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Polish Housewife

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

Vegetables

How to Make Pickled Red Onions

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Have you noticed that a popular finishing touch in restaurants is often house-made pickled red onions? It might be to accompany a burger, a taco, on a salad, or roasted meat. There are so many uses, and they are an often needed pop of beautiful color, and you can easily make your own.

PIckled Red Onions

While they will never replace Ogórki Kiszone, the cukes fermenting in brine in Polish kitchens every summer, these pickled red onions are so fast and easy to make. They can be ready in as little as two hours, but will even better after sitting overnight. So you can think of these the days of a dinner party and still serve your guests house-made pickled red onions.

Smacznego!

Lois

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PIckled Red Onions

Pickled Red Onions

  • Author: polishhousewife
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Description

Add a colorful, gourmet touch to any meal

Ingredients

  • 1 red onion
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 – 1 cup vinegar (I used rice vinegar)
  • 1 clover garlic, halved
  • 7 black peppercorns
  • 5 allspice berries
  • 3 springs of thyme
  • a pinch of red pepper flakes
  • small sprig of rosemary
  • 1 bay leaf

Instructions

  1. Peel and slice the onion, 1/4 inch thick, seperate the pieces and put in a colander, pour 3 cups of boiling water over the onions to blanch, drain
  2. Add the sugar, salt and vinegar to a glass jar large enough to hold your onion slices, stir or shake until the sugar and salt dissolve, add the garlic, peppercorns, allspice, thyme, pepper flakes, rosemary, and bay leaf
  3. Add the onions, packing them in, add more vinegar if needed
  4. Store in refrigerator, ready in just a couple of hours

Notes

Ready after a couple of hours, the onions will keep several weeks in the fridge, but are at their best the first week or two

Kulebiak z Kapusta i Grzybami (Cabbage & Mushroom Pie)

by 4 Comments

A request from a reader survey was “more cabbage recipes.” In response, I give you Kulebiak z Kapusta i Grzybami (Polish Cabbage & Mushroom Pie), affectionately dubbed, fancy cabbage. This is my take on a recipe from Polish Cookery by Marja Ochorowicz-Montowa, (if you buy via this affiliate link, Amazon sends me a few cents).

Kulebiak z Kapusta i Grzybami (Cabbage & Mushroom Pie)

I’ve sauteed everything, dressing up the cabbage with mushrooms, onion, hard boiled egg, and a bit of dill. Wrap it all up in the pastry of your choice. I’ve used frozen puff pastry, because I had some left over from a recent batch of sausage rolls.

I can picture using this filling in a number of ways. As is, the elegant puffed pastry could be the centerpiece of a meal, slicing it at the table. You might fill puff pastry shells with the filling or use your favorite pie crust recipe and bake it with a double crust in a pie pan. You could fill little turnovers made from pie crust or canned cresent rolls. Line mini-muffin pans with a crust and the filling for a bite sized cabbage appetizer. If you’re thinking this has too many carbs or is too complicted, just serve the filling — go straight from the frying pan to a serving bowl. It will be semi-fancy cabbage.

We love the flavor combination in Kulebiak z Kapusta i Grzybami (Cabbage & Mushroom Pie), and I think you will too.

Smacznego!

Lois

 

PS – Know someone who would enjoy Polish heritage memoralbilia? I’ happy to be affilated with My Polish Heritage; click on the photo on the left to save 5% and I earn a small commission.

