Cookbooks

Cookbook Giveaway – Wild Honey & Rye

November 5, 2018 by polishhousewife 4 Comments

We have a winner, Patricia K. from Nebraska, congratulations!

My latest Polish cookbook purchase is Wild Honey & Rye by Ren Behan, and I’m happy to say that I have a complimentary copy from the publisher, so that means a cookbook giveaway!

The author, a former attorney, grew up in England, the daughter of Polish parents. She writes beautifully about her love of good food and pride in her Polish heritage. Ren has taken Polish classics and put her own modern twist on them.

pierogi in a skillet with some on a plate

I don’t mean modern as in foams and molecular gastronomy. I mean the recipes, which are definitely Polish, reflect a modern, cosmopolitan nation with an interest in light, healthy eating with the freshest, seasonal produce and best proteins and grains. The color photos, which are my favorite part of any cookbook, are breathtaking!

If you want to be sure you have a copy, you can purchase via one of my affiliate links on this page (which means that Amazon sends me a small commission). If you’re the winner and end up with two copies, think of it as a head start on your Christmas shopping! 🙂

How to enter the giveaway

If you have signed up for my monthly newsletter, you’re already registered
If you’re not receiving my newsletter which includes some behind the scenes news and a yet to published on the blog recipe, you can do so at the top of this page in the box that asks you to enter your first name and your email address. I promise you that I’ll never share your information with anyone else.
Deadline: Wednesday, November 21st at 11:59 PM MST.
A name will be selected by a random number generator. I’ll contact the winner by email, and they’ll have 72 hours to reply with their mailing address. If I haven’t heard from them in that time, I’ll select another name randomly, and we’ll repeat the process.

Just to tempt you, we have a pierogi recipe from the book below!

Smacznego!

Lois

dough rolled out on marble slab, bowl of strawberries, and pierogi in the making

Recipe from Wild Honey & Rye: Modern Polish Recipes © 2018 Ren Behan

PIEROGI WITH STRAWBERRIES, HONEY, AND PISTACHIOS

Makes about 20 pierogi

2¾ cups/12 oz/350 g all-purpose flour or “00” pasta flour, plus extra for dusting

1 whole egg, plus 1 egg yolk

1 tbsp confectioners’ sugar

½ cup/125 ml lukewarm water

1 tbsp vegetable oil

For the filling and topping

2½ cups/12 oz/350 g fresh strawberries, hulled, quartered if large, or halved, if small, or blueberries

2 tbsp unsalted butter

Scant ½ cup/100 ml clear honey

¾ cup/1 ¾ oz/50 g pistachios, finely chopped

In a large bowl, mix the flour, whole egg and yolk, confectioners’ sugar, warm water, and oil together.

Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for about 5 minutes until the dough is no longer sticky and feels smooth. Put the dough back into the bowl, cover with a damp dish towel or plastic wrap, and leave to rest for 30 minutes.

To fill: Divide the dough in half and keep one half covered with a damp dish towel to prevent it from drying out. Sprinkle your work surface with flour, then roll out the dough until it is about¼ in/3 mm thick.

Have a floured tray or board on hand. Using a pastry cutter or an inverted glass, cut out 3 in/8 cm circles of dough. Depending on the size of the strawberries, place a couple or a few pieces in the center of each circle. (If using blueberries, 2-3 blueberries will fit.) Fold the dough over to enclose the fruit. Using your thumb and finger, pinch the dough along the edge so that the pierogi is well sealed. Place each dumpling on the floured tray and cover with a damp dish towel while you make the rest.

To cook the pierogi: Bring a large pan of water to a boil. Carefully drop the dumplings in, a few at a time. They will sink at first, but will float up to the top when cooked-this will only take a minute or so.

Lift them out using a slotted spoon and place on a plate to cool. If you have sealed them well, none of the filling should have escaped!

Heat the butter in a large frying pan and gently fry the pierogi on both sides until slightly golden. To serve, drizzle with honey and sprinkle with chopped pistachio nuts.

CINNAMON WHIPPED CREAM

Serve this with blueberry-filled pierogi.

1 cup/250 ml heavy cream

1 tbsp confectioners’ sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

sugar or vanilla sugar, to sprinkle

Whisk the cream with the confectioners’ sugar and cinnamon until thickened.

Serve the warm pierogi with a sprinkling of sugar or vanilla sugar and a spoonful (or two) of the cinnamon whipped cream.

The Polish Cookbooks in My Kitchen

December 29, 2017 by polishhousewife 18 Comments

I hope you’ve enjoyed time with family and friends over Christmas and want to take a moment to wish you and yours health and happiness in 2018. There has always been something about this time of year that makes me eager to return to structure and routine after holiday festivities. Our youngest daughter, her boyfriend, and her dog left for California this morning, the last of our house guests. On Christmas, there were twelve people and five dogs in and out over the course of the day. Now, Ed is at work, and our pups, Ellie and Rigby are snoozing beside me as I write this. Since, we’re just finishing up leftovers, I thought I’d talk about one of my favorite subjects, Polish cookbooks.

