Valentine's Day, anniversary, surprise dinners... everybody has their special events when they would like to eat something extraordinary. In such moments we often choose seafood. For such people, specialized shops with fish and seafood were set up. A few times a week they deliver mussels, prawns and the most exotic species of fish directly to our table. Unfortunately, in the shop where we used to buy seafood the portions were too big and the prices were not too affordable. But the quality – excellent. You can buy smaller portions in the supermarket or at a fishmonger's.

Regardless of the shop where you buy your seafood, you have a chance to make an impression with an interesting and tasty dinner. Prawns, which I would like to propose to you today, have another advantage: cooking them takes less time than preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Ingredients:
500g of cooked prawns
300ml of coconut milk
1 chili pepper
1 courgette
2 onions
1 carrot
4 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon of curry powder

I am not Winnie the Pooh and though I try not to eat after 6 p.m., I don't always manage it. When do parents have free time for themselves? Certainly not before 6 p.m. There is also a risk that a romantic, nice and tasty supper will end up in a different tummy than the one for which it was meant.

Whatever time we eat, I try to prepare a light supper. Salads are the best in this situation. Sometimes however I would like to eat something else, so I choose roulades. They look very spectacular and you can make the filling with anything you like. Below you will find my proposal, but treat it more like inspiration than an exact recipe.

Salmon rolls:
slices of smoked salmon
goat's cottage cheese
horseradish
chives

Put the slices of smoked salmon on a plastic wrap to create a rectangle. Spread the slices with cottage cheese. Put some of the horseradish and chives along one of the edges of the rectangle. Roll up the salmon starting from the edge with horseradish.

Do you remember the difficult days when we waited impatiently for information about a ship with citrus fruits heading to Poland, and when ham was only for Christmas and Easter? I still remember the taste and smell of exotic longed-for products and disappointment when every day we had cheese or egg on bread. Although my mum, like most housewives, went all out to diversify the home menu, we missed common sausages.

Times have changed. Luxury cold meat is a money issue only, and we can buy citrus fruits all year round. My children couldn't imagine anything else. They listen to my memories about food coupons, queues and lack of basic products like they were stories about dinosaurs. These changes have another aspect for me: Sometimes I would like something else for bread other than ham or summer sausage.

Due to such nostalgic deliberating in front of the open fridge, I made two pastes from smoked mackerel. The first one is more mellow but with a bit of mayonnaise and horseradish, and the second one more spicy with mustard and chili pepper. You should add the seasonings with care so as not to lose the distinctive taste of the smoked fish.

Paste 1

Ingredients:

smoked mackerel

2 dill pickles

a fistful of minced chives

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 tablespoon of mayonnaise

1 teaspoon of horseradish

salt and pepper

Today I would like to share with you a recipe for a satisfying breakfast or early supper. Pumpernickel with smoked salmon looks interesting, and my son couldn't decide whether it looks more like a sandwich or a cake.

Pumpernickel probably comes from Germany and in the XVII century its name meant 'sad layer', bread that is hard to digest. It is dark, baked in a baking pan, sourdough, with coarse-grained rye flour, honey, treacle or extract from apples and malt. Pumpernickel is brown, sometimes almost black. It is baked at a low temperature (120-150C) but for a very long time of up to 16 hours.

Pumpernickel has a low glycemic index (46) so it is perfect for people who have an active lifestyle, exercise often, and would like to lose weight.

Ingredients:

4 slices of pumpernickel

2 tablespoons of butter

a half of clove of garlic

2 tablespoons of minced dill

100g of smoked salmon

Recently on a blog, somebody asked a question about ways of dealing with autumn depression. For me, sometimes, the best way is to challenge yourself in the kitchen. Firstly I look for inspiration online or on paper. In the end I usually have to spend longer cleaning up after these inspirations than I spent cooking them, but what wouldn't you do to lift the mood? First I take stock of the fridge and larder, do some quick shopping and... mess in the kitchen. From this mess emerges something yummy and it is this moment I like the most.

On my last shopping trip, I spotted some extremely big and nice mushrooms. They were almost asking to be grilled or baked with delicious fillings. After a moment of contemplation, onion, gorgonzola cheese, walnuts and dried tomatoes appeared on the table. Just a mess in the kitchen and the dinner is ready.

Ingredients:

5 big mushrooms

150g of gorgonzola cheese

½ an onion

2 cloves of garlic

4 dried tomatoes in olive oil

6 walnuts

small chili pepper

2 tablespoons of butter

1 big fistful of minced parsley

salt and pepper