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Placek

Placek is a low flat cake and can be round or rectangular in shape.

I made two using each of the recipes in ciasto półkruche – a type of shortcrust pastry – with jam fillings and both turned out well.

Placek with jam

Grease and line a 32 x 22 tin

Pre-heat the oven GM5 – 190°C

Use half the dough and roll it out to fit the tin.

Spread the dough with jam – you will need around a jar.

Cover the top with the rest of the dough rolled out.

Bake for around 30 minutes.

Dust with icing sugar as soon as you take it out of the oven and leave to cool.

Placek with Blackcurrant Jam

Served on – Colclough – Enchantment- 1950 – 1960s

Placek with Sour Cherry Jam

Served on – Duchess – Bramble Rose – 1960s

Vegetable Fritters

The Polish for these is kotlety z jarzyn – cutlets from vegetables.

The word kotlety(plural) comes from the Italian word cotoletta(singular) for cutlet or chop.

These are made with boiled or steamed vegetables.

Root vegetables are good here as well as cooked cabbage – you can also add cooked pulses such as peas and beans – I am writing a post just about bean fritters which will be posted soon.

The following vegetable are ones I often use: cabbage, carrots, celeriac, cauliflower, parsnip and potato.

The cooked vegetables need to be chopped fine, minced or mashed – whichever is more suitable or easiest.

For this post I cooked the vegetables especially but this is a good way to use up any leftover cooked vegetables.

Ingredients

Around 500g of cooked vegetables – chopped, mashed or minced as appropriate.
2 onions – chopped fine
Butter to fry the onions
1 egg (can add another egg yolk as well)
2 – 3 tablespoons of potato flour – depends on how moist or starchy the vegetables are.
Salt & pepper
Dried Breadcrumbs
Sunflower oil for frying
Extras – you can add chopped parsley, dill or chives or any other herbs you like.

Method

Chop fine, mash or mince the vegetables as appropriate.

Chop the onions and fry them gently in butter till golden and leave to cool.

Mix the vegetables and the onion together.
Add the egg and mix well.
Add enough potato flour to make the mixture fairly stiff.
Add salt and pepper.
Put dried breadcrumbs on a board or large plate.
Make largish balls of the mixture and flatten them onto the breadcrumbs, turn them over and cover all the sides.
Fry them gently in hot sunflower oil.
You can keep them warm on a baking tray in the oven whilst making the rest.

Reheating

I like these reheated – Place them on a baking tray into a pre-heated hot oven GM6 200°C for around 15 minutes.

The combinations are endless – here are some ideas ….

Cauliflower & Spring Onions or Chives

As in the instructions above with the addition of chopped spring onion (the green part) or chives.

Carrot & Parsnip

Carrot, Potato & Peas

Buckwheat

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum) is gryka in Polish – and I have written already about the use of its flour to make bliny & pancakes.

Buckwheat is not a grain but a seed – however it is classed under grains for culinary purposes.

The small triangular seeds have a strong scent which is quite distinctive.

In the United States – they are called groats.

Kasza – porridge – is very popular in Poland and refers to grains or seeds boiled in water or milk – usually served salted – rather than sweet.

Kasza gryczanna is cooked buckwheat and was eaten in Poland long before the introduction of the potato in the 18th century

You can get buckwheat grains which are roasted or not roasted.

You can get loose grains & if you are cooking these you need twice as much water by volume as the buckwheat and you simmer this gently with a lid on the pan, until all the water is absorbed.

Then add a large knob of butter (or bacon fat) and place this in an oven-proof dish with a lid or covered in foil and placed in a low oven for at least 20 minutes.

Note

In olden times the dish could be covered with a pillow or small duvet to keep it warm for hours – so it could be prepared early on for eating later.

This is similar to using a hay box which was much used in England in earlier times.

An easy way of cooking the buckwheat is to use the boil in the bag method.

You can buy packets of buckwheat which come in 4 x 100g perforated bags.

Place the bag in 1 litre of salted boiling water and simmer with the lid on for 15 minutes.

Then empty the grains out of the bag and add a large knob of butter and place this in an oven-proof dish with a lid or covered in foil and place in a low oven for at least 20 minutes.

