Empanadas / small pies with a filling / or „pirukad“ in Estonian

Empanadas are small pies. In most cusines one can find one form or the other of such small filled pies. We call them „pirukad“ in Estonia. They can be made with various fillings, for example as savoury with minced meat, shredded chicken, tuna, salt cod, chorizo or sausage or with jam, fruits or dulce de leche in Uruguay for example.

Makes about 30-35:

1 chicken

2 celery stems

Bay leaves

Salt

1 onion, finely chopped

2 tablespoons tomato paste

Olive oil

Chilli or freshly ground black pepper

650g puff pastry (2 pieces of 42x26cm). Ready made from shop or make the dough yourself

1 egg

Put the chicken into cold water with 2-3 bay leaves, celery stems and 3 teaspoons of salt. Bring to simmer at medium heat, then turn down the heat and simmer the meat for 1.5-2 hours until the meat is soft and falls off the bones. Save the broth for other dishes or freeze it for later. Chicken broth is very good against a cold for example.

Cool the meat and shred into small pieces.

Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a pan, cook the onion in the oil until it turns glassy. Add the shredded chicken and fry until the chicken starts to take slightly brownish fry colour. Add the tomato paste and chilli or pepper to season to your taste.

You can use a cup to cut round pieces of rolled out pastry, fill with the chicken mix and press the sides together using a fork or use a special appliance for making such small pies that has the cutting edge on one side and pressing together the „teeth“ close the edge around the filling. Both methods are fine.

Mix the egg in a bowl and brush the empanadas on the pan. Best to use the baking paper on the pan to avoid sticking.

Poached salmon with green asparagus risotto

You need (for 3):

500-600g raw salmon (150-200g per person)

2 bay leaves

1-2 celery stems

2 teaspoons salt or 

1l of vegetable broth

A knob of butter or 3 table spoons olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

300g Carnaroli rice (I measure 80-100g or ca. 2 palmfuls per person)

A generous splash of white wine

1l vegetable broth, hot

300g green asparagus, hard bottom ends removed (ca 2 cm)

50g parmesan, freshly grated

40g cold butter

Put the fish in a pan with the vegetable broth or enough cold water to cover it fully. If you use the water add bay leaves, celery stems and salt and bring the water to simmer at medium heat. When small bubbles start, reduce the heat to low and barely simmer the fish for 20 min.

Heat the butter or olive oil in a thick bottom pan, add the onion and cook for a couple of minutes till the onion turns glassy. Add the rice to the onions and stir until rice heats up. Splash in the wine and let it evaporate fully.

Add hot broth to the rice ladle by ladle, letting the liquid evaporate before adding the next ladle.

Cut off the top „flowery“ ends of the asparagus and cut the stems into 1-2cm long pieces. When the rice has become softer but is still very al dente (after 10min) add the asparagus stems to the pan and add more broth to finish the risotto.

In the meanwhile cook the top ends of the asparagus in a little butter in a separate pan and let them get a slight brown „crust“. Keep separately.

Finish the risotto when the rice is softer with still al dente bite and the asparagus is cooked but still crunchy by vigorously whisking in the parmesan and cold butter cubes with a wooden spoon.

Leave the parmesan out if you don´t like the cheese with the fish, but do add the butter at the end.

Cold tomato soup with poached salmon mousse

Spicy cool lunch on a hot summer day. 

Makes 3.

For the soup take:

1 kg tomatoes

1 small shalotte or red onion

0.5 salad cucumber

1 stem of green celery

3 cloves of garlic confit or 1 small fresh clove

Extra virgin olive oil

A small pinch of chilli powder

Salt

Finely chopped fresh parsley to garnish

Cut crosses on both ends of tomatoes and place them in hot water for a minute. De-skin and de-seed the tomatoes. Cut into smaller pieces.

Peel and cut the cucumber, if it has big seeds, cut them out too. Cut the celery into small pieces.

Finely chop the onion and garlic if you are using the fresh garlic.

Purée everything in a food processor, blender or with a mixer.

Add salt, chilli powder and olive oil and mix. Taste. Finetune if need anything else.

