Monthly Archives: February 2016

Good Food

Ruskie pierogi.

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Quite common on our table, not great when it comes to portion control, as neither of us can resist seconds, when it comes to pierogi.

I came across a recipe for pierogi dough on mojewypieki.com, found it quite surprising, I always just use plain flour and warm water with a splash of milk, so needing a recipe seemed like needing one for scrambled eggs for instance, or for a cup of tea. But Dorota quoted Maciej Kuron, a Polish celebrity chef. I gave it a go and ended up with an excellent dough and excellent plate of pierogi.  Also, it never occurred to me to make it in Kitchen Aid, another first!

750 g of plain flour, a tall glass of very hot water( makes wonders to gluten), an egg, 3/4 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of oil, all worked in KA till smooth, just a few minutes. I really like the texture, the recipe is a keeper.

 

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Udon and prawn stir fry.

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Last Wednesday Florek took us for lunch to Bar and Wok, a small Chinese restaurant on the dodgy end of High Street, that I wanted to visit in a long time. Pizia and I had random stuff, like calamari and spring rolls, while Florek took a bowl of udon noodles with beef. I had a taste, it was far too hot for me, but the other flavour, sort of smoky, deep one I loved. The chap who served us said it is done by heating up the wok to the very smoky point, which can’t be done at home, but it’s normal in a restaurant. I’d cry my eyes out if I had a bowl of Florek’s noodles, but I left the restaurant inspired and determined to try to make my stir fries better.

I looked up some recipes and made a little sauce, that covered the whole dish. It consisted of a generous of tsp of chili garlic sauce, 2 tbsps of rice vinegar, 1/4 cup of soy sauce, 1 tsp of sesame oil, 2 tbsps of brown sugar, 2 cloves of crushed garlic,  1 tbsp of  finely chopped ginger, plus just a splash of teriyaki sauce. My prawns were sitting in soy sauce most of the afternoon and I have to say I got them spot on this evening. They were crunchy and succulent. The veggies I first added to the hot work were a shallot, sping onion, mange tout, bean sprouts, green bell pepper and some cup mushrooms. Noodles- udon, the best I guess. Finishing touch was a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

Easily one of the best stir fries to date.

Baking

Apple pie with extras.

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There’s got to be something sweet baked for the weekend, so I dug deep into mojewypieki.com again and picked this little gem. Good apple pie is never bad, as written before, provided it’s a real deal. The apples here are covered under a sweet duvet of budyn, only made with a bit less milk than the packet suggests.

Shortcrust pastry; 225 g of plain flour, 125 g of butter, 1 egg, 1 yolk, 4 tbsps of icing sugar, 0,5 tsp of baking powder and 1 tbsp of cream, all mixed into a dough, which divided into 2 went to the fridge and freezer respectively.  In the meantime I got my apples ready, not the most awesome apples on earth, just cheapish Co-Op stuff. Lots of sugar, lots of cinnamon, some raisins.

Budyn cooked with 375 ml of milk, not 0.5 litre, as the packet suggests, 2 tbsps of sugar and a touch of vanilla paste added.

The pastry from the fridge went on the bottom of my small, square tray, prebaked for a few minutes, a little sprinkle of breadcrumbs to get the moisture from the apples on the bottom. Apples in, budyn on top. The dough from the freezer onto the budyn, grated on the rough end of the grater. Also added a sprinkle of chopped hazelnuts and baked in 200 degrees for about 35 minutes.

If I were a posh Brit I’d say I rather liked it. 🙂

Baking

Mary Berry’s lemon drizzle cake

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An intense discussion has been ongoing between friends recently about different approach to healthy eating/fitness/weight loss and stuff.  Most of us, good food lovers would benefit from losing a kilo or two, I, for one, have a stomach that is far from flat. Florek could shed a good 10 kg.

Jana, fitness queen among us, who’s always done some sort of sport for most of her life and now enjoys great body and feels great for it, has suggested somebody’s recipe for an apple tart made of millet, instead of flour.  The idea Jana found interesting I found revolting. I’m all for health, but I refuse to compromise on taste and flavour, so instead of using freaky ingredients, I make half a portion of cake, but a good cake it is. Full of flavour.  Made with butter and flour.

Yesterday Florek treated me to a few pieces of nice baking equipment in Lakeland, including 2 new baking trays. The small square one is perfect for a midweek cake for 3 of us, I tested it today with a lemon drizzle cake, Mary Berry’s. If someone knows how to bake, it’s Mary.

Easy- all the ingredients into the bowl of the Kitchen Aid, worked a couple of minutes- into the oven. The ingredients are; 112 g of butter and caster sugar, 137 ish g of self raising flour, 1 tsp of baking powder, 2 whole eggs, 2 tbsps of milk and a zest of one lemon. That’s all. Into the prepared, lined tin and into the oven for 35 minutes in 180 degrees.

Once baked and slightly cooled, I made lots of little holes with a skewer, so that the lemon syrup went all the way down. The syrup is simply a juice of 1 lemon and about 80 g of sugar- yes, sounds mental, but it tastes great. Citrusy, light, flavoursome.

Good Food

Gnocchi with blue cheese sauce

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Gnocchi from scratch, not for the first time ever, but I seem to recall that my previous attempt a few years ago was not  a great success. Having found a step by step method by Antonio Carluccio in my new Folder Of Good Stuff I had to try again. I baked nearly 1 kg of spuds in the oven, which seems like a lot, but when peeled really not that much is left- I had about 450 g of mash. To that I added 110 g of 00 Italian flour and 1 egg.  Rolled the dough and shaped into gnocchi, cooked in lots of salted water. A super simple sauce was waiting in an adjoining pan- a chunk of St Agur cheese melted with a bit of butter and a splash of milk, a touch of black pepper.

We both liked the end result. Pizia had 1,5 of them too. I liked the texture, but I think what could be improved is maybe that roasted mash, maybe I could put the spuds through the ricer. The sauce will be different next time too. There will be next time, that’s for sure.

Dessert

Valentine profiteroles.

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I love profiteroles. Love making them, it’s fun watching them rising in the oven, looking all weird and disfigured. These, filled with advokaat cream I found in mojewypieki. com and had to try. I also made choux pastry from Dorota’s recipe, not my usual one, they were great. The cream- not so much, a bit too runny, which might be explained by the fact, that I added an extra slosh of advokaat to it, just because I like it…..?:-/

So for the pastry I used  250 ml of water, 125 g of butter and a pinch of salt all melted, to that I added a tall glass of plain flour and proceeded and usual, working the dough till shiny. Let it cool, then threw to the kitchen aid adding 4 eggs, one by one. Piped onto the trays and baked for about 20 minutes in 200 degrees.

The cream I made the day before, as suggested by the author. 175 ml of milk brought nearly to boiling,  125 ml of advokaat added when off the heat. 3 egg yolks and 40 g of sugar whipped till pale and fluffy, 17 g of potato starch and 17 g of plain flour added. All those combined together over a low heat, stirring all the time till thickened.  Left to cool under a sheet of cling film.

We’ve made a collective effort to fill the profiteroles in at the table( Aska), Jedrek was drizzling the chocolate over and we destroyed the first lot, before running out of the cream. So I whipped some cream and we continued, leaving all but 2 empty ones. Very much enjoyed, but I think I prefer the whipped cream to the advokaat cream.  My guests agreed.