Tag: Apples

It’s Only A Bird!

I was in Poland during a time of economic difficulties when there were food shortages & rationing. It was in the summer holiday period,

In order to alleviate the meat shortage in the main tourist areas, hotels & restaurants had been all allocated a different Meatless Day each week.

Now in Poland when you say meat – most people think pork!

I had not really been affected by this as most of my time had been spent with relatives and much of it in the countryside but I did make one visit to Warsaw and went with my cousin to a small but posh restaurant.

Warszawa
Warszawa
Warszawa
Warzawa
Warszawa
Warszawa

The maître d’  came up to me and this was the conversation:

“My dear lady, I am afraid you have come to us on a meatless day”

“Please do not worry,  what do you have on the menu?”

“There is roast duck”

“Is duck not meat?”

“It’s only a bird!”

On that day I had the best roast duck with apples I have ever eaten!

I have spent some time recreating this dish. The duck I had in Warsaw had been roasted stuffed with apples  – here I have been using duck breast fillets as this fits in better with the meals I make.

I have tried using eating apples & cooking apples and they have both turned out very well. The recipe with cooking apples is nearer to the original Polish roast but as they were both delicious I am including them both.

For these recipes I have used Gressingham duck breasts.

Gressingham duck was first breed in Lancashire, England in the 1980s near a village of that name.  It is cross between the small flavourful wild Mallard and the larger Pekin duck.  It gives a succulent duck with more breast meat, less fat and a rich, gamey  flavour.

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Production is now by Gressingham Foods Ltd in East Anglia.

I have used the same method for preparing and cooking the duck breasts, allowing 1 breast per person.  The difference between the 2 recipes is the type of apple used.

Duck with Bramley Apples

Ingredients

1 Duck breast per person

2 to 3 Bramley apples

1 tablespoon of butter

1 tablespoon of sugar

Italian Herbs

Salt & Pepper

Method

Rub the duck breasts with Italian herbs, ground black pepper and salt and leave for at least 1 hour.

Pre-heat the oven to GM 4 – 180°C.

Peel and core the Bramley and cut into quarters or eighths depending on the size of the apples.

In a saucepan, over a low heat, melt the butter, add the apples and cook then for around 5 minutes – you want them to to be softened but not a purée.  Keep them warm in the pan whilst you do the duck breasts.

 

 

Heat a heavy based frying pan (I use a cast iron pan) until it is very hot- you do not need any added oil or fat.

Place the duck breasts in the pan skin side down and turn the heat down to medium and cook for 2 minutes. Turn them over and cook for a further 2 minutes.

Put the apples onto a baking tray and sprinkle a tablespoon of sugar over them.

Put the duck breast on top of the apples with the skin side up.

Bake in the oven for around 15 minutes.

 

Duck with Eating Apples

Ingredients

1 Duck breasts per person

2 to 3 eating apples such as Pink Lady or Jazz

1 tablespoon of butter

Italian Herbs

Salt & Pepper

Method

Rub the duck breasts with Italian herbs, ground black pepper and salt and leave for at least 1 hour.

Pre- heat the oven to GM 4 – 180°C.

Leave the skins on the eating apples.

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Core the apples and cut them into thick slices.

In a saucepan, over a low heat, melt the butter,add the apples and cook then for around 5 minutes – you want them to to be softened but not a purée.  Keep them warm in the pan whilst you do the duck breasts.

Heat a heavy based frying pan (I use a cast iron pan) until it is very hot- you do not need any added oil or fat.

Place the duck breasts in the pan skin side down and turn the heat down to medium and cook for 2 minutes. Turn them over and cook for a further 2 minutes.

Put the apples onto a baking tray.

 

Put the duck breast on top of the apples with the skin side up.

Bake in the oven for around 15 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red Cabbage Salads

I  was looking for some salad recipes for red cabbage and came across these three in my Polish recipe books.

Two different methods are used to prepare the cabbage and I was intrigued to see how they would turn out.  They were both a success and I will be using them again.

