Yumi Yumi

In early January I got an e-mail from one of the editors of Oma Maitse, the biggest-selling Estonian food magazine, asking me if they could visit me and write an article for their February issue about my food-centred life they've been following through my blog and Estonian-language site . I spoke with K, and considering that we were just about to re-launch the Estonian site, we thought a little extra publicity cannot be bad, so one Thursday afternoon the journalist Katrin Kurss and the photographer Ülle Viska popped by for a few hours chatting, eating and photoshooting with me and K. We served them a range of our favourite light dishes - eight in total - that were all pictured in the February issue, though they only had space for five of the recipes. The resulting article was called "Peediprintsessi moodsad palad" or "Beetroot Princess's Modern Bites" and the five-page spread was accompanied by a full-page photo of moi :) The menu was following : Molly'...

I'm back and none of my bones are broken, although I've got some bruises here and there. It's not easy to slide those Alpine slopes when you're only on your second skiing holiday, you know :) Today is the 90th anniversary of Estonian Republic, and I had planned to cook something special and Estonian to mark that special occasion. However, we're still a bit exhausted from all the travelling, and hence I decided to cook a very simple recipe from my most recent cookbook acquisition, Nigella Express . I got the book as a gift from a very special friend of mine, Roxy, who occasionally comments here on my blog, and I'm thrilled to bits, as I love my other three Nigella cookbooks ( How to Be a Domestic Goddess , How to Eat , Feast ). And the first recipe that caught my eye was Mustard Pork Chops (p. 11) - a French bistro classic, apparently. Here's a very slighty adapted version (Nigella used ready-made garlic oil) of an excellent, effortless, flavoursome and quick...

In less than an hour K. and I will be heading to the airport, fly to Salzburg and then drive to St Anton skiing resort ( just like we did in Italy this time last year ). I do hope to eat lots of Kaiserschmarrn pancakes and other Austrian delicacies that Johanna and Angelika have been telling us about. (The Kaiserschmarrn pancakes above were made by K. for a Sunday breakfast recently, and they were absolutely wonderful). When I come back next weekend, I'll tell you all about the 5-page spread of a certain Beetroot Princess that appeared in the biggest-selling food magazine in Estonia, Oma Maitse , this month (and share a recipe for that gorgeous beetroot houmus below, of course), the redesign and relaunch of my Estonian recipe site , K's burgeoning career as a restaurant critic, my forthcoming (culinary) trips to Spain and the United States this Spring, and much more. Stay tuned and hope to see you soon! Armsad Eesti lugejad - kui kedagi Nami-nami blogi ja retseptikogu telgit...

Photo updated in November 2010 If yesterday's salted butter caramel and milk chocolate mousse wasn't your cup of tea ( maybe you're not into this salted butter caramel thing, or maybe you simply prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate ), then here's another dessert to satisfy your chocolate cravings this week: Tarte au Chocolat . It's very, very dark and intensely chocolatey, with crazy amount of butter and sugar added (with just a spoonful of flour, so if you're eating gluten-free, you could easily substitute gluten-free flour here). I got the recipe from a Finnish recipe leaflet "Jälkiruokaklassikkoja Ranskasta" or "Classic desserts from France" - and it had got rave reviews on my Estonian site , so I decided to try it myself. I'm glad I did - it tasted absolutely wonderful. If yesterday's pud was juvenile , to use Luisa's words , then this is very, very adult indeed. Tarte au Chocolat ( Tarte au Chocolat ehk prantsuse šokol...

I discovered the wonders of salted butter caramel few years ago, when a kind reader sent me a box of Fran's Chocolates Smoked Salt Caramels . Since then, I've bookmarked pretty much every recipe with a salted butter caramel element I've come across. High on the current to-do list are David's Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream (and I'll make sure to hunt down one of his delectable Chocolat Chaud au Caramel-Beurre-Salé when in Paris), Clotilde's Tarte Tatin with Salted Butter Caramel , to name just a few. Of course I bookmarked the recipe for Fanny's (well, Trish Deseine's) Caramel au beurre salé and milk chocolate mousse as soon as I saw it, and then bookmarked it again when it appeared on Luisa's blog . I warn you, this is very sweet. But then the title says that already, so no surprises there. I loved dipping my spoon into it, and considering it was so easy to make, I will be making it again soon (though maybe in smaller portions, serving 8 or even...

I'm in the mood for simple Estonian desserts lately. Take this one - you fry some grated sour rye bread in butter with sugar until crispy and caramelized, then fold into whipped cream and serve with jam. In the matter of minutes you've got an excellent quick pudding . And if grating bread seems like too much work, then you can just use ready-made rye bread crumbs available in the supermarket (that's what I do). The dessert is very similar to Shy Danish Country Girl pudding and not too dissimilar to the Scottish Cranachan pudding , but still distinctive enough to deserve a separate post. Enjoy! Estonian Rye Bread Dessert with Whipped Cream ( Vahukoore-leivakreem ) Serves 4 120 g dryish rye bread 1 Tbsp butter 100 ml sugar 0.25 tsp cinnamon 300 ml whipping cream + 2 Tbsp sugar To serve: some nice jam Grate the bread and fry on the pan with butter and sugar until caramelised (do not burn!). Season with cinnamon and put aside to cool completely. Whisk the cream with 2 Tbsp of...

May I introduce you to our Shrove Tuesday or Lenten buns 2008 : Same old recipe , same perfect shape, same excellent flavour, same pretty looks. Eestikeelne vastlakuklite retsept siin .

BBC Good Food was my favourite food magazine during my first few years in Scotland. I must admit that these days I subscribe to Delicious and only buy Good Food occasionally, as I find the former visually more attractive and the recipes more intriguing. However, many of my favourite recipes are still from the BBC Good Food magazine. Take this Spanish-influenced tomato and olive chicken that was first published in the March 1999 issue and then again in February 2001 issue. I've made it many, many times over the last nine years, and the combination of tomato sauce and salty olives makes this a true winner. Not many ingredients, plenty of flavour and character, and on your table in 30 minutes. Got that? Tomato and Olive Chicken ( Tomati-oliivikana ) Serves 4 4 skinless chicken breasts (or mini fillets) 2 garlic cloves, chopped 3 Tbsp concentrated tomato puree/paste 300 ml (just over a cup) of chicken stock/bouillon a handful of black olives (I used dry-cured olives) plain/all-purpo...

So many of you liked the look of the cranberry fruit soup the other day, and here's a recipe for a dessert that is traditionally served with fruit soup like this - bubert . I don't know if bubert is unique to Estonia, but I certainly haven't seen it anywhere else ( which isn't to say that it's unique, so if you know something similar, let me know*. It's a bit similar to floating islands, just that's everything is mixed up and then served with fruit soup: ). For a pudding that's so local, however, it has a very exotic name - you see, no typical Estonian words start with 'b' nor 'd' or 'g' for that matter - these letters are reserved for recently borrowed words such as 'banaan', 'garaaž' and 'diivan'. How come a traditional grandmother pudding ( i.e. a pudding that your granny would serve you ) bear an exotic name like that, I do not know.. Bubert, a light and fluffy egg and semolina pudding ( Bubert ) Serv...