Category Archives: Polish

Rhubarb Kisiel (Warm Gooey Rhubarb Pudding)

kisielp

This is one of the most extraordinary things that can be made with rhubarb. The tangy fresh flavours, the pink hue and, most of all, the addictive gooey consistency make this pudding one of my favourite spring sweet treats. One of the rare desserts I prefer when still warm.

Probably a majority of my dear readers have never even heard of kisiel, so I will start with the explanation. Kisiel (pronounced “kishyel”) is a very popular Polish pudding, made with fruit soft drinks or whole fruits with water (and nowadays, alas, most people buy its powdered instant versions…). It is thickened with potato starch (hence the gooey consistency), served warm or cold and usually has a fresh, tangy note. Its unique texture – vaguely reminiscent of Lemon Curd - is as important for me as its flavour. It is a very light, fat-free pudding that can easily be made even lighter if you use a sweetener instead of sugar.

I have learnt only recently that similar fruit dishes exist for example in Germany, Estonia, Lithuania or Finland, but sometimes they mean slightly thickened soft drinks and not puddings. When I saw a Finnish Rhubarb Kiisseli recipe in my Moomins Cookbook (for those of you who don’t know it yet, I am particularly fond of Moomin characters; I have already mentioned this book here), this discovery gave me the idea to include the Moomin family into the photo. The beautiful tray you see above was one of the most touching presents I have ever been offered. I was completely blown away when I received it from my dear friend Charles (from Five Euro Food), who bought it during one of his trips to Sweden. This tray, my infallible mood improver, was perfect to serve kisiel, since both bring back my childhood memories. Thank you so much again, Charles, for your thoughtful kind gesture.

Since all this has put me in a happy “Moomin” mood, here is the cartoon’s theme song:

Even though the Finnish kiisseli was my inspiration for this post, I have used my own old recipe which is a bit different. I prefer to have this pudding warm, but it can also be served cold.

If you feel like playing with rhubarb, you might like this quick and easy Rhubarb Soft Drink (which by the way is the first step of this pudding’s instructions):

or this refreshing Wobbly Rhubarb Delight I made with agar agar (kanten), and which, I insist, is not a jelly, but a less dense, incredibly light dessert:

TIPS: Potato starch thickening properties can vary, so you might need to adjust its amount during the cooking process. Start with the below amount and if after 3-4 minutes of cooking, the texture is still too liquid, dissolve one more tablespoon starch in a glass with two tablespoons of cold water and add to the pan, constantly stirring (see the instructions below).

This pudding can be served both warm and cold, but I prefer it warm. Taste both to choose your favourite way.

BEWARE! Do not eat or cook rhubarb leaves! They are toxic. Only stalks are edible.

Preparation: 1about 40-50 if you need to prepare the Rhubarb Soft Drink, 15 – 20 min if you already have it

Ingredients (serves four):

500 g (about 1 lb) fresh rhubarb, leaves removed, stalks cut into 2-3 cm pieces (about 1 inch)

2 litres (4 cups) water

sugar or sweetener

4 slightly heaped tablespoons potato starch

First prepare the rhubarb soft drink (if you already have it, skip this step).

Put the rhubarb into a big pan with water.

Bring to a boil at medium heat and cook until the rhubarb completely softens.

Strain while still hot, put aside and wait until the rhubarb drink cools to the room temperature. (You can also prepare it in advance, refrigerate and follow the dessert instructions the following day or even two days afterwards).

Measure 1 liter (4 cups) rhubarb drink and pour it into a pan. (Do not throw away the remaining soft drink, which is delicious!).

Add sugar or sweetener to your taste.

Dissolve the potato starch in additional 4 tablespoons rhubarb drink (make sure it is no longer hot!).

Bring the rhubarb drink to a boil. Pour slowly the dissolved potato starch, constantly stirring.

Cook it until thickened (about 4 minutes).

If your pudding is still liquid after four minutes, put the pan aside.

Dissolve one more tablespoon in 1 tablespoon cold rhubarb drink or water and add it to the pan, stirring. Heat, constantly stirring until it thickens.

Serve warm or cold.

Easter Party Ideas

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Wonton Cups, or Edible Snack Containers

Zsuzsa, my blogging friend from Zsuzsa is in the Kitchen, has recently invited me to join her and other bloggers (Eva from Takarékos Konyha, Elisabeth from Food and Thrift and Eva from Kitchen Inspirations) and, just like them, post my Easter menu suggestions. I was honoured, but at first I panicked because apart from a Chicken Terrine (see below) I don’t really have traditional Easter dishes on my blog. Both Zsuzsa and Elisabeth have convinced me to present whatever I might serve for such an occasion, even if it is not traditional in any country or region of the world. Thank you, ladies, for your advice! Thus, I have chosen some festive dishes I love, regardless their origins or relation to Easter celebrations. Thank you so much, Zsuzsa, for your kind invitation. I hope my eclectic choice, far from Easter traditions will not disappoint you.

Here is a list of dishes I would take into consideration if I had guests for Easter (of course I wouldn’t serve all of them!). All of them can be served at a buffet-style party, my recent favourite way to entertain. Such a concept usually means more work beforehand because, contrary to traditional meals, one cannot serve just three dishes, but this way I offer a bigger choice to the guests, who are not forced to eat all they are served, but most of all such a party has a more relaxed atmosphere. Apart from one exception, I have chosen easy recipes, which either can be prepared very quickly or made in advance. They have both Western and Asian origins, so I hope you will find here some useful ideas, not necessarily for Easter.

First of all, I would never skip the obligatory Wonton Cups, or Edible Snack Containers (see the photo above). Versatile, cute and easy, these edible containers are nowadays a staple not only when I have guests (thank you, Juliana!).

Last-minute Crackers can be prepared really just before the guests arrive as long as you have some puff pastry in the fridge. These star-shaped crackers were prepared for Christmas, but you can give them any shape you wish, such as bunnies…

These olives are so easy to prepare you will never consider buying them seasoned by someone else again.

This Smoked Mackerel and Egg Spread can be prepared with any smoked fish of your choice, of course.

Recently discovered Taramosalata (Fish Roe Spread) is one more thing I will never ever even think of buying. Home-made version is incomparably better.

Light Chicken Terrine with Nutmeg is actually the only dish I used to have as a child for Easter and other festive occasions.

Savoury Cake with Goat Cheese and Dried Tomatoes (aka Goat Cheese and Dried Tomatoes Bread) is a wonderful alternative to canapés.

Cake with Ham and Olives, another canapés substitution, is a real crowd-pleaser.

If you feel like serving Japanese food (why not?), try preparing Maki Sushi with Shrimp, Avocado and Cucumber. They will not necessarily look as perfect as in your sushi shop, but they are really easy to prepare.

Spring Rolls with Leftover Roast and Carrots, an Asian sandwich alternative, can also be prepared with the remains of your roast, after the Easter holidays.

Sesame-Coated Chicken Nuggets (Tori no goma age) can be made in advance and will please all the sesame fans.

Japanese Chicken and Leek Skewers (Negima) are brushed with teriyaki glaze and usually please every guest.

Asparagus Teriyaki Pork Rolls are incredibly easy to prepare and are one of my favourite ways to serve asparagus.

Unbaked chocolate Cake with Biscuits (Chocolate Terrine with Speculoos) is a rich creamy dessert which doesn’t require baking and is incredibly simple to prepare.

Coconut, Chocolate and Rum Truffles (Bounty Truffles). Who doesn’t like chocolate truffles?

Matcha and White Chocolate Truffles are the only ones which might be tricky to prepare, but they are green, fresh, festive and have this amazing slightly bitter matcha flavour…

Chocolate and prunes are all you need to prepare these luscious Prunes in Chocolate, a quicker and easier alternative to chocolate truffles.

This Kiwi and Rum Cocktail seemed perfect for a spring party.

I strongly encourage you to check the wonderful Easter menu suggestions proposed by my blogging friends and would like to wish you all a very happy Easter and wonderful holidays to those who don’t celebrate it!

Light Unbaked Cheesecake with Passion fruit

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passioncheesep

Bored with lemons, oranges, apples and pears, I decided to experiment with something more exotic and discovered a new passion for the… passion fruit. Passion fruit macarons are one of my beloved Pierre Hermé’s creations, passion fruit chocolates are made by many chocolatiers in my city, passion fruit daiquiri is one of my favourite cocktails… and yet, I have never tried making a passion fruit dessert on my own. This first attempt felt like uncovering a whole new world of exciting culinary adventures. Topping a simple unbaked cheesecake with passion fruit pulp cannot really be called elaborate work in the kitchen, but it proved one of the most astonishing experiments I have ever made. The powerful, irresistible fragrance, the tangy flavour and crunchy seeds paired with the creamy, silky cheesecake created a complex and unusual combination. Since it was also one of the easiest and quickest sweet treats I know, I predict a bright future for this wonderful match, at least until strawberries appear.

I have already shared with you my enthusiasm about the unbaked cheesecake (see below). It becomes a staple in my house, especially when the weather gets warm and light, refreshing desserts are more welcome. I haven’t written about it for quite a long time, so here is a quick explanation of the unbaked cheesecakes I prepare. My unbaked – and also baked – cheesecakes have both Polish origins, i.e. they are not made with North American cream cheese, but with natural fresh cheese (called curd cheese, quark or fromage frais). In the unbaked version this cheese is very smooth and can easily be substituted with Greek yogurt, similar in both taste and texture.

Apart from the taste, the main reason why I prepare unbaked cheesecakes so often is their healthy side: contrary to the North American-style cheesecakes, these are low-fat, low-calorie and, I think, can be proposed to people on a slimming diet. I also love them for their instantly recognisable, slightly tangy taste and a light texture, close to a very dense mousse. In my opinion the basic unbaked cheesecake preparation (cheese, gelatin and sugar) is an excellent basis to play with different fruits, aromatic alcohols, spices and other seasonings (some cover them with a thick layer of fruit jelly, the item I have never liked). Many people prepare also a crust, but since I don’t like it in either baked or unbaked cheesecakes, I always omit it. Thanks to this my cheesecakes are even lighter and quicker to prepare. This slightly acid passion fruit version was excellent, but if you don’t like tangy sweets (or passion fruit), you might want to try other versions instead:

Unbaked Strawberry Cheesecake in a Glass

Unbaked Blueberry Cheesecake in a Glass

Unbaked Vanilla Cheesecake

If you are a fan of passion fruit (or passionfruit), you might like this delicious cocktail:

Passion fruit daiquiri

TIPS: This cheesecake can be made in one big mould lined with plastic film, and then sliced into portions like a baked cheesecake, but I find individual portions easier to handle and much cuter when served.

You can of course prepare any baked or unbaked crust of your choice.

Preparation: 15 minutes + 2 hours in the fridge

Ingredients (serves 4-5):

500 g (about 17 oz) very smooth (mixed) fresh cheese/curd cheese/quark/fromage frais or Greek yogurt

2 tablespoons gelatin (or 6 – 8 sheets, depending on the brand, so take the amount necessary to set 500 ml/17 fl oz of liquid))

4 tablespoons warm water (I prefer to use hot water with powdered gelatin)

4 flat tablespoons confectioner’s sugar or sweetener of your choice

(2 tablespoons rum)

(white chocolate)

Dissolve the gelatin in 4 tablespoons warm or hot (not boiling) water. (If using leaves, proceed as indicated on the package).

Mix the cheese, the rum and the sugar in a food processor.

Add the dissolved gelatin and mix once more.

Pour the cheese mixture into individual bowls or glasses and put into the fridge for at least two hours.

Just before serving cut the passion fruits in two and pour the flesh over the cheesecakes (1 small or 1/2 big passion fruit per glass).

You can sprinkle them with grated white chocolate.

Light Chicken Terrine with Nutmeg

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patepp

Home-made terrine always brings my best food-related childhood memories and, therefore, is one of the rare dishes I consider as both festive and comforting. My mum would bake it for most family parties and holidays and it was obligatory for Christmas and Easter. Thus, every year, when Easter approaches, instead of being tempted by the chocolate bunnies that invade all the Swiss shops, I start longing for my beloved humble-looking terrine and its inebriating, festive nutmeg aroma. I have already written about this terrine/pâté some time ago, but when I made it last weekend, I took the opportunity to change my old photos and decided to share this recipe with you again.

France is probably the country which comes to mind when we think about pâtés and terrines. They can be made in France with any kind of meat and/or liver. While pâtés are usually made with pork or duck or game and/or liver and sometimes are baked in a crust (pâté en croûte) or simply made soft and spreadable, terrines can also be made with fish, seafood, vegetables or even fruit and are always baked in a rectangular dish and are eaten only sliced. However, when you observe French butchers’ products, you realise that what some call “terrine”, others label as “pâté” and in some cases (especially in the case of pork products), the difference is not that clear. I am still hesitating what term I should use for this Polish recipe, but I think that for non-French readers, “terrine” might be easier to understand.

The Polish terrines I have been making for years are based on my mum’s recipe and differ a lot from the French ones. Not only are they made with previously cooked meat and liver (French products are baked with raw meat), but they are also very finely ground or mixed, but most of all, there is the amazing nutmeg which is the key ingredient here. My mum would usually prepare her pâté with a mixture of pork and beef, but this lighter, poultry version, would also appear on the table from time to time and this is the one I prepare most often.

The preparation is long, but very simple and difficult to fail. Once it has cooled down, the terrine can be kept in the fridge for about one week or frozen until the day we want to use it. It can be served as a starter, as a snack, on small canapés or crackers and it goes particularly well with all kinds of pickles (pickled pepper, gherkins, onions, beetroots and even kimchi!) and cranberry or bilberry jam/sauce. Personally, I love it with a fiery horseradish sauce and/or my Pickled Sweet Peppers.

TIPS: As the recipe name suggests, nutmeg is the main seasoning, so unless you hate it, do not skip it (at least for the first time). Every time I tried omitting it and putting other seasonings instead, I was very disappointed. Do use freshly grated nutmeg because it loses its aroma very quickly.

As I have mentioned above, this terrine can be frozen in big or small portions and even though the crust will not be crunchy, the taste will stay more or less the same.

You can use either deboned, skinless chicken/turkey cuts or a whole small chicken. The latter version will of course take a bit more time, but it can prove cheaper. If you want, you can skin the chicken before the first, cooking stage. This way the stock you add to the terrine will be less fatty.

Be generous with ground black pepper: this poultry version tends to be a bit bland compared to the pork pâté for example, so freshly ground black pepper gives it more character.

Preparation: 2,5 – 3 hours + cooling time

Ingredients (fills a 20 cm x 10 cm baking tin):

500 g/about 20 oz chicken breast, or a mixture of leg and breast meat or a whole small chicken (you can also use turkey cuts)

green part of 1 leek

1 parsley root or a couple of parsley branches

1/4 celeriac or 2 branches celery

1 big carrot

1 medium onion

100 g/about 4 oz chicken livers

2 slices white, sandwich bread

1/2 nutmeg (freshly grated)

3 heaped tablespoons semolina

pepper, salt

2 eggs

2-3 tablespoons oil or duck fat

(dry breadcrumbs)

If you use the whole chicken, place it in a big pan filled with water. If you want, you can skin it. Add the carrot, the halved onion, the leek, the celeriac and the parsley. Season with salt and pepper and cook on a medium heat until the meat well cooked. The whole chicken will take much more time than cut up meat.

If you use separate meat cuts, cut the meat into equal chunks. Put them in a pan filled with water. Add the carrot, the halved onion, the leek, the celeriac and the parsley. Season with salt and pepper and cook on a medium heat until the carrot is very soft and the meat well cooked.

When the meat or the chicken are cooked, remove them from the stock and wait until they cool down.

Pour 500 ml/about 17 fl oz of the stock into a small pan and cook the livers for 15 minutes.

Put the livers aside.

Place delicately the bread slices in the stock remaining after the livers have been cooked and let them soak for one minute.

Put the livers, the meat (if you use the whole chicken, remove the meat from the carcass, making sure there are no bones or skin), the soaked bread, the carrot and the parsley root (discard the branches) in a food processor and mix into a smooth paste. (Do not throw away the stock in which the meat was cooked!).

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Put the mixed meat into a bowl.

