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.
Good Food

Mushroom ravioli with Evesham asparagus.

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The new pasta machine has arrived.  🙂

 

We’ve spent a lovely hour in the kitchen, the three of us, Florek making pasta and rolling it out, me stuffing it and cutting out, Izzie playing with flour, making mess and being happy for being included in making our dinner. Good times.

And even better result, I think I should make a 5 star category here, that really was one of the nicest pasta dishes we ever made.

Asparagus is turning up now, British, not Italian or Chilean, ours, from Cotswolds, from Evesham. Fresh, crunchy and fantastically flavoursome. I bought 2 bunches in Hayles Farm, tossed it in olive oil, seasoned lightly and chargrilled for a few minutes. The filling for ravioli was a mixture of finely chopped cup mushrooms and shallots, fried, one large cooked potato, squeezed through the ricer, some grated parmesan and some thyme from the garden, a splash of truffle oil too. Cooked ravioli I still tossed with some bacon lardons, finished with parmesan shavings, more truffle oil. Phenomenal. We might make Sundays pasta days, making it from scratch is so rewarding.

Eaten out

Eggs Benedict, smoked salmon version.

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During my very short and not well remembered career in Gordon Ramsay’s Plane Food, I served lots of these, the regular ones, with ham, their version with smoked salmon was called Eggs Royale.

We’ve spent last week in Center Parcs Longleat and finally returned for breakfast to Cafe Rouge, especially for these.  I must learn to make hollandaise and make poached eggs a regular thing, they’re absolutely delicious.

Baking

Cookie monster macarons.

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The idea from mojewypieki.com. Lots of work, but ended up with macarons that looked better than they tasted. I didn’t fill them in with nutella, as the recipe suggested, as they’d be far too sweet, mascarpone and lemon curd filling instead was used. First ever go at the royal icing, I only needed it for the eyes, made far too much, but now I know how to make it.  For the tongues- halved chocolate eggs.

Happy 3rd birthday Kiddo. 🙂

Dessert

Pistachio creme brulee.

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Postie brought 2 parcels this morning, one was the birthday present for Iz from her favourite Gadek Ron, the other my pistachio paste.  Having seen a few exciting recipes in Laduree book, an order was placed and it was delivered today. It’s very, very sweet, but also nutty and luxurious.

It is so sweet, that I only used 1 tsp of vanilla sugar for the brulees, in the recipe that normally takes 3 tbsps.  As usual, 4 egg yolks, left from making the batter for pistachio financiers- with the enthusiastic help of Izzie-

-as well as 250 ml of double cream, 75 ml of milk heated up, slowly added to creamed egg yolks with that little sugar I added. The cream and milk combo took about 3 large tbsps of pistachio paste.

The cremes baked in bain marie for 35 minutes, 140 degrees. Nutty, rich and delicious. 4 more in the fridge, waiting for Florek, who this evenings recovers in hospital from an ear surgery.  :-/

Dessert

Sicilian cannoli.

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I’ve never tasted the real thing, but as Paul Hollywood visited Palermo with a camera and munched on some cannoli, I knew the time has come to try and make them. Florek has ordered the special tubes for me a few weeks ago, so yesterday, instead of maybe colouring some eggs for Easter, I started with the cannoli. What a freaking project that was.

I used the recipe from mojewypieki, had a bit of read around a look at youtube, did my research. Husband Florek took Izzie for a walk and I got to work.

In the bowl of kitchen aid I put 250 g of plain flour, a pinch of salt, a pinch of cinnamon, 1 tsp of cocoa, 1 egg yolk, 20 g of icing sugar, 30 g of soft butter and 5 tbsps of vodka- the original recipe calls for Marsala, I had none and Bea told me to use vodka.  There is no mention of using any water to bind the pastry, I found it necessary.

I ended up with seriously thick dough, that rested for an hour and still rolling it out was a very ungrateful job. I got our old, crappy pasta machine out, immediately remembered why it’s so crappy, swore at the whole thing some more and was 5 minutes away from chucking the whole cannoli idea in the bin. And then Husband came home, approached the pasta machine with calm and patience and rolled it all for me nice and thinly. Shortly speaking- he saved the day.

The dough was cut out with a cookie cutter, folded around the tubes, stuck on top with egg white and fried in 180 degrees till brownish. After about a minute each cannolo had to be removed from the tube and put back in the oil. All easy to do, when one person rolls out the pastry, the other does the frying.

Once cooled, I piped the filling made of ricotta, which I drained off on the sieve for about an hour, mixed with some whipped cream, lemon curd and icing sugar. Flavoured and sweetened to taste the way I liked it. Finished off with raspberries, crushed pistachios and icing sugar.

Absolute revelation.

And this morning Florek ordered a new shiny pasta machine. :-)h

Good Food

Halibut with mushroom crust.

