Summer Barszcz, Polish Style

Witamy!

Soups are a fundamental parts of Polish dinners.  Polish soups are usually robust, fragrant, creamy and filling.  However, during warmer weather, summer soups are often lighter and served chilled, taking advantage of nature’s bounty of fresh vegetables harvested from nearby farms.    (image courtesy of Adam Chrzastowski)

We love this cool and refreshing soup by itself for a really healthy lunch.  This version we sharing today was a favorite of Peter’s Grandmother’s.  It’s just one lighter spin
on the many versions which have been around for centuries.

Full of fresh flavors and a slight tang from the beets, cucumbers and sour cream, it’s immensely refreshing as a perfect lunch or light supper. We have a big bowl chilling in the fridge right now and we’ll serve it tomorrow with ripped hunks of fresh aromatic rye bread smeared with soft sweet butter and paired with a dry white wine.

Serves 10
2 bunches young red beets with tops, sliced & julienned, OR:
     2 cups of canned beets (not pickled)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
4 cups buttermilk
2/3 cup sour cream
½ cup juice from canned beets
½ teaspoon sugar
Salt to taste
1 large cucumber, peels and sliced thinly
2 hard boiled eggs, sliced or quartered
1 table spoon fresh chopped dill
2 table spoons chopped green onion or chives

Boil the beets with their tops in a pot of water with the lemon juice for 20 minutes or until just tender.  Cool completely.  (note: for the fresh beets, an ice bath will hasten this process).  Drain completely.  Or, if using canned beets, julienne the slices and simmer in their juice for 5 minutes or until hot. Drain, retain the juice, cool completely. 

Place the beets in a big bowl.  Stir in the buttermilk, sour cream, beet juice and cucumber slices.  Season with sugar and salt.  Gently fold in the hard boiled eggs, dill and green onion.  Chill for half a day. Serve cold with fresh bread and sweet butter.  
Smacznego! 
   For more great Polish cuisine, scroll through previous posts here or check out our 
   two heritage cookbooks by clicking on their covers. 

Pork Chops With Mushroom Sauce - Polish Style

Witamy!
Polish cuisine goes way beyond our favorite comfort foods such as pierogi, cabbage rolls, or kielbasa.  In fact, the favorite meat in Poland has always been pork and the most common way to serve it has been in the form of chops.

The pork we get in our grocery stores today has been specially bred to be extra lean but with that comes less flavor than back in the day.  So care must be taken to not overcook it and to add great flavors.  A little mushroom sauce on the side is a great way to go.  If you make some extra sauce, it’ll be great over mashed potatoes or over egg noodles – both of which pair very well with the pork chops.  Add your favorite vegetables for more color on the plate. 

6 boneless pork loin chops, about 1 inch thick
6 tablespoons seasoned flour
2 large eggs, lightly beaten with salt & pepper to taste
1 cup bread crumbs
½ cup bacon drippings or vegetable oil

Trim most of the fat off the chops and pound them down on both sides to about one half inch thick.  Roll them in flour. Dip in the egg mixture and roll them in breadcrumbs.  Press the bread crumbs into the pork for an even coating.  Brown them on both sides over medium heat.

 Transfer to a large baking dish and bake in your oven at 325 ° F for 15 minutes.  They will be done if slightly pink (when you cut a small slit to check) or if they reach an internal temperature of 150° F on your instant-read meat thermometer.  Pour a little mushroom sauce over each, just before serving.  Pair with sauerkraut, or red cabbage salad, and mashed or boiled potatoes.  A hearty red wine, Polish beer or cold  vodka shots will take this meal over the top!  

Quick Mushroom Sauce
2 cups sliced mushrooms – darker varieties have more flavor
1 large onion, chopped
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoon flour
1½ cups light cream or half and half
Salt and white pepper to taste

Sauté the mushrooms and onion in hot butter until just golden. Slowly add the flour while stirring.  Simmer for 3 to 5 minutes until well blended.  Gradually add the cream while stirring constantly.  Cover and simmer for five minutes and voila, you’re done.  Easy, right?  Note:  For extra mushroom flavor, you can substitute a quarter cup of reconstituted dried mushrooms.                                                                                      image from polki.pl                                                 
                                                                                               
Smacznego!

Growing Up Polish - Easter Traditions, 2017

Wesołego Alleluja  -- Happy Easter !

This is a recent conversation with Laura and Peter Zeranski about their Easter traditions:

Peter:  Easter is coming soon and for most Poles it is one of the two biggest religious celebrations of the year. I love the traditional foods and delicious sweets such as the sweet Walnut Mazurka pictured here.

Laura: As Peter’s parents grew older, preparing the food and keeping up tradition became my job.

Peter: About a week before Easter, my assignment was to dye a batch of hard boiled eggs – five colors with each pastel tablet dissolved in a coffee mug cup of boiling water.  After they dried we would shine them up with bacon fat. And even today it's still my job,

Laura:  And you do such a good job!  Then there is the butter lamb.  Most of the time Peter’s Mom would 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. 

Peter:  Growing up I always had to bite into that rabbit’s head to see if it was hollow or solid.  If it was hollow, shards of chocolate would get all over the white tablecloth and I was in big trouble!

Laura:  A few years ago I found a lamb mold and I’ve been making my own Easter lambs…but you must be careful to fill the mold completely, otherwise we would end up with a deformed lamb – not a pretty sight.  Many Polish deli’s still carry butter lambs or you can find one on-line.

Peter:  We convene after church and first share bits of hardboiled egg and exchange Easter wishes – the same as we do at Christmas with a blessed wafer.  Our menu hasn’t changed much over the generations.  We sit down to cups of traditional clear, beet consommé, Barszcz...  

Laura: .. which is served hot in my best, elegant, china cups.  But the rest of dinner is served chilled or at room temperature.  There’s always a ham, Polish Vegetable Salad,  several varieties of Polish kielbasa, and on the side we always have a delicious mild mustard sauce plus Cwikla- a relish made of chopped beets and horseradish.  Easy to make:  just 5 parts finely chopped beets and one part prepared horseradish – m ore or less depending on how hot you like it.

Peter:  I always go for the big flavors so when Laura is not looking, I’ll sneak in an extra tea spoon of horseradish.  Years ago my Mom always got an imported Polish ham because it was a lot leaner and had a milder flavor than American brands.  Back in the day, it was said that Polish pigs were fed potatoes which gave them that milder flavor. 

Laura:  These days we go for a honey-glazed spiral sliced variety, just because it’s easier.

Peter:  Desserts used to include one or two Mazurkas, a Baba, and occasionally Grandma’s cheese cake.  These days we’ve cut back on the sweets but here is a Baba recipe that we particularly like because of the rum icing.

Laura:  The batter is made from margarine, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, milk, orange rind and raisins.    Place all the ingredients in a bowl, beat it with a mixer or 5 minutes and bake in a well-buttered 8-inch fluted ring pan, at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. 

Peter:  The icing is just simple syrup, orange juice, some white rum, candied orange rind and maybe some orange zest.   Transfer the warm cake from the baking pan onto a serving plate and immediately pour the icing slowly over the top, letting it drip down the sides.  Sprinkle the top with orange zest.  Let it cool before cutting.  Soo good!

Here is the full recipe for this Baba.  And there are several other delicious Easter treats in our Polish Classic Desserts book. 

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!