Accéder au contenu principal

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 b...

Hot and Savoury: Smoked Salmon and Wasabi Rolls



We had some friends over for dinner on Thursday night, watching a video and slide show of the photos taken during our Austrian skiing trip last month. The buffet table contained some dishes that were Austrian (Wiener Schnitzel a la Johanna), some that were appropriate for Easter table (my Pashka, for example; as well as Marbled Beetroot Eggs), as well as some random favourites (Alanna's Spicy Carrots). But I also wanted to try something new and savoury, and these smoked salmon and wasabi rolls from the Swedish Arla site (Laxrullar med wasabiröra) hit the spot perfectly.

Try them, they're lovely. The Arla-people describe these as Swedish sushi :)

Smoked Salmon and Wasabi Rolls
(Suitsulõhe-wasabirullid)
Serves 10 as a nibble

200 g thinly sliced cold-smoked salmon
50 g dill, finely chopped
150 g cream cheese (Philadelphia)
0.5 to 1 tsp wasabi paste
a pinch of salt
2 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Combine dill and cream cheese in a bowl, season with wasabi paste and salt, if necessary.
Cover a cutting board with a cling film, then place salmon sliced next to each other, overlapping slightly. Spread the cream cheese mixture over the salmon slices. With the help of the cling film, roll into a tight cylinder, starting from the longer edge. ´
Place the roll into a freezer for at least half an hour (I kept it in the freezer for 2 hours).
Toast sesame seeds on a dry non-stick pan until golden, then sprinkle onto a cutting board.
Remove the salmon roll from the freezer and unwrap. Roll back and forth in sesame seeds to cover.
Using a very sharp knife, cut into 1 cm slices.

Commentaires

Posts les plus consultés de ce blog

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 b...

Traditional Christmas roast (oven-baked pork shoulder with honey, mustard and rosemary)

From the recipe archives (originally posted in December 2012. Still my favourite Christmas roast). Photo by Juta Kübarsepp for the December issue of Kodu ja Aed magazine, 2012  What's your traditional Christmas roast (assuming you're eating meat)? Turkey? Goose? Duck? In Estonia it's definitely pork, though roast poultry has become more popular during recent years. I've been flirting with  roast goose  and actually served  duck leg confit  on Christmas Eve this year. It was delicious. However, for years I've been serving pork roast - a pork shoulder ( kaelakarbonaad in Estonian) in a mustard-honey-garlic-rosemary marinade, to be more precise. I love that it's a pretty fool-proof recipe, simple to make, with lots of flavour. And - as an added bonus - any leftovers are excellent on top of rye bread on the days after the party, or as part of a salad. So if you're not making it for a big family feast, you can still make the same amount and simply make sever...

Roasted pumpkin soup with almonds and spicy dukkah oil a la Silvena Rowe

From the recipe archives, originally posted in October 2011. Totally worth making!!!  PS Check the comments section - Silvena Rowe herself left a comment - how cool is that!? I spotted this soup recipe in Silvena Rowe 's beautiful Orient Express: Fast food from the eastern Mediterranean , one of my recent cookbook acquisitions. I've been making various pumpkin soups and certainly wasn't looking for a new soup recipe, but this one caught my eye because of almonds . There are almonds both inside the soup and in the dukkah-mixture (Not sure what dukkah is? You can read more about it here ). We cooked four recipes from Silvena's book last Sunday (see the menu below, scribbled on our newly painted kitchen wall), and the soup was very well received. The almonds add a thickness and a lovely texture to the soup, the dark red pomegranate seeds are a true eye candy, and the dukkah oil is a wonderful flavour enhancer. I more or less followed the recipe, though I used a bit ...