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Polish Housewife

Polish recipes served up with tidbits of folklore, customs, and history

Misc.

Dzem Malinowy (Raspberry Jam)

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It seems the biggest controversy about making one’s own dzem malinowy is whether or not to leave the seeds. As you can see from the photo, I chose to go with seeds. To my mind, if I strain out the seeds and, therefore, the pulp too, I would be making jelly not jam, and I believe that some of the natural fruit pectin would be lost, requiring the addition of something to help it gel.

The fresh berries during the summer in Poland are fabulous. I would frequently pick up a carton or two from someone selling at a tram stop, not ours, a busier one where we often had to change trams. They were beautiful, ever so fresh and at 3 – 4 zl, about $1.

Dzem Malinowy, a delicious raspberry jam

The fun part of making one’s own dzem malinowy is deciding what else you might want to add. I’ve come across all kind of suggestions:

  • Mint
  • Vanilla
  • Red Pepper and Balsamic Vinegar
  • Rose Syrup
  • Rum or Brandy
  • Lavender (go easy on the lavender, too much, and it smells soapy)
  • Cranberry
  • Blackberries,
  • Cinnamon
  • Ginger

I chose to stir in a little brandy at the end. The flavors went well together, and it made this perfect jam to spread on nalesniki, Polish pancakes which are more like crepes than our American version of pancakes. What a sophisticated dessert or sweet for brunch.

Smacznego!

Lois

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Dzem Malinowy (Raspberry Jam)

  • Author: Polish Housewife
  • Yield: 6 to 8 1-cup jars
  • Cuisine: Polish
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Description

Easy to make and delicious, raspberry jam

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds raspberries
  • 2 – 4 cups sugar (depending on your tastes)
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 1/2 – 1 cup brandy (optional)

Instructions

  1. Put 6 to 8 1-cup jam jars and their lids in a pot of boiling water to sterilize them or run them through the dishwasher
  2. Put the raspberries and sugar in a large pan and cover, let sit for 3 hours or overnight to draw out the juice
  3. Add lemon juice and bring to a boil, stirring
  4. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 – 20 minutes
  5. Remove from heat and cool
  6. Again bring the jam up to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer of 10 – 20 minutes
  7. You can test the consistency of your jam by putting a small plate in the freezer for 5 minutes to chill, put a small spoon of hot jam on the plate, let it sit for about 30 seconds, tip the plate on its side, if it runs, it needs to cook longer, if it gels and moves only slightly, it’s ready
  8. Remove from the heat
  9. Add the optional brandy if you’re using it
  10. While still hot, pour or ladle into the clean jars, wipe any spills of the rim of the jars, and seal tightly
  11. Put the jars in a pot, fill with at least 2 inches of water, bring to a boil, and let simmer for 10 minutes
  12. Remove the jars from the pot and cool
  13. As the jars cool, you’ll hear popping sounds, as the lids seal, there should be no give in the lids
  14. I’ve never had it happen, but if you have a jar with a lid that didn’t seal perfectly, put it in the fridge and eat this one first

 

Sauerkraut Relish Recipe

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While I’m convalescing after surgery, I’ve asked my friend, Sue, to share her recipe for Sauerkraut Relish and write a guest post. We were lucky enough to attend the cookout Sue mentions and to be sent home with some of the leftovers! The beautiful color was the first thing to strike me about this relish, and the flavor and texture were also awesome! Thanks, Sue, for sharing and helping me out! Now, I’ll hand it over to Sue:

sauerkraut relish

My foodie brother introduced me to sauerkraut relish (or marinated sauerkraut), when he was in his brat phase. (That’s “brat” as in “bratwurst” … the other kind of brat phase was when he was much younger.) When I was invited recently to a cookout with the theme of “cookout classics,” I decided to bring sauerkraut relish to accompany the hotdogs. Rather than get my brother’s recipe, I pulled out my cookbooks that are collections of recipes from mid-last-century from the midwest. The sauerkraut relish had reminded me of my father’s cousin’s family recipe for shoe peg corn salad, as well as my Aunt Marion’s bean salad, so I also went through my recipe box. There seems to be a genre of mid-century midwestern marinated vegetable salads that all have similar themes and ingredients. The main hallmark seems to be a dressing composed of vinegar and sugar (ranging from equal parts to a preponderance of sugar), and the vegetables added to the main ingredient include onion, celery, and bell pepper (with some also calling for pimiento, jalapeño pepper, and/or grated carrot).

