Smoothies

We all know that eating raw fruits and vegetables is extremely beneficial to our health. However, finding the time to eat enough fruits and vegetables per day can be difficult with too busy lifestyles. Smoothies offer unique health benefit and are loaded with antioxidants and vitamins. Smoothies made from fruits or vegetables are an excellent way to enjoy a delicious drink that offers good nutrition. This is the real fast food and I’m not talking about how fast the food gets to your mouth but how fast the body gets the benefits of what are you eating.A smoothie is a blended, chilled, sweet beverage made from fresh fruits or vegetables. In addition to fruits or vegetables, many smoothies include crushed ice, frozen fruits or yogurt.

Feel free to experiment; there are thousands of fruits and vegetables to be mix.
Here are some of the recipes I made. The recipes are for 4-5 portions:

1. Blueberries, banana and soy milk
- 200 gr banana
- 200 gr honey
- 300 ml soy milk
- 200 gr ice cubes
2. Mango and coconut milk
- 400 gr mango puree made from fresh mango pulp or from compote 400gr
- 400 gr coconut milk
- 100 gr honey
- 200 gr ice cubes
3. Sea buckthorn, tofu ice cream and pine syrup
- 200 gr frozen sea buckthorn 200gr
- 100 ml sea buckthorn syrup natural sugar free
- 125 ml pine syrup natural
- 200 ml soy milk
- 300 gr tofu ice cream – I used lactose free and sugar free
- 200 gr ice cubes
4. Strawberries, yogurt and agave syrup
- 200 gr frozen strawberries
- 500 gr natural yogurt
- 100 gr agave syrup

- 200 gr ice cubes

5. Orange, Carrot and Ginger
- 2-3 oranges (300gr) peeled
- 200 gr grated carrots
- 50 gr ginger
- 300 gr ice cubes
Squeeze one of the oranges into your blender to provide enough juice to help it blend. Then add the rest of the orange pulp and the second orange, grated carrots , ginger and ice.Blend on high speed until smooth!

Spinach - we all know the benefits of spinach - rich in antioxidants and vitamins. Spinach usually takes the flavor of other ingredients it is mixed with, so if you don't really like this vegetable, you will not feel it.
6. Spinach and pears
- 200gr frozen spinach
- 200 gr peeled fresh pears or from compote
- 100 gr agave syrup
- 300 ml soy milk
- 200 gr ice cubes
This is a combination that I want to do for long time and is amazing.
7. Cauliflower and chocolate ice cream
- 250 gr frozen or fresh cauliflower
- 250 gr chocolate ice cream
- 300 ml soya milk
- 200 gr ice cubes
- 100 ml agave syrup
Enjoy. Pin It Now!

Fine Dining & Seven Course Menu

What a treat to sit down for a 7 course meal! It’s wonderful to enjoy a feast with family or friends. Many people choose fine dining restaurants for a special occasion, so the food must not disappoint.Fine dining requires a lot of attention to details and no detail is ever too small to pay attention to, in fine dining. The standards you should always include in fine dining are fine china, glassware and flatware - no paper or plastic, while tablecloths is a ''must have'' in fine dining.

The three main areas to focus for a fine dining are the menu with finest food, service and atmosphere
The Menu
Your menu needs to be interesting and offer unique items that customers don’t find at other restaurant. The chef needs to exercise with his creativity when designing dishes.
You need to choose a theme for your menu, and try to have fun with it. And don’t forget the wine! Your wine list should complement your menu. Each wine should be paired with each individual dish. Work together with your sommelier to find the best options.
There are not any "rules" unless you are looking to do a traditional night like - French, Italian, Japanese....etc., course meal. The meal needs to build up consistent.
Here I made a list of “DON’T'' to show you the way I build the menu and the way I think about it:
- don't serve same proteins one after another;
- don't serve two seafood courses one after another (unless you have a shell fish night menu), or two meat courses;
- start with lighter fare, and then go on to the heavy;
- serve seafood before meat;
- Don’t treat – “amuse- bouche” like a course;
- don't serve the same cooking method more than once;
- don't serve more than one salad, or soup, or pasta;
- don't do heavy dish after heavy dish;
- don't mix in the same menu fancy dishes with fast food style dishes.
The goal is not to feed them massive quantities of food with each course, make everyone enjoying themselves, you must "school" your clients. None of the courses need to be heavy; they need to be in balance with the course before and the course after.
Here are some samples of menu I made and are easy to make.
You control and form the evening with the courses, let everyone come in and relax, with a glass of champagne and some ''amuse-bouche'' from the chef - should be the way to start the evening.