Add the nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper and taste if there is enough salt (this is the best moment to taste; afterwards tasting might be a bit unpleasant with raw eggs and semolina). Be generous with ground black pepper: this poultry version tends to be a bit bland compared to the pork pâté for example, so freshly ground black pepper gives it more character.

Stir in the eggs, the semolina and about 125 ml (1/2 cup) of the stock in which the meat was cooked at the beginning.

Mix well with a spoon.

Line a baking tin with baking paper or grease it and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.

Spoon the terrine mixture into the baking tin, smooth the surface with a spoon and sprinkle it with oil or melted duck fat.

Bake about one hour until the top is golden brown and don’t pay attention to the unpleasant smell from the oven (it will be irresistible once the terrine has cooled down).

After it cools down either freeze it or keep it refrigerated (tightly wrapped in cling film) for one week.

Brittany Bean Stew (Fasolka po bretońsku)

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fasolkabrpj

Surprisingly, this stew doesn’t come from Brittany, but from Poland and is actually unheard of in the region its name bears (Cassoulet is the only French bean stew I know but it is quite different and comes from another part of the country). This one-pot simple meal is very far from impressive culinary creations, but the blend of tomato sauce, smoked sausage and marjoram create unique flavours and aroma, making it absolutely irresistible (at least in my case). I have been meaning to write about this comfort dish for quite a long time because I think it would please the palates of most of you. Moreover, I know the ingredients are available in most (at least Western) countries. Luckily I was reminded of it by the famous Greek soup called Fasolada, posted by Katerina (Culinary Flavours), not only because it’s based on beans, but also because “fasola” means “bean” in Polish too. (Talking of beans, MJ (MJ’s Kitchen) has recently posted a typical Southern US Hoppin’ John, which she called Skippin’ Jenny).

Different bean stews exist all around the world, not only in Greece or in the US. At first sight they might be similar – they usually contain beans, meat, onions and often tomato sauce – but what appears as small details is what makes the biggest difference. In case of the Polish stew smoked meat and/or sausages are extremely important, but marjoram is simply compulsory. Marjoram is one of the most ubiquitous herbs in the Polish cuisine and added to smoked meat and such heavy ingredients as beans or cabbage, not only does it improve the digestion but also gives the special Polish “touch”. Without it, this is just a vague, international bean stew.

My – slightly modified – recipe is taken from this Polish website.

TIPS: The use of Maggi (which I had considered for a long time a typically Polish seasoning until I talked to my Asian and Swiss friends who were also convinced their countries/regions had invented it) is not necessary, but to me it brings back childhood memories. Actually the bottle of Maggi I keep is used only in 2-3 Polish dishes.

I don’t think any of you would be tempted to skip tomato juice/concentrate or onions or beans, but I insist once more on the absolute necessity to include smoked meat (sausage is the best here) and marjoram. It cannot be substituted with thyme or origan or any other herb. If you cannot get marjoram in your country, please contact me and I will happily send you some.

Like most one-pot, home dishes, this one tastes better reheated the following day, and even better two days after. It freezes very well too.

This is one of these dishes where using dried, time-consuming beans is really worth the effort and time. Canned beans can be used too, but the taste is not as good.

Preparation: 2 hours (+ one night for soaking beans, if you use dried beans)

Ingredients (serves 3):

400 g (about 14 oz) white dried beans (I prefer the biggest I can find, but any variety will do) or 800 – 900 g drained canned beans (I do not mean the cans’ weight but the drained beans’ weight)

300 g (about 10 oz) smoked meat or sausage (bacon, sausage etc., I usually prefer half sausage half smoked lean pork, but sausage alone is great too)

1 big onion

3 big garlic cloves

3 tablespoons dried marjoram

1 tablespoon dried savory (not obligatory)

2 litres (about 8 cups) chicken or vegetable stock

5-6 tablespoons tomato purée

3 tablespoons Maggi (not obligatory)

salt, pepper, sweet paprika, hot paprika

If using dried beans soak them in water overnight.

Rinse them and cook in the chicken stock for one hour or until they become slightly tender.

If you use canned beans, drain them and wash off the canning liquid.

In the meantime chop the onion and fry it in 1 tablespoon oil until it becomes transparent.

Cut up the smoked meat into bite-sized pieces. Slice the sausage.

Fry them with the onion for a couple of minutes, constantly stirring.

Put aside.

Add the fried meat and onion to the cooked beans (if you use canned beans, add 1 litre vegetable or chicken stock or water with instant stock).

Chop the garlic and add to the pot together with the tomato purée and the remaining spices and herbs.

Simmer for one hour at very low heat, adding water if necessary.

The final consistency should be very thick, not soupy.

Serve with bread.

Unbaked Layered Chocolate Cake (Stefanka)

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stefankapj

My blogging friends’ impressive layered cakes (check Zsuzsa’s Chocolate and Caramel Apple cakes and Mr. Three Cookies’s multi-layered Russian Honey Cake) brought back one of my sweetest childhood memories: a frugal layered cake called Stefanka, one of my favourite chocolate treats in those days. Contrary to Poppy Seed and Chocolate Cake, my eternal number one, but reserved for special occasions, Stefanka was a very simple and quick staple weekend chocolate treat.

The original cake calls for several layers of “real” baked pastry, usually made with honey (a common point with the Russian Honey Cake made by Mr. Three-Cookies) and two different filling versions exist: cocoa butter cream or custardy, white cream thickened with semolina. In the simplified, quick homely interpretation my mum preferred (very popular in households at the time) baked layers are replaced with Petit Beurre biscuits. The white cream option was of course out of question in a house full of chocoholics. My only modification in this cake is using my beloved chocolate ganache instead of the traditional cocoa butter cream, which I find too heavy and fatty (and also not very rich in chocolate flavours). “Stefanka” is in a way a diminutive of “Stefania” and I still remember how surprised I was by its obvious similarity in both name and composition to the Hungarian Stefània Cake I saw at Zsuzsa’s blog. I haven’t made any research yet, but I would love to discover the mysterious travels of this recipe until it became so popular in two different countries.

As I have already mentioned, this is a very easy cake (for me the only tricky part is distributing the cream evenly, as you can see at the photo above…. but this doesn’t influence the taste). In short, if you have square/rectangular biscuits, good chocolate, some cream in the fridge, then you have everything you need to prepare a delicious chocolate dessert. The soaking mixture for biscuits is not obligatory, but it makes the biscuits softer and adds a rummy flavour.

Other layered cakes you might also like:

the above mentioned Poppy Cake with Chocolate Ganache

and the ridiculously easy Apple Cake.

UPDATE! I would have forgotten the most challenging layered cake I have ever made:

the unusual, surprising Hungarian Zserbo (Gerbaud) of which I am particularly proud (I cannot say this alas about the photo…)

TIPS: If you have never seen Petit Beurre, it’s a rectangular butter biscuit; here is the link to some photos:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petit_beurre

Any similar, neutral-tasting butter biscuit can be used instead of course as long as it’s rectangular or square.

If you don’t have any nuts to sprinkle on top (or if you don’t like nuts), crush one or two leftover biscuits and use them instead.

Addition of instant coffee to chocolate desserts is my regular habit, but it is not obligatory of course.

Preparation: 1 hour+ at least 5 hours in the fridge

Ingredients (serves 8):

1x 200 g/about 7 oz package of Petit Beurre biscuits (or similar, rectangular or square thin sweet biscuits)

Cream (chocolate ganache):

200 g/ about 7 oz good quality chocolate (dark, at least 70% cocoa)

170 ml/about 2/3 cup liquid cream (I have used 25% fat)

(1 teaspoon instant coffee)

Soaking mixture for biscuits (not obligatory):

1 small coffee cup of very strong black tea

3-4 tablespoons ml rum or other aromatic alcohol (or 1 teaspoon artificial rum flavouring)

1 tablespoon sugar

(walnuts to sprinkle on top)

Prepare the ganache.

Bring the cream to a boil. Put the pan aside and quickly stirring, incorporate the broken chocolate until it melts.

(Add the coffee, if using).

Put into the fridge for about one hour (it should thicken a bit, but be still a bit runny).

Place 5 biscuits in a row on a cutting board (or other hard rectangular surface) lined with baking paper.

Sprinkle them with 1 tablespoon of soaking mixture.

Spoon over the biscuits about 1/4 of the ganache (don’t worry if it leaks at the sides a bit).

Place another layer of 5 biscuits, but starting with half a biscuit and finishing with half a biscuit too (this way the spaces between biscuits are not in the same place and the cake will not desintegrate).

Sprinkle with soaking mixture, spoon over the ganache.

Cover with another layer of biscuits (this time starting with a whole biscuit) and repeat until you finish the fourth layer.

Sprinkle with soaking mixture and soon over it the remaining ganache.

Gather the ganache that leaked at the sides, smoothing it at the sides of the cake.

Sprinkle with walnuts or crushed biscuits.

Refrigerate for at least several hours (the best results are after a night in the fridge).

Fried Buckwheat Groats

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friedbuckwheatpj

Fried rice is the most extraordinary leftover meal I can imagine. It’s easy, quick, versatile and it often tastes better than the meal for which the rice was previously cooked. I had been convinced that nothing could replace good white rice here until I tried buckwheat groats. This experimental, fusion version of this popular Asian dish was a revelation.

Buckwheat grains/groats (sometimes called “kasha”, the word which in reality refers to “groats” in general and not necessarily buckwheat groats) are dried, slightly triangular seeds of a plant (Fagopyrum genus) which is not a grass, nor a cereal, even though it looks like one and is not related to wheat. They are very rich in protein, contain minerals, antioxydants, iron and are gluten free, so they can be consumed by people who don’t tolerate it or try to reduce it. Apart from all these healthy sides, buckwheat grows very quickly and easily. That is why it can be cultivated in cold climate and crops can be easily multiplied in hot regions. Buckwheat grains, in their roasted form, are widely consumed in certain Eastern and Central European cuisines (such as Russian, Polish or Ukrainian). In Japan, India or France, often only buckwheat flour is known (although the grain form called “soba gome” is sometimes also eaten in Japan). If you have ever had soba noodles or French “galettes” (savoury crêpes), then you are familiar with buckwheat flour. Japan produces also soba shochu (alcohol distilled from buckwheat seeds).

I grew up eating buckwheat much more often than rice. It was usually served with meat in sauce (it absorbs sauces in a marvellous way) and even though I have never disliked it, I felt I could happily live without it (I have certainly never seen it as wonder food, the way in which it is made popular now by nutritionists in many countries). Taste buds change with age and the older I get, the more often I crave buckwheat’s nutty, strong fragrance and its curious, partly crunchy, partly soft texture. I eat only roasted, light brown buckwheat groats and would strongly advise everyone to try this version first, because the roasting process gives them a unique nutty aroma and a slightly bitter – but pleasant – taste (see the TIPS).

Unlike white rice I always use, buckwheat groats are not overwhelmed by bold-tasting products, such as garlic, chili or smoked meat, and are absolutely irresistible with miso. The choice of ingredients in this dish was mainly dictated by the content of my fridge (just like it happens when I prepare fried rice), so feel free to put any meat, vegetables or spices you prefer. I have opted for a miso and garlic sauce, but a simple addition of soy sauce would work great here too. The below recipe should be treated only as an example of what can be added to fried buckwheat which is certainly a pleasant change for those who eat rice on a daily basis.

TIPS: In many countries, where buckwheat is not traditionally consumed (such as France or Switzerland) buckwheat grains are sold in health/organic shops often only in a “raw” dried form in which they have a pale greenish colour and bland taste. For me (and several buckwheat fans I know) such buckwheat is simply inedible (especially when you know how marvellous it becomes once roasted). To tell you the truth, the only time I bought such pale buckwheat groats, they ended up in the bin because I couldn’t force myself to eat them. You can apparently roast them on your own in a pan (I have never tried it though), but the best idea is to look for the brown, roasted groats sometimes also sold in organic shops and practically always available in Russian and Polish grocery shops.

If you don’t have miso, you can simply omit it. It is far from being obligatory.

Preparation: 20 minutes + about 40 minutes (buckwheat cooking time)

Ingredients (serves one):

80 g (about 1/2 cup) roasted buckwheat groats + 250 ml water + 1/2 teaspoon salt or 250 ml/1 cup leftover cooked buckwheat groats

1 small courgette

2 thick slices of smoked bacon or other smoked meat (I have used smoked pork loin)

1/2 small onion

1 chili pepper

1 egg

Garlic miso sauce:

1 flat tablespoon miso

1 garlic clove (grated or crushed)

1 teaspoon sake

1 tablespoon soy sauce

chili oil

sesame seeds

Cook the buckwheat:

Pour the water into a pan. Bring it to the boil, add the salt.

Throw the buckwheat grains into the pan, give them a stir and let them cook partially covered at medium heat for about ten minutes.

Lower the heat and let it simmer, this time completely covered, for about 5 more minutes.

Put the pan aside, leaving the cover on and leave the buckwheat for 15 minutes in a warm place.

Cooked buckwheat can be kept in a closed container in the fridge for several days and reheated in a microwave.

Combine the sauce ingredients.

Slice the onion and the chili pepper.

Cut the bacon and the courgette into bite-sized pieces.

Fry the onion in a heated pan with oil.

After 3-4 minutes add the chili pepper.

Fry it on medium heat for one minute.

Add the bacon and the courgette to the pan.

After 5 minutes, add the buckwheat and the miso sauce.

Stir-fry until the buckwheat is well heated.

In the meantime fry an egg in another pan.

Serve the fried buckwheat with a fried egg on top. I loved it with coriander leaves, toasted sesame seeds and a splash of chili oil.

Plum, Prune and Chocolate Jam

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chocolateplumjamp

First of all, I would like to apologize for my long silence and the absence of new posts during the past week. I went on an unexpected, last-minute trip to Japan and hardly had the time to pack my luggage correctly. Those of you who know for how long I had been dreaming about visiting this country will probably understand why I have completely lost my mind there and wasn’t able to follow my beloved blogs, not to mention posting. I hope you will all forgive me. Even though I did take some photos during this wonderful stay, I don’t have as many as I wanted (on the other hand isn’t our brain the best photo album in the world?) and certainly not enough to make a whole post about Japan. As soon as I find my camera battery charger, I will see if I can share with you at least a couple of the food-related ones. In the meantime I will be trying to catch up with all your posts I have missed and would like to share with you an unusual, wonderful preserve I discovered just before I left for Tokyo.

Even though it’s hard to believe, this unappetising jar contains a highly palatable jam. Plum and chocolate jam has been quite popular on internet several years ago and as a huge fan of both plum jam and chocolate I bookmarked this idea and then forgot about it. A couple of weeks ago I noticed this original version of Plum and Chocolate Jam by my inspiring friend Bea, who also lives in Switzerland and who I greatly admire for both culinary skills and extraordinary photographs. I made a small batch almost instantly and even though my jam looked much less appetising than hers, the result was stunningly good. Bea calls the jam “prunes in chocolate” and if you have ever had this sweet snack I personally go crazy for (see here my 10 minute recipe), you must test this recipe too.

The unusual mixture of sweet, sour and bitter flavours will not please every palate (my husband said he preferred the real Nutella ), but for tangy and dark chocolate dessert fans like me it is a real feast. I think this jam would be excellent on buttered toast, but also as a versatile cake, biscuit or cookie filling. Plums are invading market stalls now and I already now that apart from the Plum Butter I prepare every year, I will fill my pantry with another batch of this delicacy. I have slightly modified Bea’s recipe, adding more rum and skipping the spices (ginger, cinnamon and cloves), so feel free to add them for a more complex flavour. Thank you so much, Bea, for this extraordinary recipe.

If this Plum and Chocolate Jam doesn’t sound inspiring, you might like the Damson Plum Butter, the extraordinary, rich taste of which has got nothing to do with standard plum jam:

And if you look for a quick and delicious (and rather healthy) sweet snack, try the ridiculously simple Prunes in Chocolate:

TIP: The best plums to use here are long, dark violet (purple) or dark blue plums, of damson variety or similar. They should have aromatic, dark skin and dark yellow flesh.

