Category: Beef

Placek po węgiersku

  • Po węgiersku  means in a Hungarian style
  • This is not so much a recipe but a way of serving two well known dishes – 
  • Kartoflane placki – Polish potato pancakes and gulasz. 
  • Usually the pancakes are made around 6-7cm in diameter, here each one is made the size of a breakfast plate around 18 – 20cm in diameter.
  • Try and made the pancake as thin as possible ( I think mine were a bit too thick!)
  • Serve with a portion of your favourite Hungarian style gulasz on top and a large dollop of soured cream and a sprinkling of sweet ground paprika.

Ingredients – Kartoflane placki

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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 it out to make a large circle.
  • Fry till golden on both sides.
  • It should be thin and  slightly crispy at the edges.
  • Do not have the pan too hot or it will burn on the outside and be raw in the centre.
  • Do not have the pan too cool or it will end up too greasy and not crispy.

To Serve

  • Have ready your favourite Hungarian style gulasz – cooked and hot.
  • Place a portion in the centre of the pancake.
  • Add a dollop of soured cream.
  • Sprinkle with sweet, ground paprika.
  • Served on Meakin – Topic plates – from the late 1960s.

Kotlety with Courgettes

  • This is a version of my kotlety – Polish meat patties, burgers or large meat balls.
  • Coarse grated courgettes are added – similar in a way to kotlety with sauerkraut.

Ingredients

  • 400g minced beef or pork or a mixture
  • Breadcrumbs made from 2 fresh slices of white bread or 2 bread rolls
  • 1 large onion – chopped fine – fried
  • 2 – 3 courgettes – coarse grated
  • 2 eggs – beaten
  • *
  • Dried breadcrumbs
  • Salt & pepper
  • *
  • Sunflower oil to fry

Method

  • Fry the chopped onion until golden.
  • Leave to cool completely.
  • Salt the courgettes and leave them in a colander for around 30 minutes.
  • Place the courgettes in a clean linen tea towel and squeeze all the liquid out.
  • Mix the mincemeat, breadcrumbs, onion, eggs and courgettes together well.
  • Season with salt  and pepper.
  • *
  • Make flattened round patties and cover with dried breadcrumbs.
  • *
  • Fry on both sides in hot sunflower oil.
  • *
  • Delicious hot but also great served sliced and cold with salads and bread.

Kartacze or Kołduny

  • Kartacze, sometimes called kołduny , are potato dumplings, stuffed with meat and then boiled.
  • They are very similar to pyzy  but they are a different shape – long rolls rather than round balls.
  • Traditionally they are served with some skwarki – crispy smoked bacon bits or slightly charred onions, a mixture of the two or just melted butter poured over them.
  • There are many recipes, some made with raw potato, others with boiled or steamed potatoes and some using a mixture of the two.
  • I have found that using a 50:50 mixture of  fine grated raw potatoes and boiled potatoes gives the best results.
  • You will need some flour, which can be wheat flour, potato flour or a mixture of the two (I prefer just wheat).
  • You also need eggs or egg yolks – around 1 egg to 1 kilo of potatoes.
  • For the filling you needs some cooked meat such as from a klops – meat loaf, cooked kotlety (meat balls/burgers) or meat filling for pierogi.

Ingredients

  • 750g of raw potatoes
  • 750g of cold boiled potatoes
  • 1 egg and 1 yolk
  • 1-2 tablespoons of plain flour  & extra for dusting
  • Salt

Method

  • Grate the raw potatoes using a fine grater.
  • Place the potatoes on a clean tea cloth.
  • Squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
  • Mash or use a ricer to get the boiled potatoes smooth and lump free.
  • Mix the two sorts of potato together in a large bowl.
  • Add the egg and the yolk and mix together.
  • Add enough flour to make a stiff dough.
  • Add some salt.

Ingredients – Filling

  • 250g of cooked and then minced or finely chopped meat(usually pork)
    such as from:
    • Klops – meat loaf
    • Cooked minced kotlety (meat balls/burgers)
    • Meat filling for pierogi.
  • Half a grated onion
  • 25g of melted butter
  • 1-2 tablespoons of dried breadcrumbs – bułka tarta
  • Salt & pepper

Method – Filling

  • Mix all the ingredients together to make a stiff filling.
  • Season to taste.

