Gherkins – Journey From A Polish Kitchen

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

Chłodnik – 2 – Beetroot & Gherkin

Chłodnik means coolant and it is a refreshing start to a meal in summer.

This classic version is usually make with botwiny for which I cannot find a good translation into English.

Botwiny are young beetroots with the stalks and some leaves still attached. In Poland you can buy bunches of these for sale or you can pick them early from your garden or allotment. Here in England I have not see them for sale so if you want them you will have to grow them for yourself.

If you do have some you use all the parts – the roots, stalks and the leaves otherwise you just use cooked beetroot.

The classic version uses soured milk but unless you have access to this then Greek style natural yoghurt or soured cream and lemon juice are good alternatives.

I use beetroot concentrate which is convenient and very tasty.

1 tablespoon of beetroot concentrate to 250ml of yoghurt is a good proportion.

Ingredients

250g of cooked beetroots
3-4 gherkins
Spring onion – green parts or chives
500ml of yoghurt or 300ml soured cream
2 tablespoons of beetroot concentrate
Handful of dill
Lemon juice and gherkin liquor and cold water
Salt & Pepper & Sugar to taste
*
Hard boiled eggs to serve – ½ egg per person

Method

Chop the beetroot into small cubes.
Chop the gherkins into small cubes.
Chop the spring onions or chives into small pieces.
Chop the dill into small pieces.
Mix the yoghurt or soured cream & lemon juice with the beetroot concentrate.
Thin this down with lemon juice, gherkin liquor & water to suit.
Add the chopped beetroots, gherkins, dill and spring onions or chives.
Adjust the seasoning to taste.
Chill in the fridge for several hours.
*
Serve with quarters of hard boiled eggs and a sprinkle of chives or dill.

Served in Carnation by Royal Doulton – 1982 – 1998

Dutch Cold Dish & Other Salads

I recently returned from a trip to The Netherlands to visit my friend again.

I always have a great time visiting different parts of the country and enjoying the wonderful hospitality.

One dish I have had many times is Koudeschotel – this translates as Cold Dish.

I think it is a sort of “posh cousin” to several Polish cooked salads such as Potato Salad and Mixed Vegetable Salad.

It is often made in large quantities as the centrepiece in a buffet meal.

There is a central mound made with boiled potatoes mashed with mayonnaise, onions, peas, carrots and cooked meat like chicken, pork or beef.

This is then decorated with items such as hard boiled eggs, gherkins, silver-skin onions, prawns or shrimps, asparagus, tomatoes, cooked or smoked meats and dusted with a little sweet paprika.

The koudeschotel on my arrival from England this year.

If the central mound is made without meat it is sometimes called Huzarensalade – Huzar’s Salad.

Ingredients – for the central mound

The original recipe was for a large amount suitable for a big party – I have scaled it down.

1 Kg of cold boiled potatoes
Around 200ml of mayonnaise – real full fat is best
100g of cooked peas
1 large onion chopped fine
2 boiled carrots – diced
200g of cooked chicken, pork or beef – shredded (meat used to make soup or stock is good)
Salt & pepper to taste

Notes

Many supermarkets and delicatessens in The Netherlands sell this mixture ready made.