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Pickled Bell Peppers

Summer is almost over which means it's time for jars in the kitchen! :) Early autumn is my absolutely favourite time - you get to prepare for winter, do jams, tinctures, dry herbs, fruits, mushroooms, prepare cough syrups and all sorts of magical potions you'll later on add to your winter tea. I like to savour this time, slow down and relish the hours spent with my sleeves up in my kitchen.

So, an absolute MUST is a bunch of jars with pickled peppers. Early September is the best time for this one - peppers are fully ripe, sweet and cheap (which matters because we will use a lot of them :)

Aside from peppers we will need:

1 glass vinegar (10%)

6 glasses water

1 tbsp salt

9 tbsp sugar

bay leaves (1 per jar)

allspice (3 per jar)

peppercorns (5 per jar)

mustard seeds (half a teaspoon per jar)

sliced onions (2 slices per jar)

oil (1 tbsp per jar)

First, we prepare the 'dry' jars. I always go with different jar sizes so that depending on my need I can pick size. Wash the jars carefully, scald them out with boiling water. At the bottom of each jar place: 1 bay leaf, 3 allspice corns, 5 peppercorns, half a teaspoon mustard seeds, two slices onion, 1 tbsp oil. Note: these are measurments for a medium-sized jar, you might want to adjust them if you make different sizes.

Wash the peppers, remove the seeds and slice into stripes (about an inch wide). Pack them very tight into the jars.

Now let's get to the pickle water: in a pot bring the water, vinegar, salt and sugar to boiling. Take off the heat, pour into the jars so that all peppers are covered. Put lids on jars, make sure they are closed tight.

Prepare a hot watter bath: place jars in a big pot, they should be in water up to about 3/4 of their height. Heat up until boiling. You might have to repeat this if you got a lot of pepper jars until all of them have been pasteurized. Be careful when taking the hot jars out of the hot water. Place all jars upside down until they cool down and the lids pop inside (sometimes you need to touch them and they will). No need for keeping in a fridge :)

A few tips:

you can add a clove of garlic to a few jars for a variation in flavour

for a chilli touch you can add a chilli pepper

any spices you like can give the peppers more variety

my favourite way of eating them is on sandwiches but they are also great for cooking, salads and just on their own

Enjoy! :)

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Falafel

Hello again,

I've been very bad, neglected this blog for such a long time. I have had quite few posts prepared (pics, drawings) but could never find the time to blog. I've missed it so much!

Today I'm writing about falafel, as it's one of my all-time favourite dishes. I can't believe how long I waited to try make it myself. It's very easy once you know the basic principle: you don't cook the chickpeas :)

Here's our list:

We have to soak the chickpeas overnight so you must always decide in advance if you want to make falafel. On the following day strain the chickpeas, and blend with the onions and garlic until fairly smooth. Put in a bowl, add chopped parsley, spices and salt and mix well. The mix should be sticky, so it it's too dry, add a little water. Put aside for two hours (yep, a lot of waiting with this one).

Heat up oil in a deep pan and fry the falafels (you can use a special form to shape them or just do a meatball-like shape using your hands). If the balls are too sticky you can coat them in flour. Once golden-brown, the falafels are ready to serve. They go great with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and tahini but it's really up to you what you serve them with. Bon apetit! :)

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Pumpkin and barley risotto

Today I'm presenting you with my all time autumn favourite: the pumpkin risotto. Of course with the rich choice of pumpkins you can pick your favorite.

I pick a mildly sweet orange variety. What makes it even better is the barley. The dish is simple, easy and very filling.

We start with chopping the onion and frying it for a few minutes on a spoon of butter. Then add the uncooked barley and keep stirring until onion gets glassy. Season gently with fresh rosemary (too much will dominate the mild flavours, we don't want that).

Add the pumpkin, a glass of water and a glass of wine. Let simmer for about half an hour, add more water if it begins to stick to the pot. Season with freshly ground pepper and seasalt (these tiny details make a big difference in the final outcome).

When the barley is completely soft and the pumpkin in 'melting' on the tongue take the pot off the heat and cover with the lid. After five minutes add the creme fresh, stir and start serving while still hot. It goes well with white wine for dinner and with fresh cut parsley for lunch ;)

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Quick and healthy tomato soup

Tomatoes are out of season now but a little while ago they constituted half of my daily diet :)

Once I bought so many that I needed to cook something using a lot of them before they went bad. So I made the good old tomato soup with a fresh take on it:

After chopping everything into pieces, add two glasses of water, herbs and cook on low heat.

After a while, when everything has cooked soft, blend the contents of the pot, bring into boiling one more time, add salt and pepper (and a teaspoon of sugar if you really want to bring out the flavour of the tomatoes). The soup should be smooth and creamy without any cream in it :)

Serve hot with light bread or baguette sprinkled with a little good quality olive oil. You can also serve it cold (fridge temperature) it it's hot outside and you want to cool down.

