Vegetables
- being a Pole, and a real carnivore,
I really can't get out of the habit of treating vegetables as a side-show
to meats, so vegetarians will have to forgive me the simplicity of the
Polish recipes in this section. I can, however, recommend ratatouille
with aioli
as a magnificent combination - a meal in its own right when served with
a good bread. Well - almost.
Breton-Style
Beans Cabbage and Bacon Stew
(Parzybroda) Champ
Cucumbers in Sour Cream
Hunter's Stew Leczo
Potatoes with Dill Weed Ratatouille
Refried Beans
Silly Cow Pie
Fasola
po Bretońsku (6)
- despite the name, this is a Polish
mainstay. A good accompaniment to all sorts of juicy meats, but best
with a good roast chicken or Wiejska sausage, I think. It's excellent
made with butter beans or white kidney beans, but should work with any
white bean. Also makes a good summer accompaniment when chilled.
There is a good deal of variation in colour and taste available here -
sieved tomatoes and single cream will give a sharp red sauce and whole
tomatoes with double cream will give a rich, pale sauce. Avoid tomato
puree concentrate, since it's far too acidic.
1 large glass dried
white beans
3/4 glass chopped
tomatoes or sieved tomato
1/4 glass cream
tsp cornflour
salt
pepper
Rinse the beans and cover with water. Boil briefly, making sure they
remain covered, and let cool and soak overnight. Boil to tenderness,
salting lightly. Meanwhile boil the tomatoes to a puree.
Drain the beans partially, retaining the liquid. Beat the cornflour
into the cream and combine all the ingredients over a low heat so as to
thicken the sauce. Add retained liquid to maintain consistency as
desired. Season.
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Parzybroda
(8)
- sometimes there are ways of presenting
vegetables which make you look at them differently: I'm not imaginative
at roasting aubergines, so any roasted aubergine recipe seems to impress
me nowadays. Then we have Mizeria, below, which turns the humble
cucumber into something amazing you want to put your face into, not just
delicate slices on your eyes. In the same vein, Poland has three
classic ways of making a delight out of... cabbage. Cabbage?
What? That stuff that smells of cabbage? This is one of those
three classics, and it can be eaten as a soup, when thinned a little, or
as a main course (as it no doubt originated for poor families) or, as here,
done as a smooth side-dish. I've had Brits asking me for the recipe
for this, because... it's not like cabbage! It has cumin in it, which
seems odd, but cumin grows in Europe. Furthermore, Poland has had
trading contacts with Asia for centuries - curiously, another 'traditional'
Polish cabbage recipe I can think of relies heavily upon rice. That
was the 'Pol-fusion' food of long ago.
550 g young white
cabbage
300 g potatoes
150 g smoked fatty
or streaky bacon
one medium onion
1/2 tsp cumin grounds
butter (or, preferably)
olive oil
water
tbsp flour
sugar
salt
pepper
vinegar or, preferably,
lemon juice
If whole, cut the bacon into very fine dice; if sliced, cut into lardons.
Melt the bacon over a steady heat and, meanwhile, chop the cabbage into
2-3 cm cubes. Add about 250 ml water, a large pinch of sugar and
one of salt, cover, and boil for about 6-8 minutes. Meanwhile peel
and chop potatoes into ca. 5 mm cubes, and add these to the cabbage mix,
turning heat down low and adding the cumin. Stew gently. Remove
the bacon into the cabbage mix using a slotted spoon: chop the onion finely,
and heat it in the bacon fat over a medium heat until it becomes translucent
and soft. Add the flour to this, heat for about 2 minutes adding
extra oil or butter if necessary to get a good frying, then take off heat.
Make into a roux with water, and add this
to the cabbage mix. Add lemon juice, stir, and stew for a minute
or two. Stir, season, and serve.
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Mizeria
(6)
- this looks like a salad, but I
didn't hesitate to put it in the section on accompaniments, such is the
affinity between this gorgeous preparation and hot dishes - especially
hot pastries or meats. Simply the best way of eating cucumbers I
know. There are some 'quick' versions of this recipe around, which
omit the salting and draining step, but these are, in my opinion, inferior.
