PRL food Archives - CookINPolish - Traditional Recipes

Murzynek Polish Chocolate Cake

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.

Classic Murzynek Polish Chocolate cake served on a plate.

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Kasza Manna with Milk

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.

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Chicken Gizzards Stew

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 🙂

Chicken Gizzards Stew served on the plate with boiled potatoes and gherkins.

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Beef Tongues in Aspic

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.

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Polish Beans with Kiełbasa

Fasolka po Bretońsku

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 baked beans with kiełbasa served in a bowl.

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Polish Tomato Soup

When there is a season for tomatoes, we should use it and cook this gorgeous Tomato soup with fresh tomatoes. In winter and in spring, or when you are just tired and you need to put quickly dinner on the table – then you can cook traditional Polish Tomato Soup. The soup is more related to PRL tradition, but still – it is one of the most favorite Polish soups.

People in Poland laugh that when we have a chicken broth on Sunday, then on Monday we eat tomato soup:) Yes, actually it is as easy as this: if you add tomato concentrate to the broth – your budget tomato soup is ready:)

Poles cannot agree whether tomato soup should be served with rice or rather with pasta:) In my family house we used to have it with rice, but I like both options:)

Polish tomato soup served on the plate with pasta

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Polish Leczo

Polish Leczo – Vegetable and Polish Sausage Stew

Polish Leczo is a vegetables stew with Polish pork sausage. It is a dish with Hungarian origins. You cook seasonal, use red peppers, tomatoes and zucchini the moment they are the best and the cheapest. You can cook a big pot of food for a family of 6 for a week:)

In Poland Leczo started to be popular in hard times of PRL, when there was shortage of everything in stores. There was also time when garden plots where very popular, Poles where growing their own carrots, tomatoes, parsley, cucumbers, peppers. Totally bio and eco:)

If you like Leczo you may also like Polish Stuffed Zucchini.

Polish leczo served in a bowl with rye bread

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Homemade Polish Paprykarz

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.

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Polish Chocolate Bar

Home made Polish Chocolate Bar – Blok Czekoladowy, was a way for a treat in hard times of communistic PRL. Anyway it is really tasty and worth trying, I assure you that not only kids will like it:) You don’t bake it, it’s easy and quick to prepare.

In Summer try also Polish Plum Yeast Cake.

Polish chocolate bar with pistachio in a mold.

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Polish ‘Greek fish’

Ryba po grecku

Nobody knows why fried fish with steam veggies is in Poland called Polish ‘Greek fish’:) It is just a common name, used from decades by our grandmothers and mothers.

Greeks, please do not get offended:) Almost all Poles love it, when we eat Greek fish, we think warmly about Greece and Greeks:)

Try also: Traditional Polish Vegetable Salad.

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Zapiekanka – Roasted Baguette

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.

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Chicken Aspic

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/.

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Polish vegetable salad

Sałatka Jarzynowa

I remember from my childhood that Polish vegetable salad – sałatka jarzynowa – was a must for each Easter, Christmas, birthdays and – very popular those times in Poland – name days. In the 80-ties mayonnaise was hard to get in stores, so we used to prepare it at home. It was fun for us, kids to help with all the culinary preparations. Dieticians say that this salad is a dietetic crime, but one cannot deny this yummy tradition, come on! 🙂

I still can’t imagine Easter with a family without vegetable salad. Polish vegetable salad is nice to have with cold sliced meets and Beets and Horseradish Salad.

Polish vegetable salad served on the table

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Polish Tripe Soup – Flaki

Either you love or hate it. Polish Tripe Soup – Flaki has lots of proponents and the same number of opponents:)

Several years ago it was a standard starter on weddings, nowadays you are usually faced with a choice: tripe soup or chicken soup (Rosół recipe).I always take Flaki! 🙂

For me using tripes, liver and other offal parts is a respect for the animal, that gave his life so that we could eat it. Some may say it is also in line with ‘zero waste’ trend that is getting more and more popular nowadays. I support it!

Polish Tripe Soup Flaki, served on the plate with rye bread.

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Peas and Cabbage Stew

Groch z kapustą

Phrase “peas and cabbage” in Polish common language is defined as mixing two things which do not match. Peas and cabbage stew is not a mess, try:)

Historically in Poland cabbage is one of the most popular vegetables. It is cheap, so it’s available for poor people. Is easy to store during winter, so can be used during the whole year. For years people in Poland use it widely, so we have many traditional dishes with cabbage as ingredient.

Peas and cabbage stew appears on official list of traditional polish cuisine of Łódź voivodeship, but is known in the whole country. Can be prepared as fast dish with fried onion, or with greaves.

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Herring under a blanket/ Śledzie pod pierzynką

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.

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Smoked Mackerel Bread Spread

Mackerel is a taste of my childhood. During communism in Poland there was a shortage of food and almost no choice in stores. Now there is a whole variety of fish species to choose from, but mackerel is still the most popular smoked fish in Poland. My Grandma used to prepare Smoked Mackerel Bread Spread for us on Fridays, because we didn’t eat meat then.

If you like mackerel, try another bread spread: Homemade Paprykarz Szczeciński.

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Krupnik – chicken soup with barley

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 and healthy. If you add millet instead of barley – it would be great for colds, as millet is helping to dry the flegme;)

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