For the salmon mousse take:

200g of raw salmon

1-2 green celery stems

1-2 bay leaves

Salt

100g mascarpone

2 tablespoons fresh cream (25% or 35% fat)

Put the piece of salmon in a pan with enough cold water to cover the fish well. Add the bay leaves, celery and 1-2 teaspoons of sea salt and bring to simmer. Turn the heat to low and barely simmer the fish for 15-20minutes or a little longer if it is a thick piece of fish (but no longer than 30 min)

Let it cool down, then press the fish into a mass with a fork. In a bowl, preferably with high sides, mix the fish with mascarpone, season with salt and pepper. Using the mixer mix for a minute till the mass becomes lighter and fluffier. Add fresh cream and mix for 1 minute.

Serve the soup with the salmon mousse and garnish with chopped fresh parsley. Drizzle a few drops of extra virgin olive oil.

Eat with toast bread or make crisp bread in the oven from thinly slices bread, drizzle a little olive oil on the bread and cook in the overn of 190C for 10 minutes till crisp.

The idea of combining tomato soup with salmon arose from me misunderstanding a menu and I thank Margus, a cooking aficionado in Estonia, for that.

Cocktail de Pulpo y Camaron (Acapulco Style) - Cold Octopus and Shrimp Soup

For those who love seafood this Mexican cold soup is refreshing, spicy, healthy filling meal on a hot summer day.

 You need per person:

150 grams of cooked and peeled shrimp and 150 grams of cooked octopus 

Cook the shrimp and the octopus separately – see the cooking instructions under Pulpo a la gallega

3 parts of Tomato Juice 2 parts of Natural Orange Juice

1 part (to 1.5) ketchup

½ part of olive oil  

Tomatoes, ca 1 per person

Onions, minimum one, more if you like onions

Coriander

Garlic, 2-3 cloves

Chillies and/or chilli sauce

Salt

Avocados and limes (the green ones)

 e.g. 300ml of Tomato Juice + 200 ml Orange Juice etc…

Put the sliced octopus and the shrimp in a bowl big enough to put the liquids in.  

Fry the sliced garlic with the olive oil until the garlic is dark and toasted and let it cool.

Chop the onions, the tomatoes and the coriander

Mix the juices and the ketchup

Put everything in the bowl with the seafood

Take out the garlic from the oil and the olive oil to the mix. 

If you have fresh chilli, chop finely and add it too…

 Mix everything. The “soup” should be a bit thick (if not add a bit more ketchup).

Ready, salt to taste, and serve with the lime, avocado slices and the chilli sauce as you like it. 

Special thanks to Pavel

Strawberry Muffins

Easy to make. Ideal for a picnic or as a dessert with vanilla ice cream or lush whipped cream…

Makes 1 standard muffin pan of 12

Best to have all ingredients at room temperature before starting.

2 eggs

2.5dl sugar

100g butter

2dl plain yoghurt

5dl plain wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

Seeds from half the vanilla pod or 2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar

2 dl strawberries cut into small cubes

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Melt the butter and let cool. Mix the eggs well with sugar whisking 2-3 minutes. Add the melted butter and the yoghurt to the egg mix.

In another bowl mix the flour with the baking powder. Cut the vanilla pod lengthwise and scrab out the seeds. Mix the sticky vanilla with 1 teaspoon sugar to loosen the seeds for better mixing. Add to the flour. Mix the flour with the eggs very carefully without whisking too much. Only enough to mix the two together.

Place the paper muffin forms into the pan and fill each half way. Leave some dough. Put about a teaspoonful of strawberry cuts on the dough and fill the forms with the rest of the dough.

Bake the muffins at 200C for 18-20 minutes until light brown. You can check the readiness by lightly pressing on a muffin. When it raises back up they are ready.

To cool the muffins and avoid them „sweating“ in the forms, place the muffins on the side to let out the steam.

A fresh cup of coffee or tea or a glass of cold milk goes nicely with the muffins.

Sautéed potatoes with a twist

There are lots and lots of different potato varieties in the world. The flesh colour ranges from pale to yellow in the standard varieties. Various other colours exist, red, blue, purple. Depending on the starch content some are better for frying, baking, gratins, salad, mash, crisping, etc. This nutritious tuber, the fourth largest food crop in the world has found a firm place in many cusines, including, I believe, all countries in Europe.

I was intrigued to taste how the blue potatoes taste. One of the simple and tasty ways to cook potatoes is sautéing. Cooking in a pan with oil or lard, developing a brown crust outside.

