Apple Mincemeat

  • This is a fresher tasting mincemeat than the classic English version.
  • It does not contain any fats.
  • Similar to Cranberry mincemeat – see previous post.
  • It will keep if kept in the fridge for up to a month.
  • Best to use this up quickly.

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 large Bramley apples – peeled, cored and chopped.
  • 100g granulated sugar
  • 2 oranges zest & juice or 3 large satsumas
  • 150g currants
  • 150g raisins
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • ½ teaspoon ground cloves
  • 125ml sherry

METHOD

  • Have prepared 3- 4 sterilised jar jars.
  • Put the apples, sugar, zest and juice into a saucepan and heat till the fruit starts to soften.
  • Add the dried fruit and spices and continue heating and stirring for around 5 minutes.
  • Add the sherry and continue heating and stirring for another 5-10 minutes until you have a thick liquid free mixture.
  • Leave to go cold and pot up into cold sterilised jars.
  • Keep in the fridge and use within a month.

Cranberry ‘Mincemeat’

  • Cranberries – in Polish – żurawiny – grew in the area around where my father used to live – the part in the North East that was Poland before WW2.
  • Lingonberries – in Polish  – borȯwki – its smaller rounder ‘cousin’ also grew there.
  • My aunties who now live in Białystok had many memories of going out to pick baskets of these fruits.
  • In fact it is one of these aunts that gave me the recipe for Cranberries & Pears Sauce, which I posted some time ago.
  • The ‘mincemeat’ here is a reference to the old English fruit & spice mixture, popular at Christmas time, that decades ago was made with meat, often mutton.
  • Nowadays in England the only meat reference is the fact that most of this fruit is mixed with beef suet.
  • There is no suet or any other fat in this recipe.
  • This with cranberries is a fresher tasting version but it will only keep in the refrigerator for around a month.
  • If you are worried about this keeping problem then just make it with half these quantities and use quickly

INGREDIENTS

  • 600g fresh cranberries
  • Grated zest of 2 oranges or satsumas
  • 150g granulated sugar
  • 150g currants
  • 150g raisins or sultanas
  • 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon of ground ginger
  • ½ teaspoon of ground cloves
  • 125ml sherry

METHOD

  • Have prepared 4 – 5 sterilised jar jars.
  • Put the cranberries, sugar, zest and juice into a saucepan and heat till the fruit starts ‘popping’.
  • Add the dried fruit and spices and continue heating and stirring for around 5 minutes.
  • Add the sherry and continue heating and stirring for another 5-10 minutes until you have a thick liquid free mixture.
  • Leave to go cold and pot up into cold sterilised jars.
  • Keep in the fridge and use within a month.

  • Option – not tested – some dried cranberries to replace some of the currants or raisins.

Easy Apple Cake

  • I have had a huge harvest of Bramley apples this year, so am always looking for different recipes from my standard favourite one.
  • This is based on an American idea with just a free form base and slightly raised sides.
  • It has been adapted to make a it more like a Polish apple cake  –  jabłecznik.
  • I have tried it several times and two secrets are:
  • 1) NOT have too much pastry and
  • 2) NOT to have loads of filling.
  • The pastry should be rolled out until it is thin.

Ingredients – pastry

  • 200g flour
  • 100g butter
  • 1 egg yolk
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • *
  • 1 egg yolk – use it all – for sealing
  • *
  • 1 egg white – beaten
  • 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar

Ingredients – filling

  • 2 large Bramley apples
  • 75g raisins or sultanas
  • 75g granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground mixed spice
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
  • *
  • Icing sugar to dust – optional

Method – filling

  • Peel and core the apples and chop them into small pieces.
  • Add the raisins, sugar and spices.
  • Mix together and leave to one side.

