Yumi Yumi

It's the brief season for wild garlic (aka ramsons or bear's garlic, Allium ursinum ), and I'm excited. I only discovered wild garlic a year ago (see post here ), and have been looking forward to them again. There's a plentiful supply of wild garlic near our house, and early last week I picked some* to make some wild garlic recipes I had spotted elsewhere or 'created' myself. So far I've made the same cucumber and wild garlic salad mentioned last year; a delicious cold tzatziki sauce (wild garlic, cucumber, sour cream, salt); one cold sauce to accompany simple boiled potatoes (wild garlic, cornichons, kefir milk); and this delicious pesto recipe. The idea behind the pesto is simple. If your usual Pesto Genovese is basil + garlic + parmesan cheese + pine nuts, then instead of basil and garlic I decided to use mild-tasting wild garlic instead. It was a very successful substitution indeed, and I'll be certainly making it again next year. Have you tried wil...

First of all, thank you for all your kind wishes on my birthday - you're too sweet! And what a lovely birthday I had. On Thursday (the actual b-day), K. and I had a yet another fantastic meal at Stenhus in Tallinn. On Friday I had some 20 friends (incl. few kids) for a birthday party at our home, and today our families came for Sunday lunch. Friday's party was Spanish-themed, today I served a number of typical Estonian party snacks, and I'll tell you more about them in due course. But I wanted to share this happy and bright photo with you. I suspect you all know about this particular party piece consisting of boiled eggs and halved scooped tomatoes? Yes? No? It's in a classic Estonian children's cookbook published in mid-1980s, so most 'kids' of my age are familiar with this. But I knew it would be even better in mini format, so I tried this version. Instead of regular chicken eggs and medium-sized tomatoes, I chose quail eggs and cherry vine tomatoes. My n...

Usually I would have this cake today . But as we're not having a party until tomorrow and tonight we're having dinner in this favourite restaurant of ours , we gave the cake a miss today. K. made me these yummy pancakes for breakfast instead, which we enjoyed with a delicious wild strawberry jam sent over to me by his mum (she keeps a jar for every birthday, you see). Wish you a lovely day, everyone... PS It's my birthday today, not K's :)

David Lebovitz, everybody's favourite ice-cream (and chocolate sauerkraut cake ) guru wrote about humble prunes in Los Angeles Times last week (you can follow the link here ). We like prunes in our house - juicy Californian prunes make an excellent nibble - and are somewhat amused by the fact that Californian Prune producers had to rebrand prunes as 'dried plums' few years ago. David's Prune and Armagnac Ice Cream sounded very appealing, so this was the first recipe we tried. I didn't use Armagnac cognac, but an acceptable local favourite, a 9-year old Georgian Gremi Brandy (that's Georgia in the Caucasus mountains, and not in the Southeastern US). A very, very likeable ice cream. No custard to make, just soak the prunes in cognac/brandy, blitz with sour cream, milk and some sugar and churn. How easy is that?? We've been eating ours plain until now, but I can see that it'd be an excellent accompanion to an intensely dark chocolate cake - perhaps Tarte...

Almost three years ago, just few months into my foodblogging thingy, I told you about a beautiful part of Estonia, Lahemaa, and a nice lunch I had with my mum, sister, nephews and a friend in a tavern in Altja. One of the dishes they served us were thin black pudding chips, and I had been thinking about making them ever since.. Not sure why it took me the better part of three years, but few weeks ago I finally picked up a suitable black pudding in the grocery store, and made them at home. Note that for black pudding chips, you need verikäkk - a thicker and denser cousin of verivorst , our typical Christmas fare . In order to make the tasty black pudding chips above, remove the outer casing, and cut the pudding into thin slices (ca 3-5 mm is about right). Place the slices on a baking sheet and place into a 100-110 C (225-240 F) oven for about 35-45 minutes, until the chips are dry-ish and crispy. Flip them over after about 20 minutes, so they'd cook evenly. Serve with a cold sour c...

I do try quite a few recipes from fellow food bloggers, but disproportionally many of the recipes are from Molly. I've already written about her bouchons au thon (K. recently spotted them at his friend's birthday party as well) and her ( chocolate and nut 'blocks' ), to name just a few. More recently we've devoured her vinegar-roasted shallots (above, and utterly brilliant! We simply ate these with buttered slice of rye bread), and tomato sauce with onions and butter (right). Note that both of these recipes have just four ingredients, yet generous amounts of flavour! We brought back some artichokes from Spain, and last night I cleaned and cooked them, and then served with Molly's friend's Olaiya's Favourite Artichoke Dipping Sauce (reduced white wine, butter, parmesan cheese and lemon juice). Mmmmmm... My dear friend Johanna is another constant source of inspiration. Few weeks ago we had a small gathering at our place with some of K's colleagues...

I looooooove Nigella. Apart from my pistachio macarons disaster , all the recipes I've tried from her books have worked like a charm. Be it Pasta alla Vodka , Store-cupboard Chocolate and Orange Cake , Cranberry Upside-down Cake , Upside-down Red Onion Supper Pie , Chocolate-Cherry Cupcakes , Pan-fried Halloumi with Chilli Drizzle , Raw Beetroot Salad with Dill and Mustard Seeds , her Rum-Soaked Banana Bread , her cheeky Cheesy Feet , Rosemary Loaf Cake , or her Lemon and Parmesan Linguini - you name it, I love it. Her effortless and luscious style of cooking, and easy, yet decadent choice of recipes appeals as well. So when my friend Ruxandra recently offered to send me her extra copy of Nigella Express , of course I said yes. Within a fortnight I had tried quite a number of recipes from the book. I've already shared her Cider and Mustard Pork Chops with you; I've also tried and enjoyed her recipes for Hokey Pokey, and Grilled Duck Breasts with Pomegranate Seeds . And t...

Well, K. and I got back from our ten-day Spanish trip late last night. We've almost unpacked everything, and are in the middle of sorting out our photos (ca 900 of them!). There's lots to do at work at the moment, so it will be a few more days before I'm blogging properly again. But I'll leave you with a taste of what's to come :) Click on the photo to enlarge!