Tag: Polish cuisine

Pancakes with Apple Rings or Racuchy z jabłkami !

Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.

Kenneth Grahame
Racuchy z jabłkami

Ingredients (for 20 pancakes):
– 2 eggs
– 1 cup (200ml) milk
– 250g flour
– 1/2 tsp baking soda + 1/2 tsp vinegar
– 8g Vanilla sugar
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 4 apples
– sunflower oil for frying
– powdered sugar or jam or honey for serving

Directions:
1 Apples
1.1 Wash apples and remove the apples core carefully with a knife: first from the top, then from the bottom and then the remaining hard parts in the middle keeping the apple unbroken
1.2 Cut apples in 0.8-1cm width rings
2 Batter
2.1 Whisk eggs with milk, then add flour & sugar & salt: mix well until smooth
2.2 Add baking soda and vinegar in the same teaspoon to the batter and mix
3 Pancakes
3.1 Preheat two skillets with sunflower oil: it’s quicker to cook with 2 skillets!
3.2 For each pancake soak the apple ring well in a batter and put on the skillet: fry each side until golden for 2-3 minutes
3.3 Since there is little sugar in the pancakes, serve them with powdered sugar or honey or marmalade!
4 Enjoy!

Potato Zrazy with Minced Beef !

When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object.

Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Potato Zrazy with minced beef

Dough ingredients (3-4 servings):
– 1kg (weight unpeeled) potatoes
– 2 eggs
– 6-8tbsp flour
– 1 bunch scallion
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1 tbsp olive oil for frying

Filling ingredients:
– 300g minced beef
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1/2 tsp black pepper

Sauce ingredients:
– 200g sour cream
– a few sprigs chopped scallion

Method:
1 Beef filling
1.1 Cook minced beef for 40 minutes in salted water
1.2 Drain the broth in another pan
1.3 Mix boil beef with black pepper and salt
2 Potato dough
2.1 Wash and peel potatoes
2.2 Cut potatoes into 2cm cubes
2.3 Boil potato cubes for 20-25 minutes in salted water
2.4 Drain water and mash potatoes
2.5 Combine mashed potatoes+2eggs+6-8tbsp flour+1/2tsp salt+chopped scallion: mix until smooth
3 Zrazy (Potato Cutlets)
3.1 Preheat the non-sticking skillet with some olive oil
3.2 Shape a flat round out of potato dough and put beef filling in the middle: enclose with a second potato round 🙂
3.3 Fry each potato dumpling 3-4 minutes each side
3.4 Absorb extra oil with paper towels
4 Serve Zrazy (Potato Cutlets) with sour cream mixed with chopped scallion
5 Enjoy !

Potato Dumplings “Kopytka” with Ham and Onion !

But I think happiness springs from another source, a far deeper one that doesn’t depend on will because it comes from love.

Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis
Polish Dumplings Kopytka

Dumplings ingredients (4 portions):
– 2 cups (1 cup=250ml) boiled mashed potatoes
– 1 cup wheat flour
– 1 egg
– 1 teaspoon salt
– 1-2 tablespoons olive oil for frying

Serving ingredients (4 portions):
– 2 small onions
– 100g ham
– 2 garlic cloves
– 1 bunch chives

Method:
1 Combine boiled (no extra water!) mashed potatoes+egg+flour+salt and mix well to a dough
2 Separate dough into 6 equal piece: form a 1.5cm diameter sausage from each piece
3 Cut the sausages into 1cm width dumplings taking a ~60 degrees angle with respect to the sausage 🙂
4 Boil dumplings for 4 minutes in salted water, then transfer them to a plate
5 Chop ham, onion and garlic
6 Pre-heat a non-sticking skillet: fry the dumplings & onion at medium heat until golden
7 Add ham and chopped garlic to the dumplings: fry for 2 minutes at medium heat
8 Serve the dumplings hot with chopped chives and … enjoy!!

Notes: Kopytka means “little hooves” in Polish and refer to the appearance of these potato dumplings, which are formed in the shape of hooves:-)

Vareniki avec Bortsch: comme a la table du Bon Roi Stanislas

Patsuk opened his mouth, stared at the vareniki, and opened his mouth wider still. At that moment, a varenik jumped out of the bowl, splashed into the cream, flipped over and leapt straight up into his mouth. Patsuk opened his mouth again, and another varenik went through the same performance. The only trouble he took was to munch it up and swallow it.

Nikolai Gogol, Christmas Eve

Vareniki dough ingredients:
– 260g wheat flour
– 130ml water
– 30ml olive oil
– 1/2 tsp salt

Vareniki filling ingredients:
– 250g potato
– 1 large onion
– 1/2 tsp salt

“Bortsch” ingredients:
– 3 large beet roots
– 1 tsp vinegar

Method:
1 Add olive oil in the middle of flour heap and mix
2 Stir in boiled water into the oily flour
3 Let the dough rest for 15 minutes
4 Peel potatoes, cut into ~2x2x2cm pieces, boil for 20 minutes, and make a potatoes puree with one teaspoon salt
5 Fry chopped onion till gold and add to potatoes-puree
6 Boil whole peeled beet roots in 1l salted water for 20 minutes, remove the beet roots from the broth
7 Roll out the dough to ~2mm and make round circles out of it with a cup or a glass
7.1 repeat 7 with the rest dough until no dough is left 🙂
8 Put 1 teaspoon of potatoes-puree with onion in the middle of each circle
9 Fold the circles half in half and lock the ends of circles tightly with finger tips (I usually do it twice through the whole length)
10 Carefully put Vareniki into boiling salted water, boil for 4-5 minutes
11 Serve Vareniki in the beetroot broth with a vinegar (1 teaspoon vinegar per serving)
12 Enjoy Vareniki avec Bortsch comme a la table du Bon Roi Stanislas !

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