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Autumn Plum Dumplings

All vegetarians love autumn, don't they? It's abundant in all the best things: apples, pears, plums, peppers, pumpkins, mushrooms... yummy. All of them taste the best when it's their natural ripening season, contain the most nutrients and definitely make me want to cook. I love autumn in the kitchen for so many reasons... That's when you make jars of pickled stuff for winter, prepare jams and dry forest mushrooms on a string above the heater... :) Makes me think of the cosy winter time to come, which I love the most.

Back to kitchen affairs: I neglected the blog for a while and some things have piled up to be posted asap. I'll start with one of my favorites: potato dumplings with plums. Let me introduce you to some serious Slavic folklore:

Basically this is an easy to make dish if you have some leftover potatoes from yesterday's dinner. Or you can just boil more than usual so that you make sure you'll have some leftovers - that's what I did ;)

Mash the boiled potatoes until very smooth, add one egg, a little salt and the flour. Blend into a smooth mass and form as shown below (you might need some extra flour it it sticks to your fingers):

Now cut the dough into about 2cm pieces, prepare the plums: cut them into four, remove the stone. One plum piece goes with one dough part: before closing the dough over the plum, sprinkle it with some sugar.

Boil water in a big pot, add a teaspoon salt and cook the dumplings, but try not to overcrowd them or they might fall apart. I try not to cook more than 6 at a time. Also, make sure they don't stick to the bottom of the pot by stirring every now and then. From the moment the dumplings come out to the surface let them boil for 7-10 minutes depending on their size.

Strain, serve hot topped with melted butter and a touch of sugar. Bon apetit! :)

P.S. In Poland they are called knedle and are a popular dish in many regions.

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Tiny doughnuts

I'll be honest with you, I'm no fan of cake. But having to deal with a true sweet tooth on a daily basis I've embraced the idea of baking this and that. As much as I love cooking, baking has never really been my thing but watching my sugar-hooked 30-year-old bring all sorts of baked goods home for dessert (apparently some people have a second stomach, reserved just for dessert:) made me a little worried about the quality of mass-produced doughnuts and cake. Thus I decided I'd give it a shot, and since he likes doughnuts more than anything, I looked up some recipes, made some adjustments and... well, he ate them all :)

Warm up the milk to room temperature, add the yeast, stirr well and let it sit for half an hour. Add eggs, sugar, salt and flour and mix until smooth. You can use a fancy mixer. I don't have one, so I just used my arm - it's quite the exercise. While mixing, add the butter, a spoon at a time. When the dough is nice and thick (you might need extra flour if it's too runny) wrap it in cling film and put in the fridge for the night.

On the next day unwrap the dough and form flat dough balls (remember they will grow!) and let them grow a bit in a warm place for about 2 hours.

When they look light and puffy, heat up about 5 cm of oil in a deep pan. I used sunflower oil, but any oil with no invasive flavor can be used. Make sure the oil is hot (should be about 180 C) and gently place the doughnuts in it. Fry 2-3 minutes on each side until golden-brown.

Prepare a paper towel on which you will place them after taking them out of the pan, sprinke them with sugar.

The doughnuts are done now but you might want some stuffing. I used raspberry jam I made the day before (basically cooked, mashed raspberries:).

Well, since I didn't have any proper baker's equipment, I served the jam on the side and we were just dipping the doughnuts in it, but of course if you have a baker's syringe, go for it and stuff them ;)

Now, any book will tell you you should wait until they cool down before serving, but of course this is NOT what I did - the doughnuts were all gone while still hot. Everyone was happy - Sweettooth had his dessert and I knew I lowered his daily sugar intake by about 80% (the doughnuts were much less sweet than the ones from the shop). I even enjoyed a couple myself :)

Now, I have given it a lot of thought how to make the doughnuts vegan (in the ones above I used soy milk, but eggs and butter stayed as they were) and here is my proposal for the adjustments. Next time I will try to do it this way:

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Chunky Mediterranean tomato soup

Tomatoes are in season now and every time I go to the market I bring more and more home - there is nothing better in August than juicy sweet tomatoes. Just look at these beauties:

I love all kind of tomatoes: cherry, plum, oxheart, yellow... And most of the time I just eat them on sandwiches or in a simple salad with a little onion, salt, pepper and vinegar. You really don't need much more.

After reading lots of bad things about canned tomatoes I started using fresh ones for my soups and sauces too. Today I would like to share my absolute favorite tomato soup recipe - it's filling, aromatic with herbs and full of chunky veggies to fish around for. Here's the list of ingredients:

Nothing extraordinary really, and yet what an extraordinary taste! Prepare a big bowl, chop and slice all the mushrooms and vegetables (except for the tomatoes), give them a good stir in the bowl, add parsley, basil, allspice, bay leaves and a teaspoon marjoram.

