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!

Polish cuisine for dummies p.2 Sunday lunch (serving for three)

When I moved abroad I was sure I would cook traditional Polish meals at least once a week. Well the truth is I live now in ‘foodies melting pot’. Restaurants and markets with food from all around the world are at my fingertips, so old cooking tips I’ve learned in my origin country seem to be a little boring. However, sometimes I get nostalgic for old flavors. I’m pretty sure that most countries have own special meal for Sunday lunch. Traditional Polish Sunday lunch served at my home had 3 courses:

1) soup- chicken broth with vegetables and pasta, sprinkled with fresh parsley

2) breaded pork chops, mash potatoes with fresh, chopped dill, fresh salad - it could be cucumber and cream salad or shredded cabbage/ sour kraut with carrots

3) Dessert usually cake with fresh or frozen seasonal fruits, berries or rhubarb or ‘babka’ cake

There was also traditional drink ‘kompot’ which is nothing but compote with hot or cold water.

Well, traditional lunch I’ve made last Sunday consisted of course No 2 only. In my opinion real pleasure of cooking comes when we don’t feel forced to do it and we can spend as much time in kitchen as we like. I can stay in kitchen even all day long if I want to. That Sunday wasn’t cooking day for sure.

Breaded pork chops “Schabowe”

Ingredients

6 pork chops

2 eggs

Breadcrumbs

Salt, pepper

 1 tsp. of sugar or 1/5 of cup sparkling water ( to make breading more crispy)

½ cup Cooking oil

You will also need 2 deep plates, paper towel, and skillet

Beat each pork chop on both sides with meat mallet to break up the meat fibers and get them tender. If you don’t have meat mallet use blunt side of knife. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Beat eggs on plate with sugar or sparkling water until white and yolk are combined. Place breadcrumbs in second plate. Dip pork chops first in breadcrumbs then in beaten eggs and again in breadcrumbs. Make sure pork chops are well covered on each side. Many people I know use  regular flour for the first step of breading but using only breadcrumbs makes cover thicker.

 Preheat skillet with cooking oil. When you sprinkle it with a little drop of water it should sizzle. Place pork chops and fry them on each side until golden brown. Then put them on paper towel to absorb excess oil. Ready to serve!

Simple beet salad

4 grated cooked medium beetroots (washed, unpeeled boil in water for about 40 minutes)

Half of red pepper finely chopped (optional)

Half of onion finely chopped

2 tbsp. Olive oil

 2 tbsp. Lemon juice

Salt, pepper

You will also need a grater

Peel cooled beets. Skin should come off easily. Grate them and combine with other ingredients. You can serve it straight away but I find this salad tasting better served couple of hours after preparation.

Mashed potatoes

½ kg of potatoes

1 l of boiling water

Salt

1 tbsp. of butter

½ cup of milk or plain yoghurt

1/3 cup of chopped, fresh dill

Peel potatoes and cut them into smaller pieces. Place them into pot and cover with boiling water. Add salt and put the pan over medium heat and boil until tender. Test it with sharp or fork. If it goes in easily, potatoes are cooked. Drain the water and still hot mash with milk/yoghurt and butter until creamy consistency. Serve it sprinkled with fresh dill.

Husband Rate: 10/10

Polish cuisine for dummies part 1- Homemade sourdough bread

I’m native Polish and must admit that cooking is very important part of our culture. Simply we love feeding people. So if there will be occasion to visit Polish family, you can expect that you won't leave hungry (especially if you meet there Polish granny - feeding is a mission of her life!). You can find many typically Polish cuisines but actually many of them were influenced by foreign cooking especially from eastern part of Europe and Germany. That's undeniably effect of people's migrations resulted by turbulent history of Poland.

I know, I should start with something extremely easy to cook. Making bread is relatively easy but takes time, so if you are very impatient just skip this recipe. If you like challenges and You want to surprise someone with your cooking skills this is exactly what you looking for!

Sour dough bread is very important ingredient of our daily menu. I know some Polish people that add bread to every meal during the day. We are experts at recognizing good quality one. Actually we've been spoilt by our bakeries supplying still warm, fragrant, crispy outside and soft inside sourdough breads and buns every single morning. I'm mean good old traditional bakeries, not those mass production factories in supermarkets that use a lot of cultivators. I've heard many times Pole complaining about "chemical, puffed, soft breads" they’ve tried in different countries around the world. This kind of baking is available in Poland but is usually used for toasts.

