food
By Beli n
da Prin ce
Hello from the accidental Chatelaine! I love to cook at any opportunity and delighted to be able to share that love with you
Chateau Kitchen www.chateaumareuil.com
Christmas Traditions THIS IS GOING TO BE A VERY DIFFERENT CHRISTMAS. WELL, CERTAINLY FOR ME. FOR A START, IT WILL BE THE FIRST EVER SPENT HERE IN FRANCE, WHICH IS A GOOD THING OF COURSE, BUT ALSO THE FIRST EVER WITHOUT FAMILY – SO A LANDMARK AND I HOPE ONE THAT’S NEVER REPEATED
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or all the years my parents were alive, we spent Christmas together, I couldn’t have imagined being without them. Our children are all grown up now and we are grandparents, Christmas is our very precious family together time when Lee and I travel back to Kent to be with them, but not this year. I know I’m not alone; there will be many of us unable to spend precious time with loved ones this year because of the global pandemic, let’s hope and pray it’s the last time.
or his homeland ever again. In 1948, Jan met my Mother at a dance at the NAAFI club in Devises, Wiltshire; they married on June 24th 1950 and the rest is history. With this history, you can imagine how Jan was often homesick, never more so than at Christmas when he instigated our family tradition of celebrating Christmas “Polish Style” on Christmas Eve - Wigilia.
Wigilia - think of the word “vigil” - means “waiting” and it’s the anticipation of Christ’s birth that is all important. Christmas is a time for memories, Typically, in Poland, this is a huge affair tradition and nostalgia and here is taste of what Christmas means with the evening meal In the past, the meal to me. being of tremendous significance. In the past, would have comprised My dear Father, Jan twelve meatless courses the meal would have Jablonski, was Polish. He comprised twelve meatless came to England in 1947 to represent the courses to represent the following an incredible twelve apostles twelve apostles; nowadays wartime journey from his however, three or four, home (now in Ukraine), thankfully, is more usual! Another which started in September 1939 when he tradition is to make an extra place-setting and many other young men of his generation were taken captive and held for the "unexpected guest", to celebrate prisoner in a Russian Gulag in Siberia. hospitality. A well loved mantra, so Tragically, only 1 in 10 captives survived typically Polish, is “Guest in the house, this cruel experience of hard labour and God in the house”. virtual starvation. Following his release The feasting follows a day of abstinence after 2 years, his odyssey continued with and traditionally begins once the First Star comrades through Iran and Iraq, Egypt, has been sighted. Christmas in Poland is Palestine and Italy where he saw active also sometimes called "Gwiazdka", which service at the famous battle of Monte means "little star". Grace is said and then Cassino as a member of the 2nd Polish the “Christmas Wafer” Oplatek is broken Corp under General Wladislaw Anders. and shared to symbolise the gift of daily Tragically, he was never to see his parents
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas
bread and wishing each other blessings for the coming year. The meal begins with a soup, either Barszcz with Uszka (tortellini), or a clear wild mushroom soup Grzybowa, followed by herring in different forms. Fish provides the main dish of the Christmas Eve feast across Poland. There are variations of carp fillet, carp in aspic, gefilte fish (Jewish-style carp), with onions, carrots, almonds and raisins. Accompaniments consist of cabbage, cooked red or sauerkraut with apple salad. The bread served at the meal is often Challah, doubtless borrowed from Poland's centuries-long Jewish fellow countrymen. Sometimes, Pierogi filled with cheese and potatoes as well mushrooms and cabbage are served, also stuffed cabbage rolls made with mushrooms and rice, Golabki. Then there is an array of desserts, including dried fruit compote, cheesecakes or poppy seed cakes, Babka, Makowiec, and other delicacies including edible Christmas ornaments. Our little family would hold our own Wigilia, trying to follow the old traditions as closely as possible with my poor mother attempting to cook the Polish dishes as well as my paternal grandmother! We would finish the evening by singing old Polish Christmas Carols and eventually, some English ones entered our repertoire as we children grew older. To this day, I cannot hear those old melodies without the tears starting to fall. I too had started to carry on the Wigilia tradition with my own family, although Christmas Day would also be celebrated with the usual turkey fest! So, I hope, that given the current situation, with many of us being apart from loved ones at this special time, you’ll indulge my culinary trip down memory lane.
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