Witamy! Laura has been away for a while so if I want to eat at home, it’s on me to cook. Soup and sandwiches get tiresome very fast! Although I enjoy cooking, when I’m flying solo, simple and easy is the way to go. Prep time needs to be quick, otherwise I’m turning the page. Know what I mean??
Have you seen those TV commercials that declared pork as “the other white meat” It’s true because pork production has improved a lot and we no longer have to cook it to “flavor-death” for safety’s sake. Whenever I’m grilling chops over a direct flame, a tiny hue of pink in the middle is my goal.
We love pork because it is so versatile and hard to screw up -- as long as you don’t dry it out. And I’m a huge fan of stewed sauerkraut, as in our iconic Hunter’s Stew recipe (Bigos, Page 49). It has a natural tang which pairs beautifully with almost any meat, and it just sings when you add layers of additional flavorings such as mushrooms, tomato or apple. Whether sweet or savory, sauerkraut is one of my favorite foods.
So yesterday I stopped by our grocery store’s meat case and picked up a couple of bone-in loin chops (tip: bone-in has more flavor) about one inch thick and a small, one-pound bag of sauerkraut.
• About 2 hours before I was ready to eat, I stopped working on our new book (Polish Classic Desserts) and grabbed a handful of Eastern European dried forest mushrooms (bought in bulk on EBay) from our stash in the pantry, and put them in a big mug of hot water (12 ounces) to soak. Don’t throw away the mushroom water – it has great flavor;
• Next, I put a tablespoon of oil into a deep skillet, browned the chops, set them aside, and lightly golden-browned a small chopped onion - making sure the heat didn’t get too high to burn the brown stuff in the bottom of the pan;
• With a hard spatula I scraped and loosened the bottom of the pan, leaving the brown stuff IN the pan for flavoring;
• Then I rinsed the sauerkraut really well to help mellow out the flavor;
• The sauerkraut and mushrooms went back in the pan with some additional flavoring. For a sweeter style you could add half an apple which has been cut into wedges. Personally, I prefer a more savory taste and added a bay leaf and one teaspoon of caraway seeds;
• Tossed in some salt and pepper, stirred lightly to blend all the flavorings, and the chops went back in the skille, kind of pushed down into the sauerkraut;
• Finally, the mushroom water was poured over the top, covered the skillet tightly with a lid, and cooked on a very low simmer for an hour or so;
• Once or twice I checked the skillet to make sure the liquid hadn’t evaporated. The easy test for doneness is to stick a fork in the chop -- after an hour the pork should be almost falling off the bone and the fork should twist easily;
• Mashed potatoes are a favorite with this dish, but any green vegetable is healthier. In Poland they’d be serving this with shots of ice-cold vodka, but I don’t care to drink alone, so a glass of hearty red wine did the trick.
So I spent less than six bucks on the pork and sauerkraut, less than 20 minutes prepping, and I got two meals out of it. It was full of big bold flavors, the pork was moist, and the whole dish was pretty healthy, so that goes down as a big win. Polish Pork and Sauerkraut – yum! Smacznego!
(Photo from Food.com)
Witamy! How was your Easter holiday? Did you have Polish Easter lunch, or Easter dinner? Did your family hold to any of the traditions? Our dinner was late this year, about 5 PM, and pretty casual. Family had been driving most of the day and there just wasn’t much time to put together a full-up festive feast. Except for the addition of our American favorites such as cheesy potatoes and scalloped apples, our meal was still pretty Polish. We had a spiral sliced ham which was garnished with Cwikla (shredded beets and horseradish), and Polish sour cream mustard sauce and Laura made a bowl of traditional vegetable salad. These all came from straight from our book and from Babcia’s table over one hundred years ago. We shared the egg with Easter wishes, and our little granddaughter proudly said “amen” at the end of the blessing.
But I have to be honest with you...the next few days after the main attraction are tasty as well because Easter leftovers can be amazing. Since most of the dishes are served cool or at room temperature, snacking right from the storage containers in the fridge is absolutely allowed. For several days my spoon never leaves the counter next to the fridge. To that end we’re now more strategic since we buy our ham about 50% larger than needed on the day of the big feast.
One of our favorite ways of using up extra ham is in fact a very traditional Polish dish – ham and noodle casserole. Full of fragrant dill and topped with a crusty lid of breadcrumbs hiding chunks of ham and buttery noodles, Laura has taken the heritage recipe to the next level, and it’s pretty gosh darn good! Smacznego!
