ham, kiełbasa krajana, pierogi ruskie, kapusta, and green beans.
My grandmother used to make a couple hundred pierogi every year in mid-December and give piles out to the rest of the family. she hasn’t been able to do it for probably going on 15 years now. last night my dad made a batch, got pretty close. I’m the designated kiełbasa procurer; my grandfather used to do it before he passed away, getting up at the crack of dawn to go to a tiny Polish deli on Michigan Avenue just inside Detroit. Then a neighbor friend of theirs took over until he passed, then my uncle would get it until he changed jobs to too far away, at which point I took over since I worked a few miles away. then a few years ago they retired and closed up shop, and I had to go on a frantic search for something similar. Now I get it from Srodek’s in Hamtramck. Kowalski and Eckrich can’t hold a candle to it.
That’s quite the feast! As you note, real kielbasa is not something you just pick up at the supermarket, which tends to vary between tasteless and awful. The real thing has a deep garlicky aroma and is no comparison to the fake stuff. Similarly, kapusta is often thought to be basically sauerkraut but the real thing is deeply browned with bacon and other ingredients and spices, so authenticity here makes all the difference in the world.
I don’t know what “piergi ruskie” is specifically, but my predilection with perogies is browning them in butter and then adding chopped onions about halfway through and browning the lot, then serving with lots of rich sour cream. Yum!
It’s certainly still around at many casual restaurants – this is typical (see “fajitas” under the main menu). It may be less prevalent than it used to be, but certainly not gone.
What would they use instead? If you’re serving any kind of roast, especially something like prime rib with Yorkshire pudding and mashed potatoes, ISTM that a gravy boat is pretty much essential to let guests put on as much or as little gravy as they like where they like it. I can’t imagine what else you’d do.
Maybe you’re referring to a formal gravy boat, of which I have one that matches my formal china and hasn’t been used in years. My solution to gravy needs for informal dining (which is 99.9% of it in this house) is simply to use an informal gravy boat! I have one that is basically like a small coffee cup with a spout, and I use it even for the occasional semi-formal dinner because I can’t be bothered with the big ornate one. In that sense I agree with you. But one often needs some kind of vessel for passing around gravy that one pours oneself on the various food items, that’s all I’m saying.
It seems he may have also missed or is unfamiliar with the “pierogi” part. Yes’ it’s like the Polish version of vareniki, and the “ruskie” part means “Ruthenian” in English and refers to the filling above (“cheese” being of the fresh white farmer’s cheese variety.)
We had that, too, on our Christmas Eve dinner, too, but my family still keeps the Polish traditions in that it contains no “meat” (as defined for Lenten fasts, so fish is okay.) So no sausages unfortunately. Lots of herring and cod and trout, though. (Carp is traditional, but nobody likes it.)
Every time I’ve had gravy, it’s just been in a pot or bowl, dipped out with a spoon or ladle.
I actually forgot gravy boats were a thing. But they do seem rather convenient–with the exception that you generally make more gravy than fills one up. But I guess you could keep the pot warming on the stove.
My family typically just does them boiled, but, yeah, they can also be boiled and then fried in butter or bacon drippings/bacon pieces (though not bacon for Wigilia, the Christmas Eve dinner) and possibly some finely minced onions.
yeah, there’s a lot of commonality in the regional cuisines, varenyky the Ukrainian way. I’m not a “purist” in the sense that I care if the ones I’m eating are the “correct” Polish variety, I only care how closely they resemble the ones I grew up eating for Christmas dinner at grandma & grandpas
our way is to boil them until they float in the water, remove, drain, then in a skillet lightly fry them in butter along with the onions until they just start to brown a bit. and remove any onions which start to get too dark, adding fresh ones in their place. my grandmother used to use a ton of butter; we don’t go nearly that far anymore. I’ve actually done them in plain olive oil (not extra virgin) and was happy with the result.
She still has hers, but rarely use it.
Lots of herring and cod and trout, though. (Carp is traditional, but nobody likes it.)