Tag: Smetana

Beetroots & Apples

This is a delicious way of serving beetroot warm with a roast dinner.

Ingredients

  • 500g boiled or roast beetroots
  • 2-3 cooking apples
  • 60g of butter
  • Juice and grated rind of a lemon
  • 2-3 tablespoons of creamed horseradish sauce
  • 125ml of soured cream
  • Salt & pepper to taste

Method

  • Grate the beetroots using a medium grater.
  • Peel and core the apples and grate using a medium grater.
  • Mix the beetroot and apple together.
  • Mix in the lemon rind and juice.

  • Melt the butter in a large shallow frying pan.
  • Gently cook the mixture in the butter stirring often.
  • Cook for around 5-10 minutes.
  • Take of the heat.
  • Add the horseradish sauce and the soured cream.
  • Mix well together.
  • Season to taste and serve immediately.

Serve in Royal Doulton – Carnation – 1982 – 1998.

Note

Should you have any left you can serve it cold with cold meats.

Green Early Summer Soup

In olden days, and even in Communist times in Poland, the only vegetables available in winter were root vegetables or preserved or bottled ones.

When sorrel leaves started to grow this marked the end of winter – a herald of spring and the start of fresh greens.

I grow sorrel in pots in my garden.

I posted a recipe for Polish sorrel soup nearly a year ago.  The following recipe does not require as much sorrel, though should you not have any sorrel at all, then use more spinach and another lemon.

Ingredients

  • 100g sorrel leaves
  • 100g of fresh spinach leaves (or use frozen)
  • ½ a head of a large lettuce
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 125ml soured cream
  • 2 egg yolks
  • Salt & Pepper if needed
  • *
  • Chopped hard boiled eggs – around 1 egg  per serving.

Method

  • Have the vegetable stock ready and hot in a saucepan.
  • Remove any thick stalks from the sorrel and spinach.
  • Chop the lettuce, sorrel and spinach.
  • Add them to the stock.
  • Bring to the boil and then simmer gently for around 5 minutes.
  • Take off the heat and leave to cool a little (for safety).
  • Blend the soup until you have a thick purée.
  • Adjust the seasoning if necessary.
  • Bring back to the boil.
  • In a small dish mix the soured cream with the egg yolks.
  • Take the pan off the boil and add the lemon juice
  • Stir in the soured cream mixture and then use a balloon whisk to mix it in.
  • Adjust the seasoning if needed.
  • *
  • Serve with chopped hard boiled eggs.

 

Soup plate – Royal Doulton – Burgundy – 1959-1981

Early Summer Soup

In the original recipe this was called spring soup.  I thought it a bit strange as not all the ingredients are out in spring – so I have re-named it to early summer soup.

Otherwise you could call it green leaves soup!

It is a really super soup – very tangy  with the sourness loved by Poles.

If you have the vegetable stock and some hard boiled eggs ready – then this is a very quick soup to make.

Some of the ingredients – growing in pots in my garden

It is hard to give exact amounts needed – around 500ml in volume of different leaves.

Ingredients

  • Large handfuls of sorrel
  • Large handfuls of spinach – or use frozen leaf spinach
  • Several sprigs of flat-leaved parsley
  • A stem of lovage or some celery leaves
  • 1 litre of vegetable stock – can be from a cube or concentrate.
  • 1 tablespoon of plain flour
  • 2 tablespoon of milk
  • 250ml soured cream
  • *
  • Hard boiled eggs – 1 per serving

Method

  • Have the vegetable stock ready and hot in a saucepan.
  • Remove all the leaves from the stalks.
  • Chop the leaves.
  • Add the leaves to the stock.
  • Mix the flour with the milk.
  • Add the flour mixture to the soup.
  • Mix well and simmer for 3 minutes.
  • Take the pan off the boil and stir in the soured cream.
  • Serve with a hard boiled egg chopped in half per serving.

Served in Royal Doulton – Carnation  1982- 1998

Celeriac & Carrot Soup

A variation on a simple celeriac soup with two options on how to serve.

