Meteorologists again threaten winter and have announced that March will be colder than usual. Maybe now the tradition will be a warm Christmas and wintry Easter. I don't know if I like it, but I can't change it.

Today I would like to share with you a recipe to warm you up. We called it Asian soup. It is creamy, spicy, a bit Oriental, because it is prepared with coconut milk and ginger. The bulgur and chicken make the soup filling and excellent as a one-dish dinner.

Ingredients (for 4 people)
0.5kg of chicken meat
1 parsley root
2 carrots
300g of sweetcorn from a tin
400ml of coconut milk
1 tablespoon of butter
half a teaspoon of curry powder
half an onion
2 cloves of garlic
2cm piece of ginger
half a chili pepper
100g of bulgur
2 tablespoons of chives
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
salt and pepper

Sometimes, there are dishes which every housewife prepares. Maybe this is something to do with fashion or a special occasion during the year – before Christmas everybody prepares dishes with herrings or makes dumplings; before Easter we bake Easter Cakes or meals with meat; and before Fat Thursday we fry doughnuts or angel wings. Before the summer holidays everybody is trying to lose their winter tyre of fat and on the Internet there are porridges, healthy desserts with chia seeds and salads. Sometimes I also succumb to this fashion.

For some time in many ways the Tunisian shakshouka has tempted me. The literal translation of the name of this dish means "big mess", and really it is one of those meals which tastes better than it looks. In the original recipe shakshouka consists of tomatoes, onion, pepper and eggs. I also added to my shakshouka some garlic, chili pepper and courgette. In the summer season I recommend using fresh tomatoes; right now tinned tomatoes are a good choice. This dish isn't photogenic but it doesn't need to be. It delights with its lightness and flavour, and that's enough for me.

Ingredients (for two people)
1 tin of tomatoes
1 red pepper
half a courgette
half a chili pepper
2 cloves of garlic
1 onion
1 teaspoon of sweet paprika
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon of butter
2 eggs
a fistful of minced parsley
a fistful of minced chives

We usually associate fresh pineapple with fruit salad or desserts. A less popular option is to serve this fruit as an ingredient of main meals. Today I would like to share with you the recipe for a dish in which one of the main ingredients is pineapple. I serve it with grilled courgette and pepper and spicy sweet and sour sauce. The dish is excellent with rice and could be a warming proposition for a light winter dinner.

Ingredients (for 2 people)
half a pineapple
1 red pepper
half a courgette
4 tablespoons of minced chives
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds
1 tablespoon of nigella
sauce:
2cm piece of fresh ginger
half a chili pepper
2 cloves of garlic
4 cm piece of leek
Juice and the peel of half a lemon
2 tablespoons of honey
1 teaspoon of potato flour
1 tablespoon of coconut oil

The dough is the secret ingredient of homemade dumplings. Every housewife has her secret recipe which she uses to make a soft and resilient dough. You can prepare the stuffing with everything. Today I have a recipe for my favourite Polish dumplings named "ruskie". The stuffing was made with boiled potatoes, cottage cheese and fried onion.

Until recently ruskie dumplings were brought to us by a friendly lady called Ania. She made a huge amount of dumplings and gave them to her family, neighbours and us. Sometimes she added chopped peppermint for the stuffing. They were great, but we prefer the classical ones without unusual ingredients.

Ingredients
dough
500g of flour
4 tablespoons of oil
250-300 ml of boiling water
a pinch of salt
stuffing
600g of potatoes
200g of cottage cheese
1 onion
1 tablespoon of butter
salt and pepper

I like vegetarian dishes. When I cook for myself I often prepare dishes without any meat. I think that I could never completely give up meat dishes, because sometimes I want to eat something filling. So when I found a recipe for cutlets from red beans at www.wegeperia.pl I decided to make them. My daughter helped me to cook, mumbling that I had again dreamt up something strange for dinner.

Cutlets from red beans were so yummy that now they are on our menu. I served them with our favourite tomato-pepper salsa, which is a foil to this kind of dish.

Ingredients:
cutlets
2 tins of red beans
1 small red onion
5 tablespoons of rolled oats
2 tablespoons of ketchup
1 tablespoon of mustard
1 clove of garlic
4 tablespoons of minced parsley
half a teaspoon of sweet pepper powder
salt and pepper
4 fistfuls of corn flakes
3 tablespoons of sesame seeds