 

 

 

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Kulebiak z Kapusta i Grzybami (Polish Cabbage & Mushroom Pie)

  • Author: Polish Housewife
  • Prep Time: 20 min
  • Cook Time: 1 hr
  • Total Time: -25793652.533333 minute
  • Yield: 6 servings
  • Category: Side dish
  • Method: Bake
  • Cuisine: Polish
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Description

A delicious vegetable filling in a puff pastry crust

Ingredients

  • 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 4 tablespoons butter, divided
  • 1 small head cabbage
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried dill (3-4 times more if using fresh)
  • 1 egg, hard boiled and diced
  • 1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed, but still chilled
  • 1 egg, for egg wash

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425 F
  2. Cook mushrooms and onion in 2 tablespoons butter until onion is translucent, set aside
  3. Remove outer layer of cabbage leaves, quarter and remove core, slice 1/2 inch thick and cook in 2 tablespoons butter until tender, season with salt and pepper
  4. Return the musrooms and onions to the pan, add dill and hard boiled egg, remove from heat and cool to room temperature
  5. Roll out puff pastry on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle, approximately 14 inches x 18 inches, slice into two pieces, 14 x 6 (bottom crust) and 14 x 12 (top crust), cut small decorate shapes into the top crust to release steam (or just make a slit with a knife after the pie is assembled)
  6. Leaving 3/4 inch clear around the edge of the bottom crust, place the cabbage filling on the crust, mounding it up as you do, shape the loaf by compacting with your hands, brush outside edge with water, and place top crust over filling and seal with bottom crust by pressing together with your fingertips or a fork
  7. Bake 15 – 20 minutes, until crust is golden brown, serve warm or at room temp

Notes

When rolled out, the puff pastry will be thin and stretches easily, it may work better to make cutouts after assembling but I haven’t tried it

A pizza cutter is great for cutting and trimming the puff pastry

Keywords: Cabbage

Gulasz Wegetariański (Polish Vegetarian/Vegan Goulash)

by 3 Comments

We recently hosted a friend who has become vegetarian for health reasons. She offered to make exceptions for the evening, but I wanted to add some meatless options to my repertoire. Two of our three daughters don’t eat meat.

Ed suggested that I make potato pancakes, so I did a Gulasz Wegetariański (Polish Vegetarian/Vegan Goulash) — my favorite topping for placki ziemniaczane.

Gulasz Wegetariański (Polish Vegetarian/Vegan Goulash)

with fried potato dumplings

Adding a host of veggies to the familiar paprika and tomato sauce makes a satisfying entrée. Try serving it over potato pancakes, buckwheat kasza, mashed potatoes, potato dumplings, or pasta.

The very best gulasz comes from sauteing the veggie over a very high heat until they begin to brown. I usually saute the ingredients separately. It will look like things are burning on the bottom of your pan, but the black stuff will come off with a little scraping when you add liquid.

vegetarian goulash and potato dumplings in a white bowl on a blue placemat

It will dissolve and become part of your broth providing rich color and flavor. . . I say the burnt stuff comes off the bottom of the pan, most of it comes off might be more accurate. My dear husband, who is usually the one washing dishes, has complained about my propensity for high heat in cooking.

You could skip this and just toss the raw veggies into the liquid, just know your broth will suffer for it. It will be just a little less wonderful, but I don’t want to scare you off.

Gulasz Wegetariański (Polish Vegetarian/Vegan Goulash) is a tasty way to get more produce into your diet.

Smacznego!

Lois

 

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Gulasz Wegetariański (Polish Vegetarian/Vegan Goulash)

★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews
  • Author: polishhousewife
  • Prep Time: 15 min
  • Cook Time: 40 min
  • Total Time: 55 minutes
  • Yield: 4 - 6 servings
  • Cuisine: Polish
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Description

A colorful and tasty vegetable based goulash!