So, I sort of combined recipes and picked what sounded good. Since I had roasted a red pepper for an appetizer for the cookout, I opted not to use the pimiento, and I used a combination of yellow and orange bell peppers. I added a jalapeño pepper but wasn’t sure of the guests’ heat tolerance so removed the seeds and membranes. And I didn’t measure, so quantities are approximate.

My brother served the sauerkraut relish as a hot dog condiment, but the guests at the cookout treated it as a side dish. Which is, of course, perfectly OK.

sauerkraut relish

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Sauerkraut Relish

★★★★ 4 from 1 reviews
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Description

As a side or a topping, this sauerkraut relish adds terrific flavor, texture, and color!

Ingredients

  • One 32-oz jar sauerkraut
  • Several ribs of celery
  • One-half red onion
  • One bell pepper
  • One large jalapeño
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup vinegar
  • 1/3 cup oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Drain the sauerkraut well
  2. I also squeezed it over the colander till fairly dry
  3. Dice the celery, onion, and bell pepper
  4. Remove the seeds and membranes from the jalapeño and dice
  5. In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the sugar and vinegar and stir till dissolved
  6. Let cool
  7. Add to the vegetable mixture with the oil and salt and pepper to taste

Notes

Enjoy as a condiment or side dish

 

Candied Grapefruit Peel Recipe

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From January to March, Tucsonans are harvesting fruit from their citrus trees. Mature trees yield much more than a family can consume, so it’s common to have friends dropping off as many bags of oranges, lemons, and grapefruit as you’re willing to take. In the past I’ve used this bounty to make marmalade, but this year I tried something different, so here is my candied citrus peel recipe.

Candied grapefruit peel recipe

This only requires the peel, so you have the segments for another use. It takes nose to tail cooking to the orchard! I decided to juice grapefruit segments. I was working with six grapefruit. I don’t have an electric citrus juicer, so I put the segments in the food processor, blitzed them until smooth and then strained the slurry to end up with wonderful pink grapefruit juice.

IMG_2658

You could use this process with other citrus peel, and lest you think you would have to spend months nibbling away at candied citrus peel, I plan to substitute diced candied grapefruit peel for candied ginger in this amazing scone recipe, or maybe candied ginger and candied grapefruit peel together in an amazing scone?

IMG_2665

This and other candied peels could also make an amazing fruitcake. Or add some pizzazz to a pound cake or muffins. You also might try dipping the candied grapefruit peel in tempered chocolate.

Smacznego!

Lois

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Candied grapefruit peel recipe

Candied Grapfruit Peel Recipe

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Description

Use all of your citrus by candying the peel!

Ingredients

  • 2 large red or pink grapefruits
  • 1 cup sugar, plus more for tossing

Instructions

  1. Cut the peel on the grapefruit into quarters by scoring it (picture a globe) from pole to pole and back to the first pole, make a second circular cut 90 degrees from the first, giving you four equal segments
  2. Peel and slice the peel lengthwise (and white pith) into 3/8 inch slices
  3. If you don’t want to use the pith (it provides a bitter sweet that is so characteristic of grapefruit), you could just just a vegetable peeler to take of the zest without the pith
  4. Place in a small pan (large if you’re making multiplying the recipe), cover with cold water
  5. Bring to a boil, and drain
  6. Repeat this process twice to remove some of the bitterness; it seems to also insure that all of the slices of peel are cooking equally, the ones floating on the top will be on the bottom of the next batch
  7. Add 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of water to the peel, bring to a boil, simmer and cook until the peel is translucent, about 15–20 minutes
  8. Drain; move the peel to a wire rack and let dry for 2–4 hours
  9. Toss in more sugar
  10. If your candied peel still seems too wet at this point, place back on the wire racks and put it in the oven on the lowest possible setting. In my case that is 170 F. Prop the oven door open just a smudge with a wooden spoon until you get the desired texture.

Candied grapefruit peel recipe

World Sepsis Day

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sepsis, world sepsis day

Ed and I are off to Berlin today for a World Sepsis Day event. I’m venturing away from my usual expat topics a bit because I want to make you aware of sepsis – something I’d never heard of until it almost killed my husband, as it does one person every four seconds.

