, meat, cabbage, even apples. Some recipes used puff pastry, some yeast pastry. I realised that it is the shape of the pie (enclosed, high, long) that distinguishes kulebyaka from a pirog (that's simply a 'pie' in Russian). However, to me kulebyaka has always meant - first and foremost - a fancy puff pastry pie filled with salmon and rice. At the end, puff pastry, sliced fresh salmon, rice, dill and dainty quail's eggs were my chosen ingredients. For those of you from the British Isles - think of Beef Wellington, just with salmon and rice instead of beef and mushrooms.

Salmon kulebyaka
(Lõhekulebjaaka)
Serves 6-8



500 grams puff pastry
500 grams salmon or trout fillet, thinly sliced
150 ml rice
12 quail's eggs
fresh dill, chopped
salt
freshly ground black pepper
lemon juice

(egg for brushing, black peppercorns for decorating)

Season the salmon slices with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
Cook the rice in salted water until al dente. Drain and cool.
Boil the quail's eggs in simmering water for 2-3 minutes, then cool quickly under cold running water. Peel and put aside.
Roll out the puff pastry.
Place the smaller pastry sheet on a baking tray. Cover with 1/2 of the rice, then dill and 1/2 of the salmon slices. Place the quail's eggs over the salmon.
Sprinkle with dill, then cover with the rest of the rice, top with salmon slices (see right) and sprinkle any leftover dill on top. Season with salt and pepper and a squeeze or two of lemon juice.
Cover with the larger pastry sheet. Decorate with small cut-out fish figures (optional - I used black peppercorns for eyes:). Make a couple of insertions into the pastry with a sharp knife, so the steam can evaporate during cooking.
Brush with egg.
Bake at 200C for 20-30 minutes, until kulebyaka is golden brown.
Serve hot, either with a good bouillon (traditional way) or a dollop of mayonnaise.

Here's a cross-section of the finished pie - I really liked the way those quail's eggs looked:

Canteen classics: azu, the Tatar meat stew

I'm bold enough to suggest that azu is a dish familiar to pretty much every resident of the former Soviet Union. That's a lot of people (291 million just before the Soviet empire vanished into the thin air in 1991)! It's definitely a canteen classic, alongside beef stroganoff, goulash, solyanka, hartcho, rosolnyk, borshch and numerous other dishes that I hope to cook and write about during the coming months.

Azu is a dish from the Tatar kitchen (Tatars being Turkic speaking people on the Russian territory), though that's all I know, as online enquiries and my cookbooks gave very little information on it, just an odd recipe here and there. In any case, I remember this dish being served at our school canteen rather frequently. I remember it being cooked up by lovely dinner ladies at pioneer camps during summer. I have memories, if somewhat vague, of eating this at the student canteen during my university years at Tartu. Day after I served this at home last week, K. came home to announce he saw azu on the menu of the small canteen where he usually grabs his lunch.

However, the dish is probably unknown to you, hence the recipe. While a combination of beef, fried potatoes and sliced pickles may sound, well, a bit odd, I urge you to try it. Unusual it is, granted, but simple and tasty as well.

Canteen, by the way, is söökla in Estonian. There's a mouthful :)

Azu, the Tatar meat stew
(Azuu)
Serves 4



400 grams beef (I used a lean back piece)
2 Tbsp oil
2 medium onions, chopped
2 Tbsp tomato puree
1-2 Tbsp adjika, optional
some chopped garlic
water
1-2 pickled or salted cucumbers, sliced
400 grams of potatoes, chopped and fried separately
salt and black pepper

Cut the beef into 1 cm slices first (across grain) and then into thick 'fingers' (ca 1x4 cm). Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan and brown the meat.
Add the onion and fry for a few minutes.
Add the tomato puree, and the spicy Georgian paste adjika. (This is not traditional, but it does add a lovely depth to the sauce. I buy mine from my local market. You can substitute the Balkan pepper relish ajvar for adjika. Ajvar is widely available in the UK, for instance) .
Add enough boiling water to barely cover the meat. Bring to the boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 40-45 minutes or until the meat is almost tender.
Meanwhile, fry the chopped potatoes until golden brown (you can use either raw or boiled potatoes, the important bit is to fry them before adding to the stew).
Add the fried potatoes, sliced cucumbers and chopped garlic to the saucepan, stir gently, and simmer for another 5-10 minutes.
Enjoy!

Mushrooms again, this time in stroganoff

This is another mushroom recipe in my evergrowing mushroom repertoire. It is a lovely quick dish to serve during the week or whenever I am peckish for mushrooms (this happens surprisingly often), but not in the mood of making mushroom quiches, salads, soups or roasting mushrooms with carrots. I found the recipe on the reverse of a paper bag provided by Tesco for packing their mushrooms in - it must have been when I first arrived in Edinburgh back in October 1998, and I've been making this dish regularly since then.

