I have recently returned from a super, short holiday in Gdańsk and in one restaurant I saw on the menu pierogi (Polish filled pasta) which had leeks, peas and soured cream as a filling – I liked the idea of the sweetness of garden peas with leeks and thought I could adapt this and use it as a filling with buckwheat pancakes.
Buckwheat Pancakes
Ingredients
75g buckwheat flour
25g plain flour
2 eggs
125ml of milk (full or semi-skimmed)
125ml of water
25g of melted butter
pinch of salt
Some extra milk might be needed.
Method
Beat the eggs and add then them first to the sifted flour.
Add the milk mixture to the egg and flour mix until you have a batter the consistency of pouring cream.
Mix the milk with the water
Add the milk mixture to the egg and flour mix until you have a batter the consistency of pouring cream.
Leave the batter to stand for at least 1 hour in which time it will thicken, then add a little more liquid.
Use a special thin pan which you use just for pancakes, mine has a base diameter of 20 cm and is made of steel, once seasoned, just wipe it clean between uses with kitchen roll – never scour it or use detergent.
Work out how much batter you need for a pancake and find a measure which will then give you a consistent amount – I use a small ladle which holds 45ml.
Have a dish of melted butter or margarine and sunflower oil for frying so you can add just enough and tip some back if needed.
Heat the pan – you want a high heat but not too much to burn the pancakes – you will find you have to keep adjusting the heat. (As I cook using gas this is easy to do).
Using the ladle pour the mixture into the pan.
Tilt the pan so that the mixture covers the surface completely and evenly.
Cook the pancakes on one side and turn then over – you can make them up one by one or stack then up with a piece of greaseproof paper in between them. You can do this and leave then for later use.
Filling
3 leeks – chopped
100g frozen peas
2-3 tablespoons of butter
2 -3 tablespoons of soured cream
Using a deep large frying pan with a lid (a glass one is best), melt the butter and gently cook the leeks to soften them but not brown.
Add the frozen peas and cover with the lid and cook for a few minutes.
Stir the mixture and add the soured cream.
Place some of the mixture on a cooked pancake in the centre and out to the sides – but not quite to the edge.
Fold in two of the opposite sides and then roll up the pancake from the long end to make a long parcel.
Other Ways to use the Filling
The leek & pea mixture goes really well as a vegetable to serve with roast chicken.
Or heat some cooked chicken breast pieces with the leeks & peas.
I think some pasta would also be good with this, though have not yet tried this yet.
I have recently returned from a super, short holiday in Gdańsk and had several delicious breakfasts in a restaurant in the Old Town called Gvara- the name is based on the Polish word gwara which means dialect (Polish does not have the letter v !).
One of the breakfasts was buckwheat pancakes with a filling of chopped cucumber and smoked bacon, topped with a soft cooked egg and chives.
On my return I had to recreate this lovely dish.
Ingredients
Cooked buckwheat pancakes
Chopped cucumber and smoked bacon filling
Soft cooked egg – poached or lightly fried
Chopped chives or the green parts of spring onions.
The hardest part is getting getting all the parts cooked and warm at the same time.
Buckwheat Pancakes
Ingredients
75g buckwheat flour
25g plain flour
2 eggs
125ml of milk (full or semi-skimmed)
125ml of water
25g of melted butter
pinch of salt
Some extra milk might be needed.
Method
Make these in the same way as standard pancakes adding the melted butter after the batter has been standing for about an hour.
Beat the eggs and add then them first to the sifted flour.
Add the milk mixture to the egg and flour mix until you have a batter the consistency of pouring cream.
Mix the milk with the water
Add the milk mixture to the egg and flour mix until you have a batter the consistency of pouring cream.
Leave the batter to stand for at least 1 hour in which time it will thicken, then add a little more liquid.
Use a special thin pan which you use just for pancakes, mine has a base diameter of 20 cm and is made of steel, once seasoned, just wipe it clean between uses with kitchen roll – never scour it or use detergent.
Work out how much batter you need for a pancake and find a measure which will then give you a consistent amount – I use a small ladle which holds 45ml.
Have a dish of melted butter or margarine and sunflower oil for frying so you can add just enough and tip some back if needed.
