I really wish it was possible to make pumpkin dishes year round, but then again, it might be their seasonal nature that makes them all the more special? With the pasta maker at hand, pumpkin-filled ravioli and tortellini have now taken over pumpkin soup and became the new favourite of the season. Pumpkin and sage filling, wrapped into spinach pasta is an absolute hit! You need: 1 portion of green and white pasta (the recipe is in the Pasta Frenzy Continues)  about 1 kilo pumpkin 3 tbs oil 2 tbsp dried sage 1 egg yolk, beaten 25 g grated Parmesan cheese 1 tsp grated nutmeg a handful of fresh sage leaves salt and pepper Preparation: Begin the preparation with the pumpkin. Peel and dice the pumpkin, then place it on the baking tray greased with  3tbsp oil, season and sprinkle dried sage on top. Put the pumpkin into a the oven and bake it for about 40-45 minutes in 180C, until pumpkin is completely soft. Leave to cool, move the pumpkin to a large bowl and squas...

I've never been especially focused on healthy eating, rather the opposite :) However, the idea of this cake looked interesting so I decided to give it a go. It was well worth it - chocolate cake just as I like it - moist and sweet, though there's no sugar in it! Ingredients: 2/3 cup sunflower oil 1/2 cup honey 50 g dark chocolate (70%), broken into pieces 250 g  raw beetroots, grated 3 eggs 1 ½ cup flour 2 tsp baking powder 5 tbsp cocoa powder a pinch salt 1 tbsp dried shredded coconut (optional) Start with the beetroot. Place unpeeled beetroot in a pan and cover with water. Simmer for about 40 minutes, remove from heat, drain the beetroot and leave to cool.   When it's cooled the peel will be really easy to remove, then grate on the small side of the grater. Preheat the oven to 175°C. Warm the oil in a medium size sauce pan on very low heat. Add honey and chocolate and stir until the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat. Add the grated beet...

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...

A birthday wouldn't be complete without a proper birthday cake. And by proper birthday cake I understand a gateau type cake - and it needs to be moist and sweet. Usually they are a sponge cake type cake, dripped with punch, with layers and cream sandwiched in between. My cake, however was a poppy-seed cake, with coffee cream. Though, it's always been my favourite cake, it's the first time I made it, so I was a tad comprehensive. Luckily, everything turned out fine, the cake was fabulous, and I had a fantastic day, which makes gettign older more bearable ;-) Kidding, don't really care about that. The cake is quite time-consuming, but believe you me, it's well worth it! For the cake you need: 200grammes of ground poppy-seed 150 grammes of icing sugar 6 eggs 4 table spoons of bread crumbs 1 packet of vanillin sugar almond aroma butter or margarine to grease the baking tray Whisk the egss with sugar and vanillin sugar to a fluffy mixture. Add poppy seed,...

I first tried this meal back in Italy, and fell in love with it instantly. It is a great example of how to get the maximum of flavour with minimum of ingredients. Usually, we either have a small portion of it as a starter, followed up by the main course (most often involtini di pollo), or a large portion of smoked cheese is the main course, after a pasta dish first (pomodoro e basilico is my natural choice here). Today, however, as the temperature has hit over 30C, we decided to go for a small meal. You need: a large piece of smoked cheese a handful of fresh sage leaves 5-6 slices of parma ham a dash of olive oil salt and pepper Cut the cheese into slices of about 2cm thick. Place a sage leave on each slice of cheese, and wrap a slice of ham around it and season. Put the slices into a bake dish, or a small baking tray, sprinkle them with a dash of olive. Grill it for about 15-20 minutes.

I came across this meal in one of my mags, and it looked cool enough to give it a go. Worked so well that it has become one of our staple dishes since. Though the original recipe had Gorgonzola cheese in it, we've tried it with a variety of other blue cheeses and it worked equally well. Also, the first time I made it I used rose, instead of white wine, and must say that it probably worked even better. You need: about 0.5 of boneless pork chops 3 cloves of garlic salt pepper some dry basil and thyme a handful of fresh parsley leaves 3 tbsp of oil 5-6 slices of Gorgonzola 200 ml of wine (white or rose) Slice the meat and season it, sprinkle the herbs on top. Pre-heat the oil on  a frying pan, seal the chops on both sides (fry about 1 minute on each side, or until it turns golden brown), then move into a bake dish. Peel and finely chop garlic and parsley, place them on frying pan and fry them on a small heat in the remainder of the oil from dealing the meat. Pour in ...