 Confit of duck with spice cauliflower and yogurt sauce.

Smoked salmon pate with salmon roe on a smoked crouton. 

The first course: Time for a fresh salad, tartar or light appetizer.

 Duck pate with baby pears, dry fruit compote and mango coulis.

 Tomato jelly with Catalan herbs olive oil.

 Salmon tartare with sweet mustard sauce.

Venison carpacio.
The second course: Soup is on!

All kind of soup can be serve. Here i made Lobster bisque with salmon pate and tiger prawns.
The third course: Traditionally the third course will feature a sorbet to cleanse the palate. A nice lemon or lime sorbet would do nicely. It’s perfectly fine to prepare this dish the day prior your meal.

Margarita granita sorbee.
The fourth course: This can be poultry, fish or shellfish.

 Butter fish with sweet potato mash, kumquats salad and lemon butter.

 Black ink risotto with tiger prawns.

 Cod wrapped in Parma ham with ink risotto and Parmesan biscuit.

Banana prawns with sushi rice , wasabi and white radish salad. 

Seared scallops with cauliflower puree, baby salad and truffle oil.
The fifth course: This will be a call for a red meat dish.

Seared Tuna file with wasabi mash, 4 flying fish caviar, wakame salad and teriaky sauce.

Slow cooked beaver in a filo pastry served with cumin sweet potato , red currant chutney and curry foam.

Reindeer file with dates puree, sugar beans and almond snow.
The sixth course: I usually made a small pre dessert.

Blue cheese and chocolate truffles.

Marinate grapes in mint and champagne with rosemary truffles.

Organic chocolate truffles with pure gold.
The seventh course: Dessert of course! It’s always hard to choose just one dessert.

Chocolate mocka tart.

Chocolate Oblivion with raspberry puree and Passion fruit.

 Lady Angel. Poached  orange in Cointreau serve with cocos biscuit and Cointreau sauce.
 Service
All of the details that are expected of a fine dining server require that your staff be rigorously trained. They should be able to answer any and all questions customers may have about a menu or item or wine. Customer service in a fine dining restaurant it goes far beyond taking an order and delivering food. Fine dining services include:
- escorting customers to the table;
- holding the chair for women;
- cleaning the table in between courses;
- replacing napkins if a customer leaves the table;
- explaining menu items without notes;
- serving food directly on the plate at the table;
- Sommelier should serve the wine and provide any information is needed.
The most important fine dining serving etiquette is to be polite to the customers and to give equal attention to all the guests. The food should be served from the right of the customer and the table should be cleared from the left.
 Atmosphere
In fine dining music is playing subtly in the background and should reflect the theme of the night, such as classical for a traditional fine dining restaurant or jazz for something modern, the rest of the atmosphere is up to you. Don’t forget, dining in a fine restaurant need to be a nice elegant way to have a meal and is relaxing and fun.
Enjoy. Pin It Now!

Playing with vodka

If you live in Estonia you have to know vodka in all the possible ways :) And here is my way of playing with vodka.

To make flavored vodka is easy and doesn't require special equipment or special tools. You need moderate or high quality vodka as base for your flavored vodka recipe.To get started, choose the flavor you want to make. There are so many flavors and flavor combinations you can use when you're making this vodka. I think everything that's edible can be used to flavor vodka. The choices of fruits (lemon, lime, mango, raspberry… etc.), vegetables (ginger, horseradish, cucumber, coffee, etc.), herbs (mint, dill, basil, lavender... etc.) and spices (cardamon, cumin, fennel, juniper berry, vanilla ...etc.) are only some of the flavors sample that can be used for infusion. The key to get the best flavor is to use fresh ingredients, not frozen or canned varieties. If use fresh fruit with a lot of volume you will need a sealable container were marinate will happens. Today I use only spices so I don't need to change the vodka from its bottles.

