Carrots – Page 2 – Journey From A Polish Kitchen

Red Cabbage Salad

This recipe was inspired by the ones I wrote up in Red on Red! after looking at the ingredients that were in my fridge and cupboards.

Ingredients

½ red cabbage
4-5 carrots
1 onion
1-2 apples
*
Juice of 2 limes
1-2 tablespoons of runny honey

Method

Grate or finely shred and chop the red cabbage.
Peel and coarse grate the carrots.
Finely chop the onion.
Finely chop the apple.
Mix all the ingredients together.
*
Mix the lime juice and honey together.
Mix the dressing over the salad.

Tastes good straight away and even better after a few hours.

Carrot & Thyme Soup

This recipe was given to me by one of my cousins that lives in Wembley.
It is from an old French recipe but all the ingredients can be found in England and Poland.

Ingredients

400g carrots
1 onion
6- 8 sprigs of thyme
40g rice
1½ litres of chicken stock (can be from a cube or concentrate)
2 tablespoons of butter
Salt and pepper

Method

Chop the onion into small pieces.
Gently fry onion in the butter till it is golden.
Peel the carrots and chop them into small circles.
Put the onion, carrots and stock into a large saucepan.
Strip the leaves of thyme from the stalks and add these to the pan.
Add the rice to the pan.
Bring to the boil and then simmer gently until the carrots are soft.
Stir occasionally.
Purée the soup – a stick blender is good.
Season to taste.

Royal Doulton – Tapestry Soup Plate – 1966 – 1998

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.

Carrot Leek & Apple Salad

I was sorting out my recipe box notes and cuttings when I came across this recipe from one of my cousins in Białystok for a salad made from carrots, leeks and apples.

I had not noted down whether the leeks were just sliced or if they were blanched as well so I tried both ways and both salads were super.

Ingredients

2-3 carrots
1 leek
1- 2 eating apples – Braeburns are good
Juice of a lemon
2-3 tablespoons of Mayonnaise
Salt & pepper to taste

Method – 1

Grate the carrots using a coarse grater.
Thinly slice the leeks and cut the rings into halve or quarters.
Core the apple and chop into small chunks.
Pore the lemon juice over the salad.
Add the mayonnaise and mix well.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Method – 2

As above except for the leeks.
Put the cut leeks into hot water and simmer for a few minutes.
Allow the leeks to cool.
Drain the leeks and pat dry with kitchen roll or a clean tea towel.
Mix all the ingredients together.

Carrot Pancakes – 2

I posted a recipe for carrot pancakes more than three years ago.
These are normally eaten as a sweet dish – usually served with sugar.
This recipe is for a savoury carrot pancake.
Both are the American style of pancake.
Both in Polish would be called racuszki (z marchwi).

Ingredients

8 spring onions
2eggs
80ml of milk
90g plain flour
½ teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of paprika
¼ teaspoon of salt
350g peeled and coarse grated carrots
Ground black pepper
Butter for frying the spring onions
Sunflower oil for frying the pancakes.

Method

Chop the white and green parts of the spring onions into little rounds.
Fry gently in butter with soft.
Leave to go cold completely.
Put the grated carrots into a clean tea towel and squeeze out excess liquid.
Pre-heat the oven to GM 1- 140°C.
Line a baking tray with kitchen paper and put this in the oven.
Mix the egg and milk together.
Mix the flour, baking powder, paprika and salt together.
Mix the flour mixture and the eggs and milk together till smooth.
Stir the carrots and spring onions into the mixture.
Add some ground black pepper.
A Danish whisk is good for mixing batter.
Heat the sunflower oil in a frying pan.
Drop in tablespoons of the batter and flatten them slightly with the back of the spoon.
Fry on both sides until golden brown.
Lift onto the baking tray and keep in the oven whilst cooking the rest.
*
When first cooked the carrots are crunchy – they soften in the oven.
*
Serve as a starter with a yoghurt or soured cream sauce and some salad or
As a vegetable with a roast or with a gulasz.

Plate – Royal Doulton – Carnation , 1982-1998

Ogórkowa – Gherkin Soup -2

I posted the recipe for ogórkowa – gherkin soup, which is a classic Polish soup, over a year ago.

It is sour, a taste much loved by the Poles!

It is traditionally made from brine fermented gherkins but you can also use pickled gherkins.

I was sorting out my cutting and notes the other day and came across this recipe from my aunt in Białystok and decided it was time I made this version.

Ingredients

250g gherkins
125ml gherkin liquid
1.5 litres of vegetable stock (can be from cubes or powder)
4 medium potatoes, peeled – boiled or steamed
3-4 carrots whole – peeled – boiled
125ml of soured cream
Chopped dill – some to add and some to serve

Method

This is easiest to make if you have some potatoes and carrots boiled already.

Add the gherkin liquid to the vegetable stock and bring to the boil.
Rough chop the gherkins.
Drop the gherkins into the liquid and simmer for around 20 -25 minutes.
Chop the boiled potatoes into rough cubes.
Chop the boiled carrots into circles or half circles (depending on the size)
Add the potatoes and carrots, stir and simmer for around 5 minutes.
Stir in some chopped dill.
Stir in the soured cream.
Serve with extra dill sprinkled on top.

