Scott's Parents Visit the Food Club.

Panoply of Polish Pierogies

Appetizer - Koreczki
Chopin & Belvedere Vodka
Borscht
Pierogies - Potatoe & Cheese, Mushroom, Beef
Sauerkraut
Kielbasa
Black Bread Rolls
Orange Ryeberry Bread
Honey Cake - Piernik
Apple Cobbler - Jablecznik
Krupnik

Tom rolling pierogi dough.

Koreczki (Polish Cocktail Party Classics)

There are many different kinds of Polish hors d'oeuvres, but among the most interesting are skewered finger foods known as koreczki. These colorfully attractive shishkebab-style hors d'oeuvres will add a touch of elegance to any event. Serve them as the main attraction of a cocktail hour or a light appetizer preceding a full course banquet. Allow 2-3 hors d'oeuvres per person and prepare that many toothpicks or cocktail picks and skewer them with 4-6 of the following ingredients:

Meat & Sausage (unsliced): Cut into small cubes: Polish canned ham, other boiled or baked ham, smoked kie³basa, Krakowska sausage, hunter's sausage (skinned), cooked meat (chicken, turkey, beef, pork, veal), firm pâté, boiled beef tongue, skinless frankfurters, etc.;
Firm Yellow Cheese (unsliced): Cut into small cubes Tilsit, Edam, Gouda, Swiss (Emmentaler, Gruyère), brick, farmer cheese, white (not orange-colored!) American cheese or similar (except orange-colored cheddar);
Fish & Seafood: Use whole canned mussels and baby shrimps, but cut into pieces the size of your meat and cheese cubes any of the following: smoked sprats, sardines, anchovy fillets and/or marinated herring (well-drained on absorbent paper), smoked fish (salmon, trout, carp, whitefish, herring, mackerel, cod, etc.) and solid tuna fish.
Fruits & Veggies: Use cocktail onions, canned button mushrooms, pickled mushrooms, pitted spiced cherries, raw cranberries, raisins, small seedless grapes, small olives (green & black), capers and large peas (cooked or canned) whole. The following should be cut into pieces of roughly equal size: dill pickles (vinegar and/or brined type), gherkins, fresh cucumber, radishes, bell pepper (red, yellow and/or green), rindless lemon wedges, pitted prunes, other dried fruit, dates, pickled beets (well drained and patted dry so they don't stain neighboring ingredients), and pitted spiced plums.
Bread: rye, black bread, French, unglazed piernik (honey-spice cake or gingerbread), etc.

Some suggestions:
cocktail onion, smoked fish, cucumber, radish, cheese
cucumber, chicken, radish, chicken, cranberry
sausage, dill pickle, bread cube, mushroom, cheese
cranberry, ham, bell pepper, bread cube, radish
green olive, turkey, cocktail onion, cheese, black olive,
raisin, cheese, caper, cheese, cucumber
cocktail onion, sprat, lemon wedge, anchovy, cucumber
mushroom, tuna, dill pickle, bread, cheese
spiced plum, mussel, bell pepper, shrimp, green olive
gherkin, tongue, piernik cube, cocktail onion
spiced cherry, hunter's sausage, beet, black bread, smoked kielbasa
radish, cooked meat, cranberry, ham, date
cocktail onion, cucumber, bell pepper, radish, cranberry (for vegetarians)
sausage, bread, tongue, cranberry, pâté, mushroom, ham (for meat-lovers)
smoked salmon, lemon wedge, tuna, caper, mussel (for seafood fanciers)
Swiss cheese, radish, farmer cheese, olive, edam or gouda(for cheese-lovers)

These are just a few examples. Use your imagination to come up with combinations of your own. Oranges, apples or grapefruits are impaled with the hors d'oeuvres and placed around the room for easy access. Snugly placing the orange, apple, etc., in a vase, bowl or glass will keep it stable.

Korcezki and Pierogi drying.

