Chinese plum sauce

This aromatic sauce is a perfect match for fatty meat dishes, especially the duck. The recipe comes from Asian cuisine and the ripe plums and five-spice powder are the basis for it. I learnt about five-spice powder when I was making the crispy Chinese duck. It turned out that you marinade the duck with it. The five-spice powder consists of SOLELY the following ingredients: anis, pepper, cinnamon, fennel seeds and ginger. Always check out the ingredients! When I went to the supermarket and I took the spice of a popular producer called "five-spice powder" it turned out that it contains artificial aromas and other chemical additives. Plus, it did not even contain the five spices. That's why I bought it in a local herb shop. It's also available in online shops or else you can even do it yourself by mixing the spices I have enumareated before in equal proportions. But coming back to the sauce. Here's the recipe!

Green tea cake

Since I went to Japan and I discovered how many things you can do with green tea, I knew I must bring some to Poland and make my own recipe. The basis for this easy cake is an ordinary sponge cake and powdered green tea- very common in the Cherry Blossom Land. It's also becoming more popular outside Japan now. Feel free to try out this recipe :) And the story of the tea ceremony in Japan soon on the blog! 

Potato pie with cheese and chanterelles

Yesterday I just felt so much like eating sheperd's pie but I knew I don't want meat, so I figured this out...It's a light creamy-textured pie with delicious chanterelles and a pich of white pepper. Adding parsley roots to the mashed potatoes gave them a distinctive taste. I love it! 

Power boosting carrot juice

Do you remember your parents serving you carrot juice when you were small? I used to drink it when I was a child and so did thousands of other children in Poland. It was delicious and left you a "moustache" mark under your nose. Drinking carrot juice helps to improve you eyesight, skin and hair condition and also refreshes and boosts the energy level. My favourite version of carrot juice also inludes mint and orange for extra freshness and ginger for boosting the immunity. Remember not to drink it very often. Eating whole raw carrots is much healthier for us because they have more fiber than juice.   

Vanilla-plum whole wheat cake

This weekend I am celebrating the end of my house renovation. Hurray! What a relief, it’s finally over! I felt like celebrating it with a plum cake. However, I decided to add some vanilla flavour to it...You can see the result of my idea here.