Fighting the cold with soup and Spice: Spicy Sweet Potato Soup

The first snow this year

The weather forecast projected a rough drop in temperatures. The synoptics were right. The constant rain turned into snow last night and the trees are now bearing the heavy weight of 24 hours of snowfall. The lamp posts are wearing white chefs´ hats. I am not complaining at all. It is rare to have snow in town here, therefore I am happy for every moment when I see the snow falling.

The snow kept falling and falling...

This snow really came unexpected and like the cars I was still wearing "summer tyres" yesterday. Fortunately it only took me a few minutes to find my winter wear. What annoys me is if I am not dressed properly and feel the cold drilling its way into the bones.
In this situation the best is to rush to the grocery store, buy a chicken, some veggies and put the pot on to make chicken soup. Already the ancient Greeks considered that food was medicine and medicine was food.

Kaffir lime, I wish the photo could project the aroma

As a quick profylactic - while the chicken was simmering - I reached for ginger, chilli and lime (the green one). The cold is guaranteed to be replaced by a flame in the stomach and blush on the cheeks. If you can get hold of a kaffir lime, try this. Kaffir limes, like kaffir lime leaves, have a very specific aroma and taste.

Sweet potatoes

Spicy Sweet Potato Soup
Ingredients for 2:

2 tbsp cooking oil (eg. rape seed)
1 medium-small onion, chopped
2 sweet potatoes, cut into 1cm cubes
1 carrot, cut into 1cm cubes
(0.5dl white wine, optional)
1 tsp of freshly grated ginger
0.5 kaffir lime (or 0.5 standard green lime and a kaffir lime leaf)
1 chilli pod or spicy peperoncino
0.5 l stock or water
1dl fresh cream (eg. 15% fat content)
salt to taste
fresh parsley or coriander, finely chopped

Cooked sweet potatoes and spices

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onions for a few minutes, then add the sweet potatoes and the carrot cubes. Cook at medium heat for ca 5 minutes, stirring every now and then. If you have some white wine at hand splash ca 5dl and let it evaporate. Then add the grated ginger, juice of the kaffir lime, the chilli or peperoncino pod as well as the "empty" lime peel and the stock or water. Cook at medium heat for 15-20 minutes until the vegetables are soft.

Puree with the hand mixer, at low heat mix in the fresh cream and taste. Add salt if necessary.
Serve with chopped parsley or coriander.

Spicy sweet potato soup

Food waste statistics: reduce bread waste with Bread Pudding

Every year the 16th October is World Food Day.

In January 2012 shocking statistics were published by European Union about the millions of truck loads of food wasted every year. Foodwaste.ch statistics about Switzerland say that 2 million tons of food go to waste every year in Switzerland, a third of all food produced.

Statisctics about US: 33 million tons wasted in 2009. New York Yimes article  That Crooked Carrot is Also Food pointed out that the solution to cure the world hunger should be through reducing waste not (just) increasing agricultural yields per hectar.

In the UK 15 million tons are wasted every year according to Love food hate waste
The biggest loss happens in housholds and end consumer level - about 50% of all food waste.

Occasionally I have more bread at home than I can eat while it is still fresh. This is a sign that soon I will be eating my long time favourite bread pudding. I store the rests of old or surplus bread in the fridge to keep it from moulding.

Bread pudding with plum jam

Bread Pudding
I use this super easy recipe when I have a good handful of hard bread accumulated in my fridge.
It is difficult to give exact amounts of ingredients. The amounts depend on how much old bread you have.

Ingredients:
old bread (300g)
jam, any kind (150g)
egg(s) (2 whole eggs)
milk (1-2dl)
sugar (1 tbsp)
butter, optional (20g)

The basic instructions are:
Set the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Cut the old bread into ca. 1.5-2cm cubes
Choose a baking dish to allow 2 layers of the bread cubes. If you have a lot of bread you can layer as many as fits in the form. 
Cover the bottom of the baking dish with one layer of bread cubes.
Spread jam on the bread cubes to more or less cover the bottom layer. It is impossible to cover exactly all cubes and this is not necessary. Depending on the consistency of the jam just dollop a few tablespoons of jam and spread it around a bit. It does not have to be perfect.
Arrange the rest of the cubes into the baking form. If you like a sweeter dish, fill some empty spaces between the cubes with more jam.
Whisk the egg(s) with a fork to combine the egg white and yolk, add the sugar and milk, mix and melt the sugar. Pour the egg-milk mixture on the bread cubes and lightly press the bread to absorb the liquid. The bottom layer should be covered with the liquid.
For extra touch of luxury place 3-4 small knobs (2 cm) of butter on top of everything.

Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes until the bread on the top turns crisp and slightly browned.

We used to eat this dessert with milk. I would place a portion of the bread pudding into a bowl and pour milk over it and eat. I still eat it with milk when the pudding has turned cold. It is totally OK to eat it warm. Anyway I can´t wait until it turns cold and I enjoy the crusty cubes from the top layer and the soft jammy ones from the bottom straight hot from the oven. Pairs well with a cup of coffee too.

Bread and Jam Pudding

Who or what are toast soldiers?

English breakfast table, nice silverware, a cup of tea and toast soldiers

The modern technology makes it so easy to participate live in a feast with friends in another country or with a few minutes delay we see an exact snapshot of what´s on the plate of our foodie friends 1000km away.

This morning I had a "virtual" traditional breakfast in Durrants Hotel, in a 18th century building in central London. Old school. The toast was presented in the classic English way as toast "soldiers" for dipping in the soft boiled egg (4 to 5 minutes cooking).

My dear colleague and friend Mark who invited me to this breakfast said that as children they were encouraged to eat boiled eggs with toast soldiers - strips cut to fit an egg. They are sort of at attention like a guardsman.

Although children tend to eat like this - it is sweet to see that grown men are still served their toast soldiers, they never grow up! And that is brilliant!

Leek and potato soup with blue Stilton

Stilton is a town in Cambridgeshire in England. It is said that the travellers who were staying at the Bell Inn in Stilton made good word-to-mouth advertising to the cheese they were served at the inn on the Great Northern Road. But the Stilton is not from Stilton even though Stilton may have given the name to the famous Stilton.  It is said that in the early 18th century the owner of the Bell Inn "imported" it from a cheesemaker´s in a village in Leicestershire. Stilton cheese has the Protected Designation of Origin seal and it may only be produced in Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire and only local milk may be used.

Blue Stilton cheese

Blue Stilton is best made out of the summer milk, mature for 12 weeks and is said to reach the culinary climax in November. Blue Stilton is sometimes served with port. Cooking this soup with port instead of white wine gives the soup the sweet slightly noticeable taste of the port.

Blue Stilton sold in a lovely little container

Leek and Potato Soup with Blue Stilton

Ingredients for 2

2 tbsp rape seed oil
200g leek, the white part, halved and chopped
2 medium potatoes, cut in small cubes
0.5dl white portwine
0.7 l vegetable or chicken stock
0.5dl fresh cream
30g blue Stilton cheese

Leek and potato soup with blue Stilton

Heat the oil, add the leeks and cook until the leek turns soft. Splash in the white port wine and cook until the wine has almost evaporated. Then add the potatoes and stock and cook until the potatoes are soft. Puree with the handmixer. Add the cream. Taste for salt. Take off the heat and serve with crumbles of blue Stilton on top. The cheese will melt rather quickly and give the soup its final taste.

Blue Stilton cheese and port lift up the leek

Beetroot cinnamon rolls

The 4th of October is the national cinnamon roll day or "Kanelbullens Dag" in Sweden. I am a great fan of cinnamon rolls and all kinds of baking creations made with cinnamon. The Cinnamon Roll Day is celebrated every year at the Swedish Embassy in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. Surely this builds great relations between the two countries.

I believe that all Estonians who have read Astrid Lindgren´s Karlsson stories remember how he wrote on the wall to the housekeeper Hildur Bock or Husbocken (Est. Majasokk, English translation Housegoat) "There should be more cinnamon in your damn expensive rolls " (Sinu neetult kallites saiades peaks olema rohkem kaneeli)! Quite right! I have never eaten a cinnamon roll with too much cinnamon in it.

The cinnamon rolls are very popular in the Northern countries of Europe, Estonia included. The memory of the warm buttery cinnamon rolls coming out of the oven is one that stays in the mind for ever and just a thought about these rolls makes people smile. It is difficult, I would say impossible, to eat just one of the freshly baked rolls.