Mushroom stroganoff
(Seenestrooganov)
Serves 4, adapted from Tesco



~ 500 grams (chestnut) mushrooms
1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
1-2 Tbsp butter
15o ml vegetable stock
1 tsp strong & sharp mustard
1 tsp concentrated tomato puré
150 ml sour cream or crème fraîche
half a lemon
chopped fresh flatleaf parsley

Heat the butter in a large frying pan, add chopped mushrooms and finely chopped onions. Sauté on medium heat for about 10-15 minutes, until the onions have began to soften.
Add tomato puré, mustard and the stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
Remove the pan from the heat, season with salt and pepper, and gently stir in sour cream. Heat through, but don't let it boil again (this is more important with sour cream than crème fraîche, because the first can curdle easily).
Season with lemon juice, sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve with boiled (new) potatoes and some salad greens.

Happy Easter, with pashka

Paskha, 2011

When most Brits were busy buying chocolate eggs - apparently a mind-blowing 80 million chocolate eggs were to be eaten during Easter alone, then Estonians were having troubles buying chicken eggs. You see, whereas people prefer brown chicken eggs most of the time, then this week they wanted them white - so they could be painted bright and colourful for the Easter table. And white eggs were nowhere to be found.. If only the chicken knew and act accordingly!


Paskha, 2009

In addition to colourful Easter eggs (the chicken, not the chocolate kind), another dish on Estonian tables this weekend is paskha - or "pasha" - the sweet curd cheese dessert originating in Russia. Here is my version, originally from the Finnish Pirkka-lehti, that I've adapted and tweaked a bit over the last few years. The main divergence from the original is the omission of the egg (and I can't see a difference in texture or taste), and replacing the almonds and raisins with pistachios and dried cranberries (or "craisins"). I know that orange-cranberry-pistachio work well together tastewise. But these three make the pashka so much more colourful, almost like it's been studded with ruby and emerald jewels! If you don't have access to curd cheese, then a mixture of ricotta and quark will work just as well.

Paskha, my way
(Imemaitsev lihavõttepasha)
Serves 8


Paskha, 2006

100 g of butter, softened
85 g golden caster sugar
400 gr curd cheese
1-2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla extract
100 ml blanched pistachios*, roughly chopped
100 g dried organic cranberries
100 g candied orange peel, chopped
200 ml whipping or double cream, whipped

For decoration:
cape gooseberries
blanched and finely chopped pistachios

Cream the soft butter with sugar until light and fluffy - best done with an electric mixer. Soften the curd cheese with a wooden spoon, then add to the butter and sugar mixture and combine.
Add the cranberries, pistachios, candied orange peel, vanilla and juiced lemon, mix to combine. Finally fold in the whipped cream.
There is a special mould for making paskha, but an ordinary colander (on the right) or coeur a la crème moulds (above) can be used as well - just line them with a moist cheesecloth/muslin beforehand. Pour the paskha mixture into the mould, cover with a suitably sized plate for an extra pressure and put onto a tray (to catch any liquid).
Put into a fridge for overnight.
To serve, flip the paskha onto a plate, remove the cheesecloth and decorate.
Serve and enjoy.

* To blanch pistachios, just cover them with boiling water for 5 minutes, then drain and rub off the skins.

The best 'pelmeenid' in town?

Here's another post I hinted about earlier. The answer is, I have no clue. I simply do not know..

Several weeks ago, Anne of Anne's Food wrote about her love affair with pelmeenid. It turned out that Anna's Dad is from Estonia (which makes Anna almost a fellow national - certainly some of our food memories are similar:) and was often making pelmeenid for his family when Anna was younger. Basically, pelmeenid are small, usually meat-filled dumplings or ravioli that have travelled to Estonia from the East - Russia. Although they're not strictly our 'national cuisine' they're extremely popular. There are loads of different varieties of frozen pelmeenid available in supermarkets - you can choose pelmeenid stuffed with minced beef, lamb or pork (or a combination of these), with mushrooms, with quark etc. They're real convinience food - you bring them home, throw into salted boiling water, boil for a couple of minutes until they raise to the surface, drain them, drown them in sour cream and enjoy. Chopped green onion would be a nice garnish. Or you can dip them in vinegar. Or souse in ketchup. Or deep fry in oil, sprinkle with paprika powder and dip in sour cream. If you're especially studious and good, you make them from scratch - just like Anne did. We tend to be more lazy, especially as the shop-bought ones aren't usually too bad (though they don't compete with good and proper home-made ones obviously). I guess the best pelmeenid I've ever had, were made by my dear friend Galina's mum few years ago, when she was visiting her daughter in Edinburgh. Galina's mother made trays and trays of these dainty little dumplings and these were absolutely divine. She called them 'pelmenyi' of course, and not 'pelmeenid'.