Because of the distinctive strong taste of the buckwheat it is best served with food with “robust” flavours such as beef or pork gulasz.

You can reheat the boiled buckwheat by frying it gently in butter, with fried onion or with skwarki*.

*Skwarki

Skwarki are crisp smoked bacon bits. My mother would use streaky bacon and cut this into little squares and heat them in a frying pan so all the fat would come out.

Other people might use a more fatty, smoked belly pork to make skwarki.

This smoked streaky bacon was quite lean!

Are lardons the same as skwarki?

I have been trying to get a definitive answer to this for ages!

Well – Yes & No or They can be!

As I understand it lardons are cubes of pork belly which may or may not be smoked.

Swarki for me will always be smoked and the pieces are small flat pieces rather than cubed.

Sponge with Sour Cherry Jam

Wiśnie is the Polish for sour cherries which I have described in More Duck.

Having made sponge with sweet orange jam I thought I would try this with sour cherry jam – the one I used is from Lidl and is very good with a sharp sour taste. The taste goes really well with the dark chocolate.

I made an English style sponge for ease.

Ingredients

2 eggs

75g caster sugar

75g self raising flour

Method

Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180°C

Grease and line the base of a round 18cm diameter baking tin.

In a bowl whisk the eggs and caster sugar until they are pale and creamy.

Gently fold in the flour.

Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 20 – 25 minutes until golden.

You will need around 3 to 4 tablespoons of jam.

Warm the jam slightly to make it easier to spread.

Sandwich the cake halves together with the jam.

Make a dark chocolate glaze as in mazurek using yeast dough and again in mazurek with oranges.

Here served on Royal Doulton – Counterpoint 1973 – 1987.

Sponge with Sweet Orange Jam

This cake was inspired firstly by mazurek with oranges and also by the very British Jaffa cakes.

Jaffa cakes were first made in 1927 by McVitie & Price (Established in Edinburgh in 1830) – little sponges with orange jelly and a chocolate topping – named after the port (now called Tel Aviv) from where the Victorians and Edwardians imported oranges).

A fat-free sponge cake is cut in half and sandwiched together with a sweet orange jam and then covered with a chocolate glaze or icing.

I have tried out several versions – and made a fat-free sponge using the recipe with potato flour this time using a round 19cm baking tin which has been greased and lined with a circle of greaseproof paper on the base and baked for 20 – 25 minutes at GM4 – 180°C

A quicker version is to use a more English sponge recipe ( this has slightly less volume so a smaller baking tin is used).

Ingredients

2 eggs
75g caster sugar
75g self raising flour

Method

Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180°C
Grease and line the base of a round 18cm diameter baking tin.
In a bowl whisk the eggs and caster sugar until they are pale and creamy.
Gently fold in the flour.
Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 20 – 25 minutes until golden.

Leave to cool and cut the sponge in half

20170804_090748 — Orange & Elderflower Jam from IKEA

Warm the jam slightly to make it easier to spread.
Sandwich the cake halves together with the jam.

Chocolate glaze – using the one from Mazurek – with Yeast Dough

Served on Bramble Rose by Duchess from the 1960s

The more milk chocolate icing below is the one from chocolate babka.

Served here on tea plates by Spencer Stevenson Co Ltd 1948 – 1960, design name not known.

Mazurek with Oranges

This mazurek is one my mother used to make. She used the peanut butter base for sernik as the base.

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This quantity of pastry is enough for a small tin – 26cm x 16cm.

Grease and line the tin.

Pre-heat the oven to GM5 – 190ºC

Press the pastry into the tin and prick the surface of the pastry

Bake for approximately 20 minutes.

Leave the base to cool completely.

The original recipe used a sweet orange jam/sauce which you made from sweet eating oranges. After a while my mother improvised and used English orange marmalade to which she added a little water and some sugar and heated this up for a few minutes.

Use the orange/marmalade mixture whilst it is still slightly warm and pour this onto the base.

I have now found a jam from IKEA which is orange & elderflower , this has a really nice flavour – warm this slightly so it is easy to spread onto the base.

You need 3-4 tablespoons of jam.

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Leave the orange jam to cool completely.

Over the orange jam is then poured a chocolate topping.