This recipe does not produce an ugly watery mess by the time it is served,
and will last for several hours, or even overnight, in the fridge.
It's best made with the small spongy European cucumbers usually used for
dill pickle, but any will do.
three 30 cm cucumbers,
or more if smaller
300 ml sour cream
sugar
vinegar
salt
pepper
Peel cucumbers and slice very finely using the peeler or a food processor.
Sprinkle over 1 tbsp salt and let stand in refrigerator for 2 hours, turning
occasionally. After this time, squeeze cucumber well free
of juice with the hands and place into a dry bowl. Drench in sour
cream, and season to taste with vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper.
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Bigos
(8-12)
- this is another classic Polish
cabbage dish, and probably the most famous of them all. Websites
are devoted to this dish by people with more passion for it than I have.
However, it's undeniable that you can't know Polish food properly without
knowing this staple, so I've ventured to give you my favourite version,
which is more-or-less mainstream. If you like it and want to try
something more unusual/outrageous, try these
afficionados' site. You can see, looking down my ingredients
list, that it isn't a pure vegetable dish at all: far from it, in fact.
Well, I did warn you at the top of the page. The whole looks like
a side-dish, and it is indeed a good way of serving cabbage as such.
Keep it small and tidy if you do that - the flavour is intense enough for
a main course, with just bread. Finally, let me just explain that
the dish arose among hunting-parties who would start out with preserved
cabbage and goose fat (or similar) and eat whatever they thought fit to
hunt and eat along the way. So the dish was added to, was boiled,
froze overnight during winter etc... and it's true that the flavour is
better after a couple of reheatings. I actually freeze it once, after
one reheating. If you do that, make sure you reheat it very thoroughly
before you eat it. So leave about three days to make this dish -
but it is worth the effort - especially if you have a few bigos-heads to
feed with the ample quantities given here, and it will stand almost any
improvisation on the theme.
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp lard
150 g onion
tsp salt
200 g diced pork,
unsmoked
200 g diced Krakowska
or similar smoked slicing sausage
2 bay leaves
pinch caraway seeds
10 black peppercorns
300 ml beer
900-950 g jar 'sauerkraut'
or Polish pickled cabbage
200 g button mushrooms,
or 50 g dried mushrooms
200 ml tomato juice
or passata
tomato concentrate,
2 tbsp (or 1 if passata, above)
100 g dry Kabanos
sausage, chopped
700 g fresh white
cabbage
Melt lard on a high heat and add the chopped garlic. Cook for a few
seconds, then turn heat right down and leisurely chop and add onion, salt,
pork, Krakowska, bay, caraway, pepper, and then beer. Leave it to
stew gently for a few minutes while you squeeze the saurerkraut well free
of liquor - but save the liquor. Add the sauerkraut, mushrooms, and
tomato pastes/liquids. Chop fresh cabbage while whole gently stews,
then finally add the Kabanos and the shredded white cabbage. Don't
be put off if the whole looks a real mess at this time - the cabbage will
collapse slowly and the whole shouldn't be runny - just nicely thick and
substantial. Season with ground black pepper, salt and maybe some
liquor from the sauerkraut. Lovingly spend the next couple of days
stirring, heating, reheating, freezing even! and seasoning your Bigos,
but don't forget you may have a job and/or family.
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Champ
(8)
- Irish mash. No Polish flag
here. The recipe I was given for this involved an awful lot of butter
which, together with the milk involved made for a very tasty but over-rich
slop on my first try. I've reduced the quantity of butter somewhat
- you may still find it too rich. AAlso, you may find you need to
experiment with whether you use salted or unsalted butter, depending on
how you like your potatoes salted.
1000 g potatoes
100 g butter
300 ml milk
8 spring onions
salt
Peel and coarsely chop the potatoes and boil them in salted water until
only just tender - certainly not breaking apart. Drain and mash coarsely.