The Blue Swede on the right





Der Blaue Schwede

For 4 take:

1kg of potatoes / The Blue Swede (Der Blaue Schwede)

Vegetable oil

1 medium large onion, sliced lengthwise

Salt

Chopped fresh parsley or dill

Peel the potatoes, cut into even slices or sticks.

Heat the oil in the pan, use enough oil to coat the potatoes.The oil is hot when a piece of potato or onion starts to sizzle immediately when dropped on the pan.

The pan should be big enough so the potatoes have enough room on the bottom to make a nice crust.

Cook the potatoes for a 5 minutes without stirring around too much to let the crust build.

Add the sliced onion.

Add some salt quite in the beginning of cooking.

Stir occasionally to avoid burning at the bottom.

Taste. Cook till potatoes are soft inside (15-20min)

Serve immediately garnished with some parsley or dill as a stand alone or a side dish. When eaten as a stand alone dish, a few slices of fresh tomato with black pepper go nicely with it and add lightness to the meal.

The raw purple flesh colour turns blue during cooking. The blue potatoes tasted similar to the yellow ones, had good potato flavour and taste, all in all delicious. The colour adds a twist to the plate…


Pan fried blue and yellow flesh potatoes

Pulpo a la gallega - Galician style octopus

This is one of my favourite recipes. It is a frequent dish on the tapas menu in Spain. Worth trying when in Spain. It has been absolutely yummie every time. If you don´t happen to get to Spain often it is not difficult to make it at home. Just takes a little time to cook the pulpo, but the result is worth it.

Raw octopus

1 pulpo – 1 kg piece makes 4 (with potatoes as main course)

2-3 l water

2-3 bay leaves

Olive oil, 5-6 tbl spoons or enough to drizzle on the pulpo

Garlic

Pimentón dulce (red paprika powder), ca half a teaspoon

Coarse sea salt or sea salt flakes

Lemon - optional

Boiled potatoes - optional               

To cook the octopus bring water to boil in a large high saucepan. When the water is boiling hold the octopus  and drop it into the boiling water briefly for 3 times before placing it in the pan. Add the bay leaves and bring to boil again at high temperature. Reduce the heat and simmer for 90 min. Taste to see if the pulpo is soft. When soft, take it out of the water and cut the tentacles into ca 1cm thick slices.

Take a small pan, heat the oil, put the coarsley chopped garlic in and cook for a couple of minutes then take the garlic out and add the paprika powder into the oil and heat again for 1-2 minutes.

If you prefer a heartier meal, boil some potatoes while the pulpo is boiling too (both should be ready around the same time to avoid re-heating) and cut the boiled potatoes into 0.5-1cm thick slices when still hot.

Arrange the potato and pulpo slices on a plate, cover with the paprika-olive oil and add a little  sea salt on top. Cut the lemon into wedges and squeeze some juice over if desired.

Pulpo a la gallega

A linguistic note: octopus is knows as „pulpo“ in Spanish, „polvo“ in Portuguese, „polpo“ in Italian, „tako“ in Japanese, „Krake“ in German, „kaheksajalg“ (8-foot) in Estonian…
Now, octopus and kaheksajalg refer to the number of tentacles, but polvo, pulpo, polpo do not. I wonder why...? 

Pumpkin Soup

Makes 4-5

Ingredients

1.5 l water

800g pumpkin

3 carrots

2-3 potatoes

Salt (0.5 teaspoon)

Chilli or peperoncini powder

Pumpkin seeds

Pumpkin seed oil

Finely chopped flat parsley or chives

Roasted pumpkin seeds add crunch to the pumpkin soup

Bring the water to boil. In the meanwhile cut the vegetables into small pieces (1-2cm ). Put in the carrot first, let it boil for 5 minutes, then add the pumpkin and potato. Add salt. Cook until everything is soft, about 15-20 min.

Remove some liquid from the pan before you start puréeing with the hand mixer. You can always add the liquid back in if the soup feels too thick. The other way round will be difficult.

Taste for salt. To spice up the soup add a little chilli or peperoncini powder for a slight tickle on the tongue.

Take a (small) handful of the green pumpkin seeds and toast them in a skillet (low pan) for about 5 minutes until you hear them start to make slight cracking noises and they start to brown a little. The seeds will expand a bit from flat into more round shape.