Ingredients

  • 1 Celeriac
  • 3 Large carrots
  • 1 Onion – chopped
  • 1.5 litres of chicken stock (can be from cube or concentrate)
  • 2-3 Allspice grains
  • Butter to fry the onion
  • 5 tablespoons of tomato ketchup
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • *
  • To serve
  • *
  • Soured cream or
  • *
  • Fried potatoes & charred onions

Method

  • Peel the celeriac and chop into large chunks.
  • Peel the carrots and cut into large chunks
  • Lightly fry the onion in butter till golden.
  • Put the celeriac, carrots, fried onion and allspice into a pan of chicken stock.
  • Bring to the boil and then simmer with a lid on the pan until the celeriac and carrots are soft.
  • Leave to cool slightly.
  • Purée the soup – a stick blender is good for this.
  • Add the tomato ketchup.
  • Season to taste.
  • Bring the soup back to the boil for a couple of minutes.

To serve – 1

  • Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of soured cream and stir.

To serve – 2

  • Serve with fried potatoes and charred onions.

Served in Royal Doulton – Tapestry – 1966 – 1998

 

Turnips – 3 Ways!

White turnip – rzepa in Polish – is Brassica rapa, a root vegetable of the cabbage family.

 

3 Ways

  1. Raw & grated –  in a salad – surówka
  2. Cooked  & cold  – in a salad – sałatka
  3. Cooked & hot   – as a vegetable, side-dish with a meal

Raw & cooked, white turnip can be used instead of  celeriac or kohlrabi as in all of my posts:

Celeriac salads & More Celeriac salad recipes

Kohlrabi salads.

Various dressing can be used: lemon juice, soured cream, mayonnaise and yoghurt on their own or in various combinations.

Turnip, Carrot & Apple salad

Ingredients

2 Turnips

2 carrots

2  red skinned apples such as Braeburn or Pink Lady

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt & pepper to taste

 

Method

Peel and coarse grate the turnips and carrots.

Core the apples and chop into small pieces.

Mix them all together wth the lemon juice.

 

Cooked Turnip Salad – 1

Ingredients

2 turnips

2 carrots

Around 100g of cooked frozen peas

2 -3 tablespoons of mayonnaise (full fat is best for cooked vegetables)

Salt & pepper to taste

Method

Peel the turnips & carrots and steam them.

Chop them into rough cubes.

Mix them with the cooked peas and the mayonnaise

 

 

 

Cooked Turnip Salad – 2

As above with the addition of  3 to 4 chopped gherkins

 

Cooked Turnip – served hot

Peel and steam the turnip – not too much you do not want a watery pulp.

Rough mash the cooked turnip.

Serve hot with a variety of toppings.

Skwarki  – crispy smoked bacon bits

Chopped bacon is heated in a fryng pan until all the fat is released and the bacon pieces are crispy.

 

 

Slightly charred onion bits

Chopped onions are gently cooked in a little butter and then slowly heated until they are slightly charred.

 

 

Buttered breadcrumbs – à la polonaise.

 

 

Mushroom Soup

Grzyby is the Polish word for mushrooms.

Mushroom gathering in Poland is a National pastime and has been in the past, a source of food and income for many.

Mushrooms can be dried, pickled, salted and marinated.

On those damp misty days in autumn when in England people would think – what a dull day,  a Pole would wake up and think – Great, a good day for gathering mushrooms!

Most Poles think the best dried mushrooms are Boletus edulis, in Poland they are called borowik, prawdzik or prawdziwek(translates as  – the real thing!), in Italy porcini and I try and use these whenever I can.

Packets of dried mushroom in England tend to be 25g or 30g and can be of mixed types.

My father knew all about mushrooms but never really passed the knowledge on to me – mainly because of the limited availbility of transport to suitable woods around where we lived in Lancashire.

On my first visit to Poland I did go to Białowieża forest and went with a guide and collected lots of mushrooms including chanterelles which in Poland are called kurki.

Dried mushrooms feature in many Polish dishes including ones made for Wigilia – Christmas Eve.

