Tag: povertykitchenestonia

No comments

Crispy ground elder appetizer

  By

The spring has arrived and this usually brings an influx of hungry guests to the countryside. Sure, usually it will be grilled meat and bread and some salad as a side, but sometimes the weather is too bad to get out that grill and you have also forgotten to stock up your fridge.

What then? Lucky for you, you still have copious amounts of ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria L. Or just plain naat in Estonian) growing in the garden and can whip out a crispy appetizer which I would describe as a love child of potato chips, omelette and fried fish – all in the form of that unassuming weed.

What you need:

– handful of ground elder leaves – as much as you need

– 1 egg

– 2 tablespoons of potato starch

– tablespoon of ice cold water

– pinch of salt

– 1-2 teaspoons of oil

How to make:

All in all, the process takes maybe 5 minutes. Pick the ground elder in your garden or trusted forest – it grows everywhere. The younger the leaves, the better – old large leaves might leave a bitter aftertaste. First, wash your ground elder and sprinkle with a little salt, set aside. In a small bowl mix the egg, a bit of salt and cold water, then add the potato starch and mix until the clumps are gone. How thick or runny you want the batter, is up to you – but it should be thick enough so that the leaves get somewhat coated with it.

Heat the oil in a pan – the oil should be constantly hot enough that it starts to sizzle when you throw a water drop on it, otherwise you won’t get the crispy result.

Now put some of the leaves into the batter, coat them well and spread the leaves individually in the pan. Fry them 30 seconds on one side, then repeat with other side, until the batter gets that golden and crispy hue. Then take them out of the pan and put them on a paper towel for a second to get some of the extra grease out of them. Serve hot.

How much does it cost?

Egg is around 30 cents, the potato starch comes maybe up to -5-10 cents soaking wet, a tablespoon of oil would be the same. Ground elder is just a weed that grows free everywhere – so here you are serving your guests a large platter of a hot crispy snack which cost you around 50 cents.

What is ground elder?

If you have a garden in Estonia, then you have the naat or ground elder everywhere. It is considered largely as a nuisance weed at worst or animal feed at best. Still, it is edible and basically a free food source. Some people like to eat it raw in salads, but the taste in raw form is not considered good by any stretch of imagination by most: grassy, earthy, slightly bitter and with the distinct air of „yup, this is a weed“. However, once fried, boiled or otherwise cooked, it loses all that lingering bitterness and you can use it, as you would, say, use spinach.

Ground weed lovers maintain, that this weed is packed with iron, magnesium and vitamin C, has a herby taste, helps with digestion and cleanses the body and whatnot.

No comments

Smoky lentil soup

  By

What you need:

– 30-50 g of smoked ham

– tablespoon of olive oil

– 100 g dried lentils

– 1 onion

– garlic

– 1 larger carrot

– 2 celery sticks

– dried herbs: parsley, oregano, chili, laurel leaves

– 3 tablespoons of white wine vinegar (or more)

– 1,5 litres of water

– half a teaspoon of vegetable or chicken broth cube

+ 1 very large potato (optional)

How to make:

Cut the ham into small pieces, set onto medium high heat to get the fat out, add chopped onion and garlic along with the oil. Cook for a minute, add the carrot, celery, lentils and herbs (if you use fresh ones, then add them later). Cook for 2 minutes, add the vinegar, then the water along with the broth cube. Cover and cook for around 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. You can add more vinegar in this step if you like the sour taste more.

How much does it cost?

Lentils about 60 cents, smoked ham around 90 cents, the rest not more than 1 euro total – you will get a healthy soup for 2,5 euros.

No comments

The classic pea soup of vastlapäev

  By

What you need:

– 200-300 g of smoked fatty ham

– 300 g whole dried peas

– 50 – 100 g pearl groats

– water, as needed + a little salt

How to make:

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.

No comments

Lucky raisin rings

  By ,

What you need:

– 15-20 g fresh yeast

– 1 tablespoon of sugar

– 1 very large egg or 2 medium ones

– 300 g flour (or more, if needed)

– 200 ml fresh milk

– 75 g butter

– 150-200 g raisins

– a shot of rhum

– pinch of salt

How to make:

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.

No comments

Simple beet and cabbage soup

  By

What you need:

– 400 g red beet

– 400 g cabbage

– 1 large onion

– 5 cloves of garlic

– 3 tablespoons of apple vinegar or wine vinegar

– a bit oil for frying

– teaspoon of oregano

– teaspoon of parsley

– bay leaf

– 1,5 liters of vegetable stock

– salt and pepper to taste

– 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.