Making the kartacze

  • You are aiming for  a thick roll.
  • Take a small handful of the mixture and shape it into a flat oval.
  • Place this onto a floured board.
  • Add a tablespoon amount of the meat filling.
  • Bring the potato mixture around the filling and with floured hands shape into a roll.
  • Seal up the short ends with the potato dough.
  • Repeat this with the rest of the potato mixture and meat filling mixture.
  • Have ready a large pan of boiling water to which you have added some salt and a bit of sunflower oil..
  • Place around 4 kartacze at a time into the hot water.
  • Let them rise to the top then simmer for 8 – 9  minutes –  not too long as they will start to disintegrate.
  • Remove with a slotted spoon and place in a colander over a pan.
  • *
  • Place into a warm serving dish and top with skwarki – crispy smoked bacon bits, slightly charred onions, a mixture of the two or just melted butter.
  • Keep the dish warm and continue adding to the kartacze in the dish as they cook.
  • The fat in the topping stops them sticking together.
  • Royal Doulton Carnation – 1982-1998

Braised Beef

This is an old Yorkshire recipe in which the beef is cooked slightly differently to a gulasz (goulash).  It is cooked with the minimum amount of liquid and the meat is sort of semi-steamed.

Ingredients

  • 500g braising steak – try and buy in big pieces – not cubed.
  • 1 onion
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 100g of mushrooms
  • 3 carrots
  • ¼ of a celeriac
  • 1 parsnip
  • 4 cloves
  • 2-3 bay leaves
  • Freshly ground nutmeg
  • 150 ml of dry Vermouth or Sherry
  • Salt and pepper
  • Plain flour for dusting
  • Oil for frying

Method

  • You need a large oven proof dish with a lid.
  • Pre-heat the oven to GM3 – 325°C.
  • Remove the skin from the onion but keep it whole.
  • Stick the cloves into the onion and place it in the dish.
  • Chop the mushrooms into quarters and add to the dish.
  • Peel and chop the carrots, celeriac and parsnip and add to the dish.
  • Peel and chop the garlic and add to the dish.
  • Add the bay leaves to the dish.
  • Pour the vermouth or sherry over the vegetables.
  • Cut the steak into strips.
  • Mix the flour with lots of freshly grated nutmeg, salt and ground pepper.
  • Roll the beef strips in the flour mixture.
  • Fry the beef strips on all sides and put them on top of the vegetables.
  • Put on the lid and place in the oven for around 2- 2 ½ hours.
  • Check on the progress, you may find you need to add some more vermouth or sherry.

Kotlety mielone – in Lager with Caraway

This is another variation on the theme of kotlety mielone –  Polish meatballs  or as they are called  in the USA –  meat patties and now in England as burgers.

I got this idea from my fellow blogger – Lithuanian in the USA.   In their recipe for Meatballs in barbecue sauce – instead of  bread soaked in milk – oats are soaked in milk.

This sauce is one I made years ago and have just come across it in my recipe notes & cuttings – it is super – how could I have forgotten it?

Ingredients – meatballs

  • 500g minced beef
  • 1 beaten egg
  • 50g rolled oats
  • 125ml milk
  • 1 onion
  • 1 tablespoon of caraway seeds
  • 1/4 teaspoon of ground allspice
  • Salt
  • Ground black pepper
  • Plain flour for dusting
  • Butter for frying the onions
  • Sunflower oil for frying

Method

  • In a small bowl soak the oats in the milk for around 15 minutes.
  • *
  • Chop the onion into small pieces and fry in some butter until golden.
  • Add the caraway seeds and ground allspice and mix well together.
  • Leave to cool completely.
  • *
  • In a large bowl mix all the ingredients together, it is best to do this using both hands, making sure that all the ingredients are thoroughly combined.
  • Pour some flour onto a large plate or board.
  • Take a handful of the mixture and press it between your hands to make a flattened circle, place this in the flour and turn it over to cover both sides and edges.
  • Once coated place them on a tray dusted with flour until you have used all the mixture up.
  • *
  • Preheat the oven to GM4  – 180°C
  • *
  • Shallow fry the kotlety in hot oil, depending on the frying pan size,  you can do  4 to 5 at a time, turning them over so that both sides are done.
  • Place them in a large oven proof dish, which has a lid.
  • *
  • Pour the sauce over them, add the lid and put the dish into the oven.
  • Cook for at 75 to 90 minutes.
  • *
  • Super served with creamy mashed potatoes, pasta or boiled rice – sprinkle chopped chives or flat-leaved parsley over them before serving.

Ingredients – sauce

  • 300ml – 500ml of lager
  • 300ml of vegetable or chicken stock (can be from a cube or powder)
  • 4 tablespoons of soft brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
  • 4 tablespoons of tomato purée
  • 3 bay leaves

Method

  • Place all the ingredients into a sauce pan.
  • Heat gently, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.
  • Bring to the boil.
  • Remove from the heat and pour over the kotlety.

