Sad news :( For me, anyway.

 

I don’t know how to even start. I never thought it will be so emotional, but when I decided to write this post I couldn’t get any sleep until 4 am…

I have to admit I have been struggling with my English blog for quite some time and I considered giving it up when I came back from Cornwall in October last year. To write a post in English takes more effort and time than in my native language. Recently I discovered that to keep my English blog going I have to sacrifice something else, something very valuable – quite a lot of my spare time. I have at least a dozen of books waiting to be read and I want to limit the time I spend in the front of the laptop. I also need to move more; recently I gave up a part of my life that was very important to me – the exercise routine. I also have a culinary column in one of the Polish internet magazines and recently I looked back at my work published in the last 3 months – I should have done so much better, pay more attention to text and photographs and who is to blame is me - being overworked and try to do too many things at once.

Also and probably more importantly I realised that English will never be language that will allow me to express in 100%. People say I am intelligent, bright and have good and specific sense of humour (hence my endless love for Monty Python) and my writing skills in my native language are pretty good. My personality shines through my stories. This is not happening and I don’t think will happen soon in my posts written in English. My workplace is certainly not a good place to improve my writing skills – I work with numbers (and as probably most of you – I have to work to pay my bills). I tried to do GCSE few years ago, but after about 6 weeks I was the only one of the whole group (in which, funnily enough, I was the only foreigner!) who was willing to carry on with this course. Other students just gave up and local authorities had to cancel the night class and never came back to the idea of organizing another one.  Unfortunately where I live there is no other option, except perhaps private one-to-one lessons that are pretty expensive.

It certainly has been an amazing journey for nearly three years (anniversary on Valentine’s Day) and I would like to thank all of you who expressed their support for what I was doing here. For kind comments about the recipes, feedback about how you liked some of my dishes or the photographs. For me it is a sad day but in some way this could be very liberating and can lead me to something more exciting in my life. Who knows?  

So thanks again, very warm wishes to everybody who visited this blog and enjoyed it.

Lots of love,

Karolina

xxx

P.S. I would like to express that I am aiming to improve my photographs and if you feel that I am right person to prepare an article about Polish or any recipes or you need photographs for your articles, food styling or perhaps just need a posters for your private kitchen, tea room please let me know – I am very keen to work in food related industry and I hope giving up English blog will give me more time and energy to i.e.  build up my portfolio. Maybe even to open a secret tea room, or perhaps to help others to organize dinner parties? Please, please do not hesitate to contact me if you need any form of help or food/recipe writing/photography work to be done for you.  

Karolina

karolina.food.blog@gmail.com

Season's Greetings

With very best wishes for festive season and 

the New Year to my dearest readers. 

With love,

from

Karolina

I can't promise new posts before January 2013, because I really feel like not doing anything but reading some books in the front of my fireplace during this short break, but what I can promise is that you will have more reasons to come back to this blog in new year - I am planning on improving the look of this blog and hope to cook even better dishes!

All the best! :)

Candied orange peel in dark chocolate - Christmas gifts vol. 9

makes about 4-5 sets 

4 large oranges

¼ tsp ground ginger

2 cups of sugar

2 cups of water

about 300-400g dark chocolate

Wash the oranges and using small knife divide the peel into four quarters then remove the peel gently. Place on the chopping board and flatten each one with your hand. Remove the white part using sharp knife in the same way as filleting and skinning a fish. Discard the white part - it is quite bitter and cut the orange peel into the stripes about 1 cm wide.

Bring a pan of water to the boil and add the orange peel. Simmer for about 15 minutes, then drain and leave it to dry little bit.

Add 2 cups of water, 2 cups of sugar and ginger to the pan and bring to the boil, then add the orange peel and lower the heat then simmer until most of the fluid is almost gone and peel is nearly translucent. It took me about 75 minutes. 

Remove the pan from the heat and leave it to cool down a bit then remove the orange peel from the pan and place on a wire rack to cool down completely. I left it overnight.

Next gently melt the chocolate in bain marie - in a bowl placed in a pan over simmering water. With a help of two forks dip each strip of orange peel in the chocolate and place onto a baking paper to set. It took only 5 minutes in my cold kitchen. Next divide bags or tins. 

Brussels sprouts puree

Have to say I am still in love with "Hugh's Three Good Things (on a plate)". I have a feeling this is probably my first cookery book from which I will use every single recipe. It will take some time but I will eventually. This is a recipe for brussels sprouts puree that goes really nicely with black pudding and bacon - I tried the exact recipe from the book and it is fantastic. I have also tried it with some roast pork and potatoes and this is a lovely take on a side veg. If you are brussels sprouts lover you will also enjoy it on a toasted bread or straight from a food processor - like I do.

I have good news for those who are not fans of the bitterness typical for this vegetable - this puree is quite sweet, I recon due to the onions and cream and tastes almost like a pea puree.      

 

Serves 2-3 

250g brussels sprouts

25g butter

1 medium onion or 2 shallots, peeled and diced

2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

50ml double cream

salt 

freshly ground black pepper

Trim the sprouts and crisscross on the bottom - this will help to cook them more evenly and quicker.

Heat the butter in the pan and fry the onions for about 10 minutes over a low heat - until soft but not browned. Add the garlic for the last 2 minutes of frying. Then place in a food processor.

Bring a pan of water to the boil, add some salt and boil the sprouts until tender then drain and place into the food processor.

Add the cream, little salt, some freshly ground black pepper and puree. I like it quite coarse, but you can make it smooth.

It is suitable for reheating in a non stick pan, but unfortunately it looses its colour.

Marinated beetroot carpaccio with rocket & horseradish mackerel

Beets & horseradish.

Horseradish & mackerel.

Beetroot, horseradish & mackerel.

I know perfectly well this lovely combination and have to say this is one of my favourite ever, so this time I am presenting an elegant starter using this well known combination of flavours. I served it recently for a supper to our friend who really enjoyed this combination and mentioned that probably most of the local farmers would be very unhappy if I served them raw beets. These in a fact are marinated, crunchy and zingy as ever. By marinating they loose some of their earthiness, that some people find unattractive.

 

serves 4

4-5 medium beetroots, peeled and sliced into very thin slices

4 tbsp of red wine vinegar

8 tbsp olive oil

2 level tbsp sugar

200g smoked mackerel fillets, skin removed, flaked into chunks

3 tbsp of freshly grated horseradish

juice of one small lemon

salt

freshly ground black pepper

4 small handfuls of rocket

little poppy seeds

Place the vinegar, 2 tbsp olive oil, sugar and little slat in an airtight container. Add the sliced beetroots, cover and leave it in a cool place for minimum 12 hours, preferably 24 hours. Shake the box every few hours so the beets are getting marinated evenly. 

In a second box mix the remaining olive oil, horseradish, lemon juice, some salt and pepper and mix well. Next add mackerel pieces, mix gently so you don't break up fish too much and cover. Leave it in a cool place for minimum 12 hours, preferably 24 hours.

Before serving remove bring it to the room temperature - I kept them in warm kitchen for about 1 hours before serving.

Drain the beets from the marinate and place on the plates in one layer, overlapping. Place small handful of the rocket and some mackerel in the middle. Drizzle with horseradish olive oil left from marinating the fish. If there is not enough left add some extra lemon juice and olive oil into the box and mix well.

Sprinkle with some poppy seeds and serve with good bread.