Polska: New Polish Cooking

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I learnt the art of cooking from an early age, from my beloved Babcias (grandmas) – Ziuta and Halinka. All of my early childhood memories are intertwined with food, so now I am now passing on the culinary love to my two daughters. Polish is not the first cuisine that comes to mind when you utter the word “vegetarian”, and yet there are many recipes that are either vegetarian or lend themselves particularly well to being meat-free. Poland, being a Catholic country, has many “fasting” days. In days past, the fasting was observed more strictly, now by not eating meat on certain days we give the old ways a nod. Our most important Christmas meal, on Christmas Eve, is in actual fact a fast, and the 12-13 meticulously prepared dishes contain only vegetables and fish. We are therefore used to using ingredients creatively to prepare flavoursome vegetarian meals. I plan to expand this list over time to add all my favourite vegetarian recipes, but for now, here are my top 3 Polish (or indeed East European) vegetarian recipes. Cook the rest of the vegetables for 1 hour along with a bay leaf, peppercorns and the allspice berries in about a litre and a half of water. The oldest pierogi dough recipe is very simple – just plain flour, oil, salt and hot water. A lot of babushkas still use this recipe today. Perogi are traditionally half-moon shaped, either boiled with butter and soured cream on top or boiled, then fried, with some crispy fried onions (and sometimes bacon bits). Sweet dumplings can have honey, toasted almonds and soured cream. Nowadays, we are becoming more creative with pierogi and experimenting with various fillings and toppings, often including eggs which enrich the dough and is probably a culinary influence that has come from Italy." Are you ready to embark on a journey into the enchanting world of Slavic wisdom and folk healing? Look no further than Zuza Zak’s magnificent creation, Slavic Kitchen Alchemy. This beautifully illustrated book is a true gem, offering a delightful blend of ancient remedies, natural beauty and cleaning products, healing recipes, and wellbeing rituals that will captivate both modern witches and natural healing enthusiasts.

Something that I noticed, as with the other Zuza Zak book that I read, is that some of her ingredients are going to be a little more expensive or difficult to find depending on where the reader is from. She’s using a lot of local ingredients from places in the Slavic world, particularly Poland, which is great. However, some of them may be more difficult to find in say the U.S. or China. In Amber & Rye, there was a list of places that you could source these materials from. I may have just overlooked it in this book, but I think there was one. Most of the recipes are pretty friendly to a reader from the Western world though. There were, however, extra resources on the mythology aspects to this book. Firstly, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this book. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own. Strain the broths through a sieve and into one pan (you would add the soured beet juice at this point), season well with salt, pepper and marjoram and simmer for another 15min or so.The author of Polska and Amber and Rye, she writes in her introduction to Pierogi that “the big irony of my writing this book is that I set off on my food-writing career to prove that Polish food was more than ‘just dumplings’.” But having ably demonstrated that fact, I am so happy that she is turning her attention now to these particular pillows of joy. And she is a reassuring teacher, explaining history and describing technique concisely, and evoking flavours and textures with warm intensity. The book is divided, roughly, into two: Traditional (which has a regional framework) and Modern. But even in the Traditional half, she allows for variations to suit the contemporary non-Polish cook as well, and its subsection on Festive pierogi earns the cover price of the book alone. It may be August, but I’ve already earmarked her Sauerkraut and Mushroom Christmas Eve Pierogi (which I’ve been meaning to attempt for the past few Christmases, and now feel properly primed) and Boxing Day Pierogi, which are circles of dough stuffed with leftover turkey, roast potato and vegetables, folded over into the classic half-moon shape, to be boiled gently before being fried in goose fat and eaten with sharp cranberry sauce. The first recipe I tried was for the Sauerkraut and Mushroom Christmas Eve Pierogi. This recipe used the more traditional way of making dough: to rub the oil into the flour before adding any water. The filling consisted of mushrooms, onion, and sauerkraut with flavour boosts coming from bay leaf, allspice berries, and white wine. While making the filling I committed the cardinal sin of home cooking – I didn’t read through the recipe before hand. The ingredient list asks for twenty medium-sized mushrooms (I assumed they were fresh) but when I went to prepare the filling the first step is to cover them with boiling water to allow them to “open up.” This is where I realized I should be using dried mushrooms. Since I didn’t have dried mushrooms, I went ahead and used the fresh ones, skipping the hot water soak. I really loved this combination for the filling – sweet and tangy with a bit of umami. Once boiled I tossed them in butter and fried onions.

Place the aubergines over the flame on your hob and cook in this way, turning with tongs, until they are charred and soft inside. Repeat with garlic, using your tongs to hold the cloves. Blitz in a food processor with lemon juice until smooth. Then transfer to a bowl and whisk in the oil. Season. Add the parely and chill in the fridge. The book is divided into seasons, with the recipes tailored to what was available during that time of the year and/or what people were experiencing and how nature could help them. For the most part, the recipes are for remedies and “medicines”, only a few are true food recipes. Just about all of the ingredients can be found in nature, although those of us living in urban areas or other continents might have to make do with shopping over the internet. Once the prune sauce has cooled, combine with the herrings. Mix well and transfer to the fridge for at least an hour – preferably overnight. Millet grain salad with squash and a creamy dill vinaigretteZak has primarily divided her book into the four seasons to provide a nice structure to the book and an easy way for those who work seasonally to find what they are looking for. Each chapter provides different recipes for the season in terms of concoctions and oils, but also recommendations for what to eat. Different holidays and folk traditions are also discussed in their respective chapters. I really enjoyed reading about the little sections that highlight the importance of certain things in tradition like birch or the raven, my favorite being the one on wolves.

