Monthly Archives: May 2019

Dessert

In ewa’s garden.

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The cake I’ve made for Ewa and Sophie had nothing to do with diet, everything to do with indulgence, calories and the general feeling of happy tummy. Which is what I’ve been struggling with recently. But life is tough, one needs to shut up and get on with the diet, whinging will not knock the kilograms down.

On mojewypieki.com this cake is called “Fried Egg Cake”, mine on the photo does not look as great as Dorota’s due to the jelly on top (pear flavoured) being distinctly green. It sits on a quick and easy genoese sponge; 2 eggs, separated, whites beaten with 1/3 glass of sugar, 100 g of flour added, yolks, 50 ml of sunflower oil, 1/2 tsp of baking powder. Baked in 160 degrees for about 20 minutes. Following the comments under the recipe I’ve moistened the sponge with some lemon juice before adding the cheese layer. It took about 280 g of white curd cheese from Polish deli, worked a bit by kitchen aid to add some air to it. A tub of mascarpone. A tub of Philadelphia. About 4 tbsps of icing sugar. 3 tbsps of lemon juice. A grape jelly, for which 200 ml of water was used as opposed to the usual 500 ml. 200 ml of double cream. All this gently whipped together. My one complaint would be the jelly which tasted a touch artificial, I’d never have guessed the cake was to taste of grapes. Calorific value I reckon about 3 million. 🙂

Canned apricots were arranged on top to look like fried eggs and finally a pear jelly, before the whole thing went to the fridge to set. Chopped pistacchios sprinkled on top before serving.

Both girls liked it, so did I, though I only allowed myself a small piece. Accompanied by lovely sunshine and some prosecco.

Good Food

chicken korma.

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Hands down the best curry I’ve ever made. While flipping the pages of the latest Good Food I saw this recipe and wanted to make it straight away. Today I did and we both loved it, Izzie ate some too, but only because she was promised a dessert. Florek had seconds, I didn’t, I’m being good. Over 500 kcal according to the magazine, so I wasn’t pushing my luck. Worked out at 4pm though, needed to earn my curry!

2 garlic cloves, a chunk of ginger, 2 large shallots blitzed into a nice creamy paste. 3 chicken thighs chopped roughly and quickly browned off, then out of the pan, the onion paste in for a few minutes. This followed by dry spices- 1tsp each of cumin, ground coriander, turmeric and paprika. 2 tbsps of tomato puree. 2 tsps of sugar, 1 of salt ( could be skipped, 300 ml chicken stock was salty enough). 0,5 tsp of chili flakes. Once all this was happily combined in the pan and smelling phenomenal, chicken went back in, chicken stock too and slowly it cooked for about 30 minutes before chopped potato and a sweet potato went in. They were not in the recipe, but I love spuds in my curry. And some cauliflower too. And peas, added towards the end. 150 ml of double cream was recommended to be added by the end, but I used coconut cream half way through.

Toasted, flaked almonds, fresh coriander and naan breads from Sainsbury’s completed the picture. Very, very good indeed.

Good Food

Gyoza, non dietary :-)

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I have a new cookbook, Tim Anderson’s “Tokyo Stories”. The first recipe that screamed “MAKE MEEEEEE!!!!” at me was the hanetsuki gyoza. Made it accordingly, but skipped the crispy”wings” made with soaked cornstarch. I was starving, so was Florek, I left it out. Gyoza itself was super tasty, Florek, who’s not crazy on any pork dish had all all of his plus 3 of mine- I was pushing it already in terms of my diet…. :-/

Anyway, 250 g of fatty minced pork from Toby’s, 80 g of very finely chopped Chinese cabbage, 4 garlic cloves and a 2cm piece of ginger, grated. A handful of chopped chives- replacement for nira, I had no idea what nira was, but google did have an idea. Seasoned with salt and white pepper. All this nicely combined and wrapped in gyoza wrappers, gently panfried, then covered and steamed for 3 minutes to make sure the pork inside was nicely cooked. Served with a simple dipping sauce made with 4 tbsps of soy sauce, 2 tbsps of rice vinegar, a splash sesame oil and – not in the recipe, but I thought ponzu would work here nicely- good splash of lemon juice.

Excellent, not too complicated and will be made again.

Eaten out

Cote.

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Florek took his girls for lunch today, to Cote, Gloucester one, not the one in Cheltenham, where they don’t care if the steak is medium or well done. I had small breakfast 4 hours before in anticipation for lunch, so by the time we got to the restaurant my stomach was yelling. Diet went aside today, I had some deep fried calamari and then a bowl of delicious mussels in a creamy sauce, packed with garlic, parsley, shallots- somebody took time to sweat them nicely. Loved every single one of them, so did Izzie, who had a plate of her own mussels.

