Polish Cuisine
Vegetable salad ––– SaSaSałatkaSa łatka jarzynowa
Ingredients:
5 boiled carrots 2 boiled parsley-roots 5 boiled potatoes (optional) 1 small boiled celery-root (about 15dag) 4 hard boiled eggs 5 pickled cucumbers 2 apples 1 little can of corn (optional) 1 can of green peas 1 mayonnaise (300 - 400g) 1 tablespoon of mustard salt, pepper, parsley, dill
Preparation:
Rinse vegetables and cook without peeling (each separately); cool and peel them. Hard boil eggs, cool and peel them. Peel apples and remove the core. Cut vegetables, pickles, apples, and eggs into small squares. Chop green onions and strain peas. Add salt, pepper, and stir in mayonnaise and mustard. Chop parsley and dill, and sprinkle over salad. Set aside for one hour. Decorate with mayonnaise, green peas, and carrots. The secret of good Polish vegetable salad is to have all the ingredients diced very fine, no larger than the size of a green pea.
Polish Herring Salad ––– Sałatka Śledziowa
Ingredients:
1 jar marinated herring (with onions) 2 apples, core removed, peeled and diced 2 onions, chopped 4 cucumbers in brine, chopped 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1/2 cup sour cream 2 tablespoons mustard
Preparation:
Take out marinated herrings from a jar and drain. Discard jar with onions and spices inside. Dice herrings and place in a salad bowl. Add apples, onions, and pickles. Toss gently and fold in the Creamy Mustard Sauce (fork-blend mayonnaise with sour cream and mustard). Chill for 2 hours before serving.
Carp in aspic ––– Karp w galarecie
Ingredients:
a bunch soup vegetables (a carrot, parsley, celery, leek) 1kg carp 2 onions 5 tablespoons gelatin 1 glass white wine 4 grains allspice ½ lemon salt, sugar, pepper
Preparation:
Wash and peel vegetables. Peel an onion, spear it onto a fork and roast it over a cooker burner until softened and slightly blackened. Add vegetables into a pot, pouring one liter of water over them. Add allspice berries and a dash of salt. Simmer over low heat for one hour. Strain the stock, discarding all vegetables except carrot. Cut the cleaned carp into thick steaks and add to the stock. Cook on low heat for about twenty minutes. Take out the carp, drain it well and remove the bones. Line a narrow fruit cake tin with aluminum foil. Put the fish and a boiled carrot cut into long strips and decorate each layer with some dill. Strain two glasses of fish and the vegetable stock and mix it with gelatin and wine. Flavor with salt, pepper, sugar and lemon juice. Cool it down, pour into the prepared tin and leave in the refrigerator until set. Remove the dish from the mold onto a serving platter and decorate it with pieces of lemon and sprigs of dill.
Red Borscht with dumplings ––– Barszcz czerwony z uszkami
Ingredients for borscht:
5 cups beef broth 6 medium beets, peeled 2 carrots, 1 stalk celery 3 cloves garlic, smashed 2 bay leaves 3 allspice berries ½ teaspoon black pepper chopped fresh parsley or dill, for serving
Ingredients for dumplings - miniature mushroom filled pierogi packages called “uszka”:
1 cup dried forest mushrooms 1 cup boiling water or enough to cover mushrooms 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 clove garlic, minced 1 onion 1 teaspoon fresh parsley, finely chopped a pinch of salt and pepper
Ingredients for dough:
2 cups flour 2/3 cup and 2 tablespoons hot water 2 tablespoons olive oil a pinch of salt
Preparation:
Add broth, beets, carrots, celery, garlic, bay leaves, allspice, and pepper to a pot; bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to a simmer and cook, covered, until vegetables are extremely soft for about 45 minutes. Strain soup into another cooking pot, reserving all liquid and discarding all vegetables and spices. Place reserved cooking liquid over medium heat; season to taste with salt and pepper.
Pour boiling water over mushrooms to reconstitute. Let them sit for about 30 minutes. Strain and reserve liquid. Heat oil in a large sauté pan. Add garlic, sautéing until soft. Finely chop mushrooms; sauté for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat and add parsley. Cool mixture and make dough.
Knead flour and salt, add oil and drizzle hot water until the mixture comes together as dough. Cut dough in half, cover and let it rest for 5 – 10 minutes. Roll out the first piece of dough about 3mm thick. Cut out rounds/discs 5cm in diameter by using a glass, add a small amount of the mushroom filling to the center. Dampen the edges, fold dough in half and seal tightly. You may either pinch two opposite edges together to create the “tiny ears” appearance, which also resembles tortellini or leave the edges flat. Repeat with the remaining dough. To cook, drop pierogies into rapidly boiling water for about 3- 4 minutes, removing them once they float. Add pierogies to the borscht just before serving.