Preparation: 2 days

Ingredients (yield: about 4 x 200 ml/7 oz jars):

20 prunes (without stones)

50 ml (about 1,7 oz) rum + 50 ml hot water

2 kg (about 4,4 pounds) long, violet/purple/dark blue plums

50 g (about 1,8 oz) good bitter chocolate

5 heaped tablespoons cocoa

sugar (at least 600 grams; the amount depends on your preferences and the plums’ sweetness)

(50 ml/about 1,7 oz rum)

Cut up the prunes into pieces and soak in rum and hot water overnight.

The following day wash the plums, stone them and put in a big pan. Add the prunes and their soaking water.

Add some water (about 10% of the fruits’ initial weight), so that they don’t stick to the bottom until they start releasing their juice.

Put the pan on a low heat and let it simmer, stirring occasionally. First you can stir every 30 minutes, but when the mixture thickens, you should lower the heat to the absolute minimum and stir it every ten minutes. The thicker the mixture, the more often you should stir it.

If the pan burns, quickly transfer the unfinished butter to another pan (otherwise it will “take” the burnt flavour).

After about two or three hours add the minimal amount of sugar.

Simmer the jam for about 30 minutes and add more sugar if needed (and simmer for 30 more minutes, constantly stirring).

30 minutes before the end add the cocoa and the chocolate and let the mixture simmer, constantly stirring. Add more rum if you want (I thought rum was a perfect flavour enhancer here).

If you want, you can quickly mix the jam in a food processor, so that it has a smooth, spread-like consistency. (I did it).

/At this point you can either freeze it (after the jam has cooled down) or keep it in the fridge for a couple of weeks, or process it in the jars, as described below, and store it in your pantry for at least a year./

Pour the jam, still hot, into sterilised jars. Cover with lids. Leave the jars to cool.

Place the cool jars in a big pan, bottom lined with an old kitchen towel folded in two (this will prevent the jars from breaking), cover up with hot – but not boiling – water to the level just below the lid. Bring to boil and keep on a very low heat, in simmering water, for around 20 minutes.
Stick on self-adhesive labels, write the name of the jam and don’t forget to mark the date.

Pickled Peppers

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pickledpepperp

These are by far the most extraordinary pickles I know. I have been preparing them for long years and always in several big batches because they are also my family’s and friends’ favourite preserves. I already wrote about these pickles about two years ago, but at the time I didn’t have many visitors, so they remained unnoticed. When recently Jeno from Weeknite Meals commented on this old forgotten post I felt I had to dig it out and share with all my visiting and blogging friends (while making this weekend’s batch I also changed the previous awful photo). Thank you, Jeno, for drawing my attention to this post.

I can shamelessly affirm that these are the best pickled peppers I have ever tasted because I am not the author of the recipe. I got it from a friend, who, in her turn, got it from her boss, an excellent cook. I have never had a chance to taste her boss’s peppers, but I believed my friend when she said they were simply the best. She was right because I have never even tried to modify the original recipe. I have always put the same spices, the same proportion of vinegar and sugar and the same significant amount of garlic too. I also never skip the tablespoon of oil which smooths and “polishes” the flavours.

Every variety of pepper can be pickled this way and as you can see below the process is quite easy. The most important is that the peppers be fresh and ripe. The stronger their aroma the better the pickle will be. Of course red peppers are most beautiful. The jars keep for at least a year, but a three year old jar I recently found at the back of my pantry was still perfect. You should wait at least a couple of weeks before tasting, but it largely improves with time.

I pickle also Hot Chili Peppers, but in a slightly different way. Click here to see the recipe.

Preparation: 1 hour+processing

Ingredients:

1.5 kg (3,3 pounds) sweet peppers

about 20 peeled garlic cloves

up to 10 bay leaves

a couple of teaspoons mustard grains

a couple of teaspoons black pepper grains

2-3 teaspoons allspice grains

1 litre (about 4 cups) cider/white wine/other alcohol vinegar (mine was 4,5%, if you use a stronger one, add proportionally more water)

1.1 litre (about 4 cups and 3 oz) water

400 g (1 3/4 cups) caster sugar

3 tablespoons salt

olive oil (or other good quality oil)

Cut the peppers’ stems, discard all the seeds and white parts. Cut them into 2-3 cm pieces.

Fill in empty jars with pepper pieces (no more than 2/3 jars’ height), add 2 garlic cloves, 3 allspice berries, 3 pepper grains, 6 mustard grains and 1 bay leaf per every 500 ml jar.

Put the vinegar, the water, the sugar and the salt in a pan and let it boil a couple of minutes, stirring well until all the sugar is dissolved. Put aside.

Fill the jars with hot (no longer boiling!) vinegar mixture, leaving 1,5 cm from the rim. Pour a generous tablespoon of oil in each jar. Close the jars and let them cool down.

Place the cool jars into a big pan, bottom lined with an old kitchen towel folded in two (this will prevent the jars from breaking), cover up with hot – but not boiling- water to the level just below the lid. Bring to the boil and keep on a very low heat, in simmering water, for around 20 minutes.
Stick on self-adhesive labels, write the name of the pickle and don’t forget to mark the date.

Wait at least a couple of weeks before opening the jars. As do most pickles, this one improves with time. Pickled peppers are perfect with cold meats, in sandwiches, on toast, as a side dish…

Unbaked Blueberry Cheesecake in a Glass

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blueberrycheesep

I hope you are not bored with my desserts in glasses. I simply cannot help it: it’s hot and instead of cakes or biscuits, I crave fruity, light, refreshing – and most of all easy – desserts just like this one and am tempted to experiment with different seasonal fruits, hence this blueberry version of my Strawberry Cheesecake. When writing about the Strawberry Cheesecake in a Glass I said it was supposed to be prepared with fresh cheese (also called quark). I know now that some of you have difficulties in finding it, so I would like to emphasize here once more that such a dessert can very well be made with cream cheese used in North America in regular cheesecakes. Such a version will not be as light in terms of fat and calories (unless you use low-fat cheese), but I’m sure it will satisfy all the fans of cream cheese. (By the way, I would love to hear from you what the cream cheese version tastes like). UPDATE: Having recently discovered the Greek yogurt (apparently easily available in Northern America), I must add that it would be the best substitution for the quark/fresh cheese.

Even though this is only a slight modification of the Strawberry Cheesecake, thanks to the presence of blueberries, which lack the strawberry’s acidity, this dessert is not tangy and gives an impression of a much bigger creaminess both in taste and texture. I did add some lemon juice because I like to feel some tanginess, but it’s absolutely not necessary.

UPDATE & TIP: Instead of quark/fromage blanc you an use Greek yogurt here (it’s a better option than cream cheese).

Preparation: 15 minutes + 2 – 3 hours in the fridge

Ingredients (serves 4-5):

400 g (about 14 oz) fresh cheese (quark, fromage blanc) or Greek yogurt (or cream cheese)

3 tablespoons gelatin (or 8 sheets)

400 g (about 14 oz) blueberries

4 flat tablespoons confectioner’s sugar or sweetener of your choice

(2 tablespoons lemon juice if you like to feel some tanginess in your desserts)

(mint leaves for decoration)

Put aside 50-60 blueberries for the decoration.

Dissolve the gelatin in 4 tablespoons warm water. (If using leaves, proceed as indicated on the package).

Mix the cheese, the sugar, the lemon juice if using and the blueberries (apart from those left for the decoration) in a food processor.

Add the dissolved gelatin and mix once more.

Pour the cheese mixture into individual glasses/bowls and put into the fridge for at least two hours.

Decorate just before serving.

Pickled Fish with Allspice

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pickledfishp

I used to think for long years that my mum was the only person in the world who pickled fish and I still haven’t met anyone who does it this way. Pickling was a way to preserve small, recently caught freshwater fish we weren’t able to eat quickly enough. She always pickled whole fish, with bones, and removed only the head. Then, after a couple of weeks, the bones softened and often even the spinal bones were edible, just like in canned sardines. I have always considered this process somehow magical and loved the crunchy, transformed bones, not to mention the marinated, sour flesh. My mum prepared these pickles usually in the summer and hot, sunny days still seem the best moments to enjoy this refreshing snack or starter.

I don’t have access to freshly caught fish, so for long years I haven’t even tried to make this pickle on my own. To be frank I didn’t eat much fish and usually bought the easy to prepare big fish fillets. Then I found an excellent source of many relatively fresh fish varieties (which for a city far from the ocean and sea means very fresh) and began to buy them regularly. When I started to explore the Japanese cuisine, such delightful dishes as fish in tempura, salted dried fish or fish in nanban zuke marinade made me rediscover the joys of eating small fish. Incidentally it’s the Japanese hot nanban zuke marinade (inspired by the famous Mediterranean escabeche) that reminded me of my mum’s pickled fish and made me prepare it about a year ago for the first time in my life. It was an indescribable pleasure, a couple of weeks afterwards, to open a jar of my own home pickled sardines.

After this first test, I have slightly modified my mum’s recipe, adding more vinegar (I prefer my pickles very strong) and deep-frying fish instead of shallow-frying. Since I am usually impatient to taste the food I prepare, I started to preserve fillets which are ready to be eaten in a couple of days. The only thing I have never modified are the spices. The mixture of bay leaves, mustard grains, peppercorns and allspice is simply perfect, the latter being particularly important here (hence its mention in the title). Garlic is not necessary, but advised especially for garlic fans. I think allspice is available in most parts of the world, but for those who have never used it, here is an old photo of allspice grains:

TIPS: This is a short-term pickle recipe and the jars should be kept in the fridge (they will keep for at least a month). I sometimes process jars in hot water and keep them afterwards in my pantry for a couple of months, but I have no idea for how long it’s safe, so I don’t recommend it.

The fillets can be pickled without skin, but they taste much better with skin on.

If you use whole fish (without heads), you should wait a couple of weeks before tasting it.

Preparation: 30 – 40 minutes + a couple of days

Ingredients (fills one 1/2 litre jar):

8 small fish fillets (skin on) or six very small fishes, gutted and without heads

salt, pepper

1 heaped tablespoon flour

oil for deep-frying

Marinade:

375 ml (1 1/2 cup) vinegar (I used 4,5% cider vinegar)

125 ml (1/2 cup) water

1 heaped tablespoon sugar

1 flat teaspoon salt

6 pepper corns

4 grains allspice

1/2 teaspoon mustard grains

1 big bay leaf (or 2 – 3 small)

(2 cloves garlic)

Heat some deep-frying oil in a pan.

Wash the fish fillets (or the whole fish).

Pat them dry.

When the oil is hot enough, quickly season the fillets with salt and pepper.

Dust them lightly with flour and deep fry until slightly golden.

Remove excess oil by placing the fillets on paper towels.

Place the fish in a jar.

Bring all the marinade ingredients to boil.

Let it cool down and when the marinade is still hot (but not boiling) pour it over the fish.

Close the jar. Let it cool down and put into the fridge for a couple of days or weeks, if you prepare whole fish.

Egg Croquettes (Tamago no Korokke)

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I love eggs and have always considered myself an exceptionally big egg consumer until I read that the Japanese eat more than 300 eggs per person a year. Nowadays everyone agrees that an egg a day is perfectly safe (for healthy people of course), but when eggs were on a nutritional black list in Western countries, this Japanese preference, paired with national low cholesterol levels must have seemed mysterious for our health specialists. I have recently realised that many of my blogging friends share my love for eggs (a special mention here for Hiroyuki’s neverending list of delightful egg recipes which could fill a whole cookery book!). I have bookmarked many recipes and intend to prepare them in the near future, but in the meantime they made me long for a dish I loved as a child, namely Egg Croquettes.

Egg Croquettes are an easy, comforting, home dish everyone seems to enjoy. They call for only three ingredients and are one of these dishes you can make when you think there is practically nothing left in the fridge. I have always used to serve them with a refreshing well-vinegared salad and some bread. This time, maybe keeping in mind the Japanese love for eggs I had them with a bowl of rice and it turned out to be an excellent option too. They make a perfect lunch, dinner, brunch or big breakfast and I am sure they would be an excellent picnic snack and why not a bento box item?

Actually I have “Japanised” these croquettes even more. They are usually shallow-fried, but since deep-frying is not only much quicker, but also less fat-absorbing, I decided to deep-fry them just like I proceed with the famous Japanese korokke (Potato and Meat Croquettes). They turned out better than all my previous egg croquettes and I will never go back to the traditional method. I have also found that Japanese panko crumbs created a crunchier, less soggy crust. Of course, if you prefer however shallow frying and standard breadcrumbs, I guarantee that such traditional croquettes will be excellent too.

Egg croquettes don’t require any sauce, but I have accidentally discovered that they are simply irresistible served with mayonnaise and Thick and Crunchy Japanese Sauce (Taberu Rayu). With all these Japanese touches I decided even to give it a Japanese name. I hope my Japanese friends will not scold me for this.

In case you are also a big egg fan, here are some recipes with eggs playing an important or main role:

-Spring Salad with a Fried Egg

-Smoked Mackerel and Egg Spread

-Tanindon (Rice Bowl with Eggs and Pork)

-Mixed Salad with a Fried Egg

-Bread Baskets with Eggs

-Oyakodon (Rice Bowl with Eggs and Chicken)

TIP: Even though it takes one more hour, I found out that refrigeration makes the forming process much easier: cold ingredients are simply stickier.

Preparation: 1 hour (or two, if you choose to refrigerate the egg mixture)

Ingredients (serves 2-3):

6 hard-boiled eggs

1 raw egg

4-5 tablespoons breadcrumbs (or more)

salt, pepper

5-6 tablespoons chopped chives or spring onions

breadcrumbs for coating (several tablespoons)

oil for shallow- or deep-frying

Chop the eggs as finely as you can (you can mix two of the eggs in a food processor to make the texture creamier, but not all of them!).

Combine them with the raw egg, the chopped chives or spring onion and season with salt and pepper.

Add gradually breadcrumbs until the mixture can be formed into balls (it depends on the egg size, the breadcrumbs, the chopping etc.).

(Putting the mixture into the fridge for one hour will make the forming process easier but you can start doing it straight away).

Preheat the oil in a pan.

Squeezing tightly the egg mixture, form balls and flatten them to round or oval patties (5 cm/2 in. diameter).

Coat them in breadcrumbs and shallow- or deep-fry.

If you deep-fry, my test for the right temperature is throwing some breadcrumbs into the pan. If they don’t fall down, but bubble and fry immediately, then the temperature is high enough.

Deep-frying will take only about one or two minutes. Shallow frying will take much longer (at least 15 minutes).

Put the croquettes on paper towels to remove excess oil and serve them either with bread or with rice.

Unbaked Strawberry Cheesecake in a Glass

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Light, quick, easy and refreshing. I don’t know what are your preferences, but this is the description of my ideal spring or summer dessert and unbaked cheesecake meets all these conditions. Some of you might remember that my unbaked cheesecakes are made with fresh cheese (also called “quark”) and not the most popular cream cheese (see the Unbaked Vanilla Cheesecake here). They are low in fat, have a slight, refreshing tanginess I like and have a light consistency, comparable to a dense mousse. Since I don’t like the crust in cheesecakes, I always omit it, which makes such a dessert even lighter and quicker to prepare.

Unbaked cheesecakes are in my opinion an excellent basis to experiment with different fruits without losing their precious vitamins, nutrients and delicate aroma. If you decide to try fresh cheese, its slight tartness goes particularly well with red fruits such as strawberries. I realised it a couple of days ago when I decided to make my first strawberry dessert this year. Not only was it, quick, easy and practical (it requires only four ingredients), but most of all it enhanced and preserved all of the the strawberry flavours and its enticing aroma.

TIPS & UPDATE: If you don’t find fresh cheese (quark) the best option would be to use the Greek yogurt. If you are a cream cheese fan, this dessert can of course be prepared with cream cheese too, but the consistency will probably be less mousse-like and the taste different (I admit I haven’t made or tasted such a version).

Preparation: 15 minutes + 2 hours in the fridge

Ingredients (serves 4-5):

400 g (about 14 oz) fresh cheese/quark or Greek yogurt (or cream cheese if you don’t find quark or Greek yogurt)

2 tablespoons gelatin (or 8 sheets)

400 g (about 14 oz) strawberries

4 flat tablespoons confectioner’s sugar or sweetener of your choice

Put aside 4-5 strawberries for the decoration.

Dissolve the gelatin in 4 tablespoons warm water. (If using leaves, proceed as indicated on the package).

Mix the cheese, the sugar and half of the strawberries (200g) in a food processor.

