Baileys Pound Cake

1 cup caster sugar (I use golden)
5 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup Baileys
1 cup sunflower oil
2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cocoa
icing sugar, for dusting


Using an electric hand mixer mix the eggs together with the sugar until white and milk shake like. Add the oil and Baileys mixing all the time, then add the flour mixed with the baking powder but not all at once.

Place about 3/4 of mixture in a buttered 25cm round baking tube pan, and mix the remaining mixture with cocoa. Then place it over a previous one in the pan.

Bake in preheated oven (fan 170C) for about 60 minutes. Leave it to cool down, remove from a pan and dust with icing sugar.

Onion pie

Inspired by Nigella Lawson "How to be a Domestic Goddess"

Serves 6

For topping:

750g red onions (you can mix white and red, but red look better), peeled and quartered
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
salt
freshly ground black pepper
pinch of sugar
3-4 springs of thyme, de-stalked plus some extra do garnish
50g sharp Cheddar cheese or Gruyere, grated

Heat the oil and butter in the pan, then add the onions and cook over a medium heat, stirring regularly, for about 20 minutes. If possible use ovenproof pan, if not you can transfer the onions to a ovenproof dish just before baking. Add sugar, thyme salt and pepper.

For the dough:

250g wholemeal flour (you can use white)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
100g sharp Cheddar cheese or Gruyere, grated
egg
3 tbsp melted butter
100ml milk
1 tsp English or Dijon mustard

Meanwhile prepare the dough. Put the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl with the 100g of cheese. Pour the milk into a cup, add the melted butter, mustard and egg, mix well and then pour onto the flour mixture in the bowl. Mix to a dough using a fork, a wooden spoon, or your hands; it should be quite sticky, but pretty easy to roll. Then tip it out onto a work surface and ff it is too sticky use some more flour to roll it into a circle about the size of the pie dish.

Sprinkle 50g of cheese over the onions, then cover it with a dough, pressing it to seal the edges.

Bake in preheated oven (220C) for 15 minutes, then turn down the temperature to 180C and bake for further 10 minutes. The top should golden. Remove from the oven and let it rest for 5 minutes, then cover with a large plate or chopping board and turn upside-down.

Cut and serve garnished with fresh thyme springs.

Sour oats soup

This is so Polish! It is rustic, it is traditional and making your own sour starter is actually a fun. Traditionally I make rye sour starter, but I have tried this one and I feel like this is more delicate, the flavour is not too strong. Perhaps it is better for somebody who wants to start an adventure with Polish cusine.

For sour starter

6-7 tbsp oats
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and slightly crushed
bay leaf
2-3 whole allspice
2-3 whole black peppercorns
approx. 800ml warm water
clean jar or bottle

Put oats in a food processor or mini chopper and process until you have a coarse flour. You can use a pestle and mortar if you do not have a food processor.

Mix oat flour with water, until smooth - make sure you do not have any lumps. Add garlic, bay leaf, allspice, pepper and mix well. Pour into a jar or bottle, cover with clean cloth and place in warm place. The best temperature for fermentation process is around 22 C.

Make sure you shake or stir you starter every day. Fermantation should take around 5 days. Starter is ready when it smells sour, bit yeasty, perhaps little bit like sour apple.

There are two ways of using sour starter. Some people, i.e. me use the whole lot together with flour - the soup is more thick and floury. Some use the sour water only, making sure, that all flour remains on the bottom of the jar. To do it, do not shake the starter for last 12 hours - all flour should be on the bottom of the jar by the time you have to use the starter.


Sour oats soup (vegetarian, vegan and sausage version)

makes 6

whole sour starter
handfull of dried porcini mushrooms
piece of good quality Polish sausage (such as śląska) - skip for veggie version
3-4 potatoes, peleed and cubed
onion, peleed and diced
1 tbsp sunflower oil
800ml vegetable stock
2 tbsp marjoram (optional)
salt
freshly ground black pepper

In a big pan boil whole sausage and porcini mushrooms in the stock. For veggie version skip the sausage. After about 15 minutes remove the sausage and add potatoes. Simmer until soft. Make sure the potatoes are properly cooked before adding the sour sarter, bacause potatoes will not cook in the sour environment.

Meanwhile slice the sausage and fry the onion in sunflower oil until soft and lightly browned. Add the sour starter to the pan. For a thick soup add the whole lot, if you prefer more watery soups add just the sour water form a starter.

Stir, add sausage, marjoram, and season with salt and pepper. Let it simmer for few more minutes.

You can serve vegetarian version with quartered hard boiled egg, but you can also add the egg to sausage version. For vegan soup skip the egg and the sausage. You can also add some horseradish to the bowl when serving this soup.

Roasted tomatoes quinoa with pine nuts and feta cheese

Makes 2

250g quinoa
handful pine nuts
handful fresh mint, roughly chopped
10-12 cherry tomatoes
125g feta cheese, crumbled
salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 wedges of lime (optional)


Put quinoa into a sieve and wash under a running cold water. Place quinoa and cold water (I always put one part of quinoa to two parts of water) in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook until all the water is absorbed - about 15 minutes. The quinoa is done when all the grains have turned transparent, and the spiral-like germ has separated.

Bake the tomatoes under a hot grill, until skin becomes a bit loose, toast the pine nuts in dry pan until nuts are slightly brown, shaking the pan all the time.

When quinoa is cooked, season with a salt and pepper, mix with toasted pine nuts, chopped mint and arrange on the plate. Place roasted tomatoes around it and add crumbled feta cheese on the top. Garnish with some fresh mint and serve with lime wedges.

Simple chocolate brownies

Inspired by BBC "Good Food" magazine.

Makes 12-16

185g dark chocolate, broken into pieces (I use 70% cocoa solids)
185g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
3 eggs
200g golden caster sugar
85g plain flour, sieved
40g cocoa powder, sieved
100g white chocolate, roughly chopped (you can use milk chocolate or mix both)


Place the butter and dark chocolate in a bowl, and place it over a pan with simmering water. Put over a low heat until the butter and chocolate have melted, stirring occasionally. Leave it to cool down.

Break the eggs into a large bowl and tip in the sugar. Whisk the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer for about 5 minutes, until they look thick, creamy, and milky.

Pour the cooled chocolate mixture over the mixed eggs and gently fold together with a spatula in a figure of eight, moving the bowl round after each folding so you can get at it from all sides. Do not be tempted to use a mixer – the idea of putting them together gently and slowly is to not knock out the air from the mixture.

Next in the same way add flour and cocoa powder. It is better to sieve them evenly on the top of the chocolate mixture and then mix in a figure of eight until it looks fudgy.

Add chopped white chocolate into your mixture and stir gently. Pour the mixture into a square 20x20cm tin lined with a baking paper and bake in preheated oven (fan 160C) for about 25 minutes.

The top of your brownie should look like a paper, and middle should not be too wobbly. Turn off the heat, open the oven and leave it to cool down in it. Brownie will continue to cook for few minutes, so it is important to not overcook it in the oven – 25 minutes is enough.

Leave it to cool completely, cut into squares and serve. It tastes better next day.