Traditional Polish Recipes Made Easy & New Variations
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.
When cooking was more seasonal, this was a very popular salad in the late summer and autumn after the apple harvest.
Nowadays with better storage methods, this is a salad you can make all year round.
Serving Dish is Royal Doulton, Carnation 1982 – 1998
The following will make enough for 2 people as a side dish – use the ratio of 2 to 3 carrots to 1 small or medium eating apple if you want to make more.
Organic carrots may have the edge here for taste but regular ones will still be good.
Use sweet and tasty eating apples such as: Jazz, Pink Lady or Cox’s orange pippins.
Ingredients
2 carrots
1 eating apple
1 tablespoon of granulated sugar
Juice of half a lemon
Method
Peel the carrots and grate them using a coarse grater into a bowl.
Cut the apple into quarters and remove the seed case.
Hold the apple by the skin and grate the flesh,
also using the coarse grater, into the bowl.
Discard the apple skin.
Sprinkle the mixture with the sugar and add the lemon juice.
Mix everything together, place into a serving dish and serve.
Note
If you do not have any apples then just carrots with the sugar and lemon juice are also good.
This is another way my mother had of using boiled potatoes – I do not remember her boiling the potatoes especially for these – she would make them with leftover boiled potatoes. (Not that she did not know how many to potatoes to cook for a meal – she would often cook more so she had some for a different use the next day.)
I have given approximate weights below – once you have made them you will know what to expect – I do not think my mother ever weighed out the quantities – just went by eye and consistency.
Ingredients
This will make around 12 croquettes
500g of starchy potatoes – such as King Edward or Maris Piper
20g of melted butter
1 beaten egg
2 to 3 tablespoons of plain flour
Breadcrumbs
Vegetable oil such as sunflower for shallow frying
Method
Mash the boiled,cold potatoes so that they are smooth and without lumps.
Add the slightly cooled, melted butter and the beaten egg and mix together.
Add the flour and mix to a soft dough – not too much flour as a soft dough gives a more fluffy croquette.
Boiled PotatoesPreparing the Breadcrumbs
Divide the dough into 4 manageable pieces and roll out into a long sausage shape and divide them into 3. You are aiming for equal sizes of around 3cm deep and 4cm wide by 10cm long.
Shaped and Coated Croquettes
Shallow Frying
Shallow fry the croquettes in hot vegetable oil in a frying pan, turning them over so that both sides are golden and crispy.
Potato Croquettes – A Variation
The above is how my mother made these croquettes, whilst looking through my Polish cookery books I came across the following variation also which I tried out & I liked these as well.
Method – as above – but instead of just melted butter, fry till golden, half a finely chopped onion in 20 -30g of butter.
Leave this to cool before adding it to the potato mixture.
I was well into my 20s before I realised that there was a special French culinary phrase to describe, what to me, was just the regular topping that my mother and aunties put onto certain cooked vegetables.
Within my family I had never been served cauliflower, Brussels sprouts or whole green beans without a lovely crispy buttery breadcrumb mixture.
I have not discovered when this term was first used in France but some sources think it might have come into use in the early part of the 19th century when many Polish political émigrés came to France and in particular Paris.
Method for the Vegetables
Cook your cauliflower, Brussels sprouts or whole green bean in whatever way you like best.
You can if you wish cook the cauliflower whole – this can have quite a good effect when served.
I like to steam the vegetables as I find I can get them just right – cooked – but still with a bit of bite this way.
Steamed Brussels Sprouts
Place the cooked (and drained if necessary) vegetables in a serving dish.
Pour the buttery topping over the vegetables.
You will get a buttery crunchy taste which is a contrast to the vegetables.
Method for the à la Polonaise topping
Butter & BreadcrumbsPreparing the Breadcrumbs
The topping is made by melting in a saucepan 2 to 3 tablespoonfuls of butter.
(If you use unsalted butter then add a pinch or two of salt)
Melting the Butter
Add to this around 2 tablespoonfuls of dried breadcrumbs and keep on the heat and stir for a few minutes.
Preparing the BreadcrumbsButter & Breadcrumbs
Pour the buttery mix over the vegetables.
Cauliflower à la Polonaise – served in a Royal Doulton serving dish. The pattern is Carnation produced from 1982 to 1998.
Brussels Sprouts à la Polonaise – served in a Royal Doulton serving dish. The pattern is Roundelay produced from 1970 to 1997.
Royal Doulton – Roundelay
Whole green beans à la Polonaise
Added Note
Some cookery books say that chopped hard boiled eggs and chopped flat leaf parsley are added to the topping.
Personally I have not found this to be usually so, although chopped hard boiled eggs are added to many salads and to certain soups in Poland and chopped flat leafed parsley is very often used as a garnish.
