Back from Gdańsk

Just back from a short stay in Gdańsk. Views from our appartment are in the photos.

We ate at our favourite places – Gdański Bowke, Lookier and Gvara(sic) and had our usual dishes – duck pierogi, bread pork and ribs amonst others.

The old market hall – Hala Taragowa, which had been closed for renovation is now open and is all FOOD. The top floor has a lovely Polish restaurant – Polana. there we had pierogi with zander – pike and shrimp tails. (See my recipe for fish pierogi for similar). These are in the photos.

I also bought some magazines and books so I have lots of inspiration for new recipes.

Eve’s Pudding

  • This is a recipe found in many English cookery books.
  • Whenever I tried this – the cake near the fruit was always raw and the apples often not cooked enough either.
  • This was true even if I partialy pre-cooked the apples.
  • I had given up on making for years.
  • Last year when I had so many apples, I decided to look in my Polish recipe books to see if there was a solution – to make an apple dessert which cooked well and was delicious.
  • *
  • I found a solution which at first seemed strange to me.
  • I made this in a square-ish clear Pyrex dish
  • The apples were paritially pre-cooked – as I would have thought.
  • The sponge cake on top was made with plain flour and just risen with beaten egg whites – no baking powder was used!
  • The pudding was baked at a much higher temperature – GM6 – 200°C!
  • It worked – the cake part rose and was fully baked.
  • The dessert was excellent – everyone liked it.

INGREDIENTS

  • 3 – 4 Bramley apples to fill the base of a square Pyrex dish
  • Around 2-3 tablespoons of granulated sugar
  • Large pinch of cinnamon – optional
  • *
  • 3 egg – seperated
  • 80g granulated sugar
  • 40g butter
  • 75g plain flour – sieved
  • 4 tablespoons sour cream

METHOD

  • Peel and core the apples and chop them into quarters or eigths.
  • Place in the bottom of the Pyrex dish.
  • Sprinke the sugar over these.
  • Bake in an oven until they are parcially cooked.
  • Leave to go completely cold before adding the cake part.
  • NOTE
  • You can make the apples the evening before.
  • Pre-heat the oven to GM6 – 200o C
  • Cream the sugar and the yolks till light and fluffy
  • Mix well in the butter and sour cream.
  • Fold in the flour.
  • Whisk the white until they are stiff. (you can have done this beforehand).
  • Fold these into the cake mixture.
  • Put the cake mixture over apples.
  • Bake for around 30-35 minutes.
  • Cool for a few minutes before serving.
  • Can be served hot or cold
  • My mama would never have served hot cake!

Royal Doulton Sonnet Tea Plate

Light Honey Cake

The basis of this recipe is from an English cookery book.

It is lighter on the honey than most of my Polish recipes.

Everyone loved this.

INGREDIENTS

  • 150 butter
  • 115g granulated sugar
  • 175g runny honey
  • 1 tablespoon of water
  • 200g plain flour
  • 2 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon of mixed spice
  • 2 eggs -beaten
  • *
  • Juice of 1 lemon and icing sugar to make an icing in the usual way.
  • (Note on the photograhs I only used 1/2 a lemon – not enough)

METHOD

  • Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180 0 C.
  • Use a cake liner in a high sided, loose bottom tin – 20cm (8inches) in diameter.
  • Gently heat the butter, sugar, honey and water in a small pan until the sugar has dissolved.
  • Leave to cool for 10 minutes,
  • Mix the flour, baking powder and mixed spice together.
  • Pour in the melted butter mixture and add the beaten eggs.
  • Beat until smooth.
  • Pour the batter into the tin.
  • Smooth the top.
  • Bake in th oven for 40 – 50 minutes, until well risen and a skewer comes out clean.
  • Leave to cool in the tin for at least 3 minutes.
  • Remove from the tin and place on a wire rack to cool.
  • *
  • Ice with icing made from 1 lemon and icing sugar.

Honeycomb Tin

I recieved another Nordic Ware to review.

This time this one that looks like cells in a beehive.

It is quite large so check it fits into your oven.

You need to brush melted butter into the tin and dust with dried breadcrumbs – bułka tarta

Once baked and turned out of the tin, you should be able to pull each individual little bun/cake apart.

I used a plain Madria style cake recipe but substituted some honey for the full amount of sugar I would have usually used.

You could add some mixed spices – not tested.

INGREDIENTS

  • 150g butter
  • 100g granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoons runny honey
  • 3 eggs
  • 225 plain flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder

METHOD

  • Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180 degrees centigrade
  • Cream the butter, sugar and honey till fluffy.
  • Add the eggs, 1 by 1 until well mixed.
  • Mix the baking powder with the flour.
  • Fold the flour into the creamed mixture until uniform.
  • Spoon the cake mixture into the buttered tin.
  • Bake for around 40 minutes
  • Leave in the tin to cool
  • *
  • Turn out onto a large cake rack.

Simple Cabbage

This must be the most simple fresh cabbage salad possible.
Just grated cabbage and lemon juice and salt & pepper to taste.

It is a surȯwka as the cabbage is not cooked.

INGREDIENTS

1/4 Fresh white cabbage

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt & Pepper to taste.

METHOD

  • Grate the cabbage using a coarse grater.
  • Mix the cabbage with the juice of 1 lemon.
  • Leave this for about 20 minutes.
  • Mix well and season to taste.

Bavarian china dish.

Pancakes with Poppy Seeds

  • I have been looking at recipes for various pancakes using poppy seeds.
  • Some did not turn out very well.
  • So I decided to use my best perfect pancake recipe and add 1 tablespoon of poppy seed per egg.
  • Poppy seeds contain several vitamins including B12 – so it is good to include these.

