Breakfast – Journey From A Polish Kitchen

Tomato Salad

The tomato is botanically the fruit of Solanum lycopersicum, although from a culinary point of view it is a vegetable.

It belongs to the deadly nightshade family as does the potato.

The tomato plant originated in the Andes in South America and tomatl was the name in the Nahuatl language give to it by the Aztec people, which then became tomate and then tomato in English.

The tomato was brought over to Europe by the Conquistadors in the late 15th Century.

The original fruits were yellow hence the Italian name pomodoro (pomo d’oro – apple of gold).

When the Italian princess, who became Queen Bona of Poland on her marriage to King Zygmunt the Old, came to Poland with her chefs in the 16th Century , the tomato was introduced to the Polish diet.

Tomato in Polish is pomidor – so you can see or rather hear its Italian root.

Home grown tomatoes are of course the best, however here in the North of England I have not had much success in growing them outdoors.

To get the best flavour from tomatoes it is best NOT to keep them in the refrigerator.

IMG_20150910_124432805_HDR — Keep your tomatoes at room temperature

A simple tomato salad is served in Poland, always it seemed to me with the addition of onions, chives or the green part of spring onion. For many it is standard fare for breakfast with cold meats or Polish curd cheese.

Ingredients

Tomatoes – thinly sliced into whole rounds if small or halved if large.

Half an onion – finely chopped or

Chives or the green part of spring onions – finely chopped

Lemon juice

Salt and pepper to taste.

Method

Arrange the tomato slices on a plate

Squeeze a little lemon juice over them

Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over them

Garnish with onion or chives

IMG_20150808_173117488(1) — Chives & Spring Onions

IMG_20150730_174515396 — Tomato Salad with Onions

IMG_20150730_174511139 — Tomato Salad with Chives

IMG_20150730_174526959 — Salads for Breakfast

IMG_20150731_062705601 — Tomato Salad, Curd Cheese & Rye Bread – Typical Breakfast Fare

Polish Salads – All Year Round – Both Raw and Cooked

Sałata is the Polish word for lettuce.

Sałatka is the Polish word my parents used for salad.

However when I visited Poland for the first time I realised that there is another word for salad and that is – Surówka.

Surówka – this come from a Polish word meaning raw.

There is a distinction between the two in that a sałatka is a dish served cold of mainly cooked vegetables and a surówka is a dish served cold of mainly raw, pickled or fermented vegetables.

Poland 2 115 — Some ingredients for salads for sale

As it is hard in English to differentiate between the two – I will be writing about many classic cold Polish vegetable dishes and will be calling them all salads.

Fruit, cold meats, fish, either cooked or pickled, and hard boiled eggs also feature in these salads.

A salad accompaniment with a meal is often more usual than hot cooked vegetables and a tomato or gherkin salad is normal fare for breakfast.

Vegetables that have been pickled, fermented, bottled or canned will feature throughout the year at least once a day in Polish meals. Before widespread refrigeration this is how people preserved food for use throughout the winter.

Old Polish houses always had cellars, the Polish word is piwnica, from the word piwo which means beer so it means the place where beer is kept. The ones I have seen in Poland were filled with bottled fruit and vegetables as well as jams, ready to make meals and salads throughout the year. In blocks of flats there is still in the basement level, cellar space for each flat.

My aunties said they could not imagine life without a cellar. Their cellars were filled with many jars of bottled paprika that they had prepared – what in England we call peppers or capsicums, various mixed vegetables, cranberries and lingonberries.

IMG_20150819_064345546 — Paprika – Capsicum – Pepper

I am very lucky in having two cellars in my house and spent a week in spring this year organising them – including an area for tinned and bought bottled vegetables ready for making salads amongst other things.

Cellar – Mainly for Food

Cellar – Mainly for Drinks

Salad dressings

Three of the most popular salad dressings used are:

Lemon Juice

IMG_20150817_140017297 — One of my cousins came to visit me a couple of weeks ago and brought me this lovely, large, glass lemon squeezer.

If lemons are scarce or expensive or for convenience in Poland you can buy packets of citric acid which you can mix up with water.

Smetana – Soured Cream

Nowadays you can find soured cream in many English stores but if there is none then lemon juice added to fresh single cream will give nearly the same result.

