Plastic Around Carrots: Are You Buying Carrots or Plastic?

 

Carrots are wonderful vegetables. I use a lot of carrots in soups or as vegetable side dishes. Since I don’t have a garden I get my carrots from the farmers or supermarket. I like to select carrots and buy the ones I like. Depending on the dish I may choose narrower or thicker ones. The narrower I find sweeter and crunchier for eating raw, the thicker ones are easier to grate or more convenient to chop for soups or good in stews.

Daucas Carota (Lat), Carrots (Eng), Möhre, Karotte (Ger), Rüebli (Swiss Ger), Porgand (Est)

In the supermarket the only option is to use the plastic bag offered. In order to reduce the amount of bags and consequently the costly garbage at home I use one bag for all the vegetables and fruits I buy instead of a separate bag for each. And I often reuse the bag at home for something else.

So yesterday in a supermarket I chose my carrots and wondered around the vegetable section for a while. I found there were 4 different possibilities to buy fresh carrots.

1. Select your own and weigh them yourself. Price per kg 1.60.
2. 1 kg packaged in a plastic bag. Price per kg 1.60.
3. A value line 2.5 kg packaged in a plastic bag. Price per kg 0.84.
4. 4 carrots packed on a plastic tray wrapped in plastic. Price per kg 1.90.

Carrots in the value pack on the left, packed in double plastic on the right

Voilà! Number 4 was not explicitly marked as a bio-organic product that would perhaps justify a higher price. Apparently there is demand for carrots packed on a plastic tray and people are willing to pay more for it. In fact, I would just be paying more, once for the tray and second time for creating more garbage. Every bag of garbage you generate costs in Switzerland.Personally, I find no use for that tray at home to give it “a second life” in some other use to justify its existence even if the price was the same as for the loose carrots. 

I use one bag for all the veg and fruit I buy and reuse the bag

Yes, I have considered the point of hygiene as well before writing this, but did not find a convincing point. I see people eating fruit and vegetable bought in supermarket without washing them first. So they are not really bothered about this at all. When I buy the carrots selecting them from a crate myself, yes, someone else may have touched them, but I will wash and typically peel the carrots at home, so no issue there.

Please help reduce meaningless plastic!

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

Caldo Verde – Portuguese Cabbage and Sausage Soup

Soup triggers a lot of emotions in many. Some just love soups and would eat some soup every day. Others occasionally have soup as a light meal. Then there are those who consider soup as non-food and avoid eating it as much as possible. Some treat soup as something served in a soup kitchen. Some Moms want their children to eat soup as soup is healthy.

Personally, I tend to prefer soups that have pieces in them to purée-soups. Maybe because I like to eat the soup rather than “drink” it.

I was fascinated to read that there was a soup festival, a Soup Congress, in a small Portuguese town earlier this year where restaurants served some 50 different soups. How cool is that!!

I don’t have any scientific evidence but I do believe that soup is healthy, good for digestion, warms the body, and usually involves one or more vegetables. Chicken soup is good against common cold and so on.

A little thing that I don’t like so much is that some soups turn into a colour that is somewhere between dull greenish brown, despite being absolutely tasty. Then, some fresh green parsley or chives or a little cream or some fried bacon can pimp it up to please the eye as much as the taste buds.

Green and Purple Kale and Cavalo Nero (Tuscan black cabbage)

October - November is the peak season for various cabbage soups and here is one from Portugal. The popular “caldo verde” or green broth, made with potato, couve de gallega or  kale and sausage. I have used leafy curly kale cabbage, but if that is not available, collard greens or Savoy cabbage will also do. Caldo verde is perfect since it is both puréed and has some pieces in it at the same time.

Curly Kale

Kale cabbage

Caldo Verde Recipe

Serves 4

2 l water

1-1.5kg potatoes

1 onion

500g of green (leafy) cabbage, kale

200-300g Portuguese linguiça, chorizo or other sausage

Salt

(bay leaf)

Heat the water in a large pot. Peel and cut the potatoes into cubes and boil.

Add chopped onion, some salt and optionally a bay leaf and cook until potato is soft. Remove the bay leaf. Purée the mix into smooth soup.

Separate the kale-cabbage leaves from the core and cut into very thin strips. Add the kale into the soup and cook at medium heat till cabbage is soft for ca 10 min.

