All posts by Ola

I love eating. Even more than I love cooking. My Mum got this thing into me, being a working woman with two kids and still managing to put a two course dinner on the table for us every day. My meals are a lot simpler, I cook for two, with Florian being my most devoted fan and audience. There is nothing more rewarding than a nicely turned out meal. There is nothing more enjoyable that a great plate of food in a decent restaurant with a glass of great red in a nice company. Hence this blog, to share ideas and joy of good food. Bon Appetit.
Made in Poland

Best jagodzianka ever.

Leave a comment

Last week Izzie and I were in Poland, visiting mum, eating too many delicious things. While in Klodzko, I insisted on visiting my favourite bakery, where I have once eaten the best doughnuts ever, filled with advocaat, where I’ve eaten napoleonka so good, that I immediately wanted to learn how to make it. Maslanka’s is not a cheap spot, which my mum pointed out too many times, in spite of the fact that I paid for all the goods.

There were no doughnuts today, the saleswoman explained they will come back in autumn, but, she said, today was The National Jagodzianka Day and so they had them in abundance. I got 4 of them and a few other bits and pieces.

Not sure whether it was because I didn’t have them in a long time, or maybe they were simply spectacular, those jagodzianki were the best thing I have eaten within a week in Poland. I couldn’t honestly say it out loud in front of mum, who cooked for us all week, plus she kept on going on about how hers were better and how 15PLN for a jagodzianka is a bleeding robbery. Izzie and I scoffed them down panting with pleasure!!!!

Featured image taken by Izzie.

Made in Torcigliano

Home made BBQ sauce.

Leave a comment

Internet is a wonderful tool sometimes. I had some pork in the oven, as we didn’t have pulled pork in too long, but I had no BBQ sauce to finish it or to serve it with. And we were not supposed to be leaving the house today, we were promised a new asphalt on the drive – but as it was raining, they will do it tomorrow, hopefully.

So I looked up how to make a simple and delicious BBQ sauce and I was stunned how easy and delicious it was. That’s why I’m keeping the recipe!

In my small KA food processor I blended about 160g of brown sugar, 125g of ketchup, about 60ml of white wine vinegar( red was recommended, I had none), 60ml of water, a good splash of worcester sauce, some mustard- traditional, I had no powdered one. Some hot paprika, salt and pepper. I simmered it for maybe 15 minutes and when I tasted it I was surprised at how good it was and it needed nothing else!

It went down a storm with our pulled pork burgers, the cucumbers seen on the photo have grown on the patio. 🙂 A glass of Italian Cabernet was enjoyed alongside.

Baking

Torta morbida ricotta e pere.

Leave a comment

Some very sad pears were sitting in the fruit bowl, so I looked up Giallo Zafferano and turned them into a lovely, light and moist cake. Unusual for me, to bake without butter, but instead I used a tub of ricotta.

First thing, the pears were peeled and chopped into small cubes, drizzled with some lemon juice and set aside. KA was busy whipping 250 tub of ricotta together with 130g of sugar, plus some vanilla sugar( we’re off to Poland in 2 days, will be stocking up on essentials!), to this went 3 whole eggs, one by one, a generous amount of lemon zest, 16g pack of powdered yeast and finally 220 g of flour. All this nicely combined together, pears in and into the lined baking tray. It baked in 180 degrees for over an hour. Once baked, finished with icing sugar. Might take a chunk over to the neighbours. 🙂

Good Food

Melanzane parmigiana.

Leave a comment

Inspired by Vincenzo’s plate, but also by my deep affection for this lovely cheap and versatile veg, which I fell in love with in early days of living in Italia.

We’re enjoying a few child free days, the child is having some quality time in Versilia with Lara, Ilan and Lydia, so this evening there was a bottle of a rather excellent Bolgheri and the said parmigiana.

I started with the tomato sauce, again, Vincenzo’s way, so a large onion and 2 carrots blitzed into a creamy pulp with some olive oil, panfried for 10 minutes, before some chili flakes went in and a bottle of passata. Cooked under the lid for about 40 minutes, fresh basil leaves added, seasoned with salt and brown sugar.

Aubergine were cut into 1 cm slices, salted and left to sweat. Then patted with kitchen towel, dusted with flour and fried until golden brown. Next time I will choose a wider pan for frying, it took bloody forever, luckily I had Maneskin to keep me entertained.

Once the aubergines were all fried and rested on the paper towels, I could put the parmigiana together. Tomato sauce on the bottom, melanzane, tomato sauce, fresh basil leaves, chopped mozarella, some grated pecorino. Melanzane again, sauce, basil, cheeses.

I did 3 layers, finished with tomato sauce, covered with alu foil and into the oven for 30 mins in 180 degrees. Foil off, a generous dusting of parmesan, 10 more minutes.

Once baked I let it rest for a good 15 minutes before cutting and serving. An excellent dish, basta cosi.

Made in Torcigliano

Festa Dell’Polpo.

Leave a comment

Festa della Repubblica yesterday, it would have been a day off for everyone, if it didn’t happen to be Sunday. But we had guests for lunch and ended up spending a beautiful day with Laura, Dennis and Nadia and Cristian – it is priceless to have great neighbours!

Grilled octopus was my choice for our main course. Sometime ago Dennis cooked some for us before Christmas, it was spectacular, yesterday we made it even better. The beast was from Garfagnana, Dennis chucked it into the pot of boiling water with 3 bay leaves in it, no salt, having initially dipped it in 4 times “for shock effect”. It cooked for 30-40 mins, until the fork went into it easily, then the pot was taken off the heat and left to cool with its contents for about 3 hours. Then it was chopped up, seasoned with salt, pepper and lime juice and was ready to grill.

