Halusky Recipe

This has to be my all time favourite meal! I can never get enough of it. When we have this for dinner I'm the one having double portions. Honestly, I can't control myself!
I must have been Central or Eastern European in a past life because I'm so drawn to foods like this.

Halusky (pronounced ha-loosh-kee) is the Slovak version of gnocchi. It's a pasta made with potato dough. The difference between the dough is that halusky is more like a thick batter than a roll-able firm dough. So, perhaps a more similar comparable would be Austrian or German 'spaetzle', except that spaetzle isn't made with potato.

There are many different ways to eat Halusky. Two of the most popular kinds are bryndzove halusky (sheep cheese with sausage or bacon) and kapustove halusky (sour cabbage - "saurkraut"), or more commonly named Strapacky (pronounced sh-tra-pach-kee).
Bryndzove halusky is Slovakia's national dish, and I certainly don't wonder why. Yum! This is the one in the photo.

Halusky
2-3 potatoes
4-5 tbsp flour
1 tsp of salt
1 egg

Instructions:

1. Peel potatoes and finely shred them
2. In a bowl combine potato, salt, egg and flour. The dough shouldn't be too tough but also not too watery. You may add more or less flour, or a bit of water if the dough is too tough
3. Boil a large pot of salted water
4. You have to work quite quickly here: With a halusky sieve (called a halsukar - see image to the right) or a strainer with large holes, put the dough in it hovering over the pot of boiling water. Stir the dough in the sieve with a wooden spoon. Little bits of dough will drop into the water as you stir. If the dough starts to get tougher you can quickly dip the strainer into the water as you go to loosen the dough a bit. Continue stirring the dough until all of it has dropped into the water. NOTE: If you do not have a haluskar or strainer with large enough holes you can instead, cut off  1/2 tsp size dough pieces and drop them into the boiling water
5. The halusky is cooked when all the dumplings are floating
6. Prepare halusky with flavour and topping of your choice (2 possibilities below)

Bryndzove
3-4 tbsp sheep cheese (or goat cheese as alternative)
2-3 tsbp milk
1 smoked sausage or 6 strips bacon, chopped and fried, reserve the juices

Stir the sheep cheese, milk and some of the reserved frying juices with the halusky. The cheese will melt in quickly. Top with the bacon or sausage.

Kapustove
1 jar (no more than a litre) of sauerkraut, drained
1 medium onion, chopped
1 smoked sausage or 6 strips bacon, chopped 
1 tsp caraway seeds
Salt and pepper to taste

Fry the sausage or bacon, remove and set aside. Then fry the onion and sauerkraut with caraway seeds, salt and pepper. Stir the sauerkraut mixture with the halusky and top with the bacon or sausage.

I am proud to send this one in for Presto Pasta Nights' 200th roundup! Hosted this week by Helen from Fuss Free Flavours. Congrats Ruth, on reaching #200! How time flies!!

Marek's favourite Beef Stew

Jamie Oliver is a great inspiration to most of us, in the UK. Am I right?
I love beef stew and could easily make it up as I go along (which I have several times), but this time I wanted to get some professional advice. I came across Jamie Oliver's "Jool's favourite beef stew".
I didn't have all the ingredients so I just ended up improvising a little, while using the basis of Jamie's recipe. I also came up with an amazing secret ingredient to create the most delicious stew....and this can be supported by my sweet man's words to describe this stew, and I quote "this is the best stew I've ever had!". I'm not lying, he really said that! And he really meant it! :)

(Feeds 4 people)

• 500 g stewing beef
• olive oil
• knob of butter
• 1 large onion - largely chopped
• half a butternut squash - cubed
• 1 large sweet potato - cubed
• large handful of baby carrots - largely chopped
• handful of fresh parsley - chopped
• 2 tbsp tomato paste 
• 1 tbsp dried French herbs (I used herb provencial)
• 4 cloves garlic - pressed but not chopped
• 1/2 bottle of red wine
• 1/2 litre (300ml) beef stock
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper (not too much salt, remember your stock may be salty enough)

and for my secret ingredient...........ooouuuuu I don't know if I should tell you....uummm.....uuuhhh, ok, here it is.....drum roll please... drrrdrrrrdrrrrdrrrdrrrr.....

• 4 tbsp of maple syrup (sshhhh, don't tell anyone. it's our little secret)

Instructions :

1. In a large stew pot, heat olive oil and butter. Once butter is melted add the onions and saute with dried provencial herbs for about 7 minutes before adding the beef and all remaining ingredients
2. Once all ingredients are mixed well in the pot bring it to a boil, then reduce heat
3. Simmer on low for roughly 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally

That's all there is to it!

It's not necessary, but if you're a dumpling lover like me you can add these simple dumplings to your stew about 30minutes before it's finished. Beef stew and dumplings, yumm!!

