Food like it used to taste... a HUGE discovery...

Tiffany_Aching

Polish cheesecake!! I recently discovered this through our local Lithuanian shop (the lady who works there said it was Polish and recommended it to me!). I chose the chocolate one and fell in love immediately.

I have become a cheesecake snob and nothing can come close to the Polish kind!

Charlton_King

Ah yes, I've tried real Polish cheesecake and it really is delicious.

Unfortunately even Polish shops, unbelievably, have started selling the
Western European style things which are nowhere near as good.

What you should look for is a yellowy, cake style thing, moist and full of sultanas. It can be hand held, to go with tea or coffee and is somewhat lemony tasting. It does NOT have a 2 tier, base and topping aspect to it, needing to be eaten with a spoon!

Gigervamp

Not all British food is tasteless rubbish, although the stuff in the supermarkets isn't great.

Try the small producers who sell at farmers markets and food festivals. There is some really great food out there.

Most of our xmas dinner this year is coming from local producers.

ERICS_MUM

My late Dad was from East Europe and in the 1950s and 60's we lived in East London where many fellow migrants lived and opened deli's. I remember to this day the gorgeous smells that greeted us when we walked into the shops. The smell that takes me back is caraway - Dad used to buy bread that the seeds sprinkled throughout. He also bought unsalted butter that was very light in colour and was absolutely delish.

Edited to add : picked cucumbers in a large glass container on the counter. I always remember they had rough skins, not smooth shiny green like today's tasteless offerings. The brine was infused with dill weed and seed. I'm having an "Aaahh Bisto !" moment.

agiaga

Ingredients:
1000g curd cheese (full fat or half fat), minced at least twice
300 g unsalted butter
250 g sugar (you can add a little less)
4 big eggs or 5 smaller ones, yolks and whites separated
50 g semolina
2 table spoons of potato flour
vanilla or rum aroma
1 teaspoon of baking powder
delicacies: raisins or candied orange peel, at your will – what you want and as much or as little as you likeJ (You can skip it altogether if you don’t like them)

All ingredients should be at room temperature.

In a mixer bowl, rub the butter and sugar until you get fluffy and light mass. Add the egg yolks, aroma and mix. Gradually add minced curd cheese, grinding continuously. Add semolina, baking powder, cornstarch, mix. Add orange zest and / or raisins and mix. Beat the whites to stiff and gently stir the curd.
Line a baking pan (23 cm diameter) with a baking paper. Bake for about 60 minutes at 170 ° C. Let it cool off in the slightly open oven (oven door tilted a bit but the cake stays in the oven – very important!)
When it cools decorate as you wish, e.g. chocolate glaze
Soft chocolate glaze:
70 ml heavy cream 36%
70 g dark or milk chocolate, broken (or chopped) into small pieces

In a small pan heat the cream. Take off the heat, add chocolate and leave for 2 minutes. Then stir until you get smooth glaze. Wait until it starts to thicken and then spread it on your cheesecake.

Enjoy!

P.S. Let me know if you like it homemade

marluc

Hi
thanks for the recipe.
Do you have a recipe for salatka (pronounced sowatka)
and also for pierogi?
Many thanks

