greek fish - ryba po grecku

This is definitely one of my most favourite Polish dishes. As far as I know any actual connections of this recipe with Greece are minimal and long ago forgotten. It is most often served at Christmas eve as part of Wigilia but my family happily eat this any time of year. Personally I prefer to eat it at room temperature with some crusty bread and a fresh green salad, some chopped tomatoes and maybe some proper potato salad on the side. I would probably want this as my last meal. It's awesome.

Ingredients Makes approx 4 servings

600g skinless, white fish fillets such as tilapia, haddock, pollock etc.
Salt and pepper
50g plain flour
2 tbsp oil for frying

Vegetables
2 tbsps oil
2 large peeled carrots
1 stick of celery
2 onions, finely sliced
2 allspice berries (optional)
5 or 6 bay leaves
4 tablespoons tomato puree (or more to taste)
Squeeze of lemon juice
Salt and pepper

1. Preheat a wide frying pan over a medium heat.
2. Season the flour generously with salt and pepper and put on a plate. Cut the fish in to bite size pieces and dredge in the flour.
3. Add the oil to the pan then carefully add the dredged fish. Don't over crowd the pan, you may need to do this in batches depending on the size of your pan.
4. Once the fish is golden brown on both sides, remove from the pan and drain on paper towel. Set to one side while you prepare the vegetables.
5. Either using a box grater or a food processor, coarsely grate the carrot and celery.
6. Heat a large frying pan, add the oil then saute the carrots, celery and onion, stirring frequently, until they have completely collapsed. If the pan is getting too dry before the veg has completely softened, add a little water to help it along. The longer you take to do this stage, the sweeter the resulting vegetables will be.
7. Add the allspice, bay leaves and tomato puree. Stir thoroughly and simmer until all the vegetables are tender and the liquid has evapourated. 
8. Remove the bay leaf and allspice, then season with salt, pepper and the lemon juice.
9. On a large plate or other serving dish, cover the bottom of with a generous layer of the vegetable mixture. 
10. Place the fried fish pieces on top then cover with the remaining vegetable mixture.
11. Garnish with some chopped, fresh parsley.
12. You can serve immediately and it will taste great, however I prefer to leave it for at least a couple of hours to allow the flavours to mix together. 

 

make your own praline

Don't be scared of making your own praline. It's actually incredibly easy, you don't need any specialist equipment and once you've mastered the technique you can make endless variations by adding different nuts to the sugar. You can use this praline in my praline and amaretto frosting recipe.

Ingredients
1 cup of caster sugar
4 tbsp water
100g toasted flaked almonds

1. Line a baking sheet with baking paper and set to one side.
2. In a thick bottomed pan gently heat the sugar and water until the sugar is completely dissolved.
3. Increase to a high heat and boil the sugar mixture for around 5-7 minutes, without stirring, until it has turned to a golden brown colour. Remove from the heat and allow the bubbles to stop. Add the almond and stir through, then pour the mixture out on to the baking tray. Do not touch the mixture - it will be very hot for quite a long time and will give you a nasty burn if you're not careful. Hot sugar hurts!
4. Once the praline has cooled and set hard break into shards and store in an air tight container until ready to use.

rum mini cupcakes with praline amaretto frosting

A grown up, sweet treat that is perfect in this smaller size. The cakes are great with or without the frosting. If you choose not to frost the cakes they would be wonderful as a dessert covered in extra, warm rum syrup and a dollop of good quality vanilla ice cream. Yum...

You can use any standard plain cake batter as your starting point. This is my usual version from Dan Lepard's Short and Sweet. I find it is sturdy enough to stand up to the gooey syrup. If you can, use a silicone cake mould to make the cakes - it helps when you come to pour the syrup over them cakes. You can use paper cases in a standard tin but it just ends up being a bit more messy.

Ingredients
125g caster sugar
125g unsalted butter, very soft
2 eggs
150g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

Rum Syrup

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup dark rum

1 quantity of praline and amaretto frosting.

1. Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F/Gas 4 and place 12 cases in to your tin if using. I used a silicone mini cake tray that you can see in the pictures below. In the picture below I had only made a small quantity of the mixture so didn't fill the whole tray.
2. Beat the butter, sugar and eggs together until they are light and fluffy and well combined. This will take around 3 minutes with an electric whisk.
3. Sieve in the flour and baking powder and beat the mixture again until it is thoroughly mixed together.
4. Spoon the mixture into the your cake cases or moulds. 
5. Bake in the oven for around 20-25 minutes until a skewer comes out of the mixture clean.
6. While the cakes are in the oven prepare the syrup by gently heating the rum and sugar in a thick based saucepan until the sugar is completely dissolved.
7. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cook slightly, around 5 minutes or so, then if you are going to frost them, pour over the rum syrup while the cakes are still in the tray then leave to cool completely. (If you are serving them as a dessert remove from the tray before pouring over the syrup and cover in syrup once they are on your serving plate.)
8. Once the cakes have cooled completely you can pop them out of the silicone mould and frost.

praline and amaretto frosting

This frosting is very grown up and goes brilliantly with my mini rum cupcakes. If you want to give this frosting to children by all means substitute the amaretto with almond extract.

Ingredients
This is enough to frost 12 mini cupcakes
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature.
250g icing sugar
50g praline. For my method look here.
2 tsp amaretto
pinch of salt

1. Break the praline up into smaller pieces then place in a food processor and pulse until it is broken down into a fine powder. Don't worry too much if you're left with some slightly larger pieces - they will add a nice crunch to the frosting.
2. With an electric whisk beat the butter until it is smooth and creamy, about 1-2 minutes should do it.
3. Next sieve in the icing sugar, a little at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition and taking care not to cover your kitchen in clouds of sugar!
4. Now add you amaretto or almond extract and beat in.
5. Finally add the powdered praline and the salt and combine thoroughly. Chill slightly before use.

berry frosting

I had a bag of frozen berries in my freezer that needed to be used so I created this tasty topping for a recent batch up these cupcakes. You can use any type of berry you like but may need to adjust the amount of sugar depending on their sweetness.

Ingredients
120g butter, at room temperature
240g icing sugar, sieved
approx 120g berries, (thawed weight)

1. Strain the berries through a sieve so that you remove the pips and tough bits of skin. You will find this is easier if you use a spoon or spatula to help push it through into the bowl below.
2. In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter until soft.
3. Gradually add the sugar until thoroughly combined, smooth and creamy.
4. Next, a spoonful at a time beat in the berry puree. You may not need to add it all but keep going until you have your desired colour, flavour and consistency. If the frosting looks like it might separate, add a little more sieved icing sugar and beat together. 
5. Chill for at least 30 minutes before using.