The proportion of ingredients to vodka will vary according to the type of ingredients you choose (fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices, etc.), the flavor of the ingredients and the intensity you want to achieve with your flavored vodka.
To make flavored vodka in a sealable container or directly in the original bottles, cover the ingredients you use with vodka. Cover the container tightly and store it in a cool, dark, dry place. Shake the container or bottles gently every couple of days.
Most infusions take from 7-10 days; some are ready overnight, and others (such as almonds) take up to 3 months. It depends on the potency of the ingredients and how strong you want the flavor. The only way to know if the infusion is ready is to taste it periodically. The final step is straining the infused vodka into clean bottles through a strainer. The infused vodka taste better after aging in a cool dark place.
Infused vodka makes a nice gift, especially when you reveal that the infusion is homemade, and don’t forget to label them!

Today, for a special request, I infuse the vodka in three different ways. One is with juniper berry, one is with fennel seeds, cumin seeds and fresh dill, and the last one with just fresh chili.
Here is some different way I use this infuse vodka.

Here I made different flavored vodka jelly shots were I mix one part of infused vodka with one part fruit puree or flavored cold water and gelatin (21gr for 1 liter of liquid). Too much alcohol overpowers the shooter. You can use it as vodka jelly shot for your party or get more creative. For this vodka jelly you need to allow more time than usual for the jelly to set, because of the alcohol in it.

Here I turned this jelly into something very delicious. The mix jelly vodka I cubed it and I covered it with a sweet condensed milk jelly. This is a very interesting twist; it looks pretty and would make people take a second look. I got this idea from a very nice blog call "The Food Librarian".

I made four different colorful jelly were I used  for each one 200ml vodka, 200ml flavored water or fruit puree and 10 gr of gelatin. Leave to set in a fridge for couples of hours. After it was set I cubed half of the jelly and mix them in a cake tray.

I covered the half of jelly cubed mix with a condensed milk jelly made from: 1.2 liter of sweet condensed milk mix with 1 liter milk and 50 gr gelatin dissolved in 50 ml water. Next I cubed the rest of vodka jelly and added on top. Chill in the fridge for 2-3 hours.

Serve sliced in big block pieces.

Please eat responsibly :)
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Miso soup

I love this Japanese soup – salty broth with the miso flavor, tofu and uncooked vegetables. Miso soup is served with nearly every meal in Japan, including breakfast. It is very simple and quick to make, nutritious and low in calories.In Japan the people who are known for living long, healthy lives, over 100 years old, drink miso soup every morning. The characteristic that defines miso soup is that the miso paste is mix with a fish stock called Dashi. All the other ingredients are added depending on personal preference.
Miso is a thick paste made from fermenting and ageing(10 months to a year for miso to be ready) soybean and/or rice.The ratio for miso and water is 1 tablespoon of miso paste per 250ml of water and is enough for 1 serving. The most important thing about making miso soup is that you never boil the miso paste because boiling it will kill the enzymes. Only add miso after you’ve turned off the heat. If you are using anything that needs a little cooking time, just do that before you add the miso paste.
Dashi is Japanese style fish or vegetables stock, which is the base of many Japanese dishes, such as soup or dipping sauce. It can be made from dried small sardines or dried bonito for fish stock and kombu (dried kelp) or dried shitake mushroom for a vegetables version. In this recipe I use instant fish Dashi. If you don't have Dashi, you could use some fish or chicken stock. Here is my version of this lovely soup.
For 4 serves.
- 1l of water.
- 4 Tbsp red miso paste.
- 2 teaspoons instant dashi.
- dash of soya sauce.
- 200g tofu cubed.
- 50g sprouts.
- 20g coriander.
- 4 shitake mushroom sliced - I use from conserve.
- 100g daikon( white radish),tiny slice.
- 1 red chili pepper slice.
- 2 pack choy salad sliced in half.

Pour the water into a pot and bring to a boil. Add the instant dashi and soya sauce and whisk to dissolve then turn the heat off. Place the miso paste in a small bowl and add 2-3 Tbsp of the hot water to the miso and whisk thoroughly, to a smooth paste. Then whisk the miso mixture back into the pot, and stir well.
In the individuals bowls and add tofu, mushrooms, sprouts, coriander,daikon radish, pock choy and red chili. Ladle hot broth into a bowl over vegetables and whisk with chopsticks to mix.

Top with fresh coriander and serve immediately.
Enjoy. Pin It Now!