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.
Dessert

Season for ice cream.

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My Brother From Another Mother Darek is visiting from the land of Poland, along with his lovely wife Beata.  Food is a touch more sophisticated  and always followed by dessert, rather than just a cup of tea.  A dupa rosnie, as they say in Poland. 🙂

After the success of green tea ice cream from mojewypieki.com, followed by the success of the not that great batch of that very flavour, which I then turned into strawberry ice cream, by just chucking lots of strawberry coulis into it and finding it rather lovely, I made lemon meringue ice cream.  Recipe as before, 200 g of sweetened condensed milk, 200 ml of double cream whipped into creamy dream by kitchen aid, a juice of 1 lemon and a zest of it added, plus about 2 tsps of lemon curd. I didn’t want that lemon flavour to  be shy,  so I think next time it might be yuzu. Finally, 2 crushed in meringues, next time I’ll double it, it makes a great little texture contrast on the palate.

This evening however we had tarte tatin, so I made vanilla ice cream, which turned out to be good enough for Darek to lick the dish off, the first ever ice cream that went within one evening.  Again, 200 g of condensed milk, 200 ml of the cream, lots of vanilla paste. Raging freaking success. 🙂

 

Made in Poland

Buchty drozdzowe, steamed yeasty buns.

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There are dishes from my Mum’s repertoire that I sometimes crave so badly, I give her a call straight away and ask for a recipe.  While reading the 5th installment of “Jezycjada” I came across buchty and I knew the yeast in my fridge will be put to work today.  Mum gave me the method, I reduced everything by half, as only cooking for myself and Izzie this week- the head of our family is in America, dining on a rather different type of food.

So for 9 of the buns I used 200 g of plain flour, 12 g of fresh yeast, 125 ml of warm milk and a pinch of salt- all that quickly worked in KA and left to prove for 15-20 minutes. An egg yolk whipped with 25 g of sugar( half and half with vanilla sugar, smells great), this added to the risen dough alongside 25 g of melted butter. KA worked the dough for a further few minutes, then it went to the oven for about 50 minutes. When I say to the oven, I tend to use it as a proving drawer too, 30 degrees.

After the dough doubled in size I knocked it down and rolled out on a floured surface, then cut out small balls and left those to prove again in a warm oven. Procedure a bit like doughnuts. Then I prepared a large saucepan with a linen cloth on it, a shoestring helped to make sure it does the job. I steamed the risen buns for about 6 minutes. Served them like Mum does- with lightly whipped cream and berries. When in Poland and in season, wild blueberries are money for this dish, I had to do with fruit from Co Op.

Izzie said “cake !” when she was served the bun, but ate it all, her mum destroyed 7. A dupa rosnie! 🙂

Baking

Michel Roux’s Macaroons.

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Florek bought me a book by Michel  Roux called “Eggs”, a nice little book that changes my idea of what a good crepe should be, how to posh up scrambled eggs, a few good desserts that I’ll surely try etc.  And a recipe for macaroons,  which was about a quarter of the length of the one I normally use. I read it with disbelief, I thought it was far too simple; no Italian meringue, an ordinary one instead. No drying time. No weighing egg whites. But for scientific purposes I had to give it a go, especially having some leftover blackcurrant curd. So I did. It was a refreshing method, but I’ll be sticking with more fancy Italian meringue. It seems to make the mixture a lot more stable and the texture of a ready macaroon thicker, more enjoyable to eat. Not to mention that the absolute majority of them cracked in the oven, while with another method it’s a sad few that do it.  Having said that, we’ve just had 5 between us with Izzie, who now says “more cake please”, so they will certainly not go to waste.

I used 180 g of icing sugar, 100 g of ground almonds, 3 egg whites which I whipped with 40 g of sugar, added food colouring and that was all.  Piped them onto the trays and shoved into the oven warmed up to 160 degrees. Michel recommends baking them for 7 minutes, mine were not baked after 7 minutes, mine took about 11.

Nice little experiment, but next time back to fancy stuff. 🙂

Dessert

Blackcurrant mousse cake.

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The genius, that is Dorota, the creator of mojewypieki.com has hit again. Sometimes she posts stuff that I have one look at and I know I must make it. Her Delice Au Cassis was one of them. I love blackcurrants and I happen to have quite a stash of them in the freezer, so there was no excuse, had to make it.

