One of my favorite dishes with pumpkin, although it's more of an appetizer than a full-fledged dish. It's roasted in a tart form, but it's not something to be sliced, as it doesn't have a base - you scoop it with a spoon. We have here pumpkin, potato and leek - which plays the first fiddle here. There's also feta, which doesn't crumble during baking.

There's also pink pepper, and all of this is baked with the addition of butter and olive oil. Nothing more is needed here, maybe just a pinch of salt, because apart from that, the flavors in the oven mix fantastically. Leek, as we know, like onion, gives flavor to the rest, and it stretches nicely when slightly burnt. Unfortunately, I can't find a photo after baking, but apart from the leek (which loses its firmness and color) everything looks similar. I'll manage to take a picture next time 🙂

Roasted Pumpkin, Leek and Feta - a Blast!

I rarely draw recipes from famous people, but this time I did and I don't regret it. The pumpkin tart from Rozkoszny is really cool. I also made it with a certain flair and totally followed the recipe, which I rarely do, and if I do, it's in baking (anyone who tried to bake macarons 'by eye' knows what I'm talking about 🙂). This cake is great and it also turned out good for me.

One (probably one) mistake I made was to start pulling the tart out of the oven and maneuvering it too quickly, which caused it to crack in the middle. As for the taste, there is no doubt, it turned out as it should and had several layers of flavors, it felt like everything was right 🙂 Here is the cake: https://www. rozkoszny. pl/tarta-dyniowa-pumpkin-spice-z-palonym-miodem-i-pomarancza/

Pumpkin Tart - Good, from Rozkoszny

I'm not sure if there's anything that needs to be described here - the ingredients are such that the dish will always turn out fantastic. These ingredients are chanterelles, thyme, parmesan, rice, wine, and broth. Simple, delicious, not the cheapest, but worth the effort, because the layers of flavor are excellent, especially don't skimp on the wine, which enhances all the flavors, and tastes great on its own.

Risotto with Chanterelles, Parmesan, and Fresh Thyme

Haloumi, the most ordinary haloumi, is for me one of the most extraordinary things in the kitchen. It doesn't need anything apart from temperature to be something delicious. It always surprises, even though I've eaten it a hundred times.

I particularly enjoy haloumi with a hint of sweetness, specifically honey, mixed with soy sauce to make it even more interesting.

And that's all - the haloumi marinates in this for a few hours, then goes into the pan or the oven (both options will work), and then onto the plate.

In one version, it was baked with rosemary, in the other it was plain, with a basil pesto as an accompaniment.

Which version is better, you decide for yourselves 🙂

Haloumi with Rosemary, or with Pesto

Butter chicken is the best dish of Indian cuisine. Well, for me, as a butter lover, definitely. We used to go to the now non-existent Bombay restaurant, where the food was really good. But when I once ordered butter chicken, after a few, or even several subsequent visits, my family was greatly surprised that I didn't even open the menu to choose carp in coconut milk, but immediately went for 'butter chicken'.

I like to try new things, but I don't like to miss out, so I preferred not to miss the taste of butter chicken, rather than trying those various dishes. Butter chicken is very simple, a bit harder to make yourself, easier with a ready-made paste (in the oriental section in supermarkets), which is mixed with butter. In my case, always with a larger amount of butter and cream than in many recipes. Do I make it as good as in Bombay? Sometimes yes 😉

Butter Chicken - Obviously, Once a Month

A celebration of tomatoes, 3 varieties, two cheap, one absurdly expensive (the darkest ones), but pretty and good. There are two layers of these tomatoes in the tart, and underneath them, well what could be underneath them - cheese! And even 4 cheeses, not because that was the plan, but remnants of four cheeses were found in the house.

I mixed the cheeses with cream, a 30% one, which made the taste strongly creamy, cheesy, in places cheddar-like, and in places ricotta-like. But let's get back to the tomatoes - see that only perfect slices went into the tart, without cutting out the green, without any holes. Tomatoes are not basically like that, so you have to buy nice ones, and have a plan B for all the rest that remains from the tomato. The tart was delicious, the tomato juice mixed with the cheeses, and the two layers made the tomato really dominate.

