I'm a winner baby!

Today I received some very good news in my inbox.
I am the WIINNER of the Das Monk Design Competition!
The theme this year was "The Flipside". Here is my winning entry, or you can see the result on their tshirt here. I'm super excited to become part of their Artist Collective. Very cool!!

February Tasteof Poland Recipe - Paczki (Doughnuts)

Ingredients:
500g plain flour
100 g butter, melted
5 egg yolks
5g yeast
1 cup warm milk
100g sugar
vanilla essence
pinch of salt
250g plum butter or marmalade
750g lard for deep frying
icing sugar

1. Prepare the dough by combining fresh yeast with a warm cup of milk. Mix together until the yeast dissolves and set aside. In the mean time, combine egg yolks with butter, add a pinch of salt to bring out the yellow in the yolks. You can whisk them together until creamy.

2. Slowly combine flour, egg yolks and the yeast and milk mixture in a bowl. Add the melted butter towards the end. Use your hands to form a smooth dough.  Cover with a damp cloth and set aside to rise. The dough should double in size, this can take up to 2 hours.

3. Remove the dough from the bowl, kneading and beating it for a few minutes and return to bowl to rise again.

4. Lightly dust your surface and use a rolling pin to flatted the dough until it is about 2 cm thick. Use a glass or round cookie cutter to cut rounds in the dough. Place a spoon of plum butter on one round and cover it with a second round. Pinch all the sides together and re-cut with the glass to make a perfect round. Do this with all of the dough until there is nothing left.

5. Heat the lard in a large skillet. You can also use oil. Test the temperature by dropping a little piece of dough in the oil, if it browns and floats to the top, the oil is ready. Place doughnuts gently onto the oil, bulky side down. Fry for a few minutes until one side is golden brown. Gently flip over and fry the other side. Remove from oil and place on paper towels to drain excess lard.

6. Dust with icing sugar, and enjoy these scrumptious treats!!

Happy New Year + January Taste of Poland Recipe: Salatka Jarzynowa (Vegetable Salad)

Dear Friends!

Wishing you all a very happy and amazing 2012! I have a feeling it is going to be a good one! Because of all the festivities, I'm slightly late posting the very first recipe from my Taste of Poland calendar which I launched last November at the Polish Festival at Federation Square. My apologies, here we go:

3 carrots, boiled
3 potatoes, boiled
3 eggs, boiled
3 apples
1 onion
3 pickles
1 can of peas
1/2 jar of good quality mayonnaise
salt and pepper
extra egg and vegetables for decoration
 
The proportions here are just an estimate - depends how much salad you want to make! Boil the carrots, potatoes and eggs (separately) and set aside to cool. You can prepare these a day earlier if you don't want to wait around for them to cool down. Once cool, dice the carrots, potatoes, eggs, apples, pickles and onion into cubes. I prefer mine quite small, but they should be less than 1cm. Drain the peas and place all ingredients in a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste and mix everything to gether. Lastly, add the mayonnaise until it covers the ingredients when mixed together. In my family we like to use S&W Whole Egg Mayonnaise. But I have to confess... I hate mayonnaise, and my lovely mum always has put aside a small bowl just for me...with no mayo! It tastes just as delicious, I think :) Lastly, place the salad in a nice glass bowl and decorate the top with egg halves, capsicum and/or pickles.

Enjoy! And PS. If you still want to purchase a Taste of Poland 2012 Calendar, please email me, as I have a small number of limited edition copies left!

Maja