On our recent trip to London, K and I stayed with my friend Johanna's for a weekend. During that time we had the pleasure of feasting - literally - every morning. We had eggs benetine or florendict on Saturday (great poached eggs!) an omelette layer cake with smoked salmon and rocket on Sunday (an impressive-looking layered affair), and a savoury clafoutis with cherry tomatoes and rocket on Monday (a 'requested breakfast' dish - I had the pleasure of eating this on the morning after Jeanne's & Johanna's blog birthday bash in June 2006, and couldn't wait to have it again). Each one of those breakfasts sounded & looked fabulous and tasted een better. But it was the omelette layer cake with smoked salmon & rocket that kept haunting us long after we were back home in Estonia. So it...
Kedgeree is an Anglo-Indian dish that was a popular breakfast item during the Victorian era. It's a rice dish with smoked fish and soft boiled eggs, seasoned with curry and herbs. I had seen various kedgeree recipes during my years in Edinburgh, yet I hadn't had a chance to try, yet alone make it myself. The opportunity finally knocked at my door during Easter, as I had all those colourful Easter eggs needing to be used up.I cannot really tell you the origin of this recipe any more. I wasn't sure I will be able to find smoked haddock here, so I decided to go with salmon - the post popular and common smoked fish in Estonia. I searched the web and my bookshelf and printed out several recipes for a smoked salmon kedgeree. Eventually, I did find smoked haddock after all, and after some...
This recipe started off as a copy of Alanna's perfect hard-boiled ruby eggs*. However, as I couldn't figure out how to get hold of beetroot juice, I decided to use finely grated boiled beetroot instead (yep, vacuum-packed ready-made stuff). And just before gently pressing the eggs into the beetroot mush, I decided to add a bit of caraway seeds and a clove of garlic as well. And a little dill. And just a tiny pinch of salt...The resulting ruby eggs are utterly pretty, especially with this well-travelled Easter chick (whom you all surely remember from this photo taken in Edinburgh a year ago) keeping an eye on them. And the beet-caraway-garlic combination yields just enough flavour to the eggs to make them special and interesting.Beetroot-dyed Easter Eggs(Peedimunad)8-10 freshly boiled...
I told you there'd be loads of eggs:Easter Egg Art, originally uploaded by petersoo.From top left (click on each link to see an individual image):1. Peter, 31 years; 2. Gretel, 5 years, using egg colours; 3. K, using saffron; 4. A chick and daffodils; 5. Pille, using onion skins; 6. Pille's grandma, 86 years, using onion skins; 7. Gretel, 5 years, using a Russian egg wrapping paper; 8. K, using hibiscus tea; 9. Pille, using onion...
The third round of Waiter, there is something in my... is hosted by my dear friend Johanna, and the theme is Easter basket. Johanna wants us to share"with us and the wider food blogging community anything that yells "Easter!" at you, be it that honey-glazed ham or herb-crusted spring lamb that is traditionally made in your neck of the woods, a gorgeous chocolate torte that you've tucked into every year since you can remember, your granny's famous hot cross buns or a brioche loaf sprinkled with rock sugar..."So, what will be in our Easter basket here in Tallinn, Estonia? Of course there will be the Estonian Easter pudding pashka, a pressed milk curd dessert with raisins, which I prefer to make with dried cranberries (or 'craisins') instead, as these make the pashka look like it's studded...
For the first round of Waiter, there is something in my ... ! I made Anthony Bourdain's boeuf bourgoingnon. For the second round of this new foodblogging event - in February focusing on pies and hosted by CookSister's Jeanne - I made something from the Russian cuisine: kulebyaka. Kulebyaka should have been on my 2007 list of foodie resolutions, as I had been thinking about making it for months, but somehow it slipped my mind when I wrote the post. But better late than never, and now was my chance to make that festive Russian pie. Kulebyaka is a high and oblong closed pie with different types of fillings. When looking for the perfect recipe, I came across kulebyakas stuffed with fish, mushrooms, meat, cabbage, even apples. I realised that it is the shape of the pie (enclosed, high, long)...
