24-hour cucumbers

We, estonians, eat a lot of cucumbers - fresh, in salad, pickled or marinated. In summer, we love to make a really quick and delicious snack - 24 hour cucumbers. We use the little fresh cucumbers, make a tasty marinade and after 24 hours they are ready to be eaten. I guarantee, you will love the crispyness and freshness of this tasty summer snack. It´s also wonderful to accompany your grilled meat!

You need:

As many cucumbers as you like (those little rough ones, not the long and smooth ones)

Enough marinade to cover the cucumbers

For the marinade:

per 1 l boiled water, you need

1,5 tbsp strong vinegar

4 tbsp coarse salt

0,5 tbsp sugar

Handful of fresh dill

Handful of black currant leaves

3 cloves of garlic, halved

3 peppercorns

Boil the water. Add vinegar, salt, sugar and pepper. Mix until sugar and salt are dissolved.

Put dill, black currant leaves and garlic to a big pot. Add washed cucumbers. Pour over the marinade, while it´s still hot. Cover with a heavy plate or something that presses down the cucumbers, but lets in the air. After 24 hours, you have wonderful, fresh, aromatic and crunchy sour cucumbers!

Cheese and fresh garlic spread

Huge fresh bulbs of pinkish garlic are on the market now. I love garlic in every season, but those new ones are especially tasty. This salad or spread, made of grated cow cheese, garlic and mayonnaise, is a very common estonian party-dish. Sometimes we have it on fresh or grilled white bread and sometimes we roll it inside thin slices of good ham. It takes just some minutes to make, so it´s all good, if you´re a garlic-addict, like me. You need:

100 gr of cow cheese (you can use edam, emmentaler, gouda, cheddar or any other you like)

2-4 gloves of garlic

100 ml of mayonnaise

black pepper and salt for seasoning

Grate the cheese. Chop the garlic as thin as possible. Mix cheese, garlic and mayonnaise. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with fresh bread or roll inside a thin slice of ham.

Cold and creamy summer soup with herring

After a few days, when it was actually possible to breath, the heat is back again. And the time for cold soups is back as well. This one, with light sour cream and herring, is another childhood favourites of mine.

You´ll need:

50-70 gr herring filet

300 gr light sour cream (10% fat for example)

1 tomato

1 small cucumber

1 small onion

salt and pepper

boiled potatoes to serve

Cut the herring, cucumber, tomato and onion to small pieces. Mix in the sour cream. Season with salt and pepper. Let the soup stay in fridge for 15 minutes. Boil some potatoes, sprinkle with fresh dill and serve with the cold herring soup!

Külm hapukoore-heeringasupp

50-70 gr heeringafileed

300 gr 10% hapukoort

1 tomat

1 väiksem kurk

1 väiksem sibul

soola ja pipart maitsestamiseks

kõrvale keedetud kartulit värske tilliga

Haki heeringas, kurk, tomat ja sibul. Sega kokku hapukoorega. Maitsesta soola ja pipraga. Lase vähemalt 15 minutit külmkapis maitsestuda. Serveeri koos keedetud kartulitega, millele puista värsket tilli.