Placki Ziemniaczane (Potato Pancakes)

Polska piątek (Polish Friday) #4

 

 

My copy of Nela's Cookbook arrived yesterday.  I've only had a chance to skim through it, but I'm loving it.  The cookbook, published in 1983, has drawings illustrating techniques, and it's written as if it were a food blog.  Every recipe is preceded by a little story; Nela might talk about the source of the recipe, what she serves with it, or some family chuckle related to the dish.  

In my perusal, I did have time to notice that Nela makes her potato pancakes a little differently than other recipes I've seen.  She uses no flour - preferring instead to use the potato starch that has drained from the grated potatoes.  

So I made two different recipes today - Nela's and one found on All Recipes.  Before I give you more details, let me say how thrilled I am to have mastered potato pancakes.  I've been trying to do this for years, only to end up with the a batter that dissolves in the oil.  Where did I get the crazy idea that I was supposed to use mashed potatoes?  No matter what I added - flour, egg or how I handled the dough - disaster.  Not any more. 

First, I made the recipe that uses flour.  Grating the potatoes was time consuming; other than that, it was very easy.

Ingredients

3 potatoes (1.5 pounds)
1 small onion
1 small egg
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
canola oil for frying

Directions

• Peel potatoes and grate on the fine side of the grater.  
• Grate onion.
• Drain potatoes and onion.
• In a bowl, beat egg, stirring in flour, salt, and pepper until smooth.
• Add drained potatoes and onion, stirring until well combined.
• Heat 1/4 inch oil in frying pan over medium high heat.
• Add potato batter, 1/4 cup at a time.  Using the back of a spoon, spread the batter until the pancake is about 1/2 inch thick.  I was able to make 3 at a time. 
• Cook 2 to 3 minutes on each side.  My frying pan is larger than the largest burner, so I also rotated them half way through each side to keep the middle from cooking and the outside edge from not getting dark enough. 
• Drain on paper towels.

Makes 9

Now for Nela's version:

Ingredients

3 potatoes (1.5 pounds)
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon onion
1 small egg
2 teaspoons salt
lard for frying

Directions

• Peel and dice the potatoes.
• Add water to blender or food processor with a steel blade attachment, process the potato and onion in two batches.  Using the same water for both batches.  Process in bursts, so the potatoes are grated finely, but not liquefied. 
• Drain the potato mixture; reserving the water.  Let the water sit for just a minute.  The potato starch will settle to the bottom.  Pour off the liquid, being careful to leave the starch in the bowl.  
• Add egg, salt, and potato onion mixture to the starch and combine.
• Heat lard over medium high heat.   Drop batter 1/4 cup at a time into hot lard.  Using the back of the spoon to spread out the batter until pancakes are 1/2 inch thick.  
• Cook until brown on both sides.
• Drain on paper towels.

Makes 9

Which method did we prefer? I will probably combine the two recipes in the future.  If I have lard,  I'll use it.  It added a great flavor.  The food processor was a time saver.  As for the flour vs. potato starch question, I'll probably opt for flour.  My potatoes may have been lower in starch than some, but I was a little worried when I put them in the oil that they were just going to dissolve like all of my past potato pancake failures.  They didn't, but any difference in taste did not justify the stress.  The batter just wasn't quite as cohesive as I wanted. 

Finally, let's get around to serving these crisp and tender creations.   We had our potato pancakes topped with Pork Goulash.  Polish friends have told me they like to eat them with sugar and cinnamon, or maybe sour cream.   How about sour cream and a dollop of caviar.  The possibilities are mouth watering.  Oh yeah, plain was really good too.

Next week:  Kurczaka z Sosem Pomarańczowym (Orange Chicken)

Double- Chocolate-Whammy Groom's Cake

Heavenly Cake Baker Submission #55

The Heavenly Cake Bakers are making the No-Bake Whipped Cream Cheesecake this week.  I have already made the cheesecake, so I decided to try the groom's cake from the wedding cake chapter. 

The first thing I want to do is give you a link to Marie's post on this cake.  You'll see what it should look like.  I don't own the stadium pan, so I was using a more conventional bundt pan.  I always worry about getting the cake out of a bundt pan in one piece.  We'll come back to this point after I tell you how the cake is made.

First, you make a pan of the most chewy, fudge-like brownie.  The brownies are allowed to set up around the edge, the center is still a little soft when the pan comes out of the oven.  I thing they would be perfect served warm with a scoop of vnailla ice cream.  Pazuki, anyone?  Not familiar with pazuki?  It's a half-baked cookie (usually chocolate chip) with ice cream.    The brownie firm up in the fridge before being sliced into little chocolate chunks.  


Now, you whip up chocolate cake batter and fold in the brownie chunks.  All of this goes into the bundt pan to bake..  If all goes well, after baking the cake is spritzed with whiskey.  I told a group of people I was planning to bake this cake, and the group quickly renamed it "Choco-Choco-Whiskey Cake."  


Now back to the moment of de-panning.  After being in the oven much longer than expected, I topped the pan with a cooling rack and flipped the whole thing over.  I could see that the cake had dropped about an inch; I was just hoping the top of the cake had stayed attached and dropped with the bottom of the cake.  As my confidence began to rise, molten, chocolate goo began to gush out of the cake pan.  I quickly righted the pan, and with a large spatula scooped up the escaping batter.  This hodgepodge of baked, partially baked, and unbaked cake went back in the oven.  When it came out again, the top, which becomes the bottom, was like a mountain range rather than the nice flat surface you would normally expect.  Half of the cake came out well, half of it split through the middle, leaving part of the cake stuck in the pan.  


A perfect bundt presentation was out of the question, so I just sliced the cake layering it on a plate.  We'll be sharing it with friends Wednesday night.  I was unable to find a spray bottle or atomizer, so I used a pastry brush to give each slice a wash of brandy.  


What my cake lacks in appearance, it more than makes up in flavor.  It is wonderfully sweet,  moist, dense, and  chocolaty.  I'm sure I'll give it another try.  I'm not sure what went wrong, but I suspect that at some point the oven was turned off before it should have been. 

 

Unlike my other blog posts, as part of the Heavenly Cake Bakers, I don't post recipes from this book on the Internet. One of the reasons for this baking group is to encourage readers to purchase the cookbook. That strategy worked on me! After follow the group's baking adventures for a couple of months, I ordered a copy from Amazon because I wanted to join in. 

Zupa Pomidorowa (Tomato Soup)

Polska piątek (Polish Friday) #3
 

Every dinner in Poland begins with soup.  Order a salad as a starter and nine times out of ten, the waiter will try to talk you out of it.  Soup is the norm.   My inspiration is the tomato soup at Filigando, a popular restaurant with a shabby chic decor in Stary Browar mall.  Their tomato soup has such a complex taste, rich, with layers of flavor from the many ingredients.  I can see why our friends Princesa and Donald recommend it so highly.  

I've used canned tomatoes here - making it a year round possibility.  If you're lucky enough to have an abundance of fresh tomatoes, that would be even better.  Just add a little tomato juice to replace the liquid from the can.  

Smacznego!

Ingredients

3 14-ounce cans of whole tomatoes

3/4 cup olive oil, divided

salt and pepper, to taste

1 onion or leek (white and light green parts only), diced

1 carrot, diced

1 stalk celery or 1/2 cup celery root, diced 

1 parsnip, diced (optional)

2 - 4 tablespoons brandy (or sherry)

2 tablespoons basil and or parsley, chopped

1 cup chicken or vegetable stock 

1/2 - 1 cup heavy cream

Directions

• Drain the tomatoes, reserving liquid, using your hands, open the tomatoes, removing the seeds
• Laying the tomatoes out flat on a parchment lined baking sheet.  Drizzle with 1/4 olive oil, sprinkle with salt and peper.  Bake at 400 F until the edges begin to brown, about 20 minutes.  
• Add 1/2 cup olive oil to a large sauce pan, add onion, carrot, celery, and parsnip.  Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes.
• Add brandy,  and flame.  (You may not have enough alcohol to get a flame with sherry)
• Add the herbs, reserved tomato juice and the stock.  Simmer until the veggies are tender. 
• Process the soup using an immersion blender, blender, or food processor.  (You may want to let it cool a little bit so you don't get splashed with hot soup.)
• Add cream, using enough to get the desired texture.  Heat. 
• Garnish with a bit of cream and or herbs. 

Next week:  placki ziemniaczane (potato pancakes)

Armenian Almond Cookies

In need of a baked goody to say thank you to a new Armenian friend, my first thought was to make one of Rose's Heavenly Cakes, I may still do that in addition, but I decided that Armenian Almond Cookies were a must do.

I can see these easy to make, almond scented shortbread cookies making an appearance again on my Christmas cookie tray.  I love any sweet with almonds, and shortbread has long seemed like a special, indulgent treat to me -- ever since a friend visiting the hospital when our first daughters (not a typo, we have twins) were born brought a box of shortbread.  She said, "these are for you when you're up during the night."  Obviously, my friend had children, and her thoughtful gift was greatly enjoyed but never during the light of day. 

Ingredients

1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup almonds, finely ground
24 whole blanched almonds

Directions

• Preheat oven to 325 F (160 C)
• Cream butter and sugar
• Add flour and salt
• Mix in extracts and ground almonds until the batter is well combined
• Roll the dough into 24 balls about the size of a walnut (27g in my case)
• Place on a baking sheet and flatten with a fork, making a criss-cross pattern, as you would with peanut butter cookies.  No need to flour the fork,  the dough isn't sticky
• Lightly press one blanched almond on top of each cookie
• Bake until the bottoms are lightly brown, about 25 minutes

Yields: 2 dozen

Cold Bób Salad (Fava Bean, Broad Bean)

Polska piątek (Polish Friday) #2

This recipe comes from my friend, Gosia.  She emailed to ask if I'd seen bób (broad or fava beans) which were in season and had just made their annual summer appearance in the markets.  Her timing was uncanny.  I had purchased a packet, thinking they might be fresh lima beans, and cooked them that afternoon.  Gosia's cool, bright green bean salad is a much better use of bób than my experimentation.  

Peeling the beans does take a bit of time, but it's well worth it.  (I didn't the first time I cooked them.)  The skins are very tough, removing them reveals a tender bean and lets the beautiful, green color show.  Two of Gosia's sons still live at home, and she says if you can recruit helpers, it goes very quickly. 


Ingredients


bób, fresh fava or broad beans
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 cup diced fresh herbs (I used chives, parsley, basil, thyme, mint and dill)

Directions

• Boil the beans in salted water until tender, 5 - 10 minutes.  Drain.
• Using a sharp knife, make a small slit in the skin of each bean; peel and discard the skin.
• Gently toss with remaining ingredients; Chill.

Serves: 3 - 4 

Next week - Zupa Pomidorowa (Tomato Soup)

Galloping Gourmet's Sauteed Mushrooms

When Ed and I were living in Spain, so this is about 30 years ago, we were home on leave visiting our families, and we saw an episode of the Galloping Gourmet.  I don't remember if anything else was featured on that show, but Graham Kerr made sauteed mushrooms that caught our attention.  We used to fix them all the time, they became one of our signature dishes, but over the years, we forgot about them.  It's likely that sauteed mushrooms with cayenne were something that our daughters wouldn't eat as they were growing up, so they were bumped from the rotation.

Now, we find ourselves living in Poland - the mushroom capital of the world and we've loving the GG's mushrooms again.  I've always liked mushrooms, but there is something about the addition of lemon juice and cayenne pepper that really brightens the flavor. 

As I recall, and it has been a while, Graham Kerr suggested storing mushrooms in a brown paper bag in the fridge and using them as soon as possible. 

Ingredients

large container button mushrooms
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions

• Clean the mushrooms as you usually would.  I think Graham urged viewers to use a damp paper towel.  I tend to give them a quick rinse under running water even though that seems to be a mushroom sin.
• Quarter the mushrooms and saute in butter.  I like them to get a little brown.
• Season with salt, a light sprinkle of cayenne, and a spritz of lemon juice. 

Pork Steak Au Poivre with Roasted Peppercorns

Rich, spicy, and  decadent, but easy enough to fix for a midweek meal.  We made this twice last week with different cuts of pork.  This is inspired by a recipe that came with our Weber grill many years ago. The original uses beef, but when in Poland. . .   I always love the flavors; you just can't go wrong with shallots, brandy, cream and mustard.  The sauce is luxurious and it makes you feel rich eating it. 

This time we used roasted peppercorns after reading Vicki's comment on another food blog.  (I tried to go back, so I could link to the original comment, but I just couldn't find it.)  We bought a variety of pepper corns and tossed them in a frying pan, stirring the over medium heat for about 15 minutes.  For this recipe, we gave them a very coarse grind in a coffee (or spice) grinder that we have dedicated to pepper.  A pepper mill or mortar and pestle  would both work as well. Some will say that roasting intensifies the pepper flavor.  I thought it was more mellow, less harsh - kind of like roasted garlic compared to raw garlic. 

Ingredients

Pork steak or chops, to serve 4
salt & coarsely ground peppercorns (roasted as described above)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup diced shallot
2 - 4 tablespoons brandy
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions

• Season the pork with salt and generous amounts of pepper
• Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat.
• Add the meat and cook to desired doneness, adjusting the heat as necessary.
• Transfer the meat to a serving platter.
• Add butter and shallots to the frying pan.
• Cook until translucent. 
• Add brandy, allow the liquid to heat up and then carefully, light with a match.
• When the flame has burned out, stir in the mustard and cream, keeping on the heat for just a minute or two.
• Pour the sauce over the meat.

Serves 4

Hegetova Cihelna, Prague, Czech Republic

 A little road trip and we were able to join friends from Tucson in Prague as they begin a tour of Eastern Europe with a community orchestra.  They look really good for folks who just traversed the Atlantic. 

Next to the Franz Kafka Museum on Kampa Island in the Vltava River, Hegetova Cihelna  comes highly recommended by friends who have visited Prague and the front desk staff at our hotel.  This was our first trip to Prague, and we couldn't have had a better finish to the day - sitting along the river watching the boats go by, enjoying a fantastic meal.

Our city exploration included a river tour.  As  our boat passed Kampa Island, our tour guide pointed out the Kafka Museum.  He mentioned that this was an unusual place to locate the museum.  The building used to be a brick factory (producing many of the bricks used to construct the neighboring buildings) and the well known novelist from Prague never lived in that part of the city.  This is all making sense now. The name of the restaurant means Herget's Brickworks in English.  

As our tour boat went by, we were wondering if this was where we would be dining.  It was and the view is even better from the other side of the wall.  

Ed and I began the meal with bouillabaisse which led to the request, "let's make this at home."  

For my main course, linguine with parmesean and black truffle - wonderful flavor, but more pasta than I could eat.  

Ed had a fillet, excellent beefy flavor.  We don't get much beef in Poland.

Our friends Alice and Dennis had the rack of lamb and the duck.  Both were big hits.  The service was subtle and attentive.  Flatware was replaced for the next course in a stealth like manner.  

 

Three of us had this chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate with candied orange peel for dessert.  Ed, however, chose the tiramisu.  

How's that for presentation?  Is the spun sugar giving anyone Saint Honore Trifle flashbacks?  I'm sure there are a lot of wonderful restaurants in Prague, but you can't go wrong with this one. 

Wisniak (Polish Sweet Cherry Liqueur)

Polska piątek (Polish Friday) #1

PS - Let me put the post script at the beginning, so I can convince you to give this a try.  It's now December; I left my jars of Wisniak undisturbed for months and months.  My patience has been rewarded!  I just now strained out the cherries; the liqueur left behind is dark, fruity, sweet, and smooth.  I will make much more next summer when cherries are in season.  It's so wonderful, that I want to share it with everyone I know!

Popular all over Eastern Europe, I've been served this liqueur as an after dinner drink in Polish restaurants.  That happened recently on a trip to Lodz, on the very day that I had just purchased cherries from a vendor in the pedestrian underpass.  At 6.5 zl per kilogram (about $1.10 per pound) I couldn't pass them by.  We ate the first kilogram, so I bought a second one to bring home and turn into Wisniak. I'm sure Ed could see the "I can make this" light bulb appear over my head as we sipped our cordials. 

Similar in taste to our Cherry La La (which is ready in a week rather than months), Wisniak is fruity and very smooth - an ideal way to end a meal.  I've been told that if you make Wisniak when cherries first come into season, it reaches perfection in time for the holidays and should be served with a honey cake.  I don't know if I'll be able to wait that long. 

Ingredients

1 pound  pitted cherries
1 1/2 cups sugar (I used superfine sugar because I had some on hand)
2 - 3 cups vodka and brandy (I used enough to fill my containers in a 3:1 (respectively) ratio)

Directions

• Combine all of the ingredients in sterile containers. (I submerged the jars and lids in boiling water for 10 minutes.) Make sure you have enough alcohol to cover the cherries. 
• Store the containers for  4 to 6 weeks, strain and re-bottle.
• Allow to age 2 to 3 months.

Note:  we attended a luncheon recently and were served a homemade, non-alcoholic cherry cordial.  If cherries are still a bargain, I'm going to give this a try too.  Non-alcoholic was very important in this case.  The blood alcohol limit in Poland is .02 and it's strictly enforced with penalties of up to two years in prison.  So people who are driving just don't drink.  Fortunately, for us and establishments serving liquor, the public transportation is excellent and taxis are very affordable. 

Within hours, osmosis has begun

Next week - a cold bób salad (fava bean, broad bean)

No-Bake Whipped Cream Cheesecake

Heavenly Cake Baker Submission #54

 

The Heavenly Cake Bakers are making the Lemon Canadian Crown this week.   I made this cake last November.  I had come to Poland to spend Thanksgiving with my husband and our daughter, who was en route from Austria back to AZ.  It was a fun trip and a wonderful, creamy cake.  Since I've already made this one and still have many on my "to-do" list, I decided to flip to another recipe in the cheesecake category and make the No-Bake Whipped Cream Cheesecake.  Due to another of my many Polish language oversights in the grocery store, this became a Neapolitan cheesecake.  

The recipe calls for a pound of whipped creamed cheese.  Cream cheese is serek in Polish, and they have several varieties in the dairy case.  I know because they have pictures of chives, herbs, peppers, berries on the label.   Bitą  would be whipped; none of the cream cheese had this word on the label.  (Have I mentioned how much I love the iSpeak Polish app on my iphone?  I should use it more often.)  I found a brand without pictures, I bought it thinking that it must be plain cream cheese.  

When I got home, I noticed that I had two different kinds of cream cheese.  The translator app told me that I had strawberry cream cheese and "taste of chocolate" cream cheese.  I could go back and buy the Philly cream cheese.  They had it, but as an imported item it was more expensive.  I decided to use the flavored cheeses.  This would be the kitchen equivalent of "play the ball where it lies."

My plan was to keep the cream cheeses separate.  I wanted them to keep their pink and brown colors rather than become a muddy gray.  I also worried that as I added the custard and Italian meringue the flavors would become too diluted to be recognized, so I added some raspberry coulis to the strawberry, and 2 ounces of melted dark chocolate and a tablespoons of cocoa to the chocolate. 

I don't remember seeing graham crackers in the store here, so when I came across these from the folks who makes rye crisps, I bought them.  They were more like a rye crisp (airy & bland) than a graham cracker, so I doubled the sugar and salt in making the crust.  The crust turned out well, but the texture was still a little different.  More like a pretzel crust than graham cracker. 

We served it with the raspberry coulis.  All I can say is YUM!  The texture is so light a fluffy.  It's calling to me from the fridge right now.  I can see why Rose risked being late returning for work when she ran out to get a slice of this on her lunch hour.  It melts in your mouth - no chewing required.  

Unlike my other blog posts, as part of the Heavenly Cake Bakers, I don't post recipes from this book on the Internet. One of the reasons for this baking group is to encourage readers to purchase the cookbook. That strategy worked on me! After follow the group's baking adventures for a couple of months, I ordered a copy from Amazon because I wanted to join in. 

Polska piątek

According to Google Ananlytics, the Polish category on this blog gets a lot of activity.  That's not surprising, the Polish entries have far surpassed my Spanish entries, and we lived in Spain for four years! 

In order to be more intentional about learning to make Polish dishes and to give readers what they're looking for, I've decided to regularly post Polish recipes on Fridays (when I'm in town).  A new feature is born - Polska piątek (Polish Friday).

I have one Polish cookbook, Polish Cookery by Marja Ochorowicz-Monatowa, and I'm eagerly awaiting the delivery of Nela's Cookbook by Nela Rubinstein.  Nela's Cookbook has been published in English and Polish.  The English version appears to be out of print, but I was able to find a used copy on Amazon.

This book come highly recommended by my friend, Gosia.  Gosia is also a source of Polish cooking ideas.  She's the friend who spend the day teaching the foreigners in our book club how to make pierogi.  Gosia will also email when a new item comes into season and appears in the markets and tell me how she fixes it.  That's so exciting for me; we share a passion for food and it's obvious that Gosia is a teacher on the job and off. 

My friend,  Elżbieta, has also opened my eyes to new dishes.  Every visit to her home teaches me something new in the kitchen. 

The first Polska piątek recipe that I'll post next week will be Wisniak, a sweet cherry liqueur.  The inspiration for this recipe isn't coming from a cookbook but from the complimentary cordial, a cherry liqueur, that we were served at Espanada (in both Warsaw and Lodz) and at Amber Restaurant and Gallery in Tucson.  Oh yeah, now that I've been to Poland, I understand reason behind naming a Polish restaurant Amber.