Back to my recent trip to Estonia and the question posed in the title. I think every time I've been home during the last few years, I've had these dumplings in a place called Troika. I _know_ that dumplings are on the menu of other popular Russian restaurants as well, but I've always had very-very-very good dumplings in Troika, so I head back. Maybe I'm a loyal customer type of girl? Or maybe I am just resistant to trying anything unfamiliar? A friend of mine in Edinburgh, K., says I have a peasant mentality when laughing about my persistance of sticking to safe choices (cafes I know, restaurants I visit regularly, dishes I order etc.) Thus although I may come across even better pelmeenid at some other place, I tend to go back to Troika. 'Why risk it?' I'm thinking. And hence I don't know if they actually serve the best pelmeenid in town. But I assure you they serve very good ones...

It's a cheerful place at the Town Hall Square, and the restaurant is on two floors. The ground floor serves slightly more casual fare, whereas the lower ground floor has the main restaurant with a Russian balalaika band, brightly decorated walls etc. The waiters and waitresses are dressed up in Russian folk dresses, and you get a sakuzki basket with rye bread, coarse salt and green onions while you wait for your order. Another popular starter includes salted cucumbers with honey and sour cream for dipping. And they do a fancy thing with vodka - they deep freeze the bottle, and then pour by now the very viscous vodka from high up into your shot glass - quite a spectacle!

Here's an essential vocabulary for visiting a Russian restaurant - a postcard I picked up from Troika few years ago. It's trilingual - the top word is Russian, with Estonian translation in the middle and English equivalent at the bottom:)

There are three different pelmeenid on the menu: the cheapest ones are simply boiled and served with a choice of cold dips (including the compulsory sour cream). Then there's a slightly pricier option of pelmeenid with mushrooms under a pastry lid (my choice always, and the waiter does an macho move with a knife on the table when removing some of the pastry lid). And finally, the priciest ones (at about 4GBP) are stuffed with lamb and come with blackcurrant jam, sour cream and dill sauce. All are equally nice and worthy of the trip to the establishment.


Here is my dear friend-since-we-were-seven Liina on a glorious August day sitting on Troika's terrace in the centre of Old Tallinn and waiting for her pelmeenid. Note the waitress in a Russian costume on the background. And there are no pictures of food this time, as I had forgotten to charge the camera battery:(

Troika
Raekoja plats 15
Tallinn
Estonia
+372 627 6245

Cooking Estonian: buckwheat and mushrooms

To be really honest, this probably does not really pass for an Estonian national dish. It’s probably more typical of Russian kitchens. But buckwheat is quite a common ingredient in Estonia, as are mushrooms. And as it’s unlikely that any of you have come across something like this earlier (am I right?), and as it is introduced by an Estonian blogger, let's call it an Estonian dish:)

I had some mushrooms left over from the other day, and as I'm on a budget at the moment, I decided to use something that I already had in my cupboard for cooking and spotted a box of buckwheat flakes. A quick look into my Estonian language recipe site inspired me to combine these two in an oven pie. That’s what I had for supper last night and I enjoyed it. My Estonian friend Maarika popped by on her way home later and had 2 portions for dinner and approved heartily as well. It’s comfort food and not something you’d serve at a dinner party, neither does it lend itself for a romantic meal with your sweetheart (for the latter occasion, you may want to look for inspiration in this book). But as a lovely weeknight meal, it’s perfect.

It’s also suitable for vegetarians and those on gluten-free diet.

Buckwheat and mushroom oven pie
(Tatra-seenevorm)

You need either buckwheat or buckwheat porridge flakes (on the right) for this. I used the latter – these are pre-cooked buckwheat flakes that only take about a minute or two on the hob when you make breakfast porridge. Buckwheat is a lovely versatile grain – it has a slightly unusual nutty flavour, and it’s full of all kind of nutrients. While buckwheat flour is probably widely available across the world so you could make Japanese soba noodles or Russian blinis, it’s unlikely you find buckwheat grain or flakes in your regular supermarket if you live outside Eastern or Central Europe. It took me a while to source some in Edinburgh, but most health food and ethnic shops would probably stock it.

That’s what you do:
Prepare a buckwheat (or buckwheat flake) porridge using a mushroom stock (I used a mushroom stock cube).
Fry a chopped onion or two and chopped mushrooms gently in oil.
Mix the buckwheat porridge, mushrooms and onions and put the lot into a greased oven dish (NB! Can be made in small ramekins for individual portions).
Cover with a layer of sour cream/crème fraiche/thick plain yogurt.
Sprinkle some grated cheese on top.
Put into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the dish is lightly golden brown on top.


Garnish with a dill sprig or two and serve.