 

 

Kotlety mielone-2

I wrote the post – Kotlety mielone  quite a while back.

Kotlety is the Polish word for cutlets or chops however mielone means minced – so kotlety mielone are what in the USA are called meat patties or now in England as burgers.

These are a variation on the theme as  I used English sausage meat rather than minced pork.

Ingredients

  • 400g minced beef
  • 250g of premium sausage meat (English style)
  • 1 beaten egg
  • 1 slice of white bread or bread roll, left for half an hour in a bowl with a little milk – do not use the excess milk just the wet slightly squeezed bread

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • 1 onion finely chopped and fried till golden brown and left to cool.

IMG_20160608_092246618_HDR

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • 1 teaspoon of Italian herbs or similar
  • Salt
  • Ground black pepper
  • Dried breadcrumbs – home made – see Breadcrumbs – Bułka tarta
  • Sunflower oil for frying

Method

  • In a large bowl mix all the ingredients together except for the dried breadcrumbs, it is best to do this using both hands, making sure that all the ingredients are thoroughly combined.

  • If the mixture seems too wet then add a tablespoon full of dried breadcrumbs and mix this in.
  • Pour some dried breadcrumbs onto a large plate or board.
  • Try to make each one the same size, take a handful of the mixture and press it between your hands to make a flattened circle and then place this in the dried breadcrumbs and turn it over to cover both sides and edges.
  • *
  • Once coated place them on a tray dusted with breadcrumbs until you have used all the mixture up.
  • *
  • Preheat the oven to GM4  – 180°C
  • Shallow fry the kotlety in hot oil, depending on the frying pan size,  you can do  4 to 5 at a time, turning them over so that both sides are done.
  • Place them on a metal baking tray and put these into the oven.
  • Keep adding to the tray until they are all cooked.

Super served with creamy mashed potatoes – sprinkle chopped dill or parsley over them before serving.

Here I served them with boiled potatoes and mushroom sauce and Carrot & Apple salad.

I also like them with any sauerkraut or cabbage salad see  Sauerkraut Salads  and  Cabbage Salad.

The Next Day

You can eat any cold kotlety you have left with a variety of salads.

However I often re-heated them in a sauce in the oven – this time I cooked them in tomato sauce and served them with pasta – you can add some grated Parmesan cheese and sniped chives if you like.

 

 

Gulasz Soup

This is a soup I often make when I have some gulasz left from a meal, in fact I often make extra so that there is some!

There should be about 3 chunks of meat per serving – though of course that depends on the size of the chunks.

This works well with either beef or pork gulasz.

Ingredients

  • 350g of already cooked gulasz made with beef or pork, peppers and tomato such as in earlier posts.
  • 1 tin of cannellini beans – drained.
  • 750ml of chicken stock – can be from a cube or concentrate.
  • 1 teaspoon of chilli powder.
  • 2 tablespoons of tomato purée.
  • 125ml of soured cream.
  • Salt & pepper to taste.
  • Flat-leaved parsley or chives to serve & an extra dollop of soured cream if desired.

Method

  • Put the gulasz into a large pan.
  • Add the drainned beans.
  • Mix the tomato purée with the stock and add this to the pan.
  • Add the chilli powder.
  • Bring to the boil, cover and let it simmer for around 15 minutes.
  • Season to taste.
  • Gently stir in the soured cream.
  • Sprinkle on chopped parsley or chives to serve.

Note

Butter beans or haricot beans should be good too.

 

 

Soup plates are Royal Doulton – Burgundy – 1959 to 1981.

Beef Gulasz with Caraway

I came across this recipe recently which uses Gouda cheese with soured cream to thicken the sauce – it works really well and I will be trying this in other recipes.

Ingredients

400g – 500g braising steak – cubed

200g – 250g of mushrooms (chestnut type are good) – sliced

2 large onions – chopped

300ml of chicken stock (can be from a cube or concentrate)

3 tablespoons of caraway seeds

1 -2 tablespoons of plain flour

50g of Gouda cheese – chopped into small cubes.

3 tablespoons of soured cream

Sunflower oil for frying

Salt & pepper to taste.

Flat-leafed parsley to garnish – chopped

Method

Pre heat the oven to Gas Mark 3 – 1600C

On a large plate mix together the flour, salt and pepper.

Coat the meat cubes lightly in the flour mixture and brown these in the oil in a hot frying pan.

Place the beef into a casserole dish.

Lightly fry the onions and mushrooms in the frying pan and then add them to the beef.

 

Caraway Seeds

 

Add the stock and caraway seeds to the pan.

Put on the lid and cook in the oven for around 3 hours until the beef is tender.