Breadcrumbs are needed for many recipes in Polish cookery and especially in the topping à la Polonaise.
So I always make sure I have some in my store cupboard.
Bułka tarta is usually translated as breadcrumbs – they are the dried and then ground or grated crumbs from white rolls (bułka is a bread roll) or white (wheat) bread.
Bread in Poland is normally made from rye flour or a mixture of rye and wheat flour. White bread and rolls were viewed as a luxury in days gone by.
I usually make my own breadcrumbs as in the past the ones you could buy in England were often dyed orange and I did not like them at all.
Nowadays there are many Polish shops and Polish bakeries that sell these dried breadcrumbs.
I have used them and they are good.
If you want to buy them then
Bułka tarta
is what you are looking for – usually sold in 500g bags.
I still make my own as they are a good use of any type of white bread you have left over and the crumbs keep for ages in an airtight box.
Making Breadcrumbs
You need white (wheat) bread – either slices from a loaf or bread rolls – cut in half.
Put your oven on its lowest setting – on mine this is GM1
You can put the slices of bread directly on the oven shelves or you can use a silicone mesh sheet which is good as the moisture which come off the bread does not condense under the bread and it is easier to remove the dried bread from the oven when it is ready.
Leave the bread in the oven for an hour or more – it wants to be a golden brown.
Lightly Dried Bread – It can be a darker brown if desired
Put the dried bread on a chopping board and use a rolling pin to crush it.
I store my breadcrumbs in an airtight plastic box – I use Sistema™ boxes which are made in New Zealand.
My mother called these grube kluski – fat noodles but on my recent visits to Poland I have had these under the name kopytka, this means little hooves, which I think describes their oval shape very well.
They are very much like Italian gnocci made with potatoes rather than semolina. (The Italian word comes from eithernocchio – a knot in wood ornocca – a knuckle). I think the usual size of gnocci is smaller than the kopytka.
These were often made with boiled potatoes which had been left over from another meal. I do not remember my mother boiling potatoes especially to make these as the potatoes have to be boiled and then left to go cold. I always hoped that she would peel lots of potatoes so that there would be some left to make these, as I just loved to eat them.
We had them served with either melted butter or skwarki (crisp, fried, small squares of bacon). Recently in Poland I was served these with a creamy mushroom sauce*.
I often boil potatoes the day before to make these as the potatoes need to be cold. The exact amounts are not critical but you must use starchy potatoes. When you have made these once you will have a good idea of the amounts involved and I am certain that my mother never weighed out the ingredients, just judged this by eye and consistency.
Ingredients
600g of starchy potatoes – such as King Edward or Maris Piper
1 egg & 1 egg yolk
200g of plain flour
Salt
Method
Peel the potatoes cut them up into pieces and boil them in salted water.
Drain the potatoes and then mash them so that there are no lumps. I have a ricer which is very good for this. Leave the potatoes to cool.
Use a large bowl and put the cold potatoes into the bowl.
Lightly beat the egg and the yolk together and add this to the potatoes.
Add a little salt.
Weigh out the flour to give an idea of how much is needed; this will depend on the type of potato and the size of the eggs. Add the flour and mix first with a wooden spoon and then by hand, you might not need all the flour or you may need more. Mix until you have a soft dough.
Divide the dough into quarters and using a floured board shape the dough and roll it with you hands until you have a long sausage about 3cm in diameter. If the dough sticks to the board then you need to add more flour.
Use a sharp knife to cut the dough into pieces, make the first cut at a diagonal and make the thickness about 1 to 1.5cm. You will get a sort of oval shape.
Repeat this with the rest of the dough.
Fill a large pan with water, add some salt and bring this to the boil.
When the water is boiling, add the dumplings one by one, do not over fill the pan or they will stick together. I tend to do this in 4 batches.
As they cook they will float to the surface, give them about another minute and then remove them with a slotted or a perforated spoon and put them in a colander. I have a colander sitting in an empty pan by the side of the large pan in which I am boiling the dumplings.
I find that the maximum from putting them into the water to taking them out will be 3 minutes, if you cook these too long they will start to fall apart.
Serve as suggested above with melted butter, bacon bits or with a sauce.
Placki (the plural of placek) are any sort of flat cakes usually round in shape – baked or fried – sweet or savoury.
These fried potato pancakes are so wonderful and although they take a bit of time to prepare it is worth it.
I tend to make these in the winter months as they are best made with older starchy potatoes.
They are best eaten straight from the frying pan – more a family dish than fine dining.
They should be thin and slightly crispy at the edges.
My father said he used to have them for breakfast in Poland.
My mother served them with fried eggs and bacon; one of my aunties serves them with curd cheese and chopped spring onions or with sour cream, in some parts of Poland they are eaten with sugar or jam!
