Kingitud maitsed - Evelin Ilves

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as the Latin adage is generally applied but also quite literally when it comes to taste.

      Humans, like all living beings, need nourishment to live. Living beings, be they plants or animals have certain basic requirements, reducible to two dozen amino acids, without which they die. Culture however, means that survival is not enough. Humans, as they developed as social beings, applied their creative energies to create music, art, poetry and sports. They also applied their creativity to nourishment.

      Thus, we Estonians and Finns have our unique form of poetry, regivärss, the trochaic tetrameter verse form better known in English as Kalevala verse, Western music its heptatonic scale while Indian music divides the scale into 11. So too have we our own tastes in food. Not better than anyone else’s, just different.

      Nor is taste immutable. The tomato we associate with Italian food and the potato of central and eastern Europe were unknown in the Old World and were imported to our cuisines only in the last half millennium. What we consider home cooking, our national cuisine, can change in less than a generation: I recall reading a German soldier serving in Afghanistan answer the question what he missed most about not being at home: “a good dönner kebab”, a Turkish food unknown in Germany a mere 50 years ago. When a German soldier in Afghanistan feels Heimweh for dönner kebab, we see how much the world has changed and opened up.

      As our world opens up, as we Estonians again live in liberty and travel wherever we wish, we find new tastes, new ways of experiencing, be it in literature, in music or nourishment. And new ways to be together. At home, our family has found cooking new and different meals and doing it together our most cherished time. With the ever increasing pace of life that comes with liberty, family time becomes more of a rarity, and hence more of a luxury. Cooking, we have found, is the best way to be actively together, with each of us helping to prepare some part of our dinner, lunch or breakfast, at least on the weekend, when we can all be home and break bread together. The recipes here in this book are recipes we use at home; they provide us with the variety and excitement of new and shared experiences.

      The recipes here are the ones we have come to especially like, which may differ, of course, from what you enjoy. It’s all a matter of taste.

      Saamislugu

      Koguda võib tegelikult kõike. Mina kogun elamusi. Ja kui oled piisavalt põhjalik, hakkab see kogu sinuga varem või hiljem maitsetest ja kultuuridest kõnelema. Kuulugu sinu kirg mängukonnadele, postkaartidele või autodele. Sestap ma ei imestanudki, kui kunagisest kirglikust kommipaberikogujast – kes ma kuueselt olin – märkamatult maitsete ja elamuste kollektsionäär sai. Reisidelt toon kaasa pilte, märkmeid ja… ikka alati ka maitseid. Sageli toidu- või maitseainete kujul, aga mida aeg edasi, seda enam ka kohalike kirja pandud retseptidena. Need on sõnumid erakordsetest hetkedest. Need on kingitused, mis iialgi ära ei kulu ega kahane.

      Reis ümber maakera mööda maitsete radu on mingi piirini ka koduköögis tehtav. On nii palju vaimustavaid kokaraamatuid. On tuhandeid võimalusi hankida endale ka kõige keerukamate nimedega eksootilisi vürtse. Elu virtuaalses reaalsuses on sõna otseses mõttes maailma meile koju kätte toonud. Niimoodi riigist riiki, kultuurist kultuuri rännates avastame seaduspärasusi, millest koosnevad ja kõnelevad ühe või teise maa maitsed. Igal maal on ikka paar-kolm traditsioonilist ja kohalikku vilja-ürti-vürtsi, mis ka üle maailma levinud toiduainele just tollele kandile iseloomuliku maitsenüansi annab. Võtkem kas või kartul. Kui maitsestad paprika ja rasvaga, mekib nagu Ungaris, paned karrit – on India moodi. Lisad oliiviõli ja sidrunit ning oledki Kreekas. Paned küüslauku ja punet ning hopsti, Itaalias. Hea meresool, taluvõi ja till aga teevad universaalse mugula meile väga armsaks ja koduseks – see on ehtne eesti maitse.

