A Taste of Home

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Table of Contents

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Introduction 5

meat

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Soup 11

vegetable 16

Dessert

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Introduction A taste of home means diffrent things to diffrent people, for me a taste of home will always mean Polish food. Polish cuisine or “kuchnia polska� is a style of cooking and food preparation originating from Poland. It has evolved over the centuries due to historical circumstances meaning Polish national cuisine shares some similarities with other Central European and Eastern European traditions as well as French and Italian similarities. It is rich in meat, especially pork, chicken and beef (depending on the region), winter vegetables and spices.It is also characteristic in its use of various kinds of noodles the most notable of which are kluski as well as cereals such as kasha. Generally speaking, Polish cuisine is hearty and uses a lot of cream and eggs. The traditional dishes are often demanding in preparation. Many Poles allow themselves a generous amount of time to serve and enjoy their festive meals, especially Christmas eve dinner or Easter breakfast which could take a number of days to prepare in their entirety.

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meat Breaded pork chop

(Kotlet schabowy) Serves 4

polish pork chop

Beat out the pork chops with a mallet until thin. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

4 pork chops/pork

On separate plates, pour flour, egg and breadcrumbs. Dip each chop into the flour, coating on both sides, and then dip into the beaten egg. finally press the chops on to the breadcrumbs, ensuring even coating. Heat sufficient oil/butter in a large frying pan. When very hot, add the pork chops and cook over high heat for 5 minutes on each side. Lower heat and cook for another few minutes until golden.

tenderloin salt and pepper 25g plain flour 1 egg, beaten 25g breadcrumbs Oil/butter for frying Kotlet schabowy is a Polish variety of pork breaded cutlet coated with breadcrumbs similar to Viennese schnitzel. Kotlet schabowy can be served with mashed potatoes, rice or pasta, pierogi, fried mushrooms, cooked vegetables (usually cabbage), with salads or with coleslaw.

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meat Stuffed Cabbage

(Golabki) Stuffed Cabbage

1 cabbage, center core removed 360g minced meat (turkey or pork) 2 cups cooked white rice 1 cup chopped onion 1cup tomato paste 2 cans crushed tomatoes 1 1/2 cups vegetable stock 1 tbs brown sugar 1/2 tsp salt & pepper 1/4 tsp parsley 1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce 1/4 cup butter 4 carrots, sliced 450g mushrooms 2 bay leaves

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Parboil cabbage in a large pot, removing leafs as they fall off into the water and are tender. Cook till all leaves are tender, but not ripping apart; usually 15 min. Run under cold water and drain. Cut the thick membrane off back of each leaf. While cabbage is cooking saute onion in butter until lightly browned. Put all the uncooked meat into a large mixing bowl add eggs. Add the sauted onions. Next add salt pepper, celery salt, parsley, and worcestershire sauce along with the cooked rice and mix thoroughly. Lay out leaves and depending upon their size, place 2-3 tablespoons of meat mixture on the wider side. Roll leaf up and over meat, tuck in sides of leaf, and continue to roll to use all leaves and stuffing. Place rolls, seam down into a greased roasting pan. Then layer carrots and mushrooms over cabbage. Mix together the tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, water and brown sugar and pour evenly over all the rolls. Season with salt and pepper to taste and bay leaves. Cover roaster and bake 325 degrees for 2- 2&1/2 hours.Half way through baking check to make sure there’s enough liquid; additional water can be added. To serve, spoon sauce over rolls. Golabki is the Polish word for pigeon, but don’t be put off you don’t need to use pigeon!


meat Cutlet de Volaille

(Kurczak De Volaille) Serves 4

Mix butter with garlic, parsley, chive, (or with dill instead of chive) lemon zest and juice in a small bowl. Add salt and pepper, divide in 4 and form butter “fingers�. Cover with foil and refrigerate.

Cutlet de Volaille

4 chicken fillets oil

Flatten chicken fillets between cling film, put one butter finger on each and roll them around. Ends need to be secured too. Help yourself with toothpicks to keep the meat together if necessary.

toothpicks

Beat the egg, add salt and pepper, dip fillets in it and then roll in the bread crumbs. Refrigerate for 1 hour. You can also dip them in the flour first and then egg and bread crumbs.

with flour (3:1)

Heat up the oil and fry the cutlets till golden. Tastes best with mashed potatoes and light salad.