Polish Sour Rye Soup --- ŻŻŻurekŻurek
Ingredients:
1/2kg white sausage 3-4 hard-boiled eggs a bunch soup vegetables (a carrot, parsley, celery, leek) 1/2 l sourdough 4 grains allspice 2 bay leaves 1 teaspoon marjoram 1 clove garlic a dried mushroom 2 tablespoons sour cream 2 tablespoons rye flour salt and pepper
Preparation of sourdough :
Prepare sourdough a week prior to cooking this soup. Boil a liter of water. To a jar or stone pot pour 30grams of whole meal rye flour, mix with the amount of boiling water to form a slurry. When cool, add the rest of lukewarm water. Put a slice of whole meal bread and 2-3 cloves of garlic. Cover with gauze or cloth and leave in a warm place for 3 days. Sourdough poured into bottles can be stored for two weeks.
Preparation:
Pour 1liter of water over cleaned and washed vegetables, add spices, a mushroom and lightly sprinkle with salt. Cook for about 40 minutes, in the middle of cooking add sausage and continue cooking on low heat. Take out vegetables, spices and sausage from the stock, add previously made sourdough. Grind garlic cloves with salt, add to the soup. At the end add the mixture made of sour cream combined with flour and a bit of stock. Boil it and season to taste with marjoram. Serve with sliced sausage and hard-boiled eggs, sprinkle with herbs.
Polish Breaded Pork Cutlets --- Kotlet Schabowy
Ingredients:
4 boneless center-cut pork chops 1 cup flour 1 large egg beaten with 1 teaspoon milk 1 cup bread crumbs vegetable shortening or canola oil salt and pepper
Preparation:
Trim off fat and gristle. Pound pork between two pieces of plastic wrap to 1/2cm thickness. Season both sides with salt and pepper.
Dredge pork chops first in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs. Allow cutlets to dry for 10 minutes before frying.
Heat shortening or oil to a depth of 2cm in a large skillet. Fry one at a time by placing cutlets top side down into the pan. Fry 5 to 7 minutes per side until golden. Alternatively, use two skillets to speed up the process. Serve with mashed potatoes and cucumbers in sour cream (recipe below).
Cucumbers in Sour Cream ––– Mizeria
Legend has it this dish was a favourite of Queen Bona Sforza, an Italian princeprincessss who married Polish King SigSigmundmund I in the 16th century.century. Homesick for her native Italy where cucumbers were common, every time she ate it, it made her cry. HHenceence the Polish word ‘mizeria’ derives from the LatinLatin word "misery".
Ingredients:
1 large cucumber with or without seeds, thinly sliced 1 onion thinly sliced and separated into rings 1/2 cup sour cream 1 teaspoon sugar 2 teaspoons white vinegar (optional) 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill salt and pepper
In a serving bowl, combine sour cream, vinegar, sugar and pepper. Stir in cucumbers and onion.
"Bigos is no ordinary dish, For it is aptly framed to meet your wish. Founded upon good cabbage, sliced and sour, Which, as men say, by its own zest and power Melts in one's mouth, it settles in a pot And its dewy bosom folds a lot Of the best portions of selected meats; Scullions parboil it then, until heat Draws from its substance all the living juices, And from the pot's edge, boiling fluid sluices And all the air is fragrant with its scent."
Adam Mickiewicz - Pan Tadeusz (1834)
Ingredients:
2kg sauerkraut 2kg cabbage 0.5kg smoked pork 0.5kg beef 0.5kg veal (optional) 0.5kg spareribs 0.5kg smoked sausage 0.25kg bacon 1 large can tomatoes 2 cups water 1/2 cup onions, chopped 6 dried forest mushrooms 2 or 3 prunes, cut up into pieces 1/2 cup red wine 2 tablespoons flour 2 bay leaves a few allspice berries salt and pepper
Preparation:
Chop sauerkraut if necessary, add allspice and bay leaves to it. Boil sauerkraut in a large pot in a small amount of water for about 1 hour, until it softens.
Grate cabbage, add mushrooms and boil it in a separate pot (it requires about 30-40 min).
Cut meat (pork, beef, veal) into small pieces. Brown it in a frying pan on vegetable oil or other kind of fat. Stir and wait until a good amount of dripping appears. Put meat with dripping and onion to the pot with the sauerkraut. It is very important that you add the dripping too, because it determines the taste of the bigos very much, simmer for 1 hour.
Brown spareribs in a large heavy pot. Combine it with the sauerkraut mixture. Remove a lid and keep the pot on a very low simmer.
