Polish cenci - Faworki

Hello everyone! No, I didn't go out of the kitchen! In fact I couldn't do it for a long time so I decide to move my laptop to the kitchen. Now me, my kompot, bottom mushoom, coconut oil, pineapple, tomatoes, black turnips and other treasures that fill me with warmth are with me and we can follow. 

Today is Jeudi Gras or Fat Thursday (Tłusty Czwartek) so in Poland we consume huge amounts of Polish best-in-the-world doughnuts. The average amount for a person is about six. Six yummy, fluffy, sweet, deep-fried pieces of dough filled with roship jam or cream in the recent years. Coated with icing, icing sugar, coconut or chocolate. Mmm. There are huge queues at the cake shops for the whole day, but especially in the morning when everyone is buing them for work. I can't stop my self while gazing at my last year's divine doughnuts. Hopefully my husband will hunt some. I used Gosia's great doughnut recipe. Last year I have fried them traditionally, in pork's lard. The taste is gorgeous and the pastry is not so heavy as you may think.

This year I made Polish cenci called here faworki [favo:rki] or chrust [hru:st]. Originally they came from Lithuania. Probably a confectioner dropped by accident a piece of doughnut dough to the hot oil and a nice ribbon came out. That is why the pastry was named after the French word for ribbon - 'faveur'. But I like to think that the name implied that the pastry is simply a favourite.... Another Polish name means brushwood because of the crispness of cenci. With centuries faworki has developed its own dough recipe different from that one for doughnuts as the last one absorbs much frying fat. So the ideal faworek is crisp, thin,  with little blisters on the surface,  and sweet because heavily dusted with icing sugar.

Traditional recipe for Polish faworki

 

250 g flour

2 Tbsp natural yogurt /sour cream

2 egg yolks

1 whole egg

1 tsp butter/ pork's lard

1 tsp spirit to prevent absorbing of frying fat

(white wine vinegar is also good)

fat for frying - vegetable oil is fine

icing sugar for dusting

1.  Sieve the flour and icing sugar into a bowl.
2. Add eggs, yogurt and butter, mix with a fork. Transfer onto the kneading surface and knead until smooth.Than bash the dough with the rolling pin until shiny (from my practise - not necessary action). The dough is ready when you cut it with a knife and can see small wholes.
3. Cover the dough with a bowl and roll in two parts. Roll out very thinly, then cut into strips of 3x10 cm. Cut along the center of the each stripe (see the photo). Put one end of the stripe into the whole and pull through. Make the same with the other ones before they get dry.Follow the same with the rest of the dough.
4. Heat the oil in a heavy pan. Drop a piece of dough to check if the temperature is fine. The pastry shall fry for about several dozen seconds until golden, then you turn it and fry the other side. Drain on the paper towel.
5. Cool down and dust heavily with the icing sugar. The more sugar the better!!! Now faworki look like tree branches bending under the load of snow!

 

My way to go through it is to try one faworek of every fried batch.... You can also try my another cenci recipe. Have a happy carnival season! 

Mango muffins!!!

Gorgeous mango pulp was waiting for me since the conference. I really wanted to bake something with it. Muffins were the laziest idea but the result was not so cheap. Here you have deeply orange in colour, not too heavy and full of good stuff muffins. Ones of the best available!

Mango muffins

makes 12

200 g flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsps cream of tartar

30 g oat brans

30 g raisins

40 g sugar

1 egg

50 ml vegetable oil

180 ml mango pulp

2 Tbsps condensed milk

an EXTRA mango (a half is enough)

Orange icing

3 Tbsp icing sugar

1,5 Tbsp boiling water

2 drops of orange essence

1. Sift flour and baking powder together, mix in sugar, oat brans and raisins. An EXTRA fresh mango chopped into cubes would make a sensation.

2. Beat the egg slightly, add oil, mango and milk and mix well.

3. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ones and combine well trying not to overmix. Divide quickly into 12 muffin wholes.

