vegetarian – Bea's cookbook

Bea’s favourite pasta with tons of green pesto!

Posted on 06/06/201602/06/2018 by Bea

The past few weeks were like a whirlwind in my usually calm life.

Me and my husband went to London for two amazing events,Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year and UK Blog awards. Both the same week (!). We met fantastic people, made great memories, drank too much prosecco and danced on Trafalgar Square. OK. Only I danced as Darek watched my crazy moves and couldn’t stop laughing! No. it wasn’t my typical shy bop with moving from one leg to another, slowly swinging my arms on the sides. It was the kind of wild dance I do in the kitchen when no one is looking! Probably even wilder than I thought, because the police(!!!) went up to my husband asking him who I was!!! Can you really get arrested for expressing your happiness in public? Let’s just hope there is no video floating around the internet, otherwise I’ll have to leave the country!

But don’t you just love London? Trafalgar Square. Tuesday night. DJ and a dancing group of happy people. (Pretty obvious who the dancing queen was!) This city has a vibe!

It was brilliant and I’m over the moon that my photograph of Polish pierogi came second in Food Bloggers Category in Pin Lady Food Photographer of the Year and that Bea’s cookbook was Highly Commended at the UK BLOG AWARDS.

…..However the hangover wasn’t so exciting at all!!!…..

Talking about whirlwind…there is something else too….we’ve had a puppy!!!

She is the sweetest and most charming thing in the whole world…..that turns into tornado within a split second.
She loves gardening. I dig the plants in, she digs them out and madly wags her tail like it it’s the best game ever.
She loves to play hide and seek. She hides socks everywhere abound the house (I found a few in the garden too!) and you have to look for them, which might not be so funny if you are in a rush and you end up leaving the house wearing not matching pair.
Ohhh and she is really into food too! Literally. Her mouth lands in the food, the second you leave the plate unattended. Not to mention that she drank all the beer from the slug traps!!! (Have you ever heard of those traps? Us neither! But we trying every internet hack to get rid of them before they eat the whole garden! Any tips welcome!)

And really, she makes us roll on the floor with laugher and I just love the way she expresses her happiness with the whole body. (Just like me when I was dancing on Trafalgar Square!)

Right, let’s talk about food a little bit. It’s a food blog at the end of the day, not a blog about cute dogs nor about my dancing skills 😉

So here is my favourite comfort food recipe. Pasta with tons of green pesto! Hell yeah! I’m totally addicted to it!

When it comes to pesto I am a masochist. I get out the sharpest knife and chop…. Chop…. Chop. …Chop…. It’s like a therapy. Plus it’s much cheaper J Of course you can use food processor too. No judgment! I use it from time to time too 😉

I’ve tried all different ingredients in this dish, whatever I had in the fridge but I always go back to those few, simple ones I love here the most: courgettes, olives, macadamia and pine nuts and super juicy yellow tomatoes. It tastes A M A Z I N G !

RECIPE:

Serves 4 big portions:

For basil pesto:

1 large bunch of basil
1 clove of garlic
40g pine nuts
30g Parmesan, finely grated
freshly ground black pepper
a small pinch of freshly grounded sea salt or any of your favourite salt
50-60ml of good quality extra virgin olive oil

Chop basil and pine nuts finely and place them in a medium bowl along with parmesan. Bash the garlic with the wide, blunt part of the knife and then chop it finely and add to the rest of the ingredients. Add black pepper, salt and olive oil. Mix with a spoon.

When I use a food processor I prefer the texture of the pesto much more when I place the basil, garlic, pine nuts and grated Parmesan in a bowl first. Whizz the ingredients until fine and then I add the rest of the ingredients : grated Parmesan, salt, pepper and olive oil and mix them all together with a spoon.

For the dish:

350g fresh pasta
4 courgettes
200g green olives
200g yellow tomatoes
100g macadamia nuts
a handful or two of pine nuts
good quality olive oil
a handful of grated parmesan
fresh basil leaves

Boil the pasta in slightly salted water with a spoonful of olive oil. Drain, pour some cold water through it and place back in the pan. Add the pesto and mix it in well so it covers the whole pasta.

Pour some oil in a pan, heat it up and add sliced courgettes, cook until soft.( I like mine with a little bit of crunch). Add them to the pasta and heat it up slightly. Take it off the heat again and add the rest of the ingredient: olives, halved tomatoes, macadamia and pine nuts. Sprinkle with some grated Parmesan and fresh basil leaves and ENJOY!!!

