Author: jadwiga49hjk

I love cooking and baking. I love trying out new recipes and currently am trying out many old favourites from my Polish cookbooks and family recipes. I am trying out many variations, often to make them easier but still delicious. I collect glass cake stands and china tableware, mainly tea plates, jugs and serving dishes, many of which I use on a daily basis. They are an eclectic mixture from the 20th & 21st century.

Potato Layers

  • When I made liver with potato topping, everyone said how much they liked the potatoes (as well as the liver of course).
  • So I have made a dish with just the potatoes.
  • It is similar to the French recipe for Boulangère potatoes.

Ingredients

  • 2 onions thinly sliced
  • 150ml of chicken stock
  • 500g of starchy potatoes
  • Butter & sunflower oil for frying
  • 1 tablespoon of butter
  • Salt & pepper

Method 

  • Butter a rectangular ovenproof dish
  • Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180°C
  • Fry the onions in the butter & oil mixture till golden.
  • Cut the potatoes into thin slices.
  • Par-boil them for 5 minutes in the milk and water.
  • Remove the potatoes from the liquid.
  • Place a layer of potatoes in the dish.
  • Season as you go along.
  • Place the onions on top.
  • Stir slightly.
  • Finish with a layer of potatoes.
  • Pour the stock into the dish.
  • Cover the dish with foil.
  • Bake for an hour.
  • Remove the foil.
  • Dot the butter on top.
  • Return to the oven for 30 – 45 minutes.

Yoghurt Desserts

  • These desserts are similar to my twaróg desserts. 
  • They are make with packet jellies with the addition of yoghurt.
  • The more yoghurt you add the softer the mixture will be.
  • The variations are endless depending on the jelly flavour.
  • Topping and sauces can also be varied.
  • Leave the mixture to set in a large bowl and then put scoops into individual serving dishes.

Lemon Version

Ingredients

  • 1 packet of lemon jelly
  • 250 – 400ml of yoghurt
  • Juice and grated rind of 1 lemon
  • *
  • Toppings
  • Bottled blackcurrants – drained
  • *
  • Juice from the bottled blackcurrants
  • 1 – 2 tablespoons of potato or corn flour

Method

  • Make up 500ml of lemon jelly as per the packet instructions.
  • Add the lemon juice and the rind.
  • Leave to cool.
  • Whisk in the yoghurt and mix till all is blended in.
  • Leave to set in the fridge.
  • Place scoops into individual glasses.
  • *
  • Make a sauce with the blackcurrant juice and the potato or corn flour.
  • Mixed in and then heat, stirring till it thickens.

Blackcurrant version

Ingredients

  • 1 packet of blackcurrant jelly
  • 250 – 400ml of yoghurt
  • *
  • Toppings
  • Chopped tinned peaches
  • Sauce made from raspberry jam and water

Method

  • Make up 500ml of blackcurrant jelly as per the packet instructions.
  • Leave to cool.
  • Whisk in the yoghurt and mix till all is blended in.
  • Leave to set in the fridge.
  • Place scoops into individual glasses.
  • Add chopped peaches.
  • Heat around 80g of raspberry jam with some water to make a thick sauce.
  • Leave to cool.
  • Pour over the peaches.

Ukrainian Salad

  • I bought this jar of salad from my Polish shop.
  • It is Sałatka ukraińska – Ukrainian salad.
  • It was very good.
  • Good to have in as a standby.
  • I wanted to make a similar salad.
  • I looked this up and could not find a recipe similar with beetroots.
  • I noted down the ingredients written on the label.
  • Vinegar and sugar were used in the jar – I used lemon juice and honey.
  • The salad will come out differently each time if you change the proportions of the vegetables.

Ingredients

  • 3 medium boiled beetroots
  • 1 onion
  • ½ a small white cabbage or sweetheart cabbage
  • 1 large or 2 medium carrots
  • 1 red pepper
  • Juice from 2 lemons
  • 2 tablespoons of runny – honey 
  • Salt & pepper to taste

Method

  • Grate the beetroots using a coarse grater.
  • Chop the onion into fine pieces.
  • Shred the cabbage into fine strands.
  • Grate the carrot using a coarse grater
  • Chop the pepper into small pieces.
  • Mix all the vegetables together.
  • Mix the lemon juice and honey.
  • Mix the dressing with the vegetables
  • Season to taste.

Note

  • Tastes good straight away but can be kept in the fridge for several days as well.

    Twaróg Dessert

    • This dessert is one I make when I do not wish or have time to to make a layered torcik. 
    • The jelly and twaróg mixture is left to set in a bowl and scoops are then put into individual serving dishes.
    • The more twaróg you use the softer will be the mixture.
    • As I do not really like to drink milk using twaróg ensures I get calcium in my diet.
    • The flavours and fruits used here are just an example – use the flavours of jellies that you like as well as the fruit.

