Category Archives: Good Food

Eaten out, Good Food

First taste of Dinings

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I had a trial shift at Dinings last night.

Dinings is a place that looks like a bunker, it’s tiny, 11 tables downstairs, 6 at the sushi bar, tiny kitchen, everything is tiny. But the food……my God. It felt like coming home, although I  didn’t come for dinner ( damn! ) but for a trial. Surely thanks to the Chefs’ training at Nobu the food looked incredible and smelled just like heaven. Even the smell of  hot sake, of which I’ve never been a fan was pleasant. The smokey kitchen when tobanyaki was getting prepared- down the memory lane. But most of all the sushi. According to Fuku san, whom I’ve known from Ubon, I’ve done a good job last night, so I was pleasantly surprised with  2 small boxes of sushi to take home with me. The smell of this beautifully flavoured rice was killing me on the train back home. There was also a salad, green salad they serve with some chilli dressing with tempura prawns as big as  a small fist, the image of it is still in my head.

Well, whether I’ve done well enough to get the job I will find out when they call me.

Tick, tock..

Good Food

Friday night variety.

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Our tonight’s dinner was very simple, but what we loved about it was a variety of different flavours and textures on the table. So there were home made sausage rolls, raw sausages wrapped up in puff pastry, seasoned with fennel seeds and covered in parmesan and then baked off. There were potato wedges, spicy with cayenne pepper. There were  marinated red peppers, that I stuffed with chunks of cheddar and warmed up until the cheese melted ( next time I will close them with toothpicks, so that the cheese stayed inside), sooooo simple, but surprisingly yummy. And there was a rocket, avo and parmesan salad. And some nice English ale to go with it all. Yum.

Good Food

A slightly different take on Pesto.

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Jamie Oliver again.

Florian loves his pesto, but the traditional one, the basil, roasted pine nuts, parmesan, garlic and olive oil pesto. Actually once, when he made it himself and added far too much garlic, it was one of the best ones ever.

But today I tried something that Mr Chav calls ” Sicilian pesto”, it would be worth asking Michele what he makes of it.

No expensive pine nuts, almonds instead, some basil, parmesan, garlic, chillies- the red ones and…tomatoes. Lots of olive oil as usual, seasoning and blitz to a nice paste. It was surprisingly good, but  not as awesome as the traditional basil pesto.

But still, let’s have it…

Dessert, Good Food

My first ever panna cotta from scratch- DONE.

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As much as I’m still pissed off with Ramsay, had to put it in the title, cause I used his recipe. Simple recipe from Good Food, none of the ” reduced fat yoghurt” nonsense, just 300ml of double cream, 75 ml whole milk, 100g of sugar- a bit less I think, Florek reckons it’s just as sweet as it should be and- gelatine. If leaves, about 1,5 leaf, if sachettes, I dissolved one and used half of it. Consistency was perfect.

Gelatine dissolves first, left to await its turn, cream, milk, sugar with a good spoon of vanilla paste slowly brought to simmer. When cooled a little, I added gelatine and poured it all into my cool, new silicone thingies that are meant for baking muffins, but I want them for panna cotta.

It took them about 3 hours to set in the fridge.

The compote- Oluta happened to have  a bag of frozen raspberries in the fridge, so she chucked it in the pan with a bit of water and honey and simmered for 10 minutes. That simple. That beautiful.

Good Food, Made in Poland

Kluski z mięskiem

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One of my most favourite dishes of all times. I make them at home sometimes, but at Mum’s they taste like heaven.

The stuffing is made of beef, chicken or turkey’s meat, boiled for hours, preferably when broth was made the day before.  The meat is finely minced together with any veg or mushrooms from the broth, and seasoned.

The dough is made the same way as for kluski śląskie, the only difference is the flour, plain flour this time.  To remind; boiled potatoes squeezed through the ricer, one egg and the amount of plain flour equal to the quarter of the amount of potatoes. Worked quickly, it doesn’t like to wait around.

Unhealthy as it is, it’s served with fried słoninka. Yum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good Food, Made in Poland

Zapiekanka

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This is so unsophisticated, that it’s not even funny. Zapiekanki can be made out of many things, it’s a good way of using left over veg and stuff from the fridge. In my experience it tastes best in Poland, at Mum and Dad’s allotment, baked over the fire in an old pan.

For me the perfect zapiekanka must have 2 key ingredients; potatoes and bacon. Tonight I used potatoes, one sweet potato, some carrots, a parsnip, boiled it all and left to cool. I pan fried some pancetta cubes along with some cup mushrooms and a large red onion, as well as one sad looking pak choi ( and it does not have much to do with the fact that we’re going on holidays in 2 days and need to empty the fridge).