No comments

Coq au vin with rare wild mushrooms

  By ,

What you need:

– 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:

No comments

Rucola and beet salad

  By ,

What you need:

– 2 handfuls of fresh rucola

– 1 medium red beet

– 3 cloves of garlic

– teaspoon of olive oil

– 100 g greek cheese, goat cheese or similar

How to make:

Peel your red beet and cut into thin long stripes – the thinner, the better. Salt them lightly and set them aside. Finely chop the garlic. Then heat olive oil in a pan large enough to get all your beet in. Add the garlic and when this starts to brown, add the beet stripes. Fry for about 3-5 minutes or until they look like they start to char. The beet should still remain somewhat crispy!

In a large bowl, put the fresh rucola, add the fried beet strips with remaining oil and garlic, then top with goat cheese and enjoy!

This should be enough for 4 people… or 1 person if you want to make it your main meal – but then top with fried egg to make it even tastier.

How much does it cost:

If you need to buy everything, then about 1,5 euros!

No comments

Ultimate old school waffles

  By ,

What you need:

– 3 eggs

– ca 400 ml of milk*

– 80-100 g of butter

– 150 g sugar

– 300 – 400 g flour

– a pinch of salt

– if you wish: cardamom, brown sugar, cinnamon etc to taste

How to make:

First, you need a special waffle iron for that – the one which lets you make very thin waffles. See my sad soviet era product on the pic below.

So, in case you found one of these waffle irons, the recipe is really straightforward: mix sugar and eggs and all the spices. Add milk, flour and then hot melted butter, stir vigorously and you are ready to go.

Honest warning: you will probably need to adjust the recipe as you go, first waffles are trial waffles anyway…some poor soul needs to eat them to check the sweetness and crispiness.

The only thing you need to decide, is: do you like ultra thin and crispy goodness, the crispiest waffles you ever had? If the answer is yes, lean more heavily into butter and eggs and put less milk in. The batter should be thicker, but still a little bit runny.

Now, if you want soft waffles to roll marmalade, sweetened cream, yogurt or ice cream in there: less flour and more milk. You want the consistency of the batter be like a pretty thin smoothie.

The good thing with this recipe is, that you can’t really screw this one up! Made the batter too thick? – Just add more milk as you bake etc – adjust as you go!

Now just throw a ladle of batter into lightly-buttered hot iron ( you need to butter it only once, at the beginning) and let the waffle cook for 30 seconds to a minute, depending on your waffle iron and how crispy you want the waffle to be and enjoy!

* Milk: any milk works, but each has their tricks. Cow milk gives more crispiness. Rice milk allows to get these really thin see-through soft waffles. Oat milk calls for more butter to get the waffles taste good and so on.

How much does it cost:

Since this recipe makes a ton of waffles, the cost is not that great: eggs around 50 cents, butter around 1 euro, everything else ca 50 cents to 1 euro, so under 3 euro, total.

Behold that soviet-era waffle iron for super thin and crispy waffles.

No comments

Pumpkin and potato porridge with sage

  By ,

What you need:

– 500 g pumpkin

– 500 g potatoes

– 300 g fatty smoky bacon

– 5-7 large fresh sage leaves (or 1/4 teaspoon of dried sage)

– 1 large onion

– 3-5 gloves of garlic

– salt & pepper to taste

How to make:

Put the pumkin into the oven to roast it until soft enough to mash with a fork. Boil the potatoes in a lightly salted water. It should take no longer than half an hour. When these look like they are almost done, cube the bacon and in a hot pan, let the fat come out of them and you are left with very crispy bacon cubes. Cut onion and garlic and when the bacon is almost done, add those into the pan with the sage leaves and let them brown. Meanwhile, take the soft potatoes and pumkin and mash them together with a fork, add a little bit of butter and pepper. Then add the pan of bacon and onions, fat and all, mix again until you get a nice creamy porridge. Salt and pepper to taste and enjoy! You can add some cheese to make it even better. Pumkin makes it creamier than your usual mashed potatoes and when you add oil and other herbs, you can use this one like hummus.

How much does it cost:

Depending where you get the bacon from, it would be around 2 euros, pumkin and potatoes should not exceed 1 euro. Add everything else and you will still be somewhere below 4 euros with this one.

No comments

5 minute breakfast with leftovers

  By , ,

What you need:

  • 1 egg (1 per person)
  • a slice of days old bread
  • handful of bad-looking cherry tomatoes
  • half of half-dried leftover onion
  • tablespoon of olive oil
  • salt and pepper to taste

How to make:

Heat olive oil in a pan, medium heat. Put your bread slice into pan and add the egg to the side. Roast until done to your liking. In a corner of the pan, add onion slices, fry them for a minute until lightly brown, add tomatoes for a minute or two. Add salt, pepper or other herbs to taste. Plate, garnish, enjoy!

How much does it cost:

Can’t get over 1 euro with that unless you try really hard. This recipe is great for doing something nice with that almost-too-hard bread and those wrinkly sad tomatoes which don’t look appetizing anymore and you would probably throw away otherwise. Have still days old bread left? Cube that bad boy, fry in olive oil to make nice croutons for a soup or salad.