Genoise sponge to start with; 2 whole eggs in room temperature beaten into pale fluffiness with 62 g of sugar, 13 g of melted and cooled butter added slowly alongside 62 g of plain flour. All combined gently and baked for about 25 minutes in 175 degrees. When cooled, sliced in half horizontally and moistened with creme de cassis liqueur.

The mousse. So good, so light, fruity and intense, I love it. 200 g of blackcurrants quickly cooked with a splash of water, passed through a sieve. 3 gelatine leaves soaked well and then added to the sieved puree, that needed warming up in order to make gelatine work.

Then Italian meringue, like for the macaroons. 95 g of sugar with 20 ml of water made me a nice sugar syrup, that cooked until in reached 118 degrees, then it was slowly added to a meringue made in the KA out of 2 egg whites and 15 g of sugar. The meringue was worked for about 5 minutes until cool, then the puree+ gelatine went in and also 75 ml of whipped cream.  All this onto the sponge and into the fridge.

The final, stunning, touch, was a cassis jelly. 75 ml of creme de cassis gently warmed up, 1 soaked gelatine leaf added, 15 g of sugar and that’s that. Once cold and about to start setting- onto the set mousse.

Absolutely love it. Five stars! 🙂

Dessert

Summer mousse cake.

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Another great one from mojewypieki.com. Not too complicated, a little patience essential though, with all the waiting to layers to set. But I managed, in spite of being famous for my lack of this very virtue. Lisa and Andy came for dinner, it was eaten, enjoyed and will be made again.

First,  a nice chocolate sponge. 50 g of dark chocolate, melted, 2  eggs, whites whipped well, yolks waiting on the side. 50 g of soft butter creamed with 50 g of sugar. Chocolate poured in, yolks one by one added. A touch of salt, 50 g of plain flour, 1/2 tsp of baking powder all in. It baked in 180 degrees for about 12 minutes in my super clean oven- a lovely chap came over on Friday and for 50 quid turned my oven into a shiny, sparkling beauty. 🙂

The white chocolate mousse part is the one for the patient people. 180 ml of milk warmed up with vanilla paste, 300 g of broken white chocolate in, all stirred till dissolved. 2,5 gelatine leaves to keep it together. I didn’t wait long enough for it all to set enough to be poured out, so I ended up pouring what escaped from the tin onto the plate back, sounds complicated, yes, but it is doable. Once that’s done and safely setting, the strawberry layer goes on top. About 600-700 g of strawberries blitzed and warmed up, so that a strawberry jelly, dry, as in the packet could nicely dissolve. Once cooled, strawberry mixture goes on top and rests in the fridge till the next day.

It’s a great looking dessert, tastes fresh and lovely, eats easily, in spite of 300 g of white chocolate. Very happy with it.

Good Food

Confit duck leg with braised cabbage.

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I’ve been thinking of making the duck this way since having it in Wine and Sausage, local pub in W’combe a few weeks ago. It was surprisingly good for pub food. The reason it took me so long is that I’m the only fan of duck in our house, Iz is too small to appreciate it and Florian just doesn’t like it- frustrating. Ocado sells 2 duck legs per packet, decently priced unlike the breasts, so I bought some and made it today, for myself, Florian’s had a chicken kiev.

Lots of recipes are available for a confit beginner, I went with Raymond Blanc, who would know if not a Frenchman. So last night the legs got a nice rubbing of salt, pepper, garlic, fresh thyme and bay leaves and spent the night in the fridge, covered, marinating away. Now, the recipe says the marinade should be washed off and the legs patted dry. I didn’t stick them until the running water, I thought the amount of salt I used is not that great. So I brushed it all off and placed in the casserole dish, then covered with melted duck fat, at the temperature of 85 degrees, as Raymond recommends. It would have worked better if I had more of that fat, as they should have been submerged in it, but they weren’t, so I kept on turning them every now and then, within nearly 3 hours they were in the oven, uncovered in 150 degrees.