Ingredients

vegetable oil, as needed

6 carrots, peeled and sliced diagonally, no more than 1/4 inch thick

1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into wedges 3 inches x 1/4 inch

4 onions, sliced

2 bell peppers, any color, sliced

1/4 cup tomato paste

1/2 cup red wine

2 – 4 cups vegetable broth, enough to cover the veggies

2 tablespoons paprika

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

5 juniper berries and/or 5 allspice berries

2 tablespoons Wondra flour

Instructions

In a Duth oven, saute carrots, sweet potato, onions, and bell pepper in a little oil until they begin to brown

Add tomato paste, red wine, vegetable broth, paprika, garlic, thyme, salt, pepper, juniper and/or allspice berries

Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered for 20 – 30 minutes, until the vegetables are tender

Sprinkle in Wondra flour to thicken the broth

Notes

In stead of Wondra flour, you might use a little corn starch mixed into a small amount of water

 

 

 

Wegetariański Smalec – Vegetarian/Vegan Smalec

by 6 Comments

Smalec, referred to a poor man’s butter, is often presented at the beginning of a meal in Poland, something gratis, like chips and salsa or a basket of warm bread. Smalec also goes well with beer or vodka, making it perfect to share with friends late at night when the discussions are getting serious and philosophical. Now you can share Wegetariański Smalec – Vegetarian/Vegan Smalec to be sure all of your friends can join the fun.

Wegetariański Smalec - Vegetarian/Vegan Smalec

Traditional smalec is made with rendered pork fat and something we enjoy a lot, but when I made this meatless version recently even my carnivore husband thought it was fantastic. I’d planned to talk about how I saw a bigger need for meatless recipes in the US compared to Poland. I know all surveys have a margin of error and when the sample size is as small as the people I know, the results can be misleading. Of the dozen people who might gather around our table at Christmas, 4 out of 12 wouldn’t eat traditional smalec. I know Poles give a lot of thought to the health consequences of their food, but 25% of the people I know in Poland wouldn’t be considered vegan, vegetarian, pescitarian. Imagine my surprise to find a report that listed the percentage of the US population that is vegetarian or vegan as 13% and in Poland it was 15%! Wherever you fall on the chart, I think you’ll enjoy this recipe.

I have just a couple of tips for you:

  • Be sure to use refined coconut oil, otherwise the predominant flavor will be coconut
  • Be sure to saute the diced onion in just a little bit of oil. If you put all of the oil in while you’re cooking the onions, they’ll boil rather than brown, and you really want that caramelized onion color. I thought I would cut corners, so I’m speaking from experience here.
  • The melting point of refined coconut oil is 77 – 79 F, so you’ll want to serve this a room temperature. It’s very SOLID straight out of the fridge.

Serve your Wegetariański Smalec – Vegetarian/Vegan Smalec with a wonderful bread and small dill pickles.

Smacznego!

Lois

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1 cup refined coconut oil, divided 2 small onions, finely diced 2 cloves garlic, finely minced 1 large Granny Smith apple, shredded 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1/4 teaspoon marjoram

Wegetariański Smalec – Vegetarian/Vegan Smalec

  • Author: Polish Housewife
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Description

Refined coconut oil replaces pork fat in the popular Polish spread

Ingredients

1 cup refined coconut oil, divided

2 small onions, finely diced

2 cloves garlic, finely minced (optional)

1 large Granny Smith apple, shredded

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon marjoram

Instructions

Add 2 tablespoons coconut oil and onions to a frying pan and cook over medium high heat until onions are golden brown

Add garlic and cook for just another minute of so (optional)

Add the remaining coconut oil, apple, salt, pepper, and marjoram

Stir until oil and melted and ingredients are combined

Pour into a jar or ramekins

Keep refrigerated, but bring to room temp before serving

Kopytka – Polish Potato Dumplings

by 9 Comments

According to PotatoPro.com, “The Polish King John III Sobieski is credited with having introduced potatoes – known initially as amerykany (from “America”) – to his countrymen in the mid-1600s, after a visit to Vienna.

Thus began a love affair that was to make Poland one of the 20th century’s giants of potato production.” The area of Poland we lived in was known for potatoes.

They even have their own word for potatoes, pyra, which is also a nickname for people from Poznan. So it’s no surprise that we have Kopytka – Polish Potato Dumplings in addition to Kluski Śląskie.

