Mum’s best PIEROGI + trip to POLAND

The last few weeks were bonkers.I mean, TOTALLY!I gathered together everything I know about food photography and styling, blew up my comfort zone and travelled to Nothern Irleand to share my knowledge during a live(!!!) online course in front of the camera(!!!!!). It was CRAZY!And I LOVED it!
The thing about sharing is that you can give away everything you have and everything you know, and more always come back to you…And after what I’ve recently experienced I feel like the richest person in the world.

I thought I know myself well,but I learnt more….It turned out that I store more energy in my body than Three Gorges Dam Power Plant,that my voice doesn’t sound like my own when it’s recorded and that I say ”you know” way too often!

I also learn that a pink lipstick is a woman’s best friend!That the currency in N.I. is pound sterling and that I didn’t need to buy and bring with me any Euros (You should see my face when I was paying for a taxi!I dye my hair blond for a reason ;))That there are no shops open after 6 p.m.,only pubs, which is not a bad thing I suppose…..ohhh and that the Guinness only tastes so good in IRELAND!

I found out that staying in the apartment situated opposite the night club during a Freshers’s week is not the best idea and that there is no chance I can fall asleep with 100 students singing outside my windows even if I try meditation, relaxing music or piling 4 pillows over my head.(HUGE THANKS to the team for moving me to a different hotel the next day!!!But of course their could never predict that my new room would have a broken key system and a humming radiator!All turned out well though.Ufff!After my polite explanation that I needed a quiet room, they put me in the beautiful apartment with the best view of the city you can imagine and a massive bed!!!I was doing my happy dance in a hallway!)

I fell in love with Ireland and with people I met, their kindness, hospitality and sense of humour.Oh and I fell head over hills with Irish accent too!

I realized too that I have a pretty good relationship with that girl I see in the mirror every morning and that it’s good to be friends with yourself πŸ™‚ And most important…that I have amazing people by my side, who always support me,love me for who I am and who make me a better ‘me’.I would never do it without you and I love you more that you can imagine! ;*

If you watched the class or are going to watch it….I hope I showed the real me….imperfect, a little crazy and totally in love with food and photography!I also hope that you enjoyed those three days with me and that somehow I infected you with my passion and inspired you to learn more!If you are interested,find more information on engage.co or Engage facebook page where you can find an interview with me and some behind the scenes πŸ™‚

I wanted to say HUGE THANK YOU to ENGAGELIVE for giving me this opportunity and for making me feel like home.HUGE THANK YOU to Rachel Jane Cam and Eva Kosmas Flores for contributing to my class.You are the best!

 

Right,so let’s talk about today’s post.I promised you I would share more pictures from our last visit to Poland, remember?It was a long time ago but I really couldn’t wait to show you the place so close to my heart and share mum’s best pierogi recipe πŸ™‚

So let me take you for a trip….

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I find Poland easy to love…Its flavours,sounds,scents,colours and surroundings fill every corner of my childhood memories….and my rebellious teenage years too πŸ™‚ Its breathtaking views always melt my heart….and the food….what can I say…..it makes me soooo HUNGRY!

Did you know that pierogi is the tastiest food ever invented on this planet?Now you know πŸ™‚

And what is better than a mum’s recipe? Two mums best recipes combine into one,of course!
So this pierogiΒ  is a combination of the tips given by my mum and my mum-in-law.And I’m giving you all the secrets away!Believe me,it can’t get any better πŸ™‚ SMACZNEGO!

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RECIPE:

makes 50

INGREDIENTS:

For the dough:
300g plain flour + for dusting
1 egg
20g butter,melted
120ml warm water
pinch of salt

For the filling:
500g potatoes,cooked
500g polish curd cheese(you can get it from a polish shop or if you are UK based,they sell it in ASDA :))
4 medium onions,chopped
1 tablespoon of oil
fresh dill, chopped
freshly ground salt and pepper
optional: 200g bacon, chopped and fried

Serve with fresh dill and chopped and fried onions.
You can also add some chopped and fried bacon :0

PREPARATION:

Heat the oil on a frying pan, add onions and fry until gold.Mash the potatoes with the cheese, add the fried onions and mix together.Form 50 equal balls.Leave on the side.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

Prepare the dough,sift the flour onto a clean surface(or in a bowl), make a well,crack the egg in the middle and add add butter,salt, and pour the water slowly combining all the ingredients with a wooden spoon and then with your hands.Knead for 5 minutes until the dough is soft and elastic.
If it’s still sticky add some more flour.Not too much because the dough will get too hard.

