Month: October 2024

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Bean and barley stew

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I won’t lie: this is going to be one of the ugliest foods you are going to make – but also one of the healthiest and tastiest with a classic Estonian twist.

What you need:

– ca 100 g dried brown fava beans, soaked overnight

– ca 50 g barley grains

– 3 stalks of celery

– 2 small carrots

– 5 cloves of garlic

– 2 medium onions

– teaspoon of vegetable oil

– 2-3 litres of water

– salt and pepper to taste

How to make:

Soak the beans overnight or you will be in for a world of hurt. Dice all the vegetables. In a dutch oven, heat the oil and fry garlic, onion and carrots for a couple of minutes. Add celery, barley and beans, fry for a minute. Add water, put a lid on the pot and let it simmer at least for 2,5-3 hours until the barley has „broken down“ completely and has left only a soft ugly-looking porridge behind. Add salt and pepper to taste.

You can always add fried bacon, smoked ham, fresh parsley or other vegetables you like into the mix. It will be ugly, but tasty and will easily fill up 4 people. If you want to go full Estonian, put some sour cream on top. Looks bad, but tastes great.

How much does it cost:

Beans no more than 50 cent tops, barley 5 cents, celery around 50 cents. Everything else still comes from your own cellars in November. Total cost: ca 2 euros. Prep time: no more than 5 minutes.

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Greek-style vegetable soup

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What you need:

– 50g smoked fatty ham

– little bit of olive oil

– 5 cloves of garlic

– 1 large onion

– 3 medium potatoes

– 1 paprika

– 100g long beans

– 1 glass wine

– 1 can tomatoes

– teaspoon of tomato paste

– teaspoon of dried oregano

– teaspoon of dried parsley

– teaspoon of thyme

– 1 liter fresh water (or more)

How to make:

Cut the ham in small pieces and fry over slow fire in a large pot until the fat has come out and the ham is crispy. Meanwhile cut all vegetables into small pieces. Add a little olive oil, dried herbs, garlic and onion and let it cook for a minute or two. Add beans and potatoes, cook a couple of minutes. Add tomato paste, mix well and add the glass of honest cheap wine. Cook a couple of minutes, add tomatoes and water and let the soup simmer for around half an hour. Around 5-10 minutes before the soup is ready, add cut paprika – depending how crispy do you like it. Add salt and pepper to taste and enjoy.

You can do no wrong here: play around with the amount of ingredients, you can add carrots or celery. Honest tip: this soup tastes so much better the next day! This recipe should make enough soup for 4 semi-hungry people or for 2 really hungry ones.

How much does it cost:

Ham and wine around 1 euro each, can of tomatoes is 70 cents, tomato paste around 10 cents, a bit of olive oil not more than 20 cents. Everything else comes from a poor Estonian’s garden. Total cost: 3 euros.

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Thick Apple Things

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Thick things – õunapaksukesed or little apple fatties which are essentially super thick apple pancakes: the love child of a pancake and a cookie

What do you need:

– ca 1 kg apples

– 3 medium eggs (or 2 large ones)

– ca 100 ml any kind of milk

– ca 100g of sugar

– a pinch of salt

– a pinch of nutmeg

– cinnamon powder

– 150-200g flour

– ca 50g of potato starch/ potato flour: for extra crispyness

– 1 tsp baking powder

– 1 tsp baking soda

– vegetable oil for frying

How to make:

Wash the apples, core them and slice into as thick pieces as you like, set aside. Beat the eggs with sugar and salt, add nutmeg (if you wish) and cinnamon. Add the flour. Potato starch is really optional, but it makes the cake crispy on the outside, sort of tempura-like. Add baking powder and baking soda, mix thoroughly. The batter should be somewhat thicker, not runny. Fold in the apple slices. I usually eyeball the amount of apples: visually, apples should be double or even triple the amount of the available batter.

Heat a liberal amount of vegetable oil in a pan and make sure it is really hot before you put the batter in. Fry for 3-5 minutes from both sides. Make sure that the batter has cooked through before you flip the pancake – otherwise it disintegrates. But this is something one can easily learn to a few trial and errors. And it is ready to consume! This recipe makes enough for at least 4 very hungry eaters or for 6 not so hungry ones. There is really no way to make this recipe wrong, so play around with the quantities and ingredients and enjoy!

How much does it cost in 2024?

Ca 70 cents for flour, 50 cents for eggs. Not more than 1 euro for other ingredients and electricity combined. So, in total 2,3 euros. And apples? These you get from your garden or ask your friendly neighbor if you can pick 10-20 fallen apples from his or her yard.

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Last of the potatoes: gnocchi

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What do you need?

– 1 kg last year’s potatoes

– ca 100-200 g flour – more, if needed

– a pinch of salt

– an egg or two (optional)

– any herbs you like, parmesan cheese (optional)

How to make:

Boil potatoes in salted water until soft. Drain them, put into a bowl and mash with a fork. At this step you can add all kinds of good stuff like salt, sage leaves, dried chilies, parsley or other herb mixes that you like). Add flour and mix well with potatoes until a pretty solid dough forms. You can add some eggs to keep the dough together, but if you knead the dough well, it is not really necessary. Take a fist-sized piece of dough, roll it on a floured surface into a sausage and then cut bite-sized bits off of that said sausage. Press with a fork to make them pretty. Take a larger pot and bring salted water to a boil. Put the gnocchi in one layer into a sieve with a handle and put the sieve into the water. Let the gnocchis boil about a minute, toss them around liberally to keep them from sticking onto the sieve. Take them out and enjoy with a sauce!

How much does it cost in 2024?

Potatoes are free from your cellar, 200 g flour is around 20 cents tops. A little electricity and water? It won’t cost you more than one euro to make.

How to serve them?

Italians do it best with some herby tomato sauce. But a smoky chanterelle sauce, olive-oil fried sage and garlic sauce or even minced meat and red wine sauce are good with fresh gnocchi.

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Chanterelle risotto

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What you need is:

– 500g fresh chanterelles

– 30g of butter

– 50g parmesan cheese (or any hard cheese)

– ca 200g (one cup) of risotto rice (or any rounder rice)

– 200 ml white wine

– ca 400 ml vegetable stock

– 1 glove of garlic

– 1 large onion

How to make:

Fist, clean the chantrelles and fry with ca 10g of butter and a dash of salt until the liquid has vanished. Put them aside. Fry the garlic and onion, add the mushrooms back for a minute, then put aside. In the same pan, fry while constantly stirring, the uncooked risotto rice until the grains turn translucent. Then add the wine and wait a minute or two until the alcohol has reduced. Add the vegetables back inside. When the wine has gone, start adding the warm vegetable stock, one ladle at a time and constantly stirring – this helps to make the risotto creamy. When the rice has reached your preferred softness, take the pan from the fire, add 20 g of cold butter and the parmesan cheese, stir well and serve.

How much does it cost?

Rice is about 1,8 euro – if you are in a pinch and can’t find right risotto rice or arborio rice, then take short grain rice. Butter is around 20 cent, parmesan around 1 euro, wine around 2 euro, if you use good store bought stock, it is still not more than 30 cents. In total, it should not exceed 6 euros to make and it is enough for 4 people. And the mushrooms? You are a good Estonian and get them from a forest. Really. If you know what you are doing, a hour, two, tops and you have more than enough for that risotto, have had a nice free health program in fresh air and a good mood on top. You want to buy chanterelles because you are not poor? Of course you can. But this will set you back around 10 euros when the season for them is in full swing.