Yes, I am Polish.
I was born and raised back home. I left Poland when I was 18 years old and very often people ask me about Polish cooking.
This is the reason why I decided to creative this post (links to recipes included).
Polish cuisine (Polish: kuchnia polska) is a mixture of Eastern European (Lithuanian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Jewish, Hungarian, etc.) and German culinary traditions, with some Russian, Italian, and Turkish influence due to historical reasons. It is rich in meat, especially chicken and pork, and winter vegetables (cabbage in the dish bigos), and spices, as well as different kinds of noodles the most notable of which are the pierogi. It is related to other Slavic cuisines in usage of kasza and other cereals. Generally speaking, Polish cuisine is hearty and uses a lot of cream and eggs. The traditional cuisine generally is demanding and Poles allow themselves a generous amount of time to prepare and enjoy their festive meals, with some meals (like Christmas eve or Easter Breakfast) taking a number of days to prepare in their entirety.
Traditionally, the main meal is eaten about 2 p.m., and is usually composed of three courses, starting with a soup, such as popular bouillon or tomato or more festive barszcz (beet) or żurek (sour rye meal mash), followed perhaps in a restaurant by an appetizer of herring (prepared in either cream, oil, or vinegar). Other popular appetizers are various cured meats, vegetables or fish in aspic. The main course is usually meaty including a roast or kotlet schabowy (breaded pork cutlet). Vegetables, currently replaced by leaf salad, were not very long ago most commonly served as 'surowka' - shredded root vegetables with lemon and sugar (carrot, celeriac, beetroot) or fermented cabbage (kapusta kiszona). The sides are usually boiled potatoes or more traditionally kasha (cereals). Meals often conclude with a dessert such as makowiec, a poppy seed pastry, or drożdżówka, a type of yeast cake. Other Polish specialities include chłodnik (a chilled beet or fruit soup for hot days), golonka (pork knuckles cooked with vegetables), kołduny (meat dumplings), zrazy (stuffed slices of beef), salceson and flaki (tripe).
Grandmother's Cheesecake (Sernik Babci)
Dough:
1-1/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 egg
3 Tbps sour cream
1/3 cup confetioners sugar
Filling:
6 eggs
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 lb. farmers cheese or ricotta
2/3 cup melted butter
1-1/2 cups mashed potatoes (not seasoned)
Save the ones from the night before.
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup grated orange or lemon peel
For the dough, combine the flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Cut in the butter with a fork.
Beat egg into the sour cream. Stir into the flour mixture then stir in the sugar. Knead the dough until well mixed and smooth.
Roll dough on a floured surface into a rectangle. Line a 13x9x2 inch pan with the dough and bring dough part the way up sides.
For the filling, separate 1 egg and reserve the whites, beat remaining yolk and whole eggs with the the sugar for 5 minutes at hight speed of a electric mixer. Add the vanilla, beat at high until the mixture is soft.
Press cheese through a sieve, blend cheese with butter add the potatoes, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt. Stir in organge peel. Fold into the egg mixture. Turn into prepard crust in pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F for about 45-55 min. or until set. Cool well before cutting.
Poppy Seed or Nut Roll
8 cups flour
1 pkg. dry yeast
1 stick of butter or margarine melted
5 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 cups of warm milk
Filling:
1 lb. poppy seed or ground nuts
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 sticks margarine or butter
1 cup milk, hot
1 lemon rind
Combine all filling ingredients and beat well.
Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup of the warm milk. Combine the flour, sugar, salt and eggs. Add remainder of the milk, butter and yast mixture. Beat until elastic. Sprinkle top with a little flour and cover with a cloth. Let stand in a warm place until double in size. Punch down. Divide the dough into 2 pieces. Put on floured board and roll out into a rectangle. Spread cool filling and sprinkle with raisins. Roll like a jelly roll. Place in greased pan and let stand to rise again. Brush top with margarine or butter bake for 45-60 min in 350 degree oven.
Cabbage Rolls (Golabki)
1 head cabbage
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 lb. ground pork or veal (opitioal)
16 oz can tomato sauce
8 oz can tomatoes
2 cups cooked rice
2 eggs
1 onion finely chopped
2 Tbsp. margarine
Salt and pepper to taste
Remove the core from the cabbage. Put the cabbage in boiling water and remove the leaves as they soften. Saute the onions in the margarine for a short time. In a bowl add the onions, meat, rice, eggs and salt and pepper, mix this well.
Place about 2 Tbsp. of the meat mixture in the center of a cabbage leaf and roll. Put the meat rolls in a large pot and pour the tomato sauce onto the rolls. Then squeeze tomatoes from can and arrange on top of the rolls. Simmer over low heat for 2 hours.
Fire Vodka (Krupnik)
1-1/2 cup honey
2/3 cup water
1 tsp. vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
8 sticks cinnamon
2 whole cloves
3 strips lemon peel
1 bottle vodka
Combine honey with the water, vanilla, spices and the lemon peel in a large saucepan. Bring this to a boil cover, and simmer for about 5 min. Add vodka, remove from the heat serve hot or cold.
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