Blogmas 2023, Day 8 – Travels to Estonia

To start my summer vacation with a bang, I had a long weekend in our neighboring country Estonia. I know I didn’t write about it in the blog cos going to Tallinn, Estonia is so normal that sometimes it doesn’t feel like I’m traveling at all. We got multiple fast cruise ships that sail back and forth between the little pond between Tallinn and Helsinki and it takes only two hours to get there. Steve, my fwb, happens to have a studio to stay at in Tallinn so I didn’t even have to pay for a hotel. 😀

Finns like to call Estonia the younger sibling, but if we are talking about Tallinn vs Helsinki, then Tallinn would be the more modern, more advanced and more accomplished little sister that simply get shit done better and faster. XD Don’t get me wrong, Helsinki is always going to be my home and I love her, faults and all, but Tallinn just goes forward on a run, especially tech-wise.

The only downside is that I don’t love the cruise ship trip, even if it’s only two hours. There is a plan to build a below the sea tunnel allowing cars and trains for the travel and I just know I would definitely visit more. That tunnel would also, finally connect Helsinki to the rest of the Europe via train. Personally I love train travel way more. It’s not that the cruise ship is shitty, it’s actually quite large and pretty fancy but they are always quite packed, with drunk people (because the alcohol is way cheaper in Estonia so Tallinn is the destination for partying) and also families with kids (because Tallinn is also pretty great for the whole family for an inexpensive vacation). But this time around, I went all out and paid extra to get access to the business lounge, and that just made all the difference in the world. It was quiet there, with amazing views cos the lounge was in the front of the ship with giant windows. There was a snack buffet with unlimited drinks and coffee. It has its own bathrooms that are much cleaner and way less crowded. It’s also right next to the exit, ensuring a quick exit. Okay, enough of the ship. XD

I’ve visited Tallinn maybe a half a dozen times, but this time, I treated it as any travel destination. Aka, I research museums, bookshops and Steve booked tables from two different restaurants that he had been to and highly recommended. And I tried to avoid most of the touristy spots and I think I got to see the city in a different light.

I visited three bookshops, two of them were awesome and I highly recommend for any bookworms to pay them a visit if you ever find yourself in Tallinn: first one is Rüütel & Matilda English Bookshop, it has both pre-loved books and new ones. It’s not big but so cozy and lively that I just want to live in it. I would definitely visit again everytime I visit Tallinn from now on.

And the second one is not necessarily a bookshop, but they do also sell books – and it’s the Banned Books Museum. It’s free to browse around and get to know books around the world that are banned for one reason or other and it’s very interesting. They have a small collection of books that they sell, like books featured in their banned books club. 😀

Now, onto the foodie part. First one is Salt. It’s a little bit out of the center and the Old Town but still at a walkable distance. Tucked in a corner of a up-and-coming neighborhood, it’s definitely a charming spot. Their menu changes and it has a good selection with lots of seafood. We tasted the oysters and were delighted by the giant portion of pimientos de padron. The calamari tacos were delicious too. The mussels in a Thai-inspired sauce was amazing. That sauce, I could bath in it. I was so full but when they had snickers cheesecake on the menu, I couldn’t resist. And I’m glad that I didn’t resist, cos that’s the best cheesecake I’ve ever had.

Second one was La Prima Pizza, an Italian restaurant in the Old Town. And yes, the word ‘pizza’ is in the name, but I didn’t get any pizza. 😀 Vitello tonnato is one of my favorite Italian dishes and the vitello tonnato in La Prima is the best I’ve ever had and I believe that I probably won’t get a better one unless I travel to Italy. Baked snails were great, that carbonara with green pistachio sauce was out of this world and beef entrecote on a hot stone grill was both fun and super delicious. The thing that shines the most in La Prima was of course the amazing wine selection. And since it was summer when I visited, I had some lovely rosé that went very well with the vitello tonnato.

All in all, Tallinn has a lot more to offer than meets the eye and I would definitely visit many more times in the future. Merry Blogmas!