4. Bake in preheated oven at 190 degrees for 15 minutes. Check with a skewer if it comes dry.

5. Cool for a minute and take out on a rack.

6. Add orange essence to the icing sugar and mix well with boiling water to make the icing. Make check on cold muffins pouring down the icing from the teaspoon. 

Australian meat pie

 The Australian meat pie can be a surprisingly quick dish. Undoubtedly it can be delicious when using the right ingredients. And of course it is very very nourishing. It can be even considered to be healthy since it taste the best with tomato sauce rich in potassium…

Australian meat pie

 Makes 8-10

300 g packet of puff pastry

600 pork neck or minced meat

2 onions, chopped

few sprigs of fresh thyme, chopped, or 3 tspns dried thyme

4 Tbsps oil

salt, pepper

2 Tbsps breadcrumbs

2 eggs, slightly beaten

(ok, this is this better version of pies…)

1.      Mince the meat if you bought the solid piece of meat. Heat the oil and fry the onions until golden. Add minced meat, thyme, salt and pepper, according to taste. Cool down.

2    Mix in 1 slightly beaten egg and breadcrumbs.

3.      Cut out 12 cm-diameter pastry circles. You will probably get about 8-10. At four edges of the each circle cut out small triangles reaching their peaks only half way down to the center.  Remember not to smash nor the circles neither the leftovers. Now arrange every fan-looking circle in a muffin tin whole, stick together the edges on the walls of the mould. Fill up with the stuffing. Brush with egg and plaster with the leftover cuts of the pastry sticking together slightly.

4.      With a toothpick make a few wholes in the top of every meat pie, brush with an egg and bake in 200 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

5.      Cool down the pies for a minute, and take out of the mould. You may need to separate the pies from the mould by levering it with a thin knife around the mould. Serve hot or warm and absolutely with a nice tomato sauce!

 Information on the Australia in the Modern World conference is available here.

Mocca white chocolate muffins

That was my old dream to make muffins both with coffee and some chocolate. Of course not everything run smoothly this time. For example, take into account that if you melt sugar instead of mixing it with tlour it becomes a liquid ingredient and you have to add some extra flour. Let's say, twice more than originally presumed. Secondly, you can always ask a neighbour for... an egg. And finally, you can drop the bag of sugar while sprinkling it into the milk so anyway you have to double all the other ingredients...

Mocca white chocolate muffins

540 g flour (yeah...)

3 heaped tspns cream of tartar

1,5 heaped tspns baking soda

pinch of salt

375 ml milk

140 g brown sugar

70 g vegetable oil

100 g white chocolate chopped (or more...)

3 tspns of instant chicory coffee

1 slightly beaten egg

1. Lightly heat the milk, dissolving all the sugar and coffee and cool down.

2. Mix the sifted flour, cream of tartar, soda, salt and the chopped chocolate.

3. Add an egg and oil to the milk and combine with the dry ingredients.

4. Bake for 25 minutes at 185 degrees. Makes really large 12 muffins.

Another surprise can be that your yummy chocolate has melted completely (you just forgot that it used to happen before) which however does not affect the general reception.

And how to make a good shot if I am so impatient because of apetite?

Cenci rombs

Yummy, yummy, yummy! Another recipe from the series 'while we have no oven'. For the Fatty Thursday we have a special Polish version of cenci. We then treat ourselves with doughnuts also. This recipe is a modified version of the traditional cenci. The difference is that I use here less eggs so it is even cheaper but still very very good. This huge portion dissapeared in two days (there is much of them from this amount of ingredients). To good to deny it, hard to resist.

Cenci rombs

600 g flour

1 egg

1/2 tsp baking powder

6 Tbsps icing sugar

200-300 ml milk

1/2 l oil for frying

1.  Sieve the flour, baking powder and icing sugar onto the kneading surface.

2. Add slightly beaten egg and milk (this one gradually) and knead until smooth and  not sticking.

3. Divide into four pieces. Roll out very thinly one after another using some extra flour for dusting. Cut into small rombs.

4. Heat the oil in a heavy pan. Fry until golden on both sides. Drain on the paper towel.

5. Cool down and dust heavily with the icing sugar. The more sugar the better!!!

6. Hide well if you want to have some for later.

 I guess that this dough with less milk and no sugar would result in some quite nice home made chips. 