I have used the one from Mazurek – Using Yeast Dough yeast dough.

Chocolate topping

Ingredients

50g butter

30g of granulated sugar

2 tablespoons of cocoa

2 tablespoons of water

Method

In a small saucepan gently melt the butter and sugar .

Add the cocoa and water and mix it till it is all blended together.

Heat this on a low heat – stirring all the while.

Allow to cool slightly and then pour this over the jam.

Tea plates Las Palmas by Aynsley from the 1960s.

Sernik Base with Peanut Butter

My mother often used this base when she made her sernik (baked cheesecake) – it is a recipe she used in later years as the use of peanut butter is not at all traditionally Polish!

Ingredients

110g butter or block margarine

90g caster sugar

175g plain flour

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon of peanut butter (I prefer to use crunchy)

Grated rind of 1 lemon

Method

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.

Add the lemon rind, egg yolk and peanut butter and cream again.

Mix in the flour with a wooden spoon and then using your hand bring this all together to form a soft dough.

Place the dough in a fridge for several hours.

Pre-heat the over to GM5 – 190°C

Use a loose bottom tin (or spring-form tin) 22cm or 20 cm in diameter.

Grease the base and sides of the tin.

Press the dough onto the base of the tin.

Prick the surface of the dough with a fork.

Bake for around 15 – 20 minutes until the top is golden.

Let the base cool completely before using it.

Using The Base

The base must be thoroughly cooled before use.

The base can be stored on the tin base for later use if needed – wrapped in foil or in an airtight container.

Sernik

Make your sernik (cheesecake) mixture and pour this onto the base and bake as per your recipe.

I used around 450 – 500g of yoghurt cheese with the addition of mixed peel as in my another cheesecake recipe.

Great cake lifter from Lakeland Plastics.

Cake is on a Lead Crystal cake stand

Cake forks are Crazy Daisy by Portmeirion designed by Sophie Conran in 2009.

Tea plates are Enchantment by Colclough from the mid 1950s – 1960s.

Hazelnut – Tort

Corylus avellana is the hazelnut, also known as cobnut or filbert nut. In Polish it is orzech laskowy – which translates as nut of the forest and as its name implies hazel trees or bushes grow abundantly in Poland.

Turkey is the largest commercial producer of hazelnuts followed by Italy.

Ferrero SpA – makers of Ferrero Rocher and Nutella use 25% of the global supply of hazelnuts per annum.

Tort is a layer cake (in England the French word gateaux is used) – the layers of cake being sandwiched together with a butter cream (Sweet whipped cream was hardly known in Poland – with soured cream being the norm).

The word tort is originally from the Latin torta – flat cake or round loaf of bread.

A tort can be round or in a block shape – it often has very decorative piping – my decorations tend to be more simple!

A tort is often made for celebrations and is often very large – I have recipes which call for a dozen or more eggs!

The following recipe only uses 6 eggs!

This tort recipe uses hazelnuts which have been roasted and then ground.

I often buy my hazelnuts from a dried fruit & nut stall in Leeds Kirkgate Market. This the largest covered market in Europe and was founded in 1875 and has around 100,000 visitors per week.

On this stall you can buy : whole hazel nuts, roasted hazel nuts and ground roasted hazel nuts.

I use either roasted hazel nuts and grind them myself or roast the hazel nuts myself and then grind them.

Roasting Hazel Nuts

To roast hazelnuts put the shelled nuts on a baking tray and put them in an oven at GM 5 – 190°C for around 10 to 15 minutes – keep checking as it is easy to burn them.

Once they are done, leave them to cool and then rub off the papery skins between your fingers and discard them.

I use an electric grinder which is very useful.

Ingredients

6 eggs
225g caster sugar
225g roasted & ground hazelnuts
2 sponge fingers – crushed
Method

Pre-heat the oven to GM5 – 190°C

Grease and line a 23cm x 32cm baking tray.

Mix together the ground hazelnuts and crushed sponge fingers.

Whisk together the eggs and caster sugar until they are pale and fluffy.

Fold in the nut mixture.

Pour the mixture onto the baking tray and bake for around 20 minutes until it is golden on top.