There are eight Polish cookbooks in our kitchen, nine if you count an e-book on sausage making. Two are in Polish; the rest are in English. Fortunately, most of my Polish vocabulary, other than the basic niceties, is centered around food. If there are ingredients I don’t know, google translate can usually fill in the gaps. There are a few tricky things I can clue you in on:

If something translates as protein, they mean egg white
Carnation, that means whole clove
English Spice, we know it as Allspice (usually used whole, not ground)

One of my prize cookbooks isn’t pictured. Treasured Polish Recipes for Americans is out on loan to a colleague. If you’re reading this Stella, I wonder if you’re holding it for ransom until I return your tablecloth?

I thought I’d share a brief review of my books with you and when possible give you a link to purchase (by clicking on the photo of the books below) in case you’d like to add one of these to your bookshelf. The links that are from Amazon are affiliate links, which means simply that if you buy something after clicking on the link, Amazon will pay me a small percentage of your puchase. It doesn’t change your price, and helps to offset the cost of maintaining this website, and I thank you.

My first Polish cookbook was Polish Cookery by Marja Ochorowicz-Monatowa, translated and adapted by Jean Karsavina. The original was published around 1900. It is an American adaptation of a famous standard cookbook in Poland. The measurements are converted for American kitchens. With 53 soup recipes and 18 more recipes for soup garnishes, you know there is a good understanding of Polish cuisine. I’ve made a few recipes from this book and enjoyed reading many more. My one complaint would be that there are no photographs, and the photos are my favorite part of any cookbook.

My second Polish cookbook is one written in Polish that a bought at the train station in Poznan. While I have to translate everyting. I’m happy to say that it has color photos on every page! Regionalna Kuchnia Polaska, as the name suggests, presents recipes from seven different regions of Poland. I used the Rogale Swietomarcinskie from the Kuchina Wielkopolska section along with a baking session with the head of the Baker’s Guild to create my recipe for Poznan’s famous pastry.

My next Polish cookbook was Nela’s Cookbook by Nela Rubenstein, the wife of pianist Arthur Rubinstein. I love this book and reading it makes me love Nela. There are wonderful head notes with every recipe, giving the reader a true feel for this woman and the joy she took in preparing food for those she cared about. New copies are getting pricey, so I suggest selecting a used copy of this book which I highly recommend. The recipes are Polish, Lithiuanian, and American.

Polish Cooking is a small book recommended to by my friend Klaudia and gifted to me by my friend Elzbieta. It is written by Izabella Byszewska and photographed by Christian Parma. Besides recipes, it talks about typical foods for morning, afternoon, and evening. Recipes are identified by region. The color photos are lovely. My one complaint is that in this very small book, it’s probably 6 inches x 6 inches, and half an inch thick, the text is VERY small.

The next Polish recipe book I added to my collection was Wielka Ksiega Nalewek, the Big Book of Tinctures; it is written in Polish. My copy is from 2011, but there are multiple versions out there. This book was recommended to us by our friend Slawek. He mentioned it when we sampled his homemade raspberry liqueur, Maliniak. This book has convinced me that Poles have made an art form of steeping anything and everything in vodka. I’ve made several of the liqueurs. It’s a classic and must have if you enjoy sipping something yummy after dinner that is, of course, good for the digestion.

My next Polish cookbook, From a Polish County House Kitchen by Anne Applebaum and Danielle Crittenden, I was lucky enough to win in a weekly competition hosted by a now defunct English language news website. I’ve cooked from this book more than any other, and enjoy reading the author’s head notes and the many color photos. Anne Applebaum you may know is a journalist who has written extensively about Communism and post-communist society in Central and Eastern Europe. She is married to Radosław Sikorski, a Polish politician and journalist, and they have a Polish country home. It gives me some perverse pleasure that the authors have had some complain about things that are not authentic or traditional, just as I have. Everybody’s grandmother puts her own spin on traditional dishes, and the authors have put their own modern, lighter versions in their cookbook.

I bought Rose Petal Jam because it is similar to something I would like to write one day, part memoir, part cookbook. I have enjoyed reading it but I haven’t cooked from it yet. Perhaps getting off the shelf today, will be what I need to make that happen. Author Beata Zatorska and her husband, photographer Simon Target have done a lovely job with this book. Whether you cook from it or not, you’ll find it a great read. The photos are more than just the food, it’s the countryside, the ingredients, family photos, an armchair peek into Polish life.

If you know an American cook who makes Polish food, chances are they have Treasured Polish Recipes for Americans. It seems to be one of the most popular Polish cookbooks and has been around for generations. I’ve made a few of the recipes, and have found them to be excellent. As I recall (remember this book is loaned out at the moment), this was put together by a group of Polish-American women and the proceeds were originally used to help with relief efforts in post-war Poland.