Polish marinated porcini mushrooms

Boletus edulis, more commonly known as porcini (meaning a piglet, did you know that?!) used to be served only in the noble houses in the Old-Polish era. Polish name of this mushroom, borowik, means 'a forest mushroom' and the popular name calls it prawdziwek meaning a true mushroom', both stressing its royal status among Polish mushrooms (by the way, the English name is penny bun or cep and the French cèpe de Bordeaux). They have something aristocratic in their look and their firm flesh makes a great base for many dishes. Mostly it would be boletus in cream or soup of dried mushrooms. One of the favourite ones are the pickles which are said to be perfect to go with Polish vodka. Thus it is unbelievable that boletuses were introduced to New Zealand and the South Africa...

Marinated boletus (marynowane prawdziwki)

For a 200 ml jar

100 g cleaned mushrooms cut into pieces

1 small onion, halved and sliced

300 ml water

1 tsp salt

pinch of sugar

Bring the water with spices to boil. Add mushrooms and onion and cook slowly for half an hour. Drain.

Marinade:

300 ml water

200 ml table vinegar (10%)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

5 allspice grains

5 peppercorns

1-2 bay leaves

Bring the water with spices to the 

boil, simmer for 5 minutes. 

Place mushrooms in a warm sterlized jar and carefully cover with boiling marinade. Quickly screw the lid on and turn over the jar. Leave it upside down until cold. That way it should be sealed well (with the lid concave). However if you are not sure if the jar is airtight, you can pasteurize it by placing the jar in a pot and pouring over the water nearly to the lid, bringing to boil and boiling slowly for 10 minutes or so. Then take the jar out and leave to cool.

Let the mushrooms marinate at least for a month. It keeps really well and makes a good gift when visiting friends from other countries;-)

This recipe applies to many types of mushrooms, among others chanterelle or the bottom mushroom. Enjoy!

Not fancy for a liver?

This was a liver testing week for me. This happens if you buy a kilo of offal that your husband doesn’t eat. Following Peter Gordon’s tips on sautéing livers, I went from rumaki through liver and beans to the liver and plum paté. Imagine that you prepare your own homemade paté, you exactly know what is inside and there is nothing artificial! Not mentioning the whole mistery of making a paté! It is a good thing as a spread for a party canapés or simply to go with some cracers. Or with some toasts for the open-air breakfast...

Liver and plum paté

360 g chicken livers
50 ml red wine
5 Tbsp vegetable oil
130 g red plums
2 Tbsp honey
50 g butter salt

1. Wash the livers, remove the sinews. You can cut them into halves so they cook more quickly. Heat up the oil in the frying pan, place the livers when it’s very hot. Fry for a minute or two on one side, or until you see that the upper side changes the colour into some grey brown. Turn over and keep frying for another two minutes. The livers should be cooked through but still pink. Place on the sieve and let it cool down and drip the oil and some juices.

2. Remove stones from the plums, cut the fruits into small cubes, heat up the honey in the frying pan and cook the plums until they start to soften. Remove from the heat and leave to cool down.

3. Melt the butter. Put the livers, butter and wine in the food processor and blend well. Now’s the funny thing. You have to pass the paté through a sieve, using a spatula or by pounding the paté on the sieve with a ladle. 4. The rest is the easy task. Season well with salt, add plums with all their honey juices and mix well. Place in a container. It will keep at least for a week in a fridge. You should get 300 g of your own homemade paté.

Besides did you know that livers are actually more valuable as a source of vitamins, minerals and proteins than the meat itself? Chicken and duck livers are both tender and versatile in using. Apart from these, the best it is said are those of calf, than lamb’s livers. Beef’s, pork’s or sheep’s livers have stronger flavour. It is important to remove sinews and fibres. You can soak livers in milk for getting a fair colour. You don’t salt the livers until it is cooked, otherwise it will harden – a good exception from that is to marinate livers in the soy sauce. Stewed liver with the onion sauce is a classic Polish dish, equally loved and hated. Liver for a living?

