Apple cake known as "szarlotka"

In Spain as well as in Poland people buy the seasonal fruits. I love seasons of strawberries or cherries - you can see everywhere the richness of the red fruits smiling to you. When outside is grey and rainy we are left with oranges and apples. In fact I just learnt the other day that Poland is the biggest producer of apples in the world :) Some people think apples are boring, but there is something very well known in Poland that makes apples exciting - szarlotka! Together with Cinnamon and raisins, apples give this cake wonderful taste. In many coffee shops in Poland you can find this cake served warm and with a scoop of ice-cream. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 

  Ingredients:

• 3 glasses flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 glass sugar
• 1 vanilla sugar
• 4 eggs
• 250g butter (cold)

• 2 kg apples
• 12 teaspoon sugar
• 1 vanilla sugar
• 100g raisins
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Peel the apples, cut into 4, remove the core and slice each piece. Fry them together with sugar and vanilla sugar, but only a bit, they have keep their shape. Add raisins and cinnamon.


Mix flower with baking powder and spill it onto pastry board, add 3/4 glass of sugar, vanilla sugar and butter. Chop everything. Add 3 yolks and 1 whole egg.  Quickly knead the dough (the butter shouldn´t melt with the heat of your hands). Divide the dough in 2 parts, wrap them in foil and put in the fridge for 1 hour.

One part of the dough pin out on the foil and together put in the cake pan. Put back in the fridge. Whip 3 egg whites, add the remaining 1/4 glass sugar still whipping till it´s stiff.

Reheat the oven to 175 C. Take the cake pan out of the fridge and cover the dough with apples and then with whipped egg whites. Sprinkle the top with the second part of the dough crushed into little pieces.

Bake 1 hour. Sprinkle castor sugar before serving.

 

My favourite Polish soup

Zurek - sour rye soup. Very specific, I haven´t found this kind of taste anywhere else (maybe except Asian cuisine with lemon grass added to the dishes to make them sour). 

It´s not difficult to make, if you find wholemeal rye flour or concentrate in your shop. Nowadays there is lots of polish shops in every country, so if you don´t have this kind of flour you can buy the concentrate. And trust me - it is worth the effort!

Ingredients: 

  

•  base (zakwas)  
• 75 g wholemeal rye flour  
• 600 ml boiled, cooled water  

• soup  
•  soup vegetables (2 carrots, parsnip, leek)
• 1 cube of beef bouillon
• 100 g smoked bacon (chopped to small cubes)
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic chopped
• 1 spoon of marjoram
• 300 ml sour cream 
• 100 g smoked sausage,or white sausage (I used little german white sausages)
• salt and pepper 
• 2 laurel leaves

To make the ryemeal sour (żur or zakwas): Mix together rye flour with lukewarm water. Pour into a glass jar or ceramic bowl that is large enough for the mixture to expand. Cover with cloth and let stand in a warm place for 4 to 5 days. This should make 2 cups or enough for the soup. If the sour isn't used immediately, it can be stored, covered, in the refrigerator for up to a week.

To make the soup: In a large soup pot, bring soup vegetables and water to a boil. Add bouillon and laurel. Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes. Strain stock through a sieve, pressing on the vegetables to extract as much flavor as possible. 

In the pan fry onion, garlic and bacon. It should be well fried. Add them to the soup. Add sausages, marjoram, salt and pepper.  Pour in zakwas (or concentrate),  return to the boil, reduce heat and cook another 30 minutes.

Whisking constantly, add cream. First pour cream to a mug and add a few spoon of soup to prevent curdling, then add this mixture to the soup. Bring the soup to a boil. Serve in heated bowls with half a hard-cooked egg in each serving (if desired).

 Enjoy with slice of nice bread. Ahhhhhhh the poetry of food! ;-)

pear in chocolate

At the end of a perfect meal one needs a perfect dessert. What is a perfect dessert? For me it´s one that gives pleasure to all the senses and is light enough, so you can still enjoy it after a good portion of a starter and main course. Oh yes, I love food :)


One of the perfect desserts is a pear cooked in red wine, cooled down and covered with hot chocolate.


Ingredients:

• 1 pear per person

• wine
• 1 bottle of red wine (can be a cooking or a table one)
• 4 cloves
• 5 peppercorns
• 1 tbsp cinnamon 
• 1 orange - peeled and torn into pieces
• 100g sugar

• chocolate
• 2 spoons milk
• 2 spoons butter
• 2 heaped spoons dark cocoa
• 1/2 glass of sugar

• sunflower seeds to decorate

Boil wine with all the spices and sugar. Peel the pears, trim off the bottom of the pear a bit to allow them to stand and carefully remove the core.
Place the pears into the wine and boil simmer for about 30min. Leave inside the pot to cool down - this allow the pear to get wonderful, rich colour.

When pears get the room temperature put them in the fridge. While they are getting cold you can prepare the chocolate. 

Mix butter, milk and cocoa in a small bowl and heat them, stirring continually till all blend together. Make sure it´s not boiling!!! Add sugar and continue till it´s dissolved.

Place the pear on the plate, pour hot chocolate on top and decorate with sunflower seeds. Serve immediately.

I can guarantee a success of any dinner finished this way:

stuffed courgette

It´s getting cold... yeah, even here in Spain :)

It´s a nice time, the upcoming winter still doesn´t bother us so much, and I´m already thinking about Christmas food and decorations -so exciting...

In this colder time I cook more of Polish food, the recipies that I remember from my childhood. Today stuffed courgette.

Ingredients :

• 1 big or 2 smaller courgettes   

• 1 small onion 

• 2 garlic cloves

• 2 tbsp chopped parsley 

• 300g minced beef meat (as lean as possible)

• 1 egg

• 1 tbsp yellow mustard

• 1/2 tbsp sweet paprika

• 1/2 tbsp nutmeg powder

• 1 dry bread roll 

• 1 can of tomato puree or crushed tomatoes

• 1 spoon of oregano

• 100g of grated cheese 

• salt and pepper

 

Put bread roll in a mug let it soak in water.

Cut the courgettes in half and score about 1cm in from the edge to create a border and then using a spoon scoop out the courgette flesh inside the border. Roughly chop the courgette flesh add finely chopped onion and garlic. Fry it together stirring from time to time till the liquid dissapears and everything starts to get lovely colour :) Put on the side to cool down.

 

Preheat the oven to 200 C.  

 

In the bowl mix minced meat,  parsley, mustard, paprika, nutmeg powder, egg and well squeezed bread roll. Add salt and pepper and mixture of onion and courgette flesh. Mix it thoroughly then spoon the mixture into the courgette shells.

 

Add oregano, salt and pepper to tomato puree. Pour most of it on the baking tray or ovenware. Put your stuffed courgette inside and pour the rest of the souce over it.

Bake for about 35mins. After that sprinkle cheese on top and bake for another 5 - 10 mins.

Serve with small portion of rice or with garlic bread.

Smacznego! :)