Cut the sausage into slices and add to the soup. Simmer a few minutes together with the cabbage.

Choose the spicy sausage or spice up the soup with a bit of chilli powder when using mild sausages.

Some recipes advise to cook the kale separately; however I prefer that everything from the cabbage stays in the soup.

Caldo verde, Portugal

Serve hot.

Bom apetite!

Farmers´ Market in Autumn: Double Baked Potatoes

Farmers´ Market

Pumpkins in all colours, shapes and sizes

Brussels sprouts, winter vegetable

The produce at farmers market has changed from apricots and strawberries to pumpkins, cabbages, root vegetables, Brussels sprouts, apples and quince. Autumn has arrived and soon will make way for winter. One of the mushroom stands was not even there any more. Winter decoration arrangements have appeared alongside the chrysanthemums. Everything is transitory, everything changes.

Chrysanthemums bring colour to the autumn market

Flower arrangement "Winter is coming"

The city has changed colours too. People are wearing coats, hats and scarves. And rightly so. When it is cold outside, dress up warmly and everything is fine. That’s the way to survive the winter. The minus temperatures are not too far.

Colourful Autumn

Swiss walnuts - yes, locally grown

It is good to see that the tourist season continues even though the summer is over. Hearing English from both sides of the Atlantic, Spanish, German… Those visiting the city on a Saturday are lucky to see the busy farmers´ market and try some of the local fruit, apple juice, cheeses or pastry.

I love potatoes in every season, but now some oven baked potatoes just feel right as a great tasting source of energy.

Double Baked Potatoes

The main ingredient are big potatoes, the filling can be made with different ingredients at hand.

Chanterelle filling on the left, pumkin-bacon on the right

6 big potatoes

A slice of pumpkin cut into big chunks

Oil (rapeseed or olive oil)

Salt

6 Bacon slices, cut into small pieces

Chives, finely chopped

100g grated cheese

Wash the potatoes very well. Poke the potatoes with a fork a few times so the steam can escape during the cooking process. Roll the potatoes lightly in oil and spread some salt on the skin. If you put the potatoes in the aluminium foil they will cook quicker but will not build a crispy skin. In the preheated oven bake the potatoes at 180-190C until they are soft. When the knife goes into the potato easily it is ready. The baking time varies depending on the size of the potatoes, ca. 45min – 1hr.

Put the pumpkin chunks in aluminium foil, drizzle a little oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook in the oven together with the potatoes for 20 min. Check every now and then that they don’t burn at the bottom.

On a dry pan fry the bacon pieces, fat will sizzle out.

Grate the cheese.

When the potatoes are ready, halve them with a knife. Carve out some of the potato with a teaspoon. Mix this with a little cheese, bacon bits, soft pumpkin, and chives and re-fill the potato halves. Spread more cheese on top.

Do this with all potatoes and return the halves into the oven for ca 15 minutes until the cheese has melted.

Serve with chives and fresh salad leaves.

Double Baked Potatoes

 Try also a mushroom filling, any mushrooms are good. Sauté the chopped mushrooms in a pan, add some salt and mix with the baked potato, cheese and chives like above with baked pumpkin and bacon bits.

Mushroom Risotto Recipe

There are two mushroom stands at the farmers´market in my town. One sells local Swiss and French mushrooms, the other one sells imported mushrooms and locally grown mushrooms (eg champignons). One can find cheaper Lithuanian chanterelles (French: girolles) at the second stand whilst the local and French prices are often 3-4 times pricier. If you are after very high quality, the local mushrooms, even though expensive, are really top and the variety in the best mushroom season is sufficient in 6-8 different types.

Wild yellow chanterelles (German: Gelbe Pfifferlinge)

A handful of a mix of wild and industrially grown mushrooms, another of yellow chanterelles and perhaps one of black chanterelles? Well, the black ones I did not get any more since the two ladies before me bought the last ones of the season. How unlucky! Now I have to wait till next year.
Despite different information that is around about the nutritional value of the mushrooms ranging from none at all to mushrooms contain some useful elements they do taste wonderful and look nice too.

