Soak the peas in cold water overnight. In a large pot, throw the whole smoky ham, peas and pearl groats, cover with at least 2 litres of water – or more. Set on medium high fire and cook for around 1,5 hours, stir a couple of times, because the peas might gather on bottom and then your soup is burned. It is ready when the ham starts to disintegrate into smaller pieces and peas are soft enough for you. Salt, if necessary and enjoy!
How much does it cost:
Peas and groats are not more than 50 cents, ham around 2 euros – in total less than 3 euros for this soup!
This is the one eaten traditionally on vastlapäev, or fastelavn, faschnacht or such. You get it in restaurants, in schools and at home. There exist much more elaborate versions of this classic soup, with mustard and brandy and so much more, but this is the classic one that was made in my family.
Mix sugar and yeast until it has turned into liquid. Add eggs and rhum and mix. Then add milk and strips or cubes of butter (you need to incorporate it later into batter, so the smaller you make it, the easier of a life you have). Mix lightly. Mix flour, salt and raisins and add to the mix. Start kneading, at least 5 minutes, if necessary, add more flour. The dough should feel like you could take parts of it and form it with your hand without getting your hands soiled with wet dough too much:) Leave the dough to rise for around 1 hour, until it has preferably doubled in size. Heat the oven to 200 degrees. Then take out the dough, take small pieces of it, roll them into long „snakes“ and pull them together into a ring.
You can leave them to second-rise for around 15 minutes.
Then bake for approximately 15 minutes – depending on how large rings you managed to make! And enjoy!
You can make the dough in the evening before and leave it to rise in the refrigeator & use in the morning. Nothing bad happens.
How much does it cost:
Eggs are around 30-40 cents, butter around 1 euro (how do the prices keep rising monthly?), raisins around 40 cents, everything else around 1 euro – so less than 3 euros total.
– to make it more filling: smoky bacon, leftover meat etc
How to make:
Peel your red beet and grate it. Cut the cabbage into small pieces. Cut your onion and garlic into small pieces. If you use bacon, let the fat come out of it before you fry the garlic and onion and herbs in it, if you use a vegetarian route, fry these in a bit of oil. When the onion starts to turn golden, add shredded beet and cook for a couple of minutes, add the cabbage and stir for a minute or two. Add vinegar. Add hot vegetable stock (just throw in the vegetable stock cube and put hot water on top). Let the soup cook for half an hour under a lid. Salt and pepper to taste and enjoy with sour cream or a bit of Greek yogurt on top.
(You might want add more vinegar afterwards and it is ok. You will need more vinegar only if you eat the soup right away. After it has had time to sit around for a couple of hours, the taste comes out very nicely, so don’t pour too much vinegar into the mix if you plan to eat the soup later. This soup tastes best the next day!)
(Some like to put sugar into the soup to enhance the sweet and sour taste of this one, but I find, that the beet and cabbage are usually “sweet” enough to get that taste going.)
How much does it cost:
Since the red beet harvest was crazy last year, I haven’t looked up the red beet prices for months… The kilo price is around 70 cents in online shops, so you come out of it with some 30 cents, cabbage kilo is around 50 cents, so let’s make it 25 cents. Everything else will cost around 50 cents, too, so you will have a very nice amount of soup for less than 1 euro.
– ca 800 g chicken pieces with skin and bones (thigh, or half a chicken or whatever you get)
– 500 ml dry red wine
– 70 g unsalted butter
– 100 g smoky fatty bacon
– 1 carrot
– a shot of brandy
– 3 medium onions
– 5 cloves of garlic
– 2 tablespoons of flour
– 100 g dried mushrooms (chanterelle + parasol mushroom) (or, if you want the original recipe – go with normal fresh champignons, 100-200g,but then you need to fry them before you put them into the chicken mix)
– 300 – 400 ml chicken or vegetable or veal stock*
– rosemary (if dried, around 1 teaspoon)
– thyme (if dried, around 1 teaspoon) (or any herb you like)
How to make:
It is surprisingly easy to make and will succeed 100%, if you use the alcohol. The difficulty comes from setting aside enough time for this one, because it demands several steps.
In the evening before: chop the garlic cloves, thyme and rosemary (a bit of parsley etc what you like) and mix with half a liter of red wine. A decent wine will definitely improve on the taste, but well, I try to get a cheap one… Then put the chicken pieces into the mixture and massage for a bit. The wine should cover the chicken. Then put a cling film over the bowl and let it rest in refrigerator or in a cool place in your home overnight, the longer, the better. French recepies say at least 12 hours, so trust them.
Cooking day: Cube the bacon, chop the onion and carrots, set aside. Then take the chicken out of the marinade (leave marinade, you will need it!) and fry the pieces sharply in a bit of butter until both sides have browned a bit. It is not necessary to cook the chicken 100% through, but this frying gives it extra taste. Put the chicken aside.
In a large deep pan or dutch oven, or a large cast iron wok – trust me, you need the space – put the bacon cubes and fry on medium heat until the fat has come out and you are left with crispy bacon cubes. Add the onions and carrots, fry for a minute or two. Throw the shot of brandy on the mix and wait for a minute for the alcohol to evaporate. Then add the chicken marinade and vegetable stock* and let it cook for a couple of minutes until it starts to diminish. Then add the chicken pieces, cover and let the mixture simmer for around 1 hour.
Meanwhile, mix around 10-20g of butter with the flour into a small ball, set aside.
After 1 hour, take the chicken out of the mix and put the flour ball inside and stir the mixture until the sauce starts to thicken. Put the chicken back inside, cover and let it sit over a low heat for another 15-20 minutes which gives you ample time to get your bread, potatoes or noodles ready.
Enjoy!
If you have any leftover chicken left next day, then just put it into a pan, toss in half a glass of water and a bit of stock and you will have more chicken with sauce.
How much does it cost:
Wine is the real killer here in Estonia… even the cheapest wine tends to be around 4-5 euros, so this will be around 4 euros. Chicken on bargain could be around 2 euro, full price more like 4-5 euros. Butter comes at 1 euro. Bacon around 1 euro, carrot and herbs and stock still not more than 1 euro, add an euro if you need to buy champignons. So, in total it is around 9 euros and there is enough for 4 people. I managed to get a bargain and ended around 7-8 euros. These mushrooms, though… you need to get yourself anyway. I have never seen dried giant mushrooms on sale here. They taste like young veal meat. For dried chanterelles – the kilo price is somewhere around 300 euro, so you better go into the forest or go broke : ) Still, the taste will be very different to your normal coq au vin due to the wild mushrooms. Behold super expensive mushrooms:
