Getting Saucy - Polish Style

Witamy!   In the best classic cuisines, sauces are the “icing on the cake” that can make or break a great dish.  Classic Polish sauces are delicious, distinctive and fairly simple to prepare.  The key to success is in the proper proportions of fat, flour, liquid, plus a little patience and a lot of love. 

Here are some tips: 

*  Always cook your hot sauces low and slow and always keep stirring - a good wooden spoon will be your friend.

*  Instantized flour, such as Wondra, can be a big help because it yields a smoother and less lumpy texture with less mixing.  It's not always easy to find, but worth a spot in your pantry.

*  Never add flour to the sauce – rather, add sauce to the flour – a spoonful at a time.  Add sauce to sour cream the same way until it doubles in volume – never sour cream to the sauce.

*  Never boil a sauce containing sour cream because it will separate.  However, a separated sauce can still be rescued by adding a more sour cream – the right way. 

*  Using chicken or beef stock generally gives more flavor to sauces, but vegetable stock is better for a fish dish because it is milder and allows the other flavors to shine.

Here are some of our favorite classic Polish sauces for you to try:

Dill Sauce  (3 cups)

1 cup chicken or beef broth

3 tablespoons flour

2 ½ tablespoons chopped fresh dill

Salt to taste

½ cup sour cream

Gradually stir the cold broth into the flour.  Bring to a low boil stirring constantly.  Stir in the dill.  Remove pan from heat and season with salt.  Stir in the sour cream gradually..   Serve over roast beef, pork roast, even grilled fish. 

Dried Mushroom Sauce  (1 ½ cups)

1 ounce dried mushrooms

1 cup water

3 ½ tablespoons flour

4 tablespoons cold water

Salt & pepper to taste

½ cup sour cream

Clean the mushrooms well with a brush and rinse several times.  Place mushrooms in water and simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes or until somewhat soft.  Remove the rehydrated mushrooms from hot water (now broth) and slice.  But DO NOT THROW AWAY the hot mushroom water.  Combine the four tablespoons water to the flour and mix in the hot mushroom water slowly, while stirring.  Add the mushrooms and bring to ma slow boil while stirring.  Remove from heat.  Season and let cool a bit.  Add in the sour cream slowly.  Perfect with meatloaf, meatballs, Polish hamburgers, pork roast, or any braised meats.

Cold Apple-Horseradish Sauce  (2 cups)

5 ounces prepared horseradish

1 large tart apple, peeled and shredded

1 cup sour cream

Salt to taste

¼ teaspoon sugar

Mix the horseradish with apple.  Add the sour cream.  Season with salt and sugar.  Chill well.  Serve with cold meats, hard boiled eggs, fish.

Cold Mustard Sauce  (1 cup)

2 tablespoons prepared mustard

1 cup sour cream

Salt to taste

¼ teaspoon sugar

Mix all ingredients well. Chill thoroughly.  Serve with cold meats such as pork roast, ham, kielbasa.

Cold Green Onion Sauce  (1 ½ cups)

1 cup sour cream

2 hard boiled eggs, chopped

4 tablespoon chopped green onions

¼ teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Salt to taste

Mix all the ingredients.  Chill well.  Serve with cold meats such as pork roast, ham, kielbasa.

Hot Horseradish Sauce  (2 cups)

1 cup chicken or beef broth

2 ½ tablespoons flour

3 ounces prepared horseradish

½ cup table cream

Salt to taste

¼ teaspoon sugar

Gradually stir the broth into the flour.  Bring to a low boil stirring constantly.  Slowly stir in the horseradish and cream. Keep stirring.  Season to taste with salt and sugar.  Serve on the side with roast beef, pork roast, even grilled fish. 

Smacznego!

Vegetable Ham Salad - Polish Style

Witamy!

Easter ham gets our prize for being one of the most versatile and delicious culinary gifts of the entire year.  The left overs are delicious and in our kitchen no part of our ham ever goes to waste. 

We always buy a much bigger ham than we really need for the Easter feast.  We like the spiral cut hams because they’re easier to work with when trimming the bone for left overs.  After the feast, when we can barely stand and all we want is a nap, we sharpen the carving knife and attack the bone.  Our daughter and son-in-law always cut off a big hunk to take home for their lunches and favorite left over dishes.  Next, the nice large slices are saved for our own sandwiches or tomorrow’s instant replay supper – no cooking required.   The medium sized pieces are trimmed of their fat, julienned and put in the freezer for a favorite ham and noodle casserole (see our blog post of April 10, 2012.) 

