Bacon – Journey From A Polish Kitchen

Brussel Sprouts with Horseradish

Although I usually serve Brussel Sprouts with buttered breadcrumbs (à la Polonaise), I am always looking for other ways to serve them.
This recipe uses two often used in Polish ingredients – crispy smoked bacon pieces – skwarki and soured cream.

INGREDIENTS

500g of Brussel sprouts
6 slices of smoked bacon
3 tablespoons of horseradish sauce
6 tablespoons of soured cream
Salt and pepper to taste.

METHOD

Steam the Brussel sprouts in the usual way.
Chop the bacon into small squares and cook in a frying pan to release all the fat and give you crispy bits – skwarki
Mix the horseradish sauce with the soured cream.
Mix the cooked Brussel sprouts, first with the bacon – season to taste –
Then add the horseradish soured cream mix.
Serve straight away.

White Bean Soup – Ułańska

I made this soup recently and it was delicious.
I am very curious about the name – maybe one of you knows the history?
The ułani are the Uhlans – The Lancers.
A cavalry regiment famous in many patriotic folksongs such as
‘Hej, Hej ułani’
*
What is the relationship between them and this soup?
I cannot envisage them having these ingredients on their travels!

Ingredients

200g thick cut bacon – cut into small pieces
2 onions – chopped fine
2 cloves of garlic – chopped
1 litre of chicken or vegetable stock
1 tin of cannellini beans – drained
60g ‘big’ dried pasta
250 soured cream
Pinch of paprika
Ground pepper to taste
Sunflower to fry the onions

Method

Gently fry the onions in sunflower oil till soft.
Add the garlic, mix and fry a little more.
Add the bacon and fry for a few minutes more.
Add the pinch of paprika.
Add the chicken stock and simmer for around 30 minutes.
Add the beans and the pasta and simmer until the pasta is cooked.
Add ground pepper to taste.
Stir in the soured cream and serve.
*
Option – you can omit the soured cream – still nice.

Served in Royal Stafford – Blossom Time

Gammon & Apricots

Grilled gammon and grilled pineapple (usually tinned) is a very popular dish in England.
Whilst doing some research I discovered that a much older idea is to have apricots with gammon.
Apricots were very popular in Elizabethan times, when fruit and meat together were often served.
Apricots in these dishes could have been dried apricots but here I have used tinned apricots halves.
Apricots in Polish are morela.
Apricots are from the Genus Prunus and they are drupes – stone fruits.
*
Fruit served with meat is very popular in Poland and I think this dish would be well liked.
Gammon slices have been used here but this dish could be adapted to use a large piece of ham or gammon.

Ingredients
A thick piece of gammon per person
2 apricot halves (tinned) per person – ones in syrup are the best.

Method

Grill the gammon on both sides.
Drain the apricots from their juice/syrup.
Grill the apricots.
Serve the gammon with the apricots.
*
This would go well with potatoes & garden peas and/or a cabbage salad.

Dark Mushroom Soup

I have recently returned from a trip to the Netherlands to visit my old school friend.
We were invited out to dinner and had a lovely meal, which gave me several ideas for new recipes.
Our host had cooked venison and had used venison stock to make a soup.
Now I am unlikely to get any venison in the near future so I decided to used beef stock (from a cube) to make this soup.
Whilst eating this soup I thought it had ingredients, which could easily be a soup that would be very popular in Poland.
These were: fresh mushrooms, sauerkraut and smoked bacon.
I did not have any flat leaved parsley on the day I made this or I would have used it to garnish the soup.