In a large pot, heat up the olive oil and fry the contents of your bowl for about 5 minutes, stirring. Once the veggies have a nice, oily glaze, add a glass of water and the previously chopped (and preferably peeled) tomatoes. I also add half a teaspoon of sea salt at this moment, but you can use a vegetable stock cube if you prefer.

And now, it's time for a little kitchen magic. What is going to give your soup a very savory, Mediterranean touch, is a glass of dry or semi-dry wine. Red will give it a nice, dark color, white will make it a little more zesty - take your pick. The original recipe (which also has meat in it) says red, but I tried both and each is just as good with a slightly different finishing flavor. Now, put the lid on your pot, lower the heat and let it boil lightly for half an hour (from time to time stir to avoid burning). Once the potatoes are soft, add a final pinch of salt and pepper and you're good to go.

Here's the best thing about this soup: it gets better and better on the following days. This is why I like to prepare a big pot of it and keep it in the fridge for 3-4 days only taking little portions from it daily. The longer the veggies sit in the lovely stew, the tastier they get. Of course the soup is great on the first day too, but resting in the pot makes it get thicker and more filling each passing day. The picture above shows it reheated on the second day.

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Hot barley stew

I make my cooking very intuitive - never sticking strictly to the recipe, rather following my taste and my instincts. I don't find it chaotic, rather liberating. I strongly recommend doing every dish your own way - I've learned from experience that the same recipe tastes completely different when made by different people anyway, so instead of going for copying someone just be yourself and add your own touch to your food. This is why even though my list gives certain vegetables, feel free to replace any of them with anything you like. I can tell you right now that next time I'll be using different ones for the barley stew myself (mostly depending on what I've got at hand :) ). I'd be very happy if you treated my blog as an inspiration in your kitchen.

As promised, here's the first paprika-loaded recipe. It is a Hungarian-style stew with a peppery kick to it. I tried a similar dish that had potatoes instead of barley but, as stated above, I wanted to try something else and thus barley. Now, should you wonder what pearl barley is, I'll only say: TRY IT.

These days we got used to potatoes and rice so much that we aren't even aware of what people in Europe ate before they were introduced to our tables. And the answer is: barley, wheat, buckwheat and other  nutritious cereals. I remember my grandmother telling me that when she was a little girl people couldn't afford potatoes and only ate all kinds of groats. In the more modern and prosperous times a certain stigma had been attached to cereals, making them the 'poor's food'. Eagerly replaced with starchy potatoes and loads of meat, cereals were only accepted as part of bread or crunchy breakfast sweets. I remember I was never very fond of potatoes and loved the 'poor' groats. Especially buckwheat groats, which I shall introduce soon.

I have to say I love the exotic couscous or quinoa but they don't even begin to compare to pearl barley that, for some reason, isn't very popular these days (apart from central and eastern Europe). For this recipe, pearl barley can be replaced with any other grain (just keep in mind how long it needs to be cooked). Here's the list:

Start with a deep, wok-like pan - it's a one-pot dish and you'll need a big one. Heat up your oil (or butter), add the chopped onion, garlic, chillies, allspice, bay leaves, caraway and mustard seeds (about a half teaspoon each) and fry until onions get glassy.

Add all the other vegetables and mushrooms (cut the way you like), fry for another 5 minutes and season generously with paprika (in my case two teaspoons).

Add the uncooked pearl barley and two glasses of water, a few pinches of salt and pepper, stir well and let it simmer at very low heat for about 20 minutes. If it start's burning, just add more water.

You will know it's ready when the barley is soft. The whole secret here is that the barley has been cooking in the aromatic stew, not in water - this makes a huge difference. Taste before serving and add more salt if needed.

One serving of the stew will fill you for a long time. It can be easily reheated or frozen for another time. Two important tips:

Enjoy!

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A taste of Hung(a)ry

Having just returned from wonderful Hungary I'm up for some challenges and inspired as I am with the abundance of peppers in everything the Hungarians eat, I decided to apply a little bit of the Hungarian flavor in my kitchen. Equipped with all the necessary ingredients,

I begun the experimenting. So even though you won't find the recipes in any cookbook I swear I tried them all out on myself (and my boyfriend) and only picked the most delicious ones. This isn't traditional Hungarian cuisine but I used Hungarian ingredients:

including the very rich wine:

and was able to capture a little bit of the country's spirit. In the next few weeks I'll be sharing some of those recipes with you and I promise it will be veggielicious :)

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Her Majesty, the Oatmeal

In my experience the world is divided into two groups of people - the ones who love oatmeal and the ones who hate it. If you're in the first one, there's no need convincing you that there's hardly a heartier breakfast than oatmeal. If you're in the second group - I'll try to explain to you that you've lived in the dark until now and your dislike towards this belly-warming delight was probably caused by a sloppy cook who didn't put nearly enough care into preparing it. Or you're just from the cereal generation and despise warm breakfast, in which case I have to tell you - those fruit loops aren't that fruity, honey. Ok, just come on and give it a go :)

I've been cooking oatmeal for a few years now and try to make it as often as possible (I will present many delicious variations to the standard) and every time I eat it I wonder how I could've lived without it for so many years.