Served in Royal Doulton – Tapestry – 1966 – 1988.

Carrot, Leek & Apple Salad

As well as any cookery books and magazines, I have notes and cuttings from various sources. Ever so often I look through these for inspiration and think “Yes, I must try that!”.

Here is a recipe for a salad that I jotted down when visiting one of my cousins in Białystok.

Ingredients

2 large carrots – coarse grated
2 leeks cut into fine slices
2 eating apples – cored and rough chopped
Juice of half a lemon
2 -3 tablespoons of full fat mayonnaise
Chopped chives to serve

Method
Mix everything together apart from the chives.
Put into a serving dish
Sprinkle the chives on top and serve.

Served in Royal Doulton – Carnation – 1982 – 1998

Celeriac & Carrot Soup

A variation on a simple celeriac soup with two options on how to serve.

Ingredients

1 Celeriac
3 Large carrots
1 Onion – chopped
1.5 litres of chicken stock (can be from cube or concentrate)
2-3 Allspice grains
Butter to fry the onion
5 tablespoons of tomato ketchup
Salt and pepper to taste
*
To serve
*
Soured cream or
*
Fried potatoes & charred onions

Method

Peel the celeriac and chop into large chunks.
Peel the carrots and cut into large chunks
Lightly fry the onion in butter till golden.
Put the celeriac, carrots, fried onion and allspice into a pan of chicken stock.
Bring to the boil and then simmer with a lid on the pan until the celeriac and carrots are soft.
Leave to cool slightly.
Purée the soup – a stick blender is good for this.
Add the tomato ketchup.
Season to taste.
Bring the soup back to the boil for a couple of minutes.

To serve – 1

Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of soured cream and stir.

To serve – 2

Serve with fried potatoes and charred onions.

Served in Royal Doulton – Tapestry – 1966 – 1998

Carrot & Parsnip Soup

I had lots of carrots and parsnips needing to be used up so I decided to make a slightly different soup.

I cooked a chicken as for rosȯł – clear chicken bouillon, with instead of 1 or 2 carrots and parsnips, I used around 8 of each, peeled but whole.
Once cooked I removed the chicken for a different dish and strained the cooked vegetables from the liquid.

For the best results, leave the liquid in a cool place for a few hours or even overnight so that you can skim off some of the chicken fat.
Use a blender to purée the carrots, parsnips and the onion.
In a saucepan add the puréed vegetables and enough of the liquid stock to give the required consistency for a soup – not too thick.
This puréed style of soup is more English than Polish!
Gently heat the soup for around 5 minutes, stirring it occasionally.
Check for seasoning and to serve, stir in around 100ml of soured cream or 150ml of Greek style yoghurt.

Ingredients – if not wanting to make the rosȯł from scratch

2 litres of good chicken stock (or a from stock cubes if you do not have any)
8 carrots
8 parsnips
1-2 onions
2-3 grains allspice
1 bay leaf
Salt & pepper to taste
100ml soured cream or 150ml Greek style yoghurt

Method

Simmer the vegetables in the chicken stock with the allspice and bay leaf till they are all soft.
Purée the vegetables in the soup using a stick blender.
Season to taste.
Add soured cream or yoghurt to serve.

Carrot Piernik

Piernik is a spiced honey-cake.

I would describe this cake as a “Pseudo-piernik” as granulated sugar rather than honey is used.

My Polish friend in Leeds gave me this recipe and she got it from another Polish lady. The written copy could be described as being in “Ponglish” being written partly in English with additional notes in Polish!

The original recipe used cups which except for liquids I find hard to work with and much prefer weights.

I tried out a few alterations & variations until I reached this final version which I feel is the easiest way to get consistent results.

I made it is two different tins: the longer tin gave a thinner cake which was better for cutting in two and adding a filling, the shorter tin gave a thicker cake which was better with just a topping.

Ingredients

225g granulated sugar
250ml sunflower oil
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
Zest of 1 large orange
225g coarse grated carrots
225g plain flour
3 teaspoons of baking powder
2 teaspoons of mixed spice (I use Marks & Spencer’s) or cinnamon

Method

Grease and line a 32cm x 22cm or a 27cm x 21cm tin.
Pre-heat oven to GM5 – 190°C
Mix well together the sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla essence & orange rind (I use an electric whisk).
Mix together the flour, baking powder, spices & salt and lightly mix this into the whisked mixture.
Mix in the grated carrots.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin.
Depending on the tin size, bake for 25 – 35 minutes but keep an eye on it and cover with foil or greaseproof if it starts to burn.
Leave to cool in the tin.

Finishing – several ways

Dust with icing sugar
Drizzle with a melted chocolate & butter mixture
Cut into two and sandwich together with powidła – Polish plum jam* or sour cherry jam – then dust with icing and drizzle with chocolate & butter topping
Top with orange butter icing

*Powidła is a lovely spread – often translated as jam but is not really a jam.

It is made from fresh ripe plums which are heated and stirred for hours until the water is driven off and you get a thick paste. The traditional version does not have any extra sugar added.

I bought some in my local Polish shop, I have seen it for sale in glass jars or in plastic tubs.