Mushroom risotto

Mushroom risotto for two

200g mushrooms, as whole if smaller in size or sliced, but not into a thin mash
a knob of butter
salt


2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
200g risotto rice (Carnaroli) (I measure ca. 5 handfuls)
1dl of white wine
1 l of bouillon
50g parmesan
20g butter

Heat the oil in a high pan and cook the onions for a few minutes until glassy. Add the rice to the onions.Cook and stir for another few minutes before adding the wine. Let the wine evaporate. Turn down the heat to medium. Keep the hot bouillon close and start adding it to the rice in small quantities. Let the liquid cook away before adding another small quantity. Stir and keep adding the bouillon slowly ladle by ladle. Taste to see how done the rice is. It should still have some bite and not become too soft. Al dente is the appropriate donness, usually after 15-18 minutes of cooking.

In the meanwhile when the risotto is cooking take another pan, place the cleaned dry mushrooms on the pan and cook at medium-high heat until the mushrooms let out the water. When the water has evaporated add a knob of butter and some salt and sauté the mushrooms for 5 minutes.

To finish the risotto add the parmesan and the butter and stir vigoroulsy till the butter has melted. Serve hot.

Wild mushroom risotto

Dutch Delight: Mustard Soup

I visit Holland quite often.Reflecting on Estonia and The Netherlands three commonalities jump to mind:
- Everyone - children and grown-ups - drinks milk and/or sour milk. In Holland many companies even provide free milk and sour milk to their employees.
- Flat landscape: the highest points above sea level of the two countries are 318m in Estonia and 322m in the Netherland.
- Potatoes are widely grown and eaten.

Etymologically, I find the small Low Countries at the North sea highly complex: The official name of the country is The Netherlands, everyone calls this country Holland (official name of two provinces) and they speak Dutch. Three totally different words for something close in meaning. Compare to Estonia and the Estonian language (Eesti and eesti keel) or Germany and German (Deutschland and deutsch).

A brief summary of my observations of the recent trip is here.

1. KLM seems to be rather behind in serving healthy and fresh food to their passangers compared to some other airlines. On short flights (1.5h) they offer a choice of a sweet packaged biscuit or savoury packaged cheese wafer balls. My advice to them, please stop serving these cheese balls and rather serve nothing at all...or better a traditional caramel wafer.The fact that the balls with a type of wafer cover hiding a hardened fat mixture with some sort of cheese or milk powder, salt and basically nothing worth putting in your mouth are called Delicious Dutch makes it rather grotesque.
In comparison, Swiss offer sandwiches they claim are "made on the same day" and Finnair who despite their frequent strikes have put some effort in and changed to rather tasty and "green" airline food.

Dutch wafers with syrup or caramel. Leave one on a hot tea or coffee cup and enjoy!

Dutch soft raisin buns

2. There are many many traditional Dutch foods I like. This time I enjoyed soft raisin buns, croquetten (deep fried, made of mashed potato and pork), cheese with cumin seeds, mustard soup.

Cod with artichoke, mashed potato mousse, mustard condiment

3. Everything is very narrow in Amsterdam, streets, windows, doors. No wonder as more than 16 million people must fit onto an area smaller than Estonia. Estonia has only 1.3 million inhabitants. People working in the capital are moving further out where there is more space. Around Amsterdam there are a few newly built towns. I stayed at Lelystad and had a dinner in a small cosy restaurant or rather an eating house "Eethuisje de Gordiaan". One can find many good restaurants across Holland, also in smaller towns and villages, serving most wonderful very high quality food. The fresh cod with artichokes, mustard condiment and potato mousse made my evening.

Fair Trade breakfast jam: reduce the container size or serve from a jar

4. Another grotesque finding was a half-empty plastic container with a teaspoonful of breakfast jam from Fair Trade in it. Maybe going half the way is better than nothing ... wondering.

5. Here is my version of  mustard soup. Mustard soup is a traditional Dutch delight. (this one has been inspired by Carlton President hotel. Normally the soup is yellow.)

Makes 3 - 4 portions

1 onion, chopped
20g butter
1 Big potato
1.25 l water
a few cubes of frozen spinach (traditionally not included)
Salt
2-3 tablespoons of grainy mustard
2 table spoons creme fresh or fresh cheese
bacon strips
chives

Cook the onion in butter until glassy. Add potato cubes, sauté and stir a few minutes more. Add water and a pinch of salt and cook till potato is soft. Add spinach and mustard and cook till the soup is boiling, then take off the heat and purée into a smooth soup. Return to heat,  add crème fresh or fresh cheese and bring to boil stirring the soup.
Fry the bacon slices in a dry pan on both sides until crispy. Take out of the pan onto the kitchen paper to suck in the excess fat.
Serve it hot and garnish with chopped chives and bacon.

