In a large bowl mix all the liver, egg and parsley together.
Add salt & pepper.
Add enough dried breadcrumbs so that it is a firm mixture – best to do this using both hands, making sure that all the ingredients are thoroughly combined.
Put some flour in a dish for your hands to make it easier to shape the pulpety.
Pinch off small bits of the mixture and roll the piece between your hands to make small round balls and place these onto a floured board or tray whilst you make them all.
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Leave these to chill in a cool place or in the fridge.
Ingredients – Soup
1 litre of vegetable stock – can be from a cube or powder
100g frozen peas
100g frozen whole green peas
Bunch of spring onions
2-3 tablespoons of butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Method – Soup
Chop the green beans into small pieces similar in size to the peas.
Chop the green and white parts of the spring onions in to small pieces.
In a large pan melt the butter.
Add the chopped spring onions and fry gently till golden.
Add the peas and beans.
Add the vegetable stock and bring to the boil.
Reduce the heat and simmer gently until the peas and peas are cooked.
Season to taste.
Bring the soup up to the boil.
Drop the pulpety into the boiling liquid and then let them simmer for around 5 -7 minutes.
To serve
Polish style would be to have 3-5 pulpety in a bowl of soup – but for a light lunch have a large bowl of soup with lots of pulpety per serving.
Paszteciki are little savoury pastries often served as a soup accompaniment. They are made with with a pre-cooked filling which sometimes contains meat but vegetable versions are very popular and mushroom or sauerkraut & mushroom ones are very often made for Wigilia – Christmas Eve.
They are shaped like little sausage rolls or diagonal slices cut from a large roll.
I think they are best served warm.
You can make these using many sorts of pastry doughs – the following yeast dough is one that is often used.
Yeast Dough
Ingredients
250g plain flour or a mixture of spelt & plain flour
1 tablespoon of dried yeast
1 teaspoon of granulated sugar
125-150ml of milk
1 egg & 1 yolk
40g butter – melted
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 egg white used for glaze
Method
Put 50g of the flour into a bowl.
Add the yeast and sugar.
Add enough of the milk to make the mixture like double cream.
Leave in a warm place to bubble and froth up.
Place the rest of the flour into a bowl.
Add the salt and mix.
Lightly beat the whole egg and the yolk together.
Add the egg mixture to the flour.
Add the yeast mixture to the flour.
Start to mix together using a wooden spoon.
Slowly add as much milk as needed.
Bring the dough together using your hands until it leaves the side of the bowl.
Knead the dough lightly until it is smooth.
Flatten the dough into a rectangle.
Slowly pour on the butter and fold over the dough.
Keep kneading the buttery dough until it is all incorporated.
Knead a little longer until you have a nice glossy ball.
Put the dough back into a bowl.
Cover with a cloth or cling film and leave to rise in a warm place.
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Pre-heat the oven to GM7 220 °C.
Grease several baking trays.
Take the pastry and shape into a rough rectangle.
Roll out thinly into a large rectangle.
Cut the rectangle into two lengthwise so you have two long thin rectangles.
Place the cold filling in the centre lengthwise.
Fold the two long sides over the filling so the pastry just meets and is not too thick.
Turn the roll over so the seam is underneath.
Cut the roll into diagonal slices about 5cm thick.
Place the pieces on the baking trays.
Glaze the pieces with beaten egg white.
Leave for around 30 minutes.
Bake for 14-15 minutes.
Allow to cool a little and then remove from the tray and place on a cooling rack.
Served on Royal Worcester – Evesham – tea plates – a design from 1961
Fillings
A variety of fillings can be used such as ones that you would use for pierogi – Polish filled pasta, for example mushroom or sauerkraut & mushroom or you can use pre-cooked vegetables, meats and also include hard boiled eggs.
All fillings should be cold when used.
Below are two fillings that I made for my paszteciki.
Fresh Cabbage & Mushroom Filling
Ingredients
Small head of white cabbage or sweetheart cabbage.
150-200g of mushrooms (I used the chestnut ones)
1 large onion
100g of butter
2 or more hard boiled eggs
Salt & pepper to taste
Method
Shred and then chop the cabbage into small pieces.
Chop the onion into small pieces.
Chop the mushrooms into small pieces.
Melt the half the butter in a large deep frying pan.
Slowly cook the onions and the cabbage but do not brown.
Cover with a lid and let them simmer till they are both soft.
Stir occasionally – you might need to add a little hot water.
In another pan melt the rest of the butter and fry the mushrooms.
Add the mushrooms to the cabbage and onion mixture and mix well.
Heat gently together to remove all the excess liquid.
Leave to go cold.
