A Taste Of Europe: Dalia Dogmoch Shares Traditional Estonian Recipes To Bring Easy Fine Dining To Your Home

Dalia Dogmoch Soubra travelled to the northern European country to discover some of its delicacies, focusing on local ingredients, traditional flavours and modern cooking techniques

Kullamaa Farm Mushrooms by Chef Angelica Udekül

Creamy oyster mushrooms
20g butter
10g garlic
1 sprig thyme
20g julienned onion
100g julienned oyster mushrooms
30g cream
Salt and pepper

1. Fry the butter, garlic, thyme and onions for one minute.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients into the heated pot in the same order as listed above and mix them together.

Marinated king trumpet mushrooms
Lime oil
100g lime juice
12g salt
15g honey
200g rapeseed oil
100g of king trumpet mushroom

1. Blend the lime, salt and honey. Slowly add oil to the mixture. Add extra honey when needed.
2. Cut king trumpet mushroom legs in to circles.
3. Marinate it in the dressing.

Fried lion’s mane mushrooms
150g of lion’s mane mushrooms
Corn starch
Salt

1. Sprinkle a little salt on the mushrooms.
2. Dip the mushroom in the corn starch and then fry it.

Caramelised onion cream
120g onion
20g vegan butter
25g oat cream

1. Roast onions in the oven for 15 minutes at 180 degrees. Shuffle them every 5 minutes till golden.
2. Boil roasted onions with the vegan butter and cream and season it with salt and pepper.
3. Serve with potato chips. Garnish with dill and parsley. Assemble the bowl by alternatively adding a little of each of the elements to build the final dish.

Vihula Manor, Pike Perch Fillet By Chef de Cuisine Indrek Suurtamm

100g Pike Perch fillet
60g smoked egg yolk confit (requires alder wood to smoke or just use 4 raw egg yolks)
60g young potato
15g brown butter
4g flakes of salt
4g micro green mix
1g edible flowers

1. Brown butter: Fry the butter over low heat until it turns brown and starts to smell like caramel. Then sieve through gauze.
2. Smoked egg confit: Put the egg yolk in a bowl. Let the alder smoke and cover with cling film. Let it stand for 2 hours. Then place this in plastic and sous vide at 58 degrees for 40 minutes. Cool.
3. Fry the pike in the brown butter sauce and serve with mashed potatoes, the cucumber and smoked egg yolk sauce.
4. Decorate with micro-greens, salt flakes and flowers. Restaurant recipes have been simplified by Dalia for the home cook.

Celeriac Ice-Cream Sandwich by Chef Peeter Pihel

Spent grain biscuit
55g butter (room temperature)
100g sugar
1 egg
170g hazelnut butter (can be replaced with peanut butter)
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
120g flour
120ml spent grain (can be replaced with oats)

1. Mix room temperature butter and sugar in a mixer or by hand with a wooden spoon, until sugar starts to melt and butter turns white.
2. Mix in one tbsp of flour and then add the egg.
3. Mix in the rest of the dry ingredients, avoid over-mixing.
4. Cool the dough in the fridge for a couple of hours.
5. Roll out dough until very thin (about 0.5 cm) and punch out circles.
6. Bake the biscuits at 150˚C for 10 minutes.

Salted caramel
200g sugar
400g whipping cream
salt to taste
20g butter

1. Make a dark caramel. Melt the sugar in a pan, keeping an eye on it. As soon as it starts to turn, turn the pan to get an even caramelisation. Avoid mixing with a spoon at that stage.
2. Deglaze the caramel with a drop of whipping cream. Then keep adding cream little by little, making sure that the caramel starts melting.
3. Boil the cream until it starts to thicken.
4. When the sauce resembles a very thin custard, it is ready.
5. Take the sauce off the heat, add salt and a knob of cold butter. Mix it white cooling down the sauce.

Celeriac ice cream
1 whole celeriac
20g used coffee grounds
50g brown sugar
0.5l of milk
200ml whipping cream
40g corn starch
200g sugar
6 eggs separated

1. Turn on the oven at 160˚C. Peel the celeriac and cut it into pieces. Mix the sugar and coffee and rub the mixture into celeriac pieces. Bake the celeriac pieces until slightly softened.
2. Take the softened celeriac from the oven. Wash off the coffee grounds and boil the celeriac in milk until it’s completely cooked.
3. Blend the celeriac with milk and let cool.
4. Mix whipping cream with cornstarch and egg yolks. Bring up to boil, until it thickens slightly. Add the celeriac cream and boil until the corn starch flavour is gone.
5. Make an Italian meringue. Start whipping egg whites with a standing mixer (or hand held mixer) until soft white peaks appear.
6. Put the sugar into a pan with a splash of water and bring it up to boil. The syrup has to reach a temperature of 120˚C.
7. Carefully drizzle the syrup into egg whites while whipping at full speed.
8. Mix the celeriac cream into the meringue gradually.
9. Freeze in round molds or punch out the circles later.

To assemble:
Cut one biscuit circle in half and cover both sides with caramel.
Cut the frozen celeriac mixture in half and put one half between the biscuits.
Top with any crunchy element you like: we use salted hazelnuts and puffed buckwheat.
PS: You can dry the celeriac peels and blend them up to make a flavourful celeriac dust to top your dessert. #nowaste

Lead image caption credits: Dalia in the kitchen with chef Peeter Pihel

Photography: Karl Markus Antson

From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s March 2022 issue