Method – pastry

  • Rub the butter into the flour until like breadcrumbs.
  • Add the egg yolk and lemon juice and mix to a soft dough.
  • Add more water sparingly if necessary.
  • *
  • Wrap in plastic and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes.
  • *
  • Butter / Grease a large baking sheet.
  • Pre-heat the oven to GM6 – 200°C.
  • *
  • Roll out the pastry thinly until you have a rough circle around 25cm.
  • Place the pastry onto the sheet.
  • Brush the egg yolk over a circle round 25cm in diameter.
  • Pile up the filling onto the circle.
  • Bring up the sides of the pastry.
  • Brush the sides with the egg white.
  • Sprinkle on the tablespoon of granulated sugar.
  • *
  • Bake for 30-35 minutes until the pastry is golden.
  • Leave to cool on a wire rack.
  • *
  • Sprinkle with icing sugar before serving.

Cranberry Sauce

  • This is not a hot pouring sauce.
  • More like a jam in constancy.
  • It is a fresh tasting sauce –
  • But not over sweet like many of the bought sauces in jars
  • Great with hot roast meats such as pork, chicken, duck or turkey.
  • Great with cold smoked meats and sausages.
  • Does not keep very long – maybe a week – keep in the fridge – best to make it a day or two before being needed. 

INGREDIENTS

  • 250g fresh cranberries
  • 50 – 75g granulated sugar (to taste)
  • Zest and juice of 1 orange
  • ¼ teaspoon of ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon of ground ginger
  • ¼ teaspoon of freshly ground nutmeg
  • Large pinch of ground cloves

METHOD

  • In a saucepan heat the cranberries, zest and juice of the orange and the sugar.
  • Stir gently with a wooden spoon as the fruit starts to pop.
  • Add the spices and continue cooking till all the fruit has popped.
  • Carry on stirring till you get a thick sauce and all the liquid has been absorbed.
  • Adjust sweetness if too tart.
  • This will keep for a few days in the fridge.
  • Bavarian china dish

Liver & Apples

  • As you might know from previous posts – I love liver.
  • I used lambs liver – but use pork or beef if that is want you have or like.
  • In Poland calf’s liver is thought to be the best.
  • I saw this combination ages ago and have only just had time to make it – it is super.
  • Use two frying pans to make this – it is easier.

INGREDIENTS

  • Around 100g liver per person
  • 2  apples
  • 2 small onions
  • Butter & sunflower oil  for frying

METHOD 

  • Best to make this using 2 frying pans.
  • Slice the liver thinly.
  • Cut the onions in half and slice thinly.
  • Core the apple and cut into thick slices – keep the skin on in parts of it  – remove any blemishes 
  • Fry the onions gently in the butter and oil mixture.
  • Add the apple pieces and heat these with the onions until they are soft.
  • Keep this warm whilst you cook the liver.
  • Fry the liver in another pan – to the degree of cooking you like (I like it slightly pink).
  • Serve the liver and the onion and apple mix together.
  • This apple and onion mixture was so delicious I will be using this again with pork chops or pork loin.
  • Served on oval plates – Johnstons Snowflake.

Broccoli Soup – 2

  • Although broccoli, one of the many cultivars of wild cabbage was introduced into Poland in the 16th century, its popularity seems to have waned until fairly recently.
  • My old cookery book first published in the mid 1950s makes no mention of  this vegetable – brokula -in Polish.
  • When it was introduced into England it was called ‘Italian Asparagus’.
  • I have based this recipe on my recipe for cauliflower soup and puréed the ingredients, which is more in an English style.

Ingredients

  • Around 500g of broccoli
  • 1 litre of chicken stock (can be from a cube or concentrate)
  • 500ml of milk plus a tablespoon or two.
  • 1 tablespoon of potato or cornflour
  • *
  • 125 ml of soured cream to serve
  • Salt & Pepper to taste

Method

  • Cut the broccoli into small pieces of stem and florets.
  • Simmer the stem pieces in the stock till nearly tender.
  • Add the florets and simmer till both are tender.
  • Add the 500ml of milk and bring to the boil.
  • Use a stick blender or similar to liquidise the ingredients.
  • Season to taste.
  • Mix the potato flour with the extra milk.
  • Mix the flour with the rest of the soup.
  • Heat gently, stirring whilst it thickens.
  • Stir in the soured cream before serving.
Royal Doulton – Carnation Soup Plate