Nowadays, the common field mushroom – Agaricus bisporus – is produced on a huge scale and makes up a large part of commercial mushroom production with Poland being the 3rd biggest producer in Europe, following Italy and The Netherlands.

Mushroom soup in olden days was nearly always made with just dried mushrooms.

I make my soup with both dried and fresh mushrooms.

As with all soups the quantities do not have to be exact.

You can make your own vegetable stock or use cubes or powder.

 

 

Ingredients

25-30g of dried mushrooms – Boletus edulis are good.

250g of fresh mushrooms  – chestnut type are good.

Around 125ml of soured cream

1 onion – diced

Butter to fry the onion

1 – 1.5 litres of vegetable stock – can be from power or a cube (I use Marigold bouillon)

2 tablespoon of cornflour – optional

Salt & Pepper to taste

Chopped Flat-leaf parsley or chives to garnish

 

 

 

 

Method

Start the night before by preparing the dried mushrooms.

Put the dried mushrooms in a jug or bowl and add around 250ml of boiling water.

Leave the mushrooms overnight.

Strain the mushrooms from most of the liquor – saving this for later.

Chop the mushrooms into smaller pieces.

Gently simmer the mushrooms in a little of the liquor for about 5 minutes.

Gently fry the diced onion in some butter till they are golden.

Seperate the caps from the stalks of the fresh mushrooms.

Thinly slice the fresh mushroom caps  – if the caps are large cut the slices into 2 or 3.

Optional

If the stalks are not too “woody”  – chop them into very small pieces  – otherwise discard them.

Add the mushrooms to the onions, mix and fry gently.

Into a large pan or stockpot, add the onions and mushroom, the re-constituted mushrooms and the liquor from the soaked mushrooms and mix well.

Add the  vegetable stock and bring the mixture to the boil, then cover with a lid and leave to simmer.

You could put the pot into a low oven around GM2 – 150°C.

Allow to simmer for a couple of hours.

Add the soured cream and stir gently – check for seasoning.

or

Mix the cornflour with some of the soured cream, add and stir to thicken, then add the rest of the soured cream.

Sprinkle with chopped parsley or chives to serve.

 

 

 

 

Served on Royal Doulton  – Carnation – 1982 – 1998  &  Queen Anne side plates – pattern name unkown.

Potatoes – po nelsońsku

  • Po nelsońsku  –  in Lord Nelson’s style –  is when mushrooms and soured cream are added to the sauce. (I have not been able to discover why this name is used.)
  • In the traditional version of this dish, dried mushrooms are used and are soaked overnight.
  • I have also made a version with dried and fresh mushrooms.
  • Floury potatoes such as King Edward or Maris Piper are the best for this dish.
  • Packets of dried mushroom in England tend to be 25g or 30g and I have used a full packet for the recipe (you can use more).
  • The best dried mushrooms are Boletus edulis, in Poland they are called borowik or prawdzik, in Italy porcini.
Dried Mushroom in Hot Water

Ingredients

  • 1 kg of floury potatoes
  • 10 -15g of dried mushrooms
  • 2 onions
  • 60ml of soured cream
  • 250 ml of milk for soaking the mushrooms & 125ml (or more) for the sauce
  • 100g of butter for frying the onions & the sauce
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons of plain flour
  • Salt & pepper

 

Method

  • Start the night before by preparing the mushrooms. Put the mushrooms in a jug or bowl and add around 250ml of boiling water. When this has cooled add around 250ml of milk.
  • Leave the mushrooms overnight.
  • Alternately you could start this very early in the morning and make the dish in the evening.
  • Boil the potatoes till nearly cooked and leave them to cool.
  • Slice the potatoes into around 2cm thick slices.
  • Strain the mushrooms from most of the liquor – saving this for the sauce.
  • You can chop the mushrooms into smaller pieces if you want.
  • Gently simmer the mushrooms in a little of the liquor for about 5 minutes.
  • Make a sauce by first melting 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan, add the flour, stir together with a wooden spoon and gently cook until you have a thick roux.
  • Slowly add the liquor from the soaked mushrooms and mix and heat till you have a thick sauce.
  • Add more milk if needed – you want a very thin pouring sauce.
  • Then add the soured cream and mix together.
  • Pre-heat the oven to GM 4 – 180°C

 

 

  • Halve the onions and thinly slice and then fry them till golden in some butter.
  • Butter a deepish ovenproof glass or ceramic dish.
  • Place a layer of potatoes on the bottom followed by the onions, then the mushrooms, some of the sauce and finish with a top layer of potatoes.

