Polish recipes of my mum

I finally ask my mum to give me some recipes which I can present to you. My mum does not use a lot of measurements to cook, so it was difficult to put exact amounts of ingredients. She will always say that you know while cooking that you need to put a little bit of this or that to obtain the right taste, color and smell. If you have any doubts you can comment on the blog so I can reply to any of your questions.


I start with vegetable salad.


Polish Vegetable Salad (Salatka Jarzynowa)


Ingredients:


6 potatoes,
4 carrots,
2 parsnips,
1/2 celery stalk,
half of leek (the white part)
4 kosher dill pickles
1 can of green peas
1 can of corn
1 cup of mayonnaise
1 teaspoon of mustard
4 eggs, boiled and diced
pepper, salt


Steam potatoes, carrots, parsnips and celery in the skin. Do not steam leek. Peel after cooled. Fine dice all vegetables and boiled eggs. Put everything in a large bowl. Add green peas, corn, mayonnaise and mustard. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix everything together. Refrigerate three hours before serving.

Ogorek Kiszony

The Polish-style pickled cucumber (ogorek kiszony) - best if preserved in a large stoneware crock or in a glass jar.

Ingredients:
pickling cukes, small or medium size, firm

half of head  of garlic

a stalk or two of fresh dill weed

one root of horseradish

1 tbs. of salt for each quart of water

Wash the cucumbers, peel and halve garlic cloves. Split stalks of dill, slice horseradish root in 1/4 thick slices. Put cucumbers, dill, garlic cloves and horseradish in crock and pack tightly. Intersperse ingredients for best flavor. Pour water boiled with salt (1 tbs. of salt for each quart of water) to cover the cucumbers. Cover the top of the crock with a plate and place something heavy on it to create and airtight closure. Leave for 2-4 days in a cool place removing plate 2 times a day to remove the mold from the surface. The pickles are ready to eat after four to five days in the crock but will not be very sour. After about two weeks in the crock your cucumbers are nice and sour and ready to eat...

Fot: Chicken Gyros salad of my mum, Linda

A Chicken Gyros salad of my mum

Ingredients:

2 or 3 chicken breasts

gyros species

ketchup

1 medium red onion

a cup of dill cucumber or pickles

a cup of canned red beans

a cup of canned corn

Dressing:

4 tbs. of mayonnaise

a clove of garlic, crushed

1 tsp. sugar

salt and pepper to taste

1, 8 oz of plain yogurt

Wash all vegetables, chop and fry the chicken breasts with gyros spices.  In a large glass bowl place the fried pieces of chicken and cover them with a thin layer of ketchup.  Then put a layer of diced red  onion, and layers of diced cucumber,red beans and corn over the chicken.  Cover the layers with the dressing (mixture of mayonnaise,  yogurt, salt, pepper, sugar).  On the top put  shredded Chinese cabbage and sprinkled with the juice of one/half fresh lemon.  Refrigerate for about an hour before serving.  Smacznego!!!

Golabki

Golabki  - little pigeons (as reference to their size and shape) –  stuffed cabbage rolls simmered in tomato sauce.

Ingredients:
green cabbage, core removed - 1 medium size head
1/2 lb of ground meat (beef or pork)
1/2 cup of rice
3 or 4 onions, diced and in sauted butter


Tomato sauce:
2 small onions, chopped
a clove of garlic, crushed
a beef boullion cube
2-3 tbs. of tomato paste
2-3 tbs. of regular sour cream 
2 tbs. of flour
salt, pepper
water


Remove the core from the cabbage and place the whole head in a pan of salted water to boil over high heat. Remove the leaves from the cabbage and then trim the large vein on the back of each leaf to make it flush with the surface of the leaf. Saute the diced onion (use butter), but not brown it, add cooked al dente rice, as well as salt and pepper to taste and mix. Lay a cabbage leaf out on a work surface, vein-side down, put about 1/4 cup of filling (mixture of raw diced meat, rice and onion). Fold the bottom of the leaf up over filling, then fold each side in a roll. Place about 1/4 cup of sauce on the bottom of a large casserole or baking dish. Place all the cabbage rolls, seam-side down, tightly into the dish. Pour remaining sauce over the rolls. Place covered dish in the oven and bake for about 2 hours at 350 degrees. Add water as needed to keep it from drying out.


Tomato sauce:
Saute one diced onion, using butter, add crushed clove of garlic. Then add a boullion cube mixed with one cup of water, 2 or 3 tbs. of tomato paste to obtain nice red color, sprinkle with salt and pepper. In the end place 2-3 tbs. of sour cream. Thicken to taste with a flour and water premix paste. Dissolve 2 tbs. of flour in cold water to make paste.


Aneta