      Olen lapsest saadik armastanud süüa teha. Esimesed kümme kokkamisaastat keskkooliajal tegin ma peamiselt kooke. Need jõudsid peaaegu kõigi ema sõbrannade sünnipäevalauale ja ega oma peregi ilma jäänud. Kokad jagunevatki laias laastus kaheks: need, kes teevad nii-öelda pärissööki – köögivilja-, liha-, kalatoite –, ja teised ehk kondiitrid ja pagarid. Mulle on vist too teine geen kaasa antud. Niisiis mässan ma mõnuga aastast aastasse, üritades teha maailma parimat leiba, esialgu musta ja siis ka valget. Viimase puhul on eesmärk veel saavutamata.

      Oleme Kadrioru-aastate jooksul palju eestimaiseid maitseid riigipeadele ja teistele kallitele külalistele kaasa pannud. Eks räägi ju kohalik toit tegelikult kõige lihtsamalt, kiiremini ja mõnusamalt sinu maa ilmastikust ja väärtustest, sinu maitsetest ja meeleoludest. Maitse on nagu muusika, see on tõeline kunst, mille pakutud elamus jääb igaveseks alles. Just sellepärast on mul, kallis lugeja, iseäranis hea meel sinuga jagada mulle ja meie perele kingitud maitseid. See on väike kulinaarne reis koos meie ja me sõpradega, saatjaks head elamused, mida pakub armastusega tehtud toit. Võid kindel olla, et kõiki neid toite saab sinu kodus valmistada. Nad on enamasti imelihtsad, aga ka keerukamad olen ma õige mitu korda ise läbi proovinud. Nii mõnigi retsept on pisut täiendatud või veidi muudetud, sest toorained on igal pool natuke omamoodi. Kus vaja, olen pakkunud aseaine.

      Kui tahad teha tõesti head ja ka tervislikku toitu, kasuta kvaliteetset toorainet. Ning ära unusta, et ka väikesed asjad on toidukunsti puhul vägagi olulised, tihti tulemust määravad. Nii on mere- ja kivisool toidu sees hoopis mahedamad ja nüansirikkamad kui tavaline keedusool. Värskelt oma veskis jahvatatud pipar lõhnab hoopis teisiti kui tehases tehtu. Ja erinevad roosuhkrud oma pooltoonidega ületavad mäekõrguselt tavalise valge rafineeritud puru maitseomadused. Kuigi kokata saab kõigest ja kõigega. Lõppude lõpuks – kingitud hobuse suhu ei vaadata ja maitse üle ei vaielda. Andugem vahel lihtsalt puhtale naudingule!

      Background story

      You can actually collect anything. I collect experiences. And if you are sufficiently thorough, sooner or later, your collection will start to speak to you about tastes and cultures – no matter whether your passion is for sports teams, postcards or cars. Therefore, I was not surprised when a former passionate collector of candy wrappers – which I was when I was six – imperceptibly became a collector of tastes and experiences. From my trips I bring back pictures, notes and … always tastes. They are often in the form of foods or seasonings, but as time went on, ever more as written recipes – messages from special moments; gifts that never wear out or diminish in value.

      To some extent, you can take a trip around the world along a path of tastes right in your own kitchen. There are many inspiring cookbooks. There are thousands of ways to procure exotic spices with even the most complicated names. Living in a virtual reality literally brings the entire world into our homes. Travelling from country to country, from culture to culture in this way, we can discover the components and messages of a country’s tastes. Every country has two or three traditional local vegetables, herbs or spices that add their typical taste nuances to ingredients that are popular around the world – for example, potatoes. When seasoned with paprika and lard, potatoes taste like Hungary; add curry and they remind us of India. Add olive oil and lemon and you are transported to Greece. Add garlic and oregano, and suddenly you are in Italy. Good sea salt, farmers’ butter and dill make this universal tuber very dear and familiar – into an authentic Estonian taste.

      I have loved to cook since I was a child. During the first ten years that I cooked (while I was in secondary school) I mostly baked cakes. They adorned tables at the birthday celebrations of almost all my mother’s friends, and I didn’t deprive my own family either. Generally cooks can be divided into two groups: those who make so-called “real food” including vegetable, meat and fish dishes; and the others that are pastry cooks and bakers. I must have inherited this second gene. Thus, I struggled

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