Ham and Egg Noodle Casserole (Serves 4)
3 cups cooked egg noodles
2 cups chopped ham
3 to 4 tablespoons chopped green onions
1 to 2 tablespoon fresh dill, finely chopped
1 tablespoon bacon drippings (or melted butter)
½ cup grated cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons butter, melted
4 tablespoons breadcrumbs (Panko style if you have it)
Mix the noodles with the ham, bacon drippings, green onions and dill and place in a oven-safe baking dish. Mix the breadcrumbs, butter and grated cheese and sprinkle over the top. (Note: add more breadcrumbs if the topping seems too wet or mushy). Bake at 400 °F for 35 minutes. At the end, put under the broiler for just a minute or two to toast the breadcrumb topping until golden. Pair with your favorite green vegetable.
Washes down very nicely with tomato juice, a light beer or slightly sweet wine such as Reisling or Pinot Gris.
Witamy i Wesolych Swiat! (Greetings and Happy Holiday)As I approach my 64th Easter, the anticipation of my favorite traditional Polish foods has not wavered one bit! Easter is one of the two biggest culinary feasts of the year for most Poles. Curiously, my memories of Easter celebrations go back much farther than Christmas, even though as a child I usually associated Christmas with getting and giving gifts. But for some reason my lips get smacking more at Easter – perhaps because I have always enjoyed the traditional dishes so much. This past year we have been travelling up and down the east coast signing our book at many Polish church festivals. We often get big thanks from our new friends for including the heritage recipes in our book.
About a week before Easter, my assignment always was and still is to dye a batch of hard boiled eggs – five colors with each fizzy tablet dissolved in a coffee mug cup of boiling water with a splash of vinegar. I keep dunking to get the brightest hue possible. After they dry we shine them up with a bit of cooking oil.
Then there's the butter lamb. Most of the time we could buy one at a Polish deli and it rested in the freezer until the big day. It always sat on the table next to a chocolate rabbit, and when we got to dessert, I always had to bite off the head to see if it was hollow or solid. Getting the first bite into that rabbit was a morbid but delicious privilege. A few years ago Laura found a lamb mold and she has been making her own Easter lambs…but special care must be taken to fill the mold completely, otherwise we would end up with a deformed lamb – not a pretty sight. This year it'll be the white chocolate rabbit.
A few of the traditions we followed when I was growing up have since become “Americanized” but we still exchange bits of hardboiled egg and exchange Easter wishes to each other – the same as we do at Christmas with a blessed wafer. Our menu hasn’t changed much from the early years...things get serious shortly after coming home from church and we're all hungry. After sharing the egg, we sit down and start with the clear Barszcz (page 29) which is served hot "on the side" in elegant china cups. The rest of dinner is served chilled or at room temperature. There’s always a ham, and several varieties of kielbasa (always from a Polish deli).
There's a big bowl of Polish Vegetable Salad (page 22) and on the side we always have a pale yellow, sour cream and mustard sauce (to kick up the meats, plus Cwikla (page 49)- a relish made of chopped beets and prepared horseradish, which definitely kicked everything up in a big way! I I’ve always loved big flavors and when my Mom used prepare the Cwikla,
and wasn’t looking, I would sneak in an extra tea spoon of horseradish, but somehow I always got caught because my eyes watered from the “kick”. Years ago back in Pittsburgh, my Mom always got our ham from the Polish market and I particularly remember that it was a lot leaner and had a milder flavor than American brands. It was absolutely not salty in the least. My Mom always said that Polish pigs were fed potatoes which gave them that milder flavor. I don’t know how true that was but it certainly sounded plausible. These days we go for a honey-glazed spiral sliced variety, just because it’s easier.
Desserts included one or two Mazurkas, a Baba, and occasionally a Polish cheese cake. Our book contains recipes for most of the traditional foods, tested and adjusted for modern kitchen techniques. If you get a copy you’ll be all set. And our new book, Polish Classic Desserts, which we are working on right now, will have many of the classic Easter baked goods.
Here is a Baba recipe that I particularly like because of the rum that flavors the icing.
BATTER
1/3 cup margarine, melted
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
1½ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 tablespoons milk
1 grated orange rind
½ cup raisins (optional)
ICING
1 cup sugar
½ cup water
¼ cup orange juice (no pulp)
¼ cup white rum\
2 tablespoons candied orange rind, chopped (optional)
1 tablespoon orange zest (optional)
Batter – Place all the ingredients in a bowl and beat with a mixer for 5 minutes at medium speed. Bake in a well-buttered 8-inch fluted ring pan at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
Icing – Add the sugar to the water in a heavy pan and cook until it becomes a heavy syrup. Add the orange juice and rum.
Remove the warm cake from the pan onto a serving plate and immediately pour the icing slowly over the top, letting it drip down the sides slightly. For a splash of color, sprinkle with bits of candied orange rind or orange zest. Cool thoroughly before cutting. Smacznego!
