Yumi Yumi

Kissel (' kissell' in Estonian) is a sweet soup (dessert soup or fruit soup, however you call it) popular in these parts of the world. A thinner kissel (my mum makes an excellent rhubarb one - rabarbrikissell - for instance) can be drunk straight from a cup as sweet injection. A thicker kissel is served alongside many puddings - and as I'm planning to tell you about a very special Estonian pudding in a few days, I'm going to tell you about kissel first. Note, however, that it's not the first time a kissel appears here on Nami-nami, oh no. Last September I told you about a curd cheese and apple souffle , which was also served in a bright puddle of fruit soup, too. I like my kissel a bit on the sour side, so I tend to use redcurrant juice, cranberries, rhubarb or lingonberries as a starting base. I found some local cranberries ( Vaccinium oxycoccus , which are tiny compared to the huge US cranberries, Vaccinium macrocarpon - see photo here ) in a freezer (picked b...

An Estonian blog friend of mine recenly asked me for light dessert recommendations, and I instantly suggested these ginger-infused pears . You see, one of my Christmas hits was pears poached in mulled wine (you can see a photo here , which were inspired by a similar dessert I learnt to make during my internship at Restaurant Stenhus, photo here ), and although I've never really liked poached fruit much before, I enjoyed these a lot. I think I made them thrice in December. But we've had too many Christmassy flavours going on the table recently, plus I knew she had tried these already :) So I suggested these ginger infused pears instead. Ginger - an ingredient that gingerly sneaked into my kitchen cupboard only few years ago - is playing a star role in this dessert. Easy to make, easy to serve, easy to eat and easy to like. I used Comice pears, as these have the prettiest shape for poaching, I think. But you can use any good sized and firm pear. Pears poached in ginger syrup ( ...

Me (on the left:) and the winner of the Chef of the Year Award , Tõnis Siigur from Restaurant Stenhus, Tallinn at the Estonian Gastronomy Awards ceremony yesterday. Photo by K. Just like last year , I had a chance to attend the Silver Spoon 2007 Gala Dinner last night. The Estonian Gastronomy Awards were handed over at the ceremony attended by many of the food-loving bold and beautiful in Estonia, including me and my dear K :) There were small ballet dancers, singing by Chalice, lots of good food, and plenty of food-related chatting, of course. The festive dinner menu was created by the winner of the Chef of the Year award of 2006, Dimitri Demjanov , the grand old man of Estonian haute cuisine, and it was full of surprising local ingredients like Baltic herring , my beloved kama , sea-buckthorn , black pudding /blood sausage, to name just a few. I'll reprint the menu with my musings below, but first, the award winners. There are ten categories at the Estonian Gastronomy Awards, ...

Photo updated in November 2010 Peabody and Tartelette have told us that it's time to make doughnuts - and I'm delighted to introduce you kohupiimapontšikud aka Estonian curd cheese doughnuts . Kohupiimapontšikud is something every Estonian kid is familiar with - a real, honest comfort food - and there are plenty of adults who have hard time resisting these as well. We know they're not the dessert for calorie-counting and health-conscious modern girls, but every now and then we indulge in them after all. I made these old-time favourites about a fortnight ago, and although I had planned to eat a couple for a few days there was none left by the dinner time. Granted, my friend Liis and her 18-month old daughter Matilda helped me a lot by eagerly popping by for an afternoon cup of tea and some doughnuts, but K. surprised me by eating all but one when I left the dining room for a few moments later that night ;-) I'm not surprised, however, as these were so soft, so tender...

It was just over a week ago when I posted a recipe for Salmon with Creamy Orange Sauce and Rosemary , but since we're adviced to eat oily fish on a weekly basis, I hope you don't mind another salmon recipe so quickly. I made this for K's mum's birthday party last weekend , and it went down really well. So well that we'll definitely try it again soon. It's based on vague instructions of an Estonian celebrity chef Imre Kose that appearead in a local daily newspaper back in 1999 (I'm glad I kept that newspaper clipping!). There was a brief moment of confusion as whether to season the fish fillet with salt or not, as the instructions didn't specify, and we decided not to. We're glad we did - the resulting fish had plenty of flavour (mustard and lime), and definitely didn't seem to cry for some salt. If you prefer more flavour, do the prep work earlier and let the fish marinate for an hour before cooking. Salmon with Lime and Mustard ( Laimi-sinepi a...

Another cake I made for my dear K's mother's birthday party last weekend * was this saffron carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. A recipe is from the Swedish Arla site ( Saffran- och morotskaka ) and although I was a bit heavy-handed with saffron (we've got loads at home, and it's not easy to measure out half a gram when our scales only recognise 2 g increments!), the cake was a success. Moist and bright-coloured, with a wee bit tangy frosting. * We only attended the Saturday party and were surprised to find out that the most famous Estonian composer - probably the only Estonian composer most of you have ever heard of (who also happens to be a classmate of K's mum) - made a surprise appearance at the party on Sunday. If we had only known that before, I would have turned up on Sunday as well :) Anybody wants to guess who was eating my cakes? The hint I'm giving you is that K's mum turned 72. Saffron Carrot Cake ( Safrani-porgandikook toorjuustuglasuur...

Last weekend I baked no less than four cakes ( chocolate buttercream cake with mocha glaze , saffron and carrot cake with cream cheese frosting , Manhattan cheesecake , and chocolate brownies ), a cookie sheet full of small potato puff rolls , and prepared a festive salmon dish with lime and mustard . These were all for K's mum's birthday parties on the weekend. We attended just the one on Saturday, but were asked to prepare cakes for the other birthday party session as well:) Of course, I also cooked casual meals for myself and K. ( sauerkraut soup with chicken drumsticks for dinner last night, and curd cheese patties with apples for dessert; K. made us these pretty curd cheese pancakes for brunch yesterday. We enjoyed the pancakes with some Cherry Republic 's Blue Cherry Preserve - a surprise gift from one of my US readers, Ülle . I love weekends like that. And it looks like there's something American in the air at the moment. Only recently I found myself making c...