INGREDIENTS

  • 200g of plain flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 200ml of milk
  • 200ml of water
  • Pinch of salt
  • 2 tablespoons of poppy seeds

METHOD

Sift the flour

You must use a mixture of milk and water – 50/50 is the best – this ensures that the pancakes do not burn as easily and also enables you to make then very thin and elastic so they are easy to work with. (This is the most important tip).

  • Beat the eggs and add then them first to the sifted flour.
  • Add the milk mixture to the egg and flour mix until you have a batter the consistency of pouring cream.
  • Add the poppy seeds and stir.
  • Leave the batter to stand for at least 1 hour in which time it will thicken, then add a little more liquid.
  • Stir so that all the poppy seeds are well distributed.
  • Use a special thin pan which you use just for pancakes, mine has a base diameter of 20 cm and is made of steel, once seasoned, just wipe it clean between uses with kitchen roll – never scour it or use detergent.
  • Work out how much batter you need for a pancake and find a measure which will then give you a consistent amount – I use a small ladle which holds 45ml.
  • Have a dish of melted butter or margarine and sunflower oil for frying so you can add just enough and tip some back if needed.
  • Can be served sweet or savoury.

Nordic Ware Wildflower Tin

  • I got a Nordic Ware Tin to review.
  • There were no instructions – except not to overfill!
  • I tried a madeira style cake using 2 eggs and then a cocoa – maderia style using 3 eggs.
  • You need a plain mixture – no bits like currants that will spoil the pattern.
  • The pattern showed up better in the plain cake and the size using 3 eggs was better for the tin size.
  • I used melted butter to brush the tin and then dusted it with dried bread crumbs – bułka tarta.
  • The cake came out easily – no problems.

Ingredients for 3 eggs – plain

  • 150g butter
  • 150g granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 225g plain flour
  • 2 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 2-3 drops of vanilla essence
  • *
  • Melted Butter & some bułka tarta – dried breadcrumbs.

Ingredients for 3 eggs – cocoa

As above but 4 tablespoons of cocoa and just 190g plain flour

Method

  • The usual way for this type of cake.
  • Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180 0C
  • Cream the butter and sugar.
  • Add in the eggs and vanilla.
  • *
  • Mix the baking powder and flour.
  • Fold this into the creamed mixture.
  • Spoon into the tin – flatten the top.
  • Bake for at least 1 hour – more may be needed.
  • Leave to cool in the tin.
  • Turn tin upside down.
  • It should come out easily with the aid of a little knock.

You can add spices or similar to the cake mixture.

You could have the cocoa cake with a buttercream or icing around around the base – A sea of chocolate – to serve with the cake – (dusting with icing sugar did not work – you lost the design).

Kruszonka – Another Idea

I wrote about kruszonka toppings – crumbles for cakes and buns earlier.

Whilst making the Rhubarb & Custard tart, I came across another idea for this topping and I think it worked well.

In this case the kruszinka mix is baked seperately on a baking tray in a hot oven and used as a topping on the cake or bun.

It can also be used as a topping for desserts such as yoghurt or budyń

  • INGREDIENTS
  • 100g plain flour
  • 70g butter – cold
  • 70g granulated sugar
  • METHOD
  • Pre-heat the oven to GM6 – 200oC.
  • Mix butter with flour until the mix is like breadcrumbs.
  • Stir in the sugar.
  • Spread on a baking sheet.
  • Bake for around 30 minutes – stirring ocasionally.
  • It should be golden and crunchy.
  • NOTE – You can keep it in a airtight box if all is not used straight away.

Dumplings Updated

More and more items are called Dumplings in English – they all very different – some made with flour, some with potato and the latest additions made with curd cheese.

None of them are like English dumplings usually made with beef suet.

Dumplings..just one word post.

I have just added Knedle with Curd Cheese and

Knedle with Cheese and Poppy Seeds to this earlier post.

Have a look to see the variety of items that are ALL called Dumplings in English

A few of the dishes are below

Knedle with Cheese & Poppy seeds

I had a lot of poppy seeds to use up because they were reaching there best before date.

I had just made the knedle with cheese and decided to try these.

To the mixture I added around 2 tablespoons of poppy seeds, which had been simmered in milk and then drained and sieved.

INGREDIENTS

  • 500g twaróg
  • 100g semolina
  • 4 eggs – seperated
  • 30g plain flour
  • 30g butter
  • 3 tablespoons of milk
  • Milk for simmering the poppy seeds
  • 2 tablesooons of poppy seeds which had been simmered in milk for 30 minutes
  • Salt
  • *
  • Serve with meted butter or with butter and bread crumbs or soured cream

METHOD

  • In a small bowl cover the semolina with the warm milk and leave for 30 minutes.
  • Sieve the cheese and dry it.
  • Beat the butter and add the yolks – 1 by 1.
  • Add the cheese and the semolina and mix until smooth.
  • Sieve the poppy seeds and dry them and add to the mixture.
  • Whisk the whites and add to the mixture.
  • Flour your hands and take pieces of the mix to make ‘balls’ the size of walnuts.
  • Test by adding 1 to boiling water – if too loose add a little more flour.
  • Cook in boiling salted water, cover whilst cooking.
  • Use a slotted spoon to remove them from the water.
  • Place them in a colander and then in a bowl.
  • *
  • You can dust with icing sugar and
  • Serve them with melted butter or soured cream/
  • *
  • They will be good with fresh or bottled fruits.