Cinnamon rolls, a favourite of millions northerners

I thought to celebrate this year´s cinnamon roll day a little differently, with pink rolls.

Beetroot cinnamon rolls

Ingredients for the dough:
300g flour
70g sugar
20g fresh yeast
1dl warm milk
1 egg
75g soft butter
a pinch of salt
a pinch of ground cardamom
1 small raw beetroot, finely grated (ca 100-120g)

The filling:
70g soft butter
sugar
cinnamon

Mix the yeast with warm milk. Place the flour and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add the warm milk with yeast, the egg, soft butter, a pinch of salt and the other of cardamom. Add the grated beetroot. Mix the ingredients together until a homogeneous dough is formed.

Cover the bowl with a teatowel and keep it in a warm place (avoid draft!) for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in volume.

Be generous with the filling

Spread some flour on the working table and place the dough in the flour. Roll the dough so that it is covered loosely with flour to avoid sticking to the table. Spread the dough or use the rolling pin to form just about 1cm thick layer. Spread the soft butter more or less evenly on the dough, sprinkle with sugar and as much cinnamon as you like. It is better for the final outcome to be generous with the filling.

An way of non-sticky baking

Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

Leave rolls to raise a little more

Roll the dough lengthwise into a long roulade and cut ca 3cm pieces.
Please them on a baking tray covered with baking paper or use the muffin tray. I used small pieces of baking paper in the muffin tray to avoid sticking. Leave under a teatowel for 20 minutes to raise for the second time.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Cinnamon rolls with beetroot

Related posts:
Cinnamon loaf

Carrot soup with courgette and salmon

Carrot soup with courgette (zucchini) and salmon

It finally hit my brain when I was walking around the farmers´market that the summer is gone. All signs were there: quince had appeared on some counters, the choice of tomatoes had more than halved, winter cabbages like cavalo negro and kale were on sale, at one stand I heard the saleswoman explain to a puzzled customer that "the season for basil is over"....How did it happen that the basil season totally passed this year before I had stocked up with fresh pesto? Oh well, the supermarket sells basil all year round and that will get me through winter ...probably at the cost of a higher carbon footprint.

Quince, an autumn and winter fruit

The shoppers were trying to fit under the roofs of the stands with their umbrellas and apologising to the other dripping customers. It was pouring for hours and the amount of daylight stayed below 5 on a scale of 10 the whole day.  I was looking forward to a lazy afternoon in front of the telly and the 5-DVD set of a Danish thriller I borrowed from my friend last weekend.

Kale, only available in autumn and winter at the market

At that dismal, sort of Wagnerian Melancholia market I was thinking Soup! Something bright and orange. I had bought 2 kilos of bio carrots at a good deal earlier in the week. Perfect starting point for my new favourite soup of this autumn. A bowl of carrot soup with courgette and salmon is a low fat but belly filling option for lunch or supper for the days when you just wish for a soup that you can bite into. I am a great fan of smooth cream soups, but equally on other days the soup just needs to be a bit more solid.

And a little fat must be. I am glad that fat helps me to get the vitamin A out of the carrots into my body but more importantly the small golden shiny bubbles that glisten on the surface act like a promise of a great meal and produce zillion of happy hormones before I have even taken a bite. The soup is ready in about half an hour. I can manage that after a long working day and still have a freshly made great tasing meal.

Carrot Soup with courgette (zucchini) and salmon
Ingredients for 2

500g carrots, cut into cubes
0.5l stock (or water + 1 cube bouillon)
1 whole yellow peperoncini or a chilli pod
0.5 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 medium courgette, cut into cubes
250g fresh salmon, cut in 2 cm cubes
2-3 tbsp fresh cream

Bring the water to boil, add the bouillon, carrots, peperoncini and grated ginger. Cook on medium heat until the carrots are soft. Take a few table spoons of carrots out and put aside for later. Remove the peperoncini. Purée the carrots. Taste for salt and spice. Add the courgette cubes and cook for a couple of minutes. Then add the salmon and cream. Continue cooking on low -medium heat for a few minutes. Be careful not to cook too long as the salmon will become chewy and courgette too soft.

