CookINPolish – Traditional Recipes
Polish Cuisine from an Old Cookbook
Bear’s Garlic Creamy Soup is a full of vitamins Spring soup. A season for bear’s garlic (which can be also called wild leek, ramps, wild garlic) is quite short, use it and cook this healthy soup. If you still have some ramps left, you can try out other recipes: Bear’s Garlic Cream Cheese or Bear’s Garlic Pesto.
I remember eating Homemade Canned Pork made by my Grandma Emilka in our old house. Jars with this delicious meat was stored in a basement where was a pantry with canned food: fermented cucumbers, sauerkraut, red peppers, homemade tomato sauce, canned beets, forest mushrooms in vinegar, jams, fruit compotes and ‘mięso w słoiku’ – a rare delicacy for special occasions:)
Try this garlic flavored delicate meat with one more essential ingredient – a meat jelly, which moisturizes bread and make a sandwich with meat totally perfect 🙂
Make few jars to your pantry, it could help you to stay secure in this crisis times of pandemonium.
Early spring is the only time in the year when you can obtain fresh bear’s garlic (also called ramps or wild leek). In Poland it is a perfect time for it right now. Last year I made delicious Pesto, from this year’s batch I decided to make a bread spread: Bear’s Garlic Cream Cheese and a Bear’s Garlic Soup, which recipe is coming up soon. Stay alert not to miss my next recipe;) You can for example subscribe to my newsletter or follow me on Facebook or Instagram. Maybe you prefer Pinterest? Feel invited to choose your favorite way to stay in touch with me:)
During Lent or if you just try to limit meat on your table, you may like to try this easy and healthy bread spread – Smoked Mackerel and Farmers Cheese Salad. Actually you can use any other smoked fish, if mackerel is not available in your area. I am using mackerel, because it is the cheapest and the most popular smoked fish available on Polish market. It have been always widely used by our Grandmas trying to feed large family on budget. Mackerel is a fat fish, soft and delicate.
Try more Polish bread spreads recipes here: http://cookinpolish.com/tag/bread-spread/.
Beef Tongues in Aspic is a dish that in Poland is served for Christmas or New Years Eve. This is an old style food, zero waste cooking and oh so yummy:) The best beef tongues in aspic I remember made our neighbor, Mirka:)
The whole preparing process may be repulsive to some people, but the tongue’s meat is very tasty and quite usual in texture.
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.
Last weekend we went to Mazuria Lake district in the North East of Poland. We went mushroom picking twice and they both were successful:) Check more photos from the woods on my Instagram account. I was hunting for parasol mushrooms and I was lucky to find them in one of my places:) I made fried parasol mushrooms for dinner. They were a delicious alternative for a piece of meat. Remember to pick only mushrooms that you are absolutely sure that are edible or ask for expertise someone experienced and trustworthy, who can recognize them.
Check more seasonal recipes under section: Autumn food.
When I was a child we loved pate – Pasztet bought in stores. Unfortunately this meat bread spread had and still have a long list of low quality ingredients: the worst parts of meat, water, thickeners, preservatives and who knows what else. Nowadays children still love meat pates, so I decided to prepare home made pasztet using good quality ingredients. It worked! My daughter approved it, I’m happy:) I decided to go for no baking version of pate made of turkey leg. I found recipe on Polish culinary website: posmakuj-to.blogspot.com, which I like very much.
If you would like to check more Polish ideas for bread spreads, you may like smoked mackerel Paprykarz and my Grandma’s Smoked Mackerel Bread Spread.
Polish Kaszanka is a sausage made of pig’s blood and groats (buckwheat or barley). Some cooks add pig’s liver, depending on the region. It’s traditional polish food. Originally it was a dish prepared after pig sticking, to use all the parts of the pig. It has quite high levels of fat and cholesterol, but at the same time it supplements iron and zinc. Use it cautiously and enjoy your Kaszanka – Polish black pudding fried with onion:)
Kaszanka can be served cold, grilled or fried on the pan.
It is the middle of the Summer, fortunately in Poland you can still buy young spring cabbage. The taste and texture is delicate and sweet, exceptional:) Yesterday I bought one on a local market, I paid 7 PLN, which is about 2 USD. I prepare Young cabbage salad according to the directions of my sister:)
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. And we love fried 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. If you would like to try other very popular Polish side dishes, try String beans in butter with breadcrumbs.
Smalczyk – Polish pork lard with cracklings is made of pork fat, you need to agree: it is not healthy. But as the fat carries a flavor – it is also goood:) Tastes best on rye bread with pickled cucumbers. Yummy.
In Poland lard is served in restaurants with polish traditional food, as a pre-starter. It is something that you get free once you place an order and wait for your food. This Smalczyk is posh and exclusive;)
However the origins of it are not so rosy. In the past people in Polish countryside were poor. When they have a pig killed, they used all the single part of it. A lard made of fat was high caloric bread spread, that gave energy for the whole day of hard work.
Few days ago I prepared Homemade Polish Paprykarz. 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:)
You may also like Polish Smoked Mackerel Bread Spread.
This is a classic of Polish seasonal cuisine:) Fresh and healthy Polish half sour fermented cucumbers are easy to prepare and delicious. Once you try them – you’ll love them.
Małosolne often accompany vodka and herring with onion on old style meetings:) During PRL you were not supposed to buy only vodka in restaurants, you had to buy also some kind of appetizer, herring and pickled or fermented cucumbers were the most popular:)
One of the first street foods and fast foods in Poland, with origins in communistic 80ties. Zapiekanka – Roasted baguette originally was prepared with onion, champignons, cheese and ketchup. My version is with salami, onions and 3 types of cheese.
Try more PRL Polish cuisine, you may like Paprykarz or Polish Leczo.
In 80-ties in Poland it was very common to celebrate a name day. One checked the calendar and if your name was in it, he could come to you without invitation with potted flower and best wishes. You needed to be prepared for the day: polish vegetable salad, Bigos (Hunters Stew) and Chicken Aspic were common dishes to put on the table.
For polish vegetable salad check: http://cookinpolish.com/polish-vegetable-salad/.
Polish Gyros Salad is very popular on parties in Poland, it is easy to prepare and delicious. It’s name comes from very popular seasoning used here to marinate the meat- Gyros, which is a mix of garlic, coriander seeds, charloc, sweet pepper, fenugreek, chilli pepper, rosemary, oregano, thyme and black pepper.
This is a piece of Polish contemporary cuisine, not traditional one, still- worth to try, as it is delicious:)
You may also like to check: Polish Potato Salad.
If you have potatoes left from dinner, you can prepare an easy Polish Potato Salad.
It’s filling, it’s delicious, it’s cheap. In 10 minutes you can have a fresh salad for supper or to take for lunch at work.
For more Polish salads check: http://cookinpolish.com/tag/salad/.
First vegetables available in spring- horseradish and spring onions are the basis of my favorite Polish spring cottage cheese. I use both horseradish balls and sprouts. Sprouts are rich in minerals and can be easily grown at home.
In Poland we use dry write cheese – Twaróg. It is easy available in each grocery store in Poland. My Grandma was sometimes making curd herself, using fresh milk from her neighbour, who has cows.
Try also Paprykarz, smoked fish bread spread, very popular in PRL.
This herring salad has few layers of ingredients with herring on the bottom of it, that is why it is usually called Herring under a blanket. This is one of my favorite herring dishes for Christmas Eve and Christmas.
