What to eat on a hot summer’s day? I can’t think of anything better and more refreshing than this chilled Polish beet soup (‘chlodnik).
First of all, this Polish classic is incredibly simple to make and very forgiving. You just can’t get it wrong. Because it’s chilled, you don’t have to serve it immediately which makes everything more relaxing. It can also easily be prepared the day before….
I made my first Seville orange marmalade almost 8 years ago. It was the second week after our son was born and we had just brought him home after a few days in the neonatal unit. Despite no sleep and the stresses of being a first time mum I remember finding the whole process very calming and relaxing. The result was several jars of bright, shining happiness, full of bittersweet flavour and a house that was filled with the delightful scent of orange nectar. I’ve been making marmalade every year since then.
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Remember that soggy and green pulp that they served at school for lunch? I do. It’s like that scene from the ‘Horrid Henry’ movie when Greasy Greta (Jo Brand) is pushing a trolley of the most unappetising looking bubbling vegetable stew in the school canteen.
I’m sure we all had some sort of unpleasant experience with cabbage at some point of our lives but you should leave it all behind you now because the truth is cabbage, if prepared with love and care, can be the star of the show.
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There is no substitute for a ripe, sweet, juicy summer tomato, the one that’s still warm from the sun and when the season is over it’s over. This summer’s scorching sun has been just what the tomatoes needed. I’ve never had such wonderfully sweet tomatoes before!
When tomatoes are at their most delicious, I think they should not be tampered with much. Simple presentation, like this fresh tart which is topped with colourful, juicy and glorious tomatoes does them the most justice. It doesn’t get any better.
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It may look unassuming but this small plant with delicate leaves and wonderfully peppery flavour is a real powerhouse. Gram for gram, watercress contains more calcium than milk, as much vitamin C as oranges and more folate than bananas. It’s high in vitamin K and for people like myself with low iron levels, it has more absorbable iron than spinach. Combined with sweetness of pear, mighty walnuts and creamy and complex flavour of Stilton, this simple, speedy and nourishing soup will soon become your favourite. This recipe has been adapted from Magic Soup: Food for Health and Happiness by Nicole Pisani and Kate Adams. In order to retain that incredibly vivid green colour, the unique flavour and nutrition, the key is to add watercress during the last two minutes of cooking.
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This is the most delicious and healthy tomato soup you’ll ever have. A nutritious powerhouse that you’re going to fall in love with. Garlic, ginger, turmeric, nutrient loaded pumpkin seeds and amazing coriander – need I say any more?
Here’s a simple, speedy soup to bring all of that health-giving goodness direct to your spoon and help you rebalance and heal your body.
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Traditionally made with beef, this spicy and aromatic dish is arguably the most famous beef dish in Malaysia and Indonesia. Rendang is a special kind of curry in which a main ingredient is slowly cooked in a rich and spicy lemongrass and coconut sauce until the meat is tender and the sauce is substantially reduced. It’s not, however, one of those dishes that you can whip up in minutes. It’s definitely worth the effort but a Rendang curry takes hours to make. I make two versions of this dish. My quick veggie version saves time but still highlights the classic aromatic ingredients with flavours of lemongrass, ginger, galangal, coconut and chilli. The vegetables beautifully absorb the spice infused coconut sauce. The second option using chicken as it really seems to work and makes for a slightly lighter version than beef.
This luscious dish, adapted from a recipe in Georgina Hayden’s book Stirring Slowly. Recipes to restore & revive (Square Peg, 2016), is traditionally eaten with sticky rice cooked in a bamboo segment. I have it with roasted buckwheat. Let’s just say buckwheat is as important to the Polish people as lemang is to the Malay people!
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“Small, misshapen, spotty and scabby, and full of pips, they do not inspire the cook. Nor are they remotely edible raw – they must be cooked. Yet when prepared properly they are a treasure” – John Wright describing crab apples in Hedgerow (Bloomsbury Publishing 2010).
I coulnd’t agree more. I would also include rosehips in the same category. The combination of those two foraged fruits produces the most wonderful flavour. I pair wild rosehips with crab apples to make jelly. The bad news is you probably won’t find fresh rosehips or crab apples in your local grocery, or even in a gourmet store. The good news though, is that these little gems seem to grow everywhere. Rosehips are one of the richest plant sources of vitamin C, and they are extremely high in antioxidants. The very high pectin content of crab apples means that the jelly always sets well. If you don’t have crab apples, you can replace them with cooking apples….
If the only ways of preparing potatoes you can think of are fried, boiled or baked, then you clearly have had little experience of Polish cuisine. We made the humble potato our national treasure and it’s at the core of an infinite number of traditional and regional dishes. These include potato pancakes (placki ziemniaczane), Silesian dumplings (kluski ślaskie), potato dumplings (pyzy), potato and cheese dumplings (pierogi ruskie), plum dumplings (knedle)….I could go on and on…The potato is the single ingredient that best represents Polish cuisine. Nutritious and versatile, it has also been our constant companion during the hardships of poverty and war, when resourcefulness was essential in order to survive.
Potato babka is a very traditional dish of the region that I’m from in the north-east of Poland and it requires relatively few ingredients. The only tricky part is grating. You can either grate the potatoes by hand, as fine as you can, or use an electric grater. Grating by hand can be a lot of work, especially when you’re feeding a lot of people. I don’t have an electric grater but I used a NutriBullet which I love and it does its job incredibly well.
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