Heat the pan – you want a high heat but not too much to burn the pancakes – you will find you have to keep adjusting the heat. (As I cook using gas this is easy to do).
Using the ladle pour the mixture into the pan.
Tilt the pan so that the mixture covers the surface completely and evenly.
Cook the pancakes on one side and turn then over – you can make them up one by one or stack then up with a piece of grease-proof paper in between them. You can do this and leave then for later use.
Filling
Cucumber
Smoked Bacon
Peel the cucumber and chop it into little cubes.
Cut the bacon into small squares and cook these in a frying pan – aiming for cooked but maybe not that crispy.
Whilst the bacon is still warm, mix it with the cucumber.
Place some of the mixture on the cooked pancake in the centre and out to the sides – but not quite to the edge.
Fold in two of the opposite sides and then roll up the pancake from the long end to make a long parcel.
Top the pancake with a soft cooked egg – poached or lightly fried.
Sprinkle with chopped chives or the green parts of spring onions.
Served on Royal Doulton – Carnation – 1982 to 1988.
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.
Daucus carota – the carrot – was cultivated from wild carrots in the countries we now know as Afghanistan & Iran and are mentioned there in the 10th century and by the 12th century they were mentioned in Europe.
These tap roots were originally white, yellow or purple in colour.
The orange colour that we recognise today was breed by growers in Europe in the 17th century especially in the Netherlands. It is thought that this was in honour of Prince William of Orange-Nassau (Willem van Oranje) who had an orange stripe on his flag. Nowadays orange is thought of as the national colour for the Netherlands.
These pancakes made with carrots in Polish are called racuszki z marchwi.
They are small round pancakes like American pancakes or dropped scones and are served with sugar or sweetened soured cream.
Ingredients
450g carrots, peeled and finely grated
140g twaróg/cream cheese or yoghurt cheese
2 eggs separated
3 tablespoons of plain flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
Sunflower oil for frying
To Serve
Caster sugar or soured cream sweetened with icing sugar.
Method
Whisk the whites until they are stiff.
In a small dish mix the baking powder with the flour.
In a large bowl mix together well the finely grated carrots, the cream (or yoghurt) cheese and the egg yolks.
Add the flour mixture.
Fold in the stiff egg whites.
Heat some sunflower oil in a cast iron frying pan or griddle.
Use 2 tablespoonfuls of the mixture for each pancake, cook on one side and then turn them over and cook on the other side.
Sprinkle with caster sugar or with a dollop of sweetened soured cream.
Served here on Wedgwood – Hathaway Rose – 1959 -1987.
Note
I have also tried them with maple syrup poured on them & these were also delicious.
A racuch – according to my dictionary is a kind of pancake.
Racuszki or racuchy are plural words for them- used much more as you never have just one! They are small thick pancakes similar to dropped scones, Scotch pancakes or American style pancakes.
In my old Polish recipe book, the recipe uses soured milk, but as I do not have this, I use my own thick yoghurt instead.
Racuszki
1 egg
250ml yoghurt
200g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
large pinch salt.
Method
In a large bowl mix the flour, pinch of salt, the egg and some of the yoghurt, mix it with a wooden spoon. I found my new one with a hole in it which I bought in The Netherlands very good for this.
Keep adding the yoghurt (and some water if needed) and mix till you get a batter which is thick and then beat it more till it is smooth and glossy.
Then add the bicarbonate of soda and give this a final mix.
Use a griddle or thick cast iron frying pan and use oil to grease it lightly and heat it up.
You need to try and keep a low to medium heat so as not to burn the pancakes.
Place tablespoonfuls of the batter on the frying pan and cook until the base is set and golden then turn them over and cook the other side.
They are traditionally served warm with jam or thick fruit syrup – caster sugar also goes well.
With Sour Cherry Jam
Yoghurt Cheese Pancakes
I have recently been to The Netherlands to stay with my friend and was looking at the local newspaper and saw a recipe for pancakes using qwark (I can manage enough Dutch words to figure out some recipes – especially if there is a photograph!)
I thought they sounded very much like racuszki, so I jotted the recipe down and when I came home I adapted it slightly by using self raising flour, adding a little vanilla essence and used my own yoghurt cheese instead of qwark.