Red Cabbage Salad 1

This method is in between using raw and cooked cabbage.

Ingredients

  • ½ head of red cabbage
  • 1 large Bramley Apple
  • Juice of 2 lemons
  • 1 small onion
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • Salt & pepper to taste
  • 1- 2 teaspoon of sugar

Method

Using a sharp knife shred the cabbage into fine slices.

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Put the shredded cabbage into a pan and just cover with water, bring this to the boil and then let it simmer for 1 to 2 minutes – no more.

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  • Strain the cabbage from the water,  pour the juice of a lemon over the cabbage and mix it in, as well as taste, this will give the cabbage a lovely colour, and leave it to cool.
  • Chop the cabbage into small pieces.
  • Note – next time I will chop into much smaller pieces.
  • Peel and coarse grate the apple and add this to the cabbage.

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  • Chop the onion into fine pieces and add this to the cabbage.
  • Mix in the juice of another lemon and 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
  • Add salt & pepper  and sugar to taste.

This salad goes well with roast pork, goose or duck.

Red Cabbage Salad 2 & 3

  • For these the  cabbage is grated on a coarse grater – this was quite hard to do but well worth it.
  • It is the dressing which makes these two salad different – both are delicious.

Red Cabbage Salad 2

Ingredients

  • ½ head of red cabbage
  • 1 Bramley apple
  • Juice of a lemon

Dressing

  • 3 tablespoons of mayonnaise
  • 3 tablespoons of soured cream
  • 1 tablespoon of made-up mustard Polish, French or German style
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • Salt & pepper & sugar to taste

Method

  • Grated the cabbaged using a coarse grater
  • Peel and grate the apple using a coarse grater
  • Mix the grated cabbage and apple together.

Mix up all the ingredients for the dressing.

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Add the dressing to the salad and thoroughly mix it all together.

Red Cabbage Salad 3

Ingredients

  • ½ head of red cabbage
  • 1 Bramley apple
  • 50g of chopped walnuts

Dressing

  • 3 to 4  tablespoons of olive oil
  • Juice of a lemon
  • 1 tablespoon of runny honey
  • Salt & pepper to taste.

Method

Grated the cabbaged using a coarse grater

  • Peel and grate the apple using a coarse grater
  • Mix the grated cabbage and apple together.
  • Mix the ingredients for the dressing and pour this over the salad and mix it in.
  • Chop the walnuts into small pieces and mix them in before serving.

A Little Note About Walnuts

Walnuts (Juglans regia) are native to south-east Europe and south-west China. They are the oldest tree food known dating back to 7,000 BC.

There are accounts of their cultivation in Babylon (now Iraq) in 2,000BC.

Juglans regia means means Jupiter’s royal nut.

They are the seed of a drupe (stone fruit) – not a true Botanical nut.

In Polish walnuts are orzechy włoskie –  nuts Italian – so named it is thought as they were brought to Poland by traders from Imperial Rome.

Black walnuts (Juglans nigra) are native to North America.

Racuszki – A Kind of Pancake

A racuch – according  to my dictionary is  a kind of pancake.

Racuszki or racuchy are plural words for them- used much more as you never have just one!  They are small thick pancakes similar to dropped scones, Scotch pancakes or American style pancakes.

In my old Polish recipe book, the recipe uses soured milk, but as I do not have this, I use my own thick yoghurt instead.

Racuszki

  • 1 egg
  • 250ml yoghurt
  • 200g plain flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
  • large pinch salt.

Method

In a large bowl mix the flour, pinch of salt, the egg and some of the yoghurt, mix it with a wooden spoon. I found my new one with a hole in it which I bought in The Netherlands very good for this.

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  • Keep adding the yoghurt (and some water if needed) and mix till you get a batter which is thick and then beat it more till it is smooth and glossy.
  • Then add the bicarbonate of soda and give this a final mix.
  • Use a griddle or thick cast iron frying pan and use oil to grease it lightly and heat it up.
  • You need to try and keep a low to medium heat so as not to burn the pancakes.
  • Place tablespoonfuls of the batter on the frying pan and cook until the base is set and golden then turn them over and cook the other side.