Kopytka - Polish Potato Dumplings

Kopytka literally means hooves; the little diamond shapes are supposed to resenble cloven hooves. The recipe is basically the same as Italian gnocchi. The difference is in the shape and the toppings.

potato dumplings topped with buttered bread crumbs on a polish pottery plate

As for the toppings, you can go with Polonaise (the French term meaning in the Polish style, which is topped with buttered breadcrumbs), gravy, pan drippings, or fry the dumplings and serve them with gulasz. You might even top them with sugar.

kopytka

The potatoes we’re mashing for Kopytka need to be on the dry side. So don’t use leftover mashed potatoes that you’ve prepared with milk and butter. Start off with plain potato that’s been cooked in the skin, or jacket as the Brits would say, or in its uniform as they say in Poland.

Smacznego!

Lois

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Kopytka – Polish Potato Dumplings

★★★★★ 5 from 2 reviews
  • Author: Polish Housewife
  • Prep Time: 10 min
  • Cook Time: 40 min
  • Total Time: 50 minutes
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Description

Tender little potato dumplings

Ingredients

1 pound potatoes

1/ 2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

2 cups flour

Instructions

With the skins on, boil potatoes until tender, cool and then peel

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil

Mash the potatoes thoroughly or process with a potato ricer

Stir in the egg and salt

Add enough flour to create a smooth dough, stirring just enough to incorporate the flour, overworking will make for tough dumpings

Take a small amount of the dough and roll on a floured surface to form a rope about 3/4 inch in diamter

Slice the rope on the diagional about 1/2 inch apart

Boil in salted water about 4 minutes without over crowding the pan, you’ll do multiple batches

Remove from the water with a slotted spoon

Serve topped with buttered bread crumbs, pan drippings, gravy or sugar

Notes

You can place kopytka on a cookie sheet before cooking and freeze, then place the frozen kopytka in a plastic bag to cook later, the dumpling equilavent of a brown and serve roll.

 

 

Pieczone Marchewki – Roasted Carrots

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Have you ever cooked a meal that was just too beige? You know what I mean. There are so many wonderful things that are delicous, but not necessarily visually striking, the meal we had over the weekend for example: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy. It sounds a lot like a Thanksgiving dinner, but it’s the wrong time of year. We don’t cook a turkey at Thanksgiving becaue we go to my parents’ home, but I do buy a turkey or two when they’re on sale. We pop them in the freezer for roasting later/now. Fortuanatley, this monochromatic meal was saved by Pieczone Marchewki – Roasted Carrots.

I found bundles of beautiful, small, carrots at Sprouts (a supermarket in our part of the country, inspired by farmers markets) in a vareity of colors. They supplied much needed color and lovely flavor. They are simple to prepare, and the limited work involved can be done in advance. The only thing needed at the last minute is popping them on a plate for serving, making them ideal for a meal with guests.

As I mentioned, you can do all of the prep in advance and let them sit until it’s time to put them in the oven. If the children in your home can use a vegetable peeler, this a a dish they can fix themselves, and aren’t we all more likely to eat something we’ve prepared?

Smacznego!

Lois

PS- this is the second recipe I’ve made lately that has come from Polska Foods, a now defunct maker of organic pierogi.

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Pieczone Marchewki – Roasted Carrots

★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews
  • Author: Polish Housewife
  • Prep Time: 10 min
  • Cook Time: 25 min
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 6 serings
  • Cuisine: Polish
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Description

Healthy and delicous, roasted carrots

Ingredients

2 batches of small carrots

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

Fresh dill for garnish

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 F

If your carrots have the greens attached, trim off all but an inch or so for decoration

Peel the carrots (or just give them a good scrubbing), rinse

Place on a foil lined baking sheet pan

Drizzle olive oil and honey over carrots, sprinkle with salt and pepper

Gently toss the carrots to coat, leaving them in a single layer on the pan (this is your stopping point if you’re preparing in advance)

Bake for about 25 minutes

Sprinkle with chopped or snipped fresh dill, I usually use scissors rather than a knife

Salatka z Pora i Jablka – Polish Leek and Apple Salad

by 3 Comments

Sweet vs. Savory

Americans tend to keep their sweet and savory separate. Fruit in a recipe? That must be a dessert. Savory vegetables? That must be for supper of maybe lunch, certainly not breakfast.

