Two Krantz cakes according to Jerusalem

I love the Jerusalem cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamini , not only for its recipes but also for wonderful shots of Jerusalem which is one of the top places of my list to visit before I die.
Hubby bought the book for me for Christmas. Ever since I have been hypnotised by the krantz cake. Somehow it always felt a bit Polish to me, a bit familiar and I always wanted to make it but being warned by the two authors that it is a time intensive recipe I was waiting for the right time. And this was Easter! Oh boy indeed it took a solid few hours to make. Also having a cheap mixer did not help as making the dough requires a powerful mixer with a dough hook, however I made it partly using a cheap mixer and partly with my own hands:)
Here it is below - by no means as beautiful as in the book but my krantz cake was produced in two versions - chocolate& pecan and butter & walnut.

Krantz cake (makes 2)
From Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

Important note: Make the dough a day in advance and refrigerate overnight
 
Ingredients:
530g of plain flour
100g caster sugar
2 tsp fast-action yeast 
grated zest of 1 small lemon
3 large free range eggs or 4 medium eggs
120ml water
1/3 tsp salt
150g unsalted butter cut into cubes, at room temperature
sunflower oil for greasing

Place the flour, sugar, yeast and zest in a bowl and mix for 1 minute to stir all together. Add the eggs, water and mix further on a medium speed for 3 minutes until the dough comes together. I did this stage in a food processor, it worked although the food processor didn't like it, basically because the dough sticks to everything. Add salt and start adding the butter, a few cubes at a time. At this stage my food processor refused to co-operate, my cheap hand mixer also failed me so all I had left were my hands! I dusted the working surface with some flour and I kneaded the remained butter into the dough and then kept kneading for a few minutes until the dough was elastic and shiny. If however you have a good mixer the recipe instructs to mix the dough for 10 minutes on medium speed with the dough hook.
Place the dough in a large oiled bowl and refrigerate overnight.
Next morning you should have a beautifully risen dough ready to work on further. 
Following this I did the two recommended fillings - chocolate&pecan filling and butter &walnut, so the proportions below are for one cake, double up if you want to have two krantzes with the same filling.

Chocolate filling
25g icing sugar
15g cocoa powder
65g chocolate and 60g unsalted butter melted in bain-marie
50g pecans roughly chopped
1 tbs caster sugar
Mix together all ingredients to a paste and allow it to cool.

Butter and walnut filling
80g unsalted butter melted
60g light muscovado sugar
50g roughly chopped walnuts
1 1/2 tbsp cinnamon

Grease two 1kg loaf tins with sunflower oil and line the bottom with a baking paper. 

Coming back to the dough. Take it out of the fridge and cut into two halves. put one half back to the fridge. Sprinkle some flour on the work top and roll the dough out flat into a 38cm x 28cm rectangle. Trim the sides so they are more or less even. Spread the chocolate mixture and

leave 2cm on each side free of the mixture. Sprinkle the pecans and 1tbsp of caster sugar.
Brush one of the longer sides with a bit of water. Start rolling out from the opposite side into a roulade. Press to seal with the water ended bit. Roll into a cigar and trim around 2cm from each end with a serrated knife. Now cut the roulade lengthways and with the cut side facing up gently press together ends of each half and then lift the right half over the left half and alternate so you are making a plait. Gently squeeze the other ends together. Carefully place the cake in the tin cover with a wet tea-towel and leave to rise for 1 1/2 hours. 

Krantz before baking

In the meantime preheat the oven to 170C (fan assisted) and take the other half of the dough out of the fridge and roll into the same size rectangle as previously, also cutting uneven parts away. Brush with butter, sprinkle walnuts, sugar and cinnamon then roll and create the plait exactly the same way as with the chocolate version. Carefully transfer into the other tin and allow to rest and rise for 1 1/2 hours.
Remove the tea towels and put krantzes in the oven for about 30minutes, run the skewer test.
In the meantime make the syrup.

Syrup
 260g caster sugar
160ml water

Ready krantz, behind the chocolate one

Mix the water and sugar in a saucepan over the medium gas. As soon as the syrup boils turn off the gas.


