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...
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: Courgette 'Maki' rolls, stuffed with goat cheese, hazelnuts, dried figs and chopped mint:
I made a peppered beef filet, using whole black, white and pink peppercorns. I must admit I was pretty pleased with the result - the meat was perfectly pink, and oh-so-meltingly tender (I served it thinly sliced, and the dish was cold):
There were two types of marbled eggs. My old favourites, beetroot-marbled eggs (the purple ones), and an idea that I got from the above-mentioned Regal food magazine, marbled eggs dyed with turmeric:
More nibbles - small pieces of feta-spinach frittatas and Molly's tuna bouchons (not photographed):
There was a layered salad with surimi ('crab noodles'), eggs, onion and cheese:
And of course there was Pashka, the traditional Easter dessert made with curd cheese. I made two pashkas for that brunch - my usual one (still a favourite), as well as a chocolate pashka. The first is garnished with chopped lemon balm and orange zest, the second one is decorated with candied kumquats:
The very yellow dessert was sort of pineapple 'carpaccio' sprinkled with mint and sugar:
And the green dessert was: Matcha Madeleines:
Here's another view of the whole spread:
And of course, there were the Easter eggs, lots of them:
What did you have on your Easter table? It'd be nice to read about that (you can leave a comment with the menu or a link to your blog post).
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