Yumi Yumi

I am slowly, but surely, warming to fennel. Until now I haven't been a huge fan of aniseedy flavours (and I still passionately dislike liquorice sweets), but I've discovered that fennel can be very tasty after it's been subjected to some heat treatment. Here's an easy autumnal vegetarian fennel and tomato gratin that made an excellent main dish, but would also work as a side dish to pork or lamb, or even some gutsy fish perhaps. Any other hot fennel recipe ideas I should know about? Fennel and Tomato Gratin ( Apteegitilli-tomatigratään ) Adapted from this BBC Good Food recipe Serves 4 2 large fennel bulbs (about 600 g) 2 Tbsp vegetable oil (I used cold-pressed rapeseed oil) salt 2 garlic cloves 400 g can chopped tomatoes Topping: 5 Tbsp dried breadcrumbs 50 g grated Parmesan cheese Trim the fennel bulbs (remove outer tough layers) and cut into thin wedges. Keep the fronds for garnish! Heat oil in a saucepan and add fennel. Season with salt, cover and sauté on a low heat...

Delicious, juicy, refreshing, just enough different, effortless, quick. Thank you, Maryam and Barbara !! ( Arbuusisalat apelsini ja mündiga )

Last weekend I cooked an Indian meal. I don't know if my favourite Indian food bloggers Meeta and Nupur approve, but the meal felt definitely Indian enough for us two :) It wasn't an elaborate feast - I baked some naan-breads and sprinkled them with nigella seeds , made an aromatic chicken curry , roasted some broccoli with garam masala , and prepared a really flavoursome aubergine curry (that's eggplant curry in American English) with tomatoes, coriander and nigella seeds. The latter was the big hit of the night - plenty of flavour and character, beautiful vibrant colours, and not too many calories. The recipe is very slightly adapted from the August 2008 issue of BBC Olive Magazine , and I will definitely make it again if I want a nice vegetarian aubergine dish. Aubergine curry with tomatoes & coriander ( Vürtsikas pommuhautis tomati ja koriandriga ) Serves 4 1 onion, chopped oil 1 large or 2 smaller aubergines/eggplants, cut into 1 cm slices 1 tsp turmeric 1 tsp ...

I've given you so many sweet recipes recently that it's definitely time to share a lovely savoury recipe instead. Here's a quick pickled cucumber salad that would keep nicely a week or so in your fridge. It's gutsy, has got lots of flavor and crunch, and tastes lovely. I nibbled on it straight from a bowl, but it would make a nice side salad to some grilled meat as well. The only downside is that you only get about two 500 ml jars out of this amount. If you give one to your mum or a dear friend, then you're just left with one jar yourself, which is no way enough ... For best result, use small crisp cucumbers and not the long supermarket ones. Pickled Sliced Cucumber Salad ( Marineeritud kurgisalat ) 1 kg small crisp cucumbers 2 large onions 1 garlic clove, finely chopped 1 Tbsp sugar 1 Tbsp sea salt 1 Tbsp vinegar (30%) freshly ground black pepper 1 tsp Dijon or Estonian mustard 1 to 2 large dried dill "blossoms" (ask from the market) Slice the cucumber a...

How many chocoholics are out there? Hands up, please!? Well, I thought as much. If you like chocolate as much as I do, here's a recipe for you. It's adapted from Sue Lawrence's lovely cookbook "Sue Lawrence's Scottish Kitchen: Over 100 Modern Recipes Using Traditional Ingredients" ( UK link / US link ), but I've reduced the sugar content by one-fifth with no ill-effect to the texture, but your hips - and tastebuds - will thank you for that, trust me. You'll get a moist and flavoursome chocolate brownie with sweet-tart raspberry spots throughout. Raspberries are one fruit/berry that really thrive in the cool and humid Scottish climate, so various raspberry desserts abound in Scottish cookbooks (think of cranachan , the traditional Scottish oat-raspberry-whisky concoction; more recent and prettier picture here ). Luckily, raspberries also love Estonian climate - and my mum's garden - so I can easily access these lovely sweet-tart berries here. My de...

I'm not even trying to pretend that this is my recipe. It's Delia's , of course. I've only very, very slightly played around with the amounts and place my tomatoes differently on the pie - just because I think it looks nicer my way :) In any case, it's a beautiful recipe for showcasing all those lovely, ripe, juicy local tomatoes that abound at the moment. Highly recommended! Roasted Tomato and Goat's Cheese Tart with Thyme ( Tomati-kitsejuustupirukas ) Serves six to eight 500 grams puff pastry, rolled 150 g soft and creamy goat cheese 4 tsp fresh thyme leaves 2 fresh garlic cloves, minced 500 g ripe plum tomatoes extra virgin olive oil freshly ground black pepper Maldon sea salt Roll out the puff pastry to 30x40 cm rectangle and place on a slightly oiled baking sheet. Carefully score a line about 1 cm from the edge along the pastry, but do not cut through! This will help the filling to stay inside the pastry and the edges to puff up nicely. Mix the goat cheese,...

I love those Estonian birthday salads - the classic potato salad (a version of what's known as "Russian salad" or "Salad Olivier" elsewhere) and rosolye. But for everyday simple salads these are too time-consuming - cutting the numerous ingredients into uniform tiny cubes takes time and patience, and sometimes I don't have that. That's when the more humble and quicker versions come handy. Here's a quick salad recipe that either makes a light lunch on its own, or a more substantial meal alongside grilled meat or meatballs, for example. I also love this salad on a thick slice of sour rye bread.. Beetroot and Potato Salad ( Peedi-kartulisalat ) Serves 4 2 boiled beetroots, peeled 6 boiled potatoes, peeled 1 large salad onion salt sour cream fresh chives, finely chopped Peel the beets and potatoes and either chop into small cubes or grate coarsely. Finely mince the onion. Mix beets, potatoes and onions in a bowl. Add enough sour cream to bind everything ...

Last weekend we managed to buy some really beautiful French apricots at the market. We made a batch of David's Fresh Apricot Ice Cream , and K. made couple of jars of his delicious apricot jam. We still had plenty of apricots left, however, so I decided to make an apricot clafouti s. Well, it's not a traditional French clafoutis. But it looks similar enough, and the idea is very similar, too. Sprinkle some soft fruit in a buttered dish, pour the batter over and bake. The 'Estonian twist' here is the addition of our much-loved 'kohupiim' or curd cheese (sold as 'farmer's cheese' in the US). It gives the batter some body and a nice tangy flavour. You can use ricotta instead, but add an tablespoon or two of sour cream then as well. Apricot 'clafoutis' with farmer's cheese ( Kohupiima-aprikoosivorm ) Serves 6 250 g fine curd cheese/farmer's cheese or ricotta 2 large eggs 200 g sour cream 3 Tbsp plain/all-purpose flour 2 Tbsp soft brown su...