Another hot morning gave me the energy to make my own bread. This time I used spelt flour, admittedly healthier than plain flour, though the bread is rather on a heavy side and doesn't rise a lot. It came out lovely - really crispy crust, and very interesting taste. I'm still astounded by how easy it is to make your own bread - and all the stuff about bread makers is rubbish. You need flour, yeast and water, plus an ordinary oven to bake it in, that's really it! The ingredients I used for this bread: 0.5 kilo spelt flour 1 teaspoon of dried yeast a pinch of salt a pinch of sugar a few table spoons of lukewarm milk water Everything starts with the yeast - pour it into milk (important - milk cannot be either hot or cold, or the yeast won't work). Stir the yeast until it dilutes, add sugar and leave in a warm place to activate. The mixture is ready to use when it gets frothy. Pour it into a large bowl with flour and knead, adding water as needed. The dough n...

 I often find visiting restaurants inspirational and later try to make the same meals at home. Usually it takes a few attempts, this time with a stroke of luck I got it right at first go. Funny thing about this meal is that I had it at the restaurant serving Polish cuisine, yet the dish was called "Swiss Style Cutlet"... I'm not entirely sure about the connection to Swiss cuisine, but it tastes great, plus it's easy and relatively quick to make, so does the origin really matter? To make the cutlet you need: A doubke chicken breast A few slices of tinend pineapple A few slices of cheese Salt, pepper, oregano, a pinch of chili powder to season A bit of cranberry sauce Wash the chicken breast and dry it with kitchen roll. Cut off any spare bits and beat it gently with a mullet. Season with spices, put pineapple slices on top and put into the oven pre-heated to about 160C (I amke it in a fan oven) for about 40 minutes. Then place cheese on top and put back int...

The meal we had today is an attempt to copy a dish I first tried in one of the Italian restaurants in our district. I am extremely picky as far as food is concerned, and pretty merciless when evaluating Italian restaurants. I've heard a few times that Italian food is 'the blandest' ever, sadly it was the opinion of people who know the "Italian" food merely from Italian restaurants. And those, if located outside Italy rarely can do the food justice. Luckily, we live in a 'posh" area (haha), people like to pose and splash money around, which usually is either quite entertaining, or simply sad, but on the positive side there are a few places serving decent food, including two (!) Italian restaurants.  The first time I tried the dish in question I actually just tried somebody else's meal and ended up devouring half of their food! As it sometimes happens, the meal that looks nothing-special in the menu turns out to be a masterpiece combination of sce...

Gosh, it's been a while since I last posted something here, I got snowed under work :( Meanwhile the real snow has melted, and this weekend we're enjoying really springy weather - sunny and nearly 20C outside! I've made my beloved dew cheesecake, as it's too early for fresh fruit dessert, and this one tastes like ice-cream so I decided it will do as the first spring dessert! I could say that making it this time round was a bit of an adventure, as electricity decided it was time to start turning itself on and of, just as I was in the middle of baking and whisking egg whites! All in all, though the cake turned out great and tasted delicious as usual, so there's only a small bit left for dessert tomorrow. Guess that's good? ;-) To make a big cheese cake you need: For the base: 2 large cups of flour 0.5 large cup of sugar 2 egg yokes 1 whole egg 2 teaspoons of baking powder 0.5 tub of margarine (125 g) Mix all ingredients and knead until smooth. Then...

My husband surprised me yesterday bringing me a present, a cookbook based on a TV series that I've been watching recently. The programme is situated in a restaurant and generally features the so-called "trendy cooking", rather than traditional recipes, thus I was a bit surprised to find a recipe for tomato soup. When it comes to soups, it's not a secret that they are rather easy to prepare, yet I didn't quite expected a recipe that doesn't require either chicken or vegetable stock! I knew I had to alter the recipe a little, as following the proportions given in the book we would obtain water mixture with a faint tomato flavour - not exactly what we want :) To make the soup I used: 10 large, ripe tomatoes 1 litre of water 3 bay leaves 4-5 allspice berries a pinch of dried dill 1 tablespoon of dried vegetables 1 table spoon of butter salt and pepper to taste cream or yoghurt a handful of pasta (farfale or other) Put tomatoes into a bowl o...