60 g butter bread crumbs mixed 1 beaten egg 2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped) 2 tbsp parsley.Chopped (Optional) 1 tbsp chive. Chopped (Optional) 1 tbsp dill. Chopped. (Optional) 1/4 tbsp lemon (zest and juice) salt and pepper to taste

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Soup Beetroot soup

(Barscht) beetroot soup

4 beets, washed 4 cups meat or vegetable stock 1 minced clove garlic 1 teaspoon sugar 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice or 1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar salt and black pepper chopped fresh dill Barszcz in its strictly vegetarian version is the first course during the Christmas Eve feast, served with small dumplings called uszka with mushroom filling . Typically, this version does not include any meat ingredients.

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Heat oven to 400 degrees. Wrap beets in aluminum foil and roast until tender, about 30-45 minutes. When cool enough to handle, peel and slice into strips or julienne. In a medium pot, bring stock to boil, add beets, garlic, sugar, lemon juice or vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer 10 minutes. Serve hot with boiled potatoes and chopped dill for garnish, or cool quickly in an ice-water bath and refrigerate to serve cold garnished with dill and sour cream. Alternativley for a festive alternative serve with mushroom stuffed mini dumplings.


Soup Sour Rye Soup

(Zurek) Serves 6

Kwas: Rinse out an earthenware jar or any non-alluminium container with boiling water. Put the flour in the jar and mix to a liquid paste with a little of water. Leave the mixture to settle for a few minutes, and then pour on the remaining boiled water. Chop the garlic and add. Cover the top of the jar with muslin or pierced cling film and leave in a warm place for 4 to 5 days to ferment. Strain and use as required. If stored in an airtight container, it will keep for a few weeks. The Soup: Heat the stock. Chop bacon and onion and add to stock. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add mushrooms, kwas, cream and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Allow to simmer for 20 minutes and then add potatoes and sausage. Bring to boil.

sour rye soup

For the kwas: 75g wholemeal rye flour 600 ml boiled, cooled water 1/4 clove garlic For the soup: 1.25 litres stock from vegetables or beef/ chicken bones 100g bacon 100g onion 1 can of mushrooms 400ml kwas 300ml sour cream 5 medium potatoes, cooked and diced 100g smoked sausage, dicedt

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Soup Mushroom Soup

(Zupa Pieczarkowa) Mushroom Soup

Serves 6

450g white button

Wash the Mushrooms well to remove all dirt. Remove caps and slice. Trim ends off roots and dice roots finely.

mushrooms

1 lt vegetable broth

In soup pot, melt Butter and add Mushrooms and Onion. Cook on medium low, stirring once in a while to caramelize the Mushrooms and Onions until the water from the Mushrooms has cooked off.

1 tbs flour

Add Broth and bring to a boil.

2 tablespoons butter 1/2 sweet onion, diced

1/2 cup sour cream salt 1 tsp apple or white vinegar parsley or dill to garnish, if you like All Polish mushroom soups are cooked on meat and vegetable stock. Still, mushrooms dominate both a list of ingredients and a bunch of tastes and aromas of the resulting Polish food.

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In a bowl, combine Sour Cream with Flour well. Add a couple of tablespoons of hot broth and mix well. Pour into soup and bring gently almost to a boil and turn off. Add Salt and Vinegar to taste. If you like, you can add a handful of parsley or dill into the pot at this time.


vegetable Polish Hunter’s Stew

(Bigos) Serves 6 -8

polish pork chop

Place dried mushrooms in a medium bowl. Pour over boiling water and let steep for 30 minutes or until mushrooms have softened. You may chop the mushrooms, but leaving them whole makes for a chunkier dish. Set aside with soaking liquid.