3 Tomato and 4 Cheese Tart

Usually when I prepare a meat dish, I also make a vegetarian version of it. Firstly, I have two vegetarians at home (and it's nice when they can eat the same thing). Secondly, apart from the meat, the rest of the dishes are often the same, so it's also a practical solution - tofu in one pot, meat in the other - and off we go. Getting to the heart of the matter - it wasn't so easy here 😂 Boeuf bourguignon is a dish so saturated with the basic taste of meat that a simple substitution with tofu is not enough, as we lose about 90% of the aromas.

But when you're determined, you can make it work. Broth, spices, and smoked aromas make this dish quite good. It tastes different, but still has umami. Soy sauce, smoked plum (and smoked paprika - but be careful) and caraway helped me come out of this battle with a shield.

Tofu Bourguignon, because who says it has to be beef?

I'm not discovering America with this recipe, because everyone makes tomato sauce from time to time and everyone succeeds. This one deserves attention, though, because it's homemade, from tomatoes, without passata or concentrates. It's not unique, but still worth a post 🙂

In recipes, you'll often be told to buy meaty, special tomatoes, which have little water, marzano and so on.

But be smart when you go to the store, and one says 'tomatoes', and the other says 'vine tomatoes'. You buy what's available, more or less meaty 🙂 Dispelling doubts - the sauce will turn out anyway, and it will be good, unless you come across some real monstrosities. We crush the garlic, add olive oil, and put it in the pan, and after a moment we add a large amount of peeled (this is important) tomatoes.

Soaking the tomatoes in boiling water will help you peel them easily. Some people like peeling tomatoes, others don't, but it's worth it because you get the feeling of doing something authentic. And you look like, well, in an Italian kitchen for example 👨‍🍳

You have to cook the tomatoes for quite a long time, this is not passata, which we add and it's ready.

We adjust the thickness of the sauce, in our own way, with a lid 🙂 If it's too thin, we take off the lid so the water evaporates. And if it's too thick then...

(hello, what do you mean - too thick... ).

Spaghetti, with Homemade Tomato Sauce, and Bacon

This dish was supposed to be something else, but something fantastic was created instead. Tofu and zucchini skewers are a very simple matter.

Cubed tofu, marinade (soy sauce, oil, herbs, salt). The zucchini is similar, except not cubed, because I treated the zucchini with a mandoline and threaded these thin strips onto skewers 😏 Everything goes into the oven, and we take it out when it's good and ready. The accidental hit turned out to be the sauce.

I've written here a few times that I really like smoked cottage cheese and it is this, blended with natural yogurt, that forms the base of the sauce. And it's such a base that you basically don't need to add anything to it. But I added something 🙂 I added natural pomegranate juice, tart, sour and slightly sweet.

You can buy it in supermarkets, it's important that it's not sweetened. The sauce turned out to be a bit Middle Eastern, a bit ayran, a bit pomegranate. I poured the sauce with juice, I didn't mix it, it looks better when it's white with red streaks than immediately smeared pink.

Fantastic Skewers with Tofu, in Salty Yogurt, Cottage Cheese and Pomegranate Juice

Borscht for cold days, Ukrainian, clear, each one is good, even from powder 🙂 🥣 For croquettes, pasties, but also alone, in a cup - in this form, you can sell it to children who think they've won and that a cup holds less borscht than a bowl. And if it's your own borscht, it has to be from roasted beets - I've been making it this way for a long time.

The taste is slightly better, but above all, the color. The color is such that you can tell it's borscht even without adding Krakus 🙂 The downside is the time it takes to roast the beets, but during cold days, standing by the warming oven is even more pleasant. We roast the beets for a long time, after taking them out, they should have a wrinkled skin, which makes them easier and quicker to peel.

If it's Borscht, it has to be from Roasted Beets