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...

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 ...

 Although it is the simplest soup of all (I don't count the instant Chinese noodle soups or canned ready-made ones here), it's been my favourite since I can remember. Back when I was a child, it was an absolute must for a Sunday lunch. When I was old enough to try to make my own one, I was so sure of myself that I nearly forgot to add half of the ingredients :-) Luckily, I sussed out something was wrong early enough to salvage the soup! It still astounds me how could one cock up such a simple thing, but as they as "impossible is nothing " ;-) To make the soup you need: chicken meat (it may be 1 whole chicken, or parts - I usually use 4 legs and 3-4 wings) 4-5 carrots 3 parsnips half a small celeriac a bit of parsley 1 garlic clove 3 bay leaves 3-4 allspice grains 3-4 black pepper grains 1 chicken stock cube salt and ground pepper a pinch of dried lovage (optional) 1 tbsp dried veg mix  Preparation: There are two ways of cooking the soup, depending...

Today's recipe is inspired by my favourite meal at a Chinese restaurant we frequent. Actually, less and less often, as the service is going downhill there. Anyway, that served as motivation to try to replicate the meal I enjoy so much - sweet and sour chicken with soy noodles. I also decided to "lean" it a bit - the restaurant version of the dish has deep fried batter chicken, mine wasn't deep fried, nor did it have batter, but it was very enjoyable nonetheless! ;-) For the sauce I used: 1 large can of pineapple 1 cup honey 3 tbsps dark soy sauce 3 tsps ginger powder half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon 1-2 tbsps of tomato puree 2 tsps of lemon juice 1 tsp tamarind paste salt and pepper 1 tsp corn flour Preparation: Put the pineapple into a pan, pour in the syrup from the can, add honey, soy sauce, ginger powder, ground cinnamon, tomato puree, tamarind paste and lemon juice. Stir all ingredients and simmer until they blend. Season the sauce with salt ...

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...

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...

Call it a cliché, but there is no Valentine's Day without hearts all around! Though, I'm glad that the school days, when wearing red on Valentine's Day at some point become compulsory, are over! Today, however, I couldn't totally resist the spirit of the day and decided to make a heart-shaped pizza for lunch. As I mentioned in my earlier posts - weekday lunches must most of all be quick to prepare -and today was no exception. I've heard from many people that making pizza takes lots of time, but mine was ready in less than 30 minutes! I didn't leave the dough to rest too much- only as long as I needed to peel and slice the mushrooms and prepare tomato sauce (though here I took a shortcut :). The dough: All you need for is flour (probably slightly less than 0.5 kilogram, but my pizzas are made so intuitively that the proportions are nothing more than an estimate), a bit of yeast (I used dry to save time) - probably 1/4 teaspoon a dash of olive oil a pinch ...