“Sepsis is a potentially fatal whole-body inflammation caused by severe infection.” That’s what I found on google after my husband had been hospitalized for a few days and a visiting doctor slipped and used the term with us, something doctors on staff had carefully avoided. Sepsis is the body over-responding to infection and damaging itself in the process. Ed’s infection was bacterial, as most are, but sepsis can also occur in response to a virus or fungus.

In our case, it seemed like Ed was coming down with the flu. The symptoms hit him hard and came on suddenly – chills, fever of over 104 (40 C), extreme aches and pain in his legs. We used a lot of ibuprofen that day trying to keep the fever down.  The next morning, he woke up with bruises on his arms and legs, and we worried that the ibuprofen might have been the reason.

It took another 24 hours and two house calls (doctors still do that in Poland) before we arrived at a hospital, by this point his joints were so swollen that he couldn’t move and the pain was excruciating. I will be eternally grateful to the doctor who admitted him. He did exactly what needed to be done. He ordered blood work, pain meds, and as soon as the lab results were back, he told us there appeared to a a severe bacterial infection, possibly infection in his blood. (Sepsis is sometimes referred to as blood poisoning.)  We had to wait a bit for a bed to be ready, but the doctor told us he would start antibiotics as soon as Ed was moved to the ward.

He remained there for the next 30 days receiving antibiotics and other fluids almost continuously. Sepsis usually involves a dramatic decrease in blood pressure that damages organs, hence, the need for IV fluids to keep the pressure up. Six months later, recovery is still a work in progress, and I suspect he’s doing better than most. What we’ve come to realize is that modern medicine has made great strides in recognizing and treating sepsis, but if you survive, you’re on your own. There isn’t a prescribed course of treatment to help you get back to normal like there is with a knee replacement. Many of the specialists Ed saw or treatments he received are because he initiated it – almost arguing with his doctors that it was necessary. Their focus was looking for improvements in  blood chemistry (and the patient not dying) rather than mobility, healing (with necrosis in this case), and return to a normal active life.

sepsis patient

Since this diagnosis, we’ve read so many accounts where sepsis was fatal because the patients ignored their symptoms too long or doctors didn’t recognize the symptoms and failed to start treatment in time.  The thing I want you to take from this, is the encouragement. . . let me rephrase that. . . I’m charging you, to always to always seek medical attention and to insist on getting it when someone seems sicker than you would expect in a situation.  During the first day, Ed said, “I’ve never felt this bad before” – don’t ignore that. I shouldn’t have waited 48 hours to get him to a hospital, but to be perfectly honest, rightly or not, most Americans are terrified at the thought of being admitted to a Polish hospital and won’t go unless it seems to be the only option. I’m thankful we got there in time.

PS – they were never able to get a culture of the bacteria or to positively identify the source.  Doctors suspect it was a staph infection, and the most likely source was a neti pot.

World’s Best Caramel Corn

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Best caramel corn

Oh, the dangers of being a good cook! Seriously, pretty much anything you might want to eat is within your grasp, including the best caramel corn.

Ed was out of town on business last week.  I think of these times as a week-long slumber party with myself. I’ll stay up till all hours, watching TV or reading, sleep in, forget about sticking to a proper meal schedule. I just generally indulge myself.

It was on one of those late evenings that I began to crave a snack – sweet, salty, crunchy, any of the three would do, but all in one sounded even better.  I’ve always been a fan of Fiddle Faddle, a caramel popcorn that tastes like buttery toffee.  They cram a lot of things into the little Polish convenience store in our apartment complex, but sadly, Fiddle Faddle is not one of them.

I’ve come to realize that there’s a recipe out there on the Internet for anything you might want to make.  In this case, Top Secret Recipes to the rescue.  It involved much more time than I’d planned watching the thermometer in a bubbling pot, but I had a nibble of Fiddle Faddle to finish off the night.

I’m calling it a new international favorite.

Smacznego!

Lois

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World’s Best Caramel Corn

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Description

Sweet, salty, crunchy, delicious!