Ingredients

200g mushrooms – white or brown caps.
1 large onion
3-4 rashers of smoked bacon
100 – 150g sauerkraut
1½ litres of beef stock (can be from cubes or concentrate)
Sauerkraut liquor – to taste
Salt & pepper to taste.
*
Flat leaved parsley to serve

Method
Chop the onion into small chunks.
Slice the mushroom caps into thin slices.
Add the onion and mushrooms to the stock.
Bring to the boil and then let it simmer with a lid on the pan.
Simmer for around 30 minutes.
Cut the bacon into thin long pieces.
Drain sauerkraut and chop it into smaller strands.
Add the bacon and sauerkraut and let these simmer for another 30 minutes.
*
Adjust the sourness with sauerkraut liquor to taste.
Season to taste.
*
Serve with flat leaved parsley if available.

Pancakes with Bacon

These are the thick American style pancakes not the thin crepes.
A good way of serving the bacon.

Ingredients

2 eggs – beaten
180 – 200ml of milk
180g plain flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
6 rashers of streaky smoked bacon
*
Sunflower oil for frying
*
Fried eggs, maple syrup or sugar, butter – to serve

Method

Chop the bacon into small squares.
Fry till crisp & strain of any fat.
Keep to one side & warm.
*
Mix the flour and the baking powder together.
Make a well in the centre of the flour.
Mix in the eggs.
Mix in enough milk to make a thick batter.
*
Fry large tablespoons of the batter on a hot griddle or frying pan.
Add some bacon bits to the top.
Turn over the pancakes and fry on the other side.
*
Serve as savoury with scrambled or fried eggs or more sweet with butter and maple syrup.

This Pyrex design from the 1970s is called Carnaby.

Sos myśliwski – Hunter’s Sauce

Sos myśliwski – this translates as Hunter’s sauce.
I can understand the name if wild mushrooms are used but otherwise I do not know why it gets this name.
Gherkins are used in the sauce and this addition verges on “magical”.
I had never made this before but will now be making it often as it is so delicious.

Ingredients

2 slices of smoked bacon – chopped
100g of fresh mushrooms – sliced
2 large gherkins – chopped into cubes
2 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon of plain flour.
2 tablespoons of tomato purée
1 onion – chopped
2 cloves of garlic – chopped
Large pinch of allspice
1 teaspoon of of ground paprika
1 teaspoon of hot ground paprika
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon of made mustard.
500ml of vegetable or chicken stock.

Method

Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Fry the mushrooms, onions and garlic.
Add the bacon and fry together for a few minutes.
Add the flour and stir and cook for a few minutes.
To the stock add the tomato purée, allspice, both paprikas and mustard.
Stir it all together.
Slowly add this to the fried ingredients and stir whilst it thickens.
Add the bay leaves and gherkins.
Simmer for around 20 minutes till the ingredients soften.
Serve the sauce hot with roast meats.

Lentil Soup

This recipe is based on Lentils-Polish style.
As autumn is approaching I thought I would share this warming soup recipe.

Ingredients

150g – 200g dried Puy lentils
100g smoked bacon – chopped into small squares
1 large onion or 2 leeks – chopped.
1 courgette – chopped into small pieces
½ tube of tomato purée
1½ litres of chicken stock (can be from a cube or concentrate)
5 grains of allspice
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon of sweet paprika (not smoked)
2 tablespoons of butter for frying
Ground black pepper
Salt might not be needed because of the bacon

Method

Cook the lentils in water until they are soft.
Fry up the bacon and the onions in the butter.
Add the courgettes and put them into a large saucepan.
Add the stock, tomato puree and lentils.
Add the bay leaves and allspice.
Bring to the boil and then let simmer for around 30 minutes.
Season with the black pepper to taste.

Here served in Royal Doulton – Carnation (1982 – 1998)

Bean Soup

This is a lovely winter soup.
It would once have been made with reconstituted dried beans but now it is easy to open tins of beans.
Any white beans are good such as Haricot, Cannellini or even Black-eyed beans.
This can be made in a stock pot on the cooker or in the oven however I find that using a large slow cooker to cook it makes life a lot easier.

