Gooseberry meatballs

They might resemble Swedish ikea meatballs, but they are so much more than that. Inspired by a Hairy Bikers recipe, these meatballs differ in their key ingredient - goosberry jam (prepared by my dad with gooseberries straight from our garden).

You'll need:
400gr pork mince
1 tea spoon of sour cream
freshly ground allspice
nutmeg
1 egg
75gr breadcrumbs
2 anchoives (finely chopped or a bit of anchoives paste) (optional)
medium golden onion
one clove of garlic
salt & pepper
40gr butter
two spoons of flour
50ml white wine
150 ml bouillion (I used a ready made wild bouillion, which is worked very well for the intensity of flavour)
3 spoons of gooseberry jam
dill for decoration

1. Start off by finely chopping the onion and frying it on a pan. Towards the end, add finely chopped garlic and fry for another 30 seconds before putting aside to cool down.
2. To prepare the meatballs mix the meat with one egg, adding nutmeg (be careful it's very strong if freshly grated), ground allspice, salt & pepper, breadcrumbs, anchoives and a tea spoon of sour cream. Add fried onion and garlic. Mix everything together and then start forming meatballs, the size roughly of a golf ball.
3. Put the meatballs in an open oven dish and bake for around 20 minutes in an oven pre-heated to 180 degrees. They will be ready when they start to turn beautifully golden brown on the outside.
4. In the meantime prepare the sauce. Start off by melting butter in a pot. Then add the flour, allow it to brown a little, and then add white wine, stirring all the time, not allowing lumps to form. Then proceed to adding the bouillion, still stirring. Finally, add gooseberry jam and stir. If the sauce turns too dense, add more bouillion to loosen it up.
5. Remove the meatballs from the oven, pour over the sauce, decorate the dish with fresh dill, et voila!

 Buon appetito!

Placki ziemniaczane

It is time for latke! This simple potato dish is known in many European cuisines, in many cases thanks to the past presence of the Jewish communities who traditionally serve it during Hanukkah. In Germany they are customarily eaten with apple sauce, in Poland the most common way to serve them is with sour cream. They are also known in Korea (Gamja-jeon) where they are eaten with soy sauce (potatoes where introduced to Korea by a German missionary). In many versions the potatoes are supplemented with onion or garlic, and sometimes also other vegetables are added. Here, I present a classic Polish version of the dish, with the grating proportions that allow for the potato pancake to be crisp on the outside, but still soft on the inside. It's a nice dish to eat in company, but it has to be eaten immediately, while still hot, so most likely while you're still in the kitchen. Also, grating enough potatoes for a crowd might be quite a task.

You'll need:

5 potatoes

1 egg

1 spoonfull of flour

salt

pepper (optional)

oil for frying (sunflower oil might be best)

1. To achieve a perfect crisp to soft proportion, grate 4 potatoes on a big cheese grater and one on a finer grater.

2. Squeeze out the moisture from the potatoes, add the egg and the flour and mix. Season the mixture with a generous dose of salt (and some pepper).

3.Warm up well the oil on the (preferably non-stick) pan, you need to use quite a lot, the pancakes need to almost deep fry.

4. Take a spoonful of the mixture and spread it thinly on the pan. At first it might stick to it, but once it cooks on one side (the edges will turn golden brown), it should be easy to move to the other side.

5. Serve your placki hot with good quality sour cream.

  Buon appetito!