Neither is good butcher.  The lamb I get from him is always fabulous, yesterday I got a piece of pork shoulder. Made a nice, thick, Polish sauce on it, served it with shop bought gnocchi, we ate the lot, but I saved some for Izzie, very curious if she likes it.

My pork is cut into chunks, quickly browned with 2 shallots, then stewed slowly for 1,5-2 hours in chicken stock, liquid topped up every now and then. Some porcini mushrooms enhanced the flavour, chopped carrot a red pepper made it thicker and sweeter. Finished with some flour and more seasoning. Served with French beans. Yum.

For weeks I’ve been craving Krispy Kremes, those with custard and chocolate. Fortunately the nearest place we can get them is Tesco in Ch’ham, close to exactly nowhere, plus they’re quite expensive. So I thought maybe it is time for me to learn to make yeasty dough ( ciasto drozdzowe), as every respectable Polish cook/baker must have it in their repertoire. My Mum makes it well, but she makes it  in a traditional way, kneading by hand. I have a Kitchen Aid, so don’t have to, the hook does all the job.

The recipe I picked is again from the excellent mojewypieki.com, Dorota’s oldest and most trusted doughnuts recipe. Hers was for 40 pieces, I used a third and still managed to make 17. I gave a few to Keeva the neighbour, when passing on her parcels, we’d never manage to eat them all and her daughters like doughnuts, so- nothing wasted and good neighbourly relationship sustained.

I used 333 g of plain flour, 17 g of fresh yeast, 40 g of sugar, 170 ml of milk, 2 egg yolks, 33 g of melted butter, a splash of whisky ( that prevents the dough from taking in too much fat when frying), a zest from half a lemon and a pinch of salt. First I made zaczyn out of some of the flour, all the yeast, some warm milk and some sugar- all those from the ready weighed ingredients, nothing extra. Mixed it all and left covered for about 20 minutes until frothed up, yeasties have been busy. 🙂 Added that to the rest of the ingredients waiting in the bowl of KA, attached the hook and let it roll for about 12 minutes. Then covered and left in a warm place for 1,5 hour, until more than doubled in size. Then knocked it down, formed small doughnuts with a cookie cutter- I didn’t want the giant ones, was also worried if they’d cook. Then again left them to prove till doubled in size and proceeded to fry them in veg oil heated up to 175 degrees. It’s a quick process and very enjoyable, as the beauties were very light and nicely risen, I only used a little skewer to flip them.

The only jam I had was  a strawberry one, next time I’ll use either raspberry or maybe some lemon curd, I’m thinking, either way will be investing in a proper syringe to stuff them with. One day I’ll use custard and that will be tricky to pour into the doughnuts.

Final touch was a bit of maple glaze and they were ready. I was super happy when I cut through the first one, it was like a cloud. Dorota woman is a genius. Craving satisfied. 🙂

I saw the recipe online in GF and immediately wanted to try. Pulled pork is nice, but takes long to make, plus it makes me feel a bit guilty- what’s the point in sweating on the floor with Chodakowska and then munching on a pig.

Chicken was fun to make and not too long. I had boneless thighs, which I seasoned and rubbed with chipotle paste.  Then made a marinade with more chipotle, some bbq sauce, small carton of passata, some chopped shallot and a splash of water.  My chicken was placed in a baking dish all nice and cosy,  covered with marinade and it wnet to the oven for an hour in 160 degrees, under alu foil.  After an hour the foil went and the temperature up to 200 for another 20 minutes.  The sauce reduced nicely, chicken fell apart under the forks, mixed with the sauce was excellent.

Served with coleslaw and an avocado salsa- by the recipe too, but I found it too strong, it nearly killed the chicken in that tortilla. Guacamole would have been better I think. But still very pleased with the whole thing.

I recently purchased some fresh and fragrant Chinese 5 Spice, needed it to make something from 15 minute meals. I used it today to make a pork stir fry, turned out to be particularly lovely, so it landed here. Very difficult to make an enticing photo of a stir fry though.

Pork fillet, thinly sliced, tossed in a mixture of beaten egg, 2 tsps of 5 spice, same amount of cornflour and brown sugar.  Once quickly fried on the wok, it got removed, mixed veggies fried- a shallot, a carrot, some asparagus, green peas, bell pepper, 2 crushed cloves of garlic. Then the cooked rice. Then pork back in. Lovely flavour, which I sexed up with soy sauce and sesame oil. Yum yum.