    Ingredients

    • 1 packet of lemon jelly
    • 250 – 400g of twaróg , yoghurt cheese or cream cheese
    • Juice and rind of 1 lemon
    • *
    • Toppings
    • Bottled blackcurrants – drained
    • Grated chocolate or chocolate flake

    Method

    • Make up 500ml of jelly as per the packet instructions.
    • Add the lemon juice and rind.
    • Leave to cool.
    • Whisk in the twaróg and mix till all  is blended in.
    • Pour into a large bowl.
    • Leave to set in the fridge.
    • Put scoops into individual glasses.
    • Add the toppings.

    Hasselback Potatoes

    • Leif Elisson in 1953 was a trainee chef at the Hasselbacken restaurant in Stockholm, Sweden and invented these potatoes à la Hasselbacken.
    • I first came across them about two years ago on a stitching/craft week.
    • One of the ladies there made these for dinner.

    Ingredients

    • 2 medium sized starchy potatoes per person
    • 2-3 tablespoons of olive or sunflower oil
    • 1 tablespoon of salt – flakes are good
    • 1 tablespoon of butter

    Method

    • Pre-heat the oven to GM6 – 200°C.
    • Have a baking tray ready.
    • Keep the skins on the potatoes, remove any blemishes.
    • Place the potato in the bowl of a large wooden spoon.
    • With a sharp knife cut even slits in the potato.
    • The side of the wooden spoon prevents cutting all the way through.
    • Place the potatoes on the baking tray.
    • Open up the fan a little.
    • Brush lightly with the oil.
    • Sprinkle on the salt.
    • Bake for 45 – 50 minutes.
    • Spoon any oil on the tray back over the potatoes.
    • Add a dab of butter onto each potato.
    • Cook for another 8 to 10 minutes.

    This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 20210503_131040.jpg

    Notes

    • You could microwave larger potatoes for around 10 minutes before cutting.
    • You can sprinkle the cut potatoes with dried herbs.
    • You could use spray oil.

    White Bean Potato & Sorrel Soup

    • Spring is upon us, though it is still cold.
    • Sorrel started to grow in my pots a few weeks ago – the first green to grow in my herbs.
    • I saw this recipe, which used rocket and thought I could use sorrel.
    • It is delicious.

    Ingredients

    • 1 onion – finely chopped
    • 2 celery sticks – finely chopped
    • 300g salad potatoes – eg Charlottes – cut into small pieces
    • 1 litre chicken stock – can be from concentrate, cube or powder
    • 1 can white beans – butter, cannellini or haricot – drained
    • 50 – 100g sorrel leaves – chopped
    • 50g of butter
    • Salt & pepper

    Method

    • In a heavy based saucepan melt the butter.
    • Add the onions and celery and cook on a low heat.
    • Stir occasionally and cook for around 10 minutes.
    • Add the potato chunks and season with salt.
    • Cook for about 5minutes.
    • Add the chicken stock.
    • Simmer gently for about 15 minutes.
    • Check with a knife that it slices easily through the potatoes.
    • Add the beans and cook for around 15 minutes.
    • Season to taste.
    • Add the chopped sorrel, stir well and serve.

    Served in Royal Doulton – Burgundy 1959 – 1981

    Caraway Biscuits 2

    This is an old English recipe for caraway biscuits.

    Compared to my first recipe for caraway biscuits it has a higher butter content and fewer caraway seeds. (you can always add more).

    Ingredients

    • 270g plain flour
    • 225g butter
    • 200g granulated sugar
    • 1 teaspoon of caraway seeds
    • 1 egg – beaten

    Method

    • Pre-heat the oven to GM2 – 150°C.
    • Flour two baking trays.
    • Rub the butter into the flour so you get fine breadcrumbs.
    • Stir in the sugar and caraway seeds.
    • Mix in enough of the egg to form a soft dough.
    • Roll the dough out to 1cm thickness.
    • Use an 8cm cutter to cut out the biscuits.
    • Re-roll the cast of dough and make more biscuits.
    • Bake for 30 – 35 minutes until light golden brown.
    • Leave on the tray on a wire rack.

    Rice & Apples

    • This is a hot pudding I remember my mother often making years ago.
    • It is best to make this with cooking apples, which give off lots of juice.
    • It can also be made with millet or pearl barley instead of rice.

