Homemade Polish Food

2010-06-26T14:52:00.002-06:00

Potato babka is a traditional dish that is very popular in many areas of eastern Europe, including Poland. This particular Polish food comes from the northeast part of Poland. Potato babka is very simple and inexpensive to make.

Ingredients:

18 - 20 medium size potatoes
12 onces of pork fat or bacon
1 1/2 onion
salt and pepper
lard

Chop pork fat and onion into small particles and let them simmer on a pan until golden.

Peel the potatoes and finely grind using a food processor. Mix the potatoes with pork fat and onion. Add salt and pepper for flavor.

Grease either an aluminum pan or a cast iron fry pan with lard to prevent the babka from sticking. Pour the mixture into the pan. Place into a 450 degree F oven for 1 1/2 hours.

Carefully take out the babka from the oven and let it rest for 5 - 10 minutes. Cut into slices and serve hot with milk or butter milk. Bon Appetit!

Bigos - Polish hunters' stew

2010-06-25T13:55:00.001-06:00

Bigos, known in the English world as hunter's stew, is one of those traditional Polish meals that no holiday or family gathering can do without. Simple to make yet delicious, it's what made German sauerkraut famous, or at least eatable!

Based on sauerkraut and a mix of various meats, bigos is a dish you can experiment with a lot and it won't bite you in the butt when something goes wrong. It can be made to taste sour, or it can have a zesty, sweet taste to it. What's more, its flavor and consistency evolves over time, for better, not for worse. While you might have seen more complicated recipes with much longer lists of ingredients than this, bigos is a work of art, unique to individual regions and even households. The simple truth is it is really hard to screw up and not make bigos that is delicious. So please give it a try.

Ingredients:

3 pounds of sauerkraut
2 pounds of meat (pork or beef)
Polish white sausage
Polish smoked sausage
bacon
A few carrots
1 - 2 onions
a few tomatoes
tomato paste
garlic
4-6 bay leaves
allspice seeds
salt
pepper
dried plums

In a large pot add a little oil and stir fry chopped pork (beef if you please), smoked sausage, thin cuts of bacon, Polish white sausage or a combination of these along with chopped onion or two.

After a period of high heat stir frying, add chopped carrots, tomatoes, cloves of garlic, finely chopped plums, bay leaves, allspice seeds (5-6), some salt and pepper for flavor (you will tinker with it later). Mix it all up, lower the burner, cover the pot and let it simmer for an hour or so (gives time for the harder to cook meats to soften up).After about an hour, hour and a half, you're ready to add sauerkraut. If you don't want your bigos to be too sour, you may want to run the sauerkraut through some water first or at least squeeze out some of the excess juice before dumping it in the pot and mixing it with other ingredients. Cover the pot and continue to simmer for another 2 - 3 hours.

From time to time check on your stew to make sure you have enough water in the pot - there should be enough juice just from the ingredients alone but you can always add some water or beef/vegetable broth. Also, the sauerkraut will produce some as well. Basically, you don't want your bigos to burn, you want it to cook in its own juices. While at it, give it a good stir.

About an hour into cooking the sauerkraut, add a table spoon of tomato paste and mix well. The paste gives bigos additional flavor as well as reddish coloring.

Once you notice that the sauerkraut is beginning to soften up, have a taste to get an idea what spices are lacking. If you think it needs to be a little sweeter, add a couple of tea spoons of sugar. Do be careful with adding too much salt.

Once the sauerkraut is soft and mushy, your hunter's stew is ready to be served with a side of crushed or whole potatoes. Bon appetit!

Tips:

Metaphorically, bigos means "confusion", "big mess" or "trouble" in Polish. Hence the name for this stew which can be cooked with a wide variety of ingredients.

The greatest thing about bigos is that its flavor gets better with each passing day. Understand that bigos is meant to be stored in a refrigerator or a cold cellar and reheated numerous times.

How to make homemade pickles?

2010-06-25T13:45:00.000-06:00

Good pickles are hard to find, especially when you don't live close to ethnic neighborhoods with a proud tradition of preserving cucumbers. Thankfully, pickled cucumbers are very easy to make so after reading this you can forget about those awful store brands.

