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.

Halibut with mushroom crust.

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.

Pollo alla cacciatora.

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!). 🙂

Baked toffee cheesecake.

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. 🙂

Ham and mushroom pie.

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.

Blackcurrant and cream cake.

…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.

Orange macarons.

…with a smear of ganache and a ganache centre. Originally I thought I’d make orange and cocoa shells and orange filling, but my orange shells turned out nearly perfect this afternoon, so I just filled them in and they’re disappearing rather quickly.  Simple filling- mascarpone, orange curd (Waitrose) and orange zest. Kept on adding the curd to make the filling citrusy and quite sharp. The little ganache addition in the centre is a nice surprise for the palate. Thumbs up.

Tinga de pollo.

By far my most favourite of all taco fillings, since my Mexican craze began.  Chicken tinga tacos were the first dish brought to the table when we dined in Wahaca and it blew me away. I made it 4-5 times since, but tonight I think I hit the spot. Previously I used the mixture of recipes from foodnetwork.com and others, I consulted Tommi’s book of course too.  I once poached the chicken breasts and used the stock to make the sauce, which is apparently The Right Tinga Way, I cooked the thigs in the sauce too, but today I used a shop bought roasted chicken thighs, made the sauce the way I like it and I thought it rocked. Chicken breasts don’t excite me, I love thighs, but I never roast the whole chicken, as my husband-to-be hates meat on the bone(!!!!!!!!!).  Luckily Waitrose and Co-Op sell very tasty roast chicken thighs and that’s what I’ll be sticking with from now on. Dustin too is a dog for roast bird, he will approve!

For the sauce I gently fry a shallot or a red onion, 2-3 crushed cloves of garlic, a chili, then chuck a can of plum tomatoes in, some chicken stock, season well with salt, pepper, brown sugar, 2-3 tsps of chipotle paste, some liquid smoke, fresh oregano and simmer for up to 20 minutes to reduce and thicken it.  Chopped roast chicken goes in, lots of coriander in the end. This evening I stood by the pan and licked the spoon. What I love about it is the combination with good red wine, the palate just goes nuts!

Good chunky guacamole would be grand here, but my avos are slightly, ekhm, crunchy, so tonight it was tomato salsa with lots of lime juice- another one that enjoys a renaissance in my cooking.

Fab. 🙂

Sopa seca.

“Dry soup”, from “Mexican Food at Home”, Florek bought for me. When Tommi made it on telly it looked very appealing, so I had to try. It didn’t wow us though. I really liked the idea of frying my vermicelli before placing them in the sauce to rehydrate.

That was fun. The recipe didn’t specify whether the final texture should be slightly crunchy or should the pasta be left in the sauce until completely soft. I left mine a bit crunchy and rather liked it that way.

The rich tomato sauce ; a shallot, a garlic clove and 1 birds eye chili were gently fried. A can of plum tomatoes added, salt, pepper, allspice, brown sugar, a sprig of thyme and 2 bay leaves, gently cooked down for 20 minutes. Then a mug of chicken stock added and 2 tsps of capers- new for me too, I never use capers in my cooking, but absolutely adore them in the steak tartare they serve in Brasserie Blanc. The last thing- the sauce got blitzed into smoothness, the vermicelly nests placed in to take all the flavours in.  There should be dollop of sour cream on top, which I forgot to buy, my shaved cheese was Grana Padano, not Pecorino, but I was generous with coriander. It tasted nice, nothing wrong with the flavours, but not astounding.

Back to the book, which, by the way is one of the best cook books on my shelf, it’s a good read alongside the recipes.

Ham and cheese empanadas.

I’m still into Mexican food big time. Every now and then I manage to catch Thomasina Miers of Food Network doing something exciting and that was the case with these empanadas.  I’ve never tasted an authentic Mexican empanada, but what I made this evening tasted a bit British, apart from a slight chili kick.  The filling was simple, but delicious. Chopped ham, grated cheddar, some spring onion, dijon mustard, mayo, salt and pepper, a small red chili. Wrapped in all – butter puff pastry, brushed with egg yolk and baked till dark golden brown.  Enjoyed with green salad and tenderstem broccoli.  Excellent, filling, simple.

Venison curry and naan bread from scratch.

Saturday Kitchen gave me this idea for a Sunday evening meal, plus I happened to have some venison in the freezer. My neighbour Dave gave me some, as he hunts and fishes, but doesn’t seem to have an idea about cooking meat or fish, I think he simply chucks it at his wife and that’s that.  The venison he gave me must have come from some ancient animal, cause although I cooked it for nearly 2 hours in small pieces it was still rather tough- the weakest link in the whole meal, which is a shame, it should have been a star of it.  But the reason this plate of food is being written about is my naan. I forgot to buy it, never made it before, so I thought, it is time to have a go at it.  And it was brilliant. I’m pretty confident I will not be buying naan again, when there’s curry, there will be proper naan from now on.

Easy to make; 50 g of Greek style  yoghurt( grams, not ml), 90 ml of milk, 250 g of plain flour, 0,5 tsp of baking powder and 2 tbps of oil. All this kitchen aided until combined, then left to rest for an hour. After an hour 2 minced garlic cloves and lots of fresh coriander worked in, then rolled out and cut into  about 5 medium size breads. I have no special naan pan, but pancake pan did the great job. About 3-4 minutes on each side, dry pan, medium heat. They were lovely, even Izzie had some.  Will play with more flavours, cumin seeds next, methinks. 20170226_180133