Serve the soup hot with the roasted pumpkin seeds spread on top, the green parsley or chives for more decorative flavour  and drizzle a few drops of pumpkin seed oil on the soup to put the dot on the i.

Guacamole

Avocado -  this originally Central American and Carribean fruit has a high level of the good monounsaturated fats, useful potassium and healthy fibre. Guacamole is an easy and wonderful dish to be enjoyed in many occasions.

Count 1 avocado for 1-2 persons, depending on the apetite =)

1 ripe avocado

1 small onion or a quarter of a bigger one

1-2 table spoons lime juice

1 small or medium tomato

1 small red chilli

A few leaves of coriander (leave out if you don´t like coriander)

Salt

Chop the onion very finely.

Deseed the tomato and cut into small cubes.

Deseed the chilli and chop very finely.

Cut the avocado in two halves and scoop the flesh out into a bowl. Add the lime juice and with a fork form a smooth mash.

Add the onion, tomato and chilli to the avocado and mix adding salt to your taste.

Serve with tortilla chips or with thin crusty bread like I did.

Crusty bread:

Cut a few (8-10) thin slices of baguette type bread or any bread you wish. Place them on an oven pan on the baking paper. Drizzle a little olive oil on the slices and cook for 5-10 minutes in the oven at 200C till a brownish crust appears.

If you can´t serve the guacamole immediately drop the avocado stone back into the mash. This will keep it green rather than turning brownish.

Avocado goes well with shrimp too.

Gravlax: salt cured salmon

Salmon, seasalt and some sugar...try with a little black pepper too

I like gravlax, raw salmon cured with salt. Instead of buying a few slices in a shop it is really easy to make your own. Basically all you need is a piece of raw salmon and salt.

200g salmon with skin

4-6 teaspoons of coarse sea salt

If you wish try some variations:

Add a little sugar for a smoother taste

Add some chopped dill (aneto) or

Grind some black pepper for a spicier taste

Rinse the piece of fish under cold water. Dry up with a piece of kitchen paper.

Take a big enough piece of aluminium foil in which you can wrap the fish.

Spread 2 spoonfuls of sea salt on the foil, place the fish on the salt on foil and cover the fish from the top with salt, a little sugar, dill or pepper.

The salt does not have to cover all the fish in a thick layer, I prefer to spread the salt loosely and sprinkle just a little sugar. Not overdoing with salt leaves the fish juicier.

Leave to cure overnight or for 24 hours. Before eating depending on the amount of salt you used you may need to rinse the fish very briefly with cold water to get rid of the excess salt.

Especially if you want to make salmon tartar or just like to cut a little thiker slices than normally available it is worth curing your own salmon.

Spicy Prawns in Green Sauce

"Prawns" are generally referred to the bigger species, including the giant Black Tiger prawns. The smaller species are often called "shrimp", however it seems in the US the distinction is not so clear. In English the "shrimp" becomes "Crevette" after poaching, in French "Crevette" means "shrimp". Despite the terminology, shrimps and prawns taste lovely just briefly cooked in a little oil with chile and/or garlic with a piece of fresh crusty bread. The simplest recipe for poached Crevettes is in a salad with avocado and tomato in a little mayonnaise sauce.

A starter or a light lunch for 2-3

3-4 prawns per person, deveined and cut deeper in the thicker end of the back and formed as "butterflies"
2 cloves garlic
50ml of olive oil
1 medium shalotte onion
a good handful of fresh flat parsley leaves
salt and pepper, freshly ground
1-2 dried chiles 
juice of half a lemon (yellow) or a generous splash of white wine

Heat the oven to 250C. The oven must be hot as the prawns will be cooked for a short time to avoid them becoming chewy.
In the food processor crush the garlic with the oil then add the chiles, onion and parsley leaves and mince till quite smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
Arrange the prawn butterflies in an oven proof pan where the prawns stand quite close and the liquid stays close around them. Spoon the green paste on the prawns, splash in the broth or wine.
Roast in the oven for about 10-12 minutes until the prawns have turned pink all over.

Serve hot. Some fresh bread helps to "suck up" the tasty sauce.
I do recommend making the sauce quite spicy with chili and if you wish to cool the palate a bit serve sliced avocado to neutralise the "heat".

