Potato Soup or Zupa Ziemnianczana

Potato Soup is so simple that it's one of the first soups I ever learned how to make.  It's also extremely frugal.

Potato Soup also has played a large role in Polish culture, just as it has in other cultures.  It has been eaten by peasants for centuries.  Because it can be made with a vegetarian broth, it is a popular dish during Lent and other meatless days.

Even in movies such as The Pianist, Potato Soup is mentioned.  It is a soup that has kept people going during lean times.

On talking about living under Communism and why my family left, my Babcia once lamented that "You could stand in long lines behind people to buy your allowed food at the store.  Then, when it was finally your turn to buy, you would see that the shelves in the store were all empty except for one rotten bag of potatoes.  You couldn't even make Potato Soup."

Yesterday while my father joined us for dinner and we ate this dish, my father asked me if I remembered the man with the really big spoons.  I looked at him with surprise.  The flavor of Potato Soup always brings back a faint memory of a man smiling at me while I tried to eat Potato Soup with very large spoons.  The sort of spoons that for my age felt like they were as big as my face. 

I never knew what this memory is of. 

My father explained to me that when we were in Austria as refugees, the man would bring us Potato Soup with very large spoons.  Spoons which were too big even for my father to use.  Spoons like the ones used in The Pianist when the Szpilman family sits around eating what was probably Potato Soup.

Potato Soup is my memory of waiting and being given random acts of kindness from strangers. 

Waiting to be given a direction where we could go. 

Just like Lent is filled with waiting and being given a random act of kindness.


Ingredients:

1 piece of Smoked Polish Bacon with Ribs*
1 Onion, peeled and quartered
2 Carrots, washed, peeled and cut into 3 large pieces
handful of Curly Parsley, chopped
20 Peppercorns, whole in spice ball
10 Potatoes, washed, peeled, and cut into cubes
Salt to taste
Cream or Sour Cream, if you like
Chopped Chives or Curly Parsley to Garnish



In a large pot, place the Bacon, Onion, Carrots, Curly Parsley and Peppercorns and add water.  Bring to Boil and cook on medium heat for 1/2 hour. 

Remove from the liquid the Bacon, Onion, Carrots. 

Add Potatoes

Bring to a boil and cook on medium heat until the potatoes are soft.

Season with Salt.

Serve in bowl, garnish with Sour Cream and Chives or Curly Parsley, if you like.  On the side, you can serve the Meat.

Smacznego!

* I made this soup with meat to enjoy of Wednesday since we do not eat meat during Holy Three-Day Period.  To make vegetarian, just remove meat from list of ingredients.

Mushroom Soup or Zupa Pieczarkowa

While there are two basic Mushroom Soups in Polish cooking, I decided to make Zupa Pieczarkowa which is made with button mushrooms typically found in grocery stores instead of wild mushroom soup.  After all, it is not the time of year for wild mushroom picking. 

I also wanted to make something simple for Meatless Friday during Lent season.

While you might think this soup is a family favorite for us since we are Polish, I have to admit my brother has always hated mushrooms and my father no longer eats them.  My mother was also never a huge fan of button mushrooms.  So, this soup was really one only I ever enjoyed. 

Thankfully, my husband is a mushroom nut since he was a baby.  To put it bluntly, for Thanksgiving we typically buy $20-30 worth of button and crimini mushrooms.  Even last year, when Thanksgiving only involved our children, my husband, my father, and myself.  I sincerely think that my husband's greatest pleasure in life is when I cook the mushrooms the day before and he steals mushrooms from the pot all day long.



Ingredients:

1 pound White Button Mushrooms
2 tablespoons Butter
1/2 Sweet Onion, diced
32 oz. Vegetable Broth
1 tablespoon Flour
1/2 cup Sour Cream
Salt
Teaspoon or two of Apple Vinegar or White Vinegar
Curly Parsley or Dill to garnish, if you like



Wash the Mushrooms well to remove all dirt.  Remove caps and slice.  Trim ends off roots and dice roots finely. 

In soup pot, melt Butter and add Mushrooms and Onion. 

Cook on medium low, stirring once in a while to caramelize the Mushrooms and Onions until the water from the Mushrooms has cooked off. 

Add Broth and bring to a boil.

In a bowl, combine Sour Cream with Flour well.  Add a couple of tablespoons of hot broth and mix well.  Pour into soup and bring gently almost to a boil and turn off.

Add Salt and Vinegar to taste.

If you like, you can add a handful of Curly Parsley or Dill into the pot at this time. 

Serve with good crusty bread.

Smacznego!

My First Guest Post: Nachinka by Dine and Write's

In my search on Twitter a few days ago for fellow Poles and other Slavs and Eastern Europeans who blog, I discovered Liv from Dine & Write.  Her blog is about cooking, her background is Polish and Danish, and she also speaks English.  All in all, she's very interesting to talk to and of course, a member of Ze Bloc Blog.

Here is her guest post:

The ultimate Slavic comfort food

There are some heavy hitters in terms of Slavic comfort food: perogies, cabbage rolls, nalesnyky... These are all very well and good, but for me, nachinka trumps all of these. Nachinka, for those who are yet uninitiated, is a thick, baked cornmeal pudding. It may be thought of as the Slavs' answer to polenta, and many versions exist. My version is traced to my maternal grandmother's mother. As I write this, I just finished eating the last few bites of the nachinka I prepared earlier in the day, taking care to scrape up the delicious browned bits at the bottom of the pot. It's remarkably easy to prepare; detailed instructions follow. Smacznego!

Ingredients

1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 cup yellow cornmeal

5 cups warm milk

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

4 eggs, well-beaten

1/2 whipping cream or half-and-half

1 tsp baking powder

Assemble your ingredients (cute whisk is optional).

Saute onion in oil over medium heat until translucent.

Slowly and thoroughly stir in cornmeal.

Constantly stir over medium heat until cornmeal thickens (~10 min).

Continue stirring until mixture is very thick.

Meanwhile, whisk together eggs, cream and baking powder. Reserve 4 tbsp for topping.

Stir egg-cream mixture into cornmeal until thoroughly mixed. Remove from heat.

Scrape cornmeal mixture into a deep, well-buttered casserole. Pour reserved egg-cream mixture over the top. Bake at 325 deg F for 45-60 min, or until nicely browned.

Enjoy as a stand-alone dish or as an accompaniment to ham or chicken.

 And that, dear readers, is nachinka.  Each golden forkful is a trip to my grandmother's sunlit kitchen, where a well-worn gravel road runs past the sizable garden, something always smells delicious, and peace is found.

********

After reading this recipe, I recall having this as a child and cannot wait to go to the store to buy cornmeal and whipping cream, my two missing ingredients.  Smacznego is right!

Fish in Horseradish Sauce or Ryba w Sosie Chrzanowym

I know there are a lot of different versions of the sauce and methods to prepare this dish, this is simply one.  I've had it a few different ways. 

But since my older daughter only today is feeling better after a week of suffering through an Upper Respiratory Infection and the day before yesterday the baby started to show hints that she would soon feel sick, I needed a recipe that was quick and could be served cold.

I recalled having this dish once at a Polish restaurant on the side of the road a few years ago in the middle of summer and mentioned it to my father.  When his eyes lit up and he sounded excited, I knew I had to make it so that he could have dinner with us and spend time with his grandchildren. 

Especially after he said that he had not had Fish in Horseradish Sauce in a very long time.  I love being able to do that for him, almost as if I can give him a small part of his childhood memories to him since my Babcia and his mother has not cooked for him in many a year.



Ingredients:

2 packs of frozen Tilapia fillets (I know, I know, frozen is not as awesome as fresh but that's another discussion)
1/2 Cup Mayonnaise
1/2 Cup Sour Cream
4 Tablespoons of Horseradish
Curly Parsley to garnish
Boiled Eggs sliced in wedges to garnish



Use Any of the following in the Poaching Liquid:
Stock Vegetables (Commonly Onions or Leeks, Celeriac, Carrots, Celery or Parsnips), peeled and diced
Water
2 Bay leaves
20 Peppercorns
Pinch of Salt
Lemon sliced into wedges
Curly Parsley
Thyme
Dry White Wine

Place in a large pot the Poaching Ingredients into enough water to cover ingredients and Fish.  Bring Water to a Boil.  Lower heat to low and add Fish gently.  Cover and cook for 5 minutes, turn off the heat, cover and allow to cool.  Place in refrigerator overnight.

The next day, remove fish and set on tray to serve.

Mix Mayonnaise, Sour Cream and Horseradish together.

Drizzle on Fish liberally.  Garnish with Curly Parsley and Boiled Eggs.

Serve with Boiled Potatoes...



Smacznego!