Grandma's Polish Home Cooking

I’m very exciting about this section of Grandma’s Home Cooking. My experience with polish sausages was nothing more than a Polish Hotdog from Sam’s. After meeting my boyfriend, I realized that although the polish dog from Sam’s was delicious, it can’t hold a candle to fresh smoked kielbasa. My favorite has lots of garlic and comes from a little deli in Bayonne, NJ. In researching Polish breads, we find white, brown, raisin, prune, and poppyseed are among them. An important part of the main Polish meal is soup. One of the most popular soups is barszcz (fermented beetroot soup). But if one is looking for a special treat, the wild mushroom soup thickened with sour cream and served with tiny uszka is the way to go. With excitement, let continue to the superb Polish dumpling, the “pierogi”. I have to admit that the first time I made pierogies, they were terrible. Then, I saw how a seasoned Polish cook made them and cooked them and now I have them down. They are from noodle dough and can be stuffed with meat, chopped cabbage, mushrooms, cottage or ricotta cheese, fruit (prunes), and boiled. They can then be fried with a little butter and/or oil. A favorite is the pierogi ruskie that is stuffed with cheese, potatoes, and fried onions. A well-known dish is bigos that is of brined cabbage with a variety of meats, smoked meats (kielbasa is a good one) and mushrooms. I have to admit that it isn’t the most appealing of dishes but it has a wonderful hearty taste. Of all polish dishes my favorite is golabki - cabbage leaves stuffed with ground meats, (such as veal, beef, and pork) riche and onions and served with a tomato sauce. The first time I made this dish was with my boyfriend’s sister and it was his mother’s recipe. It wasn’t hard but a little time consuming. His only complaint was that we didn’t add enough filling. Pastries and cakes are a traditional type of dessert and are most often made from yeast dough (baba bread) and swiss-roll types with poppyseed (makowiec) are popular but krustiki among my favorite. It is made up of thin strips of delicate pastry deep-fried and garnished with lots of powdered sugar.