Black cabbage with pearl barley and sage.

This is another dish inspired by seasonal changes in produce available in my local green grocer. Combination of black cabbage and pearl barley in my opinion really works. Fresh sage combined with butter adds another layer of flavour to this dish. I have also added half a leak and half of green pepper. So to serve two I have used:

1. Bunch of black cabbage.
2. Three small onions (180 g).
3. Pearl barley 100 g.
4. Half a leek and half a green pepper.
5. Unsalted butter 20 g.
6. Two sprigs sage leaves picked and chopped.

Chop the onions and gently brown them in a saucepan add dry pearl barley and sage continue frying for another minute until all ingredients combine. Add chopped leek and black cabagge roughly cut, stir it keeping the pan onmedium heat. Pour 200 ml boiling water in to the pan reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Now add the green pepper and continue to simmer for another 5 to 10 minutes until barley is soft. Season with salt and pepper. It's as simple as that enjoy.

Roasted celeriac with pasta on a bed of kale.

This is delicious winter dish that is beatifull in its simplicity. I've developed a passion for seasonal food and kale is one of recent discoveries in my kitchen, so there was the idea to use it in this dish. Celeriac on the other hand is an ingredient that I'm familiar with since childhood but recently I have been looking for new uses for it. I bought a whole celeriac with its leaves and used them in other dish as garnish. First of all this is what you will need to serve four:

1. Celeriac whole.
2. Kale whole (or black cabbage).
3. Whole wheat pasta 300g cooked according to the instruction on the packaging.
4. One lime.
5. Olive oil, cold pressed rapeseed oil for roasting, salt and pepper.

Celeriac needs to be peeled and washed cut to chip size pieces (thinner cut means shorter roasting) and soften up in boiling water for around three minutes, after which I pat dried it befofere placing it on the roasting tray and drizzling it with rapeseed oil ( two table spoons). Roast the celeriac for approximately an hour in an oven preheated to 200° C. Kale needs to be steamed for around ten minutes. Pasta cooked and rinsed in cold water. And that is essentially it. Lay out a bed of kale on the plate and squeeze some lime juice on it season with salt and pepper. Add a layer of pasta an dress it with olive oil. Finish of by adding on a layer of roasted celeriac. Season with salt and pepper according to your taste and enjoy.

Tagliatelle with mushrooms and goats cheese

Soda bread

Delicious alternative to ordinary bread of the shelve. Its easy to bake and it tastes awesome. 

To make it you will need 500g wholemeal flour, salt 1tsp, baking soda 1tsp, caster sugar 1tbsp, 400 ml of buttermilk, some plain flour for dusting. Mix flour and sugar and stir in baking soda. Add buttermilk and mix until dough is soft. Do not knead the dough as you would using yeast, fold it over once or twice that's it. I used wholemeal flour with seeds (http://www.allinsonflour.co.uk/products/seed-grain-wholemeal-bread-flour.html) to top it up you may want to add some nigella seed also known as black cumin, this really depends on your taste as not everyone will like the distinctive aroma that spice introduces to bread. Shape the breadso its no higher than 4cm dust it and cut a cross into the dough no deeper  than 1cm. I use fan assisted oven, but if you use ordinary oven  baking temperature can be increased by aprox 20 C. Bake the bread on greased paper right after forming the dough. Bake it at 210 C for the first 15 minutes than reduce the temperature to 180 C and bake for another 30 minutes. Times and temperature settings are a guide line only as individual appliances may vary. Bread should sound hollow when tapped. Enjoy :-)