We served it on a delicious bed of broad bean puree, made with some fried aubergine and onions too and also grilled asparagus. Phenomenal plate of food, it tasted as good as it looked.

Good Food

Beef, mushroom and ginger stir fry.

Leave a comment

Marion’s. Simple, delicious, no fancy ingredients. It was all eaten last night and thoroughly enjoyed by all 3 of us.

I had 2 pieces of very decent speak from Esse, which I have sliced thinly and marinated for about an hour in some soy sauce, sesame oil, a sprinkling of baking soda and cornflour. Chopped up my white onion, lots of ginger and 3 cloves of garlic. Made a sauce out of soy, oyster sauce, dark soy, a touch of white vinegar, some sugar and sesame oil. The rice was ready and waiting under the lid. Aromatics into the wok for a couple of minutes, mushrooms in, 3-4 minutes, then the beef, after a couple of minutes the sauce and it was ready to serve. Finished with sesame seeds and spring onions. An excellent end to a productive day in the kitchen.

I have made my third batch of strawberry jam, baked a sourdough, but this time half of the flour was manitoba, half was integrale. I have to say that on the day it was baked it was fantastic, the next day, toasted, was ok, no fireworks. I also baked some Danish pastries yesterday, as on Tuesdays Izzie has has her Italian buddy over in the afternoon. It’s been a good, foodie day!

Made in Torcigliano

Strawberry jam, debut.

Leave a comment

One has arrived at the point in one’s life, when one is ready to start making jam. 🙂 Ha!!

Our last shopping trip to Nice resulted in bringing( among shit loads of other foodie stuff) some blackcurrant jam, for the sole purpose of making my favourite cake, but also some raspberry confiture, which Izzie has destroyed within a couple of days. The strawberry season is slowly coming to an end, what we grow in the garden is nowhere near enough for jam making, not this year anyway, so I got 3 packets in Esse yesterday, got some Fruttapec and made some jam this morning, for the first time in my life. Hopefully not the last too. I really enjoyed making it.

I started with sterilising a few jars, washed, they went into the oven for 10 minutes at 180 degrees, while the lids sat in boiling water the same amount of time.

I took my time cooking down 1,5 kg of strawberries. When they were mostly all dissolved, but some pieces left for texture, I added 300g of sugar together with 1,5 packets of Fruttapec, I weighed it all, can’t be too sure you’re getting stuff right when making something for the first time.

Cooked and stirred the mixture for about 4 minutes, then divided it between my jars waiting on the side, screwed the lids on and turned the jars upside down for about an hour, before setting them straight up.

Once the stuff gets tasted and tested by all the Bankses, ideally on top of a wonderful toast, I might think of purchasing some jars and getting on with filling up a shelf in the pantry. Onwards and upwards!

Good Food, Made in Torcigliano

Calzone.

Leave a comment

Last Saturday at Casa Boarati( casa nuova!) we have been treated to some lovely food again. It was lovingly prepared in their new kitchen, with fire burning, while vino was being enjoyed and conversation was flowing together with the said vino. One of the courses were small calzone made my Enrico, with Molly’s filling of spinach and ricotta. The dough was beautifully thin and crispy, I wish I could have had more, but there was fresh tagliatelle being made with veggie ragu, so I didn’t pig as much as I wanted.:-)

But I asked Enrico for recipe and made my first calzone today. Started in the morning, made a wonderful dough, far too much of it, which is why we will have pizza for lunch tomorrow, I saved some dough in the fridge. So, after Enrico, I used 550g of manitoba flour, 150g of semola di grano duro, fresh yeast 5g, some salt, some olive oil. KA did the kneading, then I stretched and folded it twice every 30 mins. Left to prove for about 5 hours- it’s grown beautifully, then, before we had to go to school for Izzie, I shaped the dough into 5 handsome balls to rest further.

Quickly pan fried some onion, red pepper, aubergine, spicy sausage- not spicy enough- and when we came back from school we could get cracking.

Having watched some videos on calzone last night I used some ricotta as well as mozarella and tomato sauce. Sun dried tomatoes were brilliant. What it needed and next time I will be ready, was some heat, some chili, either flakes or fresh. Maybe some olives, black ones. Lots of room to play and play I shall!

Good Food

Farro e limoni.

Leave a comment

Farro has been bought and it was cooked and enjoyed yesterday. And it will be eaten often; research has been done, it is very good for you, it is tasty and it is versatile.

I wanted a nice, simple salad for lunch, so after a good rinse I added my farro into a pot of salted, boiling water and cooked for about 30 mins until it was soft, but still had a bit of a bite. Cooked it like pasta, in Molly’s words.

To this I added some cooked broccoli, green beans, fresh cherry tomatoes, a shallot, some spring onions, sweetcorn,some pecan nuts, seasoned with salt and pepper and generously drizzled with that fabulous olive oil from Lara. A sprinkling of parmesan was a bit of afterthought, but extra flavour nevertheless.

It was enjoyed by myself and Florek, who said he wouldn’t have it every day, but he liked it enough.

While enjoying an evening glass of sangiovese riserva I took out the remains of the salad out of the fridge and had some still, even though I wasn’t at all hungry!

Then, at school in the afternoon I was given a bag of homegrown lemons by Steve. I gave him a chunk of my carrot cake last week, for which I use candied orange peel. He said I should try making candied lemon peel and that he could help sourcing the best lemons. I didn’t need any more encouragement and the wonderfully fragrant peel has been soaking since last night. To be continued! ..:-)