Mustard Soup with Spinach

Homage to Cranberry: Cranberry Dessert - Pink Semolina

My grandparents had 6 children. My Grandfather knew and got by in three languages without having studied the foreign languages at school. He just picked them up from newspapers and people around. Due to the political situation these languages that life presented to him were Estonian, Russian and German. A sentence spoken at the wrong time or in the presence of wrong audience brought him to prison and eventually my Grandfather was lost in the devastating hurricane of the war. I admire my Grandmother for bringing up her six children alone. These were not easy times.

No matter the hardship of the time or the (un)availability or (un)affordability of food, children always want something sweet. Here is how the cranberries come to play and why I would like to pay homage to this red berry from the moorlands.

After picking cranberries drying on a towel. Easier to clean out the dry debris

Firstly, picking them from the nature was and still is free.
Secondly, they are easy to preserve. Since sugar was less available in the first half of the last century it was not always possible to preserve berries and fresh fruit in jams and marmelades as these required a lot of sugar. There weren´t any freezers around like now to store fresh berries for months. Cranberries are easy to preserve in glass jars (3 liter, 5 liter or even 10 liter jars) in water in a cellar.
Thirdly, cranberries are full of vitamin C and massive other useful elements.
Fourthly, most importantly, cranberries make an excellent dessert that is very popular in Estonia. It has many names: "jõhvikavaht" (literally cranberry foam), "mannavaht" (semolina foam), "roosamanna" (pink semolina), "roosapuder" (pink porridge), got to be more... Given that the Estonian language is not extensively rich in synonyms (unlike the English language for example) the fact that this dessert has more than one or even two names speaks for itself.

To add to its popularity I have to mention a tool that existed in the old days and was used to make this dessert and maybe also to beat eggs or something else. It was called "püürüs" in the South Estonian dialect. "Püürüs" is a stick with three or four "branches" at the bottom, made of wood, suitably from a branch of a tree. Yes, a whisk, as it would be known now. The one that my other Grandmother who lived in the countryside had and made the cranberry foam for my father and his two siblings still exists in the "family museum".

So this dessert was one that was inexpensive, could be made fresh also in winter when no cranberries were available from the nature, and did not require a lot of sugar, but still provided the much desired sweet joy and happiness to the post war children.

Measuring cranberries - 2 large handfuls for 1.5l water

This dessert has stood the test of times and has not gone out of fashion. It is well loved by Estonian children and grownups. The real foodies and fans of fresh home cooking still go and pick the cranberries themselves in the moor in autumn. The easy alternative is to buy the cranberries on the market or in winter in the frozen form. It can even be bought ready made portion-wise in the supermarket.
This dessert is best served with cold milk poured on top of the pink semolina foam.

Cranberry Dessert  - Pink Semolina Foam Recipe
1.5 liters water
300-400ml cranberries (two large handfuls)
280-300g sugar
80-100g fine wheat semolina

Heat the water in a pot, add the cranberries and cook until the cranberries start to pop open. Use a lid to avoid spillage on your apron. Cook for about 10 minutes. When the berries are soft use a wooden spoon to press them against the side of the pot to get out as much juice as possible.
Pour the juice through a sieve and again press the berries against the sieve.
I put the skins back in the pot and bring to boil with a little water to rinse them through once more.
Sieve the second juice as well. Discard the empty and dry skins and return all the juice into the pot.
Add the sugar, let it melt. Taste. If not sweet enough add more sugar.
Slowly spoon the semolina into the juice stirring all the time. Bring to boil, then turn down the heat. Cook till the semolina has thickened the juice. It should be medium thick (slightly thicker than liquid honey).
Taste again.
Take off the heat and let it cool to luke warm. If you are in a hurry cooling the pot on the balcony or in a cold water bath will help speed things up.
Now take the hand mixer (electric is best or you need strong hands to make the next step with a whisk) and mix it until the semi-hard semolina porridge turns its colour from red to creamy pink, sometimes even almost whitish, the volume doubles and it takes a thick foamy consistency. (I had to stop and cool my mixer a couple of times)
Leave to cool (in the fridge) overnight or at least till completely cold. When it is not cold it tastes more sour. Serving it with cold milk is the traditional way, but could be eaten without milk should you be allergic to it.