I think this recipe crossed the Atlantic and is one of the origins of Hash Browns – but I prefer these!
In Poland a large breakfast size plate pancake topped with gulasz – goulash is known as – placek po węgiersku – Hungarian pancake.
Ingredients
4 large starchy potatoes such as King Edward or Maris Piper
1 medium or large onion
1 egg or just the egg yolk
Plain flour
Salt & pepper
*
Oil for frying
Method
Peel the potatoes then grate them using the fine size of the grater into a large bowl, this is the part that takes time – I have tried using the coarse grate but they are not as good.
Grating the potatoes
Leave to stand for a few minutes and the water from the potatoes will rise to the surface. If the potatoes are very watery pour of some of the water. The easiest way is to tip up the bowl slightly over the sink and hold down the potatoes with the palm of your hand.
Peel the onion and also fine grate it and add to the potatoes. This is the part that would often result in the grating of my knuckles as I tried to use every last bit of onion – I now often use some form of electrical mini-chopper to get a pulp of onion.
Onion Pulp
Add the egg, salt & pepper.
Add enough plain flour so that the mixture is thick.
Heat some oil in a frying pan, a thick cast iron one is ideal, place large spoonfuls of the mixture onto the hot oil and flatten them out with the spoon or spatula. A pan should be able to hold 3 or 4. Fry till golden on both sides.
They should be thin and slightly crispy at the edges.
Do not have the pan too hot or they will burn on the outside and be raw in the centre.
Do not have the pan too cool or they will end up too greasy and not crispy.
Serve immediately or keep them warm in the oven on a low heat whilst you make more.
Before the days of shops that sell fresh and frozen produce all year round from all over the world, this salad could be made in the autumn and winter using bottled or tinned vegetables.
This salad is made using mainly cooked chopped vegetables and the aim is to make it colourful and to balance the colours and size of the ingredients.
The main three colours are white, green and orange.
Salad in a Royal Doulton Dish – Carnation – 1982 to 1998
White
The white is achieved from: potatoes, celeriac or white beans such as haricot or cannellini or even tinned baked beans with the sauce rinsed off.
Green
The green is achieved from peas , whole green beans or gherkins. I use frozen peas or whole green beans.
Orange
The orange is achieved from carrots or bottled paprika.
The following salad was made from potatoes, carrots and whole green beans which were cooked before assembling.
Steam the Potatoes and Carrots
Boil or steam the whole green beans.
Once the vegetables have cooled then chop them into small pieces.
Mix the vegetables together with several tablespoonfuls of mayonnaise – original or light – just enough to lightly coat the vegetables.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Variation 1
Add 2 hard boiled eggs which have been chopped to the salad.
Mixed Vegetable Salad with Hard Boiled Eggs
Variation 2
Use Celeriac instead of potato.
Peel the celeriac then cut it up into large pieces and steam these – chop the cooked celeriac into smaller pieces when it has cooked and cooled.
Potato salad is very popular in Poland especially as it can be made nearly all year round.
This can be served with cold meats and Polish style sausages as well as with hot dishes such as roast pork or chicken.
I like to make potato salad using starchy potatoes as I love the soft fluffy texture.
My favourite starchy potatoes are King Edward and MarisPiper.
The King Edward variety was introduced in the United Kingdom in 1902 and was named after King Edward VII as this was his coronation year.
The Maris Piper variety was released in 1966 and was named after Maris Lane in Trumpington on the outskirts of Cambridge which at that time was the home of the Plant Breeding Institute.
Classic Potato Salad
Ingredients
Starchy Potatoes – from 3 large potatoes upwards
1/2 – 1 onion – chopped fine
Mayonnaise – I like to use Hellmans – original or light
Salt and pepper to taste.
Method
Peel the potatoes and cut any large potatoes into quarters and then boil or steam them to cook them.
Strain the cooked potatoes in a colander and leave them to cool slightly.
Rough chop the cooked potatoes using a knife or a spoon – you do not want the pieces to be too uniform in size.
Add the chopped onion to the potatoes and then several tablespoonfuls of mayonnaise and mix together.
I like to use potatoes that are still slightly warm as I find the mayonnaise coats them better.
However you can use cold potatoes – maybe some you have left from another meal – the salad will still be good.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Leave to cool completely before serving.
Simple Classic Potato Salad
Variations on the Classic Salad
Potato Saladwith Gherkins
Chop 2 or 3 gherkins and add these to the Potato Salad.
Chopped Gherkins
Potato Salad with Gherkins
Potato Saladwith Gherkins and Boiled Eggs
Chop 1 or 2 hard boiled eggs and add these to the potato salad with the gherkins.
Chopped Hard Boiled EggsPotato Salad with Gherkins and Hard Boiled Eggs
Potato Saladwith Peas
Cook some frozen peas and add these to the classic potato salad
There are so many recipes and uses for the potato in Poland you would think that this was the country it originated in.