Bea xxx

Baked eggs

Posted on 07/17/201502/15/2018 by Bea

When I lived with my mum and dad I never used to have any interest in cooking.An ability to prepare some scramble eggs was enough to survive in case of a hunger attack and so I had no urge to learn more.
Eating,however,was a totally different story!
My mum can really work magic in the kitchen and she would always spoil us rotten with the delicious meals.Sharing food with other (ravenous!) dwellers (including two brothers and one always hungry dad!) was never easy…It involved a lot of ferocious fights over who is licking the bowl or why someone had eaten more apple and carrot salad!Hiding food was sometimes the best(if not the only)option,so I would tuck oranges and apples under the pillow in my bedroom 🙂
Mum would always try her best to make everyone happy and made sure that everyone had their fair share,she would divide a tin of cake into 5 long slices and cut first letters of our names with a knife on the top of each piece so we didn’t argue who’d eaten more cake…
(Just to let you know,nobody starved to death,we all survived and love each other to bits :))

Despite my lack of interest in cooking,I am amazed of how much I learnt about preparing food from my parents.They always emphasized that making a meal starts long before turning the oven on.It starts from choosing the ingredients.They would always pick fresh and seasonal produce from shops and farms they knew and they trusted.
It stayed with me and this approach is a fundamental principle of how I cook.Ingredient is what really matters.

You know that tomato on the shelves in the supermarkets in the middle of winter,picked before it ripened and shipped thousand of miles is not a tomato really.It only pretends to be.A real tomato turns into its colour on the vine,somewhere at a local farm,warmed by the summer’s sunshine and is super delicate,sweet and juicy.And this real tomato is the one you want to cook with!

Simple food.This is exactly what I love the most.Garden picked,seasonal vegetables,juicy tomatoes,fresh eggs and fragrant herbs thrown together onto an iron pan and baked in the oven is all I need these days.
We always have a batch of fresh eggs at home and we like to turn them into some amazing meals.
This recipe is our ultimate WINNER!

RECIPE:

for 2

INGREDIENTS:

1kg ripe tomatoes
splash of rapeseed oil
2-3 shallots
2-3 baby courgettes
1 small yellow pepper
4 duck eggs
favourite herbs(dry or chopped fresh ones)
salt,pepper

METHOD:

1.Boil a full kettle of water.Cut a shallow cross on the ”bottom” of each tomatoes,place them in a pot and cover with boiling water.The skin(where the cross is cut) should start to peel after about 20-30 seconds.Remove from the pot and leave to cool.You may place them in a bowl full of ice to cool quicker.Remove the skin and stems and chop them tomatoes.Place in a pan and cook for around 30 minutes until all the water will evaporate and you’ll be left with a thick tomato sauce.Season with salt and pepper and add some of your favourite herbs.

2.Preheat the oven to 190C.

3.In the meantime,add a splash of oil onto a frying pan,add chopped shallots,pepper and sliced courgettes.Fry for few minutes until they are all soft.Leave on the side.

4.Grease two iron pans with a little oil,arrange the tomato sauce and vegetables,leaving space for eggs,then crack the eggs in.

5.Bake for 15 minutes for soft eggs or 20 minutes for hard.

NOTE:You can prepare the tomato sauce the day before if you would like to eat baked eggs for breakfast but haven’t got enough time to cook it.(This is what I often do!)

Vegetarian lasagne

Posted on 04/15/201502/15/2018 by Bea

It’s been sooooo long since the last time I’ve been here.Way too long….I know.
I could moan that the time has never been generous to me,I could also find billions of excuses why I abandoned my beloved space for over a month.I could blame several things:the attention this very long post needed(I’ve assembled the longest gif ever!),my latest addiction to Instagram(wow!all this talents!),super exciting news about my course on Engage Live in September(can’t wait!),celebrating the fact that my photo has been short listed in Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year(yeah!),and also my latest visit to Poland.I could…The truth,why I haven’t been here for such a while is that……..there has been a lot going on……in my head.

I’ve been trying to harness my crazy minds.There have been a lot of thoughts lying there dormant for a while and suddenly they’ve all just gone wild.

Today’s world is the ideal place for the artists to thrive,isn’t it?It’s never in the history been so easy to show the work we create.The power of the internet and social media is huuuuge,you ”sell” yourself with one click of the button,while sitting in your PJs,sipping still steaming cuppa.Whatever you need is there.Is here.Within your hand’s reach.All this super talented people from different corners of the world you can talk to,the amazing inspirations wherever you look,informations you are curious about,articles you want to read,possibilities you dream of.
It’s so easy….convenient…..exciting…..and so overwhelming.

I’ve thrown myself into the race to compete with my worst enemy-the time.There is so many things I want to learn,so many people I want to spend time with,so many blogs I want to read,movies I want to watch,recipes I want to make,places I want to go to…..There was only one thing I haven’t got to do it all…….enough time.And as you can imagine it’s kind of a problem.I’ve been up to my ears with ‘to do’ lists:”urgent”, “today”, “tomorrow”, “soon”,”this month”,they’ve been getting longer and longer.I cross one thing out,adding three more to the list at the same time.