Recipe of the Month – Meatball Pasta Soup

Serves: 4
Cooking time: 30 min

Ingredients:
1 l water
1 beef bouillon
4 dl pasta (farfalle)
300-500g small meatballs, halved
200-300g cheese-filled sausages, cut into bitesize pieces
2-3 tomatoes, chopped into chunks
1 green bell pepper, chopped into chunks
1 onion, sliced
1 jar (400ml) cheddar cream cheese
fresh basil
fish sauce according to taste

Instructions:

1. Boil the water in a big pan.
2. Add the bouillon and pasta.
3. Cook the pasta until half cooked. Fish the pasta out into a separate bowl.
4. Add meatballs, sausages, tomatoes, onion, and paprika.
5. Let it boil until the bell pepper has softened. If you want to have leftovers and not have mushy pasta, only cook the amount of pasta that you can eat right away and the rest, keep separate from the soup.
6. Add the cream cheese, mix well and add fish sauce and pepper according to taste. If you don’t like fish sauce, you can use regular salt. I happened to love the taste of fish sauce paired with cheese things.
7. Garnish with fresh basil.

Recipe of the Month – French Onion Pasta

Serves: 4
Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients:
2-3 onion, sliced
2.5 tbsp butter
1/8 cup sherry/madeira
1/4 cup white wine/sake
6 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 liter beef broth (low salt)
1 cup water
1 rich beef stock pot (I used Knorr)
300-400g shiitake mushrooms, sliced
350 g penne pasta
1/2 cup or more parmesan, grated

Instructions:

1. Melt butter with a bit of olive oil in a big deep pan.
2. Fry onion slices in medium heat for at least 30 min.
3. Deglaze with sherry/madeira/port and white wine/sake.
4. Add the thyme and sliced shiitake mushrooms, mix well.
5. Add Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, beef stock, the stock pot and water.
6. Add heat and bring to a boil.
7. Add uncooked pasta.
8. Boil until pasta is al dente (might take a bit longer than usual cos the stock is thicker than regular water).
9. Fish out the thyme sprigs.
10. Take the pan of pasta off the heat, add parmesan little at a time and mix well. Leave some parmesan to put on top.
11. You can eat the pasta as is, but if you would like to make a proper meal out of it, I recommend simple pan-fried chicken breasts or thighs, seasoned simply with salt, black pepper and garlic powder. The chicken wouldn’t need as much salt cos the pasta would be very well seasoned and savory.

Recommended wine pairing:
Anselmann Gerürztraminer Trocken (2021), a German white wine that’s aromatic, dry, full-bodied and with a hint of rose petals.

Recipe of the Week, part 16 – French Omelette

Still on the Julia Child train, I got obsessed with the simple French omelette. I’m not much of a breakfast person, so little so that I attempted to make myself fall for breakfasts by doing a year-long Breakfast Around the World challenge. Spoiler alert, it just made my dislike of breakfast grew stronger. XD One of the reason might be that my mornings are quite packed. I gotta work out, shower and go to work on time. I don’t like eating sweet things and most of the time I don’t enjoy cold breakfasts either, or carb-rich ones cos I would get sleepy. So it has to be something quick, tasty, and low-carb. And also something that I want to eat every day. And I finally found it in Julia Child’s French omelette.

It’s a very simple recipe really, with just few ingredients but to master it, that’s a whole another story.

Ingredients (for 1 serving):

2 large eggs
1 tbsp (15g) butter
generous amount of salt
black pepper
chives (optional)

I keep my eggs on the counter so they are room temperature. The first thing I do is turn on my electric stove, to the max. If you have a gas stove, I envy you deeply. I don’t put the pan on the stove yet. First I break two large eggs into a large bowl and beat it until it’s bubbly. Then I put the pan on the hot stove, lets it sit there for a bit, then add the butter in. I would swirl the butter around the pan so that the surface is well-covered, especially the sides of the pan. Add the salt, I use a small salt grinder and I do 6-7 turns on it into my eggs. And about four turns on the black pepper grinder. I have no idea how much that is, in measurements. 😛 Gently mix the spices in. By now, the butter should just stopped making the sizzling sounds and it’s just before browning point. Pour the eggs in and immediately start to shake the pan back and forth on the stove without lifting the pan from the heat source. After about 5-10 seconds (depending on your stove and pan), the egg shouldn’t be runny anymore. It shouldn’t be whole cooked. Flip with a spatula or spoon or fork about 1/3 of the omelette in half. Drop the omelette onto a big plate and fold it onto itself to make it into a roll. 😀 Have a dollop of butter ready on your knife and butter up the surface of the omelette, then sprinkle some chopped up chives on top. And voila! 😀