 

  • Season with salt and pepper as you go along.
  • Pour the rest of the sauce over the top.
  • Depending on the size and depth of the dish you could have more layers but always start and finsh with potatoes.
  • Bake in the oven for at least an hour (You can lower the temperature and leave to cook for much longer).
  • This goes well served with roast chicken or pork.

 

Served on Royal Doulton – Tapestry  1966 – 1988

Ingredients – Version 2

This has fewer dried mushrooms & fresh mushrooms are added.

  • 1 kg of floury potatoes
  • 10g of dried mushrooms
  • 100 – 150g of  fresh mushrooms (chestnut type are good)
  • 250 ml of milk for soaking the mushrooms & 125ml (or more) for the sauce
  • 100g of butter for frying the onions, mushrooms & the sauce
  • 2 onions
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons of plain flour
  • 60ml of soured cream
  • Salt & pepper

Method – Version 2

  • Start the night before by preparing the mushrooms. Put the mushrooms in a jug or bowl and add around 250ml of boiling water. When this has cooled add around 250ml of milk.
  • Leave the mushrooms overnight.
  • Alternately you could start this very early in the morning and make the dish in the evening.
  • Boil the potatoes till nearly cooked and leave them to cool.
  • Slice the potatoes into around 2cm thick slices.
  • Strain the mushrooms from most of the liquor – saving this for the sauce.
  • You can chop the mushrooms into smaller pieces if you want.
  • Gently simmer the re-constituted mushrooms in a little of the liquor for about 5 minutes.
  • Thinly slice the fresh mushroom caps and fry them gently in butter.
  • Mix the two types of mushrooms together.
  • Make a sauce by first melting 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan, add the flour, stir together with a wooden spoon and gently cook until you have a thick roux.
  • Slowly add the liquor from the soaked mushrooms and mix and heat till you have a thick sauce.
  • Add more milk if needed – you want a very thin pouring sauce.
  • Then add the soured cream and mix together.
  • Pre-heat the oven to GM 4 – 180°C
  • Halve the onions and thinly slice and then fry them till golden in some butter.
  • Butter a deepish ovenproof glass or ceramic dish.
  • Place a layer of potatoes on the bottom followed by the onions, then the mushrooms, some of the sauce and finish with a top layer of potatoes.
  • Season with salt and pepper as you go along.
  • Pour the rest of the sauce over the top.
  • Depending on the size and depth of the dish you could have more layers but always start and finsh with potatoes.
  • Bake in the oven for at least an hour (You can lower the temperature and leave to cook for much longer).
  • This goes well served with roast chicken or pork.

Version 3 – Less Expensive & Quicker

  • In Poland there are mushroom stock cubes which are very useful especially for making sauces.
  • Years ago I brought loads back to England, now you can find these in the many Polish food shops.
  • The ones I use are made by Knorr.  These stock cubes contain a small amount of dried mushroom extract.

 

  • Dissolve the stock cube im 250ml of  hot water, when this has cooled add around 250ml of milk.
  • Increase the amount of fresh mushrooms to 150 – 200g.
  • Follow the instructions as  for Version 2.

Lovely Liver!

For many people  – liver is love it or loath it.

I think certainly for me and most Poles it is love it!

The Polish for liver is wątroba – which means “waste maker” – as the liver is the organ in the body where substances are broken down.

In Poland the most sought after livers  are calves liver & rabbit liver.

My aunty in Białystok- cooked some rabbit liver for me when I  was there last – I thought it was utterly delicious  –  but as far as I am aware it is not readily available to buy in England.

I  see calves liver for sale more and more here in England and I  buy this whenever I can.

My mother always cooked pig’s liver, never ox liver.

