Super healthy Polish sauerkraut soup

Sauerkraut doesn't sound terribly sexy I know. Yet it's one of the healthiest things you can eat due to its vitamin C, mineral and probiotic content. The juice from the cabbage is a brilliant hangover remedy, my dad assures me, although I haven't tried it myself. I do, however, crave this wintery soup from time to time.

I have limited the amount of pork that goes in to just some good quality lardons (from Ginger Pig of course) and used a beef rib for the stock. Since I've been working on the book I have realized how vague my recipes can be. It's because I see cooking as something that's adaptable and not an exact art, yet I can see that being vague often confuses perfectly simple matters, therefore it's something I've been working on and I hope my recipes now reflect this.

Recipe

2 litres water

500g sauerkraut

1 beef rib

150g lardons

2 potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 carrot

1 parsnip

1 onion, peeled and charred over stove

1 celery stick with leaves

2 bay leaves

5 allspice berries

5 whole peppercorns

1 teaspoon cumin

White and black pepper

Cook the rib with the carrot, parsnip, celery and onion with the bay leaves, allspice and peppercorns in the water for at least 1 hour, preferably 1.5 hours.

Remove the vegetables and beef, add the potatoes and sauerkraut. Add the cumin. Cook for a further 30min.

Meanwhile, fry the lardons on a frying pan until slightly crispy. Add these to the soup for the final 10min.

Season with black and white pepper. The soup doesn't need salt as the sauerkraut is already salty.

An Autumn stew with beans and pumpkin

I was in Athens the other day visiting my heavily pregnant friend and wanted to make a huge pot of something that we could eat for dinner, then freeze for the busy days ahead. It's getting a bit chillier, even in Greece, so I was thinking warming and substantial dishes, and of course, the French cassoulet came to mind. The last time I made it was in the French Alps, and we ate it with great joy and relief almost (as well as fresh baguette), after a day on the slopes. But this was Greece - a different climate, different ingredients, so I reworked the recipe to include some lovely pumpkin that we found at the market, two types of dried Greek beans (black eye beans and another type I didn't recognise), Greek sausage with leek (rather than the traditional French garlic sausage). I made the recipe skinnier not for health reasons but because of the temperate climate here, so gone is the duck confit and goose fat and in come more meditterean vegetables. The French bouquet garni was also replaced, with local, wild oregano. This isn't fusion cuisine; this is using local, seasonal produce and creating a new version of a dish, based on a classic

Soak the beans overnight, then cook them slightly before you start the stew - about 15 minutes of simmering in salted water, then drain. Fry the chopped sausages first, in some of the olive oil, then remove from the pan, Add the lardons and the chopped onion next, fry for a couple of minutes, then add the grated carrots, chopped celery (which, incidently, looks completely different in Greece) and keep frying on a low heat, stirring now and again. After about 5min add the tomatoes, beans, white wine, garlic, herbs and spices. Bring to the boil then turn the heat down again and allow to simmer for about 10min or until the tomatoes start to disintergrate. Add some water and put the sausage back in the dish. Allow to simmer for about 45min, before adding the pumpkin and more wine/water if needed. After another 45min season the stew with plenty of salt pepper and taste. Perhaps it needs more paprika or oregano? I'd give it another half an hour on top of that before serving with crusty bread - so 2 hours of cooking time in total. The ingredients down there are approximate, as usual, so just experiment with the flavours and go with the flow

Ingredients - makes about 10 portions

1/4 large pupkin, roasted for 20min, peeled and chopped
6-8 leek sausages, chopped into bitesize pieces
200g lardons
1.5kg dried beans (2 types)
Bunch of celery (Greek celery is much thinner, so probably about 6 stalk of British celery)
3 red onions, chopped finely
4-6 cloves of garlic, chopped or crushed
10 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped
6-8 carrots, grated
1 tablespoon dried, wild oregano (if available)
1 teaspoon paprika
4 bay leaves
Half a bottle of white wine
Salt and pepper
Mild olive oil
Chilli flakes and crusty bread to serve

Venison stew with chocolate and chilli

Early Spring, with it's constantly changing moods, can bring about a melancholy in me. I have to remind myself that life isn't just about bright sunshine and balmy Summer evenings; that we need the rain, wind and grey moments too. I am impatient for the sun. I am in fact impatient for everything, bordering on intolerant at times. When something is clear to me, I want to impose that clarity on the whole world. This is an immaturity in me, reality can be seen and expressed in many different ways and everyone has their own process. I am learning to let go. Feeling my impatience, anger and sadness as strongly as I can and then accepting that it makes no difference, and that's how it's supposed to be, so I can relax. I made a late Mother's Day lunch for my mum and the family yesterday. They came an hour and a half early, catching me by surprise and I very nearly ruined it, but luckily managed to relax and accept the situation in the end. The main course was this stew

