Yumi Yumi

Our KitchenAid stand mixer is still my favourite kitchen gadget, but the recently acquired Philips food processor has a very efficient citrus juicer attached. So apart from drinking copious amounts of freshly collected birch sap , we're also drinking lots of freshly squeezed orange juice..

On our resurrected Scrabble night some 10 days ago (after a 3-month gap since the birth of our daughter), we had this Jamie's dish on the table. Well, almost his dish, as I made several improvements to it, you see :) For the original version, see Jamie's Ministry of Food . I thought it was quite a looker, and would happily make it again. My much-less-tapenade and cherry-tomatoes-instead-of-regular-ones version, that is... Salmon en Croûte ( Lehttainas küpsetatud lõhe- või forellifilee ) Serves 4 500 g puff pastry (I used yeast puff pastry) 600 g trout or salmon filet (skinned, if possible) olive oil sea salt freshly ground black pepper 2 Tbsp tapenade (I used Belazu) a small bunch of fresh basil (just leaves) 10 cherry tomatoes, halved 150 g mozzarella cheese 1 egg, for brushing Carefully remove all pin-bones from the fish filet. (I like to cut off the thin side of the salmon filet and use that for another dish - perhaps soup - on the following day. I think the thick part of ...

Collecting fresh birch sap in our back yard. For a few days now, we've been drinking lots of freshly collected birch sap instead of table water. It's very refreshing, and tastes like a mildly sweetened water. According to folk medicine, birch sap helps to combat 101 illnesses. It's detoxifying, contains C and PP vitamins, carotene, various sugars and malic acid. But most importantly, it tastes good.

Photo by Krista Kõiv , taken a fortnight ago. It's my birthday, again :) After a few chilly days and frosty mornings, the sun is suddenly really shining and it's lovely and warm outside. K. stayed home late this morning, giving me a chance to enjoy a leisurely breakfast consisting of a cup of coffee and a whole tub of Fage Total Greek yogurt topped with homemade sour cherry jam, while admiring the gorgeous birthday present he gave me. I'm baking a strawberry cake for the party tonight, and then head off for a walk with Nora Adeele, who has doubled her birth weight already (she was 2456 g when born and is now, at 12 weeks, around 5300 g). Our little girl surely has a good appetite :) Right now, there's nothing to complain about - life's beautiful :) Normal food postings resume next week.

One of the items served at the Nami-Nami 2009 Easter Brunch were courgette/zucchini rolls stuffed with goat's cheese. The recipe is adapted from a French food magazine that we get by subscription, Régal , and it was K. who made these. However, he's authorised me to blog about making these :) They're really quick to make, and the unusual stuffing really works. Zucchini Rolls with Goat's Cheese aka "Makis" au Chèvre ( Suvikõrvitsarullid kitsejuustutäidisega ) Makes about 3 dozens 300 g creamy goat's cheese 4 medium-sized courgettes/zucchinis 6 dried soft figs 50 g hazelnuts, peeled, toasted and coarsely chopped a large handful of fresh mint leaves 2 Tbsp good-quality fruity extra virgin olive oil a good pinch of Maldon sea salt flakes freshly ground black pepper Wash the courgettes/zucchinis. Take a vegetable peeler* and cut thin long strips of the courgette, first along the lenght of one side, when seeds appear, then another side. Put aside. Make a fillin...

Here are couple of photos from our Easter Brunch 2009. We've had friends over for Easter brunch before, but never so many at once. But K's colleagues were keen to greet our little daughter Nora Adeele, and so it happened that last Sunday we had 14 adults and 5 children (incl. our own) over for some food. In Estonia, Easter is all about eggs and curd cheese/farmer's cheese. And I mean real eggs, not the chocolate ones (as far as I remember, all British food magazines were focusing on chocolate at this time of the year. Not here, luckily). So our table was laden with curd cheese and eggs, and we tried to keep the colours spring-like (green and yellow). To start with, we had Mimosas with freshly squeezed orange juice and some Cremant: K. had contributed two dishes to the buffet table, both from a French food magazine Regal that we get by subscription. First bright green Pea Soup Shots, served, appropriately, in small shot glasses: His other dish was also beautifully green: Cou...

My Easter Chick and a tray of beautiful Easter eggs, naturally dyed with yellow onion skins.

El Bulli dining room. All photos by Pille & K of Nami-Nami The surprising thing about El Bulli is that despite of their fame and the number of dishes served each night, they still take great interest in each diner's special wishes. While there is no traditional menu to choose from as such, they do want you to be able to enjoy all 30 dishes. When confirming our booking, they wanted to know about any food allergies or dietary considerations (yes, you can order a vegetarian or even a vegan meal). When we were seated, the waiter told us that the Chef has designed a 30-course meal for us, and that each dish will be explained as it is served. He then informed us that some items might be a bit unusual and off-putting - in our case razor clams and veal marrow - and could be changed for something more preferable. (I must confess I wasn't too keen on the razor clams, so I got an alternative dish. Funny enough, they forgot to mention that sea cucumber was on the menu as well. More abo...

5 April 2008,  Better late than never, they say. Yesterday exactly one year ago K. and I had a chance to have lunch at El Bulli. A spectacular lunch. A long lunch. A very tasty lunch. A memorable lunch. I-so-have-to-tell-everyone-about-this lunch. Funny enough, it took me a whole year to actually blog about that. When we got home from our 10-day Spanish road trip early last April, I had several deadlines looming. Some at the University, plus I had been commissioned to write some articles about our visit to El Bulli*. I wrote a short piece (one page) for the biggest-selling Estonian food magazine Oma Maitse (May 2008). Then a whole A3-size spread for the main weekly newspaper Eesti Ekspress ( 22 May 2008 ). And then a richly illustrated detailed review of the menu spread over six pages for the other local food magazine, KÖÖK (Summer 2008). But somehow I didn't get around to writing about it on my blog. Well, until now. To mark the one-year anniversary of our visit to El Bulli, I...

Take note - this is the first time I've blogged about a mussel dish, as well as first time I cooked mussels. But the resulting dish was a great success, and according to everybody who tried this, the recipe is definitely worth sharing. So that's what I'm doing :) I served this on one of our semi-regular Scrabble nights, and we drank regular and almost alcohol-free French cider alongside this. It was a very good night indeed.. Mussels in Apple Cider ( Siidriga aurutatud rannakarbid ) Serves 4 as a starter or a light meal 1 kg fresh, live mussels 3 Tbsp olive oil 1 Tbsp butter 50 g shallots, finely chopped 2 to 3 garlic cloves, finely sliced 1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled and cut into 1 cm cubes 1 lemon 300 ml (about 1 1/4 of a cup) dry French cider (we used Cidre Brut de Normandie) 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves Clean the mussels carefully under cold running water. Throw away any mussels that are broken or that don't close when tapped gently. Heat oil and butter in a larg...