Add the dissolved gelatin and mix once more.

Cut up the remaining strawberries in quarters (do not use those for the decoration!) and place them in individual glasses.

Pour the cheese mixture over the strawberries and put into the fridge for at least two hours.

Decorate just before serving.

Rhubarb Soft Drink

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rhubarbdrinkpp

After more than two weeks of freezing cold, rain, hailstorms and other “attractions”, we finally have a warm, sunny spring weather. I thought it was an excellent occasion to write about my favourite rhubarb treat, namely the rhubarb soft drink. I must confess I have already posted this recipe a year ago, but I find it so exceptional and Iprepare it so often, I will probably be tempted to write about it every year.

I have always been a big fan of sour and acid food. As a child I would chew on the raw rhubarb sticks freshly picked in my grandmother’s garden and I have always loved this tangy drink my mum prepared in huge batches on hot spring and summer days and stored in a huge pitcher in the fridge. I cannot imagine a more refreshing and thirst quenching drink than a glass of cold rhubarb drink. Its unusual, characteristic smell, its tanginess and its fabulous colour will always remind me of hot summer days of my childhood.

The preparation is ridiculously easy and quick. The sugar/sweetener amount depends on everyone’s taste. I usually put a heaped teaspoon in one big glass (250ml), but strangely some rhubarb varieties do not need any sugar (at least for an acid flavours fan). The drink keeps – unsweetened – at least for up to a week in the fridge. Do not overdose the sugar, otherwise the drink will lose its tanginess and become bland. The colour depends on the stalks’ hue of course, so whenever I go to buy rhubarb on the market I choose the dark red ones.

WARNING: If you use rhubarb for the first time and the stalks have still some leaves, cut them off and throw away because rhubarb leaves are toxic.

Preparation: 1 hour

Ingredients (makes 1,7-1,8 liter):

500g rhubarb stalks, cleaned and cut in two/three pieces

2 litres cold water

sugar or sweetener

ice

Put the rhubarb into a big pan with water.

Bring to boil at medium heat and cook until the rhubarb completely softens.

Put aside and wait until the rhubarb drink cools down.

Strain it and refrigerate for up to a week.

Add sugar or sweetener just before drinking and serve with very cold or with ice.

Radish, Cucumber and Yogurt /Sour Cream Salad

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I woke up yesterday and, just after my obligatory coffee fix, all I could think of were pink radishes. As if hypnotised, I went to the market, bought two huge bunches of beautiful radishes, came back home, opened the fridge, took a cucumber, sliced it, then sliced some radishes, added soured milk (I had been craving this one too, see the explanation below), salted everything and literally threw myself on it (luckily, after a while, I controlled myself enough to save some of it for the photo).

I think I should listen more often to my cravings because the salad was exactly what I wanted for a sunny spring day. It was crunchy, refreshing, tangy and slightly peppery thanks to the radishes. It was inspired by a cucumber salad (vaguely Polish) I sometimes prepare, but the radishes made all the difference. The second batch I made also yesterday for dinner was a perfect side dish with fiery fried rice. Given the sour milk/cream cooling properties, I’m sure it will go well with any hot dish.

TIPS: I usually prepare this salad with sour milk which is almost as thick as sour cream (at least the one I buy), but is low-fat. You can use sour cream or natural yogurt or, even better, Greek yogurt instead (I would add a dash of lemon juice to the yogurt to obtain the slightly sour result).

This salad should be made just before you serve it, otherwise the vegetables will render liquid and the “sauce” will get watery.

Preparation: 10 minutes

Ingredients (serves one):

6-7 big red radishes

1/3 long cucumber

3 heaped tablespoons sour milk/cream or yogurt

salt

Cut the cucumber in four lengthwise and then into thin slices.

Cut the radishes into thin slices.

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and serve.

Fresh Cheese Spread with Radish and Chives

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Simple combinations and cheap, basic products sometimes give amazing results and fresh cheese with chives is one of the best examples I know. Fresh cheese can be mixed with any herb you want, but in my opinion only chives make the combination perfect. Fresh Cheese and Chives Spread (I have written about it here) is one of my most distinct childhood food memories. I had it for breakfast, as a snack, as a light supper and my appetite for it has never decreased. In fact, even now this spread is my staple all year round. When spring vegetables appear, I do just like my mum and enrich it with chopped pink radishes. The crisp radish adds a strong peppery taste, makes the texture more interesting and embellishes the colour palette.

The fresh cheese I have in mind is called “curd cheese” and sometimes “farm” or “farmers cheese”, available in Polish/Russian/ Hungarian grocery shops all around the world. Curd cheese is widely used in Central and Eastern Europe (Russian творог, Polish twaróg or biały ser, Hungarian túró or Austrian Topfen are only some examples in both savoury and sweet dishes and is my absolute favourite in Baked Cheesecake (while its smooth, mixed version is ideal in Unbaked Cheesecake). Its texture might be described as something halfway between ricotta and feta, but its slightly tangy taste differs from both. Since it is produced by straining soured milk, curd cheese is a natural product and if low or medium-fat variety is used, it makes relatively healthy meals and desserts. (It shouldn’t be mixed up with the Canadian and US “cheese curds”!). This is how curd cheese, crushed with fork, looks like:

This spread is not only fresh, low-fat, quick and an excellent appetite suppressant, but it is one of the rare things which taste much better on wholemeal, black, crunchy bread or pumpernickel rather than white bread. The spread keeps for a couple of days in the fridge, in a closed container and tastes even better the following day, when the chives’ and radishes’ flavours are stronger. I always make a big batch to have it ready for breakfast or as a healthy snack.

TIP: If you cannot get curd/farmers cheese, you can use drained cottage cheese, but add some sour milk or sour cream or kefir (not yogurt) in order to make it tangy.

Other recipes calling for curd cheese:

-Potato and Curd Cheese Dumplings

-Pear and Curd/Cottage Cheese Pie

-Light and Moist Baked Cheesecake

-Fresh Cheese Spread with Chives

Preparation: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

150 g curd/farmers cheese (or drained cottage cheese)

4-6 tablespoons yogurt, kefir, sour milk or sour cream (or more if the cheese is dry)

salt

about 10 flat tablespoons chopped chives

7 -8 pink radishes, roughly chopped

Crush the curd cheese with a fork, add the yogurt, kefir or cream gradually, stirring until you obtain the desired consistency (this depends not only on the cheese brand, but also on your preferences).

If you use cottage cheese, crush the big grains with a fork before adding the yogurt.

Add the chives, the salt, the radishes, give it a good stir and taste if it’s salty enough.

Smoked Mackerel and Egg Spread

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When about two weeks ago Charles (Five Euro Food) posted the famous Kedgeree recipe, using smoked mackerel, I was very glad to discover a new way to prepare this delicious fish. In fact, even though I love smoked mackerel, I have been preparing it for many years in only one way. I promised Charles I would write about it, so here it is!

The addictive mackerel and egg spread you see above comes from Poland, where smoked Atlantic mackerel is very popular and often ends up prepared this way. The spread is very quick to prepare and makes a wonderful everyday sandwich filler (it keeps for several days in the fridge), but I also find it perfect as a canapé topping. Maybe it is due to the big egg content, but somehow I thought it could be a nice idea of an Easter snack.

This spread goes well with all types of bread (even the “diet” crunchy one), but the canapés you see above were a real hit. I made them with a recent find: tiny round slices of my beloved German pumpernickel bread. If you can find this bread, I strongly recommend it not only with this spread, but with any pickled or smoked fish.

TIP: If you cannot find smoked Atlantic mackerel, you can substitute it with another smoked fish, but choose the one which has very delicate, flaky flesh (smoked salmon is not a good substitute here).

Preparation: 10 minutes

Ingredients (makes about 300 ml):

150 g smoked Atlantic mackerel without skin or bones (I also discard the darkest flesh parts, because they tend to taste bitter)

2 hard-boiled eggs

1 big pickled cucumber (fermented in salted brine or pickled in vinegar, both are ok)

1/2 medium white or yellow onion (the red one I used looked better but was somewhat not strong enough here)

salt, pepper

2 – 3 heaped tablespoons mayonnaise

(chives to decorate)

Shred the fish with your fingers, discarding all the small bones and put it in a big bowl.

Chop the cucumber as finely as you can.

Chop finely the onion and the hard boiled eggs.

Combine all the ingredients with the shredded mackerel, add the mayonnaise, season with salt and pepper.

Mix everything with a fork. Taste, add some more salt and pepper if necessary (you may also want to add more onion or cucumbers depending on your preferences).

Serve cold.

Light Chicken Terrine (Pâté) with Nutmeg

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patepp

Few dishes are comparable to the taste of a good, home-made baked pâté or terrine, especially when it brings back pleasant memories. The smell coming from the oven instantly transports me to my childhood days and makes me feel there is something festive and joyful in the air.

Pâtés can be made with any kind of meat and with different methods. In France most of them are either made with pork or with duck and consist in baking a mixture of roughly cut raw meat and/or liver with spices. “Terrine” is a very similar product, but apart from meat or liver, it can also be made with fish, seafood, vegetables or even fruit and is always baked in a rectangular dish, while pâté can be soft and “spreadable”.

The terrines I have been making for years (they could also be called pâtés in France I suppose, but I think “terrine” is the best name here) are based on my mum’s recipe and differ a lot from the French ones. Not only are they made with previously cooked meat and liver, but they are also very finely ground and, most of all, there is the amazing nutmeg which is the key ingredient here. Preparing them always puts me in a festive mood and I have always considered home-made terrine/pâté as the ideal dish for this occasion.

As a notorious recipe changer I have fiddled a bit with my mum’s recipe and worked out several versions. Today I wanted to present you the lightest one, but certainly not the least palatable, made with poultry. The preparation is long, but very simple. Once it has cooled down, the pâté/terrine can be kept in the fridge for about one week or frozen until the day we want to use it. It can be served as a starter, as a snack, on small canapés or crackers and it goes particularly well with all kinds of pickles (pickled pepper, gherkins, onions, beetroots and even kimchi!) and cranberry or bilberry jam/sauce. Personally I love it with a fiery horseradish sauce and/or my Pickled Sweet Peppers.

TIPS: As the recipe title suggests, nutmeg is the main seasoning, so unless you hate it, do not skip it (at least for the first time). Every time I tried omitting it and putting other seasonings instead, I was very disappointed. Do use freshly grated nutmeg because it loses its aroma very quickly.

As I have mentioned above, this terrine/pâté can be frozen in big or small portions and even though the crust will not be crunchy, the taste will stay more or less the same.

You can use either deboned, skinless turkey or chicken cuts or a whole small chicken. The latter version will of course take a bit more time, but it can prove cheaper. If you want, you can skin the chicken before the first, cooking stage. This way the stock you add to the pâté will be less fatty.

Preparation: 2,5 – 3 hours + cooling time

Ingredients (fills a 20 cm x 10 cm baking tin):

500 g/about 20 oz turkey or chicken breast, or a mixture of leg and breast meat or a whole small chicken

green part of 1 leek

1 parsley root or a couple of parsley branches

1/4 celeriac or 2 branches celery

1 big carrot

1 medium onion

100 g/about 4 oz chicken livers

2 slices white, sandwich bread

1/2 nutmeg (freshly grated)

3 heaped tablespoons semolina

pepper, salt

2 eggs

2-3 tablespoons oil or duck fat

(dry breadcrumbs)

When the meat or the chicken are cooked, remove them from the stock and wait until they cool down.

Pour 500 ml/about 17 fl oz of the stock into a small pan and cook the livers for 15 minutes.

Put the livers aside.

Place delicately the bread slices in the stock remaining after the livers have been cooked and let them soak for one minute.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Put the mixed meat into a bowl.

Add the nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper and taste if there is enough salt (this is the best moment to taste; afterwards tasting might be a bit unpleasant with raw eggs and semolina).

Stir in the eggs, the semolina and about 125 ml (1/2 cup) of the stock in which the meat was cooked at the beginning.

Mix well with a spoon.

Line a baking tin with baking paper or grease it and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.

Spoon the terrine into the baking tin, smooth the surface with a spoon and sprinkle it with oil or melted duck fat.

Bake about one hour until the top is golden brown and don’t pay attention to the unpleasant smell from the oven.

After it cools down either freeze it or keep it refrigerated (tightly wrapped in cling film) for one week.

Prunes in Chocolate

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Prunes in chocolate are the easiest sweet snacks I know. They are also the quickest to prepare (and probably to eat). I wrote about them last year, but I thought they deserved one more chance, especially in the pre-Christmas period, where they fit perfectly as potential edible presents or even Christmas tree decorations. These dark brown, irregular pebbles might not look attractive at first, but most people I know get seduced by the soft tangy prune encased in a thin layer of crunchy dark chocolate. They often receive more “wows” and other appreciation sounds than an elaborate, time consuming cake.

The idea of coating prunes in chocolate is not mine. It is a simplified version of the prunes in chocolate I used to adore as a child. Now I find these candies too sweet and packed with all the cheap hydrogenated oils or whatever vilifies the taste of the chocolate. Prune coated in dark chocolate contains the most important elements of these childhood treats and has become my favourite chocolate snack.

The very easy preparation takes ten minutes and then only half an hour to set in the fridge. Apart from these obvious advantages, prunes in dark chocolate are the healthiest chocolate snacks I know. Thanks to the prunes they also improve digestion, the aspect one shouldn’t neglect during the holiday season. Last but not least, contrary to the last week’s Matcha Truffles, they support very well the room temperature and don’t need to be stored in the fridge.

Before I pass to the recipe, I would like to thank Claire from Promenade Plantings for using my Tartiflette recipe. She has transformed this cheese, bacon and potato gratin into a vegetarian dish, skipping the bacon. Nonetheless her version looks fantastic. Click here to see her vegetarian tartiflette.

A couple of weeks ago Shu Han from Mummy I can cook! has tagged me in a game called “bloggers unplugged”. The game consists in answering personal questions and inviting other bloggers to do the same. I have tried to make the answers as short as possible, hoping you will not fall asleep:

1. What, or who, inspired you to start a blog?

Of course other food blogs.

2. Who is your foodie inspiration?

Of course my interest in food comes from the fact that my mum has always been an extraordinary, open-minded cook, never afraid of new recipes, techniques or spices. Her attitude has developped my curiosity, while the fact that her dishes were better than in any restaurant or at anyone’s house made me want to cook at home too. Apart from my mum, now there are several bloggers who constantly inspire me and motivate me to explore the infinite world of cooking.

3. Your greasiest, batter-splattered food/drink book is?

Definitely Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art by Shizuo Tsuji. I recommend it not only to Japanese cuisine enthusiasts.

4. Tell us about the best thing you have eaten in another country, where was it, what was it?

Pierre Hermé’s macarons. His first macaron has literally put tears in my eyes. Every time I have them, I am spellbound. I have never suspected macarons can be so extraordinary and sophisticated.

5. Another food blogger’s table you’d like to eat at?

I couldn’t choose just one person. I would like to hop from one table to the other, to change countries and cultures every day. The list would be too long to put it here.

6. What is the one kitchen gadget you would ask Santa for this year (money no object of course)?

A huge freezer (or maybe a really huge second fridge with a huge freezer?).

7. Who taught you how to cook?

My mum of course, but afterwards I learnt from books, blogs and am still learning.

8. I’m coming to you for dinner, what is your signature dish?

Strangely, I always get lots of compliments when I improvise, making dishes with leftovers and whatever I find in my kitchen (fried rice, pasta, noodles, tarts) without any precise recipe.

9. What is your guilty food pleasure?

There are many of these. Black pudding, foie gras, korokke, dark chocolates from my favourite chocolatier, bread from my favourite French baker…

10. Reveal something about yourself that others would be surprised to learn?

This is really difficult… I suppose that since I hardly ever talk about wine, this one might be a bit surprising: if I have to choose between an excellent bottle of wine or excellent food, I will always take the former. I know many wine bottles, not even excessively expensive, I would never exchange for any meal or food in the world.

I would love to hear confessions from the following bloggers (of course if they are willing to participate):

Charles (5 Euro Food)
Jeno (Weeknite Meals)
Kelly (Inspired Edibles)
Mr. Three-Cookies (Three Cookies)
Ping (Ping’s Pickings)

(Sorry if some of you have already played the unplugged game and I have forgotten.)