If you don´t have fresh fish, try frozen white fish filet. Cut into cubes and add to the carrot purée before the courgette but still be caucious not to over cook the fish. Adding the frozen fish would cool down the soup, so bringing it to boil and then adding the courgette for a few minutes more on the heat would be about right.

Carrot-courgette & fresh salmon soup

Related posts:
Caldo Verde, an autumn soup
Buying carrots

Manor Food Store in Geneva

Sourdough bread with raisins from Manor Food department store, Geneva

People develop favourites among restaurants they want to visit again and again, even go as far as taking a flight to another country to repeat a memorable eating experience. Likewise there are some food stores that appeal more than the others. For me one of those is at Manor department store in Geneva. That is the shop that I always try to visit, even if I am short of time. I wonder if it actually is the store with the widest choice in Switzerland.

Most food shopping in Swiss cities is done in two big retailers Coop and Migros. Many of my friends say that they have to shop at both as some things are not sold or are better in one, others better in the other store.

There is also Globus department store with a food floor that is upmarket and holds a range of more gourmet taste ingredients. David Lebovitz has described the Globus experience well.

I crave to wonder around the Manor Food store. It is like a drug, just a walk around has a healing and stimulating effect to the food side of my brain.

Their fresh bread assortment is rich with sourdough breads, rolls, baguettes, loaves of all sorts. Every time I visit I MUST buy the pain au levain with raisins. The freshly baked warm loaf is close to a meter long and weighs several kilos. You can show how long a piece you would like and they cut your "loaf" for you. Similar sourdough breads, all freshly baked, are also available with figs or apricots.

Pain au levain aux raisins

There was fresh octopus carpaccio sliced and packed in appetizer size portions. I´ve not seen that sold anywhere else in Switzerland. The fresh meat offering ranged from numerous sorts of birds in different cuts or whole birds, ribs that seemed to have enough meat on the bone for juicy rib roast or BBQ. People who enjoy liver and other inner organs would find at Manor whatever the recipe requires. Even brain, I saw.

For the sushi lovers there is now an even bigger counter for sushi, freshly made at the store. Dim sum and other Asian bites can be bought there too.

All foodies, Manor Food and department store is five minutes from Central Station at:
Rue Cornavin 6
1201 Genève

Related posts:
Sourdough bread, a beginners experiment 

Food from the forest 3: Wild Mushroom Picking in Estonia - Mushroom Schnitzel

Pine forest in South Estonia

Back in the forest! Every autumn (and late summer) there are people in Estonia waiting impatiently for the peak season. The feeling is totally comparable to the feeling that people in Switzerland experience for the ski season.  The weather conditions are being discussed at length, the prospect of the season, any issues and successes shared with friends and family.

The national sport of picking wild mushrooms is part of the culinary year that culminates in September. The mushroom season gets a fair portion of media coverage in the newspapers and national TV through interviews with mushroom experts, commentary from the national forestry office, numerous new mushroom recipes get published, even the weather man in the morning wake up program started his weather talk about how he spent the weekend picking mushrooms and showed a couple of proof photos. Lots of fun and a topic that always guarantees a good feeling, even in a poor crop year that leaves you with a story about how someone walked around for hours and came home with 3 mushrooms to tell in the following year , khmm, I mean years...

2012 is a year of plenty in volume and in diversity of different kinds of mushrooms.

Rosites caperata (Lat.), Kitsemamplid (Est.)

Young Kitsemampel

 

One of them is called "Kitsemampel" in Estonian, its Latin name is Rosites caperata. The name is made of two parts: the first - kitse - means a goat's, the second - mampel - is a type of mushroom, (my current knowledge does not know how to translate this). Perhaps goats liked this type of mushrooms too.
Some mushrooms can be eaten simply sautéed like chanterelles or champignons or kitsemampels, others require pre-cooking in boiling water. Kitsemampel suits well for "schnitzel" or escalope.

Large Kitsemampel is good for schnitzel

Mushroom schnitzel
Ingredients for 2-3 portions

8 Bigger size flat shape mushrooms, Kitsemampel is a classic for this dish
1 large egg
0.5-1dl milk
0.5 cup plain flour
salt
pepper
frying oil (eg rape seed)

Lightly beat the egg with milk.
Clean the mushrooms from debris and sprinkle with salt and pepper and leave for ca 20 minutes. This brings out some liquid and that is useful to stick the flour to the surface. So, pat the mushrooms in the flour on a plate and then dip them through the egg mixture.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and place the mushrooms on the pan. Fry on medium heat until the mushrooms soften and the "schnitzel" takes on a nice golden colour, ca. 10-15 minutes. The frying time depends on the size of the mushrooms.