Take out and leave it to cool on a cooling tray.

Measure the length of the cake and cut it into 3 equal pieces.

A poncz (sweet punch for moistening the cake) is used on each layer.

I used one made from 150ml of weak black tea, 45 ml of rum and 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar.

Rum Butter Cream

Ingredients

120g butter
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons of rum
300g icing sugar ( approximate amount)
Method

Cream together the butter and egg yolks.

Add the rum and cream again.

Mix in the icing sugar till you have a smooth butter cream

Using a spatulas layer up the cake first with poncz on each layer and then the butter cream.

Cover the top and sides with the butter cream.

Make fancy patterns with spatulas (or you can do fancy piping if you wish).

Little spatulas for decorating with icing.

Tea plates are Silver Rose by Duchess from the 1950s & 1960s.

The cake slice is Water Garden by Portmeirion.

Round Tort

The same quantities and method as above can be used for two 18m diameter cake tins.

Here the poncz was made from 150ml weak black tea and 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar & coffee butter cream was used.

Coffee Butter Cream

Ingredients

90g butter

1 egg yolk

3 tablespoons of very strong coffee

250g of icing sugar (approximate amount)

Making Strong Ground Coffee

Method

Cream the butter and egg yolk.

Add the coffee and cream again.

Mix in the icing sugar until you have a thick butter cream.

Use the poncz to moisten the cake & layer up and coat with the icing.

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Very useful cake lifter – from Lakeland Plastics – for moving the cake

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Another cake lifter

Tea set is by Spencer Stevenson Co Ltd, who manufactured in England between 1948 and 1960. The design name is not known.

Green Teapot is Café Culture by Maxwell Williams.

Other Cake Sizes

3 eggs with 110g of roasted hazel nuts & 110g of caster sugar for 1 – 18cm diameter cake tin.

4 eggs with 150g of roasted hazelnuts & 150g of caster sugar for 1 – 22cm diameter cake tin.

Courgette Fritters

The first post on this blog was on 4 July 2015 – just over 2 years ago.

Now this will be my 100th post!

Although courgette fritters are not from an old Polish recipe they do have some similarity to Polish potato pancakes and to carrot pancakes.

Courgette in Polish is cukini – so another vegetable that owes its name to Italian – zucchini.

Courgettes belong to cucurbitaceae family as do cucumbers which are very well loved in Poland – so I am sure this recipe would be very popular there too.

I have read that courgettes did not become popular in Poland until the 1970s although the larger marrow and pumpkins were often cooked and many recipes for these can be used for courgettes.

The amounts in the ingredients are all approximate.

Ingredients

2 to 3 courgettes
1 egg
2 tablespoons of soured cream, double cream, crème fraise or yoghurt cheese
2 tablespoons of plain flour
Grated rind of 1 lemon
Salt
Sunflower oil for frying.

Method

Grate the courgettes using a coarse grater.
Sprinkle the courgettes with salt.
Place the salted courgettes onto a clean tea towel and place this in a colander for around 30 minutes.
Wrap the tea towel up and squeeze out the liquid from the courgettes.

Note

The green stains on the tea towel will come out in a hot wash but do not use fabric softener for tea towels used for this and similar purposes.

Place the dried grated courgettes in a bowl and add the grated lemon rind.

Add the beaten egg and the soured cream (double cream, crème fraise or yoghurt cheese) and mix together.
Add the flour and mix thoroughly.
Heat the oil in a frying pan and use large tablespoonfuls of the mixture to make the fritters.
Fry them on both sides until they are golden brown.

Keep them on a heat proof plate in a low heat oven whilst you make the rest.

You can place a sheet of kitchen roll on top of the first layer to stop them sticking.
Serve them with grilled meats and salad.

Option

A chopped red chilli or two and also a chopped garlic clove can be added to the mixture.

Courgettes – 3 Ways

Courgettes in Polish are cukini – so here is another vegetable that owes its name in Polish to Italian – zucchini.

Courgettes belong to the cucurbitaceae family as do cucumbers which are very well loved in Poland

I have read that courgettes did not become popular in Poland until the 1970s although the larger marrow and pumpkins were often cooked and many recipes for these can be adapted for courgettes.