When the clock strikes snack time, don’t play out the grab-and-go kitchen raid under the cover of night. There are so many other delicious things to use up hunger on.
Rose petal jam and plain greek yoghurt.
A drop of glace rose into a bowl of white yoghurt. A delicate velvety texture and a chilling creaminess, caressed by the deep rose essence defining its surface.
The play of the two, created on a sudden whim, is an unconventional way to end the trip to the fridge.
END OF SCHOOL TODAY!
It was a rough battle.
It’s the trinity of cake - now available in pocket version! Forget the famed trios: peanut-butter-jelly-bread and bacon-lettuce-tomato have a new rival. And this one’s going to be hard to beat
Ingredients (12-15 servings): 6 digestive biscuits, 4 cubes of dark chocolate, 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 tablespoons butter, pinch of salt, 500 g Philadelphia cream cheese, 2 tablespoons sour cream, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
We’ll start off from the bottom up. Crush the biscuits in a plastic/aluminum foil sheet, with something heavy. A cat is not recommended as a crushing tool, but very much so as an ingredient for mental support during the violent task.
Melt the butter along with the chocolate in a little pot over a low flame - make sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom (burns easily).
Throw in the biscuits, sugar and salt and stir well.
At the bottom of each muffin-pan/any other small baking utensil, spread out a spoonful of the cookie mass and press it to the bottom until it’s firm. Insert for 10 minutes in an oven preheated to 175’C.
Now we get to the second layer.
Beat cream cheese with sugar. Add one egg and the cream. Season with, of course, a dash of vanilla.
Fill each form with the cheesey mass, covering the chocolate-cookie layer.
Bake for about 25 minutes at 150’C. As soon as it’s out and finished cooling, place the mini-cakes in the refrigerator for 2 hours to set properly.
For the third and final layer - the cherries, ingredients: 200g frozen or fresh cherries, 50g sugar.
In a pot, heat the cherries with sugar for 10-20 minutes.
the key is to reduce the liquid into a thick sweet sauce, and soften the cherries. Don’t overcook them though - they are supposed to retain some of their tartness to play against the fluffy cheesecake and rich-sweet biscuit layer.
Beautiful. Just before serving, pour a few of the cherries on top of each mini cheesecake
Secret weapon? It’s in the contrast of the mellow and wild, the spicy and the mild. the heavy richness of the chocolate plays against the fluffy cheesecake-cloud floating on top. The tart cherries on top define the melodious cheesy cloud. Finally, the sugar and the salt in the base, like the acid and the sweetness of the toping, sandwich the fluff.
Challenge accepted?
How romantic. You can always count on it for a quick and hearty dinner.
Boil until vegetables are tender but not overcooked, 20 - 30 mins. Top it off with a lot of chopped parsley and dill and a tablespoonful of butter.
Looks a bit brothy for now. Season with salt (or soy sauce), pepper, and 2 tablespoons of full cream.
Heart-warming florets, still hidden behind those parsley leaves.
I have never known why they’re called pigeons, but I spent a fair share of my childhood believing that they indeed are made of bird meat.
My cat still hasn’t found out.
So, here’s a recipe for my cat and all those wishing to take a leap of faith into Polish cooking.
Ingredients: 1 large cabbage (must have huge leaves), 1kg minced beef, 3 small carrots, 1 celery, 1 leek, parsley, dill, 1 egg, a few dried forest mushrooms, 10 balls allspice, 5 laurel leaves, 2 tablespoons tomato pasta, salt and pepper to taste.
Directions: Begin by preparing the ingredients: wash all vegetables and get rid of the leaves (not from parsley and dill though!) Peels the celery and carrots.
Grate the carrots, celery and cut up the leak, parsley and dill.
Combine HALF of the vegetable ingredients with the minced meat, and salt/pepper generously to taste. Break in an egg, and mix well - this will give it a more cohesive structure.
The other half of the vegetables will be used as part of the sauce, to produce the flavour which will soak through the cabbage leaves.
Yes, those mushrooms, allspice and laurel leaves will make it or break it with Polish dishes. Like with most European cuisines, such tiny touches of flavour give essence to the entire dish.
The last element - the cabbage. Scald the leaves by slowly pouring the boiling water over the top of the cabbage. This will soften them and make peeling them away easier.
Slowly pull away each leaf one by one, and cut out the hard part of the stem, to ease folding.
