St. Martin's Croissants - Rogale Marcinskie - with white poppy seeds filling

St. Martin's Day, 11th of November, is celebrated in a Polish city of Poznan in a particularly tasty way - by eating traditional croissants filled with delicious almond paste and white poppy seeds. Centuries old legend has it, that a Poznan baker had a dream in which he saw St. Martin entering the city on a white horse that lost its golden horseshoe. The very next morning, the baker whipped up horseshoe-shaped croissants filled with almonds, white poppy seeds and nuts, and gave them to the poor.

Now, this recipe might be a bit late, as we are already in December, yet it is worth trying out, especially with Christmas around the corner. Time consuming and detailed, it is true labour of love. Who knows, it might even replace traditional English mince pies...  

So there you have it, my take on...

ST. MARTIN'S CROISSANTS - ROGALE MARCINSKIE (makes 25-30)

INGREDIENTS

Pastry: 

- 400ml of milk

- 1kg of sieved flour

- 100g of sugar

- 420g of butter

- 3 eggs

- pinch of salt

- 20g of fresh yeast 

Filling:

- 500g white poppy seeds

- 170-200g crushed sponges

- 120g sugar

- 4 tablespoons of honey

- 80g of butter

- 90g raisins

- 100g almonds

- 2 tablsepoons of candied orange peel

- 6 eggs

Decoration:

- 150g icing sugar

- lemon or orange juice

- chopped almonds

- candied orange peel

PREPARATION

Filling:

A day before, wash the poppy seeds and boil them for around 30min. Drain and cool. Then grind 3 times. 

Soak almonds in boiling water, peel their skins off, grind them.

In a big pot, melt the butter, add sugar and honey, then chopped raisins, orange peel, almonds. When all is covered in honey, add poppy seed paste. Cook for around 5-7min. Cool. Then add crushed sponges and eggs - one by one, so that the filling does not get too watery.

Pastry:

Put 300g of butter into the freezer. 

Warm the milk up slightly.

Mix the yeast with 2 teaspoons of sugar and 3 teaspoons of flour and 100ml of milk.

Stir, cover with linen cloth and leave to rise for 20min.

In the meantime, whisk eggs and sugar into a fluffy mixture. Melt 120g of butter.

Sieve the flour into a bowl. Add the yeast mixture, eggs with sugar, milk and salt. Then bit by bit add the melted butter. Work the dough using your hands until it's flexible and doesn't stick to your hands.

Cover with linen cloth and set aside for 30min.

In the meantime, grate the frozen butter and keep it is the fridge.

When the dough has grown, punch it a couple of times to get rid off the air. Then work it a little bit and using a rolling pin, form a large rectangle. Spread a bit of grated butter onto 2/3 of the rectangle, leaving 1/3 clear. Fold it into 3 starting with the clear side. Press the dough and roll it into a rectangle again, fold it into 3 again, leave in the fridge for 30min. Repeat the whole process two more times, each time leaving the dough to cool for 30min. You end up with 81 (!!!) layers.

Roll the dough into a long rectangle and cut it into triangles. Spread the filling on each of them and fold starting with the wider side, try to form a croissant resmbling a horseshoe.

Place your croissants onto baking paper covered trays and leave to rest for 15-20min.

Bake in 180 degrees, for around 20-25min, until golden.

When cool, decorate them with icing made with icing sugar and lemon/orange juice. Sprinkle with chopped almonds and candied orange peel.

ENJOY!

Luscious and Fudgy Avocado Brownies

What do you make as a gift for someone's very special birthday? Someone who is concerned with their health and diet but also enjoys their food immensely and knows a hell-of-a-lot about baking?

Well, this year I made them avocado brownies. They are not as shocking as they might sound. They contain no flour, much less sugar and only dark chocolate. Therefore, they're not as bad for you as regular brownies, yet ever so fudgy and delicious.

Here's how I made them:

FUDGY AVOCADO BROWNIES (makes 10-12)

1. Preheat the oven to 180-200 degrees. Take 2 soft avocados and mash them with a fork. Add 3 eggs, 3 teaspoons of vanilla essence and 3-4 tablespoons of milk and mix using a mixer or with a wooden spoon.

2. Melt 200g of good quality dark chocolate in a bowl over hot water. When thoroughly melted, but not super hot, stir it into the avocado mixture. Add around 200-225g of cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 75-80g of caster sugar. Mix until just combined, add more milk if mixture too thick.

3. Scoop the mixture into a greased up tin, smooth out on the top. Bake for about 25min, until set, but not yet dry. Keep them as fudgy as you can.

4. Let the cake cool and then cut into squares. Decorate them as you please.

Still super moist and delicious, yet almost healthy and nutricious, these brownies are a perfect afternoon treat or a gift. Decorate it with Christmas patterns and you have a great Christmas gift for health-conscious foodie.