1/2 ounce dried

Meanwhile, in a oven or large pot with a lid, saute onion and fresh cabbage in bacon drippings or vegetable oil. When cabbage has collapsed by half, add sauerkraut, meats, tomatoes, wine, bay leaf and reserved mushrooms and their soaking liquid, being careful not to pour off the sediment in the bottom of the bowl. Mix well and bring to a boil over medium heat. Lower heat to low and simmer covered for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally and adding liquid as needed to prevent burning. When ready to serve, remove bay leaf and any bones from meats. The longer this cooks the better it tastes, and it’s even better served the next day. Bigos is considered the national dish of Poland. It’s a hearty, long-simmered meat and sauerkraut stew that goes back centuries. It was traditionally served at the start of the hunting season, from fall through Shrove Tuesday, or until the family’s supply of barrelcured sauerkraut ran out.

mushrooms 2 cups boiling water 1 tbs vegetable oil 1 medium onion, chopped 1 small cabbage, chopped 1 pound sauerkraut, 1/2 pound smoked Polish sausage 1/2 pound cooked fresh Polish sausage 1 pound boneless meat 3 large tomatoes, chopped 1 cup dry red wine 1 bay leaf Salt and black pepper to taste

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vegetable Polish Dumplings

(Pierogi) polish dumplings

Possibly the most popular Polish food, these dumplings can be served with any filling limited only by your imagination but the most popular in poland are; sourkraut, cheese and potato or meat pierogi (usually pork or chicken). Sweet varaities also exist with cherry, blueberry or strawberry fillings and garnished with icing sugar.

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Serves 12 For the sauerkraut filling: melt the butter in a medium frying pan over medium heat. Cook the onion, stirring, about 5 minutes or until soft. Add the drained sauerkraut and cook for 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper; transfer to a bowl. Cool. For the potato filling: melt the butter in the same pan over medium heat. Cook the onion, stirring, about 5 minutes or until soft. Stir into the mashed potatoes; season with to taste with salt and pepper. For the dough: beat together the eggs and sour cream in a large bowl until smooth. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder; stir into the sour cream mixture until dough comes together. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until firm and smooth. Divide the dough in half, then roll out one half to 3mm thickness. Cut 8cm rounds from dough using a biscuit cutter. lace a small spoonful of the mashed potato filling into the centre of each round. Moisten the edges with water, fold over, and press together with a fork to seal. Repeat with the remaining dough and the sauerkraut filling.


vegetable Polish Dumplings

(Pierogi)

polish dumplings

Bring a large saucepan of lightly salted water to the boil. Add perogies and cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until pierogi float to the top. Remove with a slotted spoon. Can be frozen for later. Best served with finley chopped fried onion.

For the Filling: 2 tablespoons butter 1 small brown onion, chopped finely 1 1/2 cups sauerkraut, drained and chopped finely 20g butter 1 small brown onion, chopped finely 2 cups cold mashed potatoes 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon white pepper For the Dough: 3 eggs 250g sour cream 3 cups (450g) plain flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon baking powder

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vegetable Cucumber Salad

(Mizeria) cucumber salad

2 cucumbers

Slice cucumbers very thinly.

2 tablespoons sour

Mix rest of ingredients together in a closed bowl and give a shake.

cream or 2 tablespoons

Add to cucumbers, chill till very cold & serve.

yogurt salt and pepper, to taste 1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill

t’s a great accompaniment to pork, ham, chicken, fish, just about anything. Choose thin cucumbers with small seeds or the seedless variety. Dress this just before serving so the dish doesn’t become watery. For a unique take on the dish have it next to indian curry.

Legend has it this dish was a favorite of Queen Bona Sforza, an Italian princess who married Polish King Sigismund I in the 16th century. Homesick for her native Italy where cucumbers were common, everytime she ate it, it made her cry. Hence the Polish word for “misery,” derived from the Latin.

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vegetable Little Hooves

(Kopytka)

Little Hooves

Cook and mash potatoes. Wait until they cool off then mix the potatoes with flour until you have a loose dough that does not stick to your fingers. Roll out the dough on a floured board and cut into thin noodle strips. Bring some salted water to boil and drop the noodles into it. They are ready when they float to the surface. Fry onion and pieces of bacon in a little oil and pour over Kopytka in serving dish. Serve.

4 large potatoes (the best are Idaho), cooked and mashed 3 1/2 to 4 cups flour Pinch of salt Bacon (small cubes) 1 Onion Kopytka, kapytki (literally "little hooves") are a kind of potato dumpling. They are very similar to gnocchi although they are typically served baked with cheese, fried bacon or onion. Serve these as a stand alone dish, or as a side dish with other food. Also try and experiment with different sauce toppings to suit you.