Before serving stir in the cubes of cheese and the soured cream and mix well into the sauce.

Garnish with flat-leafed parsley.

Served here with mashed potatoes on Royal Doulton – Carnation – 1982 – 1998.

Kotlety with Sauerkraut

Having made kotlety mielone (minced meat burgers ) with first fresh and then cooked cabbage,  I started to think of a variation which in a way is more Polish!

I decided to use sauerkraut and also some fresh mushrooms  – though dried ones might even be more Polish.

Ingredients

500g beef mince

Half a 900g jar of sauerkraut *

150g of mushrooms

1 onion – chopped fine

2 -3  tablespoons semolina

2 eggs

Butter & sunflower oil for frying

Dried breadcrumbs  

Salt  and pepper

* I often freeze the other half of the jar in a plastic tub for another time.

Method

Drain the sauerkraut and rinse with cold water.

Place the sauerkraut in a pan of water and simmer gently for 5-10 minutes.

Drain the sauerkraut and leave to cool then dry  it with a tea towel.

Chop the sauerkraut into small pieces using a sharp knife.

Fry the chopped onion in a little hot oil and butter.

Chop the mushrooms into small pieces and add them to the onions and continue frying until the onions are lightly browned – leave the mixture to cool.

In a large bowl mix the minced meat,  the sauerkraut and onion and mushroom mixture until they are evenly mix.

Add the eggs and mix.

Add the semolina, salt and pepper and mix until you get a uniform mixture.

Try to make each one the same size, take a handful of the mixture and press it between your hands to make a flattened circle and then place this in the dried breadcrumbs and turn it over to cover both sides and edges.

Once coated place them on a tray dusted with breadcrumbs until you have used all the mixture up.

Pre-heat the oven to GM3 – 160°C

Shallow fry the kotlety in hot oil, depending on the frying pan size,  you can do 4 to 5 at a time, turning them over so that both sides are done.

Place them on a  metal tray  and put in the oven and keep adding to these as you keep frying the batches.

 

Served here with gherkins

20180422_200309

 

 

 

 

 

 

They were voted as delicious!

Note

Should you have any left,  you can reheat them in sauce made with chicken or vegetable stock.

 

Kotlety with Cabbage

  • On my last trip to Poland my  cousin in Białystok suggested this variation on kotlety mielone – minced meat burgers.
  • The idea is to add shredded white cabbage to the minced meat mix.
  • I used the following  amounts by weight:
  • 2 parts minced meat : 1 part cabbage – you can go up to equal weights of each.

Ingredients

  • 500g beef mince
  • 250g white cabbage
  • 1 onion – chopped fine
  • 3  tablespoons semolina*
  • 2 eggs
  • Dried breadcrumbs
  • Salt  and pepper
  • * I used semolina instead of my usual white bread soaked in milk – I was pleased with this as an alternative.
  • Sunflower oil  for frying

Method

  • Chop the onion fine and fry in a little hot oil till lightly browned then leave till cold.
  • Cut the cabbage into fine shreds and then across so you have small squarish pieces.
  • In a large bowl mix the minced meat and cabbage till they are evenly mix.
  • Add the fried onions and mix again.
  • Add the eggs and mix.
  • Add the semolina, salt and pepper and mix until you get a uniform mixture.

Try to make each one the same size, take a handful of the mixture and press it between your hands to make a flattened circle and then place this in the dried breadcrumbs and turn it over to cover both sides and edges.

  • Once coated place them on a tray dusted with breadcrumbs until you have used all the mixture up.
  • Shallow fry the kotlety in hot oil, depending on the frying pan size,  you can do 3 to 4 at a time, turning them over so that both sides are done. Place them on kitchen roll on a plate or metal tray till they are all cooked –  you can keep them warm in a low oven.

  • I had found I like these more when they have been in the oven for a while after frying – evenly cooked through.
  • These can be served in many ways, with boiled or mashed potatoes or rice and a variety of salads.

20180127_185749

Served  here with steamed & buttered new potatoes and carrot & apple salad – on

Royal Doulton – Carnation – 1982 – 1998.

Version 2 – using Cooked Cabbage

Whilst doing some research on this recipe,  I found that some cooks used cooked cabbage rather than raw.

Ingredients

As above but this time with 400g – 500g of uncooked white cabbage  (around the same weight as the minced meat).

Method

  • Chop the cabbage into large pieces and steam it till cooked.
  • Dry the cabbage with a clean tea towel to get rid of as much water as possible.
  • Chop the cabbage into very fine pieces.
  • Proceed as in the method above.

Note

For both versions, should you have any left,  you can reheat them in sauce made with chicken or vegetable stock.