Sourdough Bread: A Beginner´s Experiment

In Estonia the bigger supermarkets offer a daily choice of probably just under 100 types of fresh bread (I´ve never counted, just shelves and shelves of breads): typical black, dark brown rye breads which are called "Leib", white wheat breads called "Sai", a little darker wheat breads called "Sepik". Plus, one can buy all of these with or without a variety of additional ingredients like seeds or bran or raisins. The fact that we have a different word for different types of bread means that bread is something very important for the Estonians. In the past people used to call food "leivakõrvane" meaning "everything besides the bread", when a piece of bread fell to the floor people picked it up and gave it a kiss to express the sense of honour, the family was also referred to as "leibkond" or "a bread community", people who shared the same bread, when a couple moved together they would put their breads in one cupboard, instead of saying "Bon Apetit" -as the apetite was normally good anyway- people would say "Jätku leiba!" or "may the bread continue"...

Like the choice between tens of dozens of breads wasn´t enough or maybe because of the wide choice it has become very popular again to bake your own bread. My Mom and sister often make their own now. The dark bread is usually made from sourdough that people keep "refreshing" for years. This means putting some dough aside for the next time, it can also be frozen. The sourdough is the starting raising agent instead of the yeast that one can buy in a shop. The white bread is mostly made with the normal yeast. During my last trip to Estonia and talking about the bread making I wanted to find out what if the sourdough was used not with the dark rye flour but with the wheat flour, however I did not get any satisfactory answer. My dear sister advised me to experiment myself. So I set off to make my first ever bread without any yeast which is a very important ingredient.

Having read about how to start the sourdough I took 3 slices of rye bread I had brought back and 0.5l of apple juice and put the two together in a bowl and let it ferment for 3 days under plastic in a warm place. Fortunately the juice started to ferment forming little bubbles. So far so good. On day 4 I added to the fermenting bread-juice mixture some wheat flour, about 400-500g. I let this new dough, still quite liquid, ferment and raise for another night and on the final day added more flour, probably another 400-500g, some salt (at least 0.5 teaspoon) and sugar to reduce the sour taste. This time really working the dough with my hands for about 10 minutes to pump the right oxygen into the dough before putting it in a form fitted with baking paper. Again in a warm place it rested and raised for a couple of more hours before baking in the oven for at least 45min first at 200C, after about 15 min at 170C.

There is no recipe as I was only experimenting, ready for a failure, therefore it is all in approximates as I remember it without real measurements.
But....it had worked!! The result was tasty, the smell of a fresh warm bread so sweet . Truely satisfying, quite unexpectedly. I had actually managed to produce a nice loaf of bread from 3 slices of another bread, a bottle of apple juice and a kilo of four. Here is the result of the experiment:

Jätku leiba! May the bread continue!

Shells, Jacobus or Combs: A Good Child Has Many Names As We Say In Estonia

 Scallops are a culinary delicacy with a unique texture nothing like meat, nor fish, nor prawns. A muscle so tender it melts in one or two bites under just a little pressure from the tongue. Scallops require minimum “treatment” and perhaps only a little added flavour, a squeeze of lemon or lime, some garlic on the frying pan or why not a little parsley pesto for different nuances. It is to be treasured in limited quantities rather than munched to satisfaction.

Throughout many years I have been puzzled about the origin of this word in different languages. The English scallop comes from old French escalope (shell), concha de vieira also denotes the shell in Portugese and similar in Spanish, coquille St Jacques in French refers to the pilgrimage badge, pettine di mare (sea combs) or capesanta in Italian, Jakobschelp or kammossel  in Dutch, Jakobsmuschel or Kammuschel in German, kammkarp (comb box) in Estonian.

The reference to St James, Jakob or St Jacque whose emblem the scallop shell was and later on the many followers of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain have strongly printed the mark on the name and now in shops in Switzerland you can see Jakobsmuschel or coquille St Jacques being sold instead of Kammuschel.

So far the logic of the shell as well as the connection to St James is clear but what has it got to do with a comb? Does the mollusc comb the sea bottom or does it move in some way that resembles hair or did people use the shell to comb their hair? I can’t imagine how…

The scallop remains a sweet culinary adventure forever and an etymological mystery till I understand the link to a comb.

(In the meanwhile, Mike, a friend, has explained to me this:
"Because the lines radiating from the centre look a bit like the ancient Roman combs.....also similar to the garden instrument for gathering leaves (rake) which I guess is a comb for the grass? I assume its just that...")

