Friday 28 March 2014

Marinated herring - Polish way

My father-in-law is coming today to pay us a visit. It is going to the first time he is coming around to see where we live and I decided to cook for him a truly Polish food (so keep an eye for some Polish recipes popping up over the next few days). My wedding was in Poland and my mum did an amazing job of cooking for all my guests and one thing she did remember from the very busy weekend of cooking and entertaining was my father-in-law love of herring. So I decided to prepare for him herrings Polish way. The recipe is from my mum and I have to say they always taste amazing. I hope that I will manage to convince some of you to try them. They are bit different from what you get in the UK ready of the shelf (less sour).

Polish herrings from Lisner
You will need to try and find a Polish section in your supermarket to locate the herrings. I buy mine in Sainsburry's. That is how the packaging looks (to the left). Try to get Lisner Matjas. They are marinated in oil and taste totally different to what you are used to in the UK. 
Soaking herring
Take them out of packet and rinse under a cold water. Put all the fillets in a bowl of cold water and leave it for a few hours. I try to change water once in between. This way you rinse the excess of salt from the fillets.

Herring cut into small pieces
Once they taste fishy but not too salty cut them into smaller pieces that will be easier to eat. 
Chop one big onion and blanch it in a boiling water. Now you will need a big jar, some lemon juice, dried thyme, ground ginger and vegetable oil.
Jar of herring and onion
ready to got tot he fridge
Layers of herring and onion
In a big jar put a single layer of herring pieces with a bit of lemon juice on top, sprinkle of thyme and ginger (ginger makes every fish taste delicious) and cover it with a layer of onion; and again single layer of herring, lemon, thyme, ginger and onion...until you run out of herrings. Once your jar is full cover it all with oil. With a fork try to release any air bubbles trapped between the layers and again check if you need to add some more oil. Once it is all covered put it in the fridge for a few days. Serve it cold on a hot slice of rye bread accompanied with a shot of a very cold vodka. As we say in Polish "fish likes to swim" so vodka is a must ;) I hope you will love it as much as my father-in-law.



Wednesday 26 March 2014

Spinach & gammon creamy pasta

That is one of my husbands favourites pastas. It is very easy to make and always tasted like heaven :)

You will need the following:
1 packet of fresh spinach (you can use frozen one, I never measure how much I will need so use as to your liking)
1 gammon steak (around 120g) (or you can replace it with bacon)
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves
1 nutmeg (I use freshly grated one but feel free to use a powdered one)
100ml double cream (I know I use a lot of cream in my recipes but I'm Polish...we love cream)
Half a packet of spaghetti (I prepare it for two people and I always end up with a bit of left overs)
Parmesan cheese for garnishing if not creamy enough  ;)


Fry chopped onion on a medium heat until transparent, add minced garlic and fry quickly to avoid burning. Now you can add diced gammon and fry for about 5 min or until it is cooked. Add spinach and cover the pan until wilted (ass on the picture). Add grated nutmeg, salt and pepper and cream.
In the mean time cook your spaghetti in a big pan with lots of boiling water. I always boil water first, add some oil and salt and then add pasta. Try to mix it in the boiling water quite often to avoid pasta sticking together. Once pasta is cooked (check for cooking time on the packet) drain it and rinse quickly in cold water (it stops it from overcooking). Top it with the spinach and gammon sauce and mix it all together. I am sure you will love it as much as we do :)

American dream = American pancakes


I love American pancakes. Especially for breakfast. I try not to indulge with too much whipped cream and chocolate chips and try to stay focused on the classic combination of crisp bacon, strawberries and lots of maple syrup -  you just can't go wrong with that :)
So here is how I make them. You will get around 12 pancakes out of the mixture.
200g Flour
50g Sugar
5g Salt
10g Baking Powder
2 Large Eggs
200ml Full fat milk
30g Melted butter
Mix all of the dry ingredients and in a separate bowl beat the eggs and add milk and butter to it. Mix wet with dry ingredients until you get a smooth batter. I try to fry it will no fat on Teflon pan on a medium heat. You can garnish your pancakes with what ever you feel like. As said I love it with strawberries, bacon and maple syrup, but whipped cream, yoghurt, bananas, berries of all sorts (they can be also added to the batter before frying) etc.....it's the best breakfast ever. :)

Wednesday 19 March 2014

Steamed chocolate cherry pudding with chocolate sauce


Pudding

200g Self raising flour
75g vegetarian suet
1 tin of cherries
3 tbsp cocoa powder
5 tbsp brown sugar
1 free range egg
100ml whole milk


Chocolate sauce
150ml water
4 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp butter
3 tsp brown sugar
Dash of double cream

For pudding mix flour, suet, cocoa, sugar and cherries. Beat the egg lightly and add milk and 100ml of cherry juice from the tin. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix together. Put the mixture in a well greased pudding form (remember to put a piece of baking paper on the bottom, it helps pudding to get of the pudding of the tin once it is ready). Cover tin with a baking paper sheet (create a fold in the middle so it can accommodate the rising pudding) and put tightly string around it to prevent water from entering your pudding during steaming.
Prepare a big pot (or use a slow cooker on a medium setting) and put on the bottom a plate on which our pudding will sit (if you have a Teflon pot use wooden chopsticks). Put the tin on the plate and fill the pot up to half hight of the tin with boiling water (I boil it in the kettle earlier). Cover the pot and start steaming for around 2h to 2.5h.

For chocolate sauce put the water in a small pot, add cocoa, butter and sugar and boil until sugar had dissolved. At the end add the dash of double cream for a pure indulgence ;)

Once the pudding is ready take it out of the water bath and let it cool for 5 min. Put on a plate and cover with chocolate sauce. Tastes the best when served warm. Enjoy it :)



Tuesday 18 March 2014

Memories of holiday: home made Baba ganoush

I've made last night Baba ganoush, an aubergine paste that I love to put on a nice crispy toast :)

Finished paste
Ingredients:
1 Aubergine sliced length wise into 1cm slices
1 tsp of cumin
Olive oil of grilling the aubergine
1 tbsp of Tahini (sesame paste available in most of supermarkets)
2 long leaves of garlic (I put cloves of garlic into a pot and that gives you a lovely garlic plant which leaves can be used in cooking. They have a garlicky/oniony taste)
Salt and paper for flavouring




Aubergine ready for grill

Put slices of aubergine on a grill rack and brush them with the olive oil (unfortunately you need to be generous, it will pay of at the end when the aubergine will get very mushy) and sprinkle with cumin. Place in the oven for around 15 min on each side under medium grill.






Mushy aubergine slices
Once brown and mushy inside try to peal most of the skin from slices. Put them in a bowl and with a fork mush them into a paste. Add tahini, garlic leaves and paper and salt and mix.
Now you enjoy hot or cold with pita bread or wholegrain toast :)

Monday 17 March 2014

Hello

Hello,

My name is Zuzanna and I am totally new to blogging but I want to share with you some of my ideas, recipes and view of life.

Kisses

Z