Mushrooms, again! This sauce uses regular ole mushrooms like cremini or white varieties and goes great with pasta, kopytka, or meat. Using sour cream gives this the Slavic touch 🙂 If you want to up the mushroom flavor, you can put 2 or 3 dried wild mushrooms in a spice grinder and add that powder while the sauce cooks.
Continue reading
Pierogi with fruit fillings are very popular in Poland, Ukraine, Belarus…that whole area. Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, sour cherries, and plums are common because those grow so well in the region.
Try to make these when blueberries are in season, usually late spring through summer, because they ARE the filling. Out of season, blueberries tend to be, but are not always…flavorless. If you have a craving you can’t beat, you can use frozen blueberries and thaw them before use.
Once pierogi are assembled, your can refrigerate them and cook them the next day, or you can freeze them for a few weeks.
This make about 3-4 dozen pierogi.
Continue reading
Łazanki is Polish recipe that typically combines wide flat noodles with cabbage (or sauerkraut), onion, and sometimes meat and/or mushrooms. Łazanki also refers specifically to the wide noodle used. If Wikipedia is to be believed, then łazanki came to Poland and the region in the 16th century when the Italian born Queen Bona Sforza introduced a multitude of new foods, including lasagna-type noodles. I believe it! Bona Sforza brought all sorts of vegetables up north-east with her and the Polish names of some of these foods sound like their Italian counterparts, like tomatoes (pomidori-pomidory).
This recipe is vegetarian, but you can add kiełbasa or bacon and use melted pork or chicken fat as well. Łazanki noodles are difficult to find outside of Polish delis, so you can use wide egg noodles, or even break up lasagna noodles instead. It is important that you give the onions and cabbage enough time to cook down and naturally sweeten.
Smacznego!
Continue reading
This is a breeze to put together and is a good waffle to throw into the rotation if you like savory options. The harissa I have has red bell pepper in it so it is not as spicy as other varieties I’ve had. If you have one that’s all/mostly chili pepper, cut the harissa down to 1 tbsp to adjust the heat level. Continue reading
Ingredients:
I gave the spiel on pierogi in my potato and cheese potato and cheese filling post. This recipe is for the popular sauerkraut and mushroom filling. If you are having trouble finding dried mushrooms or if they are too expensive in stores near you, just use fresh mushrooms! Some recipes call for 1 shredded and sautéed carrot…that would be a great addition if you’d like.
Pssst…you can make this recipe vegan if make a dough with flour, water, and salt (start 3:1 ratio flour to water) and adjust as necessary).***
Reminder that once pierogi are assembled, you can refrigerate them and cook them the next day, or you can freeze them for a few weeks.
This make about 3-4 dozen pierogi. Continue reading
Leczo is a bell pepper stew that originally hails from Hungary (where it is spelled lecso). At some point, variations made their way through the region and over to Poland. This is NOT a recipe for an authentic Hungarian Lecso, but it does contain some of the necessary fundamentals: peppers, onion, tomato, and paprika. The end result is still delicious and can be a vegetarian stew/ragout used to top something like rice or buckwheat, or it can include kielbasa or other meat to make it a heartier standalone stew. Or it can just be a great side. This recipe is also much thicker than a lot of other leczo recipes out there, but you can obviously combine elements of all and adjust based on your preferences. 🙂 Continue reading
These cod cakes help make just over a pound of cod (or other fish) go pretty far, so they’re good for a small crowd or family dinner. This leek mustard sauce has some sweet and tangy notes that come from white wine, mustard, sour cream, and apricot jam, which might seem like an odd addition, but it works! If you don’t have apricot jam, you could add a few pinches of sugar, or maybe a tablespoon or two of orange juice. Just make sure to wash your leeks very well before cooking–there is a 100% chance that there is a ton of dirt in between the layers! You can either slice lengthwise and run each layer under water, or, you can chop to your desired size and then put in a large bowl of water. This way, the dirt will settle to the bottom and you can scoop out your clean leeks from the top. I promise it isn’t that much of a hassle, and the leeks are worth it! Also, you can use fresh dill if you want for the cod, I just haven’t had any luck finding it in stores since the start of the Covid lockdown. Anyway, here is the recipe. Smacznego!
Well hello! It’s been a while. But I’m back with an easy and filling recipe that is kind of a cross between Breton Beans (Fasolka po Bretonsku), which are very popular in Poland, and Greek Gigantes.
You can basically turn these into Breton Beans if you add kielbasa or boczek before baking. These are plenty flavorful without meat. Continue reading
Pierogi are addicting.
The most common fillings are potato and cheese, ground meat, and sauerkraut and mushroom. Sweet cheese, berries, and sour cherries are also popular.
They can be served boiled or fried, almost always have a side of sour cream, and the savory versions are usually topped with diced caramelized onions.
This is a recipe for potato and cheese, aka ruskie pierogi. Continue reading
Zofia's Kitchen 