Borscht

2 lbs Pork Spareribs
1 lg Onion - chopped
2 Bay Leaf
3 Peppercorns
2 Tb White Vinegar
6 md Beets
2 c Sour Cream
2 c Milk
3 Tb Flour
Salt and Pepper to taste

In a large pot combine the spare ribs, onion, bay leaf and peppercorns, vinegar and cover with water. Bring to a simmer and cook until the meat is tender, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. In another pot, cover the scrubbed beets with water and bring to a boil. Simmer the beets for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the beets are tender. Drain and rinse the beets under cold water until they are cool. Peel and grate the beets.When the meat is tender, remove the bones and strip off the meat in bite size pieces. Return the meat to the broth and stir in the grated beets. Season the soup with salt and pepper. In a large bowl stir together the sour cream, milk and flour. Add two cups of the hot stock to the sour cream mixture and stir to combine. Pour this mixture through a strainer into the soup. Heat the soup over medium heat at a gentle simmer, but do not allow it to boil. Boiling will cause the sour cream to curdle. Serve immediately with boiled potatoes and pumpernickel or rye bread.

Carl's Borscht

Christine and a perfect pierogi.

Pierogi

Pierogi

2 cups white flour
½ cup warm water
1 egg
2Tb. melted unsalted butter
pinch of salt if desired

Put flour into bowl. Make a well in center of flour. Measure ½ cup warm water in one cup pyrex. Add egg and butter to warm water in pyrex cup and beat well with fork. Pour water/egg mixture into center of flour. Mix with fork. When dough begins to thicken, finish mixing by hand until dough comes away from sides of bowl cleanly. Let rest coverd with saran wrap for 20-30 minutes. Remove to lightly floured board. Cut in half. Wrap one half in saran wrap and set aside. Lightly need other half – 3-4 times. Roll out to 1/8 inch thick. Cut into 3 ½ inch circles. ( A glass or an egg ring works fine if you don’t have a cutter) Place dough into palm of hand. Place 3-4 tablespoons of filling into middle of dough. Pull dough over filling and pinch edges together starting in center and work toward ends. Dust with flour. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove from water and place on dishtowel and allow to dry. Turn and dry other side. Saute in clarified butter on both sides until golden. Or bake in covered pan at 350 degrees dotted with butter. Serve with carmalized onions, sour cream or plain.

Potato Filling

2-3 lbs. Potatoes
1 lb. Extra sharp cheddar cheese – grated

Boil potatoes(do not add salt). Drain. Rice. Add grated cheese and stir until cheese all melted and well blended.

Mushroom Filling

1 lb. Cleaned mushrooms chopped fine.
½ cup chopped onion
butter

Cook onion in butter until soft. Romove from pan. Add mushrooms to pan and cook all water is out and they have shrunk by half. Drain liquid from mushrooms and put back in pan, stirring to dry them. Add onions and mix well. Refridgerate for 2-3 days for flavor to adjust. Be sure mushroom mixture is cold when filling dough – it holds together better.

Pierogi ready to dry.

Sauerkraut with Spareribs

2-3 lbs pork spare ribs
3 small cans Silver Floss brand sauerkraut

Boil spare ribs in enough water to cover for about an hour. Cool. Remove fat from floating on top of the water. Add cans of sauerkraut and cook until the sauerkraut is tender, approximately 1 ½ - 2 hours.

Another option - add ¼ cup pearled barley with the cans of sauerkraut. It makes it very thick.

Black Bread Rolls

Blackski Breadski Rollskis

2 tbl yeast
2 ¼ cup water
6 tbl butter or margarine, melted
3 tbl molasses
1 tbl instant coffee
1 tbl salt
1 tbl caraway seed
1/3 cup wheat germ
¼ cup cocoa powder
2 cups rye flour
3 to 3 ½ cups white flour

350 degrees for 20 minutes

In a large mixing bowl dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Let it sit until bubbly.

Add the butter, molasses, coffee, salt, caraway seed, wheat germ, & cocoa powder.

Add the rye flour & beat 2 minutes with an electric mixer or 200 strokes by hand (I’m sure Carl will stroke it 200 times!)

Add the white flour & mix until the dough leaves the sides of the bowl. Knead the dough until it is smooth & elastic.

Put the dough in a buttered bowl, turn to coat all sides, cover with a damp towel & let rise until doubled in bulk.

Punch the dough down, turn it out onto the board. Knead a few times to press out air bubbles, cut in half, cover with the towel & let rest 10-15 minutes.

Shape the dough into 2 round or oval loaves, or rolls, & put on a greased baking sheet which has been dusted with cornmeal. Brush the tips of the loaves with melted butter, cover with a towel & let rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake 35-40 minutes or approximately 20 minutes for rolls, until the bottoms sound hollow when thumped.

Orange Rye Bread

Orang-ne Ryenick Breadloafski

1 tbl Yeast
¼ cup brown sugar
¾ cup orange juice, warmed
2 ½ cup flour
½ cup dry rye berries, soaked, ground
(soaked use ¾ cup)
Rind of 1 orange
¼ cup dry milk
3 tbl oil
1 ½ tsp salt
½ tsp cardamom

Loaf: 375 degrees for 35 minutes
Breadsticks: 400 degrees for 15 minutes

To soak the berries: Put the berries in a bowl. Add hot tap water to cover & let stand overnight at room temperature; or cover the berries with boiling water & let stand for 3 hours. The berries will almost double in volume. Drain well before using. The soaked & drained berries may be stored, sealed in a plastic Ziploc for up to 5 days in the refrigerator.

Stir the yeast & brown sugar into the warmed orange juice & let stand for 10 minutes.

Use the metal blade of a food processor to process ½ cup of the flour, the soaked rye berries & the orange rind for 2 minutes or until the mixture is very finely ground. Add the remaining flour, the milk powder, oil, 1 ½ tsp of the salt and the cardamom. With the machine running, add the yeast mixture through the feed tube & process for about 45 seconds, until the dough is smooth & elastic & just cleans the side of the bowl. (if the dough is too moist to clean the bowl, add flour by the tablespoon, with the machine running. if it is too dry, add orange juice by the teaspoon.)

Transfer the dough to an oiled 3-quart mixing bowl & turn the dough to coat it with oil. Cover with oiled plastic wrap & set aside in a warm place to rise until doubled in volume, about 1 ½ hours.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Beat together the egg & remaining salt & brush the top of the loaf lightly with the mixture. Bake in the center of the preheated oven for about 35 minutes or until the loaf is nicely browned & sounds hollow when thumped.

Remove from the loaf pan & cool on a wire rack. This recipe makes 1 loaf.

Maryann and Carl making pierogi dough.

Piernik (Honey Cake)

1 cup honey
½ cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
4 eggs, separated
3cups flour, sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
1 cup chopped walnuts

1. Bring the honey to a boil & cool.
2. Cream the butter & sugar, then add the egg yolks – one at a time.
Beat mixture until fluffy – then beat in the honey.
3. Sift flour with dry ingredients – add in alternately with sour cream, and
stir in nuts.
4. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold in to batter
5. Bake in a tube pan or bundt pan at 325 degrees until done – about 50 to 55
minutes.
6. Lower heat to 300 degrees in the last 15 minutes of baking to prevent the
honey from burning.

Jablecznik (Apple Cake with a Crumble Topping)

Filling:
8 to 10 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and shredded
1 cup sugar
1teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Add all of these ingredients in a bowl, toss well, set aside.

Dough:
1 cup sugar
1 cup soft butter or margarine
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch salt
3 cups flour

For the dough:
1. Cream the butter and sugar together.
2. Mix in the rest of the ingredients.
3. Press ½ of the dough into a greased 9x13 inch pan.
4. Pour fruit on top.
5. Crumble the rest of the dough on top.

Bake for 1 ¼ hours at 350 degrees.

Krupnik (Fire Vodka)

1-1/2 cup honey
2/3 cup water
1 tsp. vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
8 sticks cinnamon
2 whole cloves
3 strips lemon peel
1 bottle vodka

Combine honey with the water, vanilla, spices and the lemon peel in a large saucepan. Bring this to a boil cover, and simmer for about 5 min. Add vodka, remove from the heat serve hot or cold.

Nadzrowie!