Now, if you are still awake, let’s go back to the recipe!

As I have already mentioned, chocolate and prunes are the only necessary items, but you can add some aromatic alcohol to your melting chocolate. Apricot brandy (Hungarian palinka is the best!) or rum are excellent.

Special equipment:

gift bags, boxes, paper presentation cases, gift paper and threads to hang them on a tree, etc., depending on what you want to make with the prunes

Preparation: 10 minutes+ cooling time in the fridge

Ingredients:

35-40 prunes (stoned)

100g (one bar) good dark chocolate

(50 ml apricot brandy, rum or any aromatic alcohol you like)

Melt the chocolate on low heat, in a small pan, stirring and not letting the chocolate boil.

(Add the alcohol at the end and stir well.)

Put the prunes into the chocolate and coat them in it, shaking the pan or moving them with a spoon.

Put them on the baking paper or a plate and put into the fridge until the chocolate coating becomes firm.

Take them out of the fridge and do whatever you have planned!

Easiest Apple Cake

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If you know how to peel and grate apples, you know how to make this easiest apple cake in the world. By “easy” I not only mean the baking and preparation process, but also the recipe which stays instantly engraved in your memory. Since it doesn’t require any eggs, it is very convenient too. Accidentally, this is also one of the most palatable fruit cakes I know and quite an original one, since it contains semolina and is divided into layers. The upper flaky, crunchy and buttery layer creates a very interesting contrast with the other layers softened by the apple juice produced during the baking process.

This recipe has been “sleeping” for many years in my old notebook until I finally dug it out when, seeing Mr. Three-Cookies baking the hundredth semolina cake or cookie (Three-Cookies blog), I remembered a semolina apple cake I used to make many years ago. Thus, thanks to Mr. Three-Cookies, a very exceptional recipe was brought back to life.

If you have bland apples, you can combine them with cinnamon, vanilla or whatever spice you prefer. I had very good King of the Pippins, so I decided to leave them as they are. You might also add some sugar to the grated apples if you like very sweet cakes or if your apples are sour.

(This is the first recipe with several ingredients measured in cups. Somehow, for once it proved much easier, even for me. My measuring cup has 250 ml.)

Preparation: 1 h 30

Ingredients:

1,5 kg apples (or even 2 kg if you want the fruit to dominate your cake)

1 cup semolina

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1,5 heaped teaspoon baking powder

70- 100 g butter

pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Peel the apples and grate them on a vegetable grater (I do this in a food processor).

Combine the flour, the semolina, the salt, the baking powder and the sugar, stirring well with a spoon.

Grease a baking dish (the smaller it is the higher the cake will be, the minimum diameter is 20 cm).

Put 1/3 of the dough mixture into the dish.

Cover with half of the grated apples (or less, if you want to create a thinner and a thicker layer, like I did).

Put another 1/3 of the dough.

Cover with the remaining apples.

Sprinkle the rest of the dough mixture.

Cover the top of the cake with thin butter slices, so that it covers the whole surface.

Bake until golden.

Serve warm or cold.

Light and Moist Baked Cheesecake

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Several months ago, while discussing my Unbaked Cheesecake with Vanilla with Charles (5 Euro Food), I promised that one day I would write about my baked version too. First, I must confess I grew up hating baked cheesecakes. I found them heavy, dry and so filling that they almost felt as a second main course. To make matters worse, they often contained raisins (which for me spoil most soft cakes). I also hated the ubiquitous crust, which made the whole thing even heavier. I don’t even mention chocolate glazing or other awful additions such as candied orange zest.

My grandmother made the only cheesecake I loved. It was simple, light, extremely moist, without any crust or raisins and there was something I couldn’t identify, which made it simply addictive. One day, I realised the cake was slightly worse than usually. When asked what was the modification, my grandmother answered in a very natural way: “My doctor told me to stop using pork lard, so I greased the pan with butter instead”. Can you imagine my shock? I love pork, but I would never imagine it could improve a cheesecake’s flavours. In fact, she had been using generous amount of pork fat to grease the pan for years and no one suspected it. Even though I haven’t tested this method yet (but one day I certainly will), I have been trying to copy my grandmother’s recipe for many years and this cheesecake is as close as I have ever got to hers. I shouldn’t boast, but since my grandmother died, this is the only baked cheesecake I like. It is soft, moist, light and perfect for an afternoon tea on a rainy, Autumn day.

The preparation is very easy, but the particular consistency and taste are impossible to obtain without the crucial ingredient, namely curd cheese. Sometimes called cottage cheese (meaning the non-industrial natural version, not the one with huge artificial grains) or farmer’s/farm cheese, it has a grainy texture, somewhere between ricotta and feta and is very easily obtained by souring milk and discarding the whey. Curd cheese is widely used for example in Poland (biały ser, twaróg), Russia (творог) or Hungary (turó) and used in both sweet and savoury dishes. It has a slightly tart, vibrant taste, which has nothing to do with the rather bland, heavy and cream cheese (also very fat in comparison). When crushed with a fork, curd cheese looks like this:

I am conscious many of you might have problems with getting this important ingredient. I buy it in a Russian shop here, but Polish grocers always carry it (luckily the world is full of Polish immigrants). If you cannot get it, write to me and I’ll explain how you can make (very easily) your own curd cheese. /Update: if you find only quark (very smooth, mixed fresh cheese), you can use it instead, but add 1 tablespoon semolina and 1 tablespoon starch/ If you hate heavy, high-calorie, bland cheesecakes, trying this light, fluffy and moist version will completely change your view of this international dessert.

Other recipes I have posted which call for curd cheese:

-Potato and Curd Cheese Dumplings

-Pear and Curd/Cottage Cheese Pie

-Curd or Cottage Cheese with Chives

Preparation: 1h

Ingredients (for a 20 x 20 cm baking dish):

400 g curd cheese (do not use the light one; it should have at least 15% fat)

4 big eggs

4 flat tablespoons semolina

2 tablespoons potato starch or cornstarch

8 flat tablespoons white sugar (add 5 tablespoons if you like very sweet cakes)

50 g butter

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Melt the butter.

Put the cheese in a food processor and mix until smooth.

Add the remaining ingredients and mix once more.

Line a pan with baking paper and bake until it’s golden.

Let the cake cool down and then put into the fridge (wrapped in cling film) for a couple of hours.

It taste improves after it’s chilled.

Mushroom Soup

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I should probably call this recipe “THE Mushroom Soup” because this is the only mushroom soup I have ever made and my all-time favourite, in spite of its evident simplicity. Last week, when I saw Hiroyuki’s mushroom picking adventures and his Japanese mushroom stew, I almost instantly ran to buy some mushrooms and made a big pan of my beloved soup. I haven’t picked mushrooms for ages and awfully miss this activity, but this soup is one of the rare dishes where I don’t regret wild mushrooms. It is one of the rare cases when humble, farmed button mushrooms are just perfect.

This soup has all the advantages a meal can have. It’s healthy and light, but nourishing. It is easy, cheap and quick. It also calls for very few, basic and easily available ingredients. Leek can be substituted with onions, but parsley is not here merely for decoration. Without parsley the taste is a bit boring and flat. A tiny amount of cumin enhances this basic mushroom’s flavours, but it’s not necessary.

Preparation: 30 minutes

Ingredients (serves two):

1 liter chicken stock (or water + granulated stock) or vegetable stock if you want a vegetarian version

200 g button mushrooms

1 big carrot

1 medium leek (only the white part) or 1 medium onion

pepper, salt, cumin

2 -4 tablespoons cream

parsley

(butter)

Clean and slice the mushrooms and the carrots (these should be sliced very finely).

Slice the leek’s white part or the onion.

Put everything in a pan filled with the chicken stock.

Bring the soup to boil and let on medium heat for about twenty minutes (or until the mushrooms start losing water).

Add the cream or the milk and, if you want, 2 tablespoons butter.

Season with salt and pepper

Serve sprinkled with chopped parsley.

Layered Herring Salad

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I have been meaning to post this recipe a long time ago, but no matter what I did this dish always looked unappetising. Finally I started to think it was a part of its charm, visible only to an adventurous gourmet’s or a herring fan’s eyes. My cousin had discovered it at a party where this salad was the only item no one wanted to touch. As a daring gourmet, she took a generous portion, urged by the hostess, who told her that as soon as one of the skeptical guests tasted it, it would disappear in no time at all. She was right and I’m happy my cousin asked for the recipe. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have discovered the most irresistible herring salad which has been my favourite for almost ten years. If you like herring, you will find yourself unable to stop eating it. If you are a beetroot hater, you must absolutely taste it anyway (I know people who hate beetroot but love this salad). If you are Mr. Three-Cookies (from the Three-Cookies blog), I bet you will adore it! (For those who don’t know the Three-Cookies blog, its author is a big herring – and of course cookies – connoisseur and if I eat more of this fish this year, it’s certainly thanks to his inventive and frequent herring dishes.)

This complete-meal salad calls for soused herring (thank you Charles), labeled “matjes”/”maatjes”/”matjas” and sometimes simply “herring in oil”. Since apparently matjes can in some countries mean herring without oil (thank you, Mr. Three-Cookies), I thought the best advice would be to say the herring used here shouldn’t be very sour. All the ingredients are perfect paired with herrings and the layering isn’t only for decoration. The order of layers is not accidental either. Onions must absolutely touch the herring, since their flavours merge when you put the salad in the fridge (several hours are obligatory!). Potatoes have a neutral taste, so they don’t disrupt the onion and herring combination. Eggs come just under the mayonnaise (how could I possible separate eggs from mayonnaise?) and the beetroot brings a nice, sweetish, refreshing touch in the middle.

I will be honest: the more mayonnaise you put on top, the better the salad will be. On the other hand, if you want to make this lighter, you can mix the mayonnaise with some yogurt or sour cream, but the taste will be slightly “thinner”. The ingredients’ amounts are totally up to you, as long as no layer is skipped. The original recipe calls for grated eggs, but I have discovered chopping them finely creates the same taste result, so I stopped the arduous process of egg grating.

I would have almost forgotten to mention this salad is an excellent hangover soother.

If you have difficulties with finding pickled herring, look for Russian or Polish grocers. They will certainly carry both vinegared and “matjes” herrings.

If you look for an easier, but delicious herring salad, try my Herring and Potato Salad.

Preparation: 1 hour + at least 5 hours in the fridge (but it’s best left overnight)

Ingredients (serves 4 or 6 as a main dish):

250 g drained “matjes” (soused) herring

2 medium onions

4 big potatoes

2 big beetroots

4 – 5 eggs

10 heaped tablespoons mayonnaise (or more), or a mixture of mayonnaise + sour cream/yogurt (don’t use low-fat yogurt)

salt

pepper

Cook the potatoes, the beetroots and the eggs.

Let them cool down.

Cut the herring into bite-sized pieces and place at the bottom of a big salad dish.

Chop the onion and sprinkle over the herring.

Peel the potatoes and grate them over the onions.

Season generously with salt and pepper.

Peel the beetroots and grate them over the potatoes.

Chop the eggs finely and sprinkle over the beetroot layer.

Season with salt and pepper and cover with mayonnaise.

Cover the bowl with cling film and put into the fridge for at least 5 hours, but the best results are after a night in the fridge.

Green, Unripe Tomato Salad

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October seems to be the best moment to look for (or ask for) green tomatoes, at least on my market. I don’t talk about the always-green variety which is very sweet and often striped (I think it’s called sometimes “zebra”). What I mean are completely unripe tomatoes. They are acid, already have a pleasant aroma, but their flavour is still very shy. I started to preserve green tomatoes a couple of years ago when I realised how cheap they were (farmers prefer probably to get rid of the unripe tomatoes very quickly and sell them for almost nothing) and when I decided to recreate the green tomato salad I used to like as a child. Since I didn’t know anyone who did it at home, I looked for recipes on internet and modifying them throughout the years, adding carrots and peppers, I have adapted them to my own taste.

Green tomato salad is very easy to make and its flavour is surprisingly delicate, compared to other vinegared preserves. It never fails to impress those who taste it for the first time, since most people expect it very sour and harsh. The onions make the vinegar brine mellower, the carrots give a crunchy side and together with the peppers, they make the jars look merrier. If you remember the Moomins’ Cucumber Salad, the process of making this one is very similar. As you see on the photo above, green tomatoes quickly become yellowish, but both carrots and red peppers keep their bright colours.

This salad is a great side dish and an excellent alternative to cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce in sandwiches. It is best when served chilled.

Preparation: about 1 hour + hot water bath or another processing method

Ingredients:

1 1/2 kg green tomatoes

2 big carrots

2 big red bell peppers

300 g onions

1 liter vinegar 4,5%

600 ml water

200 g sugar

4 tablespoons salt

2 tablespoons mustard grains

2 tablespoons pepper corns

2-3 bay leaves

Slice the tomatoes and the onions.

Cut the red peppers in thin strips.

Slice the carrots finely (the best would be to use a mandolin).

Put the vinegar, the water, the sugar and the salt in a pan. Bring to boil and let it on medium heat for 10 minutes.

Pack the vegetables tightly in jars, distributing evenly the pepper corns, the mustard grains and the bits of bay leaves.

Fill the jars until about 80% of the jars’ height.

Pour the hot (not boiling) vinegar mixture over the vegetables, leaving about 2,5 cm space below the lid.

Cover with lids and let the jars cool. (You can leave them overnight).

/At this point you can (after the jars have cooled down) either keep them in the fridge for a couple of weeks or process as described below and store in your pantry for at least a year!/

Leave the jars to cool.

Place the cool jars into a big pan, bottom lined with an old kitchen towel folded in two (this will prevent the jars from breaking), cover up with hot – but not boiling- water to the level just below the lid. Bring to boil and keep on a very low heat, in simmering water, for around 20 minutes.

Stick on self-adhesive labels, write the name of the salad and don’t forget to mark the date.

NOTE: For the readers who live in the USA, the USDA-approved canning method is different. You can find it described here: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/uga/using_bw_canners.html.

Green Tomato Pickled Salad on Punk Domestics

Quince Vodka

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Last week, observing Charles’ numerous adventures with quince, I realised I had almost forgotten to talk about my last year’s quince-infused vodka, which, after a year’s aging has become an subtle, highly aromatic, slightly sweet and beautifully, amber-coloured drink. I know quince (Cydonia oblonga) is not very popular worldwide, so for those who have never seen it, here is a photo of a ripe and big specimen I took last year:

Quince’s form is a cross between a pear and an apple. The fruit is usually covered in whitish fuzz, which is easy to remove. This magic fruit is practically inedible when raw due to its excessive tanginess, but, once cooked or transformed, it gives miraculous results. This is mainly due to the quince’s complex and strong aroma, slightly reminding delicate honey, but also to its tanginess, particularly appreciated in preserves. Apart from the quince infused vodka, I have made two absolutely fabulous preserves: quince jelly and quince sauce. Both have a strong aroma, beautiful colours and a very subtle pleasant taste.

I have got the below vodka recipe from my mum, who learnt to make it several years ago when one of her friends started to give her quince from her orchard. I have slightly modified it, browsing through the home liquor makers. Contrary to certain fruit-infused vodkas, this one requires lots of patience, but it’s totally worth it.

If you want to make a fruit-infused vodka ready to drink very soon, I recommend the Mandarin Peel Vodka, which is very easy and gives a very aromatic and impressive results. Orange Vodka is not as spectacular, but also excellent, while the frozen Sour Cherry Vodka is extraordinary, impresses every guest and can be prepared all year long.

Preparation: 3 1/2 months

Ingredients:

500 g quince

500 g sugar

at least 750 ml vodka (see the exact amount below)

Wash the quince, taking off the white fuzz. Cut the fruit roughly into pieces, removing the pips and the stalks (also the remains of the flower), but without peeling.

Put the quince into a big jar and cover with the sugar.

Place the jar in a warm (not hot) place for 4 weeks, shaking every day so that the sugar is well dissolved.

After 4 weeks, strain the juice, weigh it and put into the fridge.

Put back the quince pieces into the same jar and cover them with vodka, (the same weight as the juice you have previously put into the fridge).

Leave in a cool place for 45 days.

Strain, combine with the juice.

