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Poland pleasantly surprised me! Just to get straight to the point. Before my trip to Poland, I actually didn't have much of an idea of Polish cuisine. Or perhaps just a prejudice about lots of drinks, rustic meals, and not very refined cuisine. I really had to adjust that image, which a press trip is not good for! Because this trip spanned several days, two recipes will be available online, including a travel report. This time part 1 with the Polish pierogi recipe minced meat dumplings as a bonus recipe.
Polish press trip via the KOWR – Poland tastes good
A while ago an invitation from the KOWR (National Support Center for Polish Agriculture) on the mat, asking if I wanted to come and discover Poland. Say no more, that is of course the best thing for a Foodie to do! Packed up a suitcase and jumped on the plane to Warsaw. This city was a complete surprise to me right away. It reminded me a bit of Vienna. I arrived on Sunday and the shops are closed then. However, restaurants and all kinds of eateries are open. The old center was close to the hotel, so I wandered through the city for a few hours.
Discovering Poland through their food producers.
The whole trip was all about discovering Polish products. And where better to do that than at the producer himself? The first stop was therefore a cheese farmer in the countryside. Small disclaimer, unfortunately most of these producers do not export anything abroad. You'll have to take my word for it that it was really tasty. Especially in the east of the country there are many small farmers who produce on a small scale.
They consciously choose to keep their ecological footprint small and to make that with which they can sustain themselves. This farmer only had 4 (!) cows. Still enough milk to make beautiful cheeses that have already won quite a few awards in Poland.
Drink in Poland
We knew that they like vodka there, but a lot of cider is also brewed. Poland produces an enormous amount of apples and they also have to be processed. A visit to a Polish cider producer, including a tasting, taught me that this cider tastes very different than in the Netherlands. This farmer does not use sugar and therefore the cider is slightly more acidic than we are used to. Again, it was a small local producer who lives on its own land. For his B&B he buys locally from other farmers and here too there is organic cultivation.
Polish pierogi and traditional food
In the big city like Warsaw you can eat very international. Plenty of restaurants and eateries and certainly also "haute cuisine". Of course, the purpose of this trip was also to taste and eat the real traditional dishes. The dumplings were striking, I didn't have that on my radar at all. Pierogi so, and these can be filled in many different ways. Vegetarian, vegan, meat, everything is possible. As a recipe for this report I chose Polish pierogi minced meat dumplings. And they are surprisingly easy to make.
Here you will find the complete recipe with all the ingredients you need. I hope you have fun preparing the dish below.
Polish pierogi minced meat dumplings
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Ingredients:
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And this is how you make it:
- First we make the dough, in the mixing bowl of your food processor you mix the flour and salt.
- Heat the water in a pan and add the butter and mix until the butter has completely melted. The water should be hot but not boiling.
- Pour the water-butter mix into the flour and mix with a wooden spoon until you get a coarse dough.
- Put the dough hook on your food processor and on medium speed let the dough mix for at least 5 minutes until a soft, elastic and non-sticky dough ball is formed.
- Roll with your hands into a nice ball and fold in cling film and let rest for half an hour.
- Meanwhile, chop the onion and strip the leaves from the thyme sprigs.
- Take a frying pan and add a little oil and fry the onion with thyme until the onion is translucent. Add the minced meat and 75 ml stock. Let the meat cook slowly over low heat. It can be a bit moist and a kind of soggy meat mix. Season with salt and pepper. Let alone until we fill the pierogi.
- Flour your work surface and cut the dough ball into 3 parts, wrap the parts that you are not using yet in foil, roll out the dough with your rolling pin into a large slab of a few mm thickness. Use a cutter to cut rings out of the dough.
- Fill the circles with a teaspoon of meat mix and fold the pierogi into a crescent shape. Close the dough well. You can also use a dumping mold to press the dough shut.
- Repeat this process with all the dough until the meat is used up. Place the dumplings on a floured tea towel so they don't stick to your work surface.
- Bring a large pot of water and some salt to a boil and cook 6/7 pierogi at a time in the boiling water until they float. Scoop them out with a slotted spoon. You can also bake them in a frying pan afterwards, but you don't have to!
- Delicious bites!
Power from nature
During this visit to Poland I also noticed that a lot of work is done with herbs and spices and various oils. Think about the health food stores that we know in the Netherlands where you can buy organic products. The people really go for the power of the plants and not so much medicine. Perhaps also because so far from big cities you are a bit more on your own. We visited a passionate lady who makes cold-pressed oil with all kinds of herbs, seeds and spices.
Polish pierogi minced meat dumplings
So this was the first part of the Polish diptych, the