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.
*
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.
Capparis spinosa isthe caper bush. The plant is best known for the edible, unripened flower buds – capers – kapary (in Polish) which areoften used as a seasoning and are usually pickled in brine, vinegar or wine.
These perennial plants are native to the Mediterranean and some parts of Asia. Their use dates back to around 2,000 BC where they are mentioned as a food in Sumerian literature.
The caper buds are picked by hand which can make the cost of a small jar expensive.
Pickled nasturtium (Tropaeolum maius) (nasturcja in Polish) seeds – often called poor man’s capers are a good substitute.
Cooking With Capers
Capers have long been used in the Mediterranean region especially in Italian cooking.
Capers are usually added to the dish toward the end of the cooking process, to keep their shape and flavour.
Sos kaparowy – Caper sauce
This is very popular in Poland and is made with chopped capers and mayonnaise and is served with hard-boiled eggs.
I was well into my 20s before I realised that there was a special French culinary phrase to describe, what to me, was just the regular topping that my mother and aunties put onto certain cooked vegetables.
Within my family I had never been served cauliflower, Brussels sprouts or whole green beans without a lovely crispy buttery breadcrumb mixture.
I have not discovered when this term was first used in France but some sources think it might have come into use in the early part of the 19th century when many Polish political émigrés came to France and in particular Paris.
Method for the Vegetables
Cook your cauliflower, Brussels sprouts or whole green bean in whatever way you like best.
You can if you wish cook the cauliflower whole – this can have quite a good effect when served.
I like to steam the vegetables as I find I can get them just right – cooked – but still with a bit of bite this way.
Steamed Brussels Sprouts
Place the cooked (and drained if necessary) vegetables in a serving dish.
Pour the buttery topping over the vegetables.
You will get a buttery crunchy taste which is a contrast to the vegetables.
Method for the à la Polonaise topping
Butter & BreadcrumbsPreparing the Breadcrumbs
The topping is made by melting in a saucepan 2 to 3 tablespoonfuls of butter.
(If you use unsalted butter then add a pinch or two of salt)
Melting the Butter
Add to this around 2 tablespoonfuls of dried breadcrumbs and keep on the heat and stir for a few minutes.
Preparing the BreadcrumbsButter & Breadcrumbs
Pour the buttery mix over the vegetables.
Cauliflower à la Polonaise – served in a Royal Doulton serving dish. The pattern is Carnation produced from 1982 to 1998.
Brussels Sprouts à la Polonaise – served in a Royal Doulton serving dish. The pattern is Roundelay produced from 1970 to 1997.
Royal Doulton – Roundelay
Whole green beans à la Polonaise
Added Note
Some cookery books say that chopped hard boiled eggs and chopped flat leaf parsley are added to the topping.
Personally I have not found this to be usually so, although chopped hard boiled eggs are added to many salads and to certain soups in Poland and chopped flat leafed parsley is very often used as a garnish.
Before the days of shops that sell fresh and frozen produce all year round from all over the world, this salad could be made in the autumn and winter using bottled or tinned vegetables.
This salad is made using mainly cooked chopped vegetables and the aim is to make it colourful and to balance the colours and size of the ingredients.
The main three colours are white, green and orange.
Salad in a Royal Doulton Dish – Carnation – 1982 to 1998
White
The white is achieved from: potatoes, celeriac or white beans such as haricot or cannellini or even tinned baked beans with the sauce rinsed off.
Green
The green is achieved from peas , whole green beans or gherkins. I use frozen peas or whole green beans.
Orange
The orange is achieved from carrots or bottled paprika.
The following salad was made from potatoes, carrots and whole green beans which were cooked before assembling.
Steam the Potatoes and Carrots
Boil or steam the whole green beans.
Once the vegetables have cooled then chop them into small pieces.
Mix the vegetables together with several tablespoonfuls of mayonnaise – original or light – just enough to lightly coat the vegetables.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Variation 1
Add 2 hard boiled eggs which have been chopped to the salad.
Mixed Vegetable Salad with Hard Boiled Eggs
Variation 2
Use Celeriac instead of potato.
Peel the celeriac then cut it up into large pieces and steam these – chop the cooked celeriac into smaller pieces when it has cooked and cooled.
Journey From A Polish Kitchen 