Polish Comfort Food

Here's a favorite for cooler weather - Haluski! (not sure about spelling). It's fried cabbage and noodles.

Cook about a pound bag of egg noodles.
In skillet with LOTS of butter, add onions to your taste.
Chop up into bite size pieces a small head of cabbage.
Fry cabbage in butter and onions until tender, then add cooked noodles until all are combined. Salt and pepper to taste.

For EXTRA goodness, add a cup of Sour Cream!

Think I'm going to make some tonite.....

Sounds very good...I'd throw in some keilbasa, too. Now, it sounds even better!

Better yet,Fry up a couple of pork chops then dice and add to the noodles!This is COMFORT FOOD.

CAROLINABILL,you are to be praised,I haven't had this for years(probably not since my polka band days),this is grand stuff,personally I would serve the chops or kielbasi(homemeade,no substitutions)on the side,but with Polish food,adding then in would be just fine.........I'm going to the cabbage store,looks like a good afternoon!

Had that alot growing up, only my mom added chopped up bacon to the cabbage and no onions.

Here are a couple of tips for the cabbage:

Add a tablespoon of sugar to the saucepan, and saute the sugar in the oil until it begins to turn brown--don't burn it. Add the onions and cabbage, and saute.

At the end, add some poppy seeds to the cabbage/noodles mixture

Not a bad idea in the bunch. Thats one of the fun things about dishes like haluski - you can do a million things with it and usually it works.

Here's another fun Polish food that I only saw in Pittsburgh growing up - local supermarket made "pierogi pizza". Pizza crust with layer of mashed potatoes (loaded with onion) and heavy cheese layer, with or without sauerkraut. It may sound bizarre, but it was really good! Very easy to duplicate at home with Boboli. Kids love it! (usually with fewer onions in potatoes and usually without the kraut, which makes most children scream and cry)

Hey CarolinaBill - What kind of cheese? That sounds great!

Don

Don -

Think it was mixture of cheddar and mozzarella -heavier on the cheddar.

Ask my Serbian father (close enough to be Polish) (now 80) and his brother (now 82)....."So what was your favorite food growing up?" And they unanimously say "grah e kupus" which is very similar to Polish language and cooking and is sauerkraut and bean soup. My Italian mother, when asked the same question promptly said, "Gnocchi alla Bolognaise" and turned her nose up at the thought that anyone would even DARE think that sauerkraut and bean soup would be REMOTELY considered a delicious dish........

I actually happen to like pierogi, halushki, "grah e kupus" and other Eastern European foods. But in the long run.....those Italian mothers and Nonas SURE CAN COOK SOME FABULOUS FOOD!

Polish Noodles (Kluski z Kapusta)
Boil egg noodles medium thickness
Sauté in 1/4 pound of melted butter:
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion chopped
1 very large head of cabbage (green) shredded medium when the vegetables are limp, add 1 Tablespoon of caraway seed and salt and pepper to taste. Drain noodles. Pour vegetables over noodles. Stir in 1 pint or more of sour cream. Sometimes I serve sausage and bread, but usually we just have bread. (Dark rye, homemade of course).
http://www.polstore.com/html/polishrecipes.html

fpczyz -

Thanks for the link! Always wanted to try to make bigos - sounds great! Love Polish food and most Eastern European cuisine. Was easy to find where I grew up in Pittsburgh but essentially non existent in South.

I make really good stuffed cabbage...the way I learned involved topping with tomato sauce and lots of kraut - wouldn't have it any other way. My mother says that she learned the kraut method from a woman of Czech background, not sure if that is typical of their style.

Does anyone know about roots of kraut and stuffed cabbage connection, or did we just happen to stumble on something that happens to be really good?

My grandmother used to add crushed saltines a few minutes before dish was done. Although I haven't tried the sour cream yet, I will this week.

I also have a friend that taught me to add cottage cheese just before serving. In her recipe there are no crackers, but it is yummy.

We always added cottage cheese also. Coming from a polish town in PA we had great polish foods and traditions. Chanina was a favorite at Xmas. It's duck's blood soup. Very good.

CZARNINA -- POLISH DUCK SOUP
If I had to choose just one food to live on for the rest of my life CZARNINA would be it................. CZARNINA with little potato dumplings, Polish peasant food
Acutely the ducks blood really does not add any flavor to the soup other then the color. (a soft chocolate color). Being a peasant food every part of an animal/duck is use. So the blood goes into the soup. Vinegar is used so the blood wont coagulate and sweet dried prunes added to counter the vinegar thus you have a sweet/souer soup. Even the feathers were saved to make our down comforters. Growing up we all had down comforters on our bed which means we eat a lot of Czarina

Comissaryqueen, I too was raised in PA. Pierogies, I think are my favorite. Something you can't find here in the south, unless of course you are willing to settle for Mrs.T's. LOL.

Fortunately, local Publix market occasionally carries fresh pierogi in deli case with cheeses, sausages, etc. that are quite good albeit pricey. (12/$5.99) I forget the name, but they come from somewhere up in Mass. They are fresh, not frozen, so they have about 2-day shelf life, but if I take them home, they're getting snarfed down right away!

A friend told me about Bobak's market some time back, I never expected such a HUGE store and equally large restaurant attached that serves a Polish buffet. The original store is in Chicago but I visited the Naperville site which is housed in a former Eagle Country Market store. As you can see, they have many things that can be ordered on line.

http://www.bobak.com/

This looks like a good site for Polish recipes, though Lord knows I'm no expert!

http://lynnescountrykitchen.net/ethnic/plsh/index.html

What an excellent site. I spent almost an hour, just looking at the recipes. Thanks.

These are excellent sources
http://www.milliespierogi.com/
http://www.bluesealkielbasa.com/