 Cranberry Dessert: Pink Semolina Foam With Milk  (Jõhvika-mannavaht)

Frightening figs? ......Fresh figs with feta cheese

When the fresh figs started to be more freely available for me in countries further north from Turkey I hesitated for years before I was ready to buy them. Not sure why exactly. The figs were foreign, not a normal fruit for me. Perhaps one of the reasons was that I was not sure if the skin was edible or not. I knew that the dried figs were eaten as whole, but somehow the fresh fig looked different, delicate under the dark skin. At one point I got over my fear of raw figs and dared to try.
Or maybe it was the awe towards the act of cutting that strange fruit. Taking a fig that seems kind of alive due to its softness, setting the knife to the fruit and making the cut into it feels like performing a surgical procedure. Cut into the purple-brown skin and you are facing an amazing dark pinkish red "muscle", cut deeper into the moist and succulent flesh...
The fig with sweet seedy inside and the smooth neutral cool thick skin makes it a perfect ingredient in desserts as well as in savoury pairing with cheese or thinly cut cured ham. Dared to try and the fresh figs have become a desirable treat whenever they are in season and I see the ripe bulging fruits on the shelves of good food stores.

Fresh Figs with Feta Cheese, a Very Simple Recipe
For a light lunch or a starter per person take 4-5 ripe figs, cut into quarters.
Cut 100g of feta cheese into cubes,
season with oregano and/or thyme and add some olive oil to the cheese.
Let the cheese rest in the oil for 15 minutes to take up the flavour from the herbs.
Serve with crusty bread or toast. 
Parma ham, jamon iberico or any cured meat tastes good in combination too.

Fresh Turkish Figs with Feta Cheese

Experiment - 1: Chicken Breasts

The past couple of weekends I have been busy cooking some recipes from  my colleagues to make original pictures for a charity cookbook. Today I was making Stefan´s (Mom´s) chicken recipe. Buying the ingredients an idea hit me and I decided to test if there was any difference between cheap and expensive. I had a choice of three different types of chicken breasts: a budget or value line version (did not check the origin, but assume it was imported meat), a "Classic" version in the middle price range (import from Hungary and 41% more expensive than value line) and a local Swiss version which was the most expensive, 55% more expensive than the middle price option. The lable of the latter did mention that it was from a farmer X, but did not explicitly say that the meat was freerange or Bio. I did not see any Bio-product.
My experiment continued on a culinary level.
Appearance: Other than the fact that the medium price range breasts were a little smaller there was no significant difference. It can well be that I chose a smaller packet with smaller pieces. Therefore I don´t consider the size a deficiency in the raw meat.I consider it a draw, 1:1.
I continued with the recipe. I decided to cook both meats exactly in the same way.
Braised the chicken breasts, cut the vegetables and sauteed them in another pan, made the sauce with cream, seasoned with salt, pepper and spicy paprika, then everything into a gratin pan and into the oven.
After about 45 minutes all prep was done, the chicken was out of the oven and I was arranging the food for the picture. Finally it was time to sit and eat. I was very excited and to be perfectly honest I was expecting to taste no difference at all.
Texture: The first bite of the cheaper meat was full of flavour of the sauce and chicken...but it was a bit dry and the bite a bit hard to my disappointment. OK, let´s try the other more expensive one. And next I was eating a strong texture...but much more tender. 2:1 for the more expensive chicken.
Next up was taste: Both had a good chicken taste and an equally creamy and seasoned taste of the dish. 3:2.
In conclusion: The overall experience was better with the more expensive chicken, however one data point is not enough to have a convincing conclusion from the culinary side.
Of course if you add to the equasion the long haul and more diesel required to transport the imported meat to the consumer one could argue on the sustainability front as well and the score would rise to 4:2 for the more expensive breast.
I might just try out the budget version out of culinary interest, but I guess on the sustainability level that probably loses out.

More expensive local chicken on the left, mid price range import on the right

Fresh Tagliatelle with Chanterelle mushrooms

Christmas came early this year. I had wished the pasta machine from Santa but turns out he sent it 6 months early for my birthday. :-)
So I have made my first tagliatelle and cannelloni, even ravioli, once, trying out different thicknesses and levels of rolling lengthwise and across, the pasta dough with and without olive oil, with large eggs and medium eggs, ...much more still to try and master.
One thing is clear, making your own pasta is not so difficult at all and it tastes really great. I doubt that I will be buying fresh pasta from a shop any time soon.
Now is mushroom time and therefore a very simple but still delicate recipe with the lovely yellow chanterelles or Eierschwämmli as they are known in Switzerland. In Estonian they are called "kukeseened" - in direct translation "cock´s mushrooms".