Serve immediately for best consistancy. The whole cooking process, once mastered, should not take more than one minute. And it’s so good that I devour it usually in one minute. A great breakfast in less than 2 minutes. 😀 The secret is, it’s going to be more butter and more salt than you thought you would need. XD It’s filling and so satisfying, and I’m actually looking forward to it when I wake up. It took me about 3 weeks before I managed to make the perfect consistency for the omelette. I’m sure if I ever get a gas stove, I can make an even better one. If you are going to give it a try, I hope you enjoy. 🙂

Recipe of the Week, part 15 – Carbonara & Amatriciana

I have a weird culinary hobby and that is endlessly trying to achieve what I consider to be impossible: the perfect carbonara. I am not claiming I finally succeeded, cos I’m sure I will have a better one when I someday visit Italy. But as something I made myself, this was damn near perfect. To be fair, it is not my recipe. It is the Italian-American comedian Matteo Lane’s recipe, I just happen to follow him on Instagram and Youtube. I’ve made tens of different carbonara recipes, but this one I haven’t tried yet. And in a very Italian fashion, Matteo didn’t give exact measurements so the following are guesstimates from yours truly. I encourage you to experiment with the different amounts of things to your own taste, and trust me, it will be the most delicious experimental journey ever.

Ingredients (1 person portion):

50-70g of chopped guanciale (not bacon, not even pancetta, it has to be guanciale)
2-3 egg yolks (depending on how big your eggs are)
2-4 grated pecorino cheese
spaghetti (80g dry spaghetti)
salt and black pepper to taste

1. Turn on your stove to medium-low, and slowly cook the guanciale in its own fat.
2. Boil the pasta water, add a generous amount of salt. Normally it should taste as salty as the sea but since the guanciale is quite salty, the pasta water can be less salty.
3. Put your egg yolks in a giant bowl (glass or metal). Lightly beat the yolks and then adding your pecorino into the mix. Whisk until combined.
4. Your pasta water should be slightly boiling now, put your egg and cheese bowl on the pot, so that your bowl isn’t touching the boiling water (that’s why a big bowl is recommended). Whisk the egg and cheese mixture furiously, do not let the egg turn into scrambled eggs! You will notice the change in the texture on the mixture when the cheese is melted but the yolk remains runny. Take it off the heat and add the spaghetti.
5. Keep an eye on your guanciale, don’t let it go too crispy (unless you like it crispy). Once it’s the doneness to your liking, transfer them onto a paper towel to absorb the extra oil. Do not throw away the oil left in the pan just yet.
6. After your pasta has been cooking for over 5 minutes, you can add a little bit of pasta water into your egg mixture. Add it very slowly while whisking at the same time, this will prevent the egg from scrambling.
7. When your pasta is cooked to al dente (or just a smitch over if you like it), transfer it straight to the egg bowl. Mix quickly to combine it, and add more pasta water if needed. Season with black pepper, add your cooked guanciale and just a little bit of that oil left in the pan and mix mix mix.
8. Now plate, grate some more pecorino on top if you want and more black pepper if you want. Now enjoy!

It’s a really simple recipe, and it’s always those that are the hardest to master. And with a recipe with so few ingredients, the quality of the ingredients really stands out. So order a piece of guanciale online if you can’t find it in your local grocery store, it’s worth it. Use good quality eggs, the color of the yolk would be more yellow and taste better. As for the red pasta (photo up there), it’s amatriciana aka red carbonara. It’s a refreshing alternative to the creamy carbonara. Just replace the egg with some good tomato puree. Leave like 1 tablespoon of guanciale oil in the pan after you fish our the meat and pour the tomato sauce onto the pan. Add the pecorino when the sauce starts to simmer and mix until smooth. Then add the al dente pasta and the guanciale to the sauce. Mix until fully combined, plate and enjoy. No pasta dish would ever replace carbonara for me, but the amatriciana is also excellent.