"News from Gosia’s kitchen" part 2 : Puff pastry

First dish which I made in wok was a puff pastry and golden beef.These easy, crispy pillows of pastry filled with spice beef and potatoes are delicious.
I made the pastry because it needs just a few minutes and is ready to eat for lunch or supper especially if you don’t have time or if you are so hungry after seasoning the wok like me.

What do you need to make it?

2 sheets puff pastry
1 tbsp sunflower oil
½ small onion
1 garlic cloves
1 tsp grated fresh root ginger
1 fresh red chili
2 tbsp curry powder
75 g minced beef
115 g mashed potato
4 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
Oil for frying
Salt and black pepper

Chop onion, garlic and chili. Heat the sunflower oil in a wok, add the chopped onion, garlic, chili, and ginger. Stir-fry over a medium heat for 3 minutes. Add the curry and beef and stir-fry over a high hest for 5 minutes, or until the beef is browned.

Transfer the beef mixture to a large bowl and add the mashed potato and coriander. Stir well, then season and set aside.

Lay the pastry on dry surface and cut out 8 rounds. Place a large spoonful of the beef mixture in the center of the pastry round. Fold each round in half to enclose the filling. Press and crimp the edges with the tines of fork to seal.

Fill a wok one-third full of oil and heat. Deep- fry the puffs, in batches, for 2-3 minutes until puffed up and golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and serve garnished with fresh coriander leaves. Offer a small bowl of tomato ketchup for dipping.

Enjoy!

Fish in aspic - another Polish classic

Jellied fish is the traditional Polish dish mainly for the Christmas dinner but it is also served during the Easter. Yet this is a good opportunity to make a nice aspic :-) The measures are given for two portions but you can easily double or triple it and so on. Not everyone likes it as not everybody loves the fish. This dish allows us to use our imagination for the decoration. Every aspect of making an aspic can be practised here. It is a foolproof recipe despite the strange-sounding name.

Fish in aspic
(2 portions)

300 g fish leftovers i.e. head, backbone, tail, a piece of the fish flesh
(I used the bream tail piece with much flesh)
60 g carrot diced
20 g onion cubed
500 ml water
3 allspice grains
5 g salt
1 egg white
5 ml white vinegar
13 g gelatine
1 small spring onion chopped

1. Cook a stock from the fish leftovers, carrot, onion, water, salt and allspice. When the flesh is done take it out and separate from the fishbones. Keep separately. Cool down the stock. It will set into a light jelly.

2. Dissolve the gelatine in a minimum of hot water. Beat the egg white slightly. Add the gelatine, the egg and the vinegar to the stock. Bring slowly to the boil.

3. Observe how the jelly is clarifying. When the egg white coagulates and the liquid becomes transparent sieve through a linen placed on the sieve. Double the sieving if necessary. Cool down completely.

4. Prepare two small containers - some yoghurt pots are fine. Grease it slightly inside using a piece of cloth dipped into the vegetable oil.

5. Place the carrots on the bottom and cover with a little of the jelly. Place the pots in a fridge for about 10 minutes (but not the rest of the jelly!).

6. When the jelly in pots sets place the fish flesh on it and pour down the jelly mixed with the chopped spring onion. Pour down the rest of the jelly and place in the fridge.

7. To take the set jelly out dip the pot in the boiling water for a 5 seconds and turn out onto a plate. Serve with white vinegar (I like particularly the light synthetical vinegar but you can experiment) and slices of bread.

Do not try to add more gelatine - it is not necessary. The jelly should melt in the mouth and not be rubber. To give it a noble flavour add 2 tablespoons of the white wine to the cold stock before the second boiling. If the jelly sets before you use it do not panic, heat it slightly, cool down and use. The fish jelly has a nice mild flavour which tends to get strength if combined with the fish flesh. Clarifying is not necessary but the difference is huge - the transparent jelly looks very elegantly. You can arranged different vegetables in pictures or layers using whole pieces of flesh and parsley leaves as well. Use your imagination. Traditionally the fish in aspic is placed in some separate pots or cups for everyone or arrange on one big plate to share. Try it!

