Plain fromage frais, dressed up

A special day: I’m back writing for Prymitywna Kuchnia.

Depending on whom you ask, it’s been a few days since a coup in Poland, or a few days since the Constitutional Tribunal started working for the people again. I’ll leave the question of who’s right alone. The whole business strikes me as pretty grotesque.

When I see the president of Poland telling the National Security Council that he smiles at the prime minister even as he scolds him, it all starts to look like a comedy sketch. Then I watch a law professor at the Constitutional Tribunal trying to explain, or perhaps prove, that ten is eight, and I feel like I’m watching the film Rejs. First they discuss the best ways to draw lots, then they wonder how to choose a way to draw lots.

Come to think of it, Fukuyama was right about the end of history: what we’re watching has all happened before. It’s just repeating itself. The sketches we used to laugh at are becoming our reality. So I thought I’d go back to my roots as I bring Prymitywna Kuchnia back to life.

My first blog post was about scrambled eggs. I remember the recipe caused a stir among my friends even then. It turned out there were several ways to scramble an egg, and you didn’t necessarily have to do it my way. Someone even informed me that my scrambled eggs weren’t scrambled eggs. Yet the idea behind the blog was simple: recipes for people who don’t necessarily have time. The tagline was “for blokes and lazy ladies”.

So after a long break, I’ve gone for something else you might think simple and primitive. What matters here isn’t the recipe itself — that’s dead easy — but which ingredients you choose. In life, as in cooking, talent isn’t always what counts most. Sometimes it’s choosing the right ingredients, and really good ones at that.

Then even something simple can be exquisite. It might not look the part — that takes a knack for plating — but it can taste good enough in its own right that nobody’s laughing.

And I suppose that’s the point: whatever we’re watching, in any walk of life, it needs top-quality ingredients if it’s to be anything other than a comedy sketch.

And now for a new recipe where everything comes down, naturally, to natural… ingredients.

Recipe details

Preparation time: from 30 seconds to 3 minutes per serving

Servings: 2

Calories: not many. Google Gemini says it’s OK

Ingredients

• 200 g plain smooth fromage frais — from the Okręgowa Spółdzielnia Mleczarska dairy cooperative in Garwolin
• 1 teaspoon natural eucalyptus honey — good-quality honey from Spain
• 1 tablespoon plain desiccated coconut — good quality, with nothing added

Method

I got out two small bowls, preferably clear ones, though you can use whatever you have. I divided the fromage frais in half and spooned it into the bowls. I didn’t spend long stirring it: it’s a small portion and there was no need. I drizzled the eucalyptus honey over it, trying to make it look as pretty as I could.

It’s easiest if the honey comes in a squeeze bottle instead of a jar that drips all over the place. The only thing that needed any preparation was the coconut. I toasted it in my little Ikea frying pan, the same one I usually use to toast breadcrumbs for cauliflower, broccoli or green beans. I warmed the pan slightly and tipped in a tablespoon of coconut. I kept an eye on it: I wanted it to colour, turn a little brown, release its aroma and get a bit crispier. Crunchier. Just don’t burn it, or there goes all that sophistication. I divided the toasted coconut in half and sprinkled it over the fromage frais I’d already drizzled with honey.

I served it straight away. I ate slowly and savoured ingredients from three different parts of the world: my fromage frais comes from Poland, the eucalyptus honey from Spain, and the coconut from the tropics, most often Asia, or possibly Central America.

Enjoy.