I become overinspired,my mind was overflowing with ideas and informations,RED LIGHT,WARNING and a piercing sound of fire siren:I’m OVERLOADED!

It felt like I’ve been pushed into a washing machine,trying to keep my balance while whirling like crazy.I don’t like this pace.I don’t want to whiz through my life,I want to live every minute of it.I need a change.I need to slow down.That’s the plan.

This changes will only influence this space for the better.There might not be a new post every week but there will be more time to create mouth-watering recipes,more time to share some inspiring photos,more talks about simple things that really matter.
I really hope you’ll spend all this slow,beautiful moments with me xxx

Ps.Give artist some support!Vote for your favourite photo in Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year!You can find my image in food blogger category(eggy one).I’ll be chuffed with your vote!

Let me tell you a little about the recipe.It’s been inspired by my latest visit to Jamie’s Italian.The idea for this amazing lasagna packed with fresh veggies was born while I was slowly savouring the amazing pasta dish with a fancy name too difficult to remember(hang on!just checked it on google-it was vegetable rotolo al forno).I could see it,fresh layers of pasta,mashed squash,tomatoes,ricotta….As it turned out couple of hours later after purchasing Jamie’s latest book that he had the same vision…..few years ago. 🙂 I’ll forgive him to ‘steal’ my recipe before I even thought about it for one simple reason:he is an amazing guy!

This recipe is much different to Jamie’s though.I used whole eggs for the pasta instead of just yolks,added some sweet potatoes,celeriac,leaving out dry mushrooms,aubergine,vino and heavy white sauce.I also added some lemon to ricotta layer to make the dish fresher and decided to sprinkle parmesan only on the top layer.It’s comforting but light.
It’s the best vegetarian lasagna you can imagine.

RECIPE:

Ingredients:

pasta sheets(scroll down for the recipe)

squash layer:
1 small squash(800g)
250g sweet potatoes
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
olive oil
sea salt

Red sauce:
4 medium onions
3 garlic cloves
3 carrots(270g)
piece of celery root(120g)
160 tomato puree
300 ml water
sea salt
fresh black pepper
olive oil

Spinach:
400 g spinach
salt
few springs of fresh oregano

White ‘sauce’:
500 g ricotta cheese
fresh juice from 1/2 lemon

Additionally:

50g Parmesan cheese

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.Halve the squash lengthways and deseed it.You don’t have to peel it although I always do 🙂 Slice it into 2cm pieces.Peel the potatoes and cut them into 2cm pieces too.Sprinkle with olive oil,chilli powder,salt and pepper.Roast in the over for 50 minutes.Remove after that time and mash really well,seasoning more if needed.

For the red sauce,peel the onion,garlic,carrots and celery root,then finely chopped them all.Pour some olive oil into a big pan and add chopped veg and cook for around 15 minutes until softened.Mix water with tomato puree and pour over the veg.Season with salt and pepper and cook it until completely soft,stirring occasionally.

Put a pan on a high heat with a splash of olive oil and oregano leaves.Cook it for around a minute and add spinach(I tend to chop mine before) and cook for around 15 minutes.Remove excess of water if needed.

Mix ricotta cheese with lemon juice.

FUN TIME-let’s make lasagna!

Cover the bottom of the dish with some olive oil.Cover the base with pasta sheet.Spread 1/4 of the red sauce,top with 1/3 squash,1/3 ricotta and 1/3 spinach bombs.Repeat two more times,spreading only a layer of red sauce at the top layer of pasta.You can cover it with grated parmesan cheese now or about 15 minutes before the cooking time ends.Bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes.

Let’s do some PASTA!

Ingredients:

150g ”00” pasta flour
50g semolina
2 eggs
1 tsp virgin olive oil
couple of tablespoons of water(if needed)

Preparation:

1.Pile the flour and semolina in a bowl,make a well and crack the eggs in the middle.Add olive oil,then using a fork whip up the eggs with the flour.When it becomes too hard to mix,knead it with your hands into a ball of dough for around 3-5 minutes.When you find it to hard to knead,add some water(about 1-2 tablespoons).The dough should be quite elastic but not too wet or too dry.

2.Place the dough in a bowl and cover with clean cotton tea towel.Rest for 30 minutes.

3.Roll it out on a lightly flour surface into long sheets of pasta(fitting your dish).I always divide the dough into two bowls and roll out two long sheets,each sheets will cover two layers.
Does it make sense? 🙂 So it’s 4 layers of pasta all together 🙂

Note:

I often make a bigger batch of pasta,keep it in the fridge and use it the next day for dinner or freeze it 🙂