Otherwise some nice crusty french bread along side your stew is also perfect!

Dumplings:

• 150g self raising flour, sifted
• 75g shredded vegetable fat
• warm water (just enough water to bind the dough, but not making it sticky)
• pinch or two of salt
• some chopped parsley - optional

Mix together the sifted flour and vegetable fat with your fingers until mixture is a cornmeal like consistency. Then add salt, parsley (if using) and water. Mix all together with your hands until it forms a large dough ball.

Tear off spoonful size pieces and roll each one to form a small ball (about half the size of a golf ball).

Drop each ball into the stew. The dumplings will expand while cooking. Cook for about 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Pierogi

I AM IN LOVE WITH PIEROGI!! ALWAYS HAVE BEEN, ALWAYS WILL BE!!.


Where are they from? Many places. They could be Ukrainian, Russian, Slovakian, Polish...there's a variation in most Eastern European countries, and I love them all! Well, I haven't tried them from all the countries where they've developed, but, I can be certain I would love each and every single 'yummy in my tummy' one of them.

I ate them so much growing up. My parents would buy the frozen ones from Safeway...mmmmm, yuummm. Good times! But now since living in London, they're not so easy to find, store bought. There is a polish deli not far from my house which sells them but I'm not always travelling in that direction and as I love cooking so much I've tried out a few different recipes to make them myself. And I have found the perfect dough recipe from fellow blogger Mark at Eating Cleveland. Check it out here

For the filling I made two kinds, one potato and onion and one potato and sauerkraut.

3 large potatoes
3 tbsp butter
2 tbsp sour cream
1 cup sauerkraut
1 medium onion
salt and pepper to taste

- Boil the potatoes
- Mash the potatoes with 1 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp sour cream
- Chop and fry the onion with 1 tbsp butter until soft and browned
- Mix half the mashed potato in a bowl with the onion. Season with salt and pepper
- Fry the sauerkraut with 1 tbsp butter for a couple minutes.
- Mix sauerkraut in a separate bowl with the remaining mashed potato. Season with salt and pepper

Of course you can make all the filling just potato and onion or all just potato and sauerkraut, just double up the onion or the sauerkraut.


My favourite way to serve pierogi is fried (boil them first of course) with onions and bacon bits, and a side dipping of sour cream....oh yeah!!

Beef & Ale Stew with dumplings

I have tried making stew a few times and always ended up disappointed, until now! I'm not sure why they didn't turn out well in the past but 'hello!' I'm not letting this recipe go!

Funnily enough I found it in my cooking bible "Good Housekeeping Cookery Book". Well I didn't follow the entire recipe and instruction to the 'tee' but pretty close.

You'll have to try this hearty dish for yourself to find out how satisfying it really is, trust me!

(Serves 4-6 people)
STEW
800g stewing beef
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 tbsp oil
1 1/2 cup bacon lardons or pancetta
1 large onion (chopped)
2 stalks celery (chopped)
1 large carrot (halved and sliced)
4 cloves garlic (crushed)
3 cups whole baby button mushrooms
2 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp flour
2 cup ale
1 cup beef stock
2 tbsp wine vinegar
Bouquet garni
1 tbsp steak seasoning
salt and pepper to taste

DUMPLINGS (courtesy of recipesource.com)
1 cup flour, well sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening (or butter)
1/2 cup milk
Instructions:
- Have the beef cut into large bit size pieces. Cover beef pieces with steak seasoning and 1 tbsp of flour. Melt butter with oil in a frying pan and brown the meat on high heat (do not cook beef through). Transfer beef to a bowl, including all the juices, and set aside
- Turn heat down to medium-high and add the bacon (or pancetta) and cook for about 1 min then add onion, carrot and the celery. Cook until all begins to soften. Now add the garlic and sugar. Cook all together for a further 10min, until they begin to brown and caramelize a bit. Stir in the remaining flour and stir
- Transfer onion mixture and beef to a large stew pot. Heat together for a few minutes then gradually add the ale while continuing to stir. Bring to a boil, scraping up sediments from the bottom of the pot if any
- Add the stock, vinegar, bouquet garni and salt & pepper to taste (salt may not be needed since bacon is already quite salty). Bring down to a simmer, cover tightly and cook on low for 2 hours. Add mushrooms then cover and simmer still for another 30 min

- In the mean time prepare dumpling batter....
- Sift flour with baking powder and salt. Cut in shortening until mixture is of corn meal consistency. Add milk and mix lightly until soft dough is formed

- Drop in tbsp amounts of dumpling dough (you should get about 10-12 dumplings). Cover again and simmer for another 30min. Add more liquid if necessary

Serve and enjoy! Oh and don't feel you need to eat it all in one go. It tastes even better the next day! :)