agiaga

Dough:
3 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of warm water (but not too hot so you can knead the dough)
Sift the flour into a bowl or on a pastry board, in the middle of the mound create recess. Dissolve salt in water. Gradually pour the water, knead the dough all the time and gathering dry flour from the sides to the moist inside.
The dough should be soft and elastic. The consistency can be adjusted by adding small amount of flour or a small amount of water. To obtain a good consistency of dough need 10 minutes of kneading.
Leave the dough to rest (20-30 minutes) covered by tea cloth.
Note: To get more elasticity of the dough you can add hot water (instead of warm water) and knead the dough with a wooden knob or a spoon initially. When adjusting the consistency of the dough it’s easier to add flour than water – my advice is to add more water at the beginning (it’s difficult to get elastic dough when adding water during kneading).
Filling for Russian pierogi (ruskie pierogi):
500g fat or half fat curd cheese
500g potatoes
1 onion
2 spoons of butter
salt and pepper to taste
Cook potatoes in salty water, strain and let it cool off (without cover so the steam is not trapped). When they are cold mince them or push through the potato masher. Mince or push through potato masher the curd cheese. Dice the onion and fry it with butter until golden. Mix potatoes, curd cheese and onion, add salt and pepper to taste.
When you have dough and the filling ready take small part of the dough and roll it out thinly (keep the rest of the dough covered). Using a glass cut the circles out of the dough. Place about a teaspoon of filling (the amount of filling depends on the size of the circles) in the middle of each circle and fold the circle in half, pinch the edges strongly together so it stays closed. Keep pierogi covered with tea cloth so they won’t dry out. Repeat rolling the dough, cutting circles and filling them up until you are run out of ingredients J
Boil water in a big pan and add salt to it. Put portion of pierogi into salty boiling water and stir it carefully with a wooden spoon. Leave it to boil and wait until they come to the top. Leave it to cook further for about a minute and take them out using slotted spoon.
Note: The same dough you can use for ruskie pierogi (filling as above), pierogi with meat, pierogi with sauerkraut (pickled cabbage) and mushroom, pierogi with fruit… Filling can be pretty much anything you want. You can freeze leftover dough, just cover it with cling film (or put into freezing bag), then defrost overnight in fridge before using later on.

agiaga

marluc, do you mean vegetable salad, something a bit like potato salad?

Charlton_King

agiaga wrote: »

Dough:
3 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of warm water (but not too hot so you can knead the dough)
Sift the flour into a bowl or on a pastry board, in the middle of the mound create recess. Dissolve salt in water. Gradually pour the water, knead the dough all the time and gathering dry flour from the sides to the moist inside.
The dough should be soft and elastic. The consistency can be adjusted by adding small amount of flour or a small amount of water. To obtain a good consistency of dough need 10 minutes of kneading.
Leave the dough to rest (20-30 minutes) covered by tea cloth.
Note: To get more elasticity of the dough you can add hot water (instead of warm water) and knead the dough with a wooden knob or a spoon initially. When adjusting the consistency of the dough it’s easier to add flour than water – my advice is to add more water at the beginning (it’s difficult to get elastic dough when adding water during kneading).
Filling for Russian pierogi (ruskie pierogi):
500g fat or half fat curd cheese
500g potatoes
1 onion
2 spoons of butter
salt and pepper to taste
Cook potatoes in salty water, strain and let it cool off (without cover so the steam is not trapped). When they are cold mince them or push through the potato masher. Mince or push through potato masher the curd cheese. Dice the onion and fry it with butter until golden. Mix potatoes, curd cheese and onion, add salt and pepper to taste.
When you have dough and the filling ready take small part of the dough and roll it out thinly (keep the rest of the dough covered). Using a glass cut the circles out of the dough. Place about a teaspoon of filling (the amount of filling depends on the size of the circles) in the middle of each circle and fold the circle in half, pinch the edges strongly together so it stays closed. Keep pierogi covered with tea cloth so they won’t dry out. Repeat rolling the dough, cutting circles and filling them up until you are run out of ingredients J
Boil water in a big pan and add salt to it. Put portion of pierogi into salty boiling water and stir it carefully with a wooden spoon. Leave it to boil and wait until they come to the top. Leave it to cook further for about a minute and take them out using slotted spoon.
Note: The same dough you can use for ruskie pierogi (filling as above), pierogi with meat, pierogi with sauerkraut (pickled cabbage) and mushroom, pierogi with fruit… Filling can be pretty much anything you want. You can freeze leftover dough, just cover it with cling film (or put into freezing bag), then defrost overnight in fridge before using later on.

Thanks so much for that.

Is there such a thing as a Polish cookery book available in English, do you know?

Feral_Moon

Charlton_King wrote: »

Thanks so much for that.

Is there such a thing as a Polish cookery book available in English, do you know?

Loads on amazon!