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Second time I’ve ordered halibut from Ocado, very tasty, a tad expensive though. But I figure if we’re to eat fish once a week, let it be a good fish.  I saw a nice recipe which uses pesto, but I had none and no basil to make it, what I had was a jar of “truffle pesto” from Sacla.  A nice enough condiment, the amount of truffles in it rather modest, to be frank.

I seasoned my fish, covered with a thin layer of the “pesto”, then a bit of a chestnut mushroom duxelle and a few cherry tomatoes. Into the oven, 200 degrees, 15 minutes. Served with green beans and crushed new potatoes. Nice.

Good Food

Pollo alla cacciatora.

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Ken made it last weekend, I took the recipe straight away. Had to pop out and get some red wine good enough to marinate the chicken in, but not necessary my favourite Catena cab sav, that was sitting on the rack.

I used boneless chicken thigs, so that certain people had no reason to complain. Seasoned them with salt and pepper, crushed 2 cloves of garlic and threw it all into the dish alongside some bay leaves and rosemary sprigs. Quite a lot of wine to cover the chicken, but none was wasted, as the next day we enjoyed a rich, lovely sauce. It marinated in the fridge overnight, today I took it out, drained the chicken, saving the marinade, dusted with flour and quickly pan fried together with 2 sliced cloves of garlic. Then onto the baking dish with 3 fillets of anchovy, a handful of black olives, a can of tomatoes and the marinade. Covered, baked in 180 degress for 1,5 hour filling with the house with wonderful smell.

Served with rice and asparagus( I saw British asparagus on sale already today, £4 per bunch, won’t be long now!). 🙂

Baking

Baked toffee cheesecake.

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I have to say I’m blown away by this one, I will not try to be modest, it really is one of the best cheesecakes I’ve ever made.  I saw a recipe on mojewypieki.com, but did not follow it all the way, the glaze on top is Gregg Wallace’s toffee sauce, with a pinch of sea salt.  I only had one slice of the cake- Lisa is bringing her mum over for coffee later, but I know it will not last beyond tomorrow evening. Which is fine, because the next in line in black forest cake, Florek’s request for his birthday followed by our wedding the day after.  I also have duck ragu slow cooking on the stove, lots happening in Oluta’s kitchen.

So the cake itself sits on a base made of 125 g of crushed digestive biscuits blitzed with 40 g of melted, salted butter. Salted butter really makes a difference here, I love it.  Having visited Polish deli yesterday I was able to use some great quality quark cheese, still lots left. I used 350 g of the cheese, 60 ml of double cream, 3 whole eggs, 4 tbsps of vanilla sugar ( Dorota’s recipe called for more, I thought white chocolate will do the job nicely), 100 g of melted white chocolate and a splash of vanilla extract- all this worked by kitchen aid, not for too long. According to Dorota, too much air in the cheesecake makes it rise too much in the oven.  I poured it onto the base, secured it additionally by some alu foil and baked it for about an hour in 160 degrees- in a water bath.

After it cooled I generously poured toffee sauce all over- 150 g of double cream, 75 g of brown sugar, 25 g of salted butter and a pinch of sea salt, all heated up. Finished with chopped, roasted peanuts. 10 out of 10, standing ovation and sending myself some flowers. 🙂

Good Food

Ham and mushroom pie.

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Tom Kerridge’s.

Appealing from the moment he added powdered porcini mushrooms to this shortcrust pastry. It works! It fills the kitchen with a lovely smell, adds to the flavours of the pie.

The fillings’s made of fried chestnut mushrooms, fried red onion, chopped, good quality ham, all this brought together by a thick white sauce flavoured with chicken stock and dijon mustard. Filling cooled before assembling with the pastry.  Baked in 190 degrees for about 40 minutes, served with green salad.  Very good indeed.

Baking

Blackcurrant and cream cake.

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…known as” Porzeczkowiec” on mojewypieki, where I first spotted it.  I love everything that contains blackcurrants and I happened to have a jar of  currant  jam in the pantry, so I made it yesterday. To be fair, I started the day before yesterday, I’ve made the sponge as in the recipe, totally cocked it up, wasted the time and ingredients, chucked it and yesterday made it my way. I made the sponge the way I always make it, the Bozena way( 4 eggs, 4 tbsps of plain flour, 2 tbsps of potato starch, 1 tsp of baking powder, a glass of sugar, 2 tbsps of cocoa). And it worked, as always. I cut the sponge in half, lightly drizzled cassis liqueur all over it( can’t really taste in, but it’s light and moist). Half of the 450g jar of blackcurrant jam went on the bottom layer. Then the Philadelphia layer; 200 g of soft butter with 5 tbsps of icing sugar and about 400 g of Philly and whipped into a yummy, calorific goodness. Onto the jam. The second sponge, jam. Then 500 ml of double cream- this is the big tray of cake, half of it is going to Ewa’s tomorrow- 2 tbsps of icing sugar, some vanilla paste and 4 tbsps of mascarpone whipped again. Neatly onto the jam, lots of grated chocolate on top.

Lovely cake, light and luxurious, no idea how calorific, but I’m not losing sleep over these things normally.  Will be made again.