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!

Raisin spaghetti sauce

With greens-guilt free option for too much pasta

Traditional serving

This simple recipe was created by my husband’s grandma and it was the very first meal I had occasion to try at her home. Adding raisins to tomato pasta sauce can sound strange but in reality is very tasty kind of sweet and sour combination. This sauce is also a proof that combining ingredients that don’t match at first glance can end with quite spectacular effect.

Sauce Ingredients

500 g of ground lean beef

750 g of minced canned tomatoes

2 tbsp. of minced garlic

2/3 cup of raisins (seedless if possible)

½ cup of Italian herbs mixture (possible replacement with combination of dried oregano, basil and thyme)

Salt, pepper

Ground Parmesan

You will also need large non-stick frying pan with lid

Place beef on preheated non-stick pan and stir frequently. I never use any extra oil to cook. Usually fat melts out of meat, even if it is lean flesh. It’s healthier and has fewer calories. Cook until starts to brown and then add raisins, garlic and herbs. Cook for another 10 minutes, then add minced tomatoes and cook on low heat covered with lid for another hour. Stir occasionally. Add salt and pepper just before serving. Serve it with spaghetti pasta and top with grounded Parmesan.

Serving

To be honest when it comes to eating pasta I can’t help myself with tucking into every possible portion. I just can stop eating it! No matter what kind of sauce it comes with. Now I’m trying to replace it with some greens or spaghetti squash to avoid too many calories and gluten. It’s not this same but still tastes good. Simply substitute half of pasta with salad mix or use squash instead. Spaghetti squash is very simple to cook. You just need to cut 1kg squash into half, remove seeds, cover with kitchen foil and place to a preheated oven to 180 C for approximately 50 minutes . After pulling out the oven scrape squash flesh with a fork into strings, and then serve it with pasta sauce. Kitchen foil protects flesh from getting to dry.

How to buy perfect meat

Choosing the best ground meat isn’t easy. I would recommend spending extra few minutes on reading labels carefully. Unfortunately most producers don’t give info about fat percentage and very often on same shelf you can find cheaper ‘ready to cook mixtures’. Price is tempting but that’s not a real meat! It has some extra stuffing with little seasoning to make portion bigger and use as less meat as possible. Buying regular ground meat isn’t good option either. Usually it has very high percentage if fat and after placing meat into the pan you realize that half of it melts and you have to chuck it out. Lean ground meet is the best choice. It’s not so pricy if you consider content of pure meat.

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