The meatballs hold together better if you choose quite fatty pork such as pork shoulder. Cook the whole batch even though you don’t intend to eat them all at once – they reheat nicely and also freeze very well. Fry the meatballs over medium heat until golden brown, served over creamy mashed potatoes, with easy apple and beetroot salad. This dish can make a perfectly satisfying dinner after a busy weekday, it's tasty, warming and very comforting. Find the recipe here.
Tarte Tatin
There are plenty of recipes for this French classic. Some bakers use puff pastry, thinly sliced sweet apples but no caramel; others - rough puff pastry, firm, crispy fruits and a vanilla pod. This recipe for Tarte Tatin comes from the book “Le Cordon Bleu. Pastry School”. It calls for a slightly sweet shortcrust pastry, beautifully caramelised apple halves with a pinch of cinnamon baked in a Savarin form. Big, lightly brown apple pieces that create a ring on the crisp, buttery base are soft, juicy and sweet. This upside-down fruit tarte looks absolutely fantastic and tastes divine. Find the recipe here….
Vegetable Salad (Salatka Jarzynowa)
Vegetable Salad is a staple dish of Polish cuisine, served on many occasions and holidays. It's a delicious medley of root vegetables, complemented by sweet garden peas, crunchy apples, eggs, sour brine cucumbers, pungent leek, all blended with homemade mayonnaise. The salad is quite simple to make, but the whole process involves a lot of fine dicing: the finer dice, the better taste. Vegetable Salad is served cold, usually with sliced meat and bread for breakfast or lunch. Find the recipe here…
Dried Fruits Beverage (Kompot z Suszu)
Dried Fruits Beverage is one of 12 traditional dishes served on Christmas Eve in Poland. This is a naturally sweet drink, which distinctive flavour comes from dried apples, pears, apricot, prunes and fragrant spices: cinnamon, cloves and star anise. Dried fruits, prunes, in particular, give the kompot enough natural sweetness; however, if you need to have it sweeter, add honey to the cool mixture. My Dried Fruit Beverage also contains thick slices of fresh orange, making this traditional drink even more Christmasy and citrusy. Serve cold with cooked fruits on the side. Find the recipe here...
Home-made Christmas Mincemeat
Mincemeat needs at least two weeks to macerate before using in mince pies. Dried fruits, almonds, spices and orange zest have enough time to soak beautifully in sherry, and their flavours become rich and complex. Although I’m not entirely against store-bought mincemeat as you can buy a very good one, but when is homemade its taste is completely different. Homemade mince meat is easy and quick. Cooking takes only 10 minutes, dried fruits, almonds are available at grocery stores, and you can control the amount of sugar which may be important. The homemade mincemeat can be made up to six months in advance. Find the recipe here….
Cinnamon Apple Muffins with Walnuts
We all love apple muffins for a number of reasons. They are quick and easy to make, delicious both straight from the oven and after two days. Great for breakfast, an afternoon tea time and when you have a sweet tooth. The muffins can be made with any apples you can found in a store, however Golden Delicious, Granny Smith or Bramley Apples make them exceptionally delightful and flavoursome. My Apple Muffins are full cinnamon, ginger, walnuts and apple pieces thus they are moist, fragrant and fresh for a few days after baking. Find the recipe here…
Halloween Dinner Menu
This is a menu for a casual come-and-go gathering on Halloween Night or after Trick-Or-Treating. Neither creepy nor spooky but frightfully delicious and based on seasonal and autumnal products. Here there are Orange Vivid Squash Soup served with Hot Parmesan Biscuits that warms up, filling Hot Pork Empanaditas, delicious Mushroom Tartlets for foodies and sweet aromatic Apple Muffins that are loved by everyone and always turn out well. The courses of the menu are quite simple but need some time to be prepared. Some of them can be made in advance. Find the recipes for perfectly arranged Halloween Dinner Menu here…