Ingredients

2 tins of white beans such as Haricot, Cannellini or Black-eyed beans.
3 large carrots
2 onions
1½ litres of vegetable stock – can be from a cube or powder
150g smoked bacon.
8 peppercorns
3 allspice grains
1 teaspoon dried marjoram or 1 tablespoon of fresh
Butter to fry the onions.
Salt & pepper to season – may not be necessary depending on the bacon and stock.
Chopped flat-leaf parsley or chives to garnish when serving

Method

Chop the onions into small pieces.
Gently fry the onions till golden.
Chop the carrots into circles and halve or quarter them.
Chop the bacon into small pieces.
Drain the beans from the cans.
Put all the ingredients into a pot.
Bring to the boil and then simmer – or use a slow cooker.
Cook until the carrots are soft.
Allow the soup to cool slightly.
Remove about half of the beans and carrots with a slotted spoon and put them in a bowl.
Purée the soup left in the pan – using a stick blender is good.
Put the beans and carrots back into the soup and stir.
Bring back to the boil and simmer for a couple of minutes.
Garnish with chopped flat-leaf parsley or chives.

Royal Doulton – Tapestry soup plate – 1966 to 1988.

Karoflanka – Potato Soup

When I was young and I told my friends that my mother made potato soup, they all thought this sounded rather weird & tasteless.

Whereas, it was one of my favourite soups and like most Polish soups, it is not a purée, it has chucks of potato in it.

This following is based on my memory of my mother’s recipe.

For the best results, I use rosół (chicken bouillon) or homemade chicken stock when I have it.

Ingredients

750g – 1 kilo of potatoes
2 large onions
200g smoked bacon
2 litres of chicken stock or rosół
Large bunch of flat leaved parsley
1 bay leaf
2-3 grains of allspice
4-5 peppercorns
A little oil for frying
Chopped flat leaved parsley to garnish
Extra seasoning may not be necessary because of the bacon and rosół/stock.

Method

Chop the smoked bacon into small squares.
Slowly heat the bacon in a heavy bottomed pan or good Teflon red spot non stick pan without oil.
Let all the fat cook out.
Chop the onions into small pieces and fry them with the onions.
You want the onions well browned, even some slightly charred.

Peel and chop the potatoes into chunks.
Fry them lightly in oil so all sides are done.
Mix the potatoes with the smoked bacon and onions in a large pan.
Add the chicken stock or rosół.
Chop the parsley leaves and add them with the allspice, bay leaf and peppercorns.
Add 1.5 to 2 litres of water and bring this to the boil.
Reduce the heat, put a lid on the pan and simmer gently for around 15 minutes.
You are aiming for cooked pieces of potatoes – do not let it disintegrate to a pulp!
Garnish with chopped flat leaved parsley when serving.

Served here in Royal Stafford – Blossom Time from the 1950s

Creamier Version

Looking through other recipes for this soup, I found that often some soured cream was added at the end just before serving.

So add 3 to 4 tablespoons of soured cream to some slightly cooled soup in a little dish and then mix this into the pan and serve.

Served here in Royal Doulton – Burgundy – 1959 to 1981.

Note

Both are super – but my vote is for my mother’s version!

Salads with a Hint of Breakfast!

Having written several posts recently with different ideas for breakfasts, I started to think about how to use some of these ingredients such as smoked bacon & eggs in salads.

Version 1 with lemon juice

Ingredients

1 iceberg lettuce
1 cucumber
4 hard boiled eggs
250g smoked bacon
Lemon juice
Chives to garnish
Salt & pepper to taste

Method

Cut the lettuce into shreds with a sharp knife.
Peel the cucumber or part peel in stripes lengthwise.
Chop the cucumber into small pieces.
Chop up the hard boiled eggs into small pieces.
Chop up the bacon into small squares and fry without extra oil until all the fat has come out.
Use kitchen roll to soak up the excess fat and leave to cool completely.
Mix all the ingredients together
Add salt & pepper to taste.
Add the lemon juice and stir.
Add chopped chives to serve.