Courgette and Carrot Spaghetti with Turkey Mince Meatballs

COURGETTE AND CARROT SPAGHETTI WITH TURKEY MINCE MEATBALLS AND MUSHROOM AND TOMATO SAUCE

With so many of us trying to live healtier these days, we are trying to come up with more fun ways of packing our meals with vegetables, at the same time reducing the amount of carbs we consume. Turning courgettes or carrots into 'spaghetti' is one of those ways. You can invest in a spiralizer, the prices of which range from £10 to £40, you can teach yourself how to julienne your veg, or (like me) you can pop in to a nearby supermarket and buy ready spiralized courgettes or carrots. All you need to do is briefly boil them and drain them thoroughly.

For your meatball: mix 500g lean turkey mince with 2 tbsps of breadcrumbs soaked in milk, an egg, chives, salt and pepper. Form little balls and fry them on a tiny amount of rapeseed oil until golden brown.

For the sauce: slice half a red onion, 2 cloves of garlic and some white mushrooms. Fry them on a teaspoon of butter. Add tomato pasata, salt and pepper. Sprinkle with grated Grana Padano.

Enjoy the low carb feast.

 

PULLED CHICKEN AND BEANS with ZESTY SALAD and TORTILLA CRISPS

Pulled pork has become an absolute street-food favourite in trendy London. Pork pibil sandwiches and brioche buns appeared on every market and in every burger restaurant, reaching sky high prices. 

However, this recent culinary hit has its shortcomings: it takes mighty long to prepare ( if you are after authentic pork pubil, it might take as long as 7-8 hours), it being pork, it is not the healthiest or cheapest option.

But the popularity of this simple dish got me thinking whether similar techniques and flavours could not be applied when cooking chicken? Then I found some extra inspiration in the latest issue of Good Food Magazine. And here you have the result; at only around 270kcal and £1.20 per portion

PULLED CHICKEN AND BEANS with ZESTY SALAD and TORTILLA CRISPS

(serves 4-6)

 

You will need:

- 4 halved chicken legs

- Tabasco sauce

- 4 crushed garlic cloves

- 1 sliced large red onion

- 400g can of black beans

- 400g can of kidney beans

- tomato pasata

- chopped parsley and lots of it

- 1 iceberg lettuce

- 1/2 cucumber

- olive oil

- salt

- pepper

- lime juice

- 2 plain tortillas

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Rub the chicken with Tabasco sauce (as much as you can handle), salt and pepper. Mix crushed garlic, sliced onion and tomato pasata with seasoning and pour into a roasting pan. Place the spiced up chicken legs on top. Cover the whole thing with foil and leave in the oven for 60min.

2. After an hour, take it out of the oven and mix the beans into the tomato sauce. Cook for another 25-30min.

3. Prepare the salad: slice the iceberg lettuce and the cucumber, sprinkle with parsley and a bit of salt, drizzle with olive oil and lime juice. 

For the crisps, cut the tortillas into pieces. Spread them on a flat roasting pan and chuck into the oven for 2-3 min, until nicely toasted.

4. Take the chicken out of the oven and shred it with knife and fork. Discard the bones. Mix the meat with beans and tomato sauce. 

5. Serve the chicken on a big platter, accompanied by the zesty salad and still warm tortilla crisps.

Foolproof and Fail Proof Tiramisu Cheesecake

No one prepares a better cheesecake than my mum. A baked one. It never ceases to be a special Christmas or Easter time treat. It's light and fluffy, sweet but not overpowering. She soaks the raisins in vodka or rum overnight, so that they add an edge to it. Sure, sometimes it cracks slightly, nothing that cannot be fixed with a chocolatey, glistening top layer. It never sinks though! Never.

Well, I am not that lucky. I folow my mum's exact recipe and directions. I make sure nothing, no matter how small a detail, is omitted. Yet my cheesecake, even if it grows stunningly during baking, always sinks during cooling. Always.

Eventually, I gave up on attempting to equal my mum in the art of cheesecake baking and decided to look for an easier, fail proof and foolproof recipe. I think I finally found one. I've tested it twice on two different groups of friends. Both batches seemed to be extremely popular, so I'm pretty sure I'll be going back to this recipe for:

THE TIRAMISU CHEESECAKE

You will need:

1kg of smooth curd cheese (or ready prepared cheesecake cheese from a Polish shop)

250g Mascarpone

3/4 glass of sugar

3 tablespoons of potato flour

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract or essence

2 eggs

100g of Amaretti biscuits

cup of sweet coffee

cocoa powder 

fresh fruit or mini meringues for decoration (optional)

1. Prepare your cake tin (20x25cm) by lining it with baking paper. Heat your oven to 180 degrees, around 160 with a fan.

2. Mix curd cheese with Mascarpone, sugar, potato flour and vanilla. Then add eggs and mix again.

3. Soak your biscuits in coffee on both sides.

4. Pour 1/3 of cheese mixture into the cake tin, top with 1/2 of coffee soaked biscuits and sprinkle them with sieved cocoa powder. Pour another 1/3 of cheese mixture on top and put out the rest of biscuits covering them with cocoa again. Top with the remaining cheese mixture.