I had a hunch that venison and dark chocolate would work, especially with a chilli kick. And the red wine. These strong flavours together are a dream. Fry the carrot, onion, celery and ginger first for about 5min in the olive oil. Add the venison chunks and the chilli, seal the meat for a couple of minutes then add the paprika, ground ginger and cumin, stir and fry for another minute, add a splash of water. Season with salt and pepper. Pour over the wine, cover and simmer for about half an hour. Add the red pepper and chocolate. Simmer some more. If it looks dry then add more red wine. It needs about 2 hours in total, until the meat is so soft that it's falling apart, but make sure you stir it every 20min or so and make sure it's not drying out, adding splashes of wine when you need to. Right at the end add the fresh coriander and serve - it works well with sweet potato mash you see up there. For dessert we had Anja's chocolate mousse, which is the best chocolate mousse in the world, and I will tell you about next time

Ingredients (serves 4)

400g venison, in bite-sized chunks (remove any stringy bits)
6-8 squares dark chocolate
1 onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, grated
4 celery stalks, finely chopped
1 red chilli, chopped
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
Approximately 1/3 bottle red wine
Handful chopped fresh coriander
Mild oil for frying
Salt and pepper

Polish sauerkraut and wild mushroom stew with pearl barley

Perhaps it's my grandma's recent departing or perhaps it's that I'm working on a book on this very subject, but Polish food is playing the leading role in my life right now. This is a reworking of a classic vegetarian sauerkraut stew, which we would traditionally eat on Christmas Eve (as part of the 13 non-meat dishes). Today, I experimented with adding pearl barley and the result was stunning! This is an innovation I will be propagating henceforth. I think it may catch on, because it makes this dish into something quite special, more balanced, giving it a risotto-like consistency and the strong flavours something to sink into

Those up there are the mushrooms picked this Autumn by my uncle Kazik, which were soaked in cold water, washed under running water and then  re-hydrated in hot, boiled water overnight. Make sure you reserve the water, as it's one of our essential components. Brown the onion on a medium heat in the oil, then add the sauerkraut, the mushroom water and the prunes. Bring to the boil and simmer, covered, for approximately an hour. After about 20min add the wild mushrooms. Meanwhile, fry the other mushrooms on a separate pan in the butter. After about 5 min, add the marjoram. Once they are nicely browned, toss them into the main pan and continue cooking along with the rest of the stew. In another pan, cook the pearl barley in some vegetable stock. We use the beer to add moisture while your stew is cooking. Near the end of the cooking time, add the beans and pearl barley, season to taste with soya sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. That down there makes enough for 5-6 portions, yet all the measurements are approximations so feel feel to add and subtract to your own taste. Remember to make more than you need, as it tastes even better the next day

Ingredients

1 jar sauerkraut

1 onion, finely chopped

1 tin butter beans, drained

250g pearl barley

Handful dried wild mushrooms, rehydrated and chopped

Handful closed cup mushrooms, chopped

Prunes, pitted and chopped

Beer – half a pint

2 tablespoons mild oil

1 teaspoon marjoram, or more

2 teaspoons ground flaxseed (optional)

100g butter

Soya sauce

Worcestershire sauce

Salt and pepper

Spicy mutton with pearl barley

It's cold outside, I'm broke, I miss my ex and I'm worried that my cat wants to leave me for the insane woman down the road. Yet I also know that this sad time is the perfect moment to reflect on the past year and to focus on everything I want (and don't want) in the coming one. The good news is that I have no regrets, so nothing is going to hold me back. I know that I did my best in my career, my relationship (even though it didn't work out) and my dreamwork, as I like to call all the stuff I'm working on in my own time. I'm still a little tired, a little jaded, but soon, soon...