Pour 500 ml vodka over the remaining quince and wait one more month before straining it and combining with the previously infused alcohol and juice.

Bottle and wait a couple of months before tasting (keep it somewhere you will easily forget it).

The fruit can be used in cakes (whole or mixed into a sauce).

Moist Poppy Cake with Chocolate Ganache

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tortmpp

As a child I hated layered, butter-cream, traditional birthday cakes. I suffered whenever I went to other children’s parties and were given a huge slice of an extremely sweet and nauseous cake. My mum’s cake was the only exception and a complete outsider in this category. Everything about it was different. First of all, it wasn’t overly sweet. Secondly, the cake basis was not spongy, but very moist and made not with flour, but with soaked and ground poppy seeds and a bit of bread crumbs. You have probably seen or tasted many sweets with tasteless and dry poppy seeds, but soaked and ground they acquire an unusual nutty flavour enhanced by walnuts pieces. As for the cream, even though it was the traditional butter type, it was loaded with bitter cocoa and was never nauseous thanks to the lemon juice my mum always added. I remember I loved this cake so much, I would practically live on the rests of it for the two days following my birthday party (it was very big, so there was always at least a half left).

Dexterity, patience or love of details, necessary to make such elaborate pastry, are not really my qualities, so even though I have been missing its extraordinary taste and have been planning to prepare this cake for years, I was simply too scared to try it. This year, as my birthday was approaching, I felt a bit nostalgic about the years passing by and desperately needed something to cheer me up. This is how I decided to give it a try.

tortm2p

Just in case I would be able to devour as much as I did as a child, I took two important decisions. First, I reduced the cake’s size by half and, secondly, I substituted the butter cream with chocolate ganache (e.i. a mixture of chocolate and cream), slightly less disastrous in consequences (I hope). Of course – as you can see above – I have totally messed up the aesthetic and technical side. My cake resembled a big, unequally shaped ball, the layers were not very neat and the decoration clumsy, but the taste and the texture were extraordinary. I was very proud to see I had managed to make the poppy soft basis exactly like my mum’s: moist and deliciously original. As for the chocolate ganache, it was a perfect substitute for the butter cocoa cream. It was still very rich, heavenly good, but made me feel a little less guilty when, traditionally, I was finishing the cake the following day. It was simply the adult version of my beloved birthday cake.

If you want a traditionally-sized, big cake, double the amounts of both the cake and the cream. This cake keeps perfect and delicious for at least three days.

Before I pass to the recipe I would like to express my gratitude to Kelly from Inspired Edibles for doing something every food blogger dreams about, e.i. testing one of my recipes, namely my Eggless Applesauce Cake. Those who haven’t seen her Thursday post, should click here and admire the complex and elaborate, fabulous Apple Streusel Cake she has made, adapting my simple and humble Applesauce Cake.

I would also like to thank Stefanie from A Dash of Sugar and Spice for the Liebster Blog Award, she has given to the blogs which have less than 200 subscribers and which, according to her should have more of them. Thank you, Stefanie, I feel honoured and very proud you appreciate my blog so much!

I would like to pass this award to the bloggers who, I think, deserve much much more followers, subscribers or visitors. I am not sure if the bloggers I have chosen have less than 200 subscribers, but I certainly wish them more popularity:

Arudhi from A Box of Kitchen

I know that Charles from Five Euro Food has already received this award and also from Stefanie, but I thought I would say I totally agree with her

Jeno from Weeknite Meals

Jessica from Green Skies and Sugar Trips

Mr. Three-Cookies, whose Easily Good Eats merit at least as much followers as his other blog, Three Cookies

Ping from Ping’s Pickings

Shannon from As A Delish

Shu Han from Mummy, I can cook!

Now back to the recipe.

Preparation: about 5 hours, but count a whole day (both the cake and the ganache can be prepared the night before, kept in the fridge overnight and assembled the following day)

Ingredients (for a 20 cm diameter baking dish):

4 eggs

100 g confectioner’s sugar

125 g poppy seeds

1 tablespoon honey (I used agave syrup)

6 high heaped tablespoons dry bread crumbs

8 walnut kernels, roughly chopped

Cream (chocolate ganache):

250 g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)

250 ml liquid cream (25% fat or more)

5 heaped tablespoons confectioner’s sugar

Cake soaking mixture:

1 small coffee cup of very strong black tea

50 – 100 ml rum (or artificial rum flavouring)

1 tablespoon sugar

50 g ground walnuts + 10 kernels for decoration

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Prepare the chocolate ganache.

Break the chocolate into pieces, put into a pan with cream and, constantly stirring, dissolve it on a very low heat (do not boil!).

Put aside and when it has cooled down, refrigerate for a couple of hours, until the ganache thickens.

(Add the sugar only when the ganache is cold, just before you put it into the cake.)

Prepare the cake.

Put the poppy seeds into a pan with cold water. Bring to boil and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.

Drain the poppy seeds and grind them in a meat grinder (with the smallest holes) or mix well in a blender (they will become moist and mushy).

Separate the yolks from the whites.

Mix the yolks with the sugar, add the mixed/ground poppy seeds, the bread crumbs, the honey and the walnuts.

Beat the egg whites and incorporate them delicately into the poppy mixture.

Line a round baking dish (20 cm diameter) with baking paper or grease it with butter and sprinkle with bread crumbs (the cake will be very sticky).

Pour the poppy cake and bake for about 40-50 minutes. (Make a wooden skewer test: if it comes out dry, the cake is ready).

Let the cake chill out and put it into the fridge for at least one hour (it’s easier to cut when very cold).

When the cake is completely cold, cut it horizontally into 3 slices.

When deciding in which order you should put the slices, bear in mind the bottom of the cake is always smooth and perfect for the top.

Divide the chocolate ganache into three equal parts.

Place the first part of the cake, sprinkle with a bit of the soaking mixture and spread 1/3 of the ganache over it.

Cover with the second cake layer, sprinkle with a bit of the soaking mixture and spread 1/3 ganache over it.

Cover with the last part of the cake and spread the remaining part all around the sides and on the top of the cake.

Sprinkle with some ground walnuts and decorate with kernels.

Refrigerate for at least three hours. Serve cold.

Light Unbaked Cheesecake with Vanilla

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Unbaked cheesecake is the oldest of all the light desserts I know. The one I make is refreshing, has a mousse-like texture and a very pleasant slight tanginess. When two weeks ago Charles from 5 Euro Food posted a luscious Prickly Pear Cheesecake recipe, I decided that since most bloggers I know prepare no-bake cheesecakes with high-calorie cream cheese, I should write about my way of making this popular dessert.

First, I never use cream cheese in sweet dishes. My unbaked cheesecakes are always made with smooth fresh cheese, often called quark or fromage blanc (not only in French-speaking countries; thank you, Ping!), which looks like a very thick yogurt and is available almost all around the world. (It can also be made with well mixed curd cheese, but this one is much more difficult to get in many countries). Quark exists in several fat content versions, but I usually choose that one or the semi-fat (the 0% fat is a bit too tangy for sweet dishes). However, I have recently realised that even the fattest version has approximately twice less calories than regular Philadephia cream cheese. Do not think I choose fresh cheese because it is low-calorie! I simply love its taste and would never exchange it for cream cheese in my desserts. Apart from that, I am not very fond of crust in cheesecakes, so I never make it (even though I love crusts in tarts).

Sugar, gelatin and fresh cheese are the basic ingredients. This time I have also added vanilla and, just before serving, I grated some dark chocolate over the cheesecake. It reminded me vaguely of stracciatella ice-cream, but in a much lighter version.

TIP & UPDATE: This cheesecake can be prepared with Greek yogurt instead of quark.

Special equipment:

individual ramekins if you want to serve individual portions

Preparation: 40 minutes + several hours in the fridge

Calories: about 150-250 kcal per serving depending on the cheese fat content

Ingredients (serves 5):

500 g fat or low-fat smooth fresh cheese (quark) or Greek yogurt

3 tablespoons hot water or hot milk/cream

10 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar (you can make it even lighter using a sweetener or powdered stevia)

2 heaped tablespoons gelatin (sometimes the amount depends on the brand; take the amount necessary to set 500 ml of liquid)

1 vanilla pod

(dark chocolate)

Split the vanilla pod in two lengthwise. Put into the hot water or milk or cream and leave for about 30 minutes.

Take the pod out, grate the vanilla seeds into the liquid and put the split pod aside.

Mix the cheese with the sugar and the vanilla-infused liquid.

Dissolve the gelatin in warm water, add to the cheese mixture.

Mix for a couple of minutes.

Fill individual ramekins (or one big dish) with the cheesecake mixture.

Put into the fridge (covered) for a couple of hours. Usually 3 hours are enough.

Unmoulding the cheesecakes is the only tricky part.

Run a knife around the edge and then, quickly, invert the ramekin onto a serving plate.

Tap at the bottom very hard: the cheesecake should fall out.

Damson Plum Butter

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Damson Plum is the queen of all the plums and Damson Butter is the king of all the fruit butters. Even though a palatable fruit butter (in other words a very thick jam) can be made practically with every fruit (or even fruit skins, as I realised only last week), damson butter is unique. Damson, Damson plum, or Damask Plum (Prunus domestica subsp. insititia) is oval with a very dark, violet skin, yellow flesh and has a very long history. Its name comes from “prunum damascenum” (plum from Damascus), since it was apparently first cultivated in antiquity in the region of Damascus. I don’t know about the rest of Europe, but it was introduced to England by Romans.

If you think you might have never spotted a damson on a tree or on a market, you must have seen its picture on a bottle of damson brandy called slivovitz, slivovitza, šljivovica, rakia… and produced in several central-European countries, such as Poland, Serbia, Hungary or Slovakia. For me the most aromatic and flavoursome comes from Serbia.

Just like damson brandy, damson butter is a part of long culinary traditions of certain countries. Even the smallest grocer or supermarket in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia or Germany carries damson butter (powidła, lekvàr, mus…), while a standard damson jam might be impossible to get there. If you want to know why, try making a “standard” jam with damsons, and then prepare the damson butter. I have made the the normal jam only once in my life and will never do this again.

Contrary to all the jams or fruit butters I know, properly made damson butter requires only plums and a bit of water. No sugar. This is not my invention of a low-sugar fruit preserve, but a genuine, traditional way of making damson butter. (By “no sugar” I mean no sweetener such as apple juice, often found in sugarless jams). The real damson butter is cooked on a very slow heat for many hours divided in two or three days. Thanks to this long and slow cooking process it keeps in a pantry for long years. I have recently opened a 5-year-old jar and it was perfectly sealed and preserved.

Damson butter has a concentrated fruit taste, with a slightly tart note. It is perfect as a filling for tarts, cookies, biscuits or as a layered cake spread. Thanks to its tanginess it’s also excellent in savoury dishes: with roast pork, chicken, turkey, smoked bacon, in sandwiches, on pancakes, crêpes, with terrines, pâtés, foie gras… In short, this is the only fruit jam I cannot imagine my life without.

Damson butter making process is not difficult. No peeling is involved and stones go out quite easily. It requires however a certain patience and a big batch of fruit; don’t bother if you have less than 3 kg, since the yield is quite low. Thus, if you have 5 kg plums, you will obtain only 1,5 – 2 l fruit butter. Everything depends of course on the damsons’ quality, skin thickness and cultivation methods. On the other hand, when buying a big box of fruit, you often obtain a substantially reduced price.

I have been making damson butter for many years and can assure you all the effort, time and money spent are definitely worth it.

NOTE: even if you have very ripe plums, the final butter might prove very acid. You can add some sugar, but only at the end, when the thick consistency is obtained and usually it is no more than 10% of the initial fruit weight. Do not add the sugar earlier, since it might make the butter burn easier.

Preparation: about 10 hours (divided into 2-3 days)

Ingredients (yield: about 1,5 l):

4 kg damsons

water

(sugar)

Wash the plums, stone them and put in a big pan.

Add some water (about 10% of the fruits’ initial weight), so that they don’t stick to the bottom until they start releasing their juice.

If the pan burns, quickly transfer the unfinished butter to another pan (otherwise it will “take” the burnt flavour).

The butter is ready when you put a wooden spoon in the middle and it doesn’t move.

When you obtain this final consistency, taste the butter. If you think it’s too acid, add sugar, let it simmer, constantly stirring and continue adding sugar and stirring until the required sweetness is obtained and the sugar is dissolved.

Some damsons might seem very sweet at the beginning, but at the end the butter might come out too acid.

If you had ripe plums normally you shouldn’t add more than 10% of sugar compared to the initial fruit weight. (I have never added more than 10% of the final butter weight).

Don’t add sugar before the final, very thick consistency is obtained.

/At this point you can either freeze it (after the butter has cooled down) or keep it in the fridge for a couple of weeks, or process it in the jars, as described below, and store it in your pantry for several years!/

Pour the butter, still hot, into sterilised jars. Cover with lids. Leave the jars to cool.

NOTE: For the readers who live in the USA, the USDA-approved canning method is different. You can find it described here:
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/uga/using_bw_canners.html.

Herring and Potato Salad

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Herring has been preserved in brine since the Middle Ages, but the salt concentration was so high, the fish had to be desalted bo soaking before it was consumed. In the XIIIth century the Dutch have improved this process creating a light brining technique, which doesn’t require desalting. “Maatjesharing”, often called “maatjes” is an example of this curing technique and is now readily available in many European countries, usually sold covered in oil.

Together with vinegared herring, lightly cured herring plays a big role in Northern European, German and Slavic countries and is often associated with the Jewish cuisine. People who didn’t grow up in these cultures may be put off at first by the cured herring’s strong smell and taste, but they usually end up in succumbing to its addictive, complex flavour and mellow, meaty texture. While the vinegared herring is usually served on its own, in different sauces, the lightly cured herring is also often found in salads and this is the way I prefer it.

I love cured herring, but usually crave it on cold days. However, watching the infinite variety of herring dishes on Three-Cookies blog, I simply couldn’t resist the temptation to make a herring salad in spite of the hot weather. Thus, I have discovered that a herring and potato salad is a very refreshing dish, well adapted to sunny Summer weather. This salad is probably the oldest and the simplest one I have ever made. I have been preparing it since I was a teenager and whenever I want a simple herring dish, it is the first thing I think of. The reason is simple: potatoes, onions and mayonnaise are simply the winning company for cured herring. I usually have this salad as a main dish with bread (black bread is particularly advised here!), but it can be also a starter, in which case it serves 6.

If you want to see myriads of herring cold and hot dishes ideas, visit either Three-Cookies (a great day-by-day read) or Easily Good Eats (a collection of recipes), both blogs by the same author, a real herring connoisseur, who I hope, will decide one day to write a herring cookery book. (I am already queueing up for a signed copy!).

Just before the recipe details I would like to share with you this funny and scary fragment of a Japanese cartoon, featuring not the herring but a very courageous potato:

http://youtu.be/1gD8nV8RlPU

Preparation: 30 minutes + 2 – 3 hours chilling in the fridge

Ingredients (serves 3 as a main dish):

400 g cured herrings in oil

1 medium onion

1 kg potatoes

a couple of tablespoon mayonnaise

pepper, salt

Cook the potatoes, peel them and cut into bite-sized pieces.

Drain the herring, cut it into bite-sized pieces too.

Chop the onion.

Combine the herring, the warm potatoes, the mayonnaise, add salt, pepper, the onion and put into the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Black Currant Vodka

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The Apricot Gin recipe I posted two weeks ago led to very interesting discussions about home liquor making with Charles from 5 Euro Food. They resulted in his first experience with a very promising Cherry Brandy and made me feel like making more fruit liquors this Summer.

Browsing through forums and websites I realised most home liquor makers cited blackcurrant vodka among their most successful and palatable productions. I have also read that blackcurrant vodka has healing properties. It is supposed to regulate digestion, cure the throat ache and even help with respiratory problems. Needless to say, I have very high expectations of this miraculous beverage!

This method, a classical two-stage process, needs a bit more attention than the Apricot Gin. As all the home-made liquors this one requires patience and since after the final filtering it has to be left untouched for at least 3 months, I strongly advise keeping it in a closed place when it can easily be forgotten. It will of course improve with time!

After two days, the opened jar already spreads an enticing fabulous aroma, the most beautiful I have ever experienced with a home-made liquor. I am looking forward to see the changes in a couple of months!