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Dessert Polish Waffles

(Gofry) polish waffles

1 1/3 cups flour 4 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons sugar 2 eggs, separated 1/2 cup butter, melted 1 3/4 cups milk whipped cream fresh fruit of choice jam of choice A popular dessert, it is very popular in coastal regions where you can buy it from food stands at the beach but you can find it throughout Poland and it basically consists of waffles on which a variety of toppings are applied.

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In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients. Separate the eggs, adding the yolks to the dry ingredient mixture, and placing the whites in a small mixing bowl. Beat whites until moderately stiff; set aside. Add milk and melted butter to dry ingredient mixture and blend. Fold stiff egg whites into mixture. Ladle mixture into hot waffle iron and bake. Cover waffle in whipped cream and apply fresh fruit and jam as you like. Nuts and dried fruit can also be used.


Dessert Angel wings

(Chruciki)

polish pork chop

Combine egg yolks, whole egg and salt in bowl of mixer. Beat at high speed until thick and lemon colored, about 5 minutes. Beat in sugar, cream, vanilla and rum. Add flour and beat until blisters form, about 5 minutes. Turn dough out onto a floured board, divide in half, cover with plastic wrap and let rest for at least 20 minutes. Working with half of the dough at a time, roll out to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut into 2-inchwide strips. Cut these strips on the diagonal at 4-inch intervals. Heat 2 inches of oil in a large, deep skillet to 350 degrees. Make a slit in the center of each strip of dough. Then pull one end through the slit to form a bow. Fry 6 chrusciki at a time for 1 minute or less per side or until golden. These fry quickly, so watch closely. Drain on paper towels. Dust with confectioners’ sugar. Some like to drizzle their chrusciki with honey. These pastries tend not to store well, but if kept tightly covered, they can be recrisped in a 350-degree oven for a few minutes and served the next day.

5 large egg yolks, at room temperature 1 large whole egg, at room temperature 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar 1/4 cup heavy cream 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 tablespoon rum or brandy 2 cups all-purpose flour Canola or vegetable oil Confectioners’ sugar

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Dessert Poppy-seed cake

(Makowiec) Poppy-seed cake

400 g flour, 150 g butter, 100g icing sugar, 5Og yeast, 2 eggs, 3 tablespoon sour, cream, 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel, salt. 400 g poppy-seeds, 150 g butter, 200 g sugar, 100 g almonds, 4 tablespoons currants, 4 tablespoons honey, 2 egg whites, 5 ml rum, 2 tablespoons chopped orange peel fried in sugar, 1/2 vanilla pod Makowiec is a classic dessert or tea bread that is commonly served during polish holidays.

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Prepare the stuffing: scald the poppy-seeds with boiling water, drain. Drain and mince three times. Melt butter and honey in a saucepan, add vanilla, almonds, currants and orange peel. Mix well, add poppy-seeds and fry for 10-15 min. Leave to cool, add beaten egg whites and rum, mix lightly. Mix the yeast with cream. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl, beat in an egg, add sugar, yeast with cream, lemon peel and salt. Chop all the ingredients with a knife, then knead the dough. Transfer onto a square. Spread the dough evenly with the stuffing, leaving 2 cm margins on opposite sides. Roll up the dough into a roll and transfer to a greased baking tin. Leave to stand in a warm place for 1 hour. When the dough rises, pierce it in a few places, transfer to a medium hot oven and bake for 40-50 minutes.


Dessert Polish Pancakes

(Nalesniki) Serves 6

To make the batter, sift the flour into a large bowl. Add the egg and egg yolks. Stir in the milk, water, oil and nutmeg. Mix together thoroughly. Whisk the egg whites with salt until stiff, and fold into batter. Grease a pancake pan or frying pan with butter. When hot, pour in a enough batter and cook on both sides until lightly browned. Continue until all the batter is used. Keep the pancakes warm in the oven at low heat. To make filling, push the curd cheese through a sieve, cream the butter with the egg yolk and add to the cheese. Add sugar and vanilla sugar. Stir in milk if the mixture is too stiff. Put a spoonful of filling on each pancake, fold over and serve hot.

polish pancakest

225g plain flour 1 egg 3 eggs, separated 300 ml milk 300 ml water 1 tbs oil pinch of nutmeg 1 tsp salt 25g butter for greasing 250g curd cheese 25g butter 1 egg yolk sugar to taste pinch of vanilla sugar milk These pancakes can be alternatively served with jam.

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