Pork chop in bread crumbs is one of the staples in Polish food. Looking similar to the Wiennerschnitzel, it is prepared from pork, either with or without the bone. The dish dates back to the 19th century and at some point it has become a symbolic Polish Sunday lunch, served with fried sauerkraut and mashed potatoes, sometimes fried as well. Rather on the heavy side, luckily the tastes, or more importantly the culinary trends, have changed and these days it tends to be served with cooked vegetables or salads. As far as the preparation is concerned, it is one of my favourites - easy and quick to prepare, plus nothing much can go wrong with it. You need: Sliced pork chops an egg 1 cup flour 1 cup bread crumbs salt and pepper garlic powder a pinch of dried basil and oregano (these are not in the traditional recipe, but they add a nice touch) 2 tbsp oil 2 heaped tbsp butter Beat the chops with a mallet until they're quite thin (about 0.5 cm) season, and sprinkle powder ...

Summer being over, it's time to look for a way to avoid succumbing to the autumnal blues. What can be better than baking a nice cake? :-) I began the autumn baking season with a Polish style apple pie - szarlotka /pron: sharlotka/. Funnily enough, one of the most iconic Polish cakes, actually originates in France, and what's more, stewed apples is just one of the filling possibilities - it may be made with pears, peaches, apricots and other fruits. The Polish version, though, is invariably made of stewed apples, often with cinnamon, cloves, and sometimes raisins. Just imagine - the wonderful blend of sweet pastry, stewed apple with a clove and a note of cinnamon... The version I present today is the most basic one. There are quite a few varieties of the cake, but in this case I do believe that less is indeed more! :-) For the pastry you need: 3 cups of plain all purpose flour 4 eggs 250 g soft butter or margarine 1 tsp baking soda 1 cup caster sugar 1 pack vanilla s...

While pasta continues to dominate the food served on our dinner table, the multitude of ways it may be prepared is a real bliss. Today we opted for a simple mix of spinach pasta with chanterelles. I've always thought mushroom dishes were quite complex and time-consuming, but it was a very nice surprise to find out how wrong that assumption was. The dish I served tonight could have been ready in less than half an hour, have it been not for me making green pasta from scratch. I made green (spinach) pasta - the recipe has been posted in the post Pasta Frenzy Continues , but it may well be served with packet pasta to cut down on preparation time. As I mentioned, the sauce is both easy and quick to make, plus there's virtually nothing that could go wrong with it. You need: 300 g chanterlles a pot of cream fresh basil leaves fresh oregano leaves fresh parsley salt and pepper 1 tbsp cooking oil grated Parmesan Rinse and chop chant...