Serve with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, with sauteed potatoes or other vegetables or as a burger in a fresh bun.

Schnitzel from Kitsemampel mushrooms

More stories on Food from the Forest:
Estonian mushroom salad, spinach & chanterelle soup, Estonian mushroom burgers
Wild blueberry & ricotta cake, wild blueberry & banana smoothie
Wild blueberry soup with fluffy semolina dessert
Estonian cranberry dessert - pink semolina

Preparing for winter: Plum jam with black pepper

      

Home made plum jam with black pepper

If I had a choice of just one spice for the rest of my life it would have to be black pepper. Salt and black pepper for the savoury dishes and I could live with that. Assuming I could additionally have sugar for desserts that would leave room for an exciting playground. For a couple of years now, on and off, I have been flirting with black pepper in sweet combinations with great success to my taste. If the presence of chilli in a dessert would be recognisable as a striking soprano, then the black pepper has rather a lower voice, like alto, to perform in the choir.

I would characterise the black pepper in a dessert as deceptive in the beginning, luring around the corners and then explosive like a New Year´s fireworks, or in case of Switzerland rather like a 1^st of August fireworks. The Swiss National Day in the capital of the country ends with great privately sponsored fireworks in 6 scenes accompanied by special arrangement of music on a local radio channel. People gather in best viewing places, some bring their radios. But back to pepper, the mouthful of the dessert starts sweet followed by a flash of “what was that?” and the surprise kicks the palate at the end leaving the eater open eyed thinking let me try again to see what just happened, again and again...

Plum Jam

Plum jam with black pepper

1.2 kg plums, remove the stones and cut into small(er) pieces (Zwetschgen in Swiss German)

1 kg of sugar or special marmalade sugar

1-2 tbsp freshly ground black pepper or vary to your taste

Wash and prepare the fruit, bring to boil with sugar and boil for ca 5 minutes until fruit is soft. Follow the instructions on the pack if using the special marmalade sugar.

Remove the foam. At the end stir in the black pepper.

Fill the glasses and close with the lids while still hot.

Related posts:  Peppery Strawberries

Cold cucumber and melon soup with a hint of chilli

Cold soup of cucumber-melon with a hint of chilli

This summer’s version of a cold soup is cucumber-melon-chilli.

The 30°+C temperature during day and night in Switzerland is a nice finish for the summer despite all the sweating, complaining of how hot it is and it is impossible to sleep due to the heat. Typically there is no air conditioning in Swiss houses and appartments, and it is good so. I can’t really complain too much knowing that many of my friends in Estonia would give anything for this heat. It has been 10-15 degrees (Celcius) colder over there these couple of weeks. On the other hand many have their own saunas, something that the Swiss don´t have.

96% water is what cucumbers and melons are. In between the liters of 100% H2O that is consumed to keep hydrated, a chilled soup is a guaranteed refreshment.

Best if the cucumber and melon have been in the fridge for a while to keep the soup cold.

What I like in a cucumber soup is that it somehow manages to fill the stomach for quite a long while. Normally I wouldn’t believe that water could do that, but I have tested this on myself and some friends and the results are convincing.

Ingredients: (For 2)

 

1 long salad cucumber

0.5 melon
0.5dl milk
A pinch of salt
A pinch of chilli powder or flakes
A pinch of peppermint leaves, thinly chopped (optional)
Juice of a slice of lemon or lime
 
Crème fraîche or sour cream

Cut the vegetables into small pieces, add the milk (and peppermint) and purée with a hand mixer or blender until smooth.

Season with salt, chilli and lemon or lime juice to your taste.

Serve cold. If you are in a hurry and have used the veg at room temperature add a couple of ice cubes to chill the soup just before serving.
 

Cucumber-melon soup

 

Related posts to cold soups:

Cold cucumber-mint soup

Le Pré Verre in Paris where a cold lemon confit soup was served

Octopus carpaccio

Octopus carpaccio

Octopus belongs to the "Love it, hate it" foods. Some just adore the purple and white meaty  bite, others get shivers just by looking at, let alone touching or eating, the knobby tentacles of this sea animal.

