Christmas specials: beetroot fish salad

This might sound like an unusual combination of flavours, but it is actually really good. The ingredients might be slightly difficult to buy outside Poland.

You'll need:
2 sour cucumbers (one of Polish regional specialties, it's different from gherkins. My grandma makes them herself so we use our own rather than bought ones- perhaps I will reveal the recipe one day ;))
2-3 salted herring fillets
1/2 can of white beans
3 cooked beetroots
2-3 spoons of mayonaisse
salt and pepper for taste

Salted herring fillets are widely available in Poland, but might be a little bit more dfficult to obtain elsewhere. It's basicly raw fish put in salted water for taste and preservation. When you buy them, they are a bit too salty to use straight away. So, you need to put them in cold! water  (it has to be cold, if you put them in hot or warm water they will become hard) for a few hours. You'll need to change water from time to time. The number of times and the time depend on how salty the fillets are to start with. The idea is for them to be only slightly salty at the end of the process.

Once they are ready, cut them into small cubes and put them in a bowl. Cut the cucumbers into small cubes as well. Add to the bowl. Add the beans. Grate the beetroots on a cheese grate and similarly add to the bowl. Add the mayonaisse, a pinch of salt and pepper for taste and mix it all together, et voila!

Bon appétit!

Christmas specials: breaded mushroom 'hats'

Finally it arrived. Christmas. The season to be jolly. Together with all the goodies I've been waiting for all year.

I decided to share some of my family Xmas recipies with you. In Poland the biggest celebration is Christmas eve. On that occassion we traditionally prepare a supper consisting of twelve dishes, none of which contains meat. The exact dishes vary from house to house and from region to region. For this reason in my house we now have fifteen dishes - we couln't agree on the dishes following the joinder of different family traditions.

I will start with one of the easiest elements of our Christmas eve supper: breaded wild mushroom caps.

Wild mushrooms can be seen as a rare delicacy in Western Europe, but back home we collect the mushrooms ourselves (it can be considered a national hobby back in Poland) so we always have lots in strorage. For this recipe you need to select only the finest caps.

You'll need:
dried wild mushroom caps
one egg
breadcrumbs
black pepper

First you need to put the mushrroms in the hot water for around two hours so that they become soft. Then you break the egg into a plate, mix it with a fork and add some pepper to it. You put the mushroom caps first in the egg mix and then coat it in breadcrumbs, just like when making a schnitzel. Then you fry them on a hot pan, et voila! Your first Christmas dish is ready. Bon appétit!