CookINPolish – Traditional Recipes
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
For me Spring in Poland has a flavor of fresh vegetables: dill, radish, beets, cucumbers, young cabbage and potatoes. In Spring you can get first wild mushrooms – chanterelles. Very popular ingredient of Polish desserts is rhubarb. You can get first strawberries and cherries. So yummy! I tried to choose the best of Polish ingredients and recipes in Polish Spring Menu.
Today I’ve got 2 dinner menus for you, one is for usual Spring day, the other one is more special. Actually as I was writing this I decided, that I need to mention few wild plants soups, as an alternative to standard Polish Spring menu, as they are underappreciated, but so worth trying – full of vitamins, ecological and the main ingredient is usually free (like stinging nettle) 🙂
Let’s cook seasonally and let’s cook Polish dishes!
This Chłodnik – cold soup – my Grandma was making us quite often, we loved to eat it accompanied by boiled potatoes sprinkled with sauteed onions and/or fried bacon. I remember that we used to have only one shared plate of potatoes (with onions, bacon and dill) for the whole family and we would scooped some potatoes and fill the spoon up with chłodnik from our own bowl.
Chłodnik – cold soup is easy and really quick to do. It’s enough to cut the vegetables and combine them with sour milk or other favorite milk drink, such as buttermilk or kefir. We’ve usually used sour milk- zsiadłe mleko, as it was the most easily available at that time. Our neighbor had a cow and we used to get fresh milk from her. My Grandma would left some milk on the counter covered with a cloth and after 2 days sour milk have been ready. Now it is hard to make a decent sour milk out of the carton milk or it may be even impossible.
Today there is something special for you, a great guest on my blog, let me introduce you my friend’s Grandma. She is leaving in the Eastern Poland in Włodawa, near Belarus and Ukrainian border and has made thousands of pierogi in her life:) Her favorite are Pierogi Ruskie, made with potato and cheese filling. Ladies and Gentelmen, best Grandma’s Potato & Cheese Pierogi!
It is always worth to care about your immune system, not only while coronavirus pandemonium. Onion Syrup for immunity will help you to stay healthy, strong and not to get ill. In my family it is a first help for my children while first moments of caught. And surprisingly- they like it’s taste!
Recipe is easy, there are only two ingredients. Onion is widely available all over the world and is a source of taste in many culinary dishes. Onion is also very healthy, as it has strong antibacterial effect, it contains vitamin C, magnesium, silicon and zinc for immunity boost. It’s not only folk medicine, it really works.
Remember, if you are sick you need to contact your doctor. Do not ignore fever and other flu symptoms. Onion Syrup will help you not to get sick, but if you do – you need professional medical advice.
Prażoki is a dish made of cooked potatoes with the addition of wheat flour. Kind of mashed potatoes, usually served with sauteed onions and greaves.
I saw Prażoki for the first time in a food TV programme and they were introduced as a Kurpie dish. When I checked internet cooking forums I found out that Prażoki are known all over the Poland, but under several names. Some people call it prazoki, other prażuchy, but also completely different names are used like: porka, fusier, psiocha, kamza or lemieszka:)
Are you fasting during Lent? Whatever you will answer, it is always good to limit quantity of meat in your diet. But, let’s admit, having Forest Mushrooms & Sauerkraut Dumplings is not fasting, this is something you look for and desire. This is a treat:) The best served with sauteed onions.
Few weeks ago I met a Greek couple leaving in Warsaw. Dimitris asked me to show him how to cook Bigos. When we talked about Polish cuisine, Anja said that soups are something special for Poland. And this is a fact: in Poland soups are a staple in Polish homes for dinner. You can get it also in any restaurant, served as an appetizer. Check my review of 10 Traditional Polish Soups, soups I like the most and which are the most specific to Polish cuisine.
Which one have you tried and which one is your favorite?
