The secret of the amazing flavour of this cake lies in the long process of maturing and only natural ingredients such as honey and spices. I prepare the dough on stir-up Sunday and let it sit in the fridge for almost a month. After the long rest, the cake is baked, sprinkled with Amaretto Liqueur,  dressed up with layers of plum jam and marzipan, tightly wrapped, and left in the fridge for another week. Just prior to the festivities or one day before Christmas, Polish Traditional Gingerbread Cake needs only a shiny coat of chocolate ganache. Find the recipe here….

In the summertime, I literally can’t live without this bright green sauce made from fresh basil leaves, pine kernels, garlic olive oil and parmesan cheese. I can eat it daily, spread on fresh white bread, tossed with pasta or gnocchi. Pesto originated in Geona, the capital city of Liguria, the region in Italy and was traditionally made in a marble mortar with a wooden pestle. I find making the pesto easier and faster by using a food processor. Don’t be tempted by a ready sauce from the store, The ingredients are available all year round, and any other ready-to-eat sauce can’t be compared to a homemade version. This recipe shows you how to make pesto at home. Here...

Open-faced Spanish Omelette is one of the best-known and universally liked Spanish dishes. It’s also my signature dish loved by customers of a small coffee shop, The Haven, based in Ealing, (W5) London. Often served as a tapa in Spain along with other nibbles and drinks, this little dish also can be the best meal any time of the day. Spanish tortilla is made with eggs, diced potatoes, onions and meat such as chorizo. If you are vegetarian, you can skip the sausage. The tortilla tastes best at room temperature or cold, served with salad or garlic mayonnaise. Find the recipe here…

Crostini, called in France Croutons, are small slim slices of toasted bread. They are served with different toppings: pâtés, rillettes, and spreads and make a fabulous canape or aperitivo with a drink. Ideal crostini are bite-size, made from a stale baguette, brushed with olive oil or butter, and baked in the oven until golden. Once you discover how to make crostini/croutons, you will never again resort to store-bought varieties. I serve my little crusty rounds with homemade Vegetable Spread, Pork Pâté and Duck Rillettes. Find the recipe here…

A classic Mexican quesadilla consists of corn tortillas filled with Oaxaca cheese - low-fat cheese with a texture similar to mozzarella. It’s cooked on a dry skillet until the cheese melts and served with guacamole and red salsa. But the quesadilla is such a versatile dish that you can substitute the corn tortillas with the flour tortillas, and fill it with whatever you like: vegetables, meat - chicken or beef, and cheese of your choice. It can be served with sour cream, spicy sauces, guacamole or cold condiments such as Picco de Gallo. Great for lunch, dinner or supper. Find the recipe for my Vegetable Quesadilla here.

Look at this bowl of goodness, full of aromatic and spicy flavours that will warm you up, fill you up and give you a lot of energy. This dish originated in Northern Mexico or Southern Texas is known as Chilli (in the US and Canada) or Chilli con Carne (in Australia and the UK) and is a beef stew cooked with onion, tomatoes, spices and beans. The latter has been disputed by chilli fanatics as the earliest chillis did not contain beans at all. Chilli con Carne should be cooked for at least 45 minutes, however the longer it simmers on the hob, the better it gets – its flavours develop, the meat is more tender, and the sauce becomes richer. I serve chilli with fluffy rice, a dash of sour cream and avocado, but you can eat it with tortillas or tacos. Find the recipe here..

Their shape symbolises prosperity and luck, so by serving these little golden dumplings at Lunar New Year’s dinner, you may hope to have lots of good fortune in the coming year. Money Bag Dumplings can be filled either with vegetables, meat, seafood, and tofu – anything delicious you can think of, then steamed or fried. But they always have the shape of little money bags and yellow-golden colour. My Money Bags Dumplings are made with homemade dumpling wrappers, filled with flavourful pork and vegetable mixture, steamed and served with sour-sweet garlicky dumpling sauce. Find the recipe here…