Trim the onions only just enough and chop them into white and green sections,
keeping these apart as much as you can. Put the white bits into the
milk and bring to the boil, then throw the green bits in and simmer the
whole gently, so as not to burn it, for about 20 minutes. Pick out
the onions and add to the mash with half of the butter and mash smoothly,
adding enough of the milk to make it smooth. Make a well in the top,
toss in the rest of the butter and serve while it melts luxuriantly.
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Leczo
(6)
- again, some of you will probably
think it's a little rich of me to plant a Polish flag next to a recipe
which originated in Hungary (as Lecso) or possibly Croatia. Again,
I say "how British is Chicken Tikka Masala"? This is a firm favourite
in Poland, and every other household will have its own favourite recipe.
Here's mine, pepper-rich with a subtle heat, but smooth thanks to the hint
of egg.
1 clove garlic
1 medium onion
four medium bell
peppers, various colours
1 small courgette
2 medium tomatoes
2 tbsp sweet powdered
paprika
good pinch chile
powder or cayenne pepper
sugar
salt
pepper
Slice garlic and onions very finely. Place 1 tsp salt and oil in
a pan and add garlic and onion. Cook on medium heat, adding diced
vegetables, in the order given, with a few minutes' cooking time between
each. Then turn heat down low and cook until the juices flow, but
the vegetables are just as soft or as crunchy as you like. Sprinkle
over the paprika and chile powders, stir and season to taste, including
a pinch of sugar. Just before serving, vigorously stir in the beaten
egg, so it sets when well-dispersed.
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Ziemniaki
z Koprem
- no, don't be offended. I
know you know how to boil potatoes, but I just had to mention that Poles
love to eat potatoes, and love to eat them with dill weed. Once boiled,
just dress them in a little melted butter and sprinkle lightly with dill
and you have the perfect accompaniment to Polish meals. If you use
dried dill, pop it into the melted butter a few minutes before serving,
so it has time to soften and release its aroma.
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Ratatouille
(8)
- let me take a little while to
explain something. It's thought that the name of this dish comes
from 'rata', which was French foreign legion slang for 'grub', and 'touiller',
to stir. Some people will tell you that their way of making ratatouille
is correct, and yours isn't. I happen to think that this is an immediately
ridiculous claim when talking about a dish which is basically called 'stirred
nosh'. I lost patience with the long and drawn out ways of salting
and draining aubergines, frying the results, frying courgettes in the same
oil, blah, blah... This is the 21st century, for goodness' sake - you don't
have to do that with aubergines any more. Do you know what?
This ratatouille is extremely easy, lean, good for you, and I actually
prefer it to theirs. It is also grey-green in colour, not the bright
red of the supermarket version. Do it their way if you lose your
nerve.
2 onions
2 cloves garlic
1 red pepper
3 large tomatoes
2 smallish aubergines
3 courgettes
salt
tsp dried thyme
few basil leaves
pepper
a few dashes olive
oil and lemon juice
Put oil and 1 tsp salt in a pan, on medium heat. Chop vegetables
and add to pan in above order, stirring well and turning down to very low
heat after tomatoes go in. Cover and cook until vegetables are just
al dente, and add thyme. Let cool, season, and let stand overnight.
Add basil leaves when reheating the next day. Best eaten lukewarm.
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Frijoles
Refritos (6)
- muuuuch better home-made than
the gloop you get from the can. Can be made with other types of bean,
too.
500 g cooked red
or white kidney beans
1 small onion,
finely chopped
4 tsp lard or oil
1 tsp dried thyme
Cook onion in fat until just softened. Add beans and thyme and continue
turning the beans until heated through and a part-mashed, dry texture is
obtained. Add a little water if too dry.
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Silly
Cow Pie (6)
- a complete cheat of a recipe.
It's very rich for an accompaniment, but really quite good if any other
vegetables are steamed or boiled without any dressing. Thanks to
Irene Casimiro for the basis of this recipe. The name is coincidental,
ma'am.
700 g pack frozen
hash browns
1 shallot
300 ml sour cream
300 ml condensed
mushroom soup
200 g cheddar cheese
Layer all ingredients except cheese in a large ovenproof dish. Top
with cheese. Cook from frozen in a cool (120 C) oven until thoroughly
heated through.
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