Muesli For Breakfast

When I lived in Switzerland it was common to have muesli for breakfast. Muesli seemingly is a Swiss invention, which was introduced around 1900 by doctor Maximilian Bircher-Benner as a healthy meal for patients of his hospital. The idea was simple mix rolled oats with dried fruits, fresh fruits and add some dairy – this meal gives an energy boost and provides quite healthy start into day, without to much sugery goodness.

Today when I needed a comfort and energy boost I decided to give muesli a brand new twist. And do tell what is better that cookies for breakfast? Especially healthy cookies – no sugar, no fat just healthy

So I reached to my old trusty method of grinding rolled oats to get nice oat flour which I use as base for pancakes just to skip on white flour which seem not to be very nutritious. Skipped on fat as well, as seriously no need of fat in the cookies and added a handful of chopped dried fruits and some dark chocolate.

Recipe as always is simple and straight forward, using ingredients most of us have handy home. From begining till serving recipe is ready in about 25 minutes, which isn’t bad at all for brekkie.
So what do you reckon? Cookies for brekkie? you are worth it

Morning Glory Muesli Cookies
(makes 6)

1/2 cup rolled oats, grinded (I use old coffee grinder)
1 egg
1 spoon brown sugar

1/2 tea spoon baking soda

1/2 small cup of natural yogurt

handful of dry fruits, chopped
30g dark chocolate, chopped

In a bowl mix together oats, egg, yogurt, sugar and soda. If batter’s too loose add more oats or flour. Add chopped fruits and chocolate. Mix well. Spoon out on the baking tray. Bake until nice and golden in 200C (probably about 15 mins, but it’s depending from the oven)

Kaiserschmarrn or Breakfast like Sisi

Kaiserschmarrn what a funny name, isn’t it? Kaiser in Austrian German means “emperor” and schmarrn or schmarren means “nonsense”, Kaiserschmarrn is a sweet pancake which was designed as a dessert for empress Sisi wife of Franz Joseph I. Sisi is for Austrian symbol of Vienna and Austria and romantic story of Sisi and Franz Joseph was the source for nummerous films, plays and even cartoons.

Kaiserschmarrn is light and fluffy and can be prepared in many ways. I guess there’s no proper way, as with the time it became most decadent dish for lazy brunches in Vienna and beyond. The main idea is that it’s carmelized pancake, one can add apples, raisins or almonds to that and serve it dusted with icing sugar or/and with confiture. Options are endless but most important elements are: carmelized apples or whole pancake and fluffy structure.

It’s a quick fix and really satisfying breakfast dish. Of course it is a spoil and one shouldn’t have it too often but when comfort food and power breakfast is needed, there’s nothing better than good old Kaiserschmarrn.
My version is an express fix – I couldn’t be bothered to seperate eggs (just making a treat for myself), and used yogurt instead of milk. But must tell you, I loved every single bit of this brekkie. yes every bit and every bite, because Kaiserschmarrn should be torn into tiny pieces before serving. No idea why, but that’s how one serves it. So how about making yourself one and feeling like Sisy for the rest of the day?

Kaiserschmarren or have  Sisi style breakfast
(for 1)

1 egg
3 tea spoons yogurt
2 spoons flour
1/2 tea spoon baking soda
1 apple, sliced
1 spoon of brown sugar
1 spoon butter

In a bowl mix together egg, yogurt, flour and baking soda, mix well until nice and smooth. On the pan melt the butter, add apple slices and sugar, fry until carmelized and golden in colour. Pour on the apples batter and fry until light brown, turn the pancake and don’t worry if it breaks, that’s how it’s done. Fry until all bits are nice and golden brown on both sides. Before serving make sure that pancake is torn into small pieces (just for one bite). Serve with sides of your choice. I ate it just as it was

One potato, two potatos, three potatos, four…..

It’s been a while since I blogged, days just seemed to fly by and never had time to sit down and write. Winter is here to stay, so I’ve been craving soups lately. To me there’s nothing more comforting than a good bowl of soup, nothing fills better without the feeling of having eaten too much. For Christmas meal we cured joint of ham, which then needed to cooked before being roasted, and as Gordon Ramsey reckomended in “Ultimate Christmas” we cooked it in broth with veggies and spices. After ham was ready we froze the rest broth to use when needed.

And what goes better with ham broth then potatos? A perfect match was done. This is a very simple, yet very satifying soup. Most important is a ratio of veggies to the amount of liquid. What I was looking for was soup that was nice and creamy, smooth but still light.

The base of the soup is made of onion, leek and other root veggies of your choice, add some ginger for extra kick. Potatos are rather delicate in taste, but have full body and give adorable texture to the soup. If there’s enough of them, one can skip so yet popular in other recipes thickening soup with flour and milk. Thanks to using more veggies soup will be more satisfying, and generously filling without heaviness of diary and flour. An extra bite is provided by crunchy bacon topping. Soup can be easily adjusted to the vegetarian taste – just use vegetarian broth and skip the bacon topping, use carmelized onion or potatos bits instead.