The book’s subtitle is “Nourishing Herbal Remedies, Magical Recipes & Folk Wisdom,” and that is exactly what is contained therein. Zak’s introduction calls to something in all of us, at one time or another, that yearns for a connection. Using the wisdom passed down to her by her grandmothers, the author shows us how to reconnect with earth and its rhythms. The author invites you to treat this as a notebook given to you by your grandmother, ready for your personalized annotations, reflections and clippings. Poland shares much culinary heritage with Ukraine and pierogi are a big part of this overlap (in Ukraine, they are called vareniki). Pierogi ruskie are the most loved pierogi filling, both in Poland and beyond I think this is because the filling is so adaptable – traditionally it would be curd cheese, potato and caramelised onion. The curd cheese we use in Poland is called twaróg, similar to ricotta but more sour – you’ll find it in every supermarket. This filling is said to have originated in Ukraine and therefore they are called 'ruskie', which means Ruthenian rather than Russian. However, to make things complicated, some say they used to be called 'pierogi polskie' when Poland and Ukraine were a part of the same country. This is something we will never get to the bottom of, yet the filling of caramelised onion, 'twaróg' curd cheese and potato remains the one people cook and put their own spin on the world over, where they adapt the ingredients to what is locally available. In practise, this means varying the cheese, the dough and the pinching technique. I like to make these circular in shape to fit in more of this delicious filling." What are the different shapes? Slavic Kitchen Alchemy is thoughtfully organized into four chapters, corresponding to the seasons. This structure provides an easy-to-follow guide through the year, allowing you to align your body and mind with the natural rhythms of the Earth. Within each chapter, you’ll discover a plethora of information that is both informative and engaging. It’s seems very simple but it does not come naturally for me. Introducing structure into every area of my life requires a change in the way I perceive myself. I have always thought of myself as a flighty, creative, bohemian type, so I’m going to have to change my story and allow myself to be “an organised person”. I’ve realised that when I am organized, for example when I run my supper clubs, I can relax and enjoy the process more. In a way, the structure allows for more creativity, because I don’t need to stress about the details. So how do I go about it? I’ve started the year by just thinking about structure – about what it means to me. I will never be one of those super organized people who will structure every hour of every day, every meal, every post… for some, this is normal, but I need some spontaneity and flexibility, otherwise my soul feels stilted. From experience, I know that if I take it too far with structure, I will rebel and go the other way. I need to do this carefully. To make the summer berry salad, combine the berries with the mint leaves. If you’re using marigold flowers, pull off some of the petals and mix them into the salad, saving a few whole flowers for decoration. Set aside.Every household has their own version of Little Pigeons. Some very meat heavy, others entirely vegetarian. This is a recipe I have cooked many a time for vegetarian friends and is always well received. Wild mushrooms are always preferable in my eyes, yet they can easily be replaced with a combination of chestnut and shitake mushrooms in this recipe. This recipe makes a whole casserole dish full of gołąmbki, enough for 4 or 5 people.

Add the tomato puree, the paprika and some more water – about 50ml. Continue to fry for 3-4 minutes, then turn the heat off. Wash the cabbage, then blanch it in hot water to soften for a minute or two. Separate the leaves. Use only the bigger, softer leaves. Drain the cabbage leaves on kitchen paper. I appreciate that Zak offers a couple different methods to shape and fill pierogies, and since these varied slightly from how I learned to make varenyky, I was keen to learn other ways. Her first method (and now my preferred way) is to roll the dough out then place heaping teaspoons spaced out along the dough. She then folds the dough over and creases where the filling ends and to press out the air bubbles (this step is crucial as trapped air will cause the pierogi to burst while it cooks in boiling water). Using a cutter or the rim of a waterglass, she cuts out half-moon shapes. Once the shapes are cut out, she crimps the edges to seal them. Zak also provides different pinching and sealing techniques for every level of pierogi maker. Beginners can start with using the tines of a fork to seal the edge and, since I have prior experience, I used the fold over technique. There are photos of each of the steps throughout the beginning sections of the book which are helpful to home cooks. My new cookbook, Amber&Rye, is a culinary journey across the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In my first cookbook, Polska, I delved into Polish culture through the language of food and I am also doing the same in Amber&Rye, which is why you will find snippets of poetry, literature and folk songs nestled among the recipes. While in Polska I was exploring my childhood home, in Amber&Rye I am exploring my ancestral home. Now add the (drained) sauerkraut, bay leaf and allspice and simmer for a further hour. Add a splash of beer or wine if the mixture gets too dry at any time, but don’t over do it – there should not be any surplus liquid near the end.Recipes for the foods, herbal treatments, and beauty products are all clearly written and appear easy to follow. I can’t wait to try making the dark rye sourdough bread! The author has written several cookbooks and knows how to make recipes accessible to her readers. Though I haven’t tried to make any of the recipes in this book, I have made things from the author’s Amber and Rye cookbook and found the recipes worked as they should. There are lots of different shapes to experiment with – half-moon, round, envelope or rectangles are common, or uska (little ears), and the way they are sealed can differ, from crimping with a fork to folding over the edges, pleating or pinching.