Spinach and Gruyère Salad--In a Minute.

No simple food is too simple. I can say that based on my life experience and by how the simplest recipes tend to be the most popular. I like them too, especially after coming back from vacation when my refrigerator is still empty and many daily activities take precedence over cooking.

When I was shopping to restock my supplies, I saw this beautiful fresh spinach, and all of a sudden, a salad that my Italian friend made once sprung back to my mind. I remember that it was so easy that she brought all the ingredients to the picnic at Geneva Lake and put it together on the spot. The quality of the ingredients used--especially the cheese and the olive oil--was the only secret of this salad, as is often the case with such simple recipes, especially those coming from Italy.

I used aged Gruyère, tossed in very fresh and white mushrooms, and added the best extra virgin oil I had in my pantry. In no time my lunch was ready and after three weeks of eating tons of labor-intensive Polish food I enjoyed this easy green salad very much.

Spinach and Gruyère Salad

Ingredients:
1 bag of very fresh baby spinach,
6-8 fresh and hard white mushrooms, without stems,
1/2 cup shredded Gruyère cheese, preferably aged,
3-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil,
freshly ground pepper,
good quality coarse sea salt (I used French grey sea salt).

Preparation:
1. Place spinach in a large bowl.
2. Wash mushrooms, dry them in a towel, and slice then thinly. Toss them over spinach.
3. Using a vegetable peeler shred thin slices of Gruyere on top of the salad.
4. Season generously with salt and pepper.
5. Drizzle with olive oil and serve with good bread and prosciutto or smoked salmon.

Redcurrants and Red Wine Sponge Cake--Farewell to Poland

Redcurrants. They were a horror of my childhood. Each summer my aunt made us, all the kids in the family, spend hours in the yard picking them up with our small hands. It was the most hated vacation activity I could think of. We even did not much like the redcurrants to eat as they were very sour, but my aunt terrorized us with arguments that preserves and juices made from them will be priceless in the winter. Not really. I always preferred blackcurrants, which actually were even more difficult to harvest, but their aroma and taste had imparted an uncanny attractive power to anything made of them. Meanwhile, unused redcurrant preserves often turned into wine or vinegar.

I had this difficult relation with redcurrants until I moved out of Poland. At that time, in both France and Switzerland, redcurrants were rare and pricey, but even more so in the US. When I came here, I hardly saw any redcurrants and even if I did, they were expensive and sold in tiny boxes. In restaurants they were served hanging over sophisticated desserts like jewellery.

That changed my attitude toward redcurrants and I have started to dream about using them to garnish white chocolate mousse or some other elegant desserts.

In August, the redcurrant season was almost over in Poland, but I saw small amount of redcurrants at my local market and became almost emotional imagining tens of recipes I could used them in. And they were still only one dollar a pound. Of course I bought them and made a cake. I used an interesting recipe calling also for red wine--good idea to use glass of leftover wine. The sweetness of the cake and the sourness of the redcurrants blended perfectly, and I enjoyed this cake even more so because I did not have to pick up these redcurrants myself.

Redcurrant and Wine Sponge Cake

Ingredients:
3 eggs,
3/4 cup sugar,
1 cup all purpose flour,
1/2 cup vegetable oil,
1 tsp baking powder,
1/4 cup wine (50 ml),
1/2 cup potato or cornstarch,
1 tsp vanilla extract,
1/2 lb redcurrants,
1 tsp of butter,
1 tbsp plain breadcrumbs,
1/2 cup icing sugar,
2 tbsp milk.

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Using an electric mixer beat eggs with sugar until they acquire a mousse-like consistency.
3. In a small bowl mix flour, cornstarch, and baking powder, and add to the egg mixture. Fold in gently.
4. Add vanilla extract to the batter together with wine and oil .Mix all the ingredients well until the batter becomes smooth.
5. Spread butter over a baking form and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Pour over the batter and scatter the redcurrants on top.

6. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until the top is set and slightly gold. Remove from the oven and cool down.
7. Mix icing sugar with milk until smooth. Turn the cake upside down as fruits likely will drop to the bottom of the cake. Pour icing on top of the cake. Cut and serve.

Chanterelle Soup--About Polish Truffles

This is not really going to be about truffles, which are as hard to obtain in Poland as anywhere else in the world. This is going to be about chanterelles, which are a truly indigenous food in many countries of central and northern Europe.

In Poland, you can buy chanterelles everywhere these days, even alongside the road from Warsaw to my hometown. People who picked them in the neraby forest sell them to the passing by motorists. At the farmers' markets, which are held on Tuesday and Friday morning, city dwellers buy baskets full of freshly picked chanterelles.

I like mushrooms in general, but chanterelles are my favorite. They are available in DC at Costco but only in the fall, imported from Canada, or at Whole Foods, but are extremely expensive (about $40 per lb). So I cannot have enough of them now that I can have them in such abundance and cook them almost every day. Sometimes I add them to scrambled eggs for late breakfast, sometimes I serve then for dinner with spaetzle, pasta, or add them to a meat sauce.

I usually buy chanterelles that are smaller than those imported from Canada, and at today's farmers' market I found really tiny ones, so young and fresh that they looked like they were made from plastic. Those are usually more expensive  but, at about two dollars a pound, are still ridiculously cheap comparing to the U.S. prices. I got a couple of pounds of these beauties and forced my mother, who by now is really tired of my chanterelle diet, to cook a soup from them. It was fantastic and reminded me of my childhood years when such soups were served very often during summer dinners.

Chanterelle Soup

Ingredients:
1 lb chanterelles--the smaller the better,
2 carrots,
3-4 medium potatoes,
1/2 small leek,
a small piece of celery root or 2 celery stalks,
1 small parsley root (if you can get it, it really adds the special aroma to the soup),
1/2 cup sour or heavy whipping cream,
2 tbsp butter,
2 tbsp chopped parsley leaves,
1 bay leaf,
3 grains of allspice,
salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:
1. Wash chanterelles. If they are very small leave them whole, if they are bigger, cut them into smaller pieces.
2. Melt butter on a frying pan and add mushrooms. Fry them until all the water released from them evaporates and they become slightly fried.
3. In a large pot, bring to boil about 6 cups of water with a tbsp of salt. Add all the vegetables (whole),bay leaf and allspice and cook for about 15 minutes.
4. Cut potatoes into small cubes and add to the boiling vegetables. Cook them for 15-20 minutes, until potatoes become soft. Remove celery, leek, carrot and parsley from the stock and discard all vegetables but the carrot. Cut the carrots into small pieces and add them back to the stock with potatoes. Add also the fried chanterelles and bring the soup to the boil. Cook for about 5 minutes. Spice up with freshly ground pepper and extra salt, if needed.
5. If you use heavy whipping cream add it straight to the soup. If you use sour cream, mix it with a tsp of all purpose flour (it prevents the cream from curdling) to which you add a little bit of liquid from the soup, and then pour all of it back into the pot with the soup. Bring it to the boil again and cook for 2 minutes.

Serve with chopped flat parsely leaves.