Influence on Polish cuisine - part 1 - Japanese herring - śledź po japońsku

My Belgian friends were suprised when they saw the following names in the restaurant's menu: Greek fish, Ukraine borsch, Japanese herring. So it may be a surprise for foreigner in Poland, but they are still Polish meals. Polish cuisine was open to influences of other cultures and it took over a lot of ingredients, recipes and the techniques of cooking. Some meals were directly taken from other countries, but some of them are only foreign named, and the rest is typical Polish. It is Polish phenomena and we can compose long Polish menu with dishes of only foreign influence, so today let's start a new series about it.

Chapter 1

Japanese herring

The first I want to say – Japanese herring has nothing to do with Japanese cuisine. This dish is relatively new on Polish table. Nobody knows who thought it up and called this meal. Probably it was a coincidence.
This dish was born during communism time when ingredients were scarce and people tried to vary their menu by giving fancy names to ordinary meals. The names of new meals had nothing to do with ingredients and influence of other cultures but it sounded good and people felt better when ate for example ordinary pickled herring in mayonaise and it was called “Japanese herring”. That was weird time.
Japanese herring probably was called this way because it is simple, contains fish and nobody knew what is a Japanese cuisine like. I heard a lot of stories about Japanese tourists and they are surprised when Polish host serve Japanese herring. Currently Japanese influence on Polish cuisine is very small. Polish chefs make sushi, use a few Japanese ingredients and thought up “Kashi “ (this is a type of sushi with groats. I wrote about it in one of my previous posts “Adventures with sushi” ).

Japanese herring is a simple dish and it is very good for a party especially when you plan to serve vodka or as a starter.


for two portions

4 pickled filets of herrings
1 onion
4 large gherkin
½ can of green beans
2 hard boiled eggs
olive
mayonaise
salt and fresh ground pepper

Cut fillets of herring on half and sprinkle few spoons of olive. Cover it with aluminum foil and leave about half a hour. Cut onion and gherkin on small pieces and mix with green beans add mayonaise, salt and pepper.
Put this salad on middle part of plate. Cut egg in four and put on salad, sprinkle salt and pepper and one spoon on each piece of egg. Put herring pieces on salad and serve. This is one of the ways of serving Japanese herring. In Poland you can meet other ways but it still the same dish. Enjoy!



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Similar Posts:

Influence on Polish cuisnie - part 2 - Knuckle of pork in Bavaria - Golonka po Bawarsku

Influence on Polish cuisnie - part 3 - Beef Strogonow

Cookiemonster is me

Oh yes, and I'm soo good in it! Some time ago I was watching a fitness tv (yes, it was me and I am clear) where a beautiful coach was presenting her recipe for ginger cookies, one of my many favourites. And I am still meditating, stimulated by her advice, whether is it really necessary to eat one cookie at a time?! NO WAY!

No way. With the Griffin's ginger cookies? Impossible. Check out the company. My favourite from NZ:-). I am still developing my own recipe for ginger cookies (as I am too stubborn to use the others). Hopefully chocolate cookie was conquered recently and irrefutably. Anyone interested in the recipe?

100 g butter
60 g icing sugar
2 Tbsp milk
130 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp candied orange peel
1 Tbsp cocoa powder

1. Cream butter and sugar until soft.
2. Add milk and orange peel.
3. Sieve flour, baking powder and cocoa powder.
4. Combine all the ingredients with mixer until smooth.
5. Place seperate spoons of the dough on the baking sheet keeping much distance. Spread in a round shape but do not make too thin layer.
6. Bake in 180 degrees for not more than 20 minutes (until it starts getting dark).
7. Despite the smell allow to cool down!

Chrunch and chew:-).