The Black Pearl

Recently as I was wondering around the Zurich airport my eye caught something unusual: totally black chocolate truffles at the Sprüngli shop. As I soon realised what it was that made them so black my mind and senses were highly intrigued. I had never seen anything like this before…anywhere…with any product.

I bought a box, tempted, but kept myself waiting until I got to my destination many hours later. By the time I did eat one my excitement had spiked. It was worth the wait. It was sensational in every way. For me this was the highest pilotage of innovation, a revolutionary product to be enjoyed with full attention.

The visual: The truffle is totally black because of the thick layer of the millions of tiny dry (not sticky moist!) black vanilla seeds covering the outside.
Then comes the smell: sweet vanilla and chocolate is absolutely great but probably the least of the surprises.
Take a bite and another sensation surprises you - the chocolate is actually white inside - a visual high, black and white.
The next thing you experience is the texture: The dry vanilla seeds fill your mouth with a subtle luxurious grind, with a bit of resistance from the next white chocolate layer culminating in an amazing melt of the sweet truffle filling. You can hear the small black vanilla seeds for the whole time you have the chocolate in your mouth.
The taste is smooth, just right sweet for the luxurious mouthful.

This unique pearl is the latest masterpiece from the House of Sprüngli and to my taste a perfection of contrast in one in modern confiserie. It is yin and yang, Heaven and earth, divine and sinful, simple ingredients in a totally complex combination, cool resistent outside and the warm melting inside, literally black and white…

I often swing between the Swiss and the Belgian chocolate masters on who is the best. Until the Belgians create something better than this black and white truffle of Sprüngli, the Swiss have come on top.

Tortilla Espanola de Patata - Spanish potato omlette

inspired by Angel and Ignacio

For 1 tortilla you need:
4-6 tablespoons of olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
4 big potatoes
4 eggs

a low pan,of 24-26cm diameter

Chop the onions and cut potatoes into more or less 1-2 cm cubes.
Heat the oil in the pan and fry onions just a little bit, then add the potatoes and some salt. There should be enough oil in the pan covering the bottom part of the potato and onion mix.Add more oil if the potatoes are dry or start to burn.
Fry the potatoes till soft.
Take the potatoes off the pan into a bowl and let them cool down a bit. I usually mash the potatoes with a fork. This seems to be Burgos-Valliadolid style. However the Barcelona school prefers the potatoes to be left in chunks. Both taste wonderful.
Slightly beat the eggs so that the whites and yolks mix, add a little salt.
Add the cooled potato and mix well.
If necessary add a little oil to the pan and pour the egg-potato mix in the pan.
On medium heat cook the tortilla for about 7 minutes, lift the hardened tortilla a bit from the edges with a wooden spatula to see that it´s not burnt in the middle.
Take a big enough plate that covers the whole pan, turn the pan upside down quickly and return the tortilla carefully to the pan.
Cook for a minute or two. it is important not to over cook the tortilla otherwise the egg becomes too hard and a bit chewy.
Slide the tortilla from the pan to a plate and eat warm or cold. Cut into smaller pieces also serves nicely as finger food at a party.

Tortilla de Patata

Shrimp bisque

inspired by Lulu

I made this soup inspired by a wonderful Mexican shrimp soup and the various bisque recipes.

For 3-4 as a starter:
300g  raw shrimps in full shell, I got the big prawns
10-20g butter
a couple of table spoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped (0.5cm cubes)
1-2 stems of green celery, finely chopped (0.5cm cubes)
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1-2 table spoons tomato paste
100ml white wine (you can also use dry sherry)
ca 1-1.5 l fish fond or water
50-100ml 25% (or 35%) fat fresh cream
salt and a little chilli to season

Remove and rinse the shells, cut the backs of the shrimp and remove the dark tract.
Heat the butter (I added a little oil too) in a thick bottomed pan and cook the shells in it for a couple of minutes till all are pink.
Remove shells from the pan into a bowl - you will need them later.
Add 1 tbl spoon oil into the pan, heat on medium and fry the onions first for ca 2 minutes till they turn clear, add carrots, celery, garlicand fry for a few minutes.
Add the tomato paste, mix well and cook for ca 5 min. Now add the shells back to the pan.
Splash the wine (sherry) in and reduce the liquid for 2-3 minutes.
Add the fish fond or water or a mixture of both and simmer for 30 minutes.
When the vegetables are soft and the liquid has taken a rusty colour I took out the shells and used a blender to purée the soup. The other method is to wring everything through a cloth or press through a sieve as much as possible.
Heat a little oil in another pan, cut the shrimp/prawn into smaller bite-size pieces and fry with a little chilli if you are looking for a spicier taste. The shrimp should be fried only for a short time to avoid turning chewy.
Now put the shrimp/prawn into the soup and add the cream. Bring to boil.
Season with salt.

