Category Archives: Good Food

Gnocchi with roasted squash and spinach.

Truly awesome. I found the recipe on Good Food’s website last night, I loved it right away, though it called for goat’s cheese, which I can’t stand. I replaced it with St Agur, goooooood stuff!

I roasted some butternut squash with a few shallots and a few garlic cloves, generously seasoned. I cooked gnocchi with a good handful of fresh spinach, which I have only threw  in about 20 seconds before the end. Drained, I added the gnocchi and spinach to the tin with the squash, tossed well with all the olive oil and goodness, added the crumbled cheese and served with extra freshly ground pepper and olive oil. Brilliant and so simple!

 

Stuffed poached chicken.

Dish inspired by one of the specials on the board at work. The original was served with a creamy teriyaki chanterelle sauce. I had no teriyaki, no chanterelles, but I have lovely dried mushrooms from my Mum, the best Polish forest has to offer.

I bought some good corn fed chicken, flattened and seasoned it, then stuffed with fried cup mushrooms and leeks, rolled and tied them with a string. I poached them slowly in a light sauce with chicken stock, lost of mushroom, some shallots and peppercorns. I took them out after about 30 minutes and finished the sauce with some flour, seasoned and returned the chicken rolls to the pan. I served i with some traditional Polish dumplings, recipe already in here under “Kluseczki z dziurkiem” and a simple salad with beetroot. Very nice, especially the sauce.

Placki ziemniaczane.

I don’t think I’d offend anyone if I said it’s a Polish peasant food. Cheap, all ingredients widely accessible, quite unhealthy- fried- and the whole house smells of them for hours after the washing up was done.

The Placki Master is my dad. He’s not much of a cook, but he makes mean soups and placuszki- no one makes them better. He’s generous with onion and pepper and his are always beautifully crisp on edges. Much as I tried, mine this evening were not amazing.We ate them all, regardless. I’m into The Polish Mood these days, I even looked at Rip Off Air this morning to see what a long weekend at Mum’s in September would cost.

Now, placuszki. Placuszki require a lot of grating, so not a dish a lady with pretty nails would happily produce. Raw, peeled spuds must be grated on the finest end, the amount depending on how many diners and if it’s the only course. I used about 6 large potatoes, one large onion, cracked an egg into it, 3 good tbsps of plain flour and seasoned it all with salt and lots of pepper. Placki are not a good dish for a romantic dinner for 2, as one has to fry them and serve right away, they need to be eaten fresh as well, so all a man needs, while his wench fries placki, is a paper and a beer. Which was the case with Florek, only the paper was replaced with laptop. :-).

To serve, a slightly soured cream is essential, plus some caster sugar. People normally eat them with one OR the other, I like both. I bought some Polish cream from Tesco for the occasion. Overall good, but the best Polish food is served in Stronie, end of!

A very simple Italian feast.

Missing Italy, not sure if there will be enough cash around to pop out for a week this year, so this evening I made a very simple, yet great risotto, accompanied by a simple green salad and a rustic baguette and  served it with very cold wine wine and loved every bit of it.

Risotto, as simple as they get, chopped shallot fried on butter, arborio rice added for a couple of minutes to soak it all in, then hot chicken stock, gradually poured in as well as wine wine. Some grated parmesan at the end, it hardly needed any seasoning thanks to good chicken stock. At the end I added a good handful of chopped fresh tomatoes and fresh basil and that was it. It was the simplicity that made it so tasty, I guess.

My green salad was mainly rocket, some more tomatoes, roasted pine nuts, good olive oil and good, thick balsamic, plus parmesan shavings on top. We destroyed the lot. Yum.

 

Courgette fritters.

New “Good Food” came through the door this morning, full of lovely ideas and recipes, that will be tried and soon! The fritters like that I’ve made before, from another recipe book, I did add my own touch, as usual. I made the batter out of 50 g of plain flour, 2 eggs, 50 ml of milk, then I added 2 grated courgettes, half a chopped red chilli, lots of fresh oregano and seasoned well. I fried them quickly, the only thing I would improve would be somehow making them more crispy. I served them with sweet chilli sauce with extra coriander. Nice.

Andrea Bocelli Chicken. :-)

Quite pleased with it, I must say. I had Mr Bocelli on quite loud while cooking this evening, clearly that’s why why it came out so good!  I flattened 4 small chicken breasts, seasoned them and stuffed with steamed asparagus (yum, I had some of it on it’s own while cooking, so good!), toasted pine nuts, chopped basil and some grated parmesan. I made a simple tomato sauce with some mushrooms, fresh oregano and some chilli and nicely covered those breasts in it, topped with some more parmesan and baked in the oven for about 30 minutes. Nice thing about it is  that the chicken stayed nice and moist. I think I might make it for Zatrybki in 2 weeks time.

 

Spinach and ricotta lasagne with a bonus.

I put down “Fifty Shades Darker” to get into the kitchen this afternoon and I enjoyed cooking, nearly as much I’m enjoying the book.

The standard spinach and ricotta lasagne I make is one of our favourites, today though, before I threw the spinach onto he garlicky butter, I quickly sauteed a chopped courgette and a large chunk of aubergine. Then the chopped spinach and after it wilted nicely, the whole of ricotta, a handful of grated parmesan and I seasoned it well with salt pepper and lots of nutmeg. I layered the pasta sheets generously with the filling, placed it on the baking dish with some passata in it, passata with lots of fresh oregano from the garden and extra seasoning again.

On top went my usual bechamel,  made with infused milk. It baked in 200 degrees for about 30 minutes. When out of the oven, I sprinkled some more of lovely fresh oregano I have growing in the garden. Very much enjoyed it with a glass of good red.

 

Cidery pork stew

Mea culpa, how long has it been since the last entry? Too long. Cooking tonight was a bit of an operation, I was being extra careful with every spill and hot dishes, as we’ve done the kitchen worktops yesterday. They’ve been sanded, oiled and look absolutely smashing. So I thought it would be nice to make the kind of dinner that cooks itself in the oven- a stew. The idea came from one of Alice’s magazines, I read it, didn’t copy it, but the idea stuck in my head. I roughly chopped some pork, tossed the pieces in flour and seared, then transferred to the casserole, followed by sauteed onion, carrots, parsnip, a handful of dried mushrooms and drowned it all in a bottle of good cider.  And into  the oven for 2 hours. Towards the end I threw some chopped apple, for the extra character.  Served it with bacon and leek mash. Good flavours.

Nasu Miso, baby!

This is a legend dish, even the non- vegetarian customers love it and it’s really cheap. I’ve been feeling like having the whole eggplant to myself, so I asked for some den miso sauce at work, I was given it and I enjoyed the nasu tonight. Alex showed me how to cut it neatly on both sides, so that oil could reach it throughout, 2 minutes in the deep oil on each side, then sauce on top and under the grill for a flash, to caramelise. The final touch is the sprinkle of sesame seeds.

I think my aubergine tonight was a bit firmer than those customers have with a spoon at work, but to be honest I found the texture nicer that way! 10 out of 10.

Mushroom ravioli with sage butter.

It’s been too long since we teamed up in the kitchen, Florek and I, too long since a nice, fresh pasta dish was made. So today we made mushroom ravioli. The stuffing consisted of chopped and sauteed chestnut mushrooms, red onion, ricotta, a bit of parmesan and one last remaining black truffle purchased at Pisa airport after Christmas. All nicely seasoned, lots of pepper. Florek made his awesome pasta, I worked the rest, made a simple sage butter and we enjoyed it thoroughly, while watching ” Due Date”- nowhere near as good as “Hangover”.

Excellent. 🙂