Your best bet for finding cucumbers is at a green market during the summer season. Make sure the cucumbers are fairly small, very firm and green. Presence of yellow or light green coloring indicates that the cucumber is too ripe. Other important ingredients you will most likely find at a market include dried dill and horseradish root (optional).

Ingredients:

cucumbers
garlic
dried dill
horseradish root
kosher, sea or pickling salt
mustard seed (optional)

Presoak cucumbers in cold water for 20 - 40 minutes and wash to remove dirt and other undesirable particles. If necessary, drain the water and repeat.

Place a handful of dry dill at the bottom of a large jar (you may also use large porcelain or clay containers) along with a few garlic cloves and some horseradish root. It helps to crush the garlic with a knife to release its flavors. To give your pickles additional spice, you may choose to add mustard seed. Continue to sporadically add dill, cloves of garlic and mustard seed as you fill the jar with cucumbers.

When it comes to pickles, dried dill works best.

Alternatively, fresh dill may be used but there's a risk of it decomposing.

Once your jar is packed with cucumbers, your next task is to fill it with a mixture of warm water and salt. The water should be boiled but cooled down to warm temperature. Use about 1 table spoon of salt per 1 liter of water. Fill the jar with water and salt solution up to the rim, ensuring that cucumbers are completely submerged. Loosely cover the jar with a lid or plate and set aside in room temperature away from direct sunlight.After about 2 - 4 days your pickles should become tender, slightly salted and ready to eat. At this stage of fermentation process, the pickles are know as "malosolne" or slightly salted and considered by many at their best. If you like your pickles really tart, give them additional time (4 - 5 days). With each passing day your pickles will gain in tart. Eventually, you should store the jar in the refrigerator to slow down the fermentation process. Bon appetit!

Pickled and ready to eat in a matter of days.

Useful tips:

Horseradish root is optional. It does add slightly to the flavor but its most important role is to keep your pickles firm. If you plan to eat your pickles within a few weeks of making them, you can skip on the horseradish.

When it comes to pickles, dried dill works best. Alternatively, fresh dill may be used but there's a risk of it decomposing.

Horseradish root is optional. It does add slightly to the flavor but its most important role is to keep your pickles firm. If you plan to eat your pickles within a few weeks of making them, you can skip on the horseradish.

The amount of dill and garlic you should use depends on the amount of pickles. Quite honestly, you can't go wrong with using too much dill or garlic.

When it comes to salt, use kosher, pickling salt or sea salt. The less refined the salt is and the more mineral it contains, the better.

When it comes to salt, use kosher, pickling salt or sea salt. The less refined the salt is and the more mineral it contains, the better.

Warm days are here again and so is sorrel soup

2010-06-24T13:37:00.004-06:00

The distinct sour taste of sorrel soup (zupa szczawiowa) has long been held in high regard in Poland, other areas of eastern Europe, and in Yiddish culture. Its main component is a leafy, lettuce-like herb that can be easily grown in a home garden or even picked in the wild. Sorrel, which is known by its Latin name Rumex acetosa, can also be found at your local farmers market. Sorrel is a seasonal herb and therefore hard to find during cold months. However, it can be easily stored in a freezer. Wash the sorrel thoroughly in cold water, chop it, put it in zip lock bags and freeze. It is also a well known fact that sorrel soup is just what the doctor ordered for a hangover.

Ingredients:

3-5 pork ribs
2 large carrots
1 medium onion
4-5 large potatoes
4-6 cups of sorrel
1-1.5 cups of sour cream
eggs
bay leaves
allspice seeds
salt and pepper

In preparation of the stew, pour in about 4 quarts of water into a medium size pot, add pork ribs, chopped carrots, a whole onion, 4 medium bay leaves, 4 - 6 allspice seeds (also known as Jamaica pepper), and let the whole thing simmer on low to medium heat until the meat is cooked. If you are not a fan of pork, you can easily use a fairly fatty piece of beef. Alternatively, you can use a mix of beef and vegetable broth but remember to still include the carrots and spices.

