Stew For the Soul

I have lived in the northeast for more than half of my life, now, and I have yet to adjust to the cold weather. Yesterday was a high of 24 degrees Fahrenheit, and I was bone cold all day. On top of that, my ENTIRE family is sick. We spent the morning at the doctor’s with my youngest, then running around getting medicines and supplies to take care of him. I decided it would be a good day for soup. So I flipped through my Polish cookbook, looking for the right recipe. Bigos. Bigos is a stew with cabbage, sauerkraut, and chopped meats. Very hardy, and very flavorful.

I dropped the rest of the family at home, then went our shopping. Shopping by myself is basically a vacation for me, so I took my time. First, to Target, to get myself a nice big Dutch oven. Then, the grocery store. I took my time picking the produce, then the meat. I wanted to do stew pork, but the butcher didn t know what that meant, so I went with a stew beef, instead. Then, double smoked bacon was on sale, that I grabbed that, and the only polish sausage my store had to offer. I found beef broth that touted it’s allergy friendliness, which made me happy, then piled the different spices into the cart.

When I got home, my husband was pretty shocked at the number of ingredients going into this one dish. I usually cook dishes with a small number of items in it, because of my son’s food allergies. But, even with the many many ingredients listed in the recipe, this was going to be Nico safe! That is not common. I immediately go to cooking. A lot of chopping, slicing, browning, and prep goes into this stew, but once it’s all in the pot, you just sit back and let it simmer. I gave it a little over 2 hours.

Again, the way it worked out, the kids were in bed for dinner. I was worried Eric was not going to like it, with its strong sour flavor, but he ate his entire bowl. We ate it with bread, which was nice. The recipe called for prunes, but everything I read said this was a “controversial” ingredient, and not always used. I also read that bigos is much better on day 2, so I’m very much looking forward to leftovers today.

All in all, it was quite a bit of prep and steps, but a pretty good result. I don’t know if I would order it in a restaurant, but I wouldn’t turn it down if it were put in front of me.

Start Slow…

As I perused through my shiny new Polish cookbook, I was a little overwhelmed at the amount of beets I am going to need… but I thought I would start slow, and stick to something I know. Fried food.

Kotlety schabowe, or breaded pork cutlets, was pretty easy to start with. I purchased some thin sliced boneless pork cutlets from Hannaford, and some other random “Polish” ingredients I knew I loved, because I’ll probably need them soon enough. The cookbook said to wrap them in plastic wrap, and beat them down into 1/4 inch slabs with a mallet. I don’t have a mallet, so I just beat them up a little with my hands, and prayed that was enough. Then, away I went, whisking, dredging, breading, frying. The whole process took about 20 mins, for all 8 pieces.

While I was doing all that, I had about 7 large red potatoes, boiling in some salt water. I also sliced up an onion, and threw it in my cast iron pan, with some butter, garlic powder, and a pinch of sugar. When all the necessary ingredients were finished, I threw them all together in a bowl, with a buttload of dill. The store was all out of fresh dill, so I bought one of those tubes of dill, which I found easier for this use, anyways. And a little more salt, because why not. Ziemniaki z Cebulą i Koperkiem: boiled potatoes with caramelized onions and fresh dill.

We didn’t get back from the store until after 7pm, so the kids were fed something else, and put to bed before dinner was ready. This honestly was amazing, as my husband and I never get to sit and have a peaceful dinner together. Our kids are 2 and 1, and let’s just say dinner in my house is probably a lot like dinner at the Bronx Zoo.

Eric loved dinner. We both ate until we felt sick… true Americans. I, of course, smothered everything in sour cream, but E ate it all as-in. Leftovers were awesome, and the 2-year-old helped me finish them off the next day for lunch.

I would say recipe #1 was a success! Pork was a tiny bit tough, but I don’t think I’ve ever had pork that wasn’t.

Onto Italian!

An Introduction to Our Adventure

Like most Americans, I’m a pretty diverse mix of ethnicities, but have one that I most identify with. Although I have many to choose from, Polish has been the only one that I ever really heard about as a child. Unfortunately, all of my native Polish relatives have passed on, and I find myself craving a connection my “motherland.”

My husband is Italian and Irish, but has no real Irish influence in his life. As far as he’s concerned, he’s Italian. So to be fair, I’ll be exploring his background, as well.

What better way is there to get to know a culture, than through their cuisine? I’m not talking cheesy Americanized periogies, and pizza place spaghetti and meatballs… I’m talking old school, traditional Polish and Italian recipes.

I’ve acquired 2 cookbooks, both approved by a native of their respective countries. I’ll be cooking one recipe a week, and documenting the process, the outcome, and our family and friend’s reactions to each recipe.

My goal is to help us feel more connected with with our backgrounds… in essence, eating our roots.

Enjoy!