In a pan, fry bacon until crisp, then crumble into the sauerkraut mixture. Remove most of bacon fat and fry onions and mushrooms and flour until they just brown. Mix into the sauerkraut mixture.
Cut sausage into slices add to the sauerkraut mixture with tomatoes. Add red wine and prunes. Mix all ingredients together and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook, uncover, until sauerkraut is tender and the bigos is of the consistency you prefer. Serve with crusty white bread or if you prefer potatoes.
The secret of Bigos is that it gets better as it's reheated. The more it is heated the better it gets.
Pierogies with cabbage and forest mushrooms ––– Pierogi z kapustą i grzybami
Ingredients:
Dough:
350g flour, sifted 1 egg 1/8 l water
Cabbage and forest mushrooms filling:
800g shredded cabbage 200g dried, cooked mushrooms 50g onion salt, pepper, oil
Preparation:
Cook cabbage. Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in an onion, and cook until translucent for about 5 minutes. Add drained cabbage and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Simmer, covered, until tender, then uncover and continue to cook over low heat for a few minutes until moisture evaporates. Press out excess moisture using a sieve or squeeze dry between clean paper towels. Grind cabbage with mushrooms and onion. Add salt and pepper. To make dough, sift flour and salt together onto a work surface. Make a hill with flour and form a hole. Pour water in a thin stream and work in flour. Mix well knead flour, water and eggs with a pinch of salt on a lightly floured surface until firm and smooth. Divide dough in half, then roll out one half to 3mm thickness. Cut out rounds/discs using a glass.
Place a small spoonful of the cabbage filling into the center of each round. Moisten the edges with water, fold over, and press together to seal.
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pierogies and cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until pierogies float to the top. Remove with a slotted spoon.
Cabbage Rolls --- Gołąbki
Ingredients:
1 large head cabbage 0.5kg ground beef 0.5kg ground pork 1kg cooked rice 1 large onion finely chopped 2 tablespoons butter 1l chicken stock salt, pepper
Preparation:
Remove the core from cabbage. Place the whole head in a large pot filled with boiling water. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, or until softened enough to pull off individual leaves. You will need about 18 leaves. When leaves are cool enough to handle, use a knife to cut away the thick center stem from each leaf, without cutting all the way through. Set aside 5 or 6 of the tough dark green outer leaves for later. Sauté the onion in butter, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until golden and let it cool. In a bowl add cooled onion, raw meat and cooked rice. Season with salt and pepper. Stir until well combined.
Place about 2 large tablespoons of the meat mixture in the center of a leaf on the stem end. Roll away from you to encase the meat. Flip the right side of the leaf to the middle, and then flip the left side. You will have something that looks like an envelope. Roll away from you to create a neat little roll. Place the reserved outer cabbage leaves in the bottom of an ovenproof dish, put the cabbage rolls on them and pour the chicken stock onto the rolls. Place the reserved outer leaves on the top. Preheat oven to 200°C. Cover the cabbage rolls and bake for 1 hour or until cabbage is tender and meat is cooked. After cooking, discard the outer leaves. Serve with tomato or mushroom sauce. Poppy Seed Cake/Roll – Makowiec
Ingredients:
Dough:
4 teaspoons active dry yeast 1 tablespoon sugar 1 pinch salt 1 cup milk, warmed 3 cups flour 1 egg 1 egg yolk 4 teaspoons vanilla extract 4 tablespoons butter, melted
Filling:
250g poppy seeds, rinsed ½ cup sugar 4 tablespoons butter ¼ cup raisins ¾ cup ground almonds ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract 4 tablespoons honey 1 egg white 1 lightly beaten egg white
Preparation:
Dough:
Mix together yeast, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Pour in milk and stir until dissolved. Whisk in 1 cup of flour, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled for about 15 minutes. Stir in egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract. Knead remaining 2 cups of flour and butter into yeast mixture, adding each alternately a little at a time. Knead until smooth and elastic for about 15 minutes. Place dough in a large bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled for about 1 hour.
Filling:
Simmer poppy seeds in a medium pot full of water until soft for about 40 minutes. Drain and puree in a food processor for about 4 minutes. Return poppy seed puree to the same saucepan. Add sugar, butter, raisins, almonds, vanilla extract and honey. Cook, stirring, over medium-low heat for 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.
To Cook:
Preheat oven to 180°C. Roll out dough to a rectangle. Whisk egg white in a bowl into stiff peaks; fold into the poppy seed filling. Spread over dough, leaving a 2cm border all around. Fold dough lengthwise in thirds to form a long log. Pinch ends to seal. Place cake on a nonstick baking sheet, brush with beaten egg white, and bake until it sounds hollow when tapped for about 50 minutes. Cool before serving.