I don’t think I’d offend anyone if I said it’s a Polish peasant food. Cheap, all ingredients widely accessible, quite unhealthy- fried- and the whole house smells of them for hours after the washing up was done.

The Placki Master is my dad. He’s not much of a cook, but he makes mean soups and placuszki- no one makes them better. He’s generous with onion and pepper and his are always beautifully crisp on edges. Much as I tried, mine this evening were not amazing.We ate them all, regardless. I’m into The Polish Mood these days, I even looked at Rip Off Air this morning to see what a long weekend at Mum’s in September would cost.

Now, placuszki. Placuszki require a lot of grating, so not a dish a lady with pretty nails would happily produce. Raw, peeled spuds must be grated on the finest end, the amount depending on how many diners and if it’s the only course. I used about 6 large potatoes, one large onion, cracked an egg into it, 3 good tbsps of plain flour and seasoned it all with salt and lots of pepper. Placki are not a good dish for a romantic dinner for 2, as one has to fry them and serve right away, they need to be eaten fresh as well, so all a man needs, while his wench fries placki, is a paper and a beer. Which was the case with Florek, only the paper was replaced with laptop. :-).

To serve, a slightly soured cream is essential, plus some caster sugar. People normally eat them with one OR the other, I like both. I bought some Polish cream from Tesco for the occasion. Overall good, but the best Polish food is served in Stronie, end of!

One of my most favourite dishes of all times. I make them at home sometimes, but at Mum’s they taste like heaven.

The stuffing is made of beef, chicken or turkey’s meat, boiled for hours, preferably when broth was made the day before.  The meat is finely minced together with any veg or mushrooms from the broth, and seasoned.

The dough is made the same way as for kluski śląskie, the only difference is the flour, plain flour this time.  To remind; boiled potatoes squeezed through the ricer, one egg and the amount of plain flour equal to the quarter of the amount of potatoes. Worked quickly, it doesn’t like to wait around.

Unhealthy as it is, it’s served with fried słoninka. Yum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is so unsophisticated, that it’s not even funny. Zapiekanki can be made out of many things, it’s a good way of using left over veg and stuff from the fridge. In my experience it tastes best in Poland, at Mum and Dad’s allotment, baked over the fire in an old pan.

For me the perfect zapiekanka must have 2 key ingredients; potatoes and bacon. Tonight I used potatoes, one sweet potato, some carrots, a parsnip, boiled it all and left to cool. I pan fried some pancetta cubes along with some cup mushrooms and a large red onion, as well as one sad looking pak choi ( and it does not have much to do with the fact that we’re going on holidays in 2 days and need to empty the fridge).

Cooled veggies get chopped and layered in the baking dish with the fried stuff, some grated cheese, spring onions, some dried herbs and seasoning. A drizzle of olive oil and into the oven for about 30 minutes, just to give it all a crunch and melt the cheese nicely.

Warning- it’s very filling. Lovely, simple winter supper.

Ps. It’s snowing again, BIG, good luck to Heathrow…..

I’m still enjoying being ” in between jobs” and having time to cook things I normally enjoy only  at my Mum’s, as standing in the kitchen for 2 hours is not always appealing after a day’s work.

So today it’s gołąbki- pigeons, if you like. Lots of work, but very lovely meal at the end of it.

First the stuffing; plain boiled rice, minced pork- in equal amounts, dry and quickly boiled and then chopped porcini mushrooms, 2 handfuls of them I’d say and save the liquid, it will be used in the sauce. 2-3 chopped and fried shallots,  a clove of garlic and lots of seasoning, mixed together and that’s the stuffing.

Next it’s the cabbage leaves that need to be quickly softened in boiling water , otherwise they’d be difficult to fold.  The hard bit in the middle of each leaf has to be cut flat for the same reason.

To make a gołąbek, you spread a wilted leaf flat, place some stuffing in the middle, flatted it and wrap up tight. When all done, place gołąbki in a pan bedded with some spare cabbage leaves, some olive oil and that liquid from the mushrooms. That stops them catching on the surface of the pan. Ready little things, in the pan nice and tight and then covered and slowly cooked, about an hour, check for the liquid and top up if necessary.

Last thing to do is a nice and simple tomato sauce ( although there are people like Moka who only like them in mushroom sauce) , a shallot, some garlic, fresh herbs, passata, red wine if there’s any around- there always is.

And that’s it, a pile of washing up to do while gołąbki are cooking.

In Poland we call them kluski slaskie, dumplings from Silesia, totally easy to make- with the right type of potatoes. I made them tonight, so that Zoe could taste something very Polish.

For the dumlings I boil some potatoes, squeeze them through the ricer when still hot, form them into a flat kind of ball and take out a quarter of it. Replace the missing quarter with starch- potato flour, excellent way to measure out the amount of the flour needed, my Mum’s way of doing it. Add an egg to all that, together with the quarter of potatoes taken out previously and quickly work it into a nice soft dough. The less floury kind of potatoes, the better, as the consistency required is quite rubbery. A thing to remember is to work that dough quickly and don’t keep it waiting, it gets loose.

Once the dough is done, I make it  into a small roll and cut out small bits, form them into balls, flat them out slightly and make a little hole in the middle with one finger, hence the name which Florian bastardized a bit- kluseczki z dziurkiem. 🙂

They finally get thrown into a pan of boiling, salted water, boiled for a few minutes, about 4-5, not too long, they have to keep their shape but not be raw in the middle.

I served them today with a good beef stew, at Mum’s we always have it with meat and sauce.

One Polish dish that I cook most often would be pierogi. Florian loves them cooked, left to rest and fried crispy.

The filling is made of boiled and pressed potatoes, chopped, fried onion and a Polish white cheese, that can be obtained from any Polish shop. It is crucial the cheese is the right one, it can’t be replaced with cottage or ricotta. It’s all mixed up and seasoned well.

The dough is simple- flour and some warm water with a drop of milk. Rolled on, I use a glass to cut rings, place a teaspoon of filling on each and close them tightly, sealing the edges well, so that they don’t open when cooking. I boil them for about 4-5 minutes,  serve them with chopped, fried onions and – if I have some- sloninka, pig’s lard, a cholesterol bomb, a flavour like nothing else.