Tag: Red Kidney Beans

Pierogi – Mexican Inspired

    • I have been trying out new fillings for pierogi – all with chicken – here is the second.
    • This was on the menu in a restaurant in Kraków that I went to a few years ago  – I did not choose this but noted it down.
    • The filling is  made with cooked chicken as usual and  I have found that chicken thighs make a tastier dish than chicken breast.
    • I cooked the chicken as for  rosȯł – chicken soup.
    • You can mince the chicken and beans but I used a mini-chopper, which gave a great smooth filling.
    • This makes a lot of filling so I  have given instructions for 500g of flour for the dough.
    • The amount of chilli will vary depending on how fresh your chilli powder is and your tastes.
    • Use paprika instead of chilli if you do not like food hot.

Ingredients – Filling

  • Tin Kidney beans – drained
  • 250 – 350g cooked chicken
  • 2- 3 teaspoons chilli powder  (to taste or paprika)
  • 1 tablespoon of melted butter
  • 2 egg yolks
  • Salt & pepper to taste

Method – Filling

  • Mash the beans well or use a mini chopper.
  • Mince the chicken or use a mini chopper.
  • Combine the chicken and beans.
  • Add the melted butter and the egg yolks and mix well.
  • Add the chilli and season to taste.

To Serve

  • Serve with melted butter.
  • Serve with onions – char cooked in butter.
  • Serve with onions cooked with chopped peppers – can also add some chopped fresh chilli.
  • Serve with melted butter with chilli flakes add – NOT tested.

How to make pierogi

Ingredients – Dough

  • 500g pasta flour or plain flour & 2 tablespoons of fine semolina
  • 300ml water
  • 1 -2  tablespoons oil – sunflower or light olive
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 egg yolks

Method – Dough

    • In a jug or bowl mix together the water, oil and the yolk.
    • Put the flour and salt into a large bowl and make a well in the centre.
    • Pour in the liquid from the jug and initially use a knife to mix this into the flour and then use your hands to mix the liquid and flour to get a ball of dough.
    • Turn this out onto a floured board and knead the dough for a few minutes until you have a smooth ball.
    • Cover and leave to rest for about ½ an hour.
    • *
    • Cut the dough into quarters.
    • Prepare a large tray and cover it with a clean cotton or linen tea towel and sprinkle this with flour.
    • On a floured board roll out the dough a quarter at a time until you have a sheet of thinly rolled dough.
    • Cut out circles using a 7 cm diameter cutter.
    • The excess dough can be re-mixed and rolled out again.
    • Around a half tablespoon of filling is put on  each circle and then they are folded over and the edges pinched together to make a good seal.
    • You learn from experience how much filling to put in as too much will make it hard to seal them and if not properly sealed they will burst on boiling.  Do not worry if you have a few mishaps – it still happens – even with experience – it is hard to salvage one that has gone wrong – just accept that there will be a few that you do not cook.
    • Place the sealed pierogi on prepared tray until they are all made, do not let then touch each other.
    • *

    • To cook the pierogi

    • Use a large pan of boiling water to which you have added some salt and a drizzle of oil.
    • Drop the pierogi in one by one and allow them to boil.  I usually do about 5 to 6 at a time.
    • As they cook they will float to the surface, let them boil for 2 minutes and then remove them with a slotted or perforated spoon and put into a colander above a pan for a few seconds to drain and serve with melted butter.
    • Continue boiling batches in the same water.
    • If you want to make all the pierogi to serve together then you need to get a large oven proof dish.
    • Melt lots of butter in the dish.
    • Keep the dish warm in a low oven.
    • As you take out the cooked pierogi add them to the dish and coat them with the melted butter.
    • Keep on adding more as they cook.

Polish Beans – American Style

I believe this recipe is very popular in America and I think it is a sort of second generation recipe which is made up from memories of  dishes from Poland and some adaptations using local ingredients.