2 x ca 1 kg raw octopus

For those who love octopus the Galician style pulpo a la gallega or pulpo and shrimp cocktail from Mexico are well known. A cold variation of preparing pulpo is as carpaccio. Octopus in a cold dish is a gastronomic gift that keeps you cool and fills the belly just to the right level on a warm day. Even if served warm and you are eating outside, when the food starts to get cold on the plate it still tastes great, unlike a piece of meat that one would like to re-heat to continue eating.

Cold octopus carpaccio

The preparation of carpaccio di polpo is simple.

Cook the pulpo in water. (Instructions can be found here). Mid-way, taste if your octopus needs salt and if yes, add to the cookin g water. Let it cool in the cooking water so it does not dry out and starts to build the gelatinuous jelly. When cool, fold the whole piece tightly together and place it in a plastic bag. Tie it with rubber bands if necessary to keep it tighly together. Leave in the fridge for a few hours or over night until it becomes firm.

Carpaccio di polpo

When ready to serve remove from the plastic wrap and cut thin slices with a very sharp knife.
Serve with some thick balsamico or fig vinegar, some olive oil and flakes of seasalt as a cold starter or light meal with some fresh salad.

Octopus carpaccio with balsamico

Paris: Le Pré Verre

I am back from holidays and a weekend in Paris with my friends. As always in another city finding the good places where to eat requires some effort but absolutely pays off in the level of satisfaction after.

Fab food and atmosphere at Le Pré Verre on Rive Gauche

Le Pré Verre is a lovely restaurant on a corner in the 5th Arrondissement a few steps from the famous Sorbonne University. This vibrant bistro is run by two brothers. The food is modern seasonal French with some Asian touch points.

The Sorbonne, not far from the Le Pré Verre

We had booked for 19:30 and there were people already waiting behind the closed door when we arrived. A good sign! We went for a walk around the block and took a couple of pictures of the University and surprise, surprise, in the little green oasis next to it  we discovered the sculpture of Romulus and Remus feeding on the wolf's milk, familiar from Rome.

Romulus and Remus next to the Sorbonne University in Paris

10 minutes later, back at the restaurant, there were more people at the door waiting to be seated and when we were studying our menus the place was three quarters full. The three waiting staff were busy and covered the floor almost running but we got enough attention and did not have to wait unnecessarily.

If you fancy great food in a relaxed atmosphere, I do recommend to visit Le Pré Verre. The staff was friendly, the visitors a mix of locals and tourists. It is best to reserve a table, we booked a week in advance.

Professors, students, people from the neighbourhood and tourists keep Le Pré Verre busy every night

Some information for the wallet: starters were around 10 €, the main courses around 20 €, desserts less than 10 €. A set menu that fills the belly with a starter, a main course and a dessert can be enjoyed for ca.30 Euros. The menu offers a choice between 4-5 starters, mains and desserts each ranging from a refreshing cold soup of lemon confit to veal liver served with sweet potatoes and a beetroot chip to marinated strawberries with dark green parsley ice cream. A nice bottle of dry white can be enjoyed for ca 30 €. The innovative use of ingredients (eg.aubergine ice cream) and combinations are guaranteed to stay in my taste memory bank for a long time.

One thing I noticed in Paris was that in several places the waiting staff did not deal with the payment. They brought you the bill, but the payment was done at the front desk.

If you have any great restaurant recommendations for Paris, please share...for my next trip.

Sous le ciel de Paris....

Wild Blueberry Soup with Fluffy Semolina Dessert

Estonian wild blueberries - in season in July

"Go to the forest!" or "Mine metsa!" is one of the expressions in Estonian language that is used to show annoyanceˇwith someone or to say "what nonsense!" or "stop bothering me!", an easier version of "go to hell". A colleague from Turkey recently reminded me of that. An Estonian friend had taught her that, among some other things that I will not repeat here. I am yet to find another nation who has a similar saying.