Divide the dough into four parts.Cover them with a cotton towel so they don’t dry out.Roll out the first one onto a lightly floured surface(quite thin – around 3mm),cut out circles very close together using (7cm/2,75β€³) glass, cutter or jar. Put shaped into a ball filling on each circle,holding it in your hand, fold into a half-moon and pinch edges, forming a well-sealed crescent.Transfer each one onto a lightly floured surface.

Do the same with the other parts.

Working in batches, transfer pierogi to the boiling water. They will sink to the bottom(stir them carefully so they don’t stick to the bottom, but be careful not to brake the dough) and then rise. Once they have risen, cook through, about 2 more minutes. Transfer pierogi into a bowl using a slotted spoon and drizzle with melted butter.

Serve with fried onions and fresh dill.

Mum’s secret:

1.Roll out the dough quite thin.When it’s too thick it will be hard when cooked.

2.More filling, the better πŸ™‚ That’s why ”filling balls” come handy πŸ™‚

3.Cook potatoes the day before if you can.When you do this the potatoes will ‘dry’, which makes the filling much better!Watery filling is something you want to avoid πŸ™‚

4.Use good quality curd cheese.

5.To avoid pierogi sticking together(if you don’t eat them all straight away :)), take them out of the water and scatter them around on a big baking tray so they don’t touch one another.When they cool down, place them in one dish.To warm them up, cook them on a frying pan with a little butter or place them in the preheated oven.

Awesome cherry and mascarpone trifles

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I swear it feels like I was going to Poland 5 minutes ago and I’m already back from my holidays,unpacked, thrown back into my routine and I’m missing my family like crazy.It was soooo amazing!At times I feel like it never happened,like it was just a beautiful dream,but then I look at the photos(hundreds of them!) to reassure myself I’m not freaking out and that it was all real.

Poland is an amazing country and I would just love to take you guys all there and show you some of my favourite places.So just be patient and wait for the next post πŸ˜‰

For now I’m going to leave you with this lovely recipe.Do you also have a weakness for puddings served in glasses?Seriously,I melt the minute I see them arriving into the room.And cherry and mascarpone combo-OMG!-you want to try it!
The recipe sat unfinished on the blog for a long while and I had this very ambitious plan to write about it when I was in Poland.Hahaha!I know!What was I thinking?I didn’t even open the laptop once and only wastedΒ  space in my luggage where I could jam some more wild flower teas on the way back….lesson learned!

Boycotting internet and social media may be good idea on holidays but GOD!I missed this space!

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RECIPE:

Makes 6 glasses

INGREDIENTS:

for crumble

140g almond flakes
50g sesame seeds
4 tablespoons of ground almonds
4 tablespoons unsalted butter,melted
2 tablespoon honey or maple syrup

for cream

250ml double cream (cold)
400ml mascarpone
2 tablespoon maple syrup

Additionally

1kg cherries + 2 tablespoons hone/maple syrup/unrefined cane sugar

PREPARATION:

Preheat the oven to 190C.Mix all the ingredients for the crumble together and arrange it on a baking tray lined with a baking paper. Bake for 10 minutes,flipping the crumble with a spoon from time to time to prevent burning.Put on the side to cool.

Remove the stones from cherries,put 600g in a pot on medium heat.Cook for around 10 minutes,add the sweetener (honey/maple syrup or sugar) if needed (ripe and seasonal cherries may be sweet enough). Leave to cool or blend the cherries straight away(depending on the blender you’ve got-some shouldn’t be used with hot food). Put to the side.

Whip the double cream with maple syrup and fold in the mascarpone.The cream should be thick but quite light and fluffy.

Arrange puddings in glass cups,starting with a layer of cream,followed by cherry sauce,fresh cherries,crumble and repeat.

Enjoy with your favourite people πŸ˜‰

Baked eggs

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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 πŸ™‚
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!

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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!

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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!)