There are dozens upon dozens of recipes for potatoes, as part of a meal where it is very recognisable as potato such as when boiled or mashed, as a pancake or as a dumpling, or cold in a salad, or hot in Polish potato soup. As well as that potato starch is used as a thickener in savoury and sweet dishes and to make cakes and pastries. Potatoes have also been used to makewódka – vodka and often samogonka -home brew vodka.
The potato plant originated in the Andes mountains of South America and was cultivated by the Incas. The part we eat is the tuber, which stores starches and sugars, of the plant Solanum tuberosum. It is related to the deadly nightshade and the tomato (also from South America)
The Spanish Conquistadors came into contact with the potato in around 1537 and it came across the Atlantic to Europe in around 1570.
King Jan III Sobieski grew potatoes on his estates in the 17th century – from tubers he sent back after the Battle of Vienna which was in 1683.
In the 18th century around 1760 – King August III – had potatoes on his estates and it became a fashionable vegetable.
Potatoes became part of the diet alongside kasza – porridge/groats/grits – made from buckwheat, barley or millet.
There are two words for potato in Polish – kartofel and ziemniak
Kartofel is from the German word kartoffel – this was the word my parents used. This German word itself comes from the Italian word tartufuli which means truffle like, whereas the Italian word for potato is patata.
Ziemniak comes from the word ziemia which means earth or ground – so ziemniak means something which is from the earth – this word seems to be more popular nowadays.
The potato is well suited to grow in cold waterlogged and often frozen soil – which is often the case in Poland.
Care must be taken when storing potatoes so they do not get frozen or the starches change to sugars and the potatoes will quickly go rotten. I remember my father saying that that they stored potatoes in pits in the ground in their barn.
In post World War 2, Poland has became one of the top three potato producers in the world.
Look out for many future posts with potato recipes – below is a preview of some of the photographs
Gherkins are cucumbers that have been fermented in brine or pickled with vinegar.
Botanically cucumbers are fruit although they are a vegetables from the culinary point of view.
In Polish the word ogórki means cucumbers.
Kiszoneogórki means fermented cucumbers – either in brine or vinegar.
Letnieogórki means summer cucumbers – which are fresh salad cucumbers.
The Latin name for the cucumber is Cucumis sativus and it is a member of the gourd family and so related to pumpkins and melons.
It is thought the plant originated in India and then was taken to Greece and from there to northern Europe.
I have read that the making of pickles by fermenting in brine is over 4,000 years old. This would preserve vegetables throughout the winter – well before the days of frozen food and supermarkets!
A quick look at the journey of the word –Gherkin – according to several dictionary sources.
This is a word that started in Greece and travelled to England & America via Poland, Germany and The Netherlands.
Angourion – Medieval Greek for cucumber.
Ogórek – Polish for cucumber
Gurke – German for cucumber
Augurk – Dutch for a brined or pickled cucumber
Gherkin – English for a brined or pickled cucumber
In Poland, July & August are the main months for making gherkins at home and once when I was there at that time in my relatives’ houses every container seemed to have been put into use for a stage in their production.
Everyone has their own special recipe using brine and sometimes vinegar with the addition of garlic and herbs and spices – the most often used is the flower head of the dill plant – hence we get dill pickles. Some methods are very quick taking just a few days others take longer.
The type of cucumber used is a different variety than the salad cumber it is shorter, fatter, often knobbier and has a lower water content.
I cannot at the moment give you a good recipe for making gherkins as I have rarely seen the right variety of cucumbers for sale in England – maybe now with more Polish shops I might see some next year and try out some recipes.
The bought gherkins I like are the Polish Krakus ones.
Another type I like are ones you can buy in Lidl – these are made with sugar and vinegar and are sliced lengthways – they have only a slight vinegar taste and are sweet – I do not like the very vinegary kind.
There are many uses of gherkins in Polish cookery – the most famous must be gherkin soup – which I just love – but that recipe I will cover later once I start to write about soups.
Of course gherkins – form part of many salads.
Gherkins Sliced Lengthways – a very simple salad
Gherkin and Tomato Salad
Ingredients
3 or 4 Gherkins – cut into discs
4 or 5 Tomatoes- cut into half & then thinly sliced
1 small onion – finely chopped
Flat-leaved parsley – finely chopped – to garnish
Salt and pepper to taste.
Method
In a bowl mix together the gherkins, tomatoes and onions.
Sprinkle with a little salt and add 1 or 2 tablespoons of the liquid from the gherkin jar (if none is available then use some lemon juice) and mix again.
Place into a serving dish and sprinkle with chopped flat leaved parsley and freshly ground black pepper.
Journey From A Polish Kitchen 