Now the pigeon comes in - form a cylinder-like shape from the meat-mixture and place it in the centre of the cabbage leaf. Fold in the sides, and continue by rolling over the meat in the leaf parcel.
Repeat the process with all the meat - the leaves will start getting smaller with time, so make sure to use them wisely. Place the small or broken ones at the bottom of a saucepan. This will prevent the gołąbki from sticking to the bottom during cooking.
Once the pot’s full. Pour in the remainder of the vegetables and spices.
The paste will come from the vegetables, however a splash of tomato sauce gives it more depth and colour. Looks fancy on dill photos too.
Add two tablespoons of tomato paste and pour over with boiling water.
Mix a bit (it will belnd in completely during the cooking) and add extra salt and pepper to flavour the sauce, otherwise, the cabbage leaves will turn soggy and tasteless.
Begin cooking for 40 minutes, covered, without mixing (or you will destroy the tender parcels).
So maybe it’s lost its green charm and orderliness, but as one door, or pot closes, two open - its gained warmth, flavour and pigeonness.
Serve with the garnish, and enjoy these little Polish birds.
As cute a teatime accessories are, they make just as cute a finish.
Ingredients: 240 ml strong black tea
240 ml raisins (and some nuts too if you like)
240 ml brown sugar
2 x 240 ml white flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon baking power, 1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon gingerbread spice (recipe here)
and 30g melted butter.
Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.
Until the level of cuteness drops below zero.
At this point, transfer the batter into a baking-paper covered oven-pan and bake for 1 hour in a temperature of 175’C.
The batter has reincarnated into a state of absolute cuteness and sweetness.
A delightful sweet for a tea party.
Now a sunbeam warm is tendered,
By the grateful aid of a leaf;
Hope to a fainting heart is rendered,
And a cherry is robbed of grief.
I felt that the ruby red gems, treasured by the summer, hidden from all other seasons, deserve a lyrical entrance along with James Wilkinson.
Ingredients and recipe for the dough: See previous pierogi post
Once the dough has been rolled out, I’ll take it fresh from here. Sprinkle 50g of regular sugar over the cherries and allow the liquid to drain out through a kitchen sieve. If they’re too wet, it’ll cause the dumplings to fall apart.
Set out 3-5 cherries per dough round. They larger they are, the more will fit. Finding the perfect dough:filling ratio has been the most treasured secret of families for centuries.
Wet your fingers and fold the pierogi over, one by one. Stick the edges together firmly and if desired, press a fork onto the rims for that nice finish.
Throw them in batches of 5-15 into a pot of boiling salty water and wait for them to surface. The moment they do, leave them in there to bubble around for 2-3 minutes more and transfer them onto a large plate.
They’re ready to be eaten. Who would suspect that under that shy pink shell of dough hides a profusion of ruby red cherries. Guide your twist on the recipe, it’ll be worth millions some day.
There we go.
With measured cadence’s soft vibration,
Silently and one by one;
In deepened sighs to awe relation:
And a cherry’s mission is done.
With all the left-over easter eggs, let’s take a pragmatic approach.
Boil 8 eggs (10 mins) in water and let them cool. Peel the shells off and place the eggs in a bowl.
Add 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise, a dash of salt, and blend it all together, until all it well incorporated together.
If the Easter charm hasn’t worn off yet, and you need a steady slope down into everyday-cooking, add a little unique extravagance to the dish: a pinch of mustard, some spicy flakes, minced fresh garlic, tabasco or some spring-scented greens.
It’s lovely and creamy. Works best on sandwiches, but dipping things is always all the more fun.
The effect’s so good, that it makes you forget the real answer to the question: click here.
Easter Sunday tomorrow. Imagine a table filled with food, family, fun - like Christmas come early. And there, amongst the plates and yellow little chickens, lays a myriad of colourful eggs, smiling from between the spring catkins branches.
Eggs. In Poland, as in most Catholic practices, they symbolize rebirth and resurrection - the sparking of life in a dormant shell.
We like them with a little spark of energy and a twist of colour.
These have been dyed with special grocers paint from Poland, however home-made recipes for natural paints (using onions often) produce similar effects.
The egg goes further than being just a decoration - on Holy Saturday, we prepare the “Święconka” - a decorative basket of Easter egg and other symbolic food sampling. Eggs, for life and resurrection, bread and a sugar-lamb for the body of Christ, salt for purification, pepper to remember the bitter sacrifice and sausage for the celebration of joyful abundance.
Fluffy catkins and cats, excellent dishes and decoration. Happy Easter!
