Kama is one of the few foods that most Estonians agree is entirely their own. It is a flour of roasted barley, rye, oats and peas, ground fine and pale brown, smelling of toast and hazelnuts. Peasants in southern Estonia once carried it into the fields, rolled into balls with butter or stirred into sour milk for a quick, filling meal. Adding sugar is a modern habit; for most of its history kama was eaten plain, with bread and salted sprats, which is a combination we leave to the purists.

Today it is breakfast, a summer snack and, whipped into cream and kefir with berries, one of the country's favorite desserts. It needs no oven and no stove and is ready in ten minutes, which makes it the ideal finish for a race that ran long.

The kama mousse

Ingredients

• 1 cup (240 ml) heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons (40 g) honey
• 1 cup (240 ml) kefir
• 1/2 cup (60 g) kama flour
• 1 pinch salt

Method

1. Whip the cold cream and honey in the bowl until it holds soft peaks, 2 to 3 minutes with a mixer.
2. Pour in the kefir and whisk briefly until smooth.
3. Sprinkle over the kama flour and salt and fold them in with the spatula: lift the mixture from the bottom and turn it over the top, gently, until no dry flour shows.
4. Spoon into the glasses or bowls and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

The berries

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups (220 g) mixed fresh berries
• 1 tablespoon (20 g) honey

Method

1. Just before serving, pile the berries on top of each glass and drizzle with a little honey.

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