Pilgrims’ Progress

Krakow, Poland

 

Prepare at least three days before needed!
Preferably make a huge portion and leave it sitting on your balcony all winter long.

1kg fresh white cabbage, shredded finely
1t salt
   Place in a heavy pot with water to cover and bring to the boil
   Cook uncovered over a medium heat for about 30 minutes or until tender

1kg sauercraut, rinsed and well drained
1/2kg pre-cooked or smoked pork and/or ham, chopped into bite-size pieces
1/2kg kielbasa, chopped into bite-size pieces
1 large onion, chopped finely
1T minced garlic
50g dried mushrooms
8 prunes, pitted and cut into small pieces
1T peppercorns
1-2 bay leaves
1/2-1T allspice
   Add to the fresh cabbage and stir well

250g bacon, chopped
   Saute until crisp, drain off excess fat and add to the above
   Cook uncovered for 20 minutes on a medium heat, then cover and simmer over a   
   low heat for at least one hour
   Remove and discard bay leaves
   Set aside in a cool place

The following day…..

50ml vodka or 1/2C dark red wine
   Add, taste and add seasoning as needed
   Then cover and cook over a low heat for at least an hour

Repeat the following day, and also before serving. (it really is worth the daily cooking – every day it gets darker and darker, and tastes stronger and stronger).
Serve with boiled potatoes or dark rye bread.
Any leftovers can be reheated. Although, when we make it again we’ll need to at least double the recipe, because we gobbled it all up in one sitting. (Actually, our family version is likely to have a greatly increased amount of cabbage with no change being made to the meat quantity. Additionally, we’ll use red wine rather than vodka, because it adds a great deal to the appearance, which, as you can see, could not be classed as one of its finer features as is.)

* cubed venison steak and/or a ham hock can also be used (it was, after all,
   traditionally a hunter’s stew)
* in times past every home in Eastern Europe had a barrel of pickled cabbage, which
   was prepared in the autumn and used through the winter – we have been
   fortunate enough to be able to buy this home-prepared brew at the market.

And while we’re writing about pickled veges, here’s The World’s Best Pickling Recipe according to Janette Blackwell, who I don’t know from a bar of soap, but to whom I was introduced by Mr Google. Of all the pickle recipes I read, I enjoyed hers the most, and even though it’s Bulgarian and not Polish, I’m sure Polski pickles wouldn’t be too dissimilar. I wonder if hers explode!

The World’s Best Pickles - Author: Janette Blackwell

I knew they were the world’s best pickles the moment I tasted one. That first taste took place around 1950, and I’ve tasted a lot of pickles since, am a pickle hound in fact, but I’ve never come across anything else as good.
They came to us by way of my Uncle Ronald Smith, who was an electrician in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana where I grew up. One day he was doing electrical work for a Bulgarian family, and they rewarded him with a sample pickle. He liked it so much he got the recipe and gave it to his wife Gladys, who gave it to Grandma Glidewell, who made it and gave some to me, and I thought I’d died and gone to pickle heaven.
And thus, although they became an old Glidewell family recipe, they are really an old Bulgarian family recipe. The Bulgarian family, whose name I do not know, told Uncle Ronald that in Bulgaria, when the first heavy frost kills the tomato vines, they put all their end-of-garden vegetables — including those green tomatoes — into a barrel, fill the barrel with pickling brine, and eat the best pickles in the world all winter. It turns out, though, that the pickles’ travel from Bulgaria to the U.S. was only one leg of a more ancient journey. Because I mentioned them to an Iranian woman, and she said, “My family has always made pickles like that! Exactly like that, except we add tarragon.”
Iran being the new name for the ancient kingdom of Persia, who knows how many centuries these pickles go back?
There’s more: I later lost the recipe’s brine proportions. Gave some thought to its travels between Persia and Bulgaria, looked in an Armenian-American cookbook (Treasured Armenian Recipes, published in 1949 by the Armenian General Benevolent Union) and there they were, under “Mixed Pickles No. 2.” Turns out the world’s best Armenian pickles are just like the world’s best Bulgarian and Persian and American pickles, except they include dill, and sometimes green beans and coriander seed.
So this is an old, old recipe belonging to the whole human family.

END-OF-GARDEN PICKLES RECIPE

Vegetables:
Green tomatoes, cut in half or quartered if large 
   The green tomatoes for this recipe should be at least thinking of getting ripe.
   A tomato demonstrates its thoughts along this line by getting a white overlay
   on top of the green.
Carrots, peeled and cut into strips
Cauliflower, separated into small florets
Baby onions, peeled, or larger onions halved
Quartered green peppers, cut into broad lengthwise slices
Garlic, two peeled cloves per quart jar
Medium-hot peppers, two small whole peppers per quart
You can also add unpeeled and unwaxed small cucumbers, zucchini, or lightly cooked green beans, though we never did. The hot peppers add adventure and zest, but if you prefer to save your tears for really sad occasions, why not?
Amounts and proportions depend on what vegetables you have and how many quarts you plan to make. You don’t have to have the green tomatoes, and the other things can be bought in a grocery store. But you do need a variety of vegetables, and you have to have the onions and garlic, or you won’t have the world’s best pickles. You will have the world’s so-so pickles, and that would be a shame.

Armenian-Persian-Bulgarian Brine
To one quart of water add 1/4 cup pickling salt (salt that isn’t iodized), and one cup of white distilled vinegar. Bring the mixture to a boil. This is enough brine to cover two quarts of mixed pickles, with a little left over.

Processing
Follow the canning instructions in a good, standard cookbook. Or, if you plan to eat them right away, pack the vegetables into clean quart jars, pour over them the hot brine, and keep the pickles covered in the refrigerator. Some of the more impressionable vegetables, like zucchini, will be ready to eat in only two or three days.

Krakow, Poland

We peered in through the fogged up windows.
Yes! There were a few little tables with wooden chairs, yes there were coathooks on the wall, yes, there was the tiled hatch to put dirty dishes through, but more importantly, yes, everyone was eating pierogi. It was just as we remembered. We’d *have to* come back one day when we hadn’t already eaten.

Today was the day. Into the dimness of a big wooden-doored building we tripped and clattered on up the stone steps, past a small pizzeria and the entrance to the apartments upstairs, and right through to an outdoor courtyard. At the other side of the courtyard was “u Stasi” (directly translatable as “At Stasi’s”, perhaps more eloquently translated as “Stasi’s Place”)

A few things surprised us.

1. That we found it.
   We were told about this little Polish home cooking restaurant just before we returned to New Zealand twenty years ago and we went to it only once.
2. That it is still there.
   It is not even a block from the most touristified centre of Krakow. You’d have thought it might have been bought out by some bigger establishment by now.
3. That it still serves only Polish food.
   Two sorts of soup, half a dozen pierogi varieties, stuffed cabbage, pork cutlet, compote and tea.
4. That it is still cheap (despite being in tourist town).
   The pierogi portions were the largest of any we have seen advertised as we have walked around, and about half the cost.
5. That we all got to eat at the same time.
   Our historical experience was that a large queue formed outside (and when we were there the other day it was the same) and as a seat or two became free inside, one or two people would be admitted. We all got in at the same time, although not at tables near each other!
6. That when we sat down, ERgirl3 said, “I’d like rice please” – you can tell her restaurant experience is limited to Asia, where invariably the choice was either rice or noodles!

And so we checked off another of our like-to-do items for Krakow.
We also strolled round town, took lots of photos and chose some artwork to take home (a few months back Rob suggested we should have one picture for each overseas trip we have taken – when we were in Malaysia eight years ago we bought a painting for our wedding anniversary; that covered that trip. This time we are going to create our own art from our photos – somehow. But we didn’t have anything from our first two years away, and as we spent most of that time in Krakow, it seemed appropriate to find a Krakow painting – actually, we ended up with three little ones to mount together. Hopefully this means we will finally mount the Malaysia one too!!)

And when we look at them, we’ll remember eating pierogi for lunch.

Pierogi z miesem.
Ruskie pierogi.
Pierogi ze serem.

Pierogi with meat.
Russian pierogi (filled with potato).
Pierogi stuffed with white cheese, sprinkled with sugar and drowning in butter.

Krakow, Poland

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