Ingredients

  • 10 cups popped popcorn (a Dutch oven full), lightly salted
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup corn syrup
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 cup sliced almonds

Instructions

  1. Spread the popcorn out in a parchment lined sheet pan, place in a warm oven
  2. Combine the sugars, butter, corn syrup, water, and salt in a pan and bring to a boil
  3. Reduce heat to medium and cook until the temperature reaches 270 F or the hard ball stage
  4. Remove from heat and add vanilla
  5. Sprinkle the almonds over the popcorn and carefully, but quickly pour the hot caramel over the popcorn and nuts in a small, moving, stream covering as much of the popcorn as possible
  6. Toss the popcorn with wooden spoons (the syrup is still hot) to cover all of the corn
  7. Cool and break into pieces
 Buttery Caramel Corn

 

PlanetBox Eco Friendly Lunch Box

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from the PlanetBox website

Things have come a long way since our kids were little. I think that every time we pass a mom with one of the fancy newfangled strollers.  They’re so big and sturdy, strong, yet light-weight. I especially love the incorporation of the infant car seat as a stroller attachment – so practical.

I have this same feeling of . . . envy, I guess you would say, when I hear my friend, Rachel, talking about her son’s lunch box. It’s one of the expensive PlanetBox kits. The cost seems to be the only downside; the smallest box starts at $35.

On the plus side, the boxes are stainless steel and will last for years. If you’re thinking that tastes and fads change and kids enjoy the treat of a new lunch box at the beginning of the school year, they’ve got you covered. The boxes can be decorated with magnetic panels that are interchangeable. The individual compartments do away with the need for plastic wrap, baggies, and single serving containers. Rachel’s son has severe allergies, and she hoping that the serving tray aspect of this lunch box will prevent cross-contamination with foods in the cafeteria that might cause a problem.

The sectioned compartments are reminiscent of the Japanese bento box, and American moms are emulating the Japanese homemakers in styling the food for very striking presentation. If it gets kids to eat their lunch, I’m all for it. The PlanetBox website will give you suggestions and Pinterest is teaming with ideas.  One of Rachel’s friends lamented on facebook that her husband thought she was going overboard when she filled a piping bag with mashed sweet potatoes when making school lunches. I think it’s a cute idea, encouraging a lot of creativity in the kitchen!

internet photo

If you want to take things a step further, you can buy Lunch Lines – a paperback book with pull out pages, 180 jokes ready to go!

Saving Tomato Seeds

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There’s a little fruit and vegetable shop on my way to the lake.  They usually have two kinds of tomatoes – one that’s big and bright red, the other is almost a grayish shade of red and smaller.  The former looked more appealing, but on my first visit, I decided I would try both.  I’m really glad that I did.

Since that time, I’ve got back specifically for the smaller tomato, which I now know is called pomidor malinowy or raspberry tomato.  I’ve never heard of that name in English, and my google research brought me to a tomato forum, where I learned that there are two varieties of Polish tomatoes called malinowy.

I like these tomatoes because they have a great flavor and unlike many tomatoes there isn’t a huge, hard core running through the center.  They slice very nicely.  I’ve saved the seeds from five or six of these tomatoes. Now that I know the name, I guess I can also check for a packet of seeds at the plant nursery.

Here’s the process for saving seeds if you want to try it:

Slice the tomatoes in half (horizontally) and scoop out the seeds.  Put all of that a jar and add a couple tablespoons of water.  Cover the jar with plastic wrap, put a small slit in the plastic wrap to allow for some air movement.  Leave this on the counter  for 3 or 4 days, swirling the mixture twice a day.
Fermentation will be taking place in the jar and it will remove the gelatinous seed coating.  I had been expecting a big, bubbly, stinky mess, but no such luck.  Very quiet tomato fermentation, but it did the trick.
On day number 4, I poured all of the liquid through a strainer.  Any bits of tomato flesh rinsed away easily.
After dripping into the sink, I spread out the seeds as much as possible in the strainer and left it sitting on paper towel for a few hours.
The final step was to spread out the seeds on a piece of parchment paper and put them in the oven for about 24 hours with just the light bulb on.  As they dried, I rubbed clumps of seeds between my fingers to separate them.
It’s very important that the seeds be perfectly dry.  If they’re just a little damp, the could become moldy and diseased before you have a chance to plant them.  Once they’re dry, store in an envelope or a jar until ready to plant.