Traditional stolen often contains marzipan – a confection made mainly from ground almonds and sugar. I don’t use marzipan because the fruit blend and a thick coat of icing sugar that covers the bread are sweet enough, so extra sweetness is overwhelming for me. Stollen is a yeasted bread baked with dried fruits and spices that's originated in Dresden. It’s traditionally served at Christmas time in Germany, Austria and parts of France. Stollen symbolises the baby Jesus blanket, and the fruits in it represent gifts of the Three Wise Men (called the Three Kings or Three Magi as well). Find the recipe here…

Red Onion Marmalade goes well with pâté, charcuterie platter, hard cheese, on a burger, with roast pork or beef steak. It’s sweet, soft and aromatic as it was cooked for some time in red wine and balsamic vinegar. Red Onion Marmelade is great freshly made, however, it gets even better the next day as the flavours have time to combine.  It takes only one hour to have it ready so make a double portion as it disappears quickly. Find the recipe here…

This is a type of relish-like salsa commonly used in Mexican cuisine. A simple combination of fresh tomatoes and onion, serrano or jalapeno chilli peppers, lime juice and coriander, generously seasoned with salt, is also called salsa fresca, salsa Mexicana or salsa cruda. You can enjoy Pico de Gallo with tortilla crisps, Totopos, tacos or quesadilla. Make it a few hours in advance to let all-natural juices combine and marinate together, providing the salsa with more flavour.  For those who can’t stand fresh coriander - use parsley instead. Find the recipe here...

This is a simple side dish, full of Mexican flavours and heat, cooked from ingredients everyone has on hand. The delicious, albeit quite an apparent combination of black beans and tomatoes has been enhanced with spicy chilli flakes and aromatic ground cumin. Mexican Black Beans with Tomatoes get more flavour with time, so prepare this dish in advance and keep it in the fridge at least overnight. Reheat and serve warm with tacos or Mexican crisps Totopos. Find the recipe here.

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….

This smooth and creamy dip of vivid green colour pairs well with a variety of dippers such as tortilla crisps, crackers or crudités. It’s not at all like the chunky guacamole most people love. It’s excellent as a salad dressing for fresh lettuce, spread for sandwiches and toast, or dolloping onto nachos, burritos, quesadillas and tacos. The avocado dip is simple to make, with just a few ingredients and the aid of a food processor; it only requires very ripe avocados. You can spice the dip up by adding, e.g. cayenne pepper, chilli pepper or chipotle paste, finely chopped spring onion or coriander. Find the recipe here...

Ratatouille is a traditional Provençal vegetable stew, fragrant with garlic and thyme. It is excellent to have it on hand for a quick lunch or as a side dish for dinner. You can serve it warm or cold, on rice, with roast meat or a baguette. Aubergine, courgette, onion and pepper must be cooked separately in olive oil before being combined with diced tomatoes, tomato paste, chopped garlic, and herbs and stewed until all vegetables are tender. Use the vegetable at the peak of the season; then, you will get the perfect flavourful Ratatouille. Find the recipe here

You can vary the vegetables according to your taste or what’s in season and make this Tarte Tatin a great starter or accompaniment to any meat meal. I’ve used new root vegetables, onion, and chicory, a few pieces of chilli pepper, thyme leaves – as simple as that – and homemade rough puff pastry. Serve Roast Vegetables Tarte Tatin warm, with a glass of cold white wine. Find the recipe here...

It's said to be a cheat version of puff pastry, but in my opinion, this is just a more straightforward and quicker version of the French classic. Rough puff pastry calls for strong bread flour, a pinch of salt and, unlike the classic puff pastry, chilled cubed unsalted butter and cold water. Making the dough is simple but takes a little time because the dough needs chilling in the fridge between each round of folds. Once baked, quick puff pastry is flaky, crisp and buttery. It's excellent for Tarte Tatin, sausage rolls or vol-au-vents. Find the recipe here..

Marzipan is a confection, usually used for icing birthday, wedding and Christmas cakes. It can also be used in biscuits and petit fours and cakes such as German Stollen. Marzipan consists mainly of sugar and almond flour, augmented with almond extract, rose water, and it’s easy and quick to make.  The homemade treat is much more delicious than the store-bought one as it contains up to half less sugar, and almond flour is much stronger in taste. Find the recipe here…

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 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...