It’s a rather quick fix. Rather easy to adjust to seasonal tastes or personal preferences. Just remember the liquid should just cover the veggies, this way soup stays nice and creamy. You are more then welcome to sprinkle some spring onion or other greenery on the top, add some mushrooms, or celery or practically anything that takes your fancy.

Potato – Onion Soup with Crunchy Bacon Topping

1 liter (or 2 pints) of homemade broth of your choice (I used Christmas ham broth with spices), in case soup’s too thick add another 300ml of water
1kg – 1,5kg potatos of your choice, peeled, and cut in small pieces
4 big onions, peeled and sliced
1 leek, washed, sliced
1 turnip, peeled and sliced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
3cm fresh ginger, peeled and sliced

for topping:
500g streaky bacon, diced and fried until crispy, drained on the paper towel from excess of fat

In the big pot on some oil fry and cook onions and leek until nice and tender, add ginger, carrots and turnip and cook a bit. Add potatos, broth and let simmer until potatos are nicely cooked. Season up and blitz until nice and smooth. If necessary season up again.
Serve with crispy bacon topping and some sour cream if you fancy.

Gravadlax or How To Grave the Salmon

Mr Fiance has been bragging about gravadlax for ages and I know he has made it successfully couple of times. So this winter I decided to finally brave the elements and have my go with this so yet popular treat. Mr Fiance insisted that there’s only one ultimate recipe and it’s the one by Jamie - GORGEOUS BEETROOT GRAVADLAX. I seriously love how every recipe is always gorgeous, best ever and so on. This way always feel almost challanged to try it. Of course I wouldn’t be myself if didn’t change the recipe in the process. Truth is that while still in bed with flu am less mobile and less willing to go out and do shopping.

As I ran out of vodka substituted that with grated fresh ginger. Which I hope that it gives an extra kick to the taste. My test run on Gravadlax is made for the Office Christmas Party, which take’s palce on thursday evening. I had to cut my ingredients in half, as there won’t be too many of us anyway. For Christmas we may again go for smaller amount but this will need to be discussed with Mr Fiance anyway.

Word Gravadlax in Norwegian comes from the word grave, because back in old days people used to bury the salmon, so that it will mature and marinate. Those days we just stick it in fridge and let it marinate

Let’s get down with business so the recipe. No idea how it will come out, as the result shall be known after at least 24 hours and preferably 2 days according to Jamie. Last night when I watched episode of Barefoot Contessa by Ina Garden, her gravlax needed only 24 hours in total to be ready to eat, eventhough recipe on Foodnetwork says 48 hours, how confusing. The piece of salmon in Jamie’s recipe was over 700g, wheras the piece I got is only 400g. Ina Garten was marinating two pieces of salmon sandwiched with bunch of dill and spices and total time was 24 hours or 48 hours if following recipe on the webpage.

Gravadlax almost like Jamie’s

400g salmon filet, skin on
rock salt enough to cover salmon
damerara sugar about 1tb might be more
1tb spoon grated horseradish (I used jared one)
5cm fresh ginger grated
1 lemon – zest grated and juice from 1/2
300g grated fresh beetroot

method:

place filet skin down in shallow dish. Rub over salt, then sugar, then grated ginger and top up with horseradish. Rub and press. Cover with grated beetroot, sprinkle with lemon zest and lemon juice. Cover tightly with cling film, I did two layers just in case. And weight it down with another tray or couple of cans. Stick in the fridge for 2 days. When ready drain away the liquid, discard the crust and carve thinly.

Pudding The French Toast?

Comfort food is diary to me, always and on every occassion when I’m unwell, unhappy or simply ill. Cheese and buttermilk, curd cheese, hard cheese, soft cheese you name it. I’m not allowed much milk on its own during the winter time (because it seems to influence badly sinuses, which are the chief villain of mine and source of most infections), but milk perserves are allowed. I’m especially fond of buttermilk and kefir, which is very much typical for Eastern Europe. They are light and very milky but as well a bit sour which gives lovely smoothness with a bit of bite to it. I adore milk shakes from butter milk or kefir with season fruits such as berries, bananas (all year long), peaches or appricots… so lovely and light and very good for your body.

On wednesday I got 2 pints of buttermilk and has been drinking it for comfort, and using it in cooking as I seriously appreciate its taste. And this morning I woke up with craving for french toast or bread pudding. Probably because I’ve been reading the Tastespotting madly those days. Seriously the only thing I could sort of focus on when sick. I decided to use slices of the sweet yeast cake, which is quite popular in Poland as chałka, which is quite similar to Jewish challa bread or to brioche, but less buttery and lighter.