Breaded Parsnips

  • But did you know that in the 14th century, in England, parsnips were called ‘pasternakes’ and that in many European languages such as Dutch, Italian and Polish (pasternak) a version of this word is still used today?
  • How do you cook and serve your parsnips?
  • Mrs Beeton, in England, suggested parboiling them, cutting them into slices, dipping in beaten egg and then breadcrumbs before frying.
  • Whether the bread crumbs were fresh or dried is not stated.
  • I thought this sounded quite Polish!
  • *
  • I parboiled the parsnips
  • Cut them into thick slices
  • Dipped them into beaten egg and then
  • Into dried breadcrumbs and
  • Fried in them on both sides in sunflower oil.

Honeyed Parsnips

  • With parsnips being in all the shops at the moment, I thought of my recipe for honeyed carrots and altered it a little for the parsnips
  • The parsnips are cut into ‘fingers’.
  • How you cut the parsnips depends on their size – try to get them roughly equal.

Ingredients

  • 4 large – 8 medium parsnips
  • 2 tablespoons runny honey

Method

  • Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180°C.
  • Lightly grease a baking tray.
  • Peel and cut the parsnips into quarters or eighths.
  • Bake in the oven, turning once or twice, for 40 – 45 minutes.
  • Drizzle the honey over the parsnips and turn to coat as much as possible.
  • Return to the oven and bake for another 10 minutes.
  • *
  • Serve with roast meats such as chicken, duck or pork.

Serving dish – Allerton & Sons

Bób

  • Bób is the Polish word for broad beans.
  • They get there own special name – not a bean name!
  • They are what are known as fava beans.
  • Fava beans are the original Old World bean.
  • There is evidence of fava bean cultivation over 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent (area of the middle East).
  • They are super served just boiled with lots of butter and maybe with a little dill or flat leaved parsley.
  • They are good cooked and then used cold in a salad with a variety of dressings. 
  • Unfortunately I missed the fresh bean season but found you can get them tinned from the Polish shop and this is what I used.

Ingredients

  • 1 tin of broad beans – or similar amount – fresh when in season
  • 40 – 50g butter – do not stint!
  • *
  • Chopped dill or flat leaved parsley if available

Method

  • Heat the beans in the liquor for a couple of minutes.
  • Drain and quickly add the butter and stir.
  • Add fresh dill or flat leaved parsley – optional.
  • *
  • Serve with roast meats or gulasz.

Served in Wedgewood – Chelsea Garden

Banana Bread

  • This is not a Polish recipe and my mother would not have made this cake, especially as my father did not like bananas.
  • But looking online and on Instagram I find that bananas are used in many new recipes from Poland.
  • Banana bread recipes originated in the USA in the early 1930s.
  • They tended to be made in bread or loaf tins but I have found a flatter rectangular tin gives better results.
  • For the best results the bananas have to be as ripe as possible – very black spotted skins and ‘squidgy’ flesh.
  • I have adapted an old recipe of mine by using dried cranberries and am very pleased with the contrast between the bananas and the cranberries.
  • I used a packet of cranberries which was 1`70g and made the dried fruit up to 250g with sultanas – you can adjust these amounts – but I found these worked well.

Ingredients

  • 225g plain flour
  • 2½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon of salt
  • 110g butter
  • 150g of granulated sugar
  • 170g dried cranberries
  • 80g sultanas
  • 450g – mashed ripe banana flesh
  • 2 eggs – beaten

Method

  • Grease and line 32 x 22cm baking tin.
  • Pre-heat the oven to GM 4 – 180°C.
  • Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together.
  • Rub in the butter till the mixture is like breadcrumbs.
  • Stir in the sugar, cranberries and sultanas.
  • Mix this with the eggs and mashed bananas till uniform.
  • Spoon into the tin and level.
  • Bake for 40 – 45 minutes.
Served on Bramble Rose by Duchess