With the duck I fancied some braised cabbage. Delia’s recipe appealed to me most and what’s really awesome, my own Florian, much against cabbage in general, has had his kiev, dauphinoise and cabbage and he loved it. Creamy, he said, flavoursome, great combination. Delia’s cabbage is a keeper, maybe a bit weird to smell in the kitchen in summer, but I’ll happily make it around Christmas. Finely shredded, alongside an apple a shallot and a  garlic clove. Nicely spiced up with cinnamon, nutmeg, lots of brown sugar, salt and pepper.  A good splash of white wine vinegar, all this tossed together well , a know of butter on the top and into the oven, covered,150 degrees, for 2 hours.  It’s superb. 🙂

Obviously, with dauphinoise on the side, it is not the lightest and healthiest meal ever, mint tea to follow, but every now and then it is flavour above the calories. Amen.

Dessert

Green tea ice cream( yeeesss!!).

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I never make ice cream. I don’t have the machine, but I was really impressed when Aska brought hers over last year and whipped up a batch of awesome blueberry and lime ice cream. And then I stumbled upon this recipe on mojewypieki.com and straight away went to the kitchen. I had all I needed and 10 minutes later the ice cream mixture was shoved into the freezer. So easy. 200 g of sweetened condensed milk, 200 ml of double cream whipped together till thick. About 2 tbsps of matcha added, but it’s good to add and taste, as not everyone likes it that much. I do, so I kept on adding. Florek’s just said it’s very rich, but that didn’t stop him finishing his bowl.

The strawberries underneath are from Hayles Farm, not far off Winchcombe, we picked them ourselves. I had to clean 3 pairs of shoes from all the mud afterwards, but they taste far better than the ones from supermarket.  Yummy. 🙂

Good Food

Asparagus risotto with monkfish.

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One more from Waitrose magazine.  British asparagus still available, still crisp and delicious.  New thing is thyme and lemon butter, that the monkfish was baptised in- fresh thyme leaves from the garden, a clove of garlic, some lemon zest all mashed into a know of butter.  Risotto done usual way, but with no wine this time, just good chicken stock, asparagus in pieces thrown towards the end of adding the stock. Lots and lots of freshly grated parmigiano.

Monkfish panfried separately with that lovely butter  crowned the risotto beautifully. Not a grain of rice left on our plates. 🙂

Good Food

Pea and pancetta croquetas with truffle mayo.

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From Waitrose magazine. I like croquetas a lot, so this combination of ingredients appealed to me immediately. And I had everything in the fridge, so it was an easy choice for supper tonight.

First, 250 ml of milk got warmed up and infused with peppercorns, nutmeg and – bay leaf- which I didn’t use, due to torrential rain and unwillingness to get wet. A shallot and a garlic clove chopped and fried on butter, a splash of milk added and all cooked down for a few minutes. In another pan finely chopped pancetta was happily sizzling away, about 50 g of it. Then a bit of butter in, to make it all lighter and healthier, 40 g of plain flour and a lovely golden roux happened. In goes the infused milk bit by bit and at the end the peas mixture, roughly blitzed, but  not too finely, it’s nice to taste the whole pea too. Seasoned, a handful of  chopped coriander added( parsley in the recipe, but I hardly ever buy parsley), then chilled for 2 hours.  Afterwards it’s as always- flour, egg, panko and into the oil.

Dipping sauce this evening was truffle mayo, which might be sensational when made from scratch, also with the use of white truffle paste. I used jarred mayo, soaked porcini mushrooms and a splash of truffle oil, plus salt and pepper, and blitzed into smoothness.

Loved it. It made 8 croquetas and we ate them all. To be made again. 🙂

Baking

Chocolate and coffee macaroons.

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I still have a headache after making those.  I thought this morning that if I want to have a go at making them for a living, I better get practising.  Made the shells the same method as always, but instead of 150 g of ground almonds I used 105, the remaining 45 g were ground hazelnuts. And no food colourant, 115 g of icing sugar, 35 g of cocoa.

It’s the freaking filling that was a pain in the butt. If I kept it simple, mascarpone + very strong instant coffee, it might have worked hours ago. But I diluted it with Baileys and spent forever waiting for it to thicken. It didn’t.  Gelatine didn’t help.  Freezer didn’t freaking help. At last, the cornflour did, but before I discovered it did, I was heading for the fridge determined to send it all down the bog, if still runny.

It will be stressful, having to make them perfect for a customer, but I will perfect macaroons. Is the plan.