Brush all the syrup over the two cakes as soon as they are taken out of the oven. Leave the cakes until just warm and then transfer to a plate or cooling rack to allow to cool completely.


 As I had some dough leftover and I would hate to discard them I kneaded it briefly and created some buns which I called "platted krantzies" and sprinkled them over with caster sugar and cinnamon.  With coffee they were a piece of heaven in my mouth! I baked them slighly shorter (around 20minutes) until nicely brown.

Ready plait krantzies

Plait krantzies before baking

Wielkanoc - Easter

Easter Sunday table

In the Polish tradition we celebrate Easter Sunday by having a big breakfast feast. This mainly contains of boiled eggs with mayo, stuffed eggs, "twarozek" which is curd cheese mixed with sour cream, chives and chopped radishes but these are just basics because every Polish person will have their own opinion on what should be on the Easter table:)
Here is mine - eggs with mayo, twarozek, stuffed eggs and three types of bread. Also my friend who was with us on Easter Sunday made a wonderful potato salad. All in all the result is on the picture.

Eggs and mayo

 

Twarozek

Great potato salad made by my friend

 Stuffed eggs (5 eggs - 10 halves)

Ingredients:
5 hard boiled eggs 

Stuffed eggs

1,5 big flat mushrooms finely chopped
1 medium shallot, peeled and chopped finely
1 tsp of chipotles en adobo (optional)
cumin or any other favourite spices (if not adding chipotles paste)
1 tsp paprika
2 tbs of mayo
1 tbsp chopped fresh chives
1 tbs chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper
a small knob of butter and a splash of oil

Let's do it:
In a frying pan melt butter with a splash of oil and add the shallot, fry for 2 minutes on a low gas and if using add 1 tsp of chipotles en adobo paste (or other spices), paprika and then chopped mushrooms. Fry until shallots and mushrooms are tender. This will take no longer than 10 minutes. Put aside and make sure that the mixture is cooled before further steps. In the meantime peel eggs and cut alongside in halves taking out the yolks, puree yolks with a fork. When the mushroom and shallot mixture is cold in a bowl mix it with yolks, mayo, salt, pepper and herbs and mix well. Stuff eggs generously and serve with bread.

I baked three breads. One from Paul Hollywood's Bread book which is a classic bloomer which I mentioned in the earlier post. The other two were:
Classic soda bread by Hugh F-W
and
Nigel Slater's rye bread, but I did not add cheese to this one, although I did add walnuts. Great bread, very much like polish "graham".
Happy Easter!

Scrumbled eggs

This is when you are in a need of a comfort and satisfying veggie breakfast:)


Scrambled eggs with veggie pepperoni and mushrooms
Serves 2

Ingredients:
4 medium eggs
2 small shallots, peeled and finely chopped
 knob of butter

1 tsp oil
chopped chives
few slices of veggie pepperoni (quorn)
1 tsp chipotle en adobo paste
1.5 of big flat mushrooms, thickly sliced

Let's do it:
Heat the frying pan, sweat shallots for a few minutes. Stir in 1tsp of chipotle paste and roughly cut few slices of quorn pepperoni, fry for a minute or two. Crack and add eggs into the frying pan, stir well and continioulsy stir until eggs cooked but all is still moist.
Seperately heat up the griddle pan, add some oil and a knob of butter and when butter melted add mushrooms. Fry for a few minutes turning once until slightly browned on the top.

Serve with good quality bread. I made a bloomer, it's from Paul Hollywood's Bread

Saturday wine on Friday night - CA1 and CA2 Carmenere

It is still bitterly cold and suppose to stay like this at least for next two weeks so no change in the wine colour for me. Cold means red, warm means white - simple as that:)

Carmenere is a wonderful full-bodied and full of character wine. Hubby and I are always on a mission to find a new one, one that we haven't tried yet. My all time favourite is Terrunyo Carmenere which these days you can find on-line only. The whole Carmenere craziness started with this very wine and it was Terrunyo Carmenere 2004, unforgettable! 

The recently discovered Pimlico wine shop (Pimlico wine shop), which I mentioned before, supplies my nowadays favourite Terra Noble Reserva Carmenere but has other Carmenere varieties in stock. We decided to try CA1 and CA2. CA2 is a coastal Carmenere and CA1 comes from Andes. Both interesting and good quality wines, although CA2 is slightly better in my eyes - more intense, spicy and therefore more memorable.

The downside is the price as it is £20 a bottle so bargain it is not. However once in a while it's ok to treat yourself well!
I am serving it with the last night leftovers of borlotto. 

Mushroom and sundried tomatoes pearl barley borlotto

I am dreaming about tabula kisir, hummus, dukkah and having it all as a picnic in Battersea Park. Whilst it all has to wait until the weather becomes kinder I am still producing substantial winter food. This is porcini mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes pearl barley barlotto.


Porcini and sun dried tomatoes Barlotto

Ingredients:
300g pearl barley
1 ltr of hot veggie stock (I dissolved 2 knorr veggie stock pots in freshly boiled water)
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
small knob of butter
1 tsp oil
10g porcini mushrooms soaked for 10 minutes in a bowl of hot water
water from soaking mushrooms
6-7 slices of sun dried tomatoes plus 1 tbsp of its oil
1 tbs of fresh thyme, leaves only

Let's do it:
Melt butter with 1tsp of oil in a big pan add onions, thyme and garlic and sweat for around 10 minutes on a low gas until onions soften and translucent. Stir in pearl barley making sure that it is well coated, fry for further two minutes. Now add a quarter of a stock, it is important to keep the remained stock warm, simmer on a medium gas without a lid stirring from time to time, add the next quarter of the stock only when the last quarter is absorbed. It will take around 45 minutes to cook the barley. In the meantime chop roughly sun dried tomatoes. Take the porcini mushrooms out of the water, squeeze the excess water from the mushrooms and roughly chop. For the last 15-20 minutes add water from mushrooms, mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes and 1tbsp of its oil. Stir in well, keep stirring regularly as the less liquid it the pan the more it's stuck to the bottom. Towards the end add some black pepper and check the flavours. I did not add any extra salt, it was reach and full of flavour. It is delicious on its own but you can serve it with sprinkle chopped parsley or grated parmesan or any other hard cheese.

Roasted squash and potato soup

I'm even dreading to write this yet again but I will anyway - it's absolutely freezing out there!
So tonight yet another variation of a soup for a warm supper.

Roasted squash & potato soup with crème fraîche and roasted spices

Ingredients:
puree of roasted butternut squash or coquina squash - sliced, deseeded and roasted with rapeseed oil, salt and pepper for 40 minutes in 190C until tender and can be easily mashed with fork. Skin easy to removed after baking. I had about 500g before roasting
small knob of butter and a bit (1tsp) of sunflower oil
2 medium shallots peeled and roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves peeled and roughly chopped potatoes peeled and boiled until tender - around 250g
milk - 100-150ml
1,5 ltr water but possibly more

Roasted coquina squash potato & dry fried spices soup

veggie stock
1tsp paprika
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
pinch of cinnamon
salt and pepper

Action:
Melt a small knob of butter with a bit of oil in a pan and fry shallots with garlic on a low heat for 5 minutes, add spices and fry for further 2 minutes. Next add squash puree, sliced potatoes, stock, water to cover vegetables and some pepper. Bring to boil and blend, add more water if needed, milk salt and pepper and check the taste. Serve with crème fraîche and roasted spices. 
For roasted spices dry fry on a medium gas 4 allspice berries, 1 tbsp of cumin seeds and 1 tsp of nigella seeds. When spices start being aromatic and cumin turns brown turn the gas off, transfer to mortar and bash with pestle ensuring that allspice turns into a powder whereas cumin and nigella seeds do not need to be powdered.
 

Wine and veggie frittata

It's Saturday night and I am happily stuck in my kitchen. I baked butternut squash and still can't decide what I am going to do with it. While I'm trying to resolve this puzzle hubby demands something nice, something overload potatoes and eggs! Ok this puzzle is no brainer! This can be frittata only! The recipe comes from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall book called veg everyday!
I love the book, love Hugh F-W's recipes in general.

Over-roasted roots frittata - Hugh F-W recipe
 
Serves 4 (but we ate it all - in our defence it was our dinner)

Ingredients:
600g mixed winter veg - I used 2 small beetroots, 200g butternut squash and the rest were potatoes and one onion
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
3 tbsp rapeseed oil
7 large eggs
a handful of chopped fresh mixed herbs - I used parsley, lemon thyme and chives
20g of grated hard goat's cheese
sea salt and black pepper

Preheat the oven to 190C (fan assisted). Peel the onion and thickly slice, other vegetables peel and dice into small cubes. Put all the veg in the ovenproof dish, add garlic, oil, salt and pepper and toss well. Roast for about 40 minutes until the vegetables are tender and a starting to caramelise. 
In a bowl beat the eggs with salt, pepper and herbs. Take the dish out of the oven, pour the egg mix evenly and scatter the cheese. Return to the oven for 10 -15 min until the egg is set. You can set up the grill to get a bit of brown colour on the top. Serve warm or cold.

Now as for the wine we are huge carmenere lovers. We discovered Terra Noble in a lovely wine shop in Brighton on a daily visit but thank to my quick research we found another lovely wine shop in Pimlico where the owner, and thank Gods for that, stocks Terra Noble. We tried both variations:  Reserva which is around £12 and the slightly cheaper version which is just under a tenner. Both stunningly good! Highly commended full-bodied red with character. Cheers!
Mentioned wine shops:
Brighton: Twenty One Wines 
Pimlico: Wine Cellars

Saturday kitchen day!

Hurray! It's Saturday but not so hurray it's snowing, it's windy so the best place I can be is the kitchen!
Lunch turns up to be a super quick and simple - mini veggie kobez pizza!  
Super quick! Super yummy!

Kobez mini pizza

Ingredients:
1 kobez per person (very modest lunch) 
hummus
natural yogurt mixed with lemon juice, finely chopped garlic, a few chopped mint leaves and salt
in between hummus and yogurt you can put whatever vegetables you like

Preheat the oven to 180C (fan assisted) put kobez in and heat on each side for 2 minutes (give it 2 more minutes if heating from frozen). Take the kobez out of the oven and spread with hummus then top it with whatever you fancy! I used quorn chicken slices, black olives, peppers, tomatoes and grated cheese. Back to the oven until cheese is melted, put some cucumber slices on the top and finish with natural yogurt mixed with mint, garlic, dash of lemon juice and salt.

Kobez mini pizza

Pumpkin and cranberries cake and pumpkin and chickpeas hummus

It becomes a bit boring to complain again but it's still cold and wintery in London and there is no sign of spring as yet! I feel upset, I want to be out and about! I want to go to the garden! I want sunshine and I want spring! This is my message to the Universe!
Feeling full of contradiction I decided to make a wintery, almost Christmasy cake and a summery picknicky hummus:)

I spent a while looking for a good cake with pumpkin purée and choose Anna Olson's Pumpkin and Cranberry Loaf: Food Network Canada Pumpkin Cranberry Loaf Anna Olson
The recipe uses cups for measurement so I used a glass, a standard size tumbler to measure (250ml) 

Anna Olson's Pumpkin Cranberry Loaf


2 glasses (250ml) flour 
1 tsp baking soda 
1 tsp baking powder
 1 tsp salt 
1/2 tsp cinnamon 
1/2 tsp cloves 
1/2 tsp ginger 
120g unsalted butter, room temperature 
1 cup sugar
 2 eggs 
1glass pumpkin purée
zest of one orange 
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 glass orange juice 
1 1/2 glass frozen cranberries

 Preheat the oven to 170C (fan assisted). Sift the flour into a bowl and mix with spices, salt, baking powder and soda. In another bowl cream together sugar and butter until fluffy. Next add one egg stir and then add the second egg. Stir in pumpkin puree, vanilla extract, orange zest and orange juice. Next stir in the flour mix just until incorporated, fold in cranberries.
Transfer the batter into a loaf pan. Now I know now that mine was slightly too small but as it a silicone loaf pan it stretches on the sides and still came out ok so if you have a classic size loaf I would pour 3/4 of the batter and the rest of it bake in a small whatever kind of baking tray. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes and run the skewer test to make sure that it's thoroughly baked.

Off to hummus. I make all sorts of these but tonight was about using the remained pumpkin puree.

Classic hummus with an extra from pumpkin puree

1 can of chickpeas rinsed well
2 tbsp of light tahini paste
3 tbsp of pumpkin purée
2 tbsp of sesame oil or rapeseed oil
juice of half of a lemon
generous squirt of lime juice
1 tsp of chilli flakes
1 tsp of ground cumin
cold water (a few spoons)
salt and pepper

Now what I love about hummus is that all there is to do is to blend all ingredients together! Add more water if too thick. Add extra lemon juice, tahini or oil and season to adjust the taste to your liking but make sure that it is a hummus slightly coarse consistency. That's the beauty of homemade hummus! Yamas! Although that suppose be use when drinking;)


 

Pumpkin / japanese squash soup

Pumpkin / japanese squash soup with chipotles en adobo & crème fraîche - at a guess no precise measurements recipe

It's 18 March and it's still freezing in London, winter is not going anywhere so the only way to beat the blues is to have a bowl of pumpkin soup!
 
Now I am really sorry but I do not use precise measurements, it's at a guess cooking but at its easiest.

Ingredients:
approx. 500g pumpkin or japanese squash peeled, deseeded and diced
a bit of butter/ a bit of oil
2 veggie stock cubes
hot water
milk
2 banana shallots peeled and roughly chopped
1 tsp chilli flakes
spices - I used rather many!: cumin, corriander, fenugreek, paprika, ginger (all powder)
salt&pepper

Melt butter with a bit of oil so it won't burn and add shallots, fry for a few minutes. Add chilli flakes and all other spices fry a bit longer then add the squash and stir well, fry for a short while. Add crumbled stock and hot water to cover the squash. Simmer on a low gas until the squash is tender (approx. 15-20 min). Blend the soup, add seasoning and approx. 1/2 glass of milk. Stir well and reheat if needed. 
Serve with crème fraîche and chopped parsley. As it is horrible out there my body is crying for spices so I am using chipotles en adobo a lot these days. In this case I added some to crème fraîche before serving. It is a wonderfully smoked puree and brings another dimension to everything you add it to. The recipe for chipotles an adobo comes from a wonderful mexican cookbook by Thomasina Miers "Mexican Food Made Simple"

Shut happens!

Here is some wisdom I found at a train station and it perfectly matches the way I feel today!

 

chocobeet cake

Yet again in terms of chocolate cakes I was inspired by a really great blog A Tasty Love Story
I slightly adapted the recipe as beetroot I had was a cooked vacum packed beetroot, also I added a wholemeal flour instead of oats. Frankly I wish I added no flour and this is what I am going to do next time round as the batter tasted great and I felt like it was right to bake it without flour, so I should've trusted my instinct;) Anyway with or without flour the cake is great!

Here is a link to the original recipe:
http://atastylovestory.com/beautiful-beetroot-cake-loaded-with-chocolate/

Chocobeet cake inspired by Josephine's recipe

1 pack of cooked beetroot (250g) with the juice grated finely
100g of dark chocolate melted in a bain-marie, slightly cooled
50g raw coconut oil
100g of light muscovado sugar
3 eggs
5 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
 2 tsp instant coffee
2 tsp baking powder
80g of wholemeal flour (optional)
a pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 170C (fan assisted) Beat coconut oil, sugar and eggs using a kitchen robot. Stir melted chocolate and add all remained ingredients - beetroot, coffee, baking powder, vanilla extract, cocoa powder and a pinch of salt. Finally if using add the flour. I wouldn't recommend it and next time I definitely won't add the flour as my impression was that the flour slightly "killed" the wonderful "chocolatines" of the cake. 
Grease spring form cake with a bit of oil and put the baking paper. Pour the batter and bake in 170C (fan assisted) for 25 minutes. Check with the skewer if the cake is baked thoroughly.
Serve either on its own or with crème fraîche or ice-cream.