After first idea of french toast I shifted towards the bread pudding as seriously couldn’t be bother to fry anything when feeling like shit. Made buttermilk sauce with egg, sugar and cinnamon and added handful of raisins. After 20 minutes in the oven what came out was light and fluffy and very comforting. Found it a perfect breakfest and perfect treat.

I think that at the end it was more frech toast which got baked instead of being fried, because the slices of bread got soaked in buttermilk and egg mix and then just baked in that mix which gives the feeling of bread pudding. I didn’t use heavy cream or butter, so the dish remains light and very fluffy.

Baked French Toast
(serves 1)

2 slices of challa bread or brioche
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
2 tb spoon dark sugar
1 tea spoon cinnamon
vanilla extract

In the baking dish whisk together buttermilk and egg, add sugar, cinnamon and vanilla and give it a good whisk. Now soak the bread in, turn it so it coats and soaks evenly. Then put it with the sauce into the oven and bake in preheated to 200C for about 20-25mins

Breakfast is Good Start

Winter seems to be the time of flu and infections, which finally came upon me. Got stuck in bed with fever and other trimmings so I’m in need for comfort and healthy food. Maybe pancakes aren’t the most healthy of them all but with bananas, raisins and curd cheese are little pieces of heaven.

The recipe is a quick fix and surely can be considered a healthy treat. The bananas are melting and raisins are nice and sweet, curd cheese gives a tiny sour taste. They are nice and comforting but as well. Can be eaten hot or cold, on their own or dusted with icing sugar or brown sugar or even maple sirup.

Please excuse me this lousy post, but have serious troubles focusing. So without much do let’s go down to recipe. It’s easy to adjust depending how many ingredients one have handy.

Good Morning Pancakes
(makes 6)

1 egg
2-3 spoonfuls of flour of your choice
1/2 tea spoon baking soda
buttermilk
1 banana
1 handful raisins
small piece of curd cheese

Whisk the egg, add flour and enough buttermilk that the dough has consistence of clotted cream. Add baking soda and give a good whisk. Add sliced bananas, raisins and crumbled curd cheese. Mix and fry until golden brown. Serve warm or cold according to your liking.
 

Curing Ham is Curable

… yes it’s Christmas time soon and we are getting ready to prepare food for 3 days of Christmas. Yes you didn’t overhear yourself – in Poland we have 3 days of Christmas: Christmas Eve, First Day of Christmas and Second Day of Christmas. All three as important and all three requires plenty of food. Beacause I’m quite huge fan of UK this year traditions will mingle (not only because Mr Fiance comes over for Christmas in Poland) and one of our lunches will be adorned with home cured and roasted ham in glaze. I decided to cure my ham at home, so after a long research we purchased all ingredients needed.

The whole process is simple – it’s so called wet curing, more likely to give you a nice gammon ham. One needs a nice raw ham – our had hardly any fat and weights about 2,5 kilo. Moreover you will need herbs and spices, water and curing salt or salt, sugar and saltpeter. Those days saltpeter seems to be hard to purchase both in Poland and in UK, but one can easily buy curing salt which is a ready made mix. It is hughly advisable to rub the ham with some of curing salt before submerging it in curing liquid. Simply because in case there are some bacterias on the meat they will be killed. The water needs to be cooked and cooled down, and then curing salt shall be mixed in (follow proportions on the packet), and one adds spices and herbs and then cover the ham with the liquid. Ham has to be completely covered with it. One has to keep it with lid on, in cold and dark place: basement, fridge or pantry. Every day ham needs to turned so that it cures well.

As you see here my ham is ready to put the lid on and store it. Container it is in belonged to my grandmother and used to be traditional storing container for Christmas goodies – pasties, herings and so on. Today my ham is curing in there and I hope that all Nan’s cooking wisdom protects it

Cure Your Ham
(for a ham 2,5kilo)

2,5 kilo ham – boneless joint of ham (not treated)
4 packets of curing salt (I used this, but adjust amount according to salt you are using)
6 cloves garlic peeled and cut in two
peper corns (about a table spoon full)
juniper berries (about 1/2 table soon)
cloves (about 5-6)
allspice (about 1/2 table soon)
4 bay leaves
1,5l boiled and cooled water

With one packet rub the salt all over the meat. Put into clean container (enameled, class or pottery). When the water is cooled, mix in remaining salt and add garlic. Crash the spices in mortar, break the bay leaves and add to the brine. Pour over the ham and make sure that it’s covered completely by curing brine. Put the lid on and store for 14 days in dark and cold place. Turn your ham every day. On the 14th day remove it from the brine, rinse it, pat it dry, bind with natural string and cook, roast or smoke to your liking.