If you decide to visit Poland, plan on being hungry between three or four o’clock in the afternoon. That is the time of day when the Polish dinner is usually served as the main meal. Unlike North American dinners, it is common in Poland to serve three courses, which include soup, a main dish and a delightful dessert. You need to bring a hearty appetite to any meal that includes foods made from traditional Polish recipes for one simple reason: ingredients include plenty of meat or chicken and a cornucopia of vegetables. Each recipe has a unique flavour that results from a mixture of spices that only years of practice and tradition can produce.
Whether you have an opportunity to visit Poland or decide to enjoy authentic Polish cuisine in a local restaurant, there are sure to be some surprises. Traditional Polish food has Slav roots, but has evolved over the centuries to include the influence of other European countries, including France. One of the first things you learn about Polish food is that bread is present at almost every meal as a side or an ingredient. When you eat at a restaurant, it is almost certain you won’t have to ask for bread because the Polish meal is considered incomplete without it.
Since the traditional dinner meal is comprised of three courses, you can get a good feel for the types of foods most likely to be served by considering some of the traditional dishes served in this resilient country.
The Polish climate is variable and is said to have six seasons and not four. The two additional seasons are an early spring and an early winter. Winter can be bitterly cold, so it is not surprising that hearty soups are popular in Poland. These soups are very unusual though and give you an opportunity to fully enjoy the practiced use of spices.
If you have not tried Czarnina or Czarna Polewka (duck soup), then it is time. It is a traditional Polish recipe that has its roots as an Easter time soup. Czarnina ingredients include duck, duck blood, clear poultry broth, celery, prunes, raisins, apples, and a variety of berries. Added spices include cloves, allspice and peppercorns. It also has a bit of sugar and lemon juice and vinegar, giving it a sweet-and-sour taste.
There are a number of variations of the Eastern European dish, but it should be pointed out Czarnina soup represents an old culture in which people used everything at hand to avoid waste. Soups are hearty and nutritious and made excellent use of typical farm products easily available over past centuries.
Many other soups are popular in Poland because they are warming during long cold winters. They include Zurek, made with delicate tasting sour leavening from fermentation of rye flour, hard boiled eggs and raw white Polish sausage (Biala Kielbasa). If you are lucky, the Polish restaurant will serve the soup in a bread bowl.
Another popular soup is Barszcz Czerwony (red borscht). Made with red beet juice, it also includes stuffed dumplings or krokiety (croquettes). Flaki, dating back to the 14th century, is traditionally made with shredded beef stomach and spices like marjoram and nutmeg, but restaurants will probably use a meat like white beef strips. You can order Rosol (clear chicken broth soup with chicken meat), Barszcz Grzybowy (mushroom soup), or Zupa (sorrel soup with meat, potatoes and hard boiled eggs).
Aftersavoring a bowl of soup and some good company, it is time to enjoy a main course.
Complex Flavours and Hearty Ingredients in Main Courses
Using beef, chicken or pork, the main courses rely on complex mixtures of spices to add flavour. Sausage features prominently in many of the dishes.
Bigos reminds you of the Polish penchant for soup. This is a hearty stew that is made mostly of meat and sausage with some mushrooms and cabbage added to round out the course. The meats used include pork loin chops, spare rib meat, smoked pork and bacon. It is almost always served with bread. There is no standard recipe so the particular flavours and aromas experienced will depend on what the chef chooses to add to this delicious traditional food. When sauerkraut and apple juice is added, the stew becomes an adventure for the palate.
Pierogi is a dough dumpling filled with a variety of ingredients that usually includes meat when served as a main course. However, it is also stuffed with sauerkraut, cheese or fruit. In any case, the dumplings are often accompanied by sour cream and maybe some onions on the side
A dish with a twist is Golabki (stuffed cabbage leaves). Stuffed with rice and ground meat, it is first baked. The twist is that once cooked, the stuffed cabbage leaves are refried in a tomato sauce that has a sweet-and-sour flavour.
For a change of pace, diners can try Kotlet Schabowy, which is a breaded pork tenderloin chop. The recipe requires dipping the meat in flour and egg first and then coating the chop with breadcrumbs. It is then served with fried cabbage and potatoes.
Main courses are often accompanied with cabbage or mushrooms unless they are ingredients in the dish. You may want a serving of Uszka (mushroom stuffed noodles). Polish salads make another wonderful meal addition. Mizeria is made with cucumber, fresh dill and chopped onion and makes the perfect light accompaniment to a heavier main course made with sausage or other types of meat.
Dessert is a Not-Too-Sweet Final Course
Makowiec (poppy seed cake) is not a floury cake like ones you might be most familiar with as a dessert. Traditional versions are made more like a pastry with layers of honeyed dough that is rolled around a filling of poppy (mak in Polish) seeds, almonds, walnuts and raisins. There is also a version that is more like a sponge cake that has a similar filling. Another popular poppy seed dessert is Kutia, which is a wheat pasta item. Also filled with raisins, nuts and poppy seeds, kutia is not overly sweet, which is typical of Polish desserts.
If you can’t resist doughnuts, then Polish Paczki is the right dessert for you. Though we tend to think of doughnuts as breakfast food, restaurants serving traditional Polish food may serve them as dessert. The deep-fried dough is usually filled with fruit jam or preserves and then glazed or dusted with powdered sugar.
Other names you might see on the menu include Sernik (cheesecake), Eklerka (éclairs) and Szarlotka (apple tarts).
Authentic Polish food dating back to the Slavs consisted of high fat and high calorie products. Today, you can enjoy many of the same dishes but cooked with healthy ingredients like low fat meats and stock and fresh vegetables. What has not changed is the wonderful use of aromatic and tasty spices that make Polish meals so interesting and turn meal time into a full sensory experience.