Cooled veggies get chopped and layered in the baking dish with the fried stuff, some grated cheese, spring onions, some dried herbs and seasoning. A drizzle of olive oil and into the oven for about 30 minutes, just to give it all a crunch and melt the cheese nicely.

Warning- it’s very filling. Lovely, simple winter supper.

Ps. It’s snowing again, BIG, good luck to Heathrow…..

Good Food

Sashimi salad, down the memory lane…

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The original sashimi salad I was hoping to come close to is one of Nobu’s signature dishes and is served with tuna.  Sadly, there was no tuna in the fish counter in My Favourite Shop today, so I went for salmon. I tried to prepare it the way the guys in Ubon did, the tataki style- well seasoned and quickly seared on all sides. The method says you should dip the fish in ice water to stop the cooking process, I didn’t and it still worked.

The dressing was my favourite back in Ubon. I found the recipe in the internet-

  • 3/4 cup of very finely chopped onion
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 3 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 2 tsp water
  • 1/2 tsp sugar
  • pinch sea salt/pinch black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp powdered mustard
  • 4 tsp grapeseed oil
  • 4 tsp sesame oil

All the ingredients are to be combined apart from the oils, which only go in once the salt has dissolved.

The salad itself is just fresh green leaves with some bean sprouts, the sliced fish placed all around and the generous amount of dressing poured all over. I served it with some veggie fried rice on the side. Florian’s plate was clean after a few minutes, which means it was good.  🙂 And pretty, thus 2 photos.

Good Food, Made in Poland

Gołąbki, Polish classic.

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I’m still enjoying being ” in between jobs” and having time to cook things I normally enjoy only  at my Mum’s, as standing in the kitchen for 2 hours is not always appealing after a day’s work.

So today it’s gołąbki- pigeons, if you like. Lots of work, but very lovely meal at the end of it.

First the stuffing; plain boiled rice, minced pork- in equal amounts, dry and quickly boiled and then chopped porcini mushrooms, 2 handfuls of them I’d say and save the liquid, it will be used in the sauce. 2-3 chopped and fried shallots,  a clove of garlic and lots of seasoning, mixed together and that’s the stuffing.

Next it’s the cabbage leaves that need to be quickly softened in boiling water , otherwise they’d be difficult to fold.  The hard bit in the middle of each leaf has to be cut flat for the same reason.

To make a gołąbek, you spread a wilted leaf flat, place some stuffing in the middle, flatted it and wrap up tight. When all done, place gołąbki in a pan bedded with some spare cabbage leaves, some olive oil and that liquid from the mushrooms. That stops them catching on the surface of the pan. Ready little things, in the pan nice and tight and then covered and slowly cooked, about an hour, check for the liquid and top up if necessary.

Last thing to do is a nice and simple tomato sauce ( although there are people like Moka who only like them in mushroom sauce) , a shallot, some garlic, fresh herbs, passata, red wine if there’s any around- there always is.

And that’s it, a pile of washing up to do while gołąbki are cooking.

Good Food

Spinach Canelloni

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One of our favourites.  A dish that even my spinach hating father ate and liked. Shockin’!!!

For the stuffing I use a bag of fresh spinach, thrown on a melted butter with some crushed garlic, quickly wilted, on that the whole ricotta, one egg, a good handful of parmesan and lots of seasoning, not forgetting the nutmeg.

I never use the ready, dry canelloni to be stuffed, I use lasagne sheets, I find them easier to play with and softer. It’s good to soften the pasta sheets in hot water for a few minutes, they are easier to roll into canelloni. While that’s happening, quickly make the bechamel – as described in Lasagne post, again plenty of nutmeg.

I like to put some easy, basic tomato sauce on the bottom of my baking dish, the dish can be made with bechamel only, but I like the contrast, so extra 5 minutes work pays off. Some passata, a bit of oregano, nothing complicated, as long as there is tomato in there.

Rolled canelloni are placed on the tomato sauce, then baked under bechamel until slightly brown. Excellent dish for any vegetarian friends.

Good Food

Fajitas

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Yummy and damn easy, thanks to the convenient corn fajitas, ready, available to buy, they just have to heated up a little.

The stuffing for mine is normally chicken, thinly chopped, tossed in fajita spices ( normally on the same shelf as all other Mexican stuff) , quickly fried up with some peppers, onions or leeks, depending what’s in the fridge, mushrooms, tomatoes,  sweetcorn and finished off with fresh coriander, well seasoned, it’s got to have a kick.

Fresh guacamole is a must; 2 ripe avos ( if not ripe, don’t bother, they won’t taste of much), a garlic clove, some lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika, all blitzed. Takes all 3 minutes. I could never understand why people buy ready guacamole.

Oh, and some freshly grated cheddar is a nice touch ! 🙂