Nami-Nami Easter Brunch 2024

Easter last year was on March 31st in 2024, exactly a year ago (well, one year tomorrow). As I am planning the menu for this year's Easter on April 20th, it's a good to time to look back to the previous brunch. 

We've been hosting an Easter brunch on an Easter Sunday for over a dozen years now and it's one of the entertaining highlights for me. I love Christmas, don't get me wrong, but while Christmas is all about family, then Easter is all about friends, so they are two very different occasions. Also - while Christmas traditions seem to be more set in stone, sorry, traditions, then Easter gives much more opportunities to try something new. I think the only Easter constant is the traditional pashka dessert :) 

Here's the Facebook event cover from 2024 - we had 27 people around, including ourselves:

And here's the menu (in Estonian):

We usually set the whole table at once, so it's buffee-style or "Swedish table", as we say in Estonian ("rootsi laud"). Not the best of photos, but you get an idea. 

We started with some cold cuts and starters. We had some fish preserves from our skiing trip to Ruka, Northern Finland. Our friend Piret brought along some of her home-made and delectable cep/porcini mushroom preserves. 

I made some rye canapes with smoked tofu and cucumber (on the photo at 2 o'clock from the apples, recipe in Estonian here). A really nice vegan canapé - I used a local smoked tofu, a Fiinish fermented oat cream, some red onion, lemon and some seasoning. Tastes a bit like a smoked fish salad and looks really nice garnished with fresh cucumber and some micro greens. (See yourself here).

There was a big bowl of fresh cabbage salad with Green Goddess dressing. (Pictured on the top left corner above). I know some versions of this dressing also use anchovy, but I make a vegetarian version with either sour cream or Greek yogurt, avocado, garlic and different herbs (usually basil, parsley, cilantro/coriander). Again, you'll find the recipe in Estonian here.

Two of the dishes were inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi, as recommended in the Guardian (see here). One was vegetarian, a fennel and pepper gratin, which I served sans cheese and bread crumb topping;

(Recipe in Estonian here; in English here).

The other was a spiced Easter lamb with marmalade glaze, which was absolutely wonderful and flavoursome. We often serve lamb at our Easter brunch and this did not dissappoint. (You'll find recipe in English here and in Estonian here).

When I was still living and working in Scotland, but already dating K, we met up in Paris for a romantic getaway May 2006 - almost 19 years ago. The date went well, obviously, as I decided to move back to my homeland 5 months later - and we're still living together 19 years on, parenting our three lovely kids etc. Anyway, during that weekend in Paris, we had a delicious spinach and smoked salmon quiche at a small deli-cafe near Luxemburg garden. I later recreated that quiche and we still make it regularly - and it always brings back nice memories of that first trip to Paris. (We went back to Paris to celebrate our tenth anniversary and since then we've been there with our kids as well.)

I have shared the recipe on this blog, 

One of my favourite dishes at the brunch was this warm roast beetroot and broccoli salad with spicy chickpeas - a recipe from an Estonian food writer Rita Osa (recipe in Estonian here).

I had planned to make Nigella Lawson's cherry tomato couscous, but had run out of couscous, so used fine bulghur instead. It worked really well (recipe in Estonian here).

For sweets, I made pecan brownies, using my regular - and favourite brownie recipe.

We also had some fresh fruit and berries on the table, as well as cheese. My friend Liina brought along a curd cheese cake (kohupiimakook) and of course we had home-made pashka: 

For drinks we had Virgin Palomas (recipe in Estonian), sea buckthorn and lemonade Semusas (recipe in Estonian) and some delicious non-alcoholic drinks from Öun Drinks, a local producer of fine beverages. 

So, have you started thinking of this year's Easter menu already? What dishes are on the long list at the moment? Let me know in the comments.  

From the archives:

We've hosted an Easter brunch for friends annually since 2007 (I moved back home to Estonia and in with K. from Scotland in October 2006, so it's 'our thing'). I see I have a lot of catching up to do :)

• Easter brunch 2024
• Easter brunch 2023
• Easter brunch 2022 - just a small family gathering for a change
• Easter brunch 2021
• Easter brunch 2020
• Easter brunch 2019
• Easter brunch 2018
• Easter brunch 2017
• Easter brunch 2016 - no Easter brunch, as we were travelling in Singapore and on Bali
• Easter brunch 2015
• Easter brunch 2014
• Easter brunch 2013
• Easter brunch 2012 
• Easter brunch 2011
• Easter brunch 2010
• Easter brunch 2009
• Easter brunch 2008
• Easter brunch 2007

IKRA - Russian eggplant caviar/Russian aubergine caviar

Someone was looking for a "soft aubergine/eggplant spread with tomatoes" and I knew exactly what they were talking about. There's a dish in Russia, our Eastern neighbour, which is called IKRA or fake caviar.

I got this recipe from Russian friend Galina back in Edinburgh sometimes around 2000. Still makes a regular appearance in our kitchen.  It's lovely on a slice of toast, or as a condiment or spread on a mezze-table.

Russian aubergine spread IKRA

1 large aubergine/eggplant
1 large onion
2 garlic cloves
2 tomatoes
1 Tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar or lemon juice
salt and freshly ground black pepper
fresh parsley or dill

Prick the aubergine with a fork here and there, then place into a preheated 200C/400F oven and bake for about 60 minutes, until fully cooked and slightly charred on the outside. Flip over once or twice during baking.

Remove from the oven, let it cool. Then cul half lengthwise and scoop out the flesh. Place into a cutting board and chop finely. Place into a medium-sized bowl.

Peel the onion, cut into halve and then chop finely. '

Peel the tomatoes (make a small X-cut at the bottom, place into a boiling water for about 30 minutes, drain and peel). Dice the tomatoes finely.

Mince the garlic.

Mix the aubergine, onion, tomatoes and garlic in the bowl, add the oil and vinegar/lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Cover the bowl with a clingfilm and put the ikra into the fridge for a few hours, so the flavours can mingle and develop.

Sprinkle with chopped fresh herbs just before serving.

Dyeing Easter Eggs with Onion Skins, Estonian style

This was originally posted in 2011. You'll find all my Easter recipes here. 



We don't really 'do' chocolate eggs for Easter here in Estonia, but real, chicken eggs. Dyeing eggs for Easter is very popular, and using onion skins is probably the most popular method. Using onion peels gives you most beautiful dyed eggs, each one unique and special. Here are some photos of the process that I took few years ago.



Here's what you need to do:

* Few weeks before Easter start collecting onion peels. Yellow ones are better than red onion skins, as they give a nice colour.

* You need white eggs for doing this (this gives the shops a chance to sell specially packaged white eggs for a much higher price before the festivities).



* Take an egg and neatly put few onion peels around it:



* Take a piece of mesh/muslin/kitchen foil or even an old nylon stocking and wrap it around the egg to keep the onion peels on place. I used foil here:



* Boil as usual. Cool, then unwrap and unpeel.

Here's the result - each egg is unique and gorgeous:



Natasha describes a similar, though less complicated way of dyeing eggs with onion peels that's popular in Russia and Ukraine: Russian Easter Eggs. My 91-year old grandmother uses the same method - she says she's too old to "play around" with the onion peels too much :)