Bruschettas with goat cheese, persimmon kaki and pears

 

As a child we often made bread with cheese in the oven. This was called “ahju juustusai” or oven cheese bread. The cheese melted and the bread turned crispy. Discovering the Italian food later in my life it turned out that they like to crisp their bread with some olive oil in the oven as well and call it bruschetta. I am sure that in other countries there is something similar: slices of bread with a topping cooked in the oven.

Having just some bread that may be even a few days old, some garlic and olive oil or a piece of cheese you have the ingredients for a crunchy savoury snack.

Judging by the local supermarket choice it looks like November is the season for persimmon kaki. The orange fruit is called “hurmaa” in Estonian. As this fruit does not grow in Estonia or in Switzerland I do wonder in my brain cells that focus on etymology why the Swiss have borrowed the name persimmon kaki and the Estonians hurmaa? Must be related to the country of origin where this fruit first came from, I guess.

Cut bread into slices

Drizzle some olive oil onto them

Cut 5mm thick slices of persimmon kaki and place them on bread

Cut slices of hard goat cheese and place on top of the fruit

Or grate the hard goat cheese and place on top of the fruit

Preheat the oven to 190-200C. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the cheese melts, becomes slightly brown and the bread becomes crispy.

Goat cheese and persimon kaki & pear bruschettas

Variations:

a) As an alternative to the persimmon kaki you can use pears in the same way.

b) You can also grill the fruit first on the grill pan and add the visual effect of the grill stripes on the fruit slices before adding the cheese on top and cooking the bread in the oven.

Meet Stachys, a forgotten famine vegetable or an expensive gourmet weed with tubers?

 

My recent trip to the farmers´market made me curious about little root type things that reminded me of the Michelin man in the miniature form. Turns out this is stachys affinis, sometimes known as Chinese artichoke or in France crosnes. The roots are actually tubers that can be eaten raw or cooked. On popular request about my visits to the market I decided to experiment.

Stachys affinis, chinese artichoke - eatable tubers

First, I must say, these whitish or ivory colour tubers are not cheap…at least not at my market. Searching on the internet I happened on a site that described stachys as famine food. When all else fails, eat stachys. It almost feels like when things are hopelessly bad, let’s get a bottle of the most expensive champagne and enjoy the moment. What an interesting paradox…perhaps this is the most expensive weed grown under bio-certificate and sold to gourmands for a fortune. For this handful I paid almost 5 francs. The same money can buy me 2.5kg of non-bio potatoes or 1.5kg of bio potatoes. Both are tubers.

5 Francs for this handful of stachys...perhaps because it is Bio

At home I tried them raw. Crisp bite, not chewy, no strong taste of its own, indeed a bit nutty in taste if anything. Not bad, but not too impressive either.

Chinese artichoke or crosnes can be eaten raw

Since the guy at the market explained that besides raw I can cook them with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper, I followed his advice. They don’t need to be peeled, just washed.

I prepared a salad with Roman lettuce and for the dressing sautéed the stachys tubers in some olive oil, added small bacon strips, salt, pepper and lime juice. Mixed the sauce on the pan and poured on top of the lettuce. Pomegranate to garnish and add colour. Ready.

Sautéed chinese artichoke in a salad

Some recipes advise to pre-boil the stachys before sautéing. Since it can be eaten raw, I figured no boiling required. The cooked stachys maintained its crisp bite although softer than raw. The taste is soft, nutty, allows various flavour combinations in salads, sautéed vegetables or stir-fry dishes. I might experiment just once more as a wok stir-fry...after the next pay-day.

The literature I found mentioned that stachys is easy to grow and yields circa 1 kg per square meter and is good for digestion.

Judge yourself.

Beetroot soup with sauerkraut

I was making some Spanish potato omelettes earlier today. When the tortilla stuck to the pan and the result was not what I wanted I first was surprised with horror. What happened? I have made the Spanish tortillas many times before and was looking forward to another glorious result. I then thought it must be the pan that for some reason has changed its quality. I was disappointed with the whole thing.
Like I hadn´t had enough, soon after I found myself experimenting with pumpkin. Again I had pictured something else and felt more disappointment sneaking upon me. Pumpkin is a tricky vegetable for savoury dishes. I started off with a pumpkin spread for toast for tomorrow´s breakfast, then changed part of the mix and moved on to frying pumpkin-potato cakes on a pan (another, non-sticky one, this time) and eventually will end up with pumpkin soup from the same roasted pumpkin for dinner tomorrow. In summary the Sunday in the kitchen went from high expectations to horror to disappointment to curiosity to annoyment to keeping going... Next time it will be better! Next time it will be beetroot. Beetroot never let´s me down.

Red beetroots growing in my favourite garden - July, roots still small

 
Beetroot Soup with Sauerkraut

1 small onion
1-2 tbl spoons oil
1 big potato
2-3 medium beetroots
1.5 l water
salt or 1 cube of bouillon
black pepper
100-150g Sauerkraut, pre-cooked
sour cream or creme fraiche
onion seed sprouts or chopped parsley


Chop the onion and fry in a little oil in a pot. Cut the potatoes and beetroot into small cubes. The ratio should be 1:2 of potato to beetroot. Add the water to the glassy onions and bring to boil. Cook the potato and beetroot with some salt until soft. Purée the vegetables with the mixer or blender and return to the pot.
If the sauerkraut is too long, cut it into more bite sized length and add to the puréed soup. Bring to boil.
Taste and season with salt and pepper.
Serve hot with sour cream and onion sprouts or parsley.

Beetroot soup with sauerkraut

Deviled Eggs or Stuffed Eggs (Estonian: Täidetud munad)

 In the last century the nutritional advice that was projected in the media recommended to limit the number of eggs eaten per week to one or two. In more recent reading I see a significant change to even recommending one egg per day. Of course people who have egg allergy know if and what they can eat. Eggs are very old food. As our ancestors were eating eggs, the animals in the wider food chain eat eggs; I would say that the eggs are a proven food regardless of the fashion in the nutrition circles.

Brown eggs seem to be more popular on the market

The real country eggs from the birds that have been eating real grass are the best.

In Estonia the filled boiled eggs have been popular for decades. Nowadays one can buy the ready made ones in the shop; however I prefer to make them myself. These egg halves were always present on party dinner tables. These dinner tables that were full of all sorts of dishes deserve a separate story. Here is a little pre-taste in the form of filled eggs.

Eggs at farmers´market

The simplest recipe of filled eggs:

1 egg per person as minimum.

Boil the eggs (8-10min, the yolk must be hard)

Let them cool in down. If you are in a hurry, put them in the sink with cold water.

De-shell.

Cut the eggs in half either vertically or horizontally.

Take out the yolks into a bowl.

Press the yolks with a fork into a homogenous mash.

Mix the yolks with mayonnaise, ca. 1 teaspoon per each egg.

Mix into a smooth paste. Season with salt if necessary.

Fill the egg whites with the yellow paste.

Garnish with some dill or parsley

Filled eggs with sun dried tomato, mayo and chives

For a more sophisticated version and more variety add one or more of these ingredients:

Mustard

Anchovy paste

Cayenne or chilly pepper

Capers, chopped

Sun dried tomatoes, chopped

Chives

Dill

Fried and cooled bacon bits