Fresh Pasta Recipe
300g wheat flour, durum wheat, if possible
3 medium eggs
1 teaspoon of olive oil
a small pinch of salt

Put the flour on the working table and make a hole in the middle. Break the eggs into the hole, add the oil and a little salt. Now start working with a fork from the middle mixing the eggs with the flour into a dough. Knead for a few minutes with your hands. If the dough is sticky, slightly wet your palm(s) with cold water and pat the water from your palms into the dough. Cover with the plastic film and leave to rest in the fridge for 30-60 minutes.

Set up the pasta rolling machine and spread some flour around the workspace. Roll from the widest towards the thinner width. At the widest level roll a handful of dough once, then fold twice and roll again lengthwise or fold into three and roll across. Roll a couple of times in the next width as well. Then follow through the other widths. I find #2 or #3 a suitable width for my tagliatelle. #1 feels too thin with a sauce. On the other part of the machine cut the thin pasta sheets into tagliatelle, drop into some flour to keep them from sticking together and spread the tagliatelle on kitchen towels. They may dry there until it´s time to boil the pasta.
Before boiling the pasta, prepare the sauce as the pasta needs only a few minutes. Set a big pot with water to boil. Add a teaspoon of salt into the water before it starts to boil.

Chanterelle Mushroom Sauce
600g chanterelles
20-30g butter
500ml fresh cream
salt and pepper
chives or flat parlsey

In the meanwhile clean the chanterelles from any soil or other unnecessary parts and particles. If necessary cut the bigger mushrooms into smaller pieces.
Set a sautee pan to the heat and put the chanterelles into an empty pan. Stir a few rounds and cook the mushrooms until the water comes out and evaporates before adding the butter. Sautee for a few minutes until the mushrooms start to brown a little. Add the cream and season with salt and black pepper. Cook the sauce for 5 minutes, then take off the heat.

Now the water is simmering. Don´t let it bubble, otherwise the pasta will be too soft.Cook the pasta for 2-3 minutes, but be careful not to over cook them. Rinse the tagliatelle, sprinkle some olive oil on pasta to avoid sticking and immediately mix the pasta with the sauce.
Garnish with chopped chives or parsley.

Fresh pasta with fresh chanterelle mushrooms

Food From the Forest - 2: Wild Mushrooms (Mushroom salad, Spinach-Chanterelles Soup, Mushroom "Burger")

September is mushroom holiday time. As minimum, I try to go pick mushrooms twice, preferably three times or more.It is great that a lot of the forest is state owned and everyone can walk freely and pick what the forest is offering. Depending on the season it can be blackberries or lingonberries in summer or mushrooms mainly in autumn. The location knowledge of the good places are passed on from generation to generation and between friends.

A selection of this year´s mushroom findings

There is something unexplainable about the wild mushrooms and Estonians. Every year masses of people want to go to the forest and when they get their baskets full of mushrooms they are filled with joy and happiness. Even just thinking about going to the forest and reminiscing about a previous successful trip brings a smile on their faces and creates lots of positive happy hormones. If you are looking for a conversation topic with often very reserved and quiet Estonians, wild mushrooms would be a good topic to engage in. Most people would talk enthusiastically about their trips, good and bad crops in different years and cooking-eating the mushrooms. Others would have an equally emotional view about why they don´t do it (afraid of insects, picking the poisonous ones, getting lost).

Wild mushrooms in Estonia

The most preferred activities in all the mushroom business is:
1. The trip to the forest and picking the mushrooms, definitely the most enjoyable activity
2. Eating the mushroom, very enjoyable too
3. Cooking for immediate eating, not bad
4. Cleaning mushrooms from the forest debris and sorting by type and size for cooking, must do
5. Preserving the mushrooms, more work
6. Writing the date of making and contents on the can, least enjoyable work

(Note: we are talking baskets full quantities here, not a handful or two) 

The 2011 South Estonia wild mushroom crop has been all right, but far from a bumper crop. In fact, it is even better so since a "bumper crop" means that the top enjoyable activity on my list of preference would be very brief and there would be no need to go for a second walk-around in the forest. In reality there is no real need to go anyway as it is a challenge to eat all the harvest.
Some mushrooms can be just sauteed and so to say eaten fresh, the others need to be boiled first. The latter are typically put into glass jars for winter and preserved in a highly salty water. Some smaller button size mushrooms are marinated in vinegar-salt-sugar-onion-carrot-spices (pepper corns, cloves)- mix and preserved.

