Polish Cuisine – Hungry and Sentimental
Fat Thursday is traditionally the last Thursday before Lent. You can eat sweets and specially lots of polish doughnuts that day, because in few days carnival is over! For Catholics Lent is a period of 40 days of abstinence in expectancy to Easter.
There is just few steps from chicken soup to Krupnik. If you are cooking broth – you can change your mind almost anytime, add barley and potatoes and here it is- Krupnik – chicken soup with barley:). It is ‘all in one’ kind of soup, nutritious, hearty, warming and healthy. If you add millet instead of barley – it would be great for colds, as millet is helping to dry the flegme;)
What about a rich broth for Sunday dinner? Polish broth – Rosół is the most popular choice in Polish families:)
We buy chicken wings and vegetables on the local market. My husband is a Rosół specialist, my children say he cooks the best broth ever:)
As a kid I hated rosół, probably because my Grandma was making it too greasy and was pouring all the best, as she thought, into my plate. I choose meat carefully, not to be too greasy:)
For more Polish soups, check: http://cookinpolish.com/category/recipes/soups/.
Polish cuisine is full of potatoes dishes. It is a cheap vegetable and can be easily stored during winter. In old times it was a poor food, easy to grow, easy to cook and easy to fill the stomach.The old Polish cook book gives a simple recipe for potato pancakes. They are a bit like American hash browns. Try Polish Potato Pancakes and decide which one of them you prefer:)
If you are too lazy to stand in kitchen at the frying pan for several minutes, you may like potato pie, traditional regional meal in Podlasie- a region in north – eastern Poland. Check here for recipe: Polish Potato Pie.
Polish Żurek is a soup traditionally prepared for Easter. In some Polish families White Borsch is cooked instead of Żurek, the difference is Kvas/ starter that is used. For Żurek- rye starter, for Borsch – wheat kvas.
If you plan to cook traditional Polish Sour Soup Żurek, you need a rye starter. You can buy one in Polish store or – I encourage you to- make one at home. It takes a few days for the fermentation to make it job, so few days before making Żurek, follow these instructions: How to make Kvas/Starter for Żurek.
Kvas is a basic ingredient of Żurek, traditional Polish soup, prepared for Easter. It can be also called: kvas or rye sour soup starter, and is made by fermenting rye (for Żurek) or wheat (for White Borsch) flour. The process is easy, although you need few days to have your own homemade kvas/ starter for rye sour soup.
There is a whole variety kinds of starters, that you can prepare and use for soups, it depends on the flour you use. I prefer oatmeal one, because you can get very fresh flour on the spot- all you need to do is to grind oatmeal in an old coffee mill:) If you plan to make 100% traditional Żurek, use rye flour and follow the instructions below.
Uszka for Borscht are perfect for Christmas Eve to be served with beets borscht.
If you want to cook borscht with dumplings you need to plan it in advance, check it here: http://cookinpolish.com/beetroot-borscht/.
Beets Borscht with Uszka is traditionally prepared for Christmas Eve in many Polish homes. As the opposite to borscht sometimes forest mushrooms soup is prepared, however not in my family house- we love beets borscht:)
One important ingredient of Borscht is a beets kvas/ leaven which you need to prepare few days before. How to prepare a leaven you can check here: https://cookinpolish.com/kvas-leaven-for-borscht/.
These amounts of ingredients are set for a big family and there will be enough of Borscht for Christmas Eve and the Christmas as well:)
For Christmas Eve we usually have Beets Borscht with Uszka, while for other occasions we have it for example with Sauerkraut and Wild Mushrooms Buns.
Last weekend me and my husband Robert decided to prepare a full 2 course meal for our family of 4. Traditional and standard;) Polish dinner on Sunday is a rich broth and Kotlety schabowe: Polish breaded pork cutlets. They can be compared to Austrian Wiener Schnitzel, but does not have to be prepared from veal.
We went to the local market where you can get vegetables and meat directly from farmers.
I prepared pork chops, Robert prepared rosół – rich chicken broth- check it here: http://cookinpolish.com/polish-broth-chicken-soup/
If you plan to cook natural, healthy and delicious Polish beets Borscht, for example for Polish traditional Christmas Eve, you need to prepare beets kvas/ leaven for borscht few days before. Kvas is actually a water from fermented beets.
From this amounts of ingredients you will get about 2 portions od kvas to borscht. I usually prepare more leaven. One portion I use for Borscht and the rest I refrigerate and drink everyday half a cup of it. I love this taste, it is also very healthy drink. When you drink kvas, you get vitamins, minerals and probiotics. It’s so good to your immune.
Dumplings are cooked in many East and Central European countries, maybe this is about being Slavic, maybe they are just so tasty and we know how to prepare them:) Ruthenian dumplings – pierogi ruskie are basic Polish pierogi, you need to try them!
