Polish Cuisine from an Old Cookbook
I love the flavor of Polish Apple Crumble – Szarlotka in my house – buttery, with a bit of cinnamon. My children love it too, so I make it quite often.
As long as it is Autumn, I try to make the best of it, apples are now the freshest and the cheapest in the whole year.
All of the names above have the same meaning, they describe one Polish dish – Jellied Pigs Feet. In my family house we called it Galareta as it actually is and looks like a meat and veggies jelly. You don’t add extra gelatin as bones and skin has plenty of collagen and makes natural jelly. This is why pigs feet cannot be omitted in this recipe, you wouldn’t get broth set without it, you’ll get a soup instead of Jellied Pigs Feet.
In October there is still plenty of fresh and still cheap vegetables available in the market. I got large zucchini from my Mum, all other ingredients I had already at home, so I made easy Vegetable pancakes. Delicious, easy and healthy. Highly recommended! 🙂
I think that Gołąbki – Polish cabbage rolls are one of most popular and most liked Polish dish. Exactly as is in my family home. When my mum asks my children what to cook for our visit, they say: Gołąbki:)
There are many ways to prepare gołąbki, my Mum boils, while many people bake them. Many people cook them in tomato sauce, I prefer to cook gołąbki in a light broth and make a tomato sauce for serving.
I found Potato Copa Śląska recipe looking for plum cooking ideas. It so reminded me of Plum Knedle – the same ingredients, the same deliciousness. Making Copa is for me actually a lazy way to have the same great flavor, without time consuming knedle preparation. Silesian cuisine is still a greenfield for me, but all silesian dishes I know are super delicious.
Once I came across fresh large bean on the local farmer market, I wanted to cook bean and sausage soup. The bean was called Piękny Jaś, meaning: Handsome Johnny:) This flat, kidney-shaped bean is white, large, delicate and a little bit sweat in taste. It is actually a regional specialty, specific to south of Poland, original Piękny Jaś is the one grown in Nowy Sącz areas.
Which means that we tend to appreciate more something that is abroad while we are not aware of resources we have. It reminds me of our polish rapeseed oil. Many people use oil of olive, while we have our own super- oil! Rapeseed oil is healthy, it’s cheap, it’s produced locally, probably that are the reasons it is the most popular oil in Poland. You can find rapeseed oil in most of Polish households and in 100% of grocery stores:) We use it, but at the same time we don’t appreciate it as much as we should. Let me present some facts on rapeseed oil.
An egg is a symbol of life. It’s an inevitable symbol of Easter, part of the Easter tradition. We dye eggs, decorate them and these pisanki and kraszanki we display all over the house for Easter. Decorating eggs is also a great time spend with children and family, time to recollect family tradition and just be together. We eat a lot of eggs for Easter:) We stuff hard boiled Easter eggs with yolk mixed with mayonnaise or make more complicated, for example stuffed with mushrooms and onion and pan fried in egg shells.
In my neighborhood there is a place with best cream horns in Warsaw. It’s called Rurki z Wiatraka, they were established in 1958. It’s family own small business, once pandemic started and we all got locked down, they came to the edge of the bankruptcy. They ask for support via Facebook and soon there was 2 hours’ queue of people wanting to try their delicious horns. Fortunately I was not forced to wait, I could make Homemade Cream Horns by myself, thanks to my neighbor Ewelina, who borrowed me her Grandma’s horns molds:)
I remember my sisters making Jello Cold Cheesecake years ago, when we were all living with parents. I don’t know if they used this recipe, but I know for sure it was as delicious and colorful and we all loved it:) My son Pit, who is a picky eater, even if it comes to sweets, he liked this cheesecake:)
Note: In Poland we have standard jellos packages for half liter of water. If they are different packages in your country, please take this into account and recalculate recipe or amounts of jello used.
Baked pate is one of the meats we have for special occasions. It’s delicate and moist, so you can also just spread it over the bread. It takes quite a lot of time to have it and is rather costly, as we need a lot of meat, but totally worth it:) I also freeze few portions to enjoy baked pate later on, as having too much on one time make you not appreciate it as much as you could:)
When you choose meat – consider that you need rather fat parts of meat, otherwise pate would be dry. I choose mixed meat- pork and beef, sometimes poultry, but you can choose whatever you like or your religion lets you.