Polish Sausage, Authentic Recipes and Instructions is my most recent purchase, and one I have only perused so far. It includes a history of sausage making in Poland, a chapter on food safety, and more info on Polish sausages than I would have imagined possible, hot, cold, smoked, fresh, liver, blood, head cheese, you get the idea.

So that’s my lineup. What Polish cookbooks are on your bookshelf?

Pozdrawiam,

Lois

Polish Cabbage Salad Sałatka z Kapusty

March 4, 2017 by polishhousewife 3 Comments

With my reference point being the Sonoran desert, I’ll say that so much of Poland is farmland. Any drive outside of the city will have you passing cultivated earth. Beautiful yellow fields of flowering rape weed, beets, carrots, and the largest cabbage I have ever seen, seriously, cabbage the size of basketballs. Cabbage is the number one vegetable crop in Poland. It’s so popular; it plays a role in most traditional Polish dishes, and even in some that aren’t so traditional. Think of gołąbki (stuffed cabbage leaves), bigos (a hearty hunter’s stew), cabbage based pierogi fillings, kapusta kwaszona (sauerkraut), cabbage on a hot dog, cabbage on a kabab, even a simple Polish cabbage salad like this one. It’s the sort of thing you’ll find in any buffet line, or served along side your main dish. It reminds me of coleslaw, but it’s lighter, more salubrious.

In this case, the shredded cabbage is lightly cooked (chemically) in lemon juice and salt, just enough to wilt it a bit. The addition of shredded apple and a smidge of powdered sugar, along with the lemon juice, add to the sweet and sour combination that I associate with coleslaw. I made this according to the recipe, but if I’d had a carrot, I would have shredded that too to add a bit of color. The recipe comes from Treasured Polish Recipes for Americans, published by Polanie Club In Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was first published in 1948. The used copy I have is from the 15th printing in 1973. I saw something online about a 25th printing, so it’s been a very popular cookbook for decades!

This Polish Cabbage Salad is just what I remember from our time in Poznan. I’ve tried to recreate it on my own, but it was never quite right, the texture, the subtle favors that complement the cabbage. I’m thrilled to be adding this recipe to my collection.

As for the actual preparation, I used the slicing blade on my food processor, but it left the cabbage in bigger pieces that I wanted, so I popped it back in the processor with the steel blade and blitzed it for just a second or two to get finer pieces. I had planned to use a Granny Smith apple, but forgot to buy one. 🙁 The Gala apple I had on hand, worked very well. I didn’t have any dill seed in the spice rack, but I did have an envelope full of dill flowers that had gone to seed in a cupboard waiting to be planted. So I picked out the fine little stems and managed to get the required 1/2 teaspoon.

Give this a try, I think you’ll find a lot of menus that would benefit from a serving of this light and crisp Polish Cabbage Salad.

Smacznego!

Lois

(The Amazon links below are affiliate links, meaning Amazon sends me a few cents if you make a purchase)

Polish Cabbage Salad Sałatka z Kapusty

Category: Salad
Cuisine: Polish

Description

A light and crisp salad of shredded cabbage and apple, dressed in lemon juice and oil

Ingredients

1 small head cabbage, finely shredded
juice of one lemon
1 teaspoon salt
1 apple, grated
1/2 teaspoon dill seed
Dash of garlic powder
1 tablespoon powdered sugar (granulated will work too)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 small carrot, grated (optional)

Instructions

Mix the cabbage with the lemon juice and salt.
Let stand for 4 hours or refrigerate overnight
Add the apple, dill seed, garlic powder, sugar, oil, and carrot (optional)
Toss lightly

Vintage Pineapple Pie Recipe

January 15, 2017 by polishhousewife 8 Comments

We made a quick trip to visit family in California over the holiday weekend. In honor of our visit, my aunt made a dessert from a cookbook that had belonged to her late sister. It was a Good Housekeeping cookbook, we assume it was published in the early 1940s because there was a Wartime Supplement with tips and recipes to save on rationed items. The cover and pages with publication details have gone missing over the years. The dessert itself was a first for me, this vintage pineapple pie recipe, similar to lemon cream pie in taste and tartness, but with more texture was delicious.

My aunt said she likes to make this with canned pineapple in its own juice, but she has made it with fresh pineapple when she lived in Brazil, juicing some of the fruit to make up for the juice from the can. She tops it with a lighted baked meringue or whipped cream.

I love fresh pineapple, pineapple upside down cake, and pineapple sherbet, and now. I can add pineapple pie to the list.

Maybe it’s just that I didn’t grow up with pineapple pie; it’s not something my mother made, but it never occurred to me this was something I was missing. How about you? Are you familiar with pineapple pie?

Smacznego!

Lois