For breakfast, we want something sweet. Even when we have a heartier breakfast that might include meats, think of what they are traditionally. Sugar-cured ham, sugar-cured bacon. Toast? Let’s put some jam on that.

Admittedly, my knowledge of a Polish breakfast comes from Polish hotel breakfast buffets and a month of eating Polish hospital food. The hotel breakfast buffet, which is, I suspect, much more of a meal that a Polish family would typically eat in the morning (more than anyone typically eats in a morning), often includes salads.

I often wondered if they were leftover from a salad bar the evening before or made especially for breakfast. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Salatka z Pora i Jablka – Polish Leek and Apple Salad on a breakfast buffet.

Salatka z Pora i Jablka - Polish Leek and Apple Salad

Sweet and Savory Together

This simple salad of leek and apple does something I see so often in Polish cooking, mixing sweet and savory together. Polish recipes for bigos (a hunters stew) or liver often include prunes and or apple. A cabbage salad will include grated apple. Here we have leek and apple in a simple dressing. The flavors and textures go together beautifully, surprisingly so for my American palate.

In the interet of full disclosure, I earn a small commission if you shop via the Amazon links below.

Ed loved this salad and suggested that I make when his golfing buddy and his wife come to dinner in a couple of weeks. Even though this is posting during Lent, I think the simple ingredients will still be part of everyone’s meal plan. Unless you’ve given up delicous during this time of fasting and reflection.

If you wanted to jazz this up a bit, you could add a spoon of mayo, sour cream, or plain yogurt, or any combination of the three, but I like it as is. I discovered this salad on the website of Polska Foods, the now defunct maker of organic pierogi.

Smacznego!

Lois

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Salatka z Pora i Jablka – Polish Leek and Apple Salad

★ 1 from 1 reviews
  • Author: Polish Housewife
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Description

A light salad with the subtle warmth of leek and sweet crisp apple

Ingredients

2 leeks

2 tart apples

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

  • Trim the root end of the leeks, quarter lengthwise from the white end into the light green area, wash out any dirt between the layers, slice the white and light green parts as thin as possible
  • Peel, quarter, and core the apples, again slice as thin as possible
  • Combine the lemon juice, honey, and oil in a bowl, add the sliced leek and apple, toss
  • Season with salt and pepper
  • Chill for a few hours to let the flavors meld

Farmer’s Cheese Vegetable Spread

by 17 Comments

Batch #1

I first made this spread after a visit to a small Polish dairy farm  because I came home with some of their farmer’s cheese – made from the last evening’s milk.  I’d never used used this cheese before, but I’ve been told most Poles eat it sliced with salt and pepper.  One of my friends likes to have it drizzled with honey. I decided to make a Farmer’s Cheese Vegetable Spread.

My first attempt include such veggies as tomatoes and cucumbers. I’ve decided they contain too much water and make the spread too runny, so they’ve been dropped from subsequent versions.

Farmer's Cheese Vegetable Spread

Batch #2

This savory spead is often seen on hotel breakfast buffets in Poland. It’s delicous on toast, crackers, or as we’ve tried it most recently on the Bialy version of a bagel.

Smacznego!

Lois

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Farmer’s Cheese Vegetable Spread

★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews
  • Author: Polish Housewife
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 10 minutes
  • Yield: approximatley 2 cups
  • Cuisine: Polish
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Description

A savory cheese spread for toast or crackers

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces farmers cheese or Twaróg
  • 2 tablespoons sour cream
  • 4 green onions, thinly sliced
  • 6 radishes, finely diced
  • 1/4 cup finely diced onion
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/4 – 1 teaspoon salt (if your cheese is already salted use less)
  • 1/4 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

  • Combine all ingredients
  • Spread on crackers or toast

 

Krokiety Polish Croquettes

by 9 Comments

Krokiety Polish Croquettes are traditionally served along side Barszcz, a spicy beet broth soup or topped with a mushroom sauce or gravy. They’re filled naleśniki or crepes that’s battered with breadcrumbs and fried until beautifully crisp.

They are delicious little bits of heaven, and I’m including a couple of shortcuts to tempt you into making them not matter how busy your day is.

Krokiety Polish Croquettes with mushroom sauce

Krokiety Fillings

The filling could take many forms, a mix of vegetables, maybe some meat. Although on Christmas Eve or during Lent you can be sure the filling will be meatless. Just combine flavors that you like.

Veggie fillings should be finely chopped:

  • sautéed mushrooms
  • sautéed onion
  • sautéed cabbage
  • drained sauerkraut
  • grated cooked carrot (from your soup broth if you’re making barszcz)

Meat fillings should be cooked, shredded or ground:

  • chicken
  • turkey
  • beef
  • finely diced ham

Polish croquettes, krokiety, with mushroom sauce and alongside barszcz

Shortcuts

I’ve read some recipes that add egg to the filling to bind it together. I like to use grated cheese, which is quick and easy, or a white sauce. I mix up a bechamel sauce or sos beszamelowy.

Here’s Martha Stewart’s recipe. You would just need 1/4 of her recipe, or save a little time with a packet mix or even jarred sauce, the kind of white sauce or Alfredo sauce you might find next to spaghetti sauce in the supermarket.

The Amazon links below are part of an affiliate program. If you make a purchase via the links below, Amazon sends me a few cents.

In addition to this substitution, you might even substitute egg roll wrappers for the crepes because when you think about it, these are a lot like egg rolls. This is a shortcut that makes it easy to use up little bits of leftover meat or veggies.

I made these with Barszcz, so for the meat, I just used shortribs, and I picked the meat off the bones after making the broth. They’re equally delicious without meat.

Smacznego!

Lois

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Krokiety Polish Croquettes

Krokiety Polish Croquettes

  • Author: Polish Housewife
  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Cook Time: 25 mins
  • Total Time: 40 mins
  • Yield: 12 krokiety
  • Category: Side Dish
  • Cuisine: Polish
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Description

Crispy bundles filled with veggie and maybe meat

Ingredients

  • for crepes
  • 1 cups flour
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 tablespoons melted butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • for filling
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 8 ouces mushrooms, diced
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 1/2 cup sauerkraut, drained
  • 1/2 cup meat of your choice
  • 1/2 cup grated cheese or white sauce (just enough to bind ingredients together)
  • to assemble
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • 1 cup breadcrumbs
  • oil for frying

Instructions

for crepes

  1. Combine flour, milk, water, eggs, melted butter, salt with mixer or blender
  2. Let the batter rest in the fridge for 30 minutes
  3. Heat a small frying pan, 8 or 9 inches, over medium high heat
  4. Brush or spray the pan with oil
  5. Add about 1/4 cup of batter and shake and tilt the pan to spread the batter to coat the bottom of the pan
  6. Cook about 30 seconds, until crepe is set and beginning to brown
  7. Flip crepe and cook another 10 – 20 seconds
  8. Remove, stack on a plate

for the filling

  1. Add butter and chopped mushrooms, and onion to a frying pan and cook until tender
  2. Add sauerkraut, I snipped the kraut with scissors, it seemed easier than dicing, and cooked meat
  3. Add grated cheese or white sauce and stir to combine
  4. Set aside

to assemble

  1. Put approximately 2 tablespoons of filling on a crepe, if the crepe were a clock, position the filling between 10 and 2 o’clock, keeping it about an inch from the edges, fold the top over the filling and fold the sides in and continue rolling
  2. Repeat until you run out of crepes or filling
  3. Whisk egg and water
  4. Carefully dip in rolled crepes in the egg wash and them roll in breadcrumbs
  5. Heat oil, about 1/2 inch deep, to 350 F over high to medium high heat
  6. Carefully place krokiety in hot oil, cooking until golden brown, about one minute on each side
  7. Serve along side Barszcz or with mushroom sauce

 

Homemade Barszcz & Krokiety

by 11 Comments

If you enjoy these recipes for homemade Barszcz and Krokiety, how about sharing the love and passing this post along to your friends? 

Barszcz and Krokiety, Polish comfort food for a winter day!

Barszcz

Traditional Barszcz is a popular soup throughout Central and Eastern Europe. This winter soup which is rumored to have healing properties is spicy and tart. Not spicy as in heat, but lots of garlic. The tartness comes, in this case, from lemon juice and offsets the natural sweetness of the beets.

I’ve found the flavors are even better after a day or two. It makes great sipping in the evening. The original recipe calls for meaty soup bones. My market didn’t have any, so I bought some very meaty beef short ribs.

Barszcz and Krokiety, Polish comfort food for a winter day

All the wonderful ingredients go into a pan. After a good long simmer, everything is strained out and the broth is served.

Barszcz

Krokiety

I’ve made this combination, of homemade barszcz and krokiety, twice. The first time, I made proper herbed crepes, what the Polish would call pancakes, and used the meat from the ribs to make krokiety or croquettes, a common side to accompany barszcz. The meat was mixed with sauerkraut, onion, and mushroom – all finely diced, and bound it together with a cup of bechamel sauce. This filing went into herb crepes; the rolled up little bundles were browned in oil. On Christmas, Eve krokiety will not include meat.

The second time I made this, I was no longer a lady of leisure. I’m now working 40+ hours a week, and as much as I enjoy cooking, I do try to minimize the time I spend on my feet. This time I tried a shortcut  that worked out very well.

I bought a package of egg roll wrappers and used them inplace of the crepes. The filling also included half a cup of diced sauerkraut and enough bechamel sauce ( I made half of this recipe and had a bit to spare.) to bind everything together. The Polish style egg rolls were dipped in beaten egg and then bread crumbs before frying.

This made about 35 egg roll croquettes. They’re delicious with Barszcz or maybe with a mushroom gravy over the top.

Smacznego!

Lois

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Barszcz

  • Prep Time: 30 mins
  • Cook Time: 2 hours
  • Total Time: 2 hours 30 mins
  • Yield: Approx 8 servings
  • Category: Soup
  • Cuisine: Polish
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Description

A tart and spicy winter soup to warm the soul!

Ingredients

  • 4 large or 6 small beets, peeled and halved
  • 1 pound meaty beef bones
  • 1 medium carrot, trimmed and peeled
  • 1 medium parsnip, trimmed and peeled
  • 1 large onion, peeled and halved
  • 1 leek, white and green parts, trimmed, halved lengthwise and rinsed
  • 1 long celery stalk
  • 3-4 dried mushrooms
  • 10 cloves garlic, peeled but left whole
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 large pinch of dried marjoram
  • 6 peppercorns
  • About 12 cups odF water, depends on the size of your pot
  • Juice of 1 lemon, or about 4 tablespoons
  • Salt and pepper

Instructions

  1. Add the beets, beef bones, carrot, parsnip, onion, leek, celery, mushrooms, garlic, bay leaf, marjoram, and peppercorns to a Dutch oven or stock pot
  2. Add enough water to the pot to cover the ingredients
  3. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about two hours
  4. Skim off foam as it appears
  5. Strain the soup through a colander
  6. If it tastes watery, cook it down a bit to concentrate the favors
  7. Add lemon juice and season to taste with salt and pepper, it should taste garlicky and tart
  8. Serve the clear, hot soup in bowls or cups for sipping