They are a popular dish served at Easter breakfast in Poland. They also make a delicious appetizer we are used to eating several times a year. Stuffed Eggs in Shells are delicious, comforting and simple to make; however, getting empty shells without breaking them is the most tricky part. The entire unpeeled egg is cut in half lengthwise after being hard-boiled, and the insides scooped, finely chopped and seasoned. The eggshells are stuffed back, topped with bread crumbs and fried in butter. They are best served hot with a slice of fresh bread. Find the recipe here...

Lunchboxes full of lucky food for the Chinese New Year from Polly Eats London! We are happy to announce that we've been invited to prepare and deliver delicious and luxury appetizers to Kensington Chelsea Woman's Club members for the Chinese New Year's online celebration on Friday, February the 12th. Inspired by the Far East and classic Spring Festival food flavours, we created dishes that have their symbolic meaning, and without which the Chinese New year's celebrations never be complete. More about the event and menu...

Packed with bites of walnuts, reasonably sweet biscuits with a hint of saltiness go great with a morning coffee or an afternoon cuppa. But Hup Toh Soh - Chinese Walnut Biscuits, that symbolise happiness for the whole family are traditionally baked for Chinese New Year celebration. They're given as gifts or served to family and friends. The biscuits are round, slightly flat, have crackly edges and resemble walnuts, hence their name. They are so delicious that you will be whipping up at least a batch at any time of the year.  Find the recipe here...

This is one of the most popular dishes in Chinese cuisine. A clear bullion-like soup served with previously cooked, delicate, filled with pork and prawn dumplings – wontons. The word wonton means "swallowing clouds" and each region of China has different dumpling's sizes and shapes. The delicious wonton soup's secret is a thin dumpling dough that can hold the filling, and an aromatic, nutritious and natural bullion, cooked on good quality meat. The soup sometimes contains bok choi, carrot and noodles but I serve it well seasoned with sesame oil, soy sauce, and sprinkled with spring onions. Find the recipe here.

Aren't they beautiful? These white balls are made from minced meat and covered with short-grain glutinous rice which becomes translucent after steaming. They look like pearls, hence their name. Pearl Meatballs are a classic Chinese appetizer, originated from Hubei, China. They're a prevalent dish served at banquettes, parties and the Chinese New Year's family dinner. Soft, fragrant meaty balls, with a hint of ginger and tiny bites of water chestnuts, are a real crowd pleaser and a next great appetizer for a New Year Celebration. Find the recipe here…

Crisp bottoms and juicy filling, these Vegetable and Mushroom Potstickers are my favourite dumplings. They're stuffed with carrot, Chinese leaves, Shitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots and fresh ginger filling that burst in the flavours of the sweetness combined with spiciness. The potstickers are pan-fried and steamed at the same time; thus, they're moist and crispy. Serve with a potsticker dipping sauce consisting of Chinese black vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil and minced garlic, spiced up with a sriracha dash for an extra kick. Find the recipe here…

Chinese are famous for their dumplings called jiaozi. Steamed, cooked or fried, they come in various flavours, filled with vegetables, meat, fish and tofu. Jiaozi play a major role in Chinese New Year Celebrations - it is a classic lucky food for New Year that signifies family reunion, represent prosperity and wealth. Chinese New Year is upon us (falls on February, the 12th), which means we’re preparing to celebrate it with plenty appetizers such as Beef and Spring Onion Jiaozi – melting in the mouth extremely fragrant Chinese dumplings, served with spicy dipping sauce. Find the recipe here...

This is the classic Chinese Dumpling dough, generally for boiled dumplings (shui jia) and potstickers (guo tie) but I also use it - only thinly rolled - for wontons. This recipe calls for the equal amount of flour and water, and a generous pinch of salt which make the tougher dough that needs to rest at least 1 hour; however, the longer the dough is set aside and kept covered with a kitchen towel, the smoother and more springy will be. Freshly made dumpling wrappers needs to be used immediately as they become dry and difficult to shape. Find the recipe here…

They are extremely light, puffy and soft, filled with homemade plum jam and dunked in the lemon glaze. Polish traditional doughnuts - pączki (pronounced PAUNCH-key) - are our national treasure.  These sweet creations are made from enriched yeasted dough consisted of flour, eggs, fat, milk, then deep-fried (in oil or lard), stuffed with a sweet filling, glazed or sprinkled with powder sugar and eaten the same day. They're traditionally made for Fat Thursday, the last Thursday before Lent fasting begins. Everyone must have at least one doughnut on Fat Thursday. Find the recipe here…