Update: Having tasted the vodka during the the last stage, e.i. bottling, I must say it’s breathtaking! It’s tangy, but not too sour, elegant and the high alcohol content is imperceptible. I cannot imagine what it will taste like in three months’ time.

Update 2: I lack words to describe it. This is definitely the best infused vodka I have ever made. It’s even the best home-made alcohol I have ever tasted. Next year I will make several big batches.

Preparation: min. 4,5 months

Ingredients:

600-700g black currants

700 ml white vodka (or 90% alcohol diluted by half with boiled and cooled water, kept together for two days before the fruit addition)

150 g sugar

150 ml water

Remove the black currant stems and dry ends (this can be a bit time-consuming and the best method is to use small scissors). Put them in a big jar and cover with vodka.

Leave in a warm place for 6 weeks.

Drain the infused vodka and pour into another big jar.

Make a syrup boiling the water with the sugar.

Pour the cooled syrup over the infused vodka.

/Do not throw away the fruit! Either use it in a cake or pour some more alcohol and make a “secondary” vodka infusion./

Leave the vodka and syrup mixture for one week in a dark place.

Filter through a coffee filter or a piece of gauze folded into 4 pieces.

Pour into a bottle, close it tightly and do not taste before 3 months.

Rhubarb Soft Drink

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rhubarbdrinkpp I have always loved rhubarb. I was one of these strange children who loved acid food (and I still do). When I was little I would chew on the raw rhubarb sticks freshly picked in my grandmother’s garden. My mum has never made a single rhubarb cake, nor would she preserve it (even though she used to preserve tons of fruits and vegetables). However, she would use rhubarb often and in big amounts. The only thing she did was a slightly tangy rhubarb drink I was crazy for (this was when children still liked other drinks than industrial sodas). She would prepare it throughout the whole rhubarb season and in big batches, kept in the fridge and refreshing like nothing I have ever tasted since then. The smell and the colour of the rhubarb drink will always remind me of the hot summer days of my childhood.

Obviously, this soft drink is the first thing I think about as soon as rhubarb appears on the market. The preparation is ridiculously easy and I have hesitated before writing these instructions, barely deserving a “recipe” name. However, since I don’t know anyone around me who prepares this simple drink, I decided to post it.

The sugar/sweetener amount depends on everyone’s taste. I usually put a heaped teaspoon in one big glass (250ml). The drink keeps for up to a week in the fridge, especially if it’s sweetened only before drinking. Do not overdose the sugar, otherwise the drink will lose its tanginess. The pinker the rhubarb stalks, the pinker the drink will be.

Preparation: 1 hour

Ingredients (makes 1,7 – 1,8 litre):

500g rhubarb stalks, cleaned and cut in two/three pieces

2 litres cold water

sugar or sweetener or honey

ice

Put the rhubarb into a big pan with water.

Bring to boil at medium heat and cook until the rhubarb completely softens.

Put aside and wait until the rhubarb drink cools down.

Strain it and refrigerate for up to a week.

Add sugar/honey/sweetener just before drinking and serve with ice.

Buckwheat with Miso

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Buckwheat is cultivated in as different countries as Russia, Japan, France and Brazil. Japanese soba noodles and soba shochu, Russian blinis гречневая каша, French “gallettes” or savoury pancakes, boûketes in Belgium, Polish “kasza gryczana” (hulled grains, usually roasted), Italian pizzoccheri,… All those are made from the same plant.

Belonging to the Fagopyrum genus, buckwheat is not a grass, nor a cereal, even though it looks like one. Its qualities are so numerous, it is surprising most of the Western countries never consume it. It is very rich in protein, minerals, antioxydants, iron and doesn’t contain any gluten, so can be consumed by people who don’t tolerate it. Apart from all these healthy sides, buckwheat grows very quickly and easily. That is why it can be cultivated in cold climate and crops can be easily multiplied in hot regions.

The older I get, the more I like buckwheat – based products, and especially buckwheat groats, e.i. hulled grains. They are a bit crunchy and a bit soft at the same time. They have a very pleasant nutty aroma and a tiny hint of bitter taste. I don’t know if it is due to my temporary deficiency of one of its healthy components or if it’s a simple food craving, but sometimes I want it so much, I must have it in the following hours. In Switzerland (like in most Western European countries) the only easily obtained buckwheat groats are not roasted and lack the nutty flavour the roasted ones have. Luckily Russian and Polish shops carry roasted groats and luckily they exist in most European countries and in North America, where the buckwheat groats’ name (“kasha”) has Polish/Russian origins.

I usually have buckwheat groats as a side dish (they are perfect with pork roast and the Polish pork stew with allspice), but they also make a good ravioli or vegetable stuffing. I don’t know why, but I have never tried to mix them with Asian ingredients. However, a couple of days ago, I thought about the Japanese soba noodles, remembered I had a miso (Japanese soybean paste) dressing in the fridge and decided to combine them. It is difficult to describe how excellent this Japanese-Polish fusion proved to be. Needless to say, since that day miso has become the buckwheat groats’ best friend. (UPDATE: It’s not really a fusion dish… I have just learnt that buckwheat groats do exist in Japan where they are called “soba gome”; they are however not very popular).

The White miso dressing recipe comes from my beloved Japanese Cooking. A Simple Art by Shizuo Tsuji (read more here). It keeps about 2 weeks in the fridge and is a good way to use up an egg yolk. If you don’t want to prepare the miso dressing, the buckwheat will be also good with miso alone (if you can add some mirin, it will be even better). This time, instead of pork, I had it with grilled chicken.

Update: Janet’s comment and cooking kasha experience made me think how buckwheat groats/kasha may be tricky to cook, especially for the first time. After two or three times it’ll become very easy. I changed a bit the cooking process description, more helpful this time – I hope - for a beginner.

Preparation: 30 minutes

Ingredients (serves two):

150 g roasted buckwheat groats

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons white miso

or White miso dressing:

1 egg yolk

4 tablespoons white miso

1 tablespoon sake

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon mirin

(dashi, Japanese stock, 出し)

Put the buckwheat groats into a cup.

Measure the double of the buckwheat volume in water.

Pour the water into a pan. Bring it to boil, add the salt.

Throw the buckwheat into the pan and let it cook partially covered at medium heat for about ten minutes.

Lower the heat and let it simmer, covered, for about 5 more minutes.

The water should be completely absorbed by the grains. If it’s not absorbed yet, put the pan aside, leave the cover on and it will get absorbed without cooking too.

Prepare the miso dressing.

Combine the yolk with the miso in a small pan.

Add the remaining ingredients one by one.

Put the small pan into a bigger one, with boiling water and let the sauce thicken (and the egg yolk cook), delicately stirring for about 5-10 minutes.

(The miso dressing can be diluted with dashi stock. It keeps two weeks in the fridge.)

Taste the buckwheat groats. They should be still crunchy, but cooked. If they are not soft enough for your taste, add a bit more water and cook them longer.

Drain the groats. Combine them with one tablespoon miso or miso dressing.

Serve the groats with a big dollop of miso/ miso dressing on top.

Thrifty Truffles (Leftover Cookie Truffles)

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thriftyp

Throwing away pastry is not something I am happy to do, and yet I had done it many times. The cakes I was offered and which were not to my taste, the leftover, slightly dried ones, or the failures of my baking experiments…. All ended up in the bin. A couple of months ago I learnt how to transform those into cute truffles, which often taste so good no one will guess they are just an alternative to the kitchen bin. The secret to the good taste is the rum, so if you don’t like rum, don’t try this recipe. (I can’t guarantee the result with other types of alcohol).

The recipe has Polish origins, the leftover truffles being called “bajaderki”, “kasztany” (chestnuts) or “kartofelki” (small potatoes), depending on the region, and are made in almost every Polish bakery shop with… leftover cakes and baking failures. The below recipe is based on several different ones found on internet, in the forums and on the advice I found before preparing my first batch of these truffles. Since every time I prepare them, the “base” cake or cakes are different, every batch of truffles tastes different and the ingredients have to be adjusted. The important thing is to taste the “dough” during the making process, adjust its consistency and composition to our taste.

WARNING! Only “dry” cakes, cookies and biscuits, i.e. without cream, can be used here.

Preparation: 15 minutes + one night in the fridge

Ingredients (the amounts are only given as an example):

200 g leftover cakes, cookies, biscuits (crumbled)

5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

50 ml hot water

10 flat tablespoons slightly tangy jam (red fruit or plum)

10 flat tablespoons ground nuts or almonds (these are not obligatory)

50 – 100 ml rum

ground nuts/ground almonds/cocoa/dessicated coconut or chocolate to coat the truffles

Put the crumbled cakes into a big bowl.

Dissolve the cocoa in the hot water and add it to the crumbles.

Add the nuts, the rum and knead the dough with your hands, adding the jam gradually until the ingredients are combined and the dough has a consistency thick enough to form balls.

Taste the dough and add more jam if it’s not sweet enough.

Add more hot water if the dough is too dry and more cocoa if you find the cocoa taste not strong enough.

Form walnut-sized truffles and coat them in ground nuts/ground almonds/cocoa/dessicated coconut.

(I simply put the truffles and on of the above in a big bowl and shake it a bit.)

You can also coat them with melted chocolate.

The above truffles were made with ground almonds and coated with coconut.

Put them into the fridge at least overnight, but I find them better after 48 hours.

Fresh Cheese Spread with Chives

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Even though the Spring is indeniably there, I still have to wait a bit for the local asparagus and try out Clarkie’s Asparagus and Parmesan Tart I have seen on Beloved Green. Meanwhile I have been watching, impressed, the jungle of Winter-surviving chives, growing like crazy on my balcony and serving as a joyful, green touch of Spring in my kitchen. Even though there are thousands of ways to use chives, my all-time favourite is the fresh cheese spread, a reminder of my childhood and probably the most innocuous of all my food addictions. Here is only a part of my chives jungle (including, on left, nira 韮, Chinese chives, very kindly offered by my friend A. and also courageous – albeit moderate – Winter survivors):

The fresh cheese I have in mind is called “curd cheese” and sometimes “farm” or “farmers cheese”, available in Polish/Russian/ Hungarian grocery shops all around the world. Curd cheese is widely used in Central and Eastern Europe (Russian творог, Polish twaróg or biały ser, Hungarian túró or Austrian Topfen are only some examples in both savoury and sweet dishes and is my absolute favourite in Baked Cheesecake (while its smooth, mixed version is ideal in Unbaked Cheesecake). Its texture might be described as something halfway between ricotta and feta, but its slightly tangy taste differs from both. Since it is produced by straining soured milk, curd cheese is a natural product and if low or medium-fat variety is used, it makes relatively healthy meals and desserts. (It shouldn’t be mixed up with American “cheese curds”!). This is how curd cheese, crushed with fork, looks like:

This spread is not only fresh, low-fat, quick and known as an appetite suppressant, but it tastes much better on wholemeal, black, crunchy bread or even pumpernickel, which makes it even healthier (on the other, hand I have read somewhere fresh cheese is no longer considered as healthy as in the past…). Fresh cheese spread keeps for a couple of days in the fridge, in a closed container. Actually, I think it tastes better the following day, when the chives’ flavour is stronger. I always make a big batch to have it ready for breakfast or as a snack.

TIP: If you cannot get curd/farmers cheese, you can replace it with cottage cheese, but it has to be drained and combined with sour cream/milk or kefir (not yogurt) to make it tangy.

Other recipes which call for curd cheese:

-Potato and Curd Cheese Dumplings

-Pear and Curd/Cottage Cheese Pie

-Light and Moist Baked Cheesecake

Preparation: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

150 g curd/farmers cheese (or drained cottage cheese)

4-6 tablespoons yogurt, kefir, sour milk or sour cream (or more if the cheese is dry)

salt

about 10 flat tablespoons chopped chives

If using cottage cheese, crush the grains with a fork before adding kefir or sour milk/cream.

Add the chives, the salt, give it a good stir and taste if it’s salty enough.

Pork Roast Stuffed with Dried Apricots

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My favourite roasted pork cuts are opposite both tastewise and healthwise. One is the fatty crisp-skinned pork belly, and the other is the leanest loin, with all the fat trimmed off. The latter is the only one I prepare regularly and, even though lean pork is often said to become dry, searing it before roasting and especially stuffing with dried fruit is an excellent way to keep it juicy. Sometimes you don’t even need to serve the roast with any sauce, the softened cooked fruit acting like one.

Prunes are probably the most popular stuffing and for years they used to be the only dry fruit I used. One day, desperate to make a change from the pork-prune combination, I tried dried apricots instead and the result was better than I had expected: apart from the obviously much more attractive colour, dried apricots add more tanginess. The roast is more beautiful, its flavour more interesting and livelier. (Afterwards I saw many people using apricot stuffing, but at the time it was quite a discovery.)

The meat should be seasoned and stuffed at least 20 minutes beforehand, but it’s better when left for several hours in the fridge or even overnight.

Preparation: min. 1 hour 30 min

Ingredients (for approx. 1 kg of meat):

a piece of pork weighing about 1 kg

10 – 15 dried apricots

2 tablespoons salt

2 tablespoons dried granulated garlic (this is the laziest option of course; using fresh garlic is a bit more fussy – it should be peeled, cut into small pieces and placed into small incisions made in the meat, otherwise it burns)

3 tablespoons marjoram

2 tablespoons ground black pepper

(2 tablespoons dried chili)

2 tablespoons oil

Take the meat out of the fridge. Wash it, pat dry, cut off the fattest parts if you want a very lean roast.

Cut up the apricots into four thin slices each.

Start with the stiffing.

Take a long-blade knife and make long, tunnel-like 3 – 4 holes lengthwise, from both sides of the roast, inserting gradually pieces of apricot, pushing them with your fingers and filling the entire “tunnels”.

With your hands rub the pork with salt, afterwards with the remaining spices and marjoram, patting the meat to make sure the seasoning “sticks”.

Cover the meat and put aside for at least twenty minutes (you can leave it for several hours or overnight, but in this case it should be put back into the fridge and taken out 30 minutes before roasting).

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a pan.

Sear the meat for 30 seconds – 1 minute on every side until it browns slightly (turning a bit piece of meat and maintaining it with your hands is easier than with any other utensil).

Put it on a baking dish and bake for 50-60 minutes per kg.

If you see the surface getting burnt (and if it bothers you), you can cover the roast with aluminium foil for the remaining time.

Remove from the oven and serve.

The remains of the pork roast can be kept for a couple of days and eaten as cold cuts in sandwiches or salads.

Pork Stew with Allspice

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Together with marjoram allspice is my favourite seasoning for pork dishes. Called sometimes Jamaican pepper (in French the most common name is “piment de la Jamaïque”), at first sight allspice does resemble the black peppercorn, but is not related to it. This dried unripe berry of Pimenta dioica (myrtles family) is bigger, has a lighter, brown colour and has a very complex mellow aroma, unbelievably contained in just one wrinkled ball. According to the English it combined the cinnamon’s, nutmeg’s and cloves’ flavour, hence the name allspice appearing in the XVIIth century. First introduced in Europe in the XVIth century, allspice is absent from many countries’ traditional recipes. Even though allspice widely used in the French Carribean territories, the mainland culinary France practically ignores its existence (Middle Eastern groceries among the rare places where it can be bought in France). A couple of years ago I was surprised to discover the United Kingdom and… Poland seem to be the only European countries, where allspice is widely available and popular. In Polish it is even called “ziele angielskie”, meaning “English herb”.

In Europe mainly berries are used in cooking, but in the Carribean cuisine also allspice fresh leaves are thrown into stews, similarly to bay leaves. They lose unfortunately their aroma while drying, hence the difficulty to find them in Europe and their absence in my own kitchen. For me allspice is absolutely necessary in different pickles, especially pickled peppers, and in the pork stew, which acquires a complex and – for some people even mysterious – flavour, only thanks to this small round grain. This recipe is a part of my mum’s endless repertoire of perfectly seasoned pork dishes and probably the one I prefer. The carrots seem to be the ideal pork’s company, but any vegetable can be added either at the beginning or at the end, if it’s softer and cooks quickly.

