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.
Eaten out

Second most awesome pasta I’ve ever had.

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We’ve spent a great day in Florence today. Such a different experience to the previous visit 2 years ago in summer, when the heat chased us out after 2 hours. Today we’ve been everywhere we wanted to be and went for lunch to a random trattoria on our way back from Ponte Vecchio.

I ordered tortelloni stuffed with potato and cheese with black truffle sauce and thin shavings of parmesan, it was so good, that half way through the first portion I called the waiter and asked for the second one. It was outstanding.  Sipping my wine afterwards I rated in at 9, 5 in the scale of 10, it only gives way to Marco’s ravioli with pumpkin and walnut sauce in Bagni di Lucca, which, by the way is still on the menu and I did go back this time for more.

Photo a bit crappy, taken by iPhone. Memorable meal tough.

Eaten out

Buon Natale.

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Christmas this year is very special, we’re in Tuscany, with the sheer purpose of doing  something different. No parents ( with exception of Alice ), no carp, no dumb Polish television, no cakes in huge variety. Just awesome Italian food every day. Alice and Ken took us all to a Christmas lunch today, menu, as displayed by Moka, 5 hours at the table…. Very enjoyable though. And great food. Pasta dishes as usual won my biggest approval, followed by a great chocolate fondant- served with unnecessary custard, but still great.

 

Good Food

Omotenashi Feast

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December at work has been exhausting. Everyone seems to be knackered, lacking energy and fed up. Last Sunday though we had  a few hours of true awesomeness of Dinings. A few special guests were invited and The Chief designed a 7 course menu, a great variety of dishes, flavours, textures, with  which we matched some good wines and sake. Before the guests arrived, we were treated to each of those dishes, one by one. We sat at the sushi bar for over an hour, sipping good wines and tasting. I loved it.

Two highlights for me were the Cornish oysters, which is surprising, as I’ve never been a fan. The one I tasted was topped with beluga caviar, tasted of sea and freshness.

 

Then one of the most awesome noodle dishes I’ve ever tasted. Pho noodles, bathed in some lovely broth that the Chief had on the stove for a couple of days, with a chunk of kakuni wagyu beef and some shredded leeks on top. Great flavours.

Dessert

Plum tartlet.

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Last Monday I was told I sucked at work recently, it was all as pleasant as a constipation. I have some making up to do, so I baked a tart for the Chief this evening, plus 2 small tartlets for us, to round up a nice meal.

It’s the same recipe as the one with apples from Hugh a few posts ago, but I threw some lovely plums in instead of apples, I love the textures. I gave it to Florek, started typing and was just about to ask him what he thought about it, I looked at his plate and it was empty. Guess he liked it then. 🙂

For a tart and 2 tartlets I used 150 g of soft butter, 125 g caster sugar, creamed it together, added 2 eggs, some vanilla extract, 75 g of self raising flour and as much ground almonds. Threw the sliced plums on top, some flaked almonds and baked off for 45 minutes in 180 degrees. Finished off with icing sugar. Let’s hope it will meet Chief’s approval tomorrow.

Ps. Those 2 last dishes and positive feedback on FB give new meaning to the words “comfort food”. Feeling a wee bit better now.

Good Food, Uncategorized

Prawn and avo tartar.

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On a Specials Board at work we now have a spider crab tartar, awesomely presented with some poached quail’s egg. I’m not huge on crab, but shrimps I’d eat every day if I could. I got some creamy jalapeno sauce from work last night and made a starter for us this evening. I threw the shrimps into the boiling water for a minute, chopped them up when cooled, mixed with chopped avo, chopped coriander and good amount of jalapeno sauce, seasoned well and put into the rings. Served with a crispy Ryvita thingy, just for the texture. It’s getting some good reviews on Facebook. 🙂

Good Food, Uncategorized

Knedliki, a bit of Czech in the middle of the week.

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Last time I had knedliki was years ago at home, when mum and dad went to Czech, shopping for various stuff and got them among other treats, that were difficult to get in Poland. Barbora got me a couple from her Czech deli, so this evening I made a nice, rich beef goulash, slightly spiced up with paprika and enriched with Guinness. I wanted the beef to fall apart, which it did after nearly 1,5 half of stewing, 2 onions,  a carrot and a handful of dried mushrooms did a nice job too. Knedliki themselves are quite bland, like a part- cooked bread roll, so they need a strong sauce to lift the dish. I served it with broccoli and tomato salad. Nice, warming and very filling.

Good Food

Beef tataki.

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A couple of days ago I had a chance to taste a deconstructed wagyu tataki at work. Deconstructed by Alex, who took the shallot and chives topping and made it into his own tomato and parsley salsa, plus some balsamic, which gave the dish another depth. I got some ponzu last night and made my own version this evening, not with wagyu, but with fillet. My salsa lacked parsley, but was replaced by shiso leaf instead, my new favourite flavour at work ( the spicy salmon roll is now served with kizami wasabi and shiso on the outside, I can’t get enough!). Alongside the tomatoes and shallots  I also added a bit of garlic and seasoned it with shichimi pepper.

My fillet was cooked rare, as usual for this kind of stuff, rested and then thinly sliced. Topped with the salsa and finished off with ponzu. Loving the flavours.

Good Food, Room for improvement

Chicken satay debut.

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Somebody made it on Masterchef recently and I immediately thought- I’m making it on Sunday. I asked around at work, as usual, before making something I haven’t made before. Cathal said he didn’t know, as ” he’s not fucking Dutch”, the Chief said he didn’t know, but would google it, Alex said peanut butter, coconut milk, chilli. Ah, Nick mentioned chicken stock and reducing it by half before adding peanut butter.

So I combined all those ideas and reduced the chicken stock, then added lots of peanut butter, some coconut cream, fresh chopped chilli, some brown sugar and kept on tasting and adding until I was happy with it. More chilli next time, I’m too shy with chillies most of the time.

Florek bought some nice boneless chicken thighs, which I put on skewers, together with some red pepper, onion and cup mushrooms. And grilled it. Served with curries rice and peas. Pleased! 🙂

Beverage

Espresso martini with my own, loving touch.

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I sat by my desk this afternoon, replying to emails and shopping online ( damn La Redoute!!!!) and felt like a nice cocktail. The clocks went back last night, so it got dark earlier, I wanted something strong, sweet and energising. We popped out to Waitrose to stock up on the spirits, got the Kalhua – (17 bloody pounds a bottle!!) and I produced espresso martinis.

Four measures of strong espresso coffee, 3 measures of vodka and Kalhua and 2 scoops of good vanilla ice cream, all shaken over ice and finished up with grated chocolate.  When I tasted it, it didn’t seem that strong, but beware- it gets to the head quickly.

 

 

 

Good Food

Truffle chips and extras.

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This meal was not perhaps hugely sophisticated or technically challenging, but we loved the flavours on the plate. Our favourite fillet steak, medium rare, with bearnaise sauce ( from the jar, yes).  The steak was accompanied by minted peas, not very fine, as I like the rough texture. The star of the show though- the chips. I was aiming at similar effect as Jamie Oliver’s Posh Chips, simply a generous few drops of truffle oil on the chips, once they’re roasted and then a sprinkle of parmesan. Loved it. With a glass of cold budweiser.