I feel this is a blend of two previous bean recipes Beans – po Staropolsku (in an old Polish style) which has a lot of sweetness using prunes and honey and Breton beans with tomato sauce.   Here the sweetness is from maple syrup (I still had some from my friend who now lives in Canada – so thought of her as when making this).

Ingredients

Note – these quantities do not have to be exact.

200 -300g kielbasa – Polish sausage

200 – 300g smoked bacon

400 – 500g minced beef

2 small onions

4 large tins of different beans (butter beans, canellini, haricot, red kidney etc) – some recipes say that using some butter beans is a must!

3 tablespoons of tomato puree

1 tablespoon of made-up mustard

1 tablespoon of wine or cider vinegar

250ml maple syrup

Ground black pepper

Sunflower oil for frying

Method

Pre-heat the oven to GM3 160°C

Drain the beans and place then into an ovenproof dish with a lid.

Chop the onions into small pieces and fry them up in a little oil.

Chop the bacon into small pieces and add these to the onions and fry them together.

Slice and chop the sausage and add this to the onions and bacon.

Add the minced meat  to the mixture and fry this up for a few minutes.

Add this mixture to the beans in the dish.

Mix in the tomato puree, mustard, vinegar, maple syrup and black pepper.

Put the lid on the dish.

Cook for around 3 hours in the oven until the beans are soft.

 

Note

This is suitable for making in a slow cooker.

This can be eaten as a dish on its own or served with bread.

 

 

Salad With Leeks

The recipe for this salad with leeks  was given to me by one of my cousins in Białystok, Poland.

This salad goes well with cold meats & smoked Polish sausages, but with all its ingredients it can even be a little meal on its own.

Vegetable names in Polish

Leek in Polish is por & in Italian it is porro

Many vegetable names in Polish have origins in Italian, this is because when, the Italian Princess, who became Queen Bona of Poland on her marriage to King Zygmunt the Old, came to Poland in the 16th Century with her chefs she introduced many vegetables into the Polish diet – the most notable being the tomato . Because of this many of the Italian names or slight variations of them have become the names used in Polish.

There is also Włoszczyzna – which means Italian  stuff  – is it used in Polish cookery all the time – it translates as soup vegetables  and is mixture of: carrots, celeriac or celery leaves, leek or onion, parsnip or parsley root & parsley leaves & sometimes savoy cabbage which is used as the base for many soups and casseroles.  When written in a recipe every Polish cook will know what it is though some may have different versions of the mixture.

Although this is not an old Polish recipe it is certainly in the traditional Polish style with cooked vegetables and hard boiled eggs.

The chopped hard boiled eggs  to garnish is very much in the tradition of à la polonaise.

Cheese is used in this recipe and is the type that is called  ser zółty  – yellow cheese and is of the semi-hard type such as Edam, Gouda or Massdam from the Netherlands  which you can buy in England.

Gouda – The Last Thursday In August – 2013

The last Thursday in August is always the  last cheese market of the year in Gouda.

Red kidney beans and sweetcorn are also used in this recipe. Now my father would never eat sweetcorn – he considered it fit only for animal fodder – as this was what it would have been used for in his youth!

Ingredients

You can vary the quantities to what you have available – the ones below are for guidance.

2 leeks  – the white part finely chopped

1 tin of red kidney beans – drained

I small tin or half a large tin of sweetcorn – drained

“Yellow” cheese such as Edam, Gouda or Maasdam – chopped into small cubes

2 hard boiled eggs – very finely chopped or grated.

3 tablespoons of mayonnaise

2 teaspoons of ketchup or tomato purée

Salt & pepper to taste

Method

In a large bowl mix together the leeks, red kidney beans, sweetcorn & cheese.

In a small bowl mix together the mayonnaise and ketchup or tomato purée.

 

Mix the  dressing with the vegetables combining it all well.

Add salt & pepper to taste.

Place the salad into a serving bowl and sprinkle the chopped or grated hard boiled eggs  over the top.

The serving dish is Royal Doulton – Carnation – 1982-1998.