Then we start the final trim to pull off the smallest pieces destined for a ham salad.  But we’re always careful to save enough ham on the bone for a good soup.  The trimmed bone is carefully wrapped and deposited in the freezer as well. 

 Those smallest pieces are perfect for a ham and vegetable salad that is a lovely variation on a classic Polish Vegetable Salad (Polish Classic Recipes, Page 22).  It’s a great way to use up the rest of the ham,  making sure that none of that goodness is wasted. 

Vegetable Ham Salad

Serves 12

6 medium potatoes, boiled, & diced, well cooled

2 packages frozen mixed vegetables, defrosted

2 small dill pickles, diced  (optional)

2 cups ham, coarsely chopped

3 tablespoons dill, chopped  (fresh is best)

Salt & pepper to taste

1 ½ cups mayonnaise

2 tablespoons yellow mustard

2 hard boiled eggs, sliced

3 small beets, sliced (canned are fine)

Lettuce leaves & radish for decoration

Boil the potatoes until just firm – when a fork goes in easily.  Boil the vegetables until just done. Combine the diced potatoes, vegetables, pickles, 2 tablespoons of dill and ham.  Season with salt and pepper but go easy on the salt because the ham’s natural saltiness.  Taste.  Fold in the mayonnaise and mustard and combine well.  Taste for final seasoning.  Serve in a pretty bowl or arrange in the form of a dome on a serving platter, garnished with the lettuce leaves.  Sprinkle the remaining chopped dill over the top.  Decorate creatively with the sliced eggs and beets.  Serve at room temperature.  Smacznego!  

Cream-Filled Mini-Babas For Easter

Witamy!  With Easter approaching much too quickly, we hope you will prepare this year’s feast in the traditional style, reminiscent of the classic feast prepared a century ago by Peter’s grandmother.  Easter lunch has always been presented at room temperature (except for the hot clear barszcz) because everyone goes to church in the morning and there is no time to cook extensively.  Many of the dishes were actually prepared several days ahead.

Grandmother’s table was truly a groaning board...the dishes of cold meats, salads, relishes, occupied one end of the table, including a big ham, small roasted piglet, a turkey or goose and all the salads, side dishes and various accompaniments, such as mustard sauce and the iconic cwikla – prepared from chopped beets and horseradish. 

At the other end of the table stood the tall, stately Babas with their shimmery glaze, a favorite cheesecake and endless varieties of flat short-bread mazurkas, decorated artistically in traditional Easter designs.  The table was also graced with beautiful crystal decanters of homemade liquors, reflecting the bright sun with ruby red or amber hues of the rainbow. 

Our two books have all the recipes for the traditional Easter feast.   There is still plenty of time to get autographed copies for yourself and as gifts for your loved ones who may not have Babcia’s recipes.

With the popularity of cupcakes skyrocketing everywhere, we want to share with you a favorite recipe for mini-sized, cream-filled Babas that will look great on your table and will please your guests even more for their portion-sized presentation.

Mini Babas  - yields approx. one dozen pieces

Dough

·       2 cups butter

·       2 ¾ cups sifted flour

·       2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar

·       4 egg yolks

·       1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cut the butter into the flour either using your fingers or the dough paddle of a standing mixer, until it forms coarse crumbs.  The goal here is to maintain small, but visible "pearls" of butter in the flour.  Add in the sugar, egg yolks and vanilla and combine well.  Knead the dough, either by hand or using a dough hook, until it forms a ball.  Wrap it in plastic and cool it down for ten minutes or so in the refrigerator while preparing the cream.. 

Filling

·       1 pint light cream, just boiling

·       2 eggs

·       2 egg yolks

·       2/3 cup sugar

·       1 teaspoon vanilla extract

·       2 tablespoons cornstarch

Put the coffee cream on to heat.  Beat the eggs and yolks with the sugar for five minutes.  Add the vanilla and cornstarch.  Beat for 2 more minutes.  Beat some more while slowly pouring in the hot coffee cream.  Cook the mixture on low heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens.  Cool.

While the filling is cooling, roll the dough ball out to ¼ inch thickness.   Using a biscuit cutter, glass or paper template,  cut out circles large enough to line the inside of a standard cup of a non-stick muffin pan.  Line the insides of one muffin cup with one circle of dough.

Fill the dough-lined muffin cup about 1/3 full with the cool filling mixture.  Cover the cup with another dough circle and seal the edges.  Repeat until all the dough is used.

Bake the Babas for 20 minutes at 400°F and until golden.  Gently turn them out of the pan. Dust with powdered sugar just before serving.  For color, garnish the platter with fresh fruit pieces or mint.

Smacznego!