There is lots of forest in Estonia and a lot of people actually do go to the forest for more practical reasons to forage for wild berries and mushrooms or go for a run or a round of nordic walking on a foot friendly soft forest path.
There are sea/ocean people or mountain people or forest people - a main force of nature that draws certain people to itself . I belong to the latter. Every year during holidays I go and walk around the familiar forests and if the year is good, I might be picking wild blueberries, lingonberries or mushrooms.

Wild blueberries and chanterelles from the forest

Now is wild blueberry time and as I was reaching out for more I remembered two recipes from the past that I am sharing here today.
Wild blueberry soup has been around in the Estonian kitchens for centuries. It is popular and also served at Tartu ski marathon as a source of energy to those on the way to finish the 63 kilometer track. The first recipe of the fluffy semolina dessert that I have seen was published in 1965 in a recipe book that could be found in most Estonian homes. I don´t know where the name comes from, but my guess is that it has some links to German or Russian.

Wild blueberry soup with fluffy semolina pudding

Wild blueberry soup

Ingredients for 6
3.5-4 liters of water
ca. 1 liter of wild blueberries, slightly crushed
3 tbsp starch and 3-4 tbsp cold water
100g  sugar or to taste
Bring the water to boil. Crush the blueberries with a wooden spoon a bit and add the berries to the hot water. Cook for 15 minutes till all the berries break and let out the juice. Add sugar to your taste and mix. The blueberries are much sweeter than many other berries and therefore can be cooked with rather little sugar.
Mix the starch with cold water until smooth. When the berry juice seems ready add the starch slowly and stir until the "soup" thickens. If you like a thicker consistency, mix some more starch with water and add. Bring to boil and quickly take off the heat.
Set aside to cool.

Bubert, fluffy semolina dessert

(Serves 6)

1.5l milk
7-8 tbsp fine wheat semolina
5-6 eggs, whites and yolks separated
7-8 tbsp sugar
Vanilla (optional)
Bring the milk to boil and slowly add the semolina. Stir and cook until the semolina has softened and the milk thickened.
Combine the egg yolks with sugar and beat with a handmixer till foamy.  Take some milk-semolina mixture and stir into the egg-sugar mixture, then pour everything back to the pot. Stir till well combined and thickened. 
Beat the egg whites till stiff and slowly fold in the egg whites. Keep the pudding on the heat for one or two more minutes and then let cool.
Serve the blueberry soup with Bubert on a tender summer night in the garden. No words needed. The birds and grasshoppers and the dessert will tell the story.

A summer dessert from Estonia

For more Food from the forest see also:
Wild mushrooms
Wild Blueberry Ricotta Cake

Fresh Herbs Series: Sage Butter

Velvety leaves of sage

Some restaurants have the habit of bringing bread to the table while the hungry guests are waiting for their orders. The choice differs from place to place. Here are some examples:

-         just bread

-         slices of bread in a plastic bag (Why in plastic??)

-         various rolls

-         various warm rolls

Sometimes the bread comes with an accompaniment of some sort to make the waiting a bit more adventurous. The choice may include:

-         butter

-         olive oil

-         black olive tapenade

-         herb butter

-         a mix of the above

The places that serve fresh home-made bread or a variety of (mini)rolls are my favourite. The smell of the inside of the bread provides the clue. Dipping pieces of bread into olive oil while waiting for your plate of pasta may take the conversation to the olive tree groves, olive harvest, oil pressing, oil tasting, the debate who produces the best olive oil, why Greece exports so little, the olive oil “mafia”, who likes green or black olives, …

Any place that serves herb butter that makes my mind search in the taste bank somewhere in my brain guessing and looking for the name of the herb that has been used in the particular butter definitely raises the chance of a higher tip and verbal praise at the end of the meal.

One of my favourite herb butters is the one with sage.  I find it a real pity that the velvety touch of fresh sage leaves gets lost in any way of cooking and preparing sage.

There is no exact recipe, just use the ingredients as you feel is right for your taste.

As a guideline for a small portion of sage butter:

50 g butter

10-15 leaves of sage of all sizes

Juice of one slice of lemon

A pinch of salt

Bring butter to room temperature.

Finely chop the sage and mix the sage, lemon juice and salt with butter.

Place the herb butter into a small bowl or if making a bigger quantity form into a roll in the cling film. Refrigerate.

Enjoy with bread just like that or in a sandwich.

Herb butter with fresh sage (Est. salveivõi, Ger. Salbei Butter)