Polish Cuisine for Dummies p. 3 My Mother-In-Law’s Hunter’s sauce

When your husband says ‘I miss my mother’s hunter’s sauce’, something going on… I’ve never tried to compete with my mother-in-law cooking. I love her food even though I should have at least 3 stomachs to fit it in. Somehow she possessed ability of cooking of large amount of food in surprisingly short period of time. 7 courses dinner- voila! Done in one hour! What amazes me the most she does it spontaneously while for me is still a long preparation process. I’m glad she is willing to share her cooking tips.

Ingredients

1 cup of smoked bacon cubed (chose leanest bacon you can find or replace it with smoked ham)

1 cup of cubed, pickled cucumbers (surprisingly often being sold  abroad as ‘Polskie Ogorki’)

1 cup of minced tomatoes

3 tbsp. of ketchup

1 small onion finely chopped

2 cups of champignons

1tbsp. of corn starch

½ cup of cold water

Few grains of allspice

2-3 bay leaves

Salt, pepper

 meatballs

250 g of lean pork minced meat

250 g of lean beef minced meat

1 tsp. of minced garlic

1 tbsp. of marjoram

1tbsp. of thyme

1 beaten egg
salt, pepper

Place bacon on the pan and cook on medium heat until starts getting crispy on edges but is still tender inside. Remove excess fat with spoon. Add chopped onion, allspice and bay leaves. Cook together for around 15 minutes stirring frequently to keep onion from browning. Add mushrooms and when they’re cooked combine with minced tomatoes and ketchup. Reduce heat and simmer for another 15 minutes. 

Mix corn starch with cold water and pour into pot to thicken sauce. Throw pickles and black pepper. Salt is optional cause pickles and bacon are salty. Keep mixture on low heat while you preparing meatballs. 

Combine both kinds of meat, egg, marjoram, thyme, garlic and shape into meatballs about 2,5 cm diameter and place on baking pan. Bake at 180 C in oven until start getting brown. Combine with sauce and cook together for another 10 minutes on low heat. Sauce is ready.

 I served it with sweet potatoes gnocchi and arugula and artichokes hearts salad  (next posts). Not very Polish indeed, but I love fusion cuisines!