Traditional Polish Cuisine from an Old Cook Book
In Poland we love cauliflower. We use it in soups, as a side dish, in salads. In high season can cost only 1 USD per piece of cauliflower.
Raw cauliflower has a high content of vitamin C and moderate levels of vitamin K and B vitamins, it’s good to have it on the plate! You can eat it raw, steam it or fry.
Fried cauliflower is a great idea for supper or just an appetizer.
In July in Poland string beans are getting cheaper and cheaper, so I’m having them every second day. I eat it steamed, keeping it low caloric or.. fry and add garlic and breadcrumbs:) Believe me, once you try it, you will love it. Or not, hmm, maybe it’s just me:)
In Poland during PRL you could buy Paprykarz Szczeciński, which was low quality fish spread with rice. You could take it with you for camping or holidays abroad:) Bulgaria was popular destination in 1980ties, because of the fact that Poland and Bulgaria were under the same communistic regime and there were restrictions on traveling to Western Europe.
You can still buy Paprykarz in stores, which looks a little bit better if you check ingredients, but I invite you to prepare it yourself at home:)
During hot summer you may like cold cooling soup made of beets and beet’s leaves, buttermilk and spring greens: dill, spring onions and cucumber.
Nobody knows why fried fish with steam veggies is in Poland called Greek fish:) It is just a common name, used from decades by our grandmothers and mothers.
Greeks, please do not get offended:)
Early spring is a great time for using stringing nettle in the kitchen. It’s free, it’s healthy and easy to prepare. Remember to get only top parts of the youngest nettles, away from the motorways.
For the soup I also use other herbs I find. This time it was young sorrel and lovage. I also used bluszczyk kurdybanek: ground- ivy, which is very aromatic. In Old Polish cuisine ground-ivy was as popular as parsley is nowadays (wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glechoma_hederacea).
Sweet and sour soup, easy to prepare, if you use vegetable stock – will be great for the last days of Lent.
First vegetables available in spring- horseradish and spring onions are the basis of the my favorite cottage cheese. I use both horseradish balls and sprouts. Sprouts are rich in minerals and can be easily grown at home.
Phrase “peas and cabbage” in polish common language is defined as mixing two things which do not match. This dish is not a mess, try:)
Historically in Poland cabbage is one of the most popular vegetables. It is cheap, so it’s available for poor people. Is easy to store during winter, so can be used during the whole year. For years people in Poland use it widely, so we have many traditional dishes with cabbage as ingredient.
Peas and cabbage stew appears on official list of traditional polish cuisine of Łódź voivodeship, but is known in the whole country. Can be prepared as fast dish with fried onion, or with greaves.
Lenten cabbage with mushrooms is usually served on Christmas Eve, but it is also popular dish during Lent. Healthy, sour – enjoy!
Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, which is a 40 day period of fasting, reflection, repentance and prayer . On Ash Wednesday you go to church and the priest sprinkle your head with ash and says: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return”. This is to remember, that our mortal life should not be of our biggest concern. What we really need to take care of is our eternal life.
Continue reading “Ash Wednesday/ Środa Popielcowa”