In the original recipe they served them warm with yoghurt & honey, I also tried them with melted butter & sugar, and with maple syrup – from the large bottle I got from my friend who lives in Canada.
They were super and ones I had left could be easily reheated and were still soft and not rubbery – I will be using this recipe lots from now on.
Ingredients
2 eggs separated
2 tablespoons sugar
250g yoghurt cheese
200ml milk (you might not need it all)
125g self raising flour
Pinch salt
2-3 drops of vanilla essence
Method
Whisk the egg whites until they are stiff – I tend to do this first so you can use the beaters for the rest of the recipe – without having to wash them to remove the grease.
In a large bowl mix the egg yolks, sugar, yoghurt cheese, flour, pinch of salt, vanilla essence and around half the milk.
Keep adding more milk and mix well until you have a thick batter – like double cream.
With a metal spoon fold in the stiff egg whites.
Use a griddle or thick cast iron frying pan and use oil to grease it lightly and heat it up.
You need to try and keep a low to medium heat so as not to burn the pancakes.
Place tablespoonfuls of the batter on the frying pan and cook until the base is set and golden then turn them over and cook the other side.
Ciocia* Pola’s Apple Racuszki
*Aunty
Many years ago I went to stay with my one of mother’s sisters (Apolonia) who lived in the area called mazury – the Masurian Lake District in North East Poland.
With apples from the garden she made racuszki – using a thick yeast risen batter and roughly chopped apples – a cross between a pancake and a fritter. They were delicious.
I have made them here many times using her recipe. Whilst researching and checking other variations I saw that several recipes used grated apples – these came out stodgy with little taste of the apple – you need to keep the pieces fairly large.
Ingredients
125 ml of milk (full or semi-skimmed)
25g caster sugar and 1 teaspoon
10g fresh yeast or 5g dried yeast
25g butter
1 egg
125g plain flour
pinch of salt
2 Bramley apples
Icing sugar, caster sugar or cinnamon sugar to dust.
Method
Warm half the milk and add a teaspoon of caster sugar and the yeast and mix it all together and leave it to froth up.
Melt the butter and leave it to cool.
Whisk the egg with the sugar until it is thick and creamy.
Put the flour and salt into a large bowl.
Use a wooden spoon (one with a hole works really well) and beat in the yeast mixture, the egg & sugar mixture and then the melted butter.
Slowly add the rest of the milk, mixing until the mixture has the consistency of double cream.
Cover the bowl with a cloth and leave this to rise.
Peel, core and quarter the apples and cut them into small chunks or slices cut in half.
Add the apples to the risen batter and mix them well in to coat them.
Use a griddle or thick cast iron frying pan and use oil to grease it lightly and heat it up.
You need to try and keep a low to medium heat so as not to burn the pancakes.
Place large tablespoons of apple and batter onto the pan and cook them so that they are golden brown on both sides.
Remove them from the pan and dust them with icing sugar, caster sugar or cinnamon sugar.
Eat them whilst they are hot & as they say in Poland – Smacznego! (may they be delicious!)
Buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum) is used very much in Polish cookery as the plant grows well in a cold climate. Buckwheat requires a well drained soil but without too much fertiliser – lots of fertiliser reduces the yield. It is not in fact a grass or cereal crop but the flour is used in much the same way as wheat.
Buckwheat is related to sorrel and rhubarb and has small triangular seeds. The plant originated in South East Asia and then was brought to Europe.
I have read that it came to Poland via Manchuria and Siberia but the Polish word for buckwheat – grykaindicates that it came from the Greeks – I have also read that the plant was brought to areas of what are now Eastern Poland, Russia & the Ukraine in the 7th century by Byzantine Greeks.
Another regional word used in Polish for buckwheat is hreczka – this again suggests a Greek origin.
Photographs from the book Kuchnia Polska by Maciej Kuroń
The triangular seeds have a strong scent which is quite distinctive and the flour is grey/speckled black in colour. It is mixed with wheat flour to make pancakes and bliny.
Bliny are popular in Eastern Poland and in the area called Kresy – the Eastern Borderlands – from where both my parents came as well as in the Ukraine and Russia.
The word bliny is plural – I doubt very much if the singular blin is much used!
Bliny are best cooked on a griddle or a cast iron frying pan.
