Monday, March 27, 2006

A week in the metropol

No cooking this week, as I'm off to London for various meetings and conferences today. However, I will share with you couple of pictures of some simple meals I've had lately.

Fish at its simplest
(Purustatud ürdikartulid)



I had bought some nice trout fillets from Edinburgh's Farmers' Market. Usually I would simply season the fish with salt, pepper, dill and lemon juice before grilling it, and serve with boiled new potatoes. Here's a slightly different take on it: pan-fried trout fillets (seasoned with salt, pepper and lemon juice), served with crushed potatoes with dill, garlic and melted butter. Crushed potatoes in its various forms seem to appear in every single cookery magazine and programme these days and it was indeed quite a nice way of serving spuds.

A quick tomato soup
(Lihtne tomatisupp)



This is simply passata diluted with Marigold vegetable stock, reduced a little, enriched with cream, and seasoned with salt, black pepper and some basil. Served with a dollop of cottage cheese.
I quite like the picture, even if it is slightly out of focus..

Drunken potatoes
(Veini-kartulivorm)



A recipe from Jill Dupleix via Valentina over at Trembom in English for another great way to serve potatoes. Sliced potatoes, seasoned with salt, pepper and thyme, drowned in dry white wine and baked in the oven until soft and crisp at the same time.
Valentina's blog is definitely worth a visit, so if you haven't been there yet, please check it out.

Banana creme bruleé



And finally - here's a picture of a banana bruleé I had at Maison Bleue in the company of a very charming Scottish politician a fortnight ago. Lovely place, and the bruleé was absolutely delicious, with a delicate yet crisp bruleé topping, a very subtle hint of banana and a cute cape gooseberry decoration.
I'm looking forward to trying to recreate this pudding, so if anyone out there has a good recipe for a banana bruleé, please let me know.

11 comments:

Pene said...

Pille, last week I saw cape gooseberies labeled as "kirssi ananass" which translates to 'cherry pineapple'. Do you know why Estonians name them thus?

And I'll keep the "Drunken Potatoes" in mind for an adult evening. Naudi sinu aeg Londonis!

Anonymous said...

Yum, to everything you've posted! They all look so good!

Have a good trip!

Best,
Paz

Thredahlia said...

I hope Pille wouldn't mind me trying to answer this one as I just happened to read about it a couple of days ago :R.

Estonians translate cape gooseberry as "füüsal" derived from its latin name Physalis or as "ananasskirss" (pineapple cherry) which is translation from German Ananaskirsch.
"Füüsal" is more general and is also used for Physalis pubescens and Physalis ixocarpa while "ananasskirss" usually marks only Physalis peruviana (cape gooseberry).

PS! Kala näeb väga isuäratav välja.
Mitte just päris kalavihkajana, aga mitte eriti kala toiduks valmistava inimesena panen ennastki viimasel ajal imestama, kuidas kala vaikselt mu lauale imbub, eriti see punasemat sorti, kui tudengieelarve vahel lubab.

Anonymous said...

Hi Pille, 'Hope your meetings in London went well! Concerning the banana creme bruleé, I'll check with Nicky - with all the many bruleés we have had last year, it'd surprise me if she didn't have a recipe at hand :)

Admin said...

Hi Pille, enjoy a little blog-break...ah, it's nice to see the changes of your blog :-) why did you change the looks here? any serious reasons or just having fun? :-) just curious...

Anna said...

Hi Pille,
We miss you! Hope you are having lots of fun! Whenever you are back, we'd like to invite you to participate in this meme - that is, if you haven't been tagged already and if you like this sort of a thing... Looking forward to the exciting far-away food blogs you have discovered!

x said...

hi Pille, i hope you had a nice week.
I love drunken potatoes. And tomato soup and banana creme brulee. In fact, this could be a nice three course dinner for me. :)

Clivia said...

Those potatoes will be tried in my kitchen very soon. Looks like a very good alternative to potato gratin. Are you supposed to stir the potatoes while they are baking or just leave them alone?

Joycelyn said...

hi pille, the boozy potatoes look totally awesome! i've tried making a mod japanesey version before that used sake and soy, which turned out well, and so can only imagine this would also taste delicious!

Anne said...

Hi there! I've tagged you for a fun "around the world-meme". Come play! :) (And I love those Drunken Potatoes, I have to make them again soon!)

Pille said...

Pene - yep, drunken potatoes would be good for an adult evening. As would "pasta alla vodka" - my choice of an adult dinner party dish at the moment:) You could start with "viinamakaronid", followed by "veinikartulid" ja finish with "rummikoogid":)

Paz - thank you! I had a great trip, if somewhat exhausting. Looking forward to catching up with all the blogs though!

Thredalia - thanks for explaining the ananassikirss for Pene! Re: kala - ma ka alles hiljutine kalasööja - ja samuti alustasin lõhe ja forelliga:) Eestlaste lemmikkala heeringas aga vist niipea mu taldrikule ikka ei satu..

Oliver - it would be wonderful if you or Nicky could suggest something for the banana bruleé. London was good - though next time I'll leave half a day gaps between various meetings as opposed to running from one meeting to another:)

Hi Maya - I changed the look because I wanted something brighter and lighter. Also, one of my friends back home had been complaining for a while that she finds white-on-black very hard to read.

Anna - thank you:) And thanks for tagging me for the meme - I'll try to do it this week!

Chloe - maybe you can wait with this particular three course dinner until late June - then I can pop by as well:)

Clivia - I left the potatoes alone for the first 3/4 of the baking time, then stirred them slightly to make sure that I get as many potatoes crunchy as possible!

J - will you share your soy & sake boozy potato recipe? Sounds intriguing!

Anne - thanks for tagging me! That's two of you now, so I really must get my act together and participate. I missed quite a few memes early this year (including one of yours, sorry), but life is a wee bit less hectic now..