Mayonnaise

Although I have made mayonnaise, I tend to buy it now and my favourite is Hellmann’s – original or light (the very low fat version I think is horrid as it has a strange taste and texture). Sometimes if making the salad ahead of time I think the original is a bit better as it does not get as watery from the vegetables but mostly I use the light version.

Vegetables waiting to be made into salads

Salad Garnishes

Garnishes are chopped fine and sprinkled on the top of the dish of salad, these are often: flat leafed parsley, dill, chives, the green part of spring onions and hard boiled eggs. If none of these are available ground paprika might sometimes be sprinkled on the salad.

IMG_20150808_173117488 — Spring Onions and Chives

IMG_20150828_124410565 — Chopped Hard Boiled Eggs

Classic Polish Curd Cheese Mixtures

Twaróg – Polish Curd Cheese is used extensively in cooking and finds its way in many guises onto the Polish menu, especially at home, both in sweet and savoury dishes.

The following are what I consider to be popular classic savoury fresh cheese mixtures and are often served for breakfast with bread and salad.

Here in England I think they could be served at lunchtime. As well as with bread and rolls they can be served with crisp-breads, oatcakes or crackers.

3 Classic Curd Cheese Mixtures

You can make these with Twaróg – Curd Cheese or with Cream Cheese.

You can also use yoghurt cheese – (Look out for a post on how to make this later).

The amounts used are just approximate, using one packet of cheese, which is normally around 200g – 300g, for each mixture and can be varied to taste.

If using curd cheese, add a pinch or two of salt and a couple of spoonfuls of soured cream, mix together until smooth.

If using cream cheese just take it out of the packet and mix it in a bowl – you can add a spoonful or two of soured cream to make it a softer consistency if you wish.

Mixture 1

To the cheese add a few tablespoons of finely chopped chives or the green parts of spring onions.

In Poland szczypiorek (which in dictionaries is given as chives) would be used – however I think it is slightly different and is much larger than the chives I grow here in England.

IMG_20150709_163031264 — Chives Growing in a Pot

IMG_20150808_173132034 — Spring Onions and Chives

IMG_20150730_173151331 — Curd Cheese and Chives

Mixture 2

To the cheese add a couple of teaspoons of caraway seeds

IMG_20150730_173201266 — Curd Cheese and Caraway Seeds

Mixture 3

To the cheese add some chopped gherkins

I find these are the best gherkins to use as they are not vinegary.

IMG_20150807_110656341 — Chopped Gherkins

IMG_20150807_111340750 — Curd Cheese and Gherkins

Typical Polish Breakfast Fare

These cheese mixtures can also be served with bliny -little buckwheat pancakes. (Look out for a a post on how to make these later).

Polish Meals

Polish Meals

The following is a general description and of course times will vary with people and circumstances.

The Polish day seems to start a lot earlier than in England with many people starting work at 7.30am and finishing by 3pm.

Schools often start at 8am and are finished by 2pm.

There are four meals in a Polish day.

1 śniadanie – breakfast

This is a hearty meal from about 5.30amto 7am to set you up for the day.

This will consist of: cured meats, Polish sausage, cheese, hard boiled or scrambled eggs, gherkins, cucumber and tomatoes with bread and rolls, all served with lots of tea. (Tea is quite weak served with slices of lemon or fruit syrup such as raspberry). There may also be some cake.

2 drugie śniadanie – second breakfast

This will be eaten at about 11am. It is a lighter meal than the first breakfast, though often with the same types of food – sometimes it will be just a sandwich – especially if eaten at work or school.

3 obiad – dinner – the main meal of the day

This is eaten between 1pm and 5pm with around 3pm being a very popular time.

This will consist of 2 or 3 courses:

Soup
Main
Dessert of fruit or cake – optional course

Soup is very popular in Poland from hot or cold soups, light consommé types to thick and hearty featuring throughout the year.

I heard a saying on one of my visits to Poland –

Polak bez zupy robi się smutny

This translates as –

A Pole without soup becomes sad.

I think this is very true.

4 kolacja – supper

This is the lightest meal of the day eaten between 7pm to 9pm. It can often be just a slice of cake.

Getting Ready For Dinner

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Sałata is the Polish word for lettuce.

Sałatka is the Polish word my parents used for salad.

Surówka – this come from a Polish word meaning raw.

Salad dressings

Vegetables waiting to be made into salads

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3 Classic Curd Cheese Mixtures

Mixture 1

Mixture 2

Mixture 3

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