Bliny are small risen pancakes made using yeast they are in the American style of pancake.
Bliny can be served warm or cold – I much prefer them warm!
Bliny
Ingredients
80g plain flour
80g buckwheat flour
1 egg
125 ml warm milk (full or semi-skimmed)
125 ml warm water
25g fresh yeast or 1 tablespoon of dried yeast
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of melted butter
Pinch of salt
Method
Put the yeast, sugar and milk in a bowl and leave to rise. (You can place this over bowl of warm water).
Wheat Flour & Buckwheat Flour
In a large bowl mix the flours together and add yeast mixture and then the beaten egg.
Add the water bit by bit until the mixture is like pouring cream, you might not need it all.
Add the pinch of salt and the melted butter then cover with a cloth and leave to rise.
Use the risen batter to make small pancakes by using 1 large tablespoon per pancake – I make 3 or 4 at a time in my lightly greased cast iron pan.
Once you get the pan hot, lower the heat to a steady low so as not to burn the bliny.
Once they are cooked on one side, turn then over using a spatula and cook for a few minutes more.
Serving suggestions
Serve the bliny with any of the following: melted butter, soured cream, twaróg, yoghurt cheese or cream cheese, smoked salmon, pickled herrings or even caviar, gherkins, fried onions, skwarki (crispy bacon bits) fried mushrooms and one of my favourites a fried egg.
Served With Yoghurt Cheese and Chopped Parsley
Served with Melted Butter
Buckwheat Pancakes
These are thin pancakes and are also very popular in Northern France where they are called gallettes de sarrasin.
The French for buckwheat is sarrasin or blé noir.
Many years ago whilst on holiday in France I bought and brought home a very large French pancake pan.
However on my gas stove it is too large for a good distribution of heat – you get a hot spot in the centre which tends to burn that part – so I use my smaller pancake pan.
Last week whilst in a department store in Leeds I saw the following – An Electric Crêpe Pan – It might be good.
Ingredients
75g buckwheat flour
25g plain flour
2 eggs
120ml of milk (full or semi-skimmed)
120ml of water
25g of melted butter
pinch of salt
Some extra milk might be needed.
Method
Make these in the same way as standard pancakes adding the melted butter after the batter has been standing for about an hour.
I think these pancakes are best with savoury fillings and my favourite is in fact French in origin, Breton style with a slice of good ham, grated Gruyère cheese and a soft fried egg.
The fillings are put on the cooked pancake and the sides are folded over but with the filling still showing in the centre. (You can put this back on the pan to heat it a little more.)
Melted Butter & Grated Cheese
Melted Butter, Grated Cheese & Fried Egg
Poffertjes
These mini buckwheat pancakes are Dutch in origin and it was only as I was trying out the recipes again that I realised how similar they are to bliny – but these are not served with savoury toppings but with icing sugar.
(The Dutch for buckwheat is boekweit)
Several decades ago when on a visit to The Netherlands I bought a special cast iron pan which is used for making poffertjes .
It was in the days before cheap flights & just hand luggage and I had travelled there by car – not as easy to bring home without.
If you do not have access to the authentic pan you can make them on a frying pan – my cast iron pan works very well.
Cast Iron Proffertje Pan with 19 Indentations
Poffertjes
Ingredients
10g dried yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
125g buckwheat flour
125 plain flour
Pinch of salt
1 egg
350ml of full fat or semi-skimmed milk – warmed slightly
1 tablespoon of butter – melted
Icing sugar to serve.
Method
In a small bowl or jug dissolve the sugar, the yeast and around 50 ml of the milk.
Leave for around 10 minutes or so as it froths up.
In a separate bowl, combine the buckwheat and wheat flours, salt, egg, yeast mixture and half the remaining milk and mix well.
Now add the remaining milk until the mixture is like double cream – you might not need all the milk.
Add the melted butter.
Cover the bowl and leave for around 1 hour until the mixture has bubbled and risen.
Lightly grease the pan and heat the pan – keep it the pan warm but not too hot or you will burn the poffertjes.
Using a teaspoon fill each indentation in the pan – you need around 2 teaspoons for each.
Turn the poffertjes around as soon as the bottom has set, using two forks.
Dredge the poffertjes with lots of icing sugar.