Ice cream is not strictly for summer and just because it’s cold and dark outside, doesn’t mean you don’t want to enjoy this frosty treat. Cinnamon Ice Cream is a perfect partner for Apple Pie, a baked apple or any apple desserts commonly eaten in the wintertime. I used the cinnamon sticks to infuse the milk because they give the ice cream full and more complex flavour. The sticks were left in the cold custard overnight and removed just before the process. Cinnamon Ice Cream is delicious and smells insane. Find the recipe here….

We can’t imagine the Christmas Eve table without herring. It's usually served pickled in vinegar or oil with onions or with soured cream and finely diced apple. Herring tartare is a great option for having herring this Christmas differently. The tartare consist of Matjes fillet pickled in salted brine and soaked in water, gherkins, shallots, pickled mushrooms, spring onions, all combined with mustard and citrus sauce. The sour capers and red hot peppers give this small dish a kick. The herring tartare tastes great served on dark rye bread. Find the recipe here…

Gougères are cheese puffs made from choux pastry mixed with a generous amount of cheese. Gruyère is the classic choice but I also use Grana Padano, Cheddar, Emmental or Comté of good quality as the better quality the cheese, the better the Gougères. The cheese puffs can be served with soups or salads but they taste great filled with a savoury sauce, vegetable or meat and make wonderful finger food or canapé when you make them bite-sized. Find the recipe here…

Duck legs are rich in flavour. They offer much leaner meat than the whole duck which is regarded as one of the fattier meat. Duck legs are great for slow-cooking, confiting, braising and roasting. Their meat usually is served on the bone with sauces and vegetables, sometimes in salads or on toast. I roasted the duck legs with semi-sweet apples, prepared the filling and wrapped it with dumpling dough. They taste amazing with red currant and red wine sauce. Find the recipe here…

This is South Korean classic and a very popular homemade dish. It’s sometimes served wrapped in green lettuce leaves with a spicy thick paste Ssamjang but always accompanied by a beer or strong alcohol. The recipe uses pork belly with crunchy skin and very tender meat that melts in the mouth. Pork belly has a very high fat content which gives the dish a lot of flavour and pairs great with spicy chilli and very sweet garlic cloves. The recipe for Daepa Jeyuk Bokkeum comes from a private collection of Eun-Young CHOI. Find the recipe here...

Buchujeon is a staple of Korean cuisine and real homemade everyday food. It’s eaten as a snack, an appetizer or a small side dish. The pancake is widely enjoyed by Korean families as is delicious, full of healthy ingredients, easy and quick to make. Kings of the pancake are garlic chives with their subtle garlicky flavour and flat green leaves but they often are accompanied by carrot, green onions, red peppers, chilli peppers, seafood or meat. I had a great pleasure for the first time in my life to eat Buchujeon prepared and served by Eun-Young CHOI at Laurence Pidgeon Design. Find the recipe here….

The secret of this traditional Korean dish is good quality loin beef thinly sliced. The meat is marinated in sweet sauce and grilled on barbecue or stove in a frying pan. SoBulgogi has been cooked for thousands of years, is very popular in Korea and throughout the world, consumed in restaurants and at homes, during events and parties. The cooking method of SoBulgogi evolved and today varies by region. I met with Eun-Young Choi at Laurence Pidgeon Design to talk about traditional Korean food and learn of her favourite homemade dishes. Eun-Young comes from South Korea and lives in London. Find the recipe here...

There’re many things to love about Korean food. It’s delicious, varied and healthy. It uses plenty of vegetables both fresh and fermented in main meals and side dishes, lean meat and spices. Korean food brings the combination of contrast flavours: sour and sweet, salty and bitter and above of all loves spiciness. I had a great pleasure to take a part in real Korean fest at Laurence Pidgeon Design, taste genuine homemade dishes and learn about the Korean cuisine from Eun-Young CHOI, who lives and cooks in London. More about Korean fest you will find here...