Here's what we will need:

Let's get started:

1. Put the nuts, oats and bran into a medium-size pot and add two glasses water.Bring to boiling, turn down the heat and let it simmer while you chop up the fruit of your choice (in my case half a pineapple and a peach).

2. Add the fruit, a big spoon of honey (gives a much better taste than sugar) and let it simmer for another 10 minutes, giving it a stir every now and then.

3. Check if the oats are soft. If not, simmer for another 5 minutes. You might have to add some more water if it gets to thick and starts burning (a lot depends on how juicy fruits you have chosen).

4. I usually let the oatmeal rest a while after switching off the heat so that the fruits get completely soft (apples, pears or pineapples need a little longer).

5. Top with a handful of fresh berries and enjoy while still hot! Note the lovely texture of the cooked hazelnuts :)

You're probably saying: hey, the recipe says oatmeal with blueberries and hazelnuts, but she only cooked the nuts. True :) I like the berries fresh - they go great together with the hot oatmeal. You can cook them with the rest if you prefer. A little note on the berries - these are market bought blueberries that people also grow in their gardens. The blueberries that I like most are wild blueberries (the little ones that are purple-red inside and leave immortal stains on everything!) but you can't always get them (or pick them) :(

How did you like the oatmeal? How did your stomach feel after it? did you get hungry soon after or did it keep you going for a long while? Try to observe these things so that you can make wise decisions regarding your nutrition. Your body will tell you what makes it healthy.

I'm in the process of familiarizing my boyfriend, who is a proper eggs and bacon kind of guy, with breakfasts like this. At first he wasn't keen on oats but, in fairness, my oatmeals weren't that great either. Now that I've improved, he happily eats them without the slightest complaint (or is it because I'm so bossy???) :)

A few tips to make the best oatmeal here:

the better water you use, the better the taste. I try to use filtered water all the time

don't skip the bran! It's abundant in fiber, minerals and vitamins. Try all kinds of bran: buckwheat, wheat, rye etc. to find out which is most to your liking - I have a jar where I keep a mix of different kinds of bran but sometimes I just use one if I'm going for a particular flavor

if you can't or don't want to use hazelnuts, you can replace them with any kind of nuts or seeds (walnuts, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, sesame, sunflower seeds, even peanuts)

same with honey - can be replaced with maple syrup

try to have a good fruit to oats ratio in your pot (like 1:1) - I found that the secret of a delicious oatmeal is that the oats need company of other things - and fruits do the best job

don't have your oatmeal to thick, rather to thin - the water gets the essence of everything cooking in it and as you let the oatmeal settle for a while it will thicken

Finally, let me share a secret here: when my oatmeal is half-ready, I add a teaspoon of unsalted, preferably clarified, butter (but only real butter, no weird butter-like stuff). It is, of course, optional (and not very diet-friendly) but it lifts the dish to a whole new level of deliciousness :)

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welcome to my little kitchen :)

so, here it is. I've been thinking of doing this for some time now - and finally I shall share my little kitchen space here! I am lucky enough not to have to work too much so I spend lots of time cooking.

Cooking is a little like making music: once you get a hold of all the scales and tunes you start creating your own stuff. There are some rules that must be followed in order not to spoil the dish, but, like in music, experimenting often pays off. You can come up with amazing new flavours... and often a dish is a one-time master performance! You may repeat it well but NEVER exactly the same. Flavours are as elusive as sounds and likewise can please the soul (as well as the body).

My boyfriend would probably say it's stupid to compare music to cooking, but it's only because he's a musician and likes to think music is so special;) so don't listen to the guy! Anyway, you might argue that anyone can cook. But can they really? I bet anyone can play a simple song but will this song be enjoyable? Well, depending on one's needs, I'd say. Same with cooking - you can just stuff yourself with anything, who needs cooking? But if you really want to nourish your body (and you should, because your body IS a temple!) you should put some thought and care into how you prepare meals. So here I am, inviting you to join me in my quest for mastery in kitchen magic.

I will share all kinds of things here: amazing ingredients, herbs and spices, recipes, tips and tricks and all the other stuff a kitchen wizard must know. 

Oh, yeah. And it is going to be meat-free since I've given up on eating animals a while ago. But I promise these dishes are worth trying, even if you're a meat eater:) - just ask my boyfriend.