Using a Cast Iron Frying pan
Canadian Alternative!
One of my friends who now lives in Canada brought me a large bottle of maple syrup on her last visit and I tried this over the poffertjes instead of the icing sugar – they were delicious.
Naleśniki are thin pancakes like the French crêpes. Their name comes from the Polish verb to pour.
In Poland pancakes are eaten all year round, with either savoury or sweet fillings, and not just before Lent. (In fact pancakes are not amongst the special foods eaten before this time of fasting).
We used to have then about once a week but I never seemed to have been involved much in their making except for spreading the fillings on, so when I started to make them myself I had lots of disasters!
My pancakes were always a bit hit and miss. Often the constancy was not constant nor the thickness and nearly always the first one of the batch would stick to the pan and have to be thrown away.
Then I looked up the recipe in my old Polish cookbook, made a few telephone calls to various relatives and also followed Delia Smith’s advice and bought a special frying pan which I use only for pancakes.
Kuchnia Polska – 15th Edition 1971
So I now I think I know the secrets of making perfect pancakes and these I will now pass on.
Sift the flour
You must use a mixture of milk and water – 50/50 is the best – this ensures that the pancakes do not burn as easily and also enables you to make then very thin and elastic so they are easy to work with. (This is the most important tip).
Beat the eggs and add then them first to the sifted flour.
Add the milk mixture to the egg and flour mix until you have a batter the consistency of pouring cream.
Leave the batter to stand for at least 1 hour in which time it will thicken, then add a little more liquid.
Use a special thin pan which you use just for pancakes, mine has a base diameter of 20 cm and is made of steel, once seasoned, just wipe it clean between uses with kitchen roll – never scour it or use detergent.
Work out how much batter you need for a pancake and find a measure which will then give you a consistent amount – I use a small ladle which holds 45ml.
Have a dish of melted butter or margarine and sunflower oil for frying so you can add just enough and tip some back if needed.
Ingredients
200g plain flour
2 eggs
200 ml milk (full or semi-skimmed)
200 ml water
pinch of salt
This amount makes around 8 pancakes.
I remember this recipe as it is all the 2’s for ease, but it will depend on the flour and the size of the eggs, you might not use all the milk & water mixture or you might just need a little more.
Heat the pan – you want a high heat but not too much to burn the pancakes – you will find you have to keep adjusting the heat. (As I cook using gas this is easy to do).
Pancake Batter & Ladle
Using the ladle pour the mixture into the pan.
Tilt the pan so that the mixture covers the surface completely and evenly.
Cook the pancakes on one side and turn then over (or toss them English style), you can make them up one by one or stack then up with a piece of greaseproof paper in between them. You can do this and leave then for later use
There are many recipes for pancake fillings both savoury and sweet.
I think the 2 most popular sweet fillings in Poland are sweet curd cheese (see a previous post) and stewed apples with cinnamon.
Pancakes with sweet fillings are normally folded into triangles – fan -shaped by folding the pancake into half and half again.
Pancakes with savoury fillings are normally rolled up and often then put in a dish, topped with a sauce or grated yellow cheese and put in the oven for a time.
In these instructions I have used photographs of pancakes being made with the sweet curd cheese filling.
Frying the PancakeSweet Curd Cheese FillingSpread with FillingFolded in HalfAnd Half AgainDusted with Icing Sugar
I find two are enough for me!
You can make the filled pancakes in advance prior to dusting them with icing sugar and then heat them up on both sides – using the pancake pan again – maybe with the addition of a little butter. Then dust them with icing sugar.
This sweet fresh curd cheese mixture is one that is used as a filling for pancakes in Poland.
You can make this mixture with twaróg – curd cheese, cream cheese or yoghurt cheese.
Use 1 packet of cheese, usually 200g – 300g , to this add 2 to 3 tablespoons of soured cream and 2 to 3 tablespoons of icing sugar and mix this together till you get a smooth mixture. You can add 2 to 3 drops of vanilla essence. Do not add too much sugar – you want the contrast of sweetness & sour.
Sweet Curd Cheese MixturePancake Spread With Sweet Curd Cheese MixturePancakes Folded Polish Style with Sweet Curd Mixture Dusted with Icing Sugar
