These are the small version of the Easy Apple Cake posted recently.
Use the same amount of pastry and divide it into 8 or 6 portions.
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Shortcrust pastry made from 200g plain flour, 100g butter, 1 egg yolk, juice of 1 lemon, extra water if necessary – 2 tablespoons of icing sugar optional.
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Grease a large baking tray or two.
Pre-heat the oven to GM6 – 200°C.
Roll out each piece of pastry into a thin rough circle.
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.
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
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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.
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.
Journey From A Polish Kitchen 