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They are traditionally served warm with jam or thick fruit syrup – caster sugar also goes well.

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With Sour Cherry Jam

Yoghurt Cheese Pancakes

I have recently been to The Netherlands to stay with my friend and was looking at the local newspaper and saw a recipe for pancakes using qwark  (I can manage enough Dutch words to  figure out some recipes – especially if there is  a photograph!)

I thought they sounded very much like racuszki, so I jotted the recipe down and when I came home I adapted it slightly by using self raising flour, adding a little vanilla essence and used my own yoghurt cheese instead of qwark.

In the original recipe they served them warm with yoghurt & honey, I also tried them with melted butter & sugar, and with maple syrup – from the large bottle I got from my friend who lives in Canada.

They were super and ones I had left could be easily reheated and were still soft and not rubbery – I will be using this recipe lots from now on.

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs separated
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 250g yoghurt cheese
  • 200ml milk (you might not need it all)
  • 125g self raising flour
  • Pinch salt
  • 2-3 drops of vanilla essence

Method

  • Whisk the egg whites until they are stiff – I tend to do this first so you can use the beaters for the rest of the recipe – without having to wash them to remove the grease.
  • In a large bowl mix the egg yolks, sugar, yoghurt cheese, flour, pinch of salt, vanilla essence and around half the milk.
  • Keep adding more milk and mix well until you have a thick batter – like double cream.
  • With a metal spoon fold in the stiff egg whites.

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  • Use a griddle or thick cast iron frying pan and use oil to grease it lightly and heat it up.
  • You need to try and keep a low to medium heat so as not to burn the pancakes.
  • Place tablespoonfuls of the batter on the frying pan and cook until the base is set and golden then turn them over and cook the other side.

Ciocia* Pola’s Apple Racuszki 

*Aunty

Many years ago I went to stay with my one of mother’s sisters (Apolonia) who lived in the area called mazury – the Masurian Lake District in North East Poland.

With apples from the garden she made  racuszki – using a thick yeast risen batter and roughly chopped apples – a cross between a pancake and a fritter. They were delicious.

I have made them here many times using her recipe. Whilst researching and checking other  variations I saw that several recipes used grated apples – these came out stodgy  with little taste of the apple – you need to keep the pieces fairly large.

Ingredients

  • 125 ml of milk (full or semi-skimmed)
  • 25g caster sugar and 1 teaspoon
  • 10g  fresh yeast or 5g  dried yeast
  • 25g  butter
  • 1 egg
  • 125g plain flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 Bramley apples
  • *
  • Icing sugar, caster sugar or cinnamon  sugar to dust.

Method

Warm half the milk and add a teaspoon of caster sugar and the yeast and mix it all together and leave it to froth up.

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Melt the butter and leave it to cool.

Whisk the egg with the sugar until it is thick and creamy.

Put the flour and salt into a large bowl.

Use a wooden spoon (one with a hole works really well) and beat in the yeast mixture, the egg & sugar mixture and then the melted butter.

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Slowly add the rest of the milk, mixing until the mixture has the consistency of double cream.

Cover the bowl with a cloth and leave this to rise.

Peel, core and quarter the apples and cut them into small chunks or slices cut in half.

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Add the apples to the risen batter and mix them well in to coat them.

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  • Use a griddle or thick cast iron frying pan and use oil to grease it lightly and heat it up.
  • You need to try and keep a low to medium heat so as not to burn the pancakes.
  • Place large tablespoons of apple and batter onto the pan and cook them so that they are golden brown on both sides.
  • Remove them from the pan and dust them with icing sugar, caster sugar or cinnamon sugar.

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  • Eat them whilst they are hot & as they say in Poland – Smacznego! (may they be delicious!)