I usually cook lambs liver if I cannot get calves liver.

I think liver is best lightly cooked, even slightly pinky,  it becomes hard and tough if over cooked.

There is a restaurant in Krakow called Dom Polonii ( House of the Poles) just off  Rynek Główny (Main Square) it serves very traditional dishes.

Rynek Główny (Main Square)

I like to eat there very much and can never make up my mind which dish I want the most. Their fried liver is super and I will have that at least once when I visit Kraków.

Liver is the main ingredient of  pâtés and similar dishes which are very popular in Poland –  I will look at these in future posts.

Cooking Liver

These recipes are all  variations on a simple theme.

I use calves or lamb’s liver for these recipes .

Preparing the liver

  • Depending on how it has been prepared by the butcher,  you might have to remove some veins or membranes.
  • Slice the liver into thin equal sized slices.
  • Dip each piece into a mixture of plain flour and ground black pepper.

 Simple Style Liver

  • Lightly pan fry the liver slices in a mixture of butter & sunflower oil on both sides.
  • Sprinkle on some Italian Herbs.
  • Add around 150 ml of chicken or vegetable stock (can be from a cube, concentrate or powder) … depends on the size of your pan.
  • Put the lid on the pan (a glass lid is good for this) and simmer gently for 2 -3  minutes.  (The time will depend on the thickness of the slices)

Liver with Soured Cream

  • Follow the instructions for the simple style but only cook for 1 -2 minutes.
  • Take the pan off the heat and add 2 tablespoons of soured cream and mix well.
  • Return to the heat  and allow to simmer for  1 -2 minutes.

Liver with Onions 1

In my old Polish cookery book  (my bible in many respects) this simple recipe (without the herbs) is called  …. po angielskiu  which means  …. English style!

Kuchnia Polska – Polish Kitchen or Polish Cookery
  • Thinly slice 1 or 2 onions (I like lots of onions with the liver).
  • Fry the onions in butter & sunflower oil till golden.
  • In a separate pan lightly pan fry the liver slices in a mixture of butter & sunflower oil on both sides.
  • Sprinkle on some Italian Herbs.
  • Add the onions to the fried liver and mix together and serve.

Liver with Onions 2

  • Thinly slice 1 or 2 onions (I like lots of onions with the liver).
  • In a pan, fry the onions in butter & sunflower oil till golden. (You can fry a little longer to slightly char or caramelise them if you like)
  • In a separate pan, lightly fry the liver slices in a mixture of butter & sunflower oil on both sides.
  • Sprinkle on some Italian Herbs.
  • Add around 150 ml of chicken or vegetable stock (can be from a cube, concentrate or powder) … depends on the size of your pan.
  • Put the lid on the pan (a glass lid is good for this) and simmer gently for 2 -3  minutes.  (The time will depend on the thickness of the slices).
  • This will give a tasty sauce with the liver.
  • Place the fried onions on top and serve.

Liver with Mushrooms

  • Thinly slice mushrooms around 100g of button mushrooms
  • Fry them gently in a mixture of butter & sunflower oil.
  • Add the mushrooms to the fried liver as in the simple style above and mix together.
  • Add around 150 ml of chicken or vegetable stock (can be from a cube, concentrate or powder) … depends on the size of your pan.
  • Put the lid on the pan (a glass lid is good for this) and simmer gently for 2 -4  minutes.  (The time will depend on the thickness of the slices).

Liver with Mushrooms & Soured Cream

  • Follow the instructions for the Liver with Mushrooms but only cook for 1 -2 minutes.
  • Take the pan off the heat and add 2 tablespoons of soured cream and mix well.
  • Heat up slowly and allow to simmer for  1 -2 minutes.

Served here on Royal Doulton – Carnation, 1982-1998

Serving suggestions

Sprinkle liberally  with chopped parsley.

All of the above go well with boiled potatoes, creamy mashed potatoes, boiled rice, noodles or pasta such as tagliatelle.

Zrazy – Meat Roll-ups

Zrazy (this word is plural) is a meat dish popular in Eastern Poland & Lithuania and can be traced back to the 16th & 17th century in the times  of the  Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569 – 1795).

