Yumi Yumi

About two years ago all the Finnish food blogs and magazines were raving about avocado pasta. Hanna Gullichsen, a Finnish food writer, had published the recipe in her cookbook Safkaa. Parempaa arkiruokaa   (Otava, August 2012)  and the recipe quickly became a No 1 hit, so to say, and well deservedly, as it is a lovely dish indeed. Avocado pasta is nothing new, of course, but Safkaa blog (and book) brought it to the attention to the masses up here North, and we're thankful :) We don't always get the best avocados here in Estonia, but if we do, I often make this dish for my family. It's easy, there's hardly any washing up (one pot to cook the pasta in, one large bowl to prepare the avocado mixture), and it's quite versatile. Though I like the original version with pecorino and parmesan (photo above), I quite often use a soft goat cheese or even salty feta cheese instead, resulting in a much creamier avocado pasta (photos below). While the Safkaa recipe uses basil and ...

Originally posted in May 2011 , but I'm bumping this up again, as the local asparagus season has began. The photo above was taken by Juta Kübarsepp to illustrate my column in the May 2014 issue of Kodu ja Aed magazine here in Estonia..  Isn't it pretty? This lovely topless tart can be served either warm (perhaps with a green side salad) or cold (cut into thin slices to accompany drinks). It's a simple tart - a puff pastry base (I made a quick rough puff pastry myself) is covered with a layer of grated cheese, followed by an egg and cream mixture, and finally topped with lightly cooked asparagus spears. You could certainly mix the cheese in to the egg and cream mixture, but I loved the visual effect of using a separate cheese layer. Asparagus and cheese tart ( Spargli-juustupirukas ) Serves 8 to 10 500 g puff pastry (store-bought or home-made rough puff pastry) 24 medium-sized fresh green asparagus spears 150 g Gouda or Gruyère cheese, coarsely grated 3 large eggs 200 ml f...

I'm reposting this post from February 2007, as it was listed as one of the 50 of the world's best breakfast dishes over at the hotelbookers.com few days ago. Although I'm trying not to eat too much white bread these days, I stopped at the local supermarket on the way back home from my firstborn's violin class, bought a bloomer, and made these at home. Being an Estonian, I obviously - and rather conveniently - already had some curd cheese at the fridge. And the kids - all three of them - loved these! Here's an Instragram short of the toasts (you can follow my daily food related pics here ): And here's the original post from all those years ago: I was flipping through the pages of a tired thin Estonian cookbook called "Kohupiimatoidud" the other day, looking for some nostalgic recipes. The cookbook was published in 1973, a year before I was even born, and is full of recipes utilising curd cheese , one of the very popular ingredients in Estonian kitche...

I just baked a batch and had to dig out this recipe from the depths of Nami-Nami and share this with you again :) The post is actually from 2007, the photo below from 2009. They are still my very favourite rhubarb muffins!!! We are still enjoying the rhubarb bounty . Here's a recipe for really moist rhubarb muffins that I made twice last week. Firstly, they were served at a 'girly' housewarming/ birthday party last Thursday, attended by all my aunties (that's three maternal and one paternal), my parents (my dad was unable to attend the 'real' birthday party on a previous weekend), as well as some of my first cousins (not all 11 though:). Instead of birthday cake , I made lots of these rhubarb muffins that day, served as a pyramid on a cake stand. Very pretty!! But in the midst of all the buzz and excitement, we forgot to take a picture. Not that it mattered much, as it gave me a good excuse to make these very same muffins again on Sunday. These muffins, let m...

It's almost two years since I went to Israel with the lovely David Lebovitz and Ms Marmite Lover , as well as Cambria from The Kitchn and Erin from Serious Eats . We were invited and hosted by Kinetis , and I had the most wonderful week exploring the Israeli culinary scene. One of the most memorable meals during that trip was lunch at Haj Kahil , an Arabic restaurant in Jaffa . ( Read David's wonderful review of the amazingly satisfying meal here ). The restaurant is focusing on "authentic Arab cuisine with a Galilee orientation", cooked by the Palestine chef Omar Iluwan : The food was utterly delicious, and I was gorging on the dozen or more mezze dishes, all vegetarian and all utterly delicious. One of the most memorable dishes was a simple cauliflower with tahini (20 NIS, still on the menu ). The pairing of cauliflower and tahini was still new to me and it was a match made in heaven. I missed it. There's a recipe for fried cauliflower with tahini in Yotam...