Veggie leftovers bake

Tonight I'm trying not to waste any food, so a waste prevention project is in order!
Out of this initiative supper quick and easy leftovers veggie bake was born.

Super quick & easy leek potato carrot and sweetcorn veggie leftover bake

Ingredients for 2 hungry individuals:
4 medium potatoes peeled and very thinly sliced
1 leek cut roughly "sliced"
2 medium size carrots thinly sliced
1/2 small tin of sweetcorn (drained)
small single cream
100ml of milk
spices: chilli flakes, 2 veggie oxo cubes, salt & pepper
quarter of feta cheese
grated parmesan, cheddar or any other hard cheese

Mix single cream with milk add all spices (make sure that oxo cubes are crumbled). In a flat baking tray put a single layer of potatoes and cover with half of leek and carrot slices. Then arrange the next layer of potatoes and cover with remained leek and carrot slices. Spread the sweetcorn evenly and pour over the creamy mixture. Crumble over feta cheese and sprinkle grated cheese (as little or as much as you like) I had smoked goats cheese which wasn't great on its own but tastes really well in the bake as it has a distinctive salty taste like feta. 
Bake for 30 minutes in 180C (fan assisted). Check with a knife if potatoes are cooked thoroughly.  This all was ready for consumption in around 45min. including baking time, if you have a helping hand (a husband or other contractually obliged individual) even in 40minutes:-)

The picture is rubbish but I only realised at the last moment that all the bake was wolfed down and the last bit I had to snatch away from the lion's den, I mean my husband's mouth;) Otherwise no record would exist:) It may not look that appetising from this but in fact it is very tasty...

Easy peasy apple pudcake

It's indescribably cold outside so my body screams for comfort food including cake but cake always louder;) Having 6 bramley apples (size grande) the answer was always simple - a super easy apple cake which can be served either cold or warm although I must say that it tastes best served warm with vanilla ice cream or creme fraiche. 
The recipe is from a polish website Pesto.

Super easy apple pud cake

a cup/glass (250 ml) of each: flour, sugar and semolina/ kasza manna*
5-6 cooking apples peeled and grated (large grater)
a springform cake tin buttered and sprinkled with breadcrumbs
optional ingredients: nuts, cinnamon
125g of butter or margarine

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Half of this pour into the cake tin, make sure that it's spread evenly, add half of the apples and if adding nuts or cinnamon add on the top. Next add another layer of dry mix and cover with another layer of grated apples and if adding nuts or cinnamon add at this point. Thinly slice butter into small pieces and put on the top spread out evenly. Bake for 45 minutes in 170C (fan assisted). Serve warm with ice cream or creme fraiche.


* In terms of semolina I tried the one which you can get in any supermarket and it works just about but the Polish one seems to work better. You can get it in any Polish shop and it's called: kasza manna.

Barca

It's Sunday, my husband is making shakshuka (I know again! we are addicted now!) Outside is freezing, around 3 degrees and I'm thinking about Barcelona. My friend is going there next week, I was there last year. I have a bit of mixed memories as we were robbed in our first few moments there. Have you heared about "birdshit" scam? This is what happened to us, so if anybody sprays your back with something then offers a tissue to drag your attention away and steal your bag/ rucksack then just ignore them. Better to be an ignorant with a dirty back than loose your bag!
I loved Cafe de L'Opera in La Rambla, where on the way to "ladies" I found a polish theatre poster on the wall! They served wonderful churros con chocolate! http://www.cafeoperabcn.com/

Polish theatre poster in Cafe de L'Opera

The place which I found spectacularly amazing was La Sagrada Familia. We were told by our b&b owner that instead of queueing for ages outside tickets to the basilica you can purchase them from most of "la Caixa" cash machines so we did and it worked great! No queueing for us!