Preparation: 30 – 40 minutes

Ingredients (serves two):

300 g pork (lean pork is lighter, but drier than the fat pork)

150 – 200 g carrots

1 big onion

10 allspice berries

1 heaped tablespoon flour

water or stock (vegetable, chicken, pork stock…)

salt, pepper

Cut up the pork into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle it with salt and pepper and coat in the flour.

Slice the carrots (don’t make the slices too thin, otherwise they’ll fall apart while cooked).

Chop the onion or slice it.

Heat some oil in a pan, fry the pork pieces until they are browned. Add the onion, stir for a couple of minutes.

Add the carrots, the allspice and cover with 300 ml water or stock.

Simmer uncovered, stirring from time to time. Add water if necessary.

The stew is ready when the sauce has thickened. Adjust the taste and if you don’t want to pay attention to what you swallow, remove the berries (they don’t taste very well when accidentally crushed in your mouth).

I think it is best served with short pasta.

Potatoes and Curd Cheese Dumplings, or Pierogi ruskie

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Ravioli, empanadas, gyoza, mandu… Dumplings – or pastry packages with various fillings – appear in most of the traditional cookery books in the world. Pierogi (pronounced “p-ye-ro-ghee”), or Polish dumplings, have dozens of different traditional fillings, and their variations are infinite. They can be both sweet and savoury, bigger or smaller, with or without meat, but the pastry gives them the typical Polish touch. A bit thicker than the Asian one, it should be firm, a bit elastic, but never tough. Pierogi are also usually bigger than the Asian dumplings (not to mention the Italian ravioli), attaining sometimes a big fist size.

Even though I’m a declared carnivore, strangely, my favourite are the vegetarian pierogi (“pierogi ruskie”), filled with potatoes, curd cheese and fried onion. These ingredients make a very unusual and complex combination, impossible to compare to anything else and surprising when tasted for the first time. These dumplings’ name is erroneously translated as “Russian”, but they have got nothing to do with Russia. In fact, apart from a slightly offensive adjective meaning “Russian”, “ruskie” also refers to the region nowadays partly in Ukraine and partly in the Eastern Poland, and previously called “Red Ruthenia” (belonging to Poland before the 2nd World War). This is the region where this type of dumplings originated from. Consequently, they should be translated rather as “Ruthanian dumplings”. To make matters more complicated, the Ukrainians apparently call them “Polish dumplings”…

The Polish dumpling pastry is very easy to prepare, provided one has a kneading food processor. It is a bit longer and needs a bit of exercise when hand kneaded. A fork is the traditional tool to seal the edges and a very efficient one too. The dumplings are first quickly cooked, and then can be served straight away or fried. Some serve them with sour cream, others with chopped and fried cracklings or bacon or fried chopped onion. This pastry recipe comes from my mother and of course is the best! The filling is more or less the same in every “Ruthanian” pierogi recipe. Normally the dumplings are served as the main course, but if you make them smaller they can become original finger food.

Special equipment:

a kneading food processor (or strong hands and a bit of patience)

Preparation: 1 hour – 1 1/2 hour (depends on your experience and kneading-rolling velocity)

Ingredients:

Pastry:

250 g white flour

100 ml hot (not boiling) water

1 egg yolk

1/2 tablespoon neutral tasting oil (not olive oil)

1/2 teaspoon salt

Filling:

150g curd cheese (or 150g drained off cottage cheese, e.i. about 300g before draining)

150g cooked and peeled potatoes

1 medium onion

salt, pepper

1 tablespoon oil

Prepare the filling. Chop the onion and fry it in 1 tablespoon oil until slightly browned.

Mash the potatoes and combine with the cheese, the onions, the salt and the pepper. Mix well with a fork (not with a mixer!). Adjust the taste if necessary (the pepper should be very present in the overall taste).

Combine the pastry ingredients and knead them until the pastry is smooth and doesn’t stick to your hands, or combine them in a food processor. Mix them quickly with a kneading function.

Add more flour if necessary.

Cover the pastry with plastic film, since it dries very quickly.

Roll out half of the pastry to a 1/2 cm sheet (some people prefer 1 cm thick). Take a round pastry cutter or a glass and cut out 7 – 10 cm diameter circles. Fill them with a tablespoon of the cheese mixture, seal with your fingers, put on the table and press down the rims on one or both sides with fork’s teeth.

Layer the filled dumplings on a plate, separating the layers with plastic film, otherwise they’ll stick to each other.

Bring two litres of salted water to a boil.

Cook 4-5 dumplings at a time, counting 3 minutes from the moment they appear at the surface.

(After the second or third batch they’ll start sticking to the bottom of the pan, so you should push them a bit after 30 seconds, otherwise they’ll never go up to the surface).

Serve them immediately with sour cream or sprinkled with fried cracklings, or fried bacon cubes.

They can also be slightly fried and served crunchy. Personally I prefer them just cooked and served either with fried bacon or with fried onion.

If you want to serve them the following day, place them in a plastic box, putting cling film after each layer and closing the box tightly before putting them into the fridge.

Orange Vodka

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Delighted with the successful results of my mandarin peel vodka made with leftover peel, I decided to use up orange zest in a similar way. Since the oranges have a very bitter white pith, they should be peeled very thinly with a vegetable peeler so that only the orange part is used. Since, contrary to the mandarin peel vodka, the white pith is absent here, I decided to keep the zest with the alcohol a bit longer. I have also decided to change a bit the proportions.

UPDATE: after three months the vodka is fantastically warming, only slightly sweet, with an aroma reminding me vaguely of Cointreau (which of course is much more complex!). Less charming than the mandarin peel vodka, however. I have only tasted it alone, but I already see it as a great Cointreau substitute in certain cocktails…

Preparation: 23 days

Ingredients:

2 medium oranges

100g caster sugar

700 ml 45% or weaker alcohol (I diluted 300 ml of 90% alcohol with 400 ml boiled and cooled water and kept it together for two days in a jar, obtaining approx. 37,5% alcohol)

100 ml water

Peel the oranges with a vegetable peel, keeping only the orange part of the zest. Dry the peel (for example on a radiator) and stop drying as soon as it cracks (it took me 24 hours).

Put the orange peel in a big jar. Pour over the alcohol or the alcohol+water.

Close the jar. Put it in a warm place (here radiators are useful once more, but don’t put the jar directly on them!).

After one week strain the peel and throw it away, keeping of course the infused alcohol!

Prepare a syrup with the sugar and the 100 ml water.

When it’s still hot (but not boiling), pour gradually the infused alcohol, stirring.

Pour the vodka into a bottle. Close it and store in a dark place for two weeks.

Filter it (for example through a coffee paper filter or a piece of gauze plied in 4) into another bottle.

Close it well with a cork or a screw cap (or taste it straight away!).

Sour Cherry Vodka

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As I have already mentioned somewhere, sour cherry is one of my beloved fruits. It is perfect for cooking, baking and especially preserving. For me sugarless plum jam is the only jam in the world superior to sour cherry jam and sour cherry based alcohols are simply outstanding. Unfortunately, frozen sour cherries - the only ones I have found where I live – have quite limited preserving possibilities. Putting them in long – keeping jars is simply impossible, but something told me to consider liquor production. In fact, looking through internet I have discovered frozen sour cherry infused vodka is totally feasible. Even though not as good as the one based on fresh fruit, it is apparently often made and appreciated by many home liquor makers. Following the advice from this forum and modifying certain details I embarked on my first sour cherry vodka adventure!

The cherry vodka can be made with any variety of cherries (as well the light red ones as the best variety, e.i. the black sour cherries), as long as they are sour of course. It doesn’t require maturing, takes 6 weeks to be made and, last but not least, it can be made at any time of the year! Even though I am only in the middle of the production process, judging from the aroma and colour the result is very promising…

(UPDATE: After the six impatient weeks I have filtered the cherry vodka. I can’t decide which is better: the taste or the colour! I can’t wait to see the changes after a couple of months…)

(UPDATE nr2: after a couple of months… the taste is even deeper, the colour still beautiful… I will definitely make it once more!)

Preparation: 6 weeks

Ingredients:

1/2 kg frozen or fresh sour cherries (without pits)

1/2 litre vodka (I used 90% alcohol diluted by half with boiled and cooled water, kept together for two days before the fruit addition)

250 g caster sugar

2 cloves

Put the frozen or fresh cherries in a big jar and cover with alcohol.

Close the jar and let the vodka infuse with the fruit.

After three weeks, strain the infused vodka and place it in a closed jar or bottle in a cool place.

Put the fruit back into the big jar and cover with sugar. Add two cloves. Close the jar.

Shake the jar from time to time to help the sugar dissolution.

After three weeks strain the cherry infused syrup, combine with the infused alcohol from the first preparation stage and strain it through a coffee filter or a piece of gauze folded four times.

At this point the sour cherry vodka is ready to be drunk, but it will improve with time.

Prunes in Chocolate

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If I hadn’t been encouraged, I would have never thought of considering it a recipe, not to mention posting it! Prunes in Chocolate are the easiest sweet thing I know and probably also a perfect, last-minute and versatile Christmas item. They can be hung as a Christmas tree decoration, they can be given in a bag or box as a small gift, and, especially if coated in dark chocolate, they are an excellent digestive, moderately healthy, tea or coffee snack. The idea is not mine, but an improved reminder of the mass-produced prunes in chocolate I loved as a child.

The “recipe” is not only simple and very quick, but can be infinitely modified and complicated if one wishes and/or has time. Milk or white chocolate can be substituted for dark chocolate and the prunes can be stuffed with marzipan, nuts, jam, jelly or ganache. Any alcohol of your choice can be added to the melted chocolate, and even a mixture of alcohols or no alcohol at all… In short, this recipe can be treated as a basis for different creations. However, if you stick to a thin layer of dark bitter chocolate, it is the lightest version of chocolate candies I know.

Special equipment:

accessories depending on what you want to do with the prunes (gift bags, boxes, paper presentation cases, gift paper and threads to hang them on a tree, etc.)

Preparation: 10 minutes+ cooling time in the fridge

Ingredients:

25 big prunes (stoned)

1 x 100g good dark chocolate

50 ml Hungarian apricot palinka (in other words apricot brandy)

Melt the chocolate on low heat, in a small pan, stirring and not letting the chocolate boil.

Add the alcohol at the end and stir well.

Put the prunes into the chocolate and coat them in it, shaking the pan or stirring with a spoon.

Put them on baking paper or a plate and put into the fridge until the chocolate coating becomes firm.

Take them out of the fridge and do whatever you have planned!

Mandarin Peel Vodka

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Have you ever considered using up mandarin peel? I bet not. Unless discovering a use of a generally scorned and discarded fruit, vegetable or meat part is for you (like for me) one of the most thrilling culinary moments.

This crazy idea started to haunt me as soon as I have peeled this Winter’s first mandarin. When I was at the third one and the beautiful aroma started to spread around the house, I thought I really had to find a way of using it. Since I don’t like candied orange nor lemon zest, I haven’t even bothered to see if it was a possible mandarin peel transformation. Then, when googling “mandarin peel” in different languages I was guided to one of the most fascinating websites: a Polish forum for home wine and liquor makers. The discussion around the mandarin vodka and favourable opinions convinced me quickly it was what I was looking for.

Most Polish home made liquors (called nalewki) require patience and are ready to taste only after a couple of months or even a year. Aging improves them and apparently in the olden times, when life pace was slower, a nalewka was made to celebrate a child’s birth and the bottle opened only at his or her wedding day! Luckily, there are several surprises for the impatient, and the mandarin peel vodka is one of those. If everything goes smoothly, I’ll be able to drink it before Christmas!

Since, according to some forum users the vodka made according to the below recipe was too strong, I modified it, diluting the 90% alcohol with water. I am not a chemist nor a home made liquor specialist, but apparently the alcohol has to spend two days diluted with boiled and cooled clean water (and never the same day you start preparing the vodka).

Warning! Since I have never tasted mandarin vodka, not to mention making it, I cannot guarantee the result (but will make an update – hopefully enthusiastic – in 16 days!).

UPDATE: tasted after one month, the mandarin vodka is surprisingly delicious for such an effortless preparation. It is a bit sweet (not as sweet as liqueurs), but quite strong! The mandarin aroma is overwhelming! Some who tasted it say it reminds them of Cointreau, but I think it’s exaggerated (Cointreau has a much more complex taste and aroma!). In short, it’s really worth trying, and maybe it can be added to drinks, instead of Cointreau…

Preparation: 16-18 days

Ingredients:

3-4 small mandarins

200g caster sugar

0,5 l 90% alcohol (I diluted it with 170 ml boiled and cooled water and kept it together for two days in a jar)

200 ml water

Peel the mandarins. Dry the peel (for example on a radiator) and stop drying as soon as it cracks (it took me 24 hours).

Weigh it and keep 5 grams of the dried peel.

Put the mandarin peel in a big jar. Pour over the alcohol or the alcohol+water.

Close the jar. Put it in a warm place (here radiators are useful once more, but don’t put the jar directly on them!).

After two days strain the peel and throw it away, keeping of course the infused alcohol!

Prepare a syrup with the sugar and the 200 ml water.

When it’s still hot (but not boiling), pour gradually the infused alcohol, stirring.

Pour the vodka into a bottle. Close it and store in a dark place for two weeks.

At the beginning the colour will be glowing yellow, but it will “calm” a bit with time and become yellow straw.

Filter it (for example through a coffee paper filter or a piece of gauze plied in 4) into another bottle.

Close it well with a cork or a screw cap (or taste it straight away!).

Pickled Pepper

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I often used to buy pickled sweet pepper, but there was always something wrong… too much oil, too much vinegar, not enough spices… When I tried to find tips for pickling peppers at home, one of my friends sent me her boss’s extraordinary recipe. At the time I didn’t even suspect it would be the best pickled pepper ever and that it would become the pride of my pantry. Thank you A.! This recipe is so perfect, I have never been tempted to modify it, in spite of tens of batches I have pickled since. Such a pity you live too far to let me offer you some jars.

This pickle has a sweet, rich peppery taste and aroma, with strong presence of garlic and spices. The addition of a small quantity of oil makes it smooth and even more delicate. You should wait at least a couple of weeks before tasting, but this pickle largely improves with time.

Every variety of pepper can be pickled this way. The most important is that it is fresh and ripe. The stronger the peppers’ aroma the better the pickle will be. People usually pickle bell peppers, but my preference goes lately to the long Hungarian “kapia” variety. They don’t have as much flesh, but I find their taste and aroma more intense.

Preparation: 1 hour+processing

Ingredients:

1.5 kg (3,3 pounds) sweet peppers

about 20 peeled garlic cloves

up to 10 bay leaves

a couple of teaspoons mustard grains

a couple of teaspoons black pepper grains

2-3 teaspoons allspice grains

1 litre (about 4 cups) cider/white wine/other alcohol vinegar (mine was 4,5%, if you use a stronger one, add proportionally more water)

1.1 litre (about 4 cups and 3 oz) water

400 g (1 3/4 cups) caster sugar

3 tablespoons salt

olive oil (or other good quality oil)

Cut the peppers’ stems, discard all the seeds and white parts. Cut them into 2-3 cm pieces.

Fill in empty jars with pepper pieces (no more than 2/3 jars’ height), add 2 garlic cloves, 3 allspice berries, 3 pepper grains, 6 mustard grains and 1 bay leaf per every 500 ml jar.

Put the vinegar, the water, the sugar and the salt in a pan and let it boil a couple of minutes, stirring well until all the sugar is dissolved. Put aside.

Fill the jars with hot (no longer boiling!) vinegar mixture, leaving 1,5 cm from the rim. Pour a generous tablespoon of oil in each jar. Close the jars and let them cool down.

Place the cool jars into a big pan, bottom lined with an old kitchen towel folded in two (this will prevent the jars from breaking), cover up with hot – but not boiling- water to the level just below the lid. Bring to boil and keep on a very low heat, in simmering water, for around 20 minutes.
Stick on self-adhesive labels, write the name of the pickle and don’t forget to mark the date.

Wait at least a couple of weeks before opening the jars. As do most pickles, this one improves with time. Pickled peppers are perfect with cold meats, in sandwiches, on toast, as a side dish…

NOTE: For the readers who live in the USA, the USDA-approved canning method is different. You can find it described here: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/uga/using_bw_canners.html.

Pickled Sweet Pepper with Allspice on Punk Domestics