While your stew is cooking, make sure to soak sorrel leaves in cold water for 20 - 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, to help get rid of the sand and other dirt particles. Once your stew is ready, add chopped potatoes and continue to boil on low to medium heat for 15 - 20 minutes. Next, add chopped sorrel and continue to cook for another 15 - 20 minutes. It is important to add raw potatoes prior to adding sorrel as the sour herb gives them an undesirable firm outer shell.Pour some of the liquid soup into a bowl and mix it with sour cream until you eliminate all granules. Alternatively, you can use boiling water to mix your sour cream if you feel the soups is not liquid enough. You can also replace sour cream with kefir if you're counting calories. Add the mixtures to the pot while stirring and allow it to cook for another 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper for flavor before serving. Serve hot in a bowl with a chopped hard boiled egg. Enjoy!

How to make Polish stuffed cabbage?

2010-06-21T15:23:00.008-06:00

Polish stuffed cabbage or "golabki" is perhaps one of the most famous traditional Polish foods. You simply cannot spell Polish homemade food without "golabki". Comprised of cabbage stuffed with a pork/rice meat mixture, it is typically cooked in its own sauce or with addition of tomato. Here's my mother's and grandmother's time-tested recipe:

Ingredients:

1.2 pounds of ground pork or turkey
large head of cabbage
1/2 onion
3/4 cup of rice
2 large carrots
tomato paste
1 stick of margarine (optional)
salt and pepper
3-4 bay leafs
4-5 allspice seeds
1 clove of garlic(optional)

To prepare the stuffing, mix ground pork and/or turkey with cooked rice and shredded onion. Add salt and pepper for flavor. You may also add a clove of crushed garlic for some additional spice. Set the stuffing aside.

Place the head of cabbage in a large pot of slightly salted boiling water. The intent is to soften the cabbage with steam and water in order to peal off individual leafs without tearing them apart. Continue steaming and pealing leafs until your cabbage is almost gone. Do not dispose of the water. Lower the heat under the pot to a minimum and line the bottom with about half of the sliced carrots and remaining parts of the cabbage head. Add bay leafs and allspice seed.

Using a knife, carefully remove the thick rib from the center of each leaf without puncturing it.

Spread each individual leaf on hard surface such as a cutting board and place a large spoon of stuffing in the middle. The amount of stuffing really depends on the size of the leaf and personal preference.

Cover the stuffing by folding the bottom (thick) part of the leaf toward the center.

Next, fold the two sides of the leaf toward the center. Lastly, hold the two sides with your fingers and continue rolling it on to itself. Done! Your gołąbek is ready.

Place gołąbki in the pot as well as the remaining sliced carrots. Pour watered-down tomato paste over everything. If you are not counting your calories, this is also the time to add your stick of margarine for additional flavor. Cover the pot and cook on low to medium hit for a approximately 1.5 hours.

Serve gołąbki with a side of potatoes and a salad of choice or a pickle. Enjoy!

Welcome!

2008-08-15T20:44:00.014-06:00

Hello and welcome to my blog. As the little info at the top of the page suggests, I will focus this discussion on Polish food.

Granted, Polish food may not be the healthiest out there, but it is definitely one of the most delicious ones. My goal is to inform you, among other things, that there are dozens of different types of Polish kielbasa, not just the one you see in the supermarket. My goal is to let you in on some secrets of Polish home cooking. Trust me, the Polish meals you buy at a restaurant don't measure up to home food. But to make sure the blog is off to a good start, let's begin with a recipe that has nothing to do with food but is nevertheless a huge part of Polish culinary tradition: homemade 95% alcohol Spirytus with honey.

Ingredients include a bottle of Spirytus Rektyfikowany, honey of your choice, and boiled water (amount depending on how strong you want the final product to be).

Spirytus can be easily found in liquor stores in neighborhoods with significant Polish population (Chicago, New York, Connecticut, etc.). Depending on local law, it can be either 95% or 75% alcohol. Although I've recently seen 95% spirytus for the first time in New York.

Now, on to the recipe. It is quite simple . Assuming you're working with a .75L bottle of spirytus, prepare a .5L mixture of boiled water (let it cool down a bit) and honey (amount according to preference, but at least .2L). Mix spirytus with honey water mixture in a previously prepared appropriate size bottle or you can mix it in a pot and then pour it into bottles. Remember, the strength of final product depends solely on your taste. I usually try to keep it at around 50% - 60%. The hardest part comes next. In order to allow the ingredients to mix well, set aside your ready honey spirytus in a warm place for a few days. Once or twice a day give your bottle a good shake. Na zdrowie!