Marion’s. I’ve cooked it today for the second time, last time I was too hungry to bother with photos, but this evening it was so tasty ( all 3 Bankses were unanimous) that I simply must write about it. Not the fastest of stir fries, as the chicken’s double cooked, but worth the effort.

Chicken breasts ( thighs at Marion’s) were thinly sliced and marinated quickly in soy sauce and grated garlic. Sauce was prepared out of oyster sauce, a good splash of Shaoxing, dark soy, some sesame oil and a serious fat teaspoon of black pepper, this is perfectly enough as far as I’m concerned.

Chicken pieces were then tossed in cornflour and quickly panfried, then drained on the kitchen towels, I did that in 2 batches. Marion’s right, it is quite difficult to stop eating those chicken pieces, while the rest of the work is happening.

An onion, chopped quite thickly and some red pepper into the pan/wok, till a bit charred, in goes the chicken, in goes the sauce ( lovely smell of Shaoxing all over the kitchen), toss, toss, toss and it’s all ready to devour. I served it with rice, everything was eaten this evening and I was thanked profusely by the other 2 Bankses. Applause! 🙂

Robert Maklowicz cooked it in his recent episode from Dalmatia, I loved how it looked, I had to try. Anything with aubergines excites me since we live in Italia, I might plant some next year!

I’ve only made one of these, as the rest of the family were looking forward to their ragu.

I peeled one, not very big aubergine, leaving the green top, essential for it to keep the shape. I then cut it from the bottom upwards to make it look like a thick mop and plonked it into the pot of salted, boiling water for about 10 minutes. Left to drain and cool. In the meantime I’ve made a quick and delicious tzatziki; grated some cucumber, crushed a garlic clove and mashed it with some salt, finely chopped some mint from the garden and once the cucumbers let out all the water I removed it and combined all ingredients together, adding a touch more salt and olive oil.

Cooled melanzane were generously dipped in egg.

Then onto the breadcrumbs, which had also some sweet, smoked paprika in it, quite a lot, actually, not intentionally though! 🙂

And then into the hot oil for a few minutes, until crunchy and golden brown.

I found the whole thing absolutely delicious with a glass of red. Can’t wait to share with fellow melanzane lovers.

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.

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!

Those two gorgeous, fluffy dough balls left over from last night were made into pizza this lunch time. Simple and delicious, lots of tomatoes, some olives and fresh onion. I can feel my waistline expanding, as I write this, but hey…. 🙂

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! ..:-)

That was our first Christmas in the new house.

We invited Alice and Ken, who brought Caroline along and thank God for that, is all I will say! 🙂

Food wise it was a bit challenging- lots of cooking for 6 people most days, no Mariusz, no Bozenka, no sous chefs, solo io. One fussy vegetarian.

I decided not to make tons of food, like my mum always has for Christmas, I did a few classics, but opted out of trying too hard. Vino sfuso was drunk, also one good bottle of Chianti we have brought from Greve. I would have loved some sledzik, I missed my mum’s cooking, next year we will try hard and get them over here.

For Christmas Eve I’ve served some excellent barszcz (Caz loved it) with paszteciki, recipe of Robert Maklowicz. I felt zero urge to slave and make uszka, not for this crowd. Paszteciki were excellent and I’m keeping the recipe; 200 g of plain flour, 120 g of soft butter, a tbsp of sour cream, quite a serious sprinkling of salt and 2 egg yolks. All this kitchen aided and chilled in the fridge for an hour. The filling for them were porcini and cup mushrooms. Important to seal the edges with some egg white before sticking together. Baked for 20-25 mins in 180 degrees. Lovely and crumbly.

I also made “ryba po grecku”, which was enjoyed by every fish eater at the table. Some golabki with rice and mushroom filling, clementine cake with creme fraiche to finish.

Christmas Day was again all mine to prepare, the main event were turkey wraps with mushroom filling served in a creamy, luscious marsala sauce, roasted veggies, baked red cabbage, pigs in blankets. Orange creme brulee and cantucci for dessert. Grappa bottle was unexpectedly finished.

On Boxing Day we went to Trattoria Nonna Clara, lots of lasagne was eaten, I however had some wonderful chestnut pasta with duck ragu, oh yeah! A real treat!

Izzie and Caz became best of friends this Christmas, here seen enjoying some focaccia in Lucca.

Also worth mentioning are those fabulous oranges we get in Esselunga, the juice from them is pure perfection. Gino enjoyed the box. 🙂

12 months to go, but I think we will aim for The Stronie Team to be here next winter.

Last Saturday The Boaratis came over for a pre- Christmas get-together, as they will be flying off to America for Christmas. They are mostly non meat eaters, so I thought I’d make some pierogi. I have no more twarog though, used up all my stash from the freezer, so I had to get creative. I substituted it with feta and made a batch of “Greco- Ruskie”, not too bad, but twarog really is the best option. I had some festive Ula Pedantula on youtube, big glass of water and quite enjoyed making pierogi for Molly, Enrico and the kiddos.

The other batch I filled with a combo of dried porcini mushrooms and some cup mushrooms too, these were my favourite and I’ll be making more for Christmas eve.

What made my evening were the kids, Nina, Elio and Izzie, happily stuffing their faces with my effors, eating, and helping themselves to more. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Molly brought the dessert, a lovely, creamy, simple and very well made vanilla cheesecake, plus some very posh cherries in syrup to go with it. It was very much enjoyed.

A certain Gino took to Enrico and made himself very comfortable on his lap.

It was a lovely evening!

The remaining pierogi panfried the next day made us a lovely lunch. 🙂

Steve and Ale came over to dinner on Saturday and brought along a very handsome bottle of Amarone. As is often the case, it tasted nice on the occasion, but the day after we have finished the other half of the bottle, which accompanied some Tuscan sausages, mash and … yorkies. The wine has breathed and became phenomenal. Izzie requested yorkies, I obliged, in spite of the fact that I had to scrub the oven after cooking them.

Recipe from Good Food, 70 g of plain flour, combined well with 2 whole eggs, 100 ml of milk slowly added, seasoned with s&p, cooked in very hot oil for about 20 minutes, 230 degrees.

What a wonderful marriage that was, Amarone and yorkies. To be repeated!