I’m bursting with pride, when my lovely, smiling 5 year old indulges in moules mariniere and lemon sorbet. Table for Three coming up!

Good Food, Uncategorized

Spaghetti al pomodoro.

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55.3 kg, this is my current body weight, in spite of treating the diet rather as a guidance rather than following actual recipes. One thing works for sure- eating a lot less that I used to. I’ve been doing that, but still have not opened my packet of wholewheat pasta or brown rice. Normal pasta, but less, white rice, not the messy brown one.

Dinner suggestion for this evening was wholewheat pasta with tomato sauce. Great, I have no problem at all with a good tomato sauce provided it is actually A GOOD tomato sauce. I’ve been to Polish deli this morning, popped next door to the oriental store to get some gyoza wrappers( making those next week!!), some mooli and I’ve also bought a nice vine of big, red, good looking tomatoes. Started my sauce this evening by slowly frying a finely chopped shallot on olive oil, after about 2 minutes I added 2 minced garlic cloves and a small tsp of chili flakes. Onto that 3 of those big tomatoes, skinned and roughly chopped, plus a few cherry ones. A small carton of Italian passata, for the colour and texture. A small knob of butter. Diet or not, butter makes everything taste better. Seasoning. The sauce reduced slowly for about 40 minutes, finished with a handful of chopped basil. Served with spaghetti and freshly grated parmesan. Simple and satisfying. Pretty sure I had more than 70 g of pasta!

In 64 days we will be back in food heaven, in Tuscany, all is booked. We’re going back to Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, to the same villa we rented last summer. I’m pretty sure the tomatoes in Italy at the end of July will be like candy, I can’t wait to be making this again. There. With local produce.

Random Thoughts

I’m on diet.

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It’s official. Black clouds started gathering after I stepped on the scales at Mum’s and saw 57 kg. Nah, I thought, it’s wrong, plus I really am  eating all the time, when in Poland. Nothing to worry about.On return home however I stepped on our scales, slightly alarmed that the jeans I’ve bought in September, having worked on my waistline with Choda for 3 months… are getting tight. And there  was some lard hanging above  the belt. 🙁

I quickly came to the conclusion that I needed help of a dietician, as I have no will power whatsoever, I love eating, love baking and if I do nothing about the current state of affairs, I will soon see 60 kg on the scales and go up a size or 2 again. And have those big thighs I always dreaded. And a tyre around my waist, that’s already back and far too visible when I do Izzie’s hair sitting in front of the mirror on the landing.

I looked up bebio.pl, back to Choda, this time not for exercise, but to one of her dieticians. I’ve spent 20 minutes filling up different requirements- my lifestyle, likes and dislikes in the food department, set up a goal at 52 kg within 2 months and paid the fee of 99 zlotych    ( 21 pounds).

On Monday morning I received an email with the first installment of a diet designed for me. I dreaded it, but at a first look it’s not that bad. It does contain things that I already detest, after 2 days- natural yoghurt ( yuk), which tastes like a punishment for all those yummy lunches I’ve been having. Bran- the texture of a cardboard, I will be chucking it out of my list, it’s simply not edible. I can just about tolerate some of it as a part of muesli, disguised among some nuts and dried fruit, but will never buy it on its own.  Lunch suggestions, like bran fritters “fried” on dry pan will not fly, they will be replaced with Ryvita and avocado, or something that will not make me want to cry!

I am now that person that weighs her bread in the morning before toasting it, checking how calorific avocado is, honey- how much damage do I do to my diet if I sweeten this shitty natural yoghurt with it. I snack on almonds and toasted walnuts, not ideal, but lots better than crisps and munchies ( only Izzie’s Pom Bears are left in the munchies cabinet, so I’m not tempted).

Also, with all the respect to Paulina, the dietician, I will be improving the cooking methods she suggests, food is still my passion, but after a few kgs are gone, I will need to keep an eye on myself, yo yo effect does indeed suck.

So, I started yesterday at 56,8 kg and a disgusting 85 cm around my waist ( HOW did I manage that??????). The training mat is out again, Choda will be back in the front room at least twice a week. Keeping fingers crossed.

Ps. Just added the photo of my rather sad dinner. There are grains on the bottom, topped with chargrilled vegetables, cup mushrooms and torn mozzarella. The veg were to be steamed with some oil, but I grilled them and then topped with a bit of antipasti peppers from the jar; the grains were dry and awful, at least some flavoured oil helped a bit.

Then I had a lick of Izzie’s hazelnut and chocolate ice cream. Yum. My only bit of sugar in 2 days. 🙂