Are you ready for something special for Sunday dinner? Try this easy recipe for Roast Duck and Apples. Roasting the meat with apples gives a duck moisture and fresh flavor. Rub the meat with marjoram and rosemary and grease with butter to get the perfect Polish dinner for special occasions. Roast Duck and Apples is often served on First Communion and Christening celebrations in Poland. It will be great for Easter dinner as well.
Roast Duck and Apples is a dish known in Poland from centuries. In old Poland the duck served in palaces and manors was rather wild, hunted by Polish nobility on popular those days hunts.
I don’t agree with hunts nowadays, there is a lot of farms that breed animal and there is a lot of meat in stores. Wild animal have less and less forest to live in and the number of wild animals is getting smaller. Let’s admire them free in their environment and not on our tables. Not only humans are inhabitants of the Earth.
Sauerkraut and Mushroom Croquettes are one of the staple dishes in Poland for Wigilia. We serve it to Beets Borscht instead of Uszka. If you changed the filling to meat, you can just have it for family dinner as a separate dish or with chicken soup. There is quite a lot of frying involved, so I limit krokiety in my diet to few times a year.
Polish Bigos (Hunter’s Stew) is one of the most known Polish dishes. It’s pronounced: [ˈbʲiɡɔs]. Each family has it’s own recipe for bigos and each bigos is different, but the core is sauerkraut or/and fresh shredded cabbage and various kinds of chopped meats. You can use meats you like or which have left in the fridge. Yes, this is a great way to get rid of leftovers:) The more kinds of meats you use, the richer the taste, just follow your likes.
You need to stew all the ingredients for couple of hours. Some cooks are making bigos for 3 days, each day stewing again and cooling, so that bigos’ flavors combine and give the best taste:) People in Poland say that the more times you warm up bigos, the better it tastes.
The recipe for Polish Beans with Kiełbasa is very easy, there is a lot of freedom involved, you can add more beans or more kiełbasa or seasoning according to your taste. Once you make it, you won’t need a recipe any more. Making is quite intuitive, try and let me know in comments how you liked it.
Let’s be honest, this is not a dietetic food;) Beans and sausage? But once in a while – why not? It will bring you back to your childhood and mom’s and grandma’s cooking. At least I have this feeling. I remember that my mom in Fasolka po bretońsku used all the meat leftovers, which I hated, because she had tended to use too much fat. Those days it was quite hard to feed a multi-generational family of 7-8 people, so all the food was used, no throwing away a thing.
For more Polish comfort food, check the link: Comfort Food.
Polish Oven Roasted Sausage and Sauerkraut is a perfect idea for Autumn and Winter warming, hearty and comforting Polish meal. Choose good Polish smoked kiełbasa – it should have some fat in it, to spread the taste all over the sauerkraut and make the dish complete:)
Don’t forget to add caraway seeds – in Polish: kminek. As the cabbage is rather hard to digest and can cause gases, caraway seeds are here to help you and ease your stomach.
Check other ideas for Polish comfort food: http://cookinpolish.com/category/recipes/autumn-food-recipes/.
Rosół with Drop Noodles is a special homemade soup in many Polish families. It reminds our Grandmas and childhood. One of the readers on facebook said: “First soup and noodle making lesson I had, standing on a stool, at the stove with my babciu”. Thank you DaMo!
Rosół in Poland is the best medicine, if you are cold or get a flu, your Polish Mama would start making rosół, to take care of you in the best way she knows:)
Kluski lane are easy to make, they will be great in other soups as well. You can prepare them in few minutes, so if you suddenly run out of pasta, you will be fine with this recipe:)
My Mum used to bake this kind of small Sauerkraut and Mushrooms Buns to accompany beets borscht on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately when I asked her, she did not remember the recipe, what is more interesting, she even didn’t remember that she has been actually baking them:) Eventually I decided to go for Paszteciki recipe I found on Kwestia Smaku, one of my favorite cooking websites.