Scam from blumail.org

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Some of you may know that I recently opened a home bakery.  Today, at the bakery email address, I received the email below from “ABR TRADING CO” .    The email is a scam, if you have any doubt, just read the post on this blog.  I just wanted to post this in the hope of warning others.  With my connection to Poland, I believe this was personalized for me!

From : ABR Trading Co
Subject: Order

Good day,

I want to place an order in your store,and I will like to know if you ship to Poland and my payment will be remitted via Visa Master card.So please let me know if you can assist me with the order,and please do not forget to include your website in your reply.Your quick response will be highly appreciated,I will be very glad if you treat this email with good concern.

Best Regards,
Jones Stephen.

Easter Craft – Decorated Eggs

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The other eggs were colored with onion skin

I’ve posted food related craft projects from time to time.  These eggs were different than anything I’ve seen before, so I wanted to share it with you.  A little late for this year, but keep it in mind for future use.

My friend, Elzbieta, did this project with a group of children.  These are hard boiled eggs, but you could certainly do this with blown eggs, or even fake eggs.

crochet thread = kordonek in Polish

The eggs were brushed with glue and then wound with crochet thread – the kind my grandmother used to crochet lace tablecloths.   I’m looking forward to trying this myself.  They’ll make an interesting addition to my Easter Tea tablescape.

Cottage Food Laws = A Home Based Bakery for Me!

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Back in the ’80s, my parents gave us a subscription to Bon Appetit.  A perfect gift because Ed and I both enjoy cooking and reading about new food ideas.  It was a cover photo that had me making my first Swiss Meringue Buttercream.  I got into fancy desserts in a big way.  During this time, I was at home with our three daughters, working on my accounting degree part-time, being a room mother, Girl Scout leader and Sunday School teacher – all of the typical activities when one has school aged children.

I thought about doing some dessert catering.  It seemed like the perfect solution, a creative outlet that would bring in a little extra money and brighten people’s days with some amazing treats.  Then I found out that it wasn’t legal to sell anything prepared in a home kitchen.  Talk about bursting my bubble.

Imagine my excitement last year when I stumbled upon the cottage food laws that are sweeping the nation, and yes, Arizona is a state when these laws have been enacted.  The laws vary from state to state, so things I have done in AZ might not be legal in your state.

For most of 2012, I’ve been day dreaming and reading about home based bakeries.  The time I spent in the steam room at our gym would involve brainstorming marketing ideas.  I have a long list of notes in my iPad, so putting together a business plan was relatively simple.

We expect to be wrapping up our time in Poland in the coming  year, so I’ve been in Arizona for the past several weeks, taking care of a lot of details for Silver Spoon: The Underground Bakery    business licenses, registering with the state department of health, etc.  We’re keeping it simple as we start out, just offering several kinds of biscotti and selling at farmers markets.  Our daughter, Lauren, has joined me in this venture and will keep things running as I head back to Poland for the summer.  We’re hitting 90 degrees this week, so it’s beginning to feel like summer in the Valley of the Sun, even if it isn’t even officially spring.

Currently, we’re selling at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings.  I especially like the fact that this market is run by a nonprofit.  We hope to add one more market soon.  I have to tell you that in the brief time we’ve been participating in the market, we’ve had a lot of fun.  The other vendors are pleasant interesting people; the customers are there to have a good time and enjoy tasting and talking about the food we’ve prepared.  And yes, they’ve also been buying our biscotti.

The candied ginger scones I made with the ABC Bakers inspired our candied ginger biscotti.  We’ve included a vegan option since we have a vegan in the family, and my friend Linda suggested a gluten free baking mix that has made our gluten free biscotti very popular.  It’s still too early to tell what will be our biggest seller.

Lauren and I make very good biscotti, and when you make something 4 or 5 times in one day, you get to know it really well and can tweek the recipe for the best results.  We can’t compete with the biscotti sold at Costco on price, but they can’t touch us when it comes to taste!

You’ll notice that biscotti isn’t mentioned in our business name.  That’s because my mind is so full of ideas about twists and turns this might take as we go about “sharing our passion for good food with like-minded souls.”  Besides our website (link above), you can follow us on twitter and like us on facebook to see where this adventure takes us.