Sacred plates

Now that warmer weather has transformed the open lands and forests around Hiis, the six-table restaurant in northern Estonia’s Harju County, chef Daanius Aas must make room in his basement larder for new preserves of buds, shoots and blossoms. He has found an ideal use for the birch leaves he marinated and salted last spring – he uses them in a dish of smoked eel with burnt cream and juniper berries.