My grandfather is Polish (his parents came to the US from Warsaw about 1910 or so). So, my mother grew up with him cooking many different Polish dishes that she has always loved. Unfortunately, my grandfather never really wrote down any of the recipes he used, with the exception of his pierogies. He doesn’t remember any of them very well, either.
My mom has decided that this Christmas, she wants to have mostly Polish foods at the big family party we have, and has asked me to help seek out recipes & cook.
Which brings me to my question: What are your favorite tried & true Polish recipes? A google search brings up plenty of recipes, but I want ones that you’ve actually tried. Dessert recipes would be especially helpful, but really anything is good.
Oh man, I looove Polish food! So good, but so hard to find in this country. It seems like unless you live in Chicago or maybe, I dunno, Pittsburgh, you’re pretty much SOL for finding a good Polish restaurant in the US. I’d gladly cut back 10% on the number of Chinese or Italian restaurants we have in this country and replace them with some good Eastern European places.
Anyways, I don’t have any recipes of my own (not being Polish and all), but check out allrecipes.com. They have a very good database, and all the recipes have user reviews and recommendations. I got a craving for stuffed cabbage rolls recently and made some from a recipe on that site; I got lost somewhere along the way (my cooking skills are extremely limited) and they didn’t turn out exactly as I’d hoped, but they were pretty good nonetheless. Good luck!
Thanks, I’ll try allrecipes! I didn’t realize they had reviews, so that will be very helpful.
I love Polish food myself, and I don’t think I’ve ever been to a Polish restaurant. There is a dense Polish population where my mom grew up (Dracut, MA - there was when she lived there, anyway). Anyway, fortunately for me I got to sample all of my Pappy’s cooking, but haven’t found anything good since he stopped cooking.*
*Shrapnel (sp?) in his hip from WWII had him using a cane quite often at a relatively young age - even without the the cane it was often hard for him to stand and run around the kitchen for very long. Now, while still fairly sound in mind, he just can’t see well at all.
If you ever go to Chicago, be sure to check out the Red Apple Buffet. It was my first introduction to Polish food, aside from frozen pierogies from the grocery store. It’s got great food for a good price, with good service. It’s also very atmospheric – seems like half the people in there are Poles, and it’s located in a very Polish neighborhood. Really felt like I was in Warsaw or something.
If you can get 'em at that time of year, you should have paczki for dessert. Kolaczki are supposed to be a traditional Christmas cookie, but paczki are better!
Our family tended to had kielbasa along with traditional American holiday dishes, especially at Easter. Other than that, it was all just “the stuff that Dad cooks”.
Their spelled gołąbki, but the pronunciation, if spelled in English, would be more like gowampkee. They are delicious with either a tomato based or mushroom cream sauce.
The restaurant is probably spelled Warszawa, the same as the Polish spelling for the city.
Mazurkas:.
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Beat eggs with sugar for 10 minutes, until light and fluffy. Mix water with lemon juice, and add to the eggs in a thin stream while beating. Beat 5 more minutes. Add flour, almonds, and butter alternately. Mix lightly to incorporate.
Divide batter between two 9 X 13 baking pans lined with buttered parchment paper.
Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden.
Cool slightly, then turn them out onto a rack to completely cool.
Meanwhile make icing (directions below).
Spread one cake with jam, cover it with the other cake and spread the icing over the top.
Icing:.
Stir warm water, lemon juice and confectioner’s sugar together until the sugar completely dissolves and the icing is smooth. It should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Add more water if necessary. If you get it too thin, add more sugar.
Thanks Missy, those sound like what I’m looking for!
And yeah, Martha is a bit (well, a lot) crazy, but she does have good recipes. She got famous for a reason!
Hmm…I really should start trying recipes now. You know, I wouldn’t want to serve anything I haven’t tried! Of course, it’s all about quality control, not about me wanting to gorge myself on some good Polish food. Yup…