If you wish you can make some croutons by taking a couple of slices of white bread, cutting a garlic clove in two and rubbing the bread on both sides, sprinkling a little olive oil on the cubes, then frying in a pan or toasting them in the oven turning them from time to time.

Just like any other normal fruit

 Before reading any further close your eyes and picture a normal fruit.

The most normal fruit for me coming from Estonia would probably be an apple, followed by plums, pears and many different kinds of the above mentioned fruits, but that’s about it with the fruits that grow on the trees. Normal for me are also berries from the garden or forest: strawberries, blackberries, different colour currents, raspberries. My dad is also growing grapes in a greenhouse quite successfully for a few years now and is trying his hand with melons and watermelons…less successfully so far. (I need to wiki to be absolutely sure if melons are actually fruits or rather vegetables.)

I had the pleasure to try the Brasilian “goiabada” today. Goiabada is like sweet jelly, hard enough that one has to cut it with a knife. It is made of guava fruit (or goiaba in Portuguese). It has a skin and flesh with some seeds inside. The normal way to eat it is to take the fruit, break the fruit or cut the skin and eat what is inside. In order to find out what a guava is and how to eat it it took me several probing questions to João who probably thought why all these stupid questions as “guava is like any other normal fruit”.
Now, it is obvious that normal things mean totally different things to different people. Wonderful!
This discussion raised another question in my head – Why do the southern fruits seem to be hidden under a skin or peel (think guavas, papayas, mangos, oranges, avocado, melons, etc, etc) whilst fruits in the northern climate you can just eat without needing to peel them? My theory is that in the north the fruit is yearning for the little sunshine and warmth it gets to become all juicy and sweet in a limited time and in the south the fruit has to protect itself from the heat not to dry out.

I wonder what a “normal fruit” would be for different people.

PS - Cheese (especially Minas cheese) and goiabada go hand in hand in Brasil just like Romeo and Juliette, a clown and the circus, love and kiss ... Listen to Adriana Calcanhotto "Fico assim sem voce" that talks about how one part of the couple feels without the other.
I can say that the goiabada tastes good also with other types of cheese. In Spain a typical marmelada, I believe it is made out of quince, is eaten with a white Burgos cheese - also delicious.

Tomme fraiche -

the closest equivalent to the Brazialian Minas cheese

Pão de queijo: a delicious (party) snack from Brasil

Big thanks to Diego and his Mom for this lovely recipe that I make over and over again

Pão de Queijo (Cheese Bread)

Makes about 100-130

-      0.5kg of sour tapioca flour (can be found in the Portuguese shop)

-      1-2 big potatoes cooked & smashed

-      1 tea spoon of salt

-      Mix the above very well.

In a separate bowl:

          - 1-2 eggs

          - 125ml of corn oil

          - 250ml of milk

          - 250grs of Gruyere cheese

         

Mix everything very well! Make small balls.

You can either freeze for later it or to cook – put in the oven at 200C degrees and bake until “slightly golden” (around 15 mins) 

Enjoy!!

Pão de queijo is irresistable with some butter or fresh cheese

Make pão de queijo as big or small as you prefer

  If you want to roll a bigger quantity of the cheese bread, here is the recipe with double quantity in the original Portuguese:

1kg de polvilho azedo( encontrado na loja de portugues )

3 batatas grandes cozidas e amassadas

1colher de sopa de sal

misturar muito bem

Em uma tijela:

3ovos

250ml de oleo de milho

500ml de leite

500gr de queijo Gruyere

Misturar tudo com a mistura anterior. Amassar muito bem. Fazer pequenas bolinhas.

Pode-se congelar. Colocar para assar em forma untada, separadas as bolinhas, a 200 graus

até ficarem douradas (15 a 20 minutos ).