What’s Cooking – Plum Nutella

Do you remember a few weeks ago I shared with you a Quick and Easy Cinnamon Biscuits recipe that we made together with Iwona from Smakowite Jadlo? This wasn’t the only thing we baked / cooked together during her visit. We made a lemon curd cheesecake, beetroot soup, breakfast onion & cheese rolls and… my favourite – plum nutella, which I would like to share with you today.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg plums
• 120g sugar
• 1 tbsp cocoa

Method:

First things first – wash your plums well and pat dry with kitchen cloth.

Then remove all stones and cut your plums into halves.

Place them in a large frying pan, add sugar and fry gently for about one hour stirring every 5 minutes or so, to avoid any burning or sticking.

Then when most of the juices have reduced and your plum mixture begins to thicken a little, add the cocoa and cook for an additional 15 minutes.

Place in a glass airtight container and allow it to cool.

If you have made a bigger batch you can place your plum nutella in several glass jars and pasteurize them so it lasts for longer. In order to do so:

1. Wash your glass jars in boiling water ensuring they are totally clean and sterilised.
2. Fill your jars with hot plum nutella.
3. Close the jars up, making sure that all the lids are as tight as possible.
4. Place your jars on a baking tray and cook in the oven preheated to 180C for around 10 minutes
5. Or place in a large cooking pot (with a teacloth at the bottom so your glass jar doesn’t touch the pot bottom directly) fill with water, almost up to the rim and allow to boil for 30 minutes.
6. Remove from the oven or cooking pot and allow it to cool.

This way you can enjoy your plum nutella for longer, or any jam type creation for that matter.

This plum nutella is perfect with pancakes or as addition to cakes, cupcakes or muffins or simple treat it as a jam and enjoy it with a slice of nice bread.

Foods Of The World – Poland – Kotlety Mielone – Polish Meatballs

This time I will share a Polish recipe as a part of my little series: Foods Of The World.

Kotlety Mielone a.k.a. Polish Meatballs are extremely popular in Poland and are really quick and easy to make. They are usually eaten as a part of the dinner and are served with boiled potatoes and some cold salad like sauerkraut or pickled/boiled beetroots. That said they are actually not limited to being a dinner meal only. They are perfect as sandwich filling or even as part of a salad.

These particular meatballs were made from pork meat but any type of minced meat would be perfect. If you use chicken or turkey they will have a much more gentle taste obviously.

Let’s start with the ingredients list:

• 750g minced pork
• 1 large egg
• 1 onion
• 2 handfuls of breadcrumbs
• Salt, pepper, garlic, sweet paprika to taste
• Oil for frying
• Fresh Spring onion (the green parts) – optional
• 1tspb chilli flakes – optional

Method:

Peel and fine chop your onion. Fry it on a medium heat until just golden brown. Put aside to cool down.

In a large bowl place your minced meat, 1 egg, 1 handful of breadcrumbs, earlier fried onions and spice to taste.

Mix all the ingredients together until everything is well combined and you have an even looking mixture. Don’t be afraid to work it. This is nothing like the burgers where your meat shouldn’t be touched / poked / pressed too many times. Work it with your hands until the mixture becomes a bit sticky, when this happens you know you have mixed it well.

This recipe will make for 16 meatballs. I normally use half of the mixture to create 8 “standard” tasting meatballs and use the remaining half to make a spicier version by adding fresh chopped spring onions and chilli flakes for some additional heat.

Once your mixture is smooth (more or less) it is time to form our meatballs. Ideally you want them to be about the size of a small egg. But as they are going to be fried and not cooked in any sauce, it is best to flatten them with your palm to make a doughnut shape…. Once they are formed gently toss them around in the remaining breadcrumbs just to give them a final coating that will crisp up nicely when they are cooked.

Fry on a medium heat for about 15 minutes turning them over every few minutes. Make sure that your pan isn’t too hot and your meat balls do not brown too quickly. Time as always makes food taste divine.

Remove from the frying pan and serve.

They are great for freezing if you fancy making a bigger batch, but if you are planning on freezing them it is advisable to skip the onion part. They will last longer in the freezer without the onions.

Happy cooking and I hope you enjoyed this Polish recipe.

This is one extremely full dinner plate 🙂

Foods Of The World – Hungary – Chilled Sour Cherry Soup

*By Nori

Last week I promised Agata a traditional Hungarian summer dish, and here it comes.

I started blogging about food and nutrition when I found myself living on a restricted diet, so I tried to find a dish that is easily transferable to my present lifestyle without losing the original experience.

Sour cherry soup, served chilled in the summer heat is one of our most common dishes in Hungary. It’s very easy and quick to prepare, a real refreshing starter on a hot afternoon, and… every child loves it for its slight sweetness. It was one of my childhood favorites, and that is something to say as I was a very, very picky eater.

My husband and me both enjoy being in an international environment and meeting new people, so we had quite some CouchSurfers stay with us for a couple of days. Of course, I always tried to welcome them with a home-made, traditional Hungarian meal. At least, traditional for us: no, we didn’t always have goulash soup. Sour cherry soup was the simplest, yet the most controversial dish I’ve served for foreigners: it’s sweet, and still, we have it as a starter, not dessert and yes, we serve it chilled, not hot during the main meal of the day (lunch).

And, at last, I chose to share this very simple recipe with you because it’s very versatile: easily compatible with any diet, and there are lots of options to give it a twist. You can also make it all year around with fresh or canned cherries, as well. I’ll share some tips below the recipe!

Ingredients for approx. 8 servings:

• 1 kg or 2 pounds of sour cherries, pitted (fresh or canned)
• 1 piece of clove
• 1 small piece of cinnamon (about 1×1 cm)
• 2 tablespoons of xylitol, sugar, or other sweetener to taste
• 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons of corn or tapioca starch*
• ½ cup of yogurt or plant (soya) based yogurt*

* Obviously, the traditional recipe does not use starches, but plain wheat flour and sour cream instead. The flour only plays a role in the texture of the soup, so this change makes no difference, while this way this dish becomes gluten free. I substituted the sour cream with yogurt because I’ve discovered during my travels that sour cream is not as common in other countries, but yogurt should be available for everyone. A plant based yogurt can turn this soup into a dairy free, vegan dish.

1. Just simply put the cherries in a big dish, pour in approx. 1.5 liter cold water, drop in the clove and cinnamon pieces, lemon juice, your sweetener of choice and start heating.

2. In a small bowl, mix the yogurt and the starch until smooth. Once the soup is really hot, almost boiling, take about a cup of the juice out f the pot and mix it well with the yogurt and starch.

3. Now pour the starchy mixture to the rest of the soup, boil it for only a couple of seconds and take the soup off the heat. (It’s important not to leave it boiling so the cherries stay crisp.)

4. Chill it in the refrigerator and serve.

Serving options:

You can add some more yogurt (or sour cream), whipped cream or even vanilla ice cream when serving and it still remains a starter – however, you can have some more for dessert, if you like…

My favorite twist on this recipe was when I had it in a restaurant served with mint flavored whipped cream: you can also make this at home by adding some mint extract to the cream before whipping it up.

I hope you enjoyed this very simple Hungarian recipe and try it this summer. Enjoy!

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