    Ingredients

    • 200g long grain rice
    • 250ml milk
    • 250ml water
    • 3 tablespoons of butter
    • 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar
    • 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
    • 600g of Bramley apples

    Method

    • Put the rice in a saucepan with the milk and water.
    • Cook gently, stirring often till all the liquid is absorbed.
    • Stir in 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 tablespoon of butter.
    • Leave to cool.
    • Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180°C.
    • Peel and core the apples and chop them into small chunks.
    • Mix them with the cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of sugar.
    • Butter an oven proof dish.
    • Put half the rice mixture on the base.
    • Put all the apple mixture on top.
    • Cover with the rest of the rice.
    • Dot 2 tablespoons of butter over the top.
    • Bake for around 50 minutes.
    • Serve hot.

     

    Served in  – Johnson Brothers Green Pear bowls – 1960 – 1979.

    Cabbage & Mushrooms

    • Cabbage and mushrooms are a classic combination in Polish cookery.
    • Recipes abound for combinations  using fresh cabbage through to sauerkraut, cultivated or wild mushrooms – fresh or dried – the list is endless.
    • Recently I wrote about kulebiak a large Polish pastry, which had a filling of fresh cabbage and fresh mushrooms.
    • This filling  can be served hot as a side dish – it goes well with hot roast meats.

    Ingredients

    • Small head of white cabbage or sweetheart cabbage.
    • 250 -300g of mushrooms
    • 1 large onion
    • 100g of butter
    • Salt & pepper to taste
    • Optional – 2-3 hard boiled eggs

     

    Method

    • Shred and then chop the cabbage into small pieces.
    • Chop the onion into small pieces.
    • Chop the mushrooms into small pieces.
    • Melt half the butter in a large deep frying pan.
    • Slowly cook the onions and the cabbage but do not brown.
    • Cover with a lid and let them simmer till they are both soft.
    • Stir occasionally – you might need to add a little hot water.
    • In another pan melt the rest of the butter and fry the mushrooms.
    • Add the mushrooms to the cabbage and onion mixture and mix well.
    • Heat gently together to remove most of the excess liquid.
    • Season to taste.
    • Sprinkle the chopped hard boiled eggs on top – optional.
    • Serve hot.

    Note

    You might want to look at an earlier post for Sauerkraut & Mushrooms

     

     

    Szarlotka with Apples & Red Fruits

    • Szarlotka is the word my mother used for (apple) crumble.
    • In some parts of Poland szarlotka is the word used for an apple cake.
    • This cake is a cross between a cake and a crumble and is based around my previous szarlotka recipe.
    • Apples are mixed with bottled blackcurrants – but you can use any red fruits such as raspberries, blackberries, whinberries and so on.
    • The red fruits can be bottled, fresh or frozen.

    Ingredients – Filling

    • 4 Bramley Apples
    • Granulated Sugar to taste – keep it slightly tart
    • A little water
    • Around 350g of bottled blackcurrants – drained

    Method – Filling

    • Make the filling first, even the day beforehand as it needs to be cold before you use it.
    • Peel and core the apples and cut them into thick slices.
    • Stew the apples gently with some sugar and very little water. You can make this in a saucepan on the stove or place the apples and sugar in a dish in the oven.
    • Do not add a lot of sugar at the beginning as it does not want to be too sweet, you can adjust the sweetness at the end.
    • Do not make it too much of a purée, cook it so that you have some soft apples but with some harder less cooked chunks as well.
    • Leave this to be completely cool.
    • Mix in the blackcurrants.
    • Adjust sweetness is necessary – but keep it fairy tart.

    Ingredients – Base

    • 150g  plain flour
    • 2 teaspoons of baking powder
    • 100g butter
    • 40g granulated sugar
    • 1 egg yolk
    • 1 or 2 tablespoons of lemon juice or water.

    Ingredients – Topping (kruszonka)

    • 120g plain flour
    • 60g butter
    • 60g granulated sugar

    Method – Base

    • You have to use a loose bottom or spring-form tin or you will not be able to get the cake out.
    • I use a loose bottomed anodised aluminium cake tin which is 22cm in diameter and 8cm deep.
    • Grease the tin well.
    • First make the cake base by rubbing the butter into the flour to make crumbs, then stir in the sugar.
    • Add the yolk and lemon juice and bring the ingredients together to form a soft dough – do not handle the dough too much.
    • Cover and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes.
    • Pre heat the oven to GM 4 – 180ºC.
    • Make the dough into a rough flat circle and press it into the base of the tin.

    Method – Topping

    • Make the topping by rubbing the butter into the flour to make crumbs and then stir in the sugar.
    • Put the  apple & blackcurrant mixture on top of the base – it wants to be quite a thick layer.
    • Sprinkle the topping crumbs over the apple & blackcurrant mixture.
    • Bake in the oven for around 75minutes.
    • Leave to cool in the tin.
    • Use a long metal spatula to ease the cake from the side of the tin, then place the cake onto the top of a tin can and slide the side down.

    Tea plates – Aynsley – Las Palmas from the 1960s