(I have seen zrazy  translated as Meat Roll-ups, Meat Olives or Collops)

Classic zrazy have a rolled shape and are made of thin slices of  beef,  beaten with a mallet, which are stuffed with a variety of ingredients including  mushrooms.

You need to use beef which is good for  braising and slow cooking  –  I used a thin cut of topside and this worked very well.

 

The stuffed meat is rolled and secured with thread or thin string, then lightly fried and placed in a casserole dish with stock and slow cooked at a low temperature.

 

 

Stock

For the stock,  I  use chicken or vegetable stock (this can be from a stock cube or powder)  and add bay leaves, whole peppercorns and sometimes whole allspice.

 

 

 

Prior to serving, the threads are removed.

 

 

Zrazy are eaten with the sauce in which they were cooked, though extra ingredients can be added to this such as  soured cream, mushrooms or tomato.

You can add some cornflour to thicken the sauce.

Po nelsońsku  –  in Lord Nelson’s style –  is when mushrooms and soured cream are added to the sauce. (I have not been able to discover why this name is used.)

 

 

Here served on Royal Doulton – Carnation – 1982 – 1998

Zrazy are often served with buckwheat or boiled potatoes, and beetroot or sauerkraut salad.

Classic Ingredients for the Stuffing

There is no end to the variety of fillings you can use, the following are two traditional ones.

The amounts you need will vary according to how many zrazy you are filling – these are a guide to proportions.

Onions & Rye bread

1/2 slice of rye bread – made into breadcrumbs

1 onion – chopped and fried in butter till golden

1/2 teaspoon of caraway seeds

Salt & pepper

You can spread a little made up mustard onto the meat first.

 

 

 

Caraway Seeds

 

Dried Mushrooms

20g dried mushrooms  – add around 250ml of boiling water and soak these overnight – chop into small pieces then simmer in the liquid.

1 onion – chopped and browned in butter till golden

Add the onion to the mushrooms and continue simmering till most of the liquid is gone.

 

Add salt and pepper to taste.

 

 

Courgette Fritters

The first post on this blog was on 4 July 2015 – just over 2 years ago.

Now this will be my 100th post!

Although courgette fritters are not from an old Polish recipe they do have some similarity  to Polish potato pancakes and to carrot pancakes.

Courgette in Polish is cukini – so another vegetable that owes its name to Italian  – zucchini.

Courgettes belong to cucurbitaceae family as do cucumbers which are very well loved in Poland – so I am sure this recipe would be very popular there too.

I have read that courgettes did not become popular in Poland until the 1970s although the larger marrow and pumpkins were often cooked and many recipes for these can be used for courgettes.

The amounts in the ingredients are all approximate.

Ingredients

  • 2 to 3 courgettes
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tablespoons of soured cream, double cream, crème fraise or yoghurt cheese
  • 2 tablespoons of plain flour
  • Grated rind of 1 lemon
  • Salt
  • Sunflower oil for frying.

Method

  • Grate the courgettes using a coarse grater.
  • Sprinkle the courgettes with salt.
  • Place the salted courgettes onto a clean tea towel and place this in a colander for around 30 minutes.
  • Wrap the tea towel up and squeeze out the liquid from the courgettes.

Note

The green stains on the tea towel will come out in a hot wash but  do not use fabric softener for tea towels used for this and similar purposes.

Place the dried grated courgettes in a bowl and add the grated lemon rind.

  • Add the beaten egg and the soured cream (double cream, crème fraise or yoghurt cheese) and mix together.
  • Add the flour and mix thoroughly.
  • Heat the oil in a frying pan and use large tablespoonfuls of the mixture to make the fritters.
  • Fry them on both sides until they are golden brown.

Keep them on a heat proof plate  in a low heat oven whilst you make the rest.

  • You can place a sheet of kitchen roll on top of the first layer to stop them sticking.
  • Serve them with grilled meats and salad.

Option

A chopped red chilli or two and also a chopped garlic clove can be added to the mixture.