Bake for around 35min.

5. The cheesecake might crack slightly during baking, but it should not matter too much. To avoid bigger cracks, you can place another cake tin filled with hot water at the bottom of the oven.

6. Cool the cake. Before serving, sprinle it with sieved cocoa powder and you can decorate it with fresh fruit, mini meringues, etc. 

All done! ENJOY!!!

Spinach and Cheese Pierogi - how not to scare your non-Polish guests off the Polish food

As a Pole living in London, I like to treat people around me to some of the traditional Polish cuisine from time to time. Even though there are so many of us here, it so happened that in my closest group of friends in London there are very few Polish people. Therefore, cooking Polish food for my guests is always quite exciting, as you never know what they are going to make of it and how they are going to react. Are they going to genuinely enjoy it or eat some out of politeness? Arrrggghhh... The stress!!!

Well, last Saturday we were having a little catch up at my place with some friends and colleagues from work. None of them Polish. I thought it would a good occasion to introduce them to PIEROGI.

Now, I will not be going into details as for Poles pierogi are almost a work of art and one could easily write a trilogy about them. Let me just mention a few basic facts:

- pierogi is a Polish dish, let's get this straight - the Russians or Ukrainians might want to claim it, but all their efforts are in vain as... Pierogi = Poland.

- they come in a wiiiiiiiiide variety of flavours; they can be savoury (with sour cabbage and wild mushrooms, with pork mince and cheese, potatoes, onions and curd cheese, etc.) or sweet (with blueberry compote, plums or sweetened curd cheese ).

- they're delicious fresh straight from the boiling water, or even the next day, fried with a bit of butter

- the sour cabbage and wild mushroom variety is a traditional dish during Christmas Eve celebrations, however pierogi are extremely popular any other day of the year.

Seeing as my guests' knowledge of Polish cusisine is understandably limited, I did not want to scare them off with some of the funkier flavours that only an Estern European palate could appreciate. That is why, I have prepared a very gentle version of pierogi. A good introduction to this fantastic dish. So here you have: 

SPINACH AND MIXED CHEESES STUFFED PIEROGI (around 40-45 units)

1. Prepare the dough. Mix 300g of plain flower with 125ml of hot water, an egg, 20g of soft butter and a pinch of salt. Work until the dough can be formed into a smooth ball. Leave it to rest.

2. In the meantime, prepare your filling. Thoroughly wash and dry 300-350g of fresh spinach. Chop it roughly and wilt it on a wide pan. When cooled, mix it with 150-170g of feta cheese, 150g of ricotta and 150g of grated mozzarella. Add quite a big pinch of garlic powder, generous sprinkle of black pepper and a bit of salt.

3. Divide the dough into small parts, roll it till around 2-3mm thin. Using a glass, small bowl or a round cookie cutter, cut out circles in the rolled dough. Top the circles up with a teaspoon of filling and close them pinching the edges together. Every Polish cook has her own style, so don't try to imitate mine as it certainly is not perfect. Work on your own, individual style instead. 

 4. While working through small batches of dough, boil a pot of water with a pinch of salt and splash of olive oil (to prevent pierogi getting stuck to each other). When the water has boiled, cook your pierogi until they float on the water surface. Take them out and dry out the excess of water. Serve immediately with hot melted butter/sour cream/tomato sauce and Parmesan or leave to cool and fry till crispy later.

Trust me, my guests loved them. And I am certain you will enjoy them too.
What are your favourite pierogi fillings?

Protein Packed Dinner Salad

 

CHICKEN BREAST, EGG, COUS COUS, STEAMED VEGETABLES AND WATERCRESS SALAD

This flavoursome yet so so healthy and full of protein salad is filling enough to be served for dinner. It would also make a perfect lunch if you reduce the portion a little bit.

• Cut the chicken breasts into bite sized chunks, season them with your favourite spices (paprika, garlic powder, oregano), coat lightly with rapeseed oil and chuck them into the oven on small roasting pan. Cook for about 20-22min in 190 degrees in the middle of the oven.
• Hard boil a couple of eggs.
• Prepare the cous cous. Simply measure it in a bowl, pour boiling water onto it, until it's just about covered. Leave for 5-7min with a lid on.
• Wash and cut your vegetables. I used asparagus, baby sweetcorn and pickled roasted red pepper. Steam or boil asparagus and corn for about 3 min with a pinch of salt. 
• Fluff up the cous cous, add all the veg, drizzle some olive oil, season to taste and mix throughly.
• Take the chicken out of the oven, peel the eggs and wash the watercress.
• You can either mix everything together, or follow my serving suggestion. It's super tasty anyway!