This recipe I found on Polish blog of the lady who has a lot of experience with baking bread: http://dancia.bloog.pl. Preparation of sourdough (the longest stage which last 5 days. With ready sourdough you can skip this part of preparation) Recipe I’ve used gave me much more sourdough than I needed for one baking so I could store the rest in fridge for next bread. Older sourdough gives better results than freshly made but you need to remember to feed it once a week with 2 table spoons of flour and warm water (enough water to keep it as thick as yoghurt) , two hours in warm place and then back to the fridge again. Be aware that sourdough changes smell and gets bubbles as effect of fermentation.

So far the worst thing that I found about bread recipes is extensive description. You can feel overwhelmed with those all details and information what makes relatively simple process sounds like production of atomic bomb. So I decided to describe as simple as possible using a table. For basic recipe you need only 4 ingredients:

1. Rye Flour (whole grain is the best option).
2. Wheat Flour ( unbleached! Who the hell invented bleaching flour? Bleaching toilets or hair but flour? It doesn’t sound healthy at all! My husband says that those bleaching agent are used during production of bomb)
3. Warm water
4. Pinch of salt 
5. Pinch of sugar

 

Making sourdough	Day 1	Mix 3 tbsp. of rye flour and warm water in glass jar(mixture should have yogurt consistence), put it warm place and cover with cloth
	Day 2- around 24 hours later	Add 3 tbsp. of rye flour and warm water (enough water to keep yoghurt consistence)
	Day 3- around 24 hours later	As above
	Day 4- around 24 hours later	As above
	Day 5- around 24 hours later	As above
Making leaven	Step 1	Combinate:  5 tbsp. of sourdough (rest of sourdough store in fridge in covered but not twisted container) 1.      10 tbsp. of rye flour, 2.      10 tbsp. of warm water Keep in warm place
	Step 3 (12 hours later)	Add to the mixture 1.      10 tbsp. of rye flour, 2.      10 tbsp. of warm water Keep in warm place
	Step 4 (6 hours later)	1.      10 tbsp. of rye flour, 2.      10 tbsp. of warm water Keep in warm place
Kneading and shaping	Step 1 (4 hours later)	You created 60 tbsp. of leaven which is enough for 2 loaf of bread Combinate it in large bowl with:  1 kg of wheat flour 2 cups of warm water Pinch of salt Pinch of sugar Knead it for around 10 minutes. It should be smooth and flexible. Leave it covered with a cloth for around 1-2 hours to rise.
	Step 2	Turn half of the dough out of the bowl on floured table top or wooden board
	Step 3	Start folding the far edges into the middle of the dough repeat it this process for couple of minutes to make it firm and remove gases created during fermentation process. Spring your finger and the surface under the dough to keep them from sticking
	Step 4	Keep folding the dough to create a ball, then turn it upside down (smooth side will be on the top, folding marks will be hidden on bottom)
	Step 5	Make couple of parallel cuts on the top and brush over with warm water, follow Steps 2-5 with the other half of the dough. Place loafs into floured baking tins.
	Step 6	Place loafs in warm place to rise. They should double in size. Cracks may appear on the top of them.
Baking	Step 1	Preheat oven to 250 C˚. Sprinkle it well with a water and place loafs on upper rack (in bigger ovens both loafs should fit together on one rack)
	Step 2	After 10 minutes place 3 ice cubs on the bottom of the oven and reduce temperature into 230 C˚
	Step 3	After another 10 minutes reduce temperature into 200C˚ and keep loaf in oven for another 20 minutes. After 40 minutes of baking loafs should be golden- brown and crispy outside and soft inside. After cooling store loafs covered with kitchen foil to prevent them from drying

 

 

 Sourdough with visible bubbles as effect of fermentation

Leaven

 

Kneading

Just before shaping 

Ready to bake 

Still warm but ready to eat

 

Needs only a good spread!

Husband rate: 8/10 (in his opinion a little bit to sour)