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:)
I love cooking according to old recipes, specially I like real recipes of real people. These recipes are passed down from generation to generation and are cherished by the whole families. When these dishes are cooked and eaten, people gather and recollect the old times and recall people who are no longer with them. Last week I found this kind of recipe on one of the Facebook groups gathering Polish food lovers. Tracey shared her Babcia’s recipe for Braided Yeast Easter Bread, Pani Staciuk’s Paska. I am so happy that she shared with me her memories and also a picture of her Grandma, Maria Steciuk!
Polish Easter Mazurek can be made in many different ways. Basically if someone says Mazurek, you can imagine short, about 3 centimeters high shortcrust pastry with custard made of chocolate, fudge or caramel and decorated with nuts, dried fruits and chocolate. The topping composition is of your choice.
Try my recipe which is very easy to make, it is rather basic, you need just a few ingredients and you get delicious dessert.
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!
Classic Polish Chocolate cake is easy and delicious. Moist and fluffy, delicate, with perfect amount of cocoa and sweetness. Classic Murzynek Polish Chocolate cake was the first cake I have baked myself:) It was so popular during PRL and still is now. My children love this cake, they love to bake it themselves, my son even choose it as his birthday cake. Try this traditional recipe, Polish chocolate cake would suit well on Easter table, if you prefer to keep it simple but delicious.
For more Easter dishes check the link: Polish Easter recipes.
Fresh (in Poland also called: white) Polish sausage is very popular dish for Easter. It is an important ingredient of Żurek, hearty traditional Polish Easter soup. But this time I invite you to check Polish White Sausage Baked in Horseradish Creamy Sauce. It is so easy and quick to make. It is so delicious, roasted kiełbasa with spicy creamy rich sauce. Horseradish and kiełbasa accompany each other so well, that they make a perfect comfort dish not only for Easter.
Forest Moss Spinach Cake is not a traditional Polish cake, but is something that got very popular in Poland in the past years, so I decided to bake it and show you what are the latest trends in Polish cooking.
Forest Moss Spinach cake is easy and it doesn’t take long to make it, but the result may be spectacular and delicious on the same time:) It would also give a Spring touch on your Easter table!
I used recipe I found on one of the most popular Polish cooking sites: Kwestia Smaku. My favorite!
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:)
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/.
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.
Kasza Manna with milk is one of the flavors of my childhood. My Grandma Emilka used to make it for us for breakfast. Alternatively we had rise or noodles with milk and sugar, served as a milk soup. Zupa mleczna – milk soup is something that many Poles don’t want to remember from their childhood:) Did you like them?
Kasza Manna is a fine semolina, when you add liquid and cook it, it makes a kind of Polish polenta. It may be called farina or cream of wheat, in UK it is known as semolina pudding.
Winter school break in Poland has just finished. This year there was not much snow or almost not at all, the only destination for skiing was Mountains. Zakopane, Karpacz, Białka and Bukowina Tatrzańska – these are the most popular Winter resorts, that deserve to go, you can feel and see there the magic of Polish Winter. And of course you can eat there something delicious, specific to this region:) Polish highlanders cuisine is not sophisticated. There is lots of cabbage used, potatoes, sheep cheese – oscypek and sheep meat. I love most of these dishes, but eating Kwaśnica is a must for me when I’m in mountains. Kwaśnica – Polish Sauerkraut Soup is cooked with lots of meat. It is quite fat, perfect to get warm and comfort yourself after a whole day of skiing.
Lately I gathered most delicious Polish soups all together here: 10 Traditional Polish Soups, try them all and decide which one you like the most:)
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.
Chicken Gizzard stew is one of the dishes my Grandma Emilka was cooking for us from time to time. I was used to it, as I had it from the early childhood, but some may even doubt that chicken gizzards are edible at all;) If you tried, you will probably find it tasty and nothing strange about the flavor. Actually Chicken gizzards stew was often served in our house on Sundays, so it was always considered special and tasty meal.
Housewives of communistic Poland did not have much choice, they bought what was available in stores. However it was not a reason to complain, our Grandmas were using their imagination, and – what is important for the environment, they were cooking zero waste 🙂
Polish smoked sausage is always good, but if you need a quick and easy dinner, buy few pieces and serve it boiled. For boiled Polish smoked kiełbasa choose good kind of sausage. In Poland there is a lot of them, but you need to be careful and check the ingredients, as producers are often trying to save and put many strange and unwanted food enhancers in it.
Boiled Polish Smoked Kiełbasa tastes best with horseradish and mustard. Choose the level of intensity of both to your taste. I like strong horseradish sauce and a mustard with character. In Poland I buy a mustard called Russian, for it being really strong.
You may also like to check Bigos recipe: Polish Hunter’s Stew.
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.
