CookINPolish – Traditional Recipes
Polish Cuisine from an Old Cookbook
A season for zucchinis is long, you can get it fresh and full of flavor for the whole Summer and most of Autumn. Some may say that it’s taste might be bland, I say – it’s delicate and once you add favorite seasonings you have your favorite dish <3 . Let’s take for instance Zucchini pancakes – an onion sauteed in butter and garlic sauce on the side add my pancakes a gorgeous twist.
Surówki – Polish salads are always on Polish table for dinner: you have meat, you eat potatoes and there must be also Surówka as a side dish. Polish salads are usually made of raw vegetables, but there are also very yummy salads made of cooked vegetables (more popular in winter) or with addition of fruits. Most of them are really easy to prepare, they are healthy and dietetic. It’s important to use good oils – preferably raw unrefined, as they are the healthiest. You eat surówka without thermal preparation, so all the best of oils will remain inside of the dish. Another important thing is to choose high quality vegetables, I go to local market where farmers are selling their produce. I buy from my favorite trusted sellers.
Last Sunday I launched on my Facebook and Instagram’s profiles a week of Polish Surówka:) Each day I presented one popular Polish salad.
Under each salad’ post my readers say – “Add dill!” or: “I always use dill to this salad”, or: ” You forgot about dill! It’s Polish staple!” – so the main picture to Polish salads would be:…………….. a dill!
In Poland when you have standard dinner, you eat potatoes, meat and – surówka, which is a salad made of raw fruits and vegetables. There is variety of different salads that can be prepared, but one of the most popular is an apple and a carrot salad. This easy side is quick to make and so delicious. Both: carrots and apples are really easy available all over the year in Poland, so they are quite cheap! This make Apple and Carrot Salad very popular in school’s canteens:) I can live with that, it’s delicious and so healthy.
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.
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.
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.
Delicious vegetarian Millet Stuffed Peppers are a staple in my house. In fall months peppers are cheap, so I buy them often and serve them fresh and baked. This time I had them stuffed with vegetables and millet. I cook seasonally and locally.
Check also other Polish recipes best in Autumn: Autumn food.
Mid November is perfect to think ahead about Christmas. This confirms a fact that in some areas of the world first Christmas decorations are already set! For me it’s to early, but there are some aspects of Christmas that need to be taken care of before. Just like homemade Orange Christmas Liqueur.
I make a lot of tinctures in Summer: cherry, bird cherry, rowan berry, strawberry, black currant and few more. I prefer to call them a tincture than a liqueur. Polish nalewki are to cure: an alcohol is extracting all the beneficial substances from fruits and other tinctures ingredients. Of course they need to be drunk in small amounts. Orange Christmas Liqueur is actually a liqueur not a tincture – not a cure it is just purely to enjoy:) It smells like Christmas:)
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.
Dumplings are Polish favorite dish. They can have a whole range of fillings: sauerkraut, meat, farmers cheese, fruits. I had Zamojskie Buckwheat Dumplings for the first time when I was in college. I went with other students for hiking in Bieszczady Mountains. On a way back my friend Kasia took me to her hometown: Krasnystaw, near Lublin and Zamość. Her mum cooked Buckwheat Dumplings and they were delicious. My new favorite dumpling flavor:)
Lately I found out that buckwheat dumplings are specialty of this area of Poland. They are called Zamojskie (from Zamość), and sometimes Lubelskie (from Lublin).
Last weekend we went to Mazuria district to visit my parents. It was the second year we celebrated our family’s Baked Potato Day:) After dark we lighted a campfire and we baked sausages and potatoes. My sister-in-law, Marzena told us about an onion water from Kurpie, she tried few years ago visiting her friends. It sounded interesting, so I asked google and found an easy recipe I followed: Woda cebulowa. Actually when we were drinking it, we remembered that our Grandma was sometimes preparing this kind of drink and we had it with boiled potatoes, only she was also adding sour cream and called it Kvas.
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.
Yesterday was the last day of Summer:( In order to keep some Summer tastes for short cold Winter days, I made Polish Pickle Cucumber Salad. Canning has a long story in Poland, Polish housewives from 1980ties and 1990ties all the Summer were busy with packing cucumbers, red peppers, forest mushrooms, jams and compotes into jars. I remember pickled cucumber salad my Mum prepared those days, it was called Swedish Salad and had cucumbers and carrots in vinegar solution. My version has also red peppers and onions. Try this recipe, you will have crunchy spicy vegetables to reach for and accompany your meals in Winter.
You may also like simple and easy recipe for Quick Pickled Cabbage, that is ready on the very next day from preparing. I don’t preserve it, it can be stored in a fridge even for a month.
Sunday afternoon is a perfect time for Polish Yeast Sweet Rolls. This kind of rolls are very popular in Poland to have it for ‘second breakfast’ at school or in the office.
For more Polish desserts check: http://cookinpolish.com/category/recipes/desserts/.
Apple Racuchy are one of the favorite Polish suppers. Children love them and they are simple and easy to make. I don’t add sugar inside, so you can keep them low caloric or sprinkle Racuchy with lots of powder sugar. My Racuchy are crispy and fluffy, even though I don’t use yeast nor baking powder – are you ready to find out what is the secret of my perfect Racuchy: fluffy, crispy and moist inside? 🙂
I cooked Polish Redcurrant Kompot, as lately I got a plenty of redcurrant from my friend. Kompot is a drink, that Poles usually drink to dinner. It is served in every Polish office and school’s canteen.
Kompot is a fruit drink made of fresh or dried fruits. Wikipedia says that the tradition of kompot drinking has more than 700 years! The most special kompot is made for Christmas Eve- you cook dried fruits with seasonings like cloves and cinnamon. It smells like Christmas:)
In the Summer when there are many fresh fruits available, you can easily have this nice, healthy, simple drink for kids and adults. You can cook kompot using cherries, apples, rhubarb, strawberries, plums or peaches. You can also mix few different fruits in one pot. It is much better than soda. It’s fresh, with no preservatives and you control the level of sugar, or use healthier sweeteners, such as stevia.
Taste of the childhood in Poland. My Grandma was baking this traditional Polish plum yeast – risen cake on Saturdays afternoons. We were eating still warm piece of cake with cold milk. Yummy:)
You can have this Polish Yeast Cake actually with any seasonal fruits. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, rhubarb – all will go great with a yeast cake. I love a smell of baking plums, so I choose plums:)
If you prefer apples and crusty desserts you may want to check my Polish Szarlotka recipe.
This quick pickled cabbage is crunchy, sweet and spicy. Can go as a side dish to a dinner, can accompany meats (Polish kotlety schabowe), potato casserole or any dish that needs a kick.
It’s ready to eat on the very next day. Use fresh young spring cabbage to get the best of it.
Most importantly quick pickled cabbage can be stored in refrigerator for even 2 months, but don’t worry, usually it disappears before then:)
Recipe I use comes from my sister’s private recipe book.
Last Saturday I found fresh forest chanterelles on a local farmers market. They are not cheap, they cost 60 PLN per 1 kg, which is more than 15 USD. However they are sooo good, that I couldn’t resist:) I was waiting the whole season to cook Chanterelle Cream Sauce.
I had some for delicious scramble eggs for breakfast.
For dinner I cooked cream sauce, which I served with grilled turkey breast, young potatoes and mizeria (cucumber salad). However you can have any nice piece of grilled or fried meat with chanterelle sauce: pork chop, beef steak or pork tenderloin. If you prefer to stick with veggie, potato dumplings, crepe and pasta would go very well with this sauce.