Yellow Chanterelles /" Kukeseened " Estonia

A wild mushroom common for many countries is the yellow chanterelle or "kukeseen" in Estonian or "Eierschwämmli" in Swiss German or "Pfifferling" in German.

The following is a well known mushroom salad amongst many Estonians: (Makes 4 as a starter)

2 handfuls of boiled fleshy mushrooms or salted from 0.5 liter can in winter
Half or a whole small onion
2 boiled eggs
(optional: 1-2 medium fresh tomatoes)
3-4 tablespoons sour cream and/or mayonnaise
Black pepper
Fresh dill or parsley 

Wild Mushroom Salad / Estonia

If using the preserved mushrooms, soak them in cold water overnight in the fridge, changing the water a few times. If the mushrooms still taste salty you may boil them in plain water to get the salt out and cool down before proceeding.
Chop the mushrooms into small pieces. Chop the onion very thinly. If you wish to have a lighter version of the salad cut one or two medium size tomatoes into small pieces too.
Chop the boiled egg into approximately same size as mushrooms. Leave some egg yolk for garnish.
Mix everything with sour cream and/ or mayonnaise depending on your preference. Add some black pepper. Since the mushrooms have salt in them already there is usually no need to add more. Taste and garnish with some boiled egg yolk and dill or parsley.


A warm starter adapted from a soup I ate at Ratskeller restaurant in Munich, Germany:
Cream spinach soup with chanterelles (Makes 4):

Spinach soup with chanterelles

500g frozen spinach
250ml of light fresh cream (10% fat)
0.75 liter water
nutmeg, salt, black pepper
2 handfuls of fresh chanterelle mushrooms (Some other fresh mushrooms can be used too. Estonian: värsked kuuse- või porgandiriisikad sobivad ka)
a knob of butter

Drop the spinach into the boiling water, let it melt on medium-high heat and come back to boil. Using a mixer or a blender puree the spinach into a very smooth consistency. Add salt and a little grated nutmeg or black pepper. Add the cream and bring to boil again.

In the meanwhile cut the fresh mushrooms into small bite size pieces, smaller chanterelles do not require chopping. Put the mushrooms into a hot pan without the butter. Heat and cook them until water comes out and evaporates from the pan. Now add the knob of butter and a little salt to taste and sautee the mushrooms for 5-10 minutes.
Serve the soup hot with a couple of tablespoonfuls of sauteed mushrooms per portion.

For a main dish some seriously sizzling Mushroom-minced meat "Burgers" will fill the bellies. I struggled to find the appropriate word for these half meat - half mushroom burger resembling but smaller pieces of what the Estonians call "kotletid" or the Germans call "Frikadellen". In essence they also resemble the Swedish meatballs, but are bigger and flatter.

500g of ground beef and pork mix (German: Hackfleisch gemischt)
400-500g of ground cooked mushrooms
1 onion, ground in the mincer or chopped very thinly
1 clove of garlic, ground in the mincer or chopped very thinly
salt
pepper
2 eggs
3-4 tablespoons flour
cooking oil (neutral rapeseed or sunflower are better than strong tasting olive oil)

Grind the meat, mushrooms, onion and garlic in the mincer or food processor till quite smooth. Add salt and pepper. Taste, before adding the raw eggs (salmonella risk). Mix everything with the eggs. Then add the flour. Mix everything well. Leave to settle in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Make palm size balls and press them a little flatter.
You may need to wet the palms a bit to reduce the mixture sticking to the palms.
Heat some cooking oil in a pan. Fry the "burgers" in the oil for about 5 minutes on both sides on medium heat. Taste the first one that seems ready. Now is a good time to make any adjustments to the remaining "dough" on taste or add more flour if it breaks too easily or check the donness and adjust the time or temperature of cooking.
Eat with potatoes, salad, bread or just like that.

Mushroom "burgers" / Seenekotletid