Yumi Yumi

Remember those pictures from our garden , taken just ten days ago? Well, just a week later our garden looked - and is still looking - very different, as the snow came surprisingly early this year, and that first snow is still here. Which means it's time to enjoy autumnal hearty flavours from now on. And here's a neat recipe to start with - a Lebanese soup makhlouta . What impresses me most about this is that it hardly contains anything, yet is most satisfying and flavoursome :)The recipe is slightly adapted from Claudia Roden 's wonderful  Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon , published in 2006. According to Taste of Beirut food blog, makhlouta means 'mixture' in Lebanese Arabic and it's a soupy stew that contains variour legumes and beans such as lentils, kidney beans, white beans, chickpeas, bulgur wheat. Claudia Roden's version is pretty minimalist, containing just rice and lentils, but I often prefere minimalist versions anyway, so I...

You've already got the recipe for the Estonian cabbage and mince stew (recommended!), here's a Finnish version that's similar, yet totally different. Whereas Estonians like their mince and cabbage as a stew alongside some boiled carrots, the Finns throw in some rice (and syrup or honey - they've got a sweeter tooth!), layer it into a oven dish and bake it slowly until done. Both are lovely. You could even make a large batch of the Estonian one, and use any leftovers for the Finnish version on the next day :) The traditional condiment is lingonberry jam (you'll find a jar in your nearest IKEA store), but sour cream works just as well. Finnish mince and cabbage gratin ( Kapsa-hakklihavorm riisiga ) Serves 6 150 ml short-grain "porridge" rice, uncooked 400 ml water 0.5 tsp salt about 1 kg white cabbage, finely shredded 1 onion 400 g beef mince 1 tsp salt 0.25 tsp black pepper 1 tsp dried oregano or marjoram 1-2 Tbsp sugar syrup or honey (or use cornsyrup, ...

My dear K. took some pictures of our beautiful garden last weekend. The gardening season is more or less over for this year - we picked our last tomatoes and aubergines/eggplants a fortnight ago, this weekend we harvested the last of beets, carrots and potatoes, as well as Jerusalem artichokes (the latter could stay in the ground until the Spring, but we wanted them out from a certain raised bed). Despite the cold nights and heavy rains, the garden still has some amazing colours on display. Cornus alba "Sibirica" aka red bark dogwood or red twig dogwood:   Quercus rubra aka northern red oak or champion oak: The bright red and ripe fruit of Podophyllum emodi aka Himalayan mayapple or Indian may apple: Hydrangea paniculata 'Grandiflora' aka panicled hydrangea: The autumn look of Ligularia stenocephala aka leopard plant: Hylotelephium spectabile ( Sedum spectabile ) aka showy stonecrop or ice plant in its full glory, Echinacea purpurea aka Eastern purple coneflow...

This is the cover of the October issue of one of the best-selling home magazines in Estonia, Kodu and Aed (Home and Garden) and it has my name on the cover page :) "How come?", you wonder. In early September I got a phone call from their editor-in-chief, Ms Veigel, asking if I'd be interested in being the editor of the food section. The phone call was totally unexpected and came out of the blue - but as I am unable to return to my academic post at the University just now, I decided to say yes. It all went very quickly then - turned out they wanted me to be in charge of the October issue already and I had about a fortnight to come up with the menu and do the photoshoot. With the help of Juta Kübarsepp, the photographer, we ended up with the following "Pille Petersoo sügismarjamenüü" aka my autumn berries menu. The concept behind the menu was that while Estonians are very good in forageing for wild forest berries (cranberries, blueberries, bilberries, cloudberri...

September 2010 This recipe was originally posted in September 2008, but it's still a big favourite with our friends and family, so I decided to showcase this again. It's a wonderful twist on the traditional oven-baked apples, that should appeal to everybody with a sweet tooth. Oven-baked Toffee Apples ( Ahjus küpsetatud õunad mandli-iirisekattega ) Serves 4 to 6 September 2008 4 to 6 large firm apples Toffee-almond topping: 50 g almond slices 50 g unsalted butter 200 ml soft brown sugar 200 ml whipping or double cream 1 Tbsp potato starch or cornflour To serve: vanilla ice cream Peel the apples (NB! this is optional, see comment below*), halve and core them. Fit them snugly into a buttered oven-dish, cut-side down. Mix brown sugar and potato flour/cornflour in a small saucepan. Add butter, almond slices, and fresh cream. Bring slowly into the boil, stirring regularly. Spoon the toffee mixture onto the apples. Bake in the middle of a pre-heated 200 C / 400 F oven for 20-30 minut...