Rough chop the hard boiled eggs and add them to the mixture.
Season to taste.
Note – this might be more filling than you need – you can always freeze what is left.
Mushroom Filling
This is a new filling for me using just fresh mushrooms.
Ingredients
250 -300g mushrooms(I used chestnut)
1 onion
Around 50g of butter
3-4 tablespoons of soured cream
Salt & pepper to taste.
Method
Slice and chop the mushrooms into small pieces.
Chop the onion into small pieces.
Fry the onion in butter till they are soft – do not brown.
Add the mushrooms and fry together.
Keep stirring and cook gently till the mushrooms are soft.
Add the soured cream and stir together.
Heat for a little while to remove excess liquid.
Leave to go cold.
Season to taste.
Note – this might be more filling than you need – you can always freeze what is left.
Soup plays such huge part in Polish meals and I will be writing much on the subject soon (I could write a huge book on Polish soups alone).
Soups are usually served with some sort of accompaniments or garnish.
Some soups have traditional accompaniments but every cook will improvise with what they have.
These accompaniments include a wide variety of pasta and noodles, dumplings, rice, potatoes, croutons, hard-boiled eggs, pulpety (little meatballs) chopped, cooked sausage and crispy fried bacon and so on …. the list is endless.
Many of the soups to which these are added are of the clear consommé type.
Pasta, Noodles & Rice
Very small pasta shapes are used or larger pasta is cut into small pieces.
The pasta, noodles or rice are all cooked beforehand and a small amount is placed in the soup dish and hot soup poured over them to serve.
Often a small amount of pasta, noodles or rice is kept back from when they are being cooked for another dish – these are best kept in the fridge.
The chopped eggs are sprinkled on top of the soup or several pieces ‘floated’ on top of the soup when serving.
Krokiety
These are made using pancakes which are filled with sauerkraut & mushrooms, meat or cheese then folded and rolled, then dipped in bread crumbs and fried.
I have found a firm that has these ready made for frying and I think they are good.
I fry them in quite a lot of oil on both sides and then put them in the oven at GM4 – 180°C for around 20 minutes.
I have not made them from scratch myself – I must do this soon .
Photo below from my Kuchnia Polska book,1971
Kuchnia Polska, 1971 – Polish Kitchen or Polish Cookery
Pasztecik
This is similar to an English sausage roll, often made with a yeast dough pastry, and filled with pasztet (paté), meat, sauerkraut & mushrooms or cheese.
Photos below from my Kuchnia Polska book, 1971
I have eaten these in Poland in cafes and restaurants but not made these myself – something else to try out soon.
Bread
Bread can be served with soup – it is usually not buttered.
The Polish word pulpety comes from the Italian word polpette & that word come from polpa meaning pulp.
The word polpette has been used in Italy since the 15th century – though of course meatballs in many forms are to been found in most cultures & countries and are a way of using every last piece of carcass.
Pulpety in Poland are made from meat or fish – I am just going to cover meat in this post.
Meat pulpety can be made from fresh meat or from cooked meat. I prefer the fresh meat ones and if I have any roast meat leftovers I am more likely to use them up in other ways such as in Pierogi – Polish Filled Pasta fillings.
The difference being that pulpety are very small and they are boiled/simmered not fried.
They are often used as an accompaniment for soup – with around 4 to 6 being added to a serving of soup. (There will be much more on the topic of soup in the future.)
Pulpety can be simmered in water or stock – I always uses stock – either chicken or vegetable.
Meat pulpety
Ingredients
400g of minced beef or pork or a mixture of the two
1 onion
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.
Stock / bullion – chicken or vegetable – can be from a stock cube.
Method
Grate the onion on a fine grated or use an electric mini-chopper.
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.
Add enough dried breadcrumbs so that it is a firm mixture.
Put some flour in a dish for your hands to make it easier to shape the pulpety.
Pinch off small bits of the meat mixture and roll the piece between your hands to make small round balls and place these onto a floured board or tray whilst you make them all.
You can leave these to chill in a cool place or in the fridge if you have time.
In a large pan heat up some stock and drop the pulpety into the boiling liquid and then let them simmer for around 5 minutes.
Remove them from the liquid with a slotted spoon.
Polish style would be to have around 5 pulpety in a bowl of soup – but often I do these for a light lunch and have a large bowl of soup with lots of pulpety per serving.
In the photograph below, they were served in a tomato soup.
Served In A Sauce
The varieties here are endless – make one of your favourite sauces for example mushroom or tomato and drop the cooked pulpety into the sauce and let them simmer.
You can then serve them with potatoes, pasta, rice or to be very Polish – buckwheat.
Journey From A Polish Kitchen 