Off to my breakfast feast! Have a wonderful Sunday!

Saturday night must be wine and music!

Last night we were at the Southbank and saw an excellent gig in Royal Festival Hall, with Meklit Hadero and her warm voice on a very rainy evening. We loved the gig so we got her album and then we were lucky enough to get her autograph too:-)

http://www.meklithadero.com/

Then we discovered fantastic designs by lushdesigns in RFH's shop and we bought a 'cats feasting cushion' and a mug with cats motif. Not sure why but the design reminded me of Behemoth from "Master and Margarita". 

 http://www.lushlampshades.co.uk/

Our wonderful night out ended up in the Hayward Gallery bar:-)

So tonight by contrast we are having a night in - some music first then a good film and all that accompanied by a cheese board and a little bit of wine:) As for the wine one of my favourites for a while has been Llebre. It's great quality, also doesn't ruin your purse. I buy it from Sainsbury's for under £8, currently they have it on an offer for a fiver so I got 3 bottles with my last shopping:) That's called love or maybe alcoholism:)) Off I go to my husband, cheese board and llebre:) Happy weekend!

Celeriac and potato soup for a rainy evening

It was a grey day and eventually started raining tonight, so I needed a comforting bowl of hot soup! In the frige were rooster potatoes and celeriac, let's marry them!
The soup has a gentle and mild taste. Serves 4 hungry individuals.


Celeriac & potato soup

1 onion peeled and rouglhy chopped 
1 fat clove of garlic peeled and roughly chopped
half a tsp of chilli flakes
1 tsp of cumin
500g potatoes peeled and roughly chopped
500g celeriac peeled and roughly chopped 
1 ltr of veggie stock
50-100ml milk
a knob of butter
1tsp oil

Melt the butter with oil in a pan on a low gas add onion with garlic and fry until onion is translucent, add spices (cumin and chilli flakes) and fry for another minute then add potatoes celeriac and the stock. Bring to boil and simmer for up 30 minutes, but make sure that potatoes and celeriac are tender, add milk and blend it in a food processor or with a hand blender until creamy.
Serve with walnut and parsley pesto and sprinkle over with some paprika. 
Walnut and parsley pesto is by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and was published on the guardian's website:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2007/oct/27/recipes.foodanddrink 
It's delicious but there's loads of it, we're going to have it as pasta pesto for lunch tomorrow and still plenty in the fridge awaiting for me to come and use it:)

Where is my brain?

I think I have no brain cells left to write anything meaningful, so just to report that the black bean choco cake is superawsome:) Goodnight:) I'm departing to bed to dream about my favourite place in the world. Here is my ultimate paradise on a small greek island!

Quick supper celeriac fritters, mixed berries compote pavlova, and black bean choco cake

Now, that's what I call a productive evening, my husband is asking me for mercy, he's trying to loose weight and records all he eats on myfitnesspal. Poor chap, I cook like there's no tomorrow:) I need to adopt some people to join my family (does it sound like a sect?) so my husband can breath a sigh of relief.  
I made my lovely celeriac fritters from approx. 500g of celeriac which served the two us very generously but it would easily serve 4 as a starter.

My celeriac fritters with herby yogurt

Celeriac - peel and slice thinly, if big cut into halves
Prepare two not too deep bowls - one with egg beaten with fork, add salt and pepper; the second bowl with breadcrumbs either on their own or mixed with spoon of paprika and a generous spoon of ground cumin. Heat some oil in a frying pan, coat each slice of celeriac in egg then in the breadcrumbs/ breadcrumbs mix and fry on a medium gas until golden brown, but pierce with a small nice to make sure that the celeriac is thoroughly cooked.
Herby yogurt
Mix thick natural yogurt (half a 500g pot) with a tbsp of lemon juice and herbs of your choice, I like mixing dill parsley and chives or mint but can be herbs de provence dry mix. Spoon generously over the fritters.

I also baked last night pavlova and assembled this morning in a rush. 

Pavlova with mixed berry compote

For the meringue:
3 eggs
150g of caster sugar
1/2 tsp of white wine vinegar
 Whisk the eggs to soft peaks and then while whisking add 1 tbsp of sugar at the time, wait around 20 seconds before adding the next one, continue until all sugar whisked in, fold in vinegar. Preheat the oven to 160C (fan assisted) and using whatever you have (ideally it should be a palette knife which I couldn't find so I used a big knife) spoon the mixture onto the baking paper. Turn the temperature down to 100C and bake for 1.5 hours. Ideally leave in the oven overnight to cool completely, gently remove the baking paper and put on a plate. On top of the meringue I spooned 250ml of half fat crème fraîche and to finish mixed berry compote.

Mixed berry compote:
I only had around 200g of frozen mixed berry, I heated this in a small pan on a low gas adding some muscovado light brown sugar and a tbsp of limoncello. Cool and spoon on the pavlova to finish.

And finally this is when my husband held his breath I did as well the black bean chocolate cake. I used a recipe from the guardian's Cook section on Saturday. Here is a link:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/mar/02/10-best-bean-recipes
but the recipe comes from http://atastylovestory.com/




The only change I made was that I added 25g of dark chocolate and 25g of milk chocolate.

It's still cooling hence the photo in the baking tin. Can't wait to try but given that it's almost 11pm and I don't want to upset my husband any further will wait until the morning:) Goodnight!

Perfect Sunday dinner - it can be only Sunday roast! Hurray!

Sunday roast, national-traditional on Sunday can be as we Poles say mniam mniam (=yummy) but it has to be a good one preferably a homemade one and this is mine. We don't eat meat therefore for us it is always quorn veggie roast as a meat replacement.
The quantities below generously serve 4 hungry individuals or like in our case make a big dinner (after an afternoon run) plus lunch boxes for Monday at work.

Cast: baked potatoes, baked parsnip and carrots, sometimes boiled greens (whatever is in the fridge or freezer) quorn veggie roast and last but not least gravy.

Potatoes - 1 kg peeled and cut into halves or quarters depending on the size
Today's fantasy told me to use rooster potatoes, but generally I buy whatever type of potatoes. My main principal is alaways to pre-boil them for around 7 minutes, pour out the water, give them a minute to dry in the same pan and next transfer to a baking tray, toss with olive oil or rapeseed oil, add some sprigs of thyme and a few cloves of  unpeeled crashed garlic (the more the better:) and sea salt flakes.
This I bake for up to 30 minutes until potatoes are nicely golden. Remove the thyme sprigs and garlic and serve.

Parsnip and carrots - 1 kg peeled and cut into halves or quarters depending on the size
As it comes to a glaze I always do it differently altough in fairness I never see that much of a difference;) Today's glaze was a mixture of rapeseed and walnut oil - 2 tbsp, 2 tbsp of honey, 1 tsp of sumac syrup, 1tsp of balsamic glaze or balsamic vinegar and 1 tsp of lemon juice plus seasoning. A quicker version is mixing olive oil with balsamic vinegar and honey.
This I bake for up to 20 minutes in the bottom of the oven as the top shelf is occupied by potatoes and the mid one by the veggie roast.

Gravy - here is the master of my dinner. It may not look handsome when you lay your eye on it but boy try it and you'll never regret;)
50g of butter and a little bit of oil so the butter won't burn
1 mid size onion chopped finely
4 cloves of garlic minced
4 tbsps of soy sauce
500 ml of cold water
50g (5-6 tbsps) of flour
salt and pepper

Heat the butter with a little bit of oil in a saucepan and add onion and garlic, cook on a mid to high gas until golden brown then turn the gas down and using a whisk stir a spoon of flour at the time and stirring continiously keep adding flour spoon by spoon until you have a roux, next add the say souce and water stir well to ensure no lamps bring to boil the gravy will thicken up, season well and check if you happy with soy sauce as I often add an extra spoon.
Voilà! 2 hours in the kitchen and here is my perfect Sunday veggie roast feast!

PS. Mash does my husband, I do not interfere hence no comment;)

Veggie gravy

My perfect Sunday veggie roast