Cheese pancakes

That’s right, cheese pancakes. Very nice for the weekend breakfast. You’ll end up with about 15 pancakes if you use the amounts below - a pretty nice pile. Too much for a breakfast for two people, but leftovers will  be a nice lunchtime snack at work the next day. Or as a breakfast the next morning. Tastes good when warm or cold. Here’s what you need:

3 eggs

0.5 tsp salt

250 ml milk

150 g flour

150 g grated cheese

oil or butter to fry

# Separate the eggs.

# Whip the egg yolks. Add milk, salt, flour and grated cheese and stir.

# Whip the egg whites until stiff and gently fold in into the egg yolks and cheese mixture.

# Fry small golden cakes in a frying pan.

# Serve with tomato and cucumber slices, or without any side dish. Pretty nice and filling either way.

I guess you can play around with the batter, by adding some chopped and fried bacon or some salami for example. For me cheese was enough. Salami and bacon don’t seem as something you can put inside a pan cake. You can make an omelet out of them - but certainly not a pancake.

By the way. According to Wikipedia, cheese is a pretty ancient food. Proposed dates for the origin of cheesemaking range from around 8000 BCE (when sheep were first domesticated) to around 3000 BCE. The origin of the English word cheese appears to be the Latin caseus. Similar words are shared by other West Germanic languages — West Frisian tsiis, Dutch kaas, German Käse, Spanish queso, Portuguese queijo and Italian cacio.

I wonder, if people at that time knew how to make those tasty cheese pancakes?

Kaisershcmarrn

According to an Estonian cookbook, kaiserschmarrn - a fluffy pancake sprinkled with sugar - is a German national dish. Austrians prepare kaiserschmarrn as well, but bit differently - with rum-soaked raisins for example. I tried the German version and it turned out to be pretty tasty, a good change for regular pancakes and also a nice alternative for an oven pancake.

Serves four (1 pancake each):

8 eggs

4 tbsp sugar

150 ml milk

400 ml flour

0.5 ts sugar

100 ml raisins

2-3 tbsp butter

 

# Separate the eggs. Beat egg yolks with sugar until fluffy.

# Stir in milk, flour and salt. Let it stand for about 10 minutes, then fold in raisins.

# Beat the egg whites until stiff. Carefully fold into the batter.

# Heat the pan and melt some butter on it. Pour 1/4 of the batter into the pan and bake at low heat until the pancake has set and the bottom is golden brown.

# Turn over the pancake and cook until this side is also golden brown. I was afraid that it will be difficult to turn the pancake, but it held together very nicely and did not break, so no worries. When serving, sprinkle over with sugar.

It tastes good when cold as well, so maybe it would be a good snack for serving in parties.

Baltic sprat pies

In case you were wondering what the hell is this egg-sandwich in this picture, let me tell you it is another one of Estonian dishes. It is not egg-bruschetta, it is spicy Baltic sprat with rye bread, topped with a slice of boiled egg. Very nice actually, you should try.

Estonians use this fish in many dishes, like in Baltic sprat butter (finely chopped sprats are mixed with butter until smooth - ideal sandwich topping), or in Baltic sprat pies. Those small bite-sized pies are very easy to make and can be a nice lunchtime snack or a starter.

Ok, the question is where do you get this Baltic sprat. Whenever someone from home comes over, they usually bring it - so I can get my fish from Estonia. It is not sold in the supermarkets in Brussels - at least I haven’t seen it here…but maybe one could find it in one of the Polish shops around - or any other Eastern-European shop, they should definitely have it…or just get a friend in Estonia and let them ship you some. Or, even better, open a shop of Estonian food in Brussels and start importing Baltic sprats and other nice things, such as dark rye bread and kama. I would be a regular customer.

Now, if you do succeed in finding the fish, the recipe is the following. If not, maybe just try to bake some pies with some other filling.

You’ll get 12 small pies from those ingredients:

75 g soft butter

65 g sour cream or cream cheese

150-250 g butter

salt, sugar

lightly beaten egg for brushing

Filling: 8-12 spicy Baltic sprats, 2 hard boiled eggs, diced

# Mix sour cream and flour with beaten up butter (at first add about 150 g flour and if the dough is still sticky, add some more, until the dough doesn’t stick anymore).

# Knead the dough until smooth and let it stand for 30 minutes in a cool place.

# Then roll out the dough and cut into 12 squares. Place a sprat (if t is a bigger kind of sprat, half it) and egg wedge on each square.

# Wrap two corners of the square over each other, brush with egg and bake at 200 degrees C until golden brown (about 15-20 minutes). They taste the best when served warm, immediately after removing from the oven.

 

Using up smoked salmon leftovers

Believe it or not, sometimes you might have some smoked salmon leftovers in your fridge. Especially if you have made sushi the previous day. I was trying to figure out what to do with my few slices of smoked salmon (and a lonely avocado in the vegetable shelf) and found out that there is a possibility to use them up in tasty brucettas. I took the basic idea of this recipe and decided to offer a starter before dinner. And what a starter it was - I ended up having a definite keeper.

1 peeled and chopped avocado

3 chopped cherry tomatoes

0.5 tsp chili powder

1 tsp olive oil

1 tsp lemon juice

2 tsp basil

salt and pepper to taste

3 slices of bread and oil for spreading the toasts

a few slices of smoked salmon

 

# Mix avocado and tomatoes with oil and lemon juice, season with basil and chili powder. Taste, add salt and pepper, if needed.

# Toast bread and spread with oil. Instead of oil you are welcome to use some cream cheese or goat cheese - to soften the taste of salmon and add a nice texture to the bruchettas.

# Top toasts with avocado-tomato mix, cut into bite-sized pieces and serve.

Light yet savory and juicy, they are a perfect appetizer for a sunny day. The fresh colours make a nice presentation as well. And what’s more - in case you have leftovers, no worries, because the salmon acts like a barrier for the juices, so that the toast is crisp even on the next day.

Bacon-bites

As one of the Estonian cookbooks says, this is suppose to be a traditional Estonian snack. And it is probably one of the few that you can make out of the ingredients you can find in Belgium. You will get twelve tasty snacks from the following:

12 slices smoked bacon

75 g grated cheese

75 g boiled and grated carrots

75 g mayonnaise

pepper, nutmeg

 

# Mix grated cheese and carrots with mayonnaise and season with pepper and nutmeg.

# Fry bacon slices for one-two minutes (they should stay soft, not crisp) and drain. Remove bacon rinds.

# Plce a teaspoon of filling onto the bacon slice and roll it into thick snack.

# Garnish with fresh coriander or parsley leave (I didn’t have any…).

These snacks can be served immediately, but you can also prepare them a day before - if covered, they’ll stay overnight in the fridge (but you need to make sure that you have drained bacon thoroughly). If you would like a bit milder snacks, substitute some of the mayonnaise with sour cream or creme fraiche.