I’ve been really busy this December, I was kind of surprised of the time going by. Christmas Eve is next Thursday!
If you don’t have a detailed plan and feels a little bit lost, you may like to check e-book I prepared: Last Minute Polish Wigilia Traditions and Food Guide.
Years ago my Grandma Emilka was preparing these yeast dumplings for Christmas Eve, she was using her own recipe – some of this and a handful of that, just like an experienced Polish cook. Nowadays my sister Kasia got over- she recreated recipe and now she is making the best Grandma’s Yeast Dumplings. They are filled with either forest mushrooms and sauerkraut (perfect with beets borscht too) or: poppy seed filling (served as a Christmas Eve dessert).
I advise you to make the filling a day before, because one day preparations might be overwhelming.
Make a double or triple portion of the filling, if you plan to make also dumplings or poppy seed roll. Filling can be stored in a fridge for 2-3 days or you can freeze it for later.
Polish Poppy Seed Roll Makowiec is traditional Polish dessert, in my family we always have it for both: Christmas and Easter. My mum makes it without any recipe and makes 4 rolls each time, I made my best to put her instructions in writing and limit the amounts to make 2 rolls. Makowiec for me smells like Christmas. The last few years when I go home for Christmas I always assist my Mum to make Poppy seed rolls. We would seat in the evening, when all the family is resting, my Mum would knead and then we all waiting for yeast dough to rise.
Apple and vanilla custard shortcrust is a kind of Polish Szarlotka, an extra layer of custard makes this pie smell like vanilla, it’s creamy and sweet. I used Polish >budyń<, which is a very popular dessert in Poland, available to buy in instant version. All you need to do is bring milk do boil, and mix in a mixture of budyń powder dissolved in a small amount of cold milk. Budyń may be served warm or hot, alone or with raspberry juice and berries. You don’t have to be worry, if there is no budyń in your convenient store, you can make it yourself and it’s easy too.
I have been eating this dish last Summer in a restaurant in Chełm – Gęsie Sprawki. I knew this place from restaurants makeover TV show on Polish TV: Kuchenne Rewolucje by Magda Gessler and I really wanted to try dishes over there. Goose Gizzards – Gęsie Pipki is a creamy garlic stew made of goose gizzards, soft and tender, delicately garlic, delicious. Gęsie Pipki is a Polish name for it – it comes from regional cuisine and might be found funny for Poles:)
I decided that I need to copycat this recipe. I did. And I succeed:) I was 100% satisfied with my Goose Gizzards Gęsie Pipki, they were soft, creamy, I added more garlic to my taste and served it with buckwheat. Yum!
The story of my Creamy horseradish soup is short – I heard about in a tv show by Magda Gessler – she is doing this popular show on restaurants makeover in Poland – Kuchenne Rewolucje, I just thought this soup must have been good. One day I put a pot with water and chicken on the stovetop and then I checked that I didn’t have any carrot left at home! I had only white vegetables, so I decided that this is the moment, I’m gonna make my own version of horseradish soup. And you know, it turned out just perfect:) A little bit like Easter Żurek, I added fresh sausage and hard boiled egg on the side – they suit so good here!
I remember my mum would often make us Rice and Apples for supper, while we were spending Summer holidays in our Summer small house. We didn’t have a lot of attractions over there, several responsibilities instead 🙂 Rice and Apples was one of my favorite dishes, sweet and creamy, with a dash of cinnamon. We had it with a cup of Inka- popular polish grain coffee.
A season for zucchinis is long, you can get it fresh and full of flavor for the whole Summer and most of Autumn. Some may say that it’s taste might be bland, I say – it’s delicate and once you add favorite seasonings you have your favorite dish <3 . Let’s take for instance Zucchini pancakes – an onion sauteed in butter and garlic sauce on the side add my pancakes a gorgeous twist.
Usual everyday Polish Beet Soup is what I remember my Grandma Emilka was cooking every second Friday. The color is fantastic, the flavor is sweet and sour. Beet soup is thick thanks to grated beets and potatoes added. I definitely need to have this soup more often:)
