Tag: Gherkins

Yoghurt Cheese Salad

INGREDIENTS

  • 250g of full fat twaróg or yoghurt cheese
  • Bunch of radishes – finely sliced
  • 1 large gherkin – chopped into small cubes
  • Bunch of spring onions – finely chopped – white and green parts
  • Salt & Pepper to taste
  • *
  • Some Greek style yoghurt or soured cream – may be needed to loosen up the cheese.
  • OPTIONAL
  • ½ fresh cucumber – peeled, deseeded and chopped into small cubes.

METHOD

  • Mix the twaróg or yoghurt cheese with the radishes, gherkins and spring onions.
  • Add the cucumber if using.
  • Add the yoghurt or soured cream if needed.
  • Season to taste.

Tartar Sauce

  • Sos tartarski  is a classic cold sauce in Poland.
  • Books say that this is a French sauce but they must have been influenced by Polish ingredients!
  • Usually served with fish (hot or cold) or hard- boiled eggs.
  • Very easy to make especially if using bought mayonnaise.
  • Use the best bought mayonnaise – full fat not the reduced type. 
  • I usually use Hellmann’s mayonnaise.
  • Soured cream and lemon juice can also be added.
  • Amounts are not fixed but you are aiming for a soft dropping sauce.

Ingredients

  • 4- 5 tablespoons of mayonnaise
  • 2 -3 gherkins
  • 1-2 tablespoons of capers
  • 1-2 tablespoons of soured cream
  • ½ to 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
  • *
  • Some chopped fresh dill to serve – if available.

Method 

  • Mix the mayonnaise, soured cream and lemon juice to a soft dropping density.
  • Chop the gherkins into small pieces.
  • Stir the chopped gherkins and capers into the mayonnaise mixture.
  • Put the sauce into a serving bowl and sprinkle the dill on top.

Gherkin Sauce – 2

  • This is a creamier sauce than gherkin sauce –  version 1.
  • Once again simple to make.
  • Goes well with cooked white fish or roast chicken or pork.
  • The tangy taste is refreshing in the summer.

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons of butter
  • 1 tablespoon of plain flour
  • 250ml vegetable stock
  • 125ml liquor from gherkins
  • 3 medium gherkins – chopped fine or coarse grated
  • 125ml soured cream
  • Sugar to taste – optional

Method

  • Melt the butter in a pan.
  • Add the flour – mix and cook gently.
  • Add the stock and gherkin liquor slowly.
  • Mix and cook for a few minutes.
  • Add the gherkins and cook for a few minutes.
  • Stir whilst this cooks.
  • Add sugar to taste.
  • Stir in the soured cream before serving.

Illustration –  by Czesław Wielhorski from my Kuchnia Polska book – first published in the 1950s. 

  • Super with cooked white fish!

Gherkin Sauce – 1

  • I have a few more sauces to write about this year.
  • Gherkin sauce is Ogórkowy sos in Polish.
  • It is quite simple to make and can be made all year round.
  • It goes well with fish and also light meat such as roast chicken or pork.

Ingredients

  • 1 onion – chopped fine
  • 2 medium gherkins – chopped into small pieces
  • 2 tablespoons of butter
  • 1 tablespoon of plain flour
  • 250ml of vegetable stock
  • Sugar to taste – optional

Method

  • Fry the onions gently in the butter till golden.
  • Add the flour, mix and cook for a few minutes.
  • Slowly add the vegetable stock.
  • Stir until the sauce thickens and cook for a few minutes.
  • Add the gherkins and cook for a few minutes.
  • Add  a little sugar to taste.
  • Serve hot.

Illustration –  by Czesław Wielhorski from my Kuchnia Polska book – first published in the 1950s. 

  • Super with fish!

 

Mixed Vegetable Sałatka – another version

  • This recipe is a slightly different take on the classic Polish mixed vegetable salad.
  • Rather than potatoes, I used boiled parsnips and carrots.
  • This is a salad you can tinker with often – depending on the ingredients you have at hand. 

