Polish Cuisine

It's almost time for me to come back home to Australia. But I did promise that I would blog about the great food in Poland, since there are so many Master Chefs among you!

Polish cooking has traditions that come from many national groups that have lived in Poland for many hundreds of years. These include Jewish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Russian and German people, just to name a few.

Polish people are known for their excellent smoked meat, especially sausage (called kiełbasa, which is pronounced "kew-bah-sah"). Unlike Australians who eat lots of beef, in Poland people eat lots of pork, but they do also eat other meats too.

It's hard for me to choose which Polish meals are my favourite, and not many of them are easy to prepare, so I've had a good hard think about which recipes to include in this blog.


Fried Breaded Pork Chops

What you'll need:
Pork chops
2 eggs
Salt and pepper
Plain flour
Bread crumbs
Cooking oil
Wooden board
Tenderiser
Paper towels

1. Take pork chops, get a grown-up to slice them in two thin halves (less than a centimetre).

2. Now for some fun ... next you need to beat them on a board:

• Place a wooden board on the corner of the table, on a towel. 
• Put a slice of pork on the board and gently hammer it. 
• It's to tenderize rather than to make noise :)

3. On a plate, break two eggs and beat them lightly with a fork, with salt and pepper.4. Prepare a second plate with flour.

4. Prepare a third plate with bread crumbs.

5. Cover the pork in the flour, then in the egg, then in the bread crumbs.

6. Get a grown-up to put it on a hot pan with oil (stand back in case of splattering oil!).

7. Your grown-up should fry it slowly until it's very well done and nicely brown, without turning a lot (only flip it once).

8. Leave it to dry on a paper towel to drain. Enjoy! It should be good to eat the next day too.

You can do the same thing with chicken breasts (but slice it to the same thickness, less than a centimetre).


Polish Sausage Submarine Sandwich

What you'll need:
Polish sausage (Kielbasa)
Sauerkraut, drained
Submarine rolls
Mustard (yellow or brown)
Horseradish (optional)
Cheese (optional)

1. Slice the sausage into rounds, on the diagonal (so as to get more surface area).

2. Evenly lay out the sausage slices over the bottom half of the sub rolls.

3. Top with sauerkraut (be brave!).
Note: you can also add cheese at this point.


4. Squirt on some mustard.

5. If you are very brave, smear the top half of the bun with horseradish.

6. Cover the sandwich with the top bun; wrap it in foil, and ask a grownup to help you set up the oven to bake at 180 for about 15 minutes. Enjoy.

Poles enjoy a lot of good food, but because it is generally so complicated to make, I recommend going to a good Polish deli or bakery. There's a great Polish deli in Laverton. If you want nothing but great polish sweets and cakes, check out this Polish bakery in St Kilda.