First I need soul food, in every sense. I'm going to fill myself up on nourishing stuff like this spicy mutton with pearl barley, meditate every day to attain acceptance and sleep as much as I want to. Right now this is anything from 9.5 to 11 hours a night. The mutton needs lots of time too, so I would suggest cooking it over the weekend. First, season the meat with salt and pepper and set aside for half an hour. Dry-fry the meat for about 5 minutes, and remove from the pan. In the same pan, fry the onion, garlic and the scotch bonnet in some oil until translucent and golden - probably about 3-4 minutes - stir in the Jamaican curry spices and return the meat to the pan. Stir all the spices over the meat, then add the stock. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat right down, cover the pan and allow to stew for 3 hours. Check it now and again to make sure it has moisture, and add water if it's looking dry. Add the coconut milk and the tomatoes. Cook for 45min and add the pearl barley. Cook until the pearl barley is soft - another 45min or so

Ingredients (serves 4)

400g mutton

2 onions, chopped finely

4 inches of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped

1 scotch bonnet pepper

1 tin of coconut milk

3 tomatoes

600g pearl barley

2 tablespoons coconut oil

1 tablespoon Jamaican curry spices

2 litres vegetable stock

Salt and pepper

Warming wild rabbit stew/soup

Vegetarians look away now - it's shooting season in the UK and the butcher shops are full of pheasant, partridge, grouse and wild rabbit. I am typing this while eating a delicious rabbit and spinach stew/soup (depending on how you look at it), the recipe for which I would like to share with you, even though it was a by-product of another dish I was making - a "huntsman bake", for which I needed strips of rabbit. So, I was left with the bones with plenty of meat still attached, that I didn't have the will to scrape off with my not-so-great knife. I covered these in cold water, added a couple of bay leaves, a cinnamon stick and some garlic cloves and allowed to boil for 2-3 hours, adding water as it evaporated. I then allowed it to cool, and the next day, I took the carcass out, pulling any meat off it. I brought the stock back to the boil, this time adding lots of pearl barley. When the grains were soft, I added spinach leaves, salt, pepper, a squeeze of lemon and finished it off with tabasco

Ingredients

Rabbit carcass (preferably in bits and with some meat still on it)

Pearl barley

Spinach

Cinnamon stick

2 bay leaves

3 garlic cloves

Squeeze of lemon

Salt and pepper

Tabasco

In doing research for my cookbook, I've been learning about hunting in Eastern Europe. A fact that made me particularly proud of my countrymen was that, throughout Polish history, women were just as keen hunters as men. One piece of poetry that I read, from the 16th Century, suggested that many men found women more attractive in this sort of pursuit than dolled up in tight dresses! This makes me happy because it feels like the ultimate liberation from stereotypes. It's men loving women for what they are, and women being free to be what they are - natural, strong and fierce - rather than feeling forced to create a permanent ladylike illusion. There's hope yet...

The best beef bourguignon recipe ever

I realize that that down there doesn't look like much, but it was the best beef bourguignon I have ever made, so I have to share the recipe with you quick before I forget it, as it was one of those instinctive, improvisational ones

I have a feeling the reason it was so good was because I bought amazing stewing beef from Broadway Market, so it was made from happy cows. Or perhaps it was the cup of lamb stock I added, because I didn't have any beef... whatever it was, I hope we will all be able to replicate the magic by following this recipe

Ingredients (serves 2-3)

500g good quality stewing beef

Couple of handfuls of chestnut mushrooms, quartered

Onion, chopped

Handful of shallots, peeled and halved

Aprox 80g smoked pancetta cubes

Half a bottle of decent red wine

Fresh lemon thyme - 3-4 stalks

1 tsp dried thyme

3 cloves garlic

Garlic salt

Tablespoon flour

Cup of lamb stock

Bay leaf

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Brown the beef in the olive oil, and fry the onion separately until golden and even a little crispy in places. Add the onion to the beef along with garlic salt, pepper and flour. Once you have mixed it all in, it's time for the wine, stock, bay leaf, thyme and lemon thyme - bring to the boil. Turn the heat right down and allow to simmer for at least an hour. Fry the pancetta in the same frying pan as the onions were in previously and after a couple of minutes, stick the shallots in there too. After about 20min, the pancetta should be crispy and the shallots golden - time to introduce them to the beef stew. At the same time, add the mushrooms. Cook for a further 45min-1hour, then season one final time before serving. The first night Ruby and myself ate this with garlic mash, and the second night I had it with some Turkish bread. Ruby got lost in the depths of deepest, darkest Hackney on the way to mine (or the end of the world as she now calls it), and was in a bit of a state by the time I found her, but said it had all been worth it when she ate this beef bourguignon - you can't really get any more endorsement than that. Although, after a night with coco the kitten bouncing off the walls and about 2 hours sleep, I think she may have changed her mind again

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's lamb with pearl barley

I found this recipe in the Guardian weekend supplement that someone had left on the train and liked the simplicity of it, as well as the photo, which made it look very tasty and just like the sort of thing I like to eat at this time of the year. I also liked the idea of using pearl barley, because I hardly ever cook with it, and did you know that it only costs 37p for a big (500g) bag?! I tried to follow the recipe as best I could, but of course I had to make some additions and substitutions. Hugh's recipe does not use beer, or paprika, for example. As I did not have neck of lamb with the bone in it, I used a lamb stock cube. And I decided to just add the pearl barley to the stew, rather than cooking it separately. I also didn't use anywhere near as much butter as Hugh suggests for frying the onions

So I fried the onions in the butter for about 20 minutes, then tipped them into a bowl and reserved. In the same pan as I had just used to fry the onions I browned the seasoned lamb chunks in olive oil, for about 5 minutes, before covering with cold water (there was about an inch of water covering the meat), adding the bay leaves and bringing to the boil. Once it was boiling I turned the heat down and allowed it to simmer slowly. At this point, I added the stock cube, a pinch of paprika and the cinamon. It cooked for about an hour. Finally, I added the pearl barley and cooked for a further half an hour. When the barley was soaking up all the liquid, I started adding the beer, bit by bit. I refried the onions near the end, until crispy, and then added these to the stew. I ate this for dinner the night I made it, and the next day my brother came round and I warmed this up, adding a bit more beer while it was heating, to keep it all moist and stewey, and we ate it washed down with more beer. As it's a dish of Turkish origin, next time I may have it with the Turkish drinking yoghurt that I buy from my local shop - yum! Anyway, thanks to Hugh I have another simple and delicious dish to add to my repertoire, I highly recommend

Ingredients

2tbsp olive oil

50g butter

2 onions

700g cubed lamb 

Lamb stock cube

2 bay leaves

200g pearl barley

1tsp cinamon

Salt and pepper

Half a pint of beer

Pinch of paprika

"Bigos" recipe - 3 day sauerkraut stew

There's as many bigos recipes in Poland as there are households I imagine, and mine changes from year to year. But some things never change - you only eat bigos when it's cold and in a group of family or friends. It's perfect for sharing, as it takes ages to make and you may as well make a huge amount.

Ingredients (for 6 people)

2 jars of sauerkraut
2 onions
Aprox. 300 grams stewing beef
Aprox. 300 grams cubed pork belly
About 3 packets mixed dried wild mushrooms
About a handful of closed cup mushrooms
500 grams prunes
About 4 dried Polish sausages (I used "Mysliwska" - hunters' sausage)
2 Glasses red wine
1 stock cube (lamb works well)
Dried herbs (I used dried sage and rosemary - juniper berries work well too)
3 bay leaves
Peppercorns
Olive oil
Salt
Maggi liquid seasoning (optional)

Serve with mashed potato or crusty bread

Now, my mum always uses sauerkraut that comes in soft plastic packets, which does not need much extra liquid - she doesn't use any stock at all in fact - but the stuff you get in all supermarkets, in jars, is quite dry and you need to keep adding water so that it stays moist and doesn't burn.

Day 1

Soaked the dried mushrooms for half an hour, according to packet instructions. Fried the pork belly in the olive oil for a couple of minutes, before adding the beef and chopped onion. After another couple of minutes, I added the drained sauerkraut and a glass of wine, seasoning with salt and peppercorns

You bring to the boil and then turn the heat down. Once they mushrooms have rehydrated, add them and the water they have been rehydrating in, to the pan. As long as they are bought mushrooms, of course, if you picked them yourself, you would need to rehydrate them for longer and change the water more than once. But if you picked them yourself, like most people in Poland do, then I'm sure you would know that already ;o)

I cooked this for at about 1 hour today. It was still be light in colour but the should be no liquid in the stew by the time you turn the heat off. You can let this cool and put it in the fridge overnight, but my pot is always to big so I just leave it, covered in the cold kitchen (we always turn our heat off at night).

Day 2

I put this on a low heat as soon as I got home. I covered the bigos with about a pint of lamb stock and let it simmer, while frying the Polish sausage and closed cup mushrooms separately.

I added them in one by one along with the prunes and cooked for a further hour or so

Day 3

Cooked the bigos for a final hour with a glass of wine. When this evaporated I kept adding a splash of water every now and again, when it was looking a bit dry. The final magic ingredient was maggi sauce

A proper bigos is dark brown in colour with a deep, intense flavour. However, if you'd like to try sauerkraut stew without the hassle, you can cook one in about half an hour. It tastes completely different to this stew, but definitely has it's own appeal. Check out my recipe here