Ingredients

  • 2 – 3 cooked carrots cut onto small pieces
  • 2-3 cooked parsnips cut into small pieces
  • 1-2 gherkins cut into small pieces
  • Bunch of spring onions cut into small pieces
  • 3-4 hardboiled eggs – cut into small chunks
  • 2-3 tablespoons of mayonnaise 
  • Salt & Pepper to taste

Method

  • Mix all the vegetable together.
  • Add the mayonnaise and mix all together.
  • Season to taste.
  • Place in a dish.
  • Add the eggs and spring onions on top.
  • Mix together when serving.

The dish is Freiberg – Cordoflam made in East Germany.

Gulasz myśliwski

  • Having made sos myśliwski – Hunter’s sauce. 
  • I thought how good this would be to make into a gulasz.
  • Cubed braising beef or shoulder pork would be super for this.

Ingredients 

  • 400g cubed braising beef or shoulder or spare rib pork
  • 4 slices of  thick cut smoked bacon – chopped
  • 150g – 220g  of fresh mushrooms – sliced or quartered
  • 3 large gherkins – chopped into cubes
  • 1 – 2 tablespoons of plain flour.
  • 2 tablespoons of tomato purée
  • 2 onions – chopped
  • 3 cloves of garlic – chopped
  • 3 grains of of allspice
  • 5 peppercorns
  • 1 teaspoon of of ground paprika
  • 1 teaspoon of hot ground paprika
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 teaspoons of made mustard.
  • 500ml of vegetable or chicken stock
  • Salt and pepper
  • Sunflower oil for frying

Method

  • Pre heat the oven to Gas Mark 3 – 1600C
  • Mix the tomato purée, allspice, paprikas and mustard into the stock.
  • Cut the meat into cubes and coat the pieces in a mixture of flour, salt and ground pepper.
  • In a frying pan heat the oil until it is hot and fry the meat until all the sides are sealed.
  • Place the meat into a casserole dish.
  • Fry the garlic and onions in the frying pan, adding some oil if necessary but trying not to use too much or the dish will be greasy.
  • Add the onions to the meat then add the bay leaf and some more ground pepper.
  • Melt the butter and fry the mushrooms for a few minutes.
  • Add the mushrooms to the meat.
  • Add the gherkins,
  • Pour the stock mixture into the casserole dish and put on the lid.
  • Cook in the oven until the meat is tender, this could be about 3 ½ hours  to  4 ½ hours but often I find it needs  longer.
  • *
  • I find that this is better cooked on one day and then reheated on the next.
  • *
  • Serve with boiled potatoes, mashed potatoes or rice.
  • *
  • Note – As the gherkins cook down – next time I would add them in the last hour of cooking.
  • *
  • Of course, this is reminiscent of Bigos, which is usually called Hunter’s Casserole – but here without the cabbage and sauerkraut.

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.

Cabbage & Gherkin Salad

I had half a sweetheart cabbage left after a meal and not much else in the fridge.

I put together the ingredients I had and got a delicious new salad.

Use red onions if you can as these give a good colour contrast.

Ingredients

  • ½ a sweetheart cabbage
  • 4-5 medium sized gherkins
  • 2 small red onions
  • 3 tablespoons of gherkins liquid from the jar
  • 2-3 tablespoons of full-fat mayonnaise
  • Salt & pepper

Method

  • Cut the cabbage into fine shreds.
  • Cut the gherkins into round slices.
  • Chop the onions into small pieces.
  • Mix the chopped ingredients with the gherkin liquid and the mayonnaise.
  • Season with salt and pepper.

 

 

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.

 

Chłodnik- 5- with Gherkins

Here is another classic, chilled starter for a summer’s day.  It will be the last for this summer –  I will be looking out for more for next year!

Ingredients

  • 3 -4 gherkins
  • Spring onion – green parts or chives
  • 500ml of yoghurt
  • Handful of dill
  • Gherkin liquor and cold water
  • Salt & Pepper & Sugar to taste
  • *
  • Hard boiled eggs to serve

Method

  • Chop the gherkins into small pieces.
  • Chop the spring onions or chives into small pieces.
  • Chop the dill into small pieces.
  • Thin down the yoghurt with gherkin liquor and water to suit.
  • Mix with the chopped gherkins.
  • Add dill and spring onions or chives.
  • Adjust the seasoning to taste.
  • Chill in the fridge for several hours.
  • *
  • Sprinkle with chopped hard boiled eggs to serve.

 

Served in Royal Doulton – Carnation – 1982 – 1998