Tartine success

In Poland we love bread. We don't prefer cornflakes but open sandwiches for breakfast. We eat the main meal (soup & meat dish) in the middle of the day, around 2 p.m. And then we eat light supper - some simple sandwiches. As a child - raised somewhere in the countryside around the end of the communist era - I remember bread slice with unsalted butter and coarse sugar to be a delicacy. With better economic conditions (capitalism...? I don't know, I didn't care then) I sampled marvellous strawberry jam. I could eat it every single day, just bread, butter and strawberry jam, again and again. As you taste more and more you may forget how good were these simple ideas with the freshest ingredients of the best quality. Now, when bread rather rarely resembles bread, we (in the cities) learnt to cover its vague taste with host of sophisticated combinations. Maybe that is why I forgot for a while that a good sandwich is not a bad sandwich. I was contemplating that while I was involved in the following event.

Last week we held in Krakow, southern Poland, the conference on 'Culture of New Zealand'. The event was organised by Australia, New Zealand and Oceania Research Assocciation (AZNORA) and its programme included lectures, displaying NZ's movies, photo exhibition and the visit to the ANZAC soldiers' graves at the Krakow Rakowicki Cementary. As a member of the assocciation I was responsible for the NZ's buffet. I have chosen some of the most unusual NZ's recipes, organised preparing the food and serving . At the opening of the exhibition we served Pavlova, shortbreads, green and golden Zespri kiwi and Matua Valley Shingle Peak Sauvignion Blanc.

For breaks between movies I proposed tartines - small open sandwiches which are very convenient food for an unofficial meetings, but also usually very elegant. They are perfect if you are going to treat a larger group of people because this is the food easy to share and guests can easily move around the table (and further), sample their favourite options and talk with the others. Tartines are easy to hold and to eat so you won't be afraid to approach them. Some plates and napkins are very useful. And, of course, some drinks to go with. Besides, tartines can be impressive at a relatively low cost. We usually made them with cold meats, cheese, spreads and vegetables.

The recipes I used were truly New Zealand's ideas. You really have to be down-under born to create it. These are the ideas of that kind you are thinking 'Oh God, it's not going to work' but when you risk to try you see it works pretty well ( I was no exeption).

The most adventurous for the participants of the conference were top three tartines:

1. Lemon honey & walnuts
2. Carrot & tuna
3. Cheese & mustard

I place Ham, cheese and beetroot outside of the competition because people's anxiety was probably caused by catholic Friday fasting, otherwise the case would be surprising as beetroot is one of our national vegetables.

If you would like to try carrot and tuna sandwich, prepare:

1 canned tuna, drained
1-2 Tbsps mayo
1 carrot
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt, pepper and sugar
dill for garnishing
baguette

1. Mix drained tuna with mayo and season with salt and pepper.
2. Grate carrot, season with lemon juice and sugar.
3. Cut the baguette in slant slices.
4. Spread tuna evenly, than form carrot into a long ridge and top with a dill twig.

The key to success were the ingredients first: a great fresh baguette, crispy on the outside and fluffy inside and overwhelmingly light. Then canned tuna - the best you can get means the most healthy meal, classic mayo, juicy grated carrot with a touch of lemon, good balance between spices and a fresh herb.

Then really NZ's idea of matching the aboves together.

And equally important: willing and competent hands of my friends.

Carrot & tuna tartines beautifully decorated by my sister-in-law, called 'Puff' (Ptysiek) in family circles.

I am not afraid to say that I am very proud of the final result. Our tartines practically immediately disappeared!! I am particularily happy that we brodened culinary horizons of our compatriots. And we did it far far away as New Zealand is one of the most distant countries for us (22 000 km, on the very opposite side of the globe).

All of those who helped: a big THANK YOU.

And the rest, remember this idea for your next meeting with friends or colleagues. As it comes to planning tartine schedule I would keep in mind and follow these two directions: diversity of the menu and harmony of the ingredients within one single tartine.

Bread is always fundamental. Currently my top simple open sandwich is a slice of some valuable bread, EVOO (extra vergin olive oil) and cottage cheese from the nearest market. I mean, the cheese comes from a village around 100 kms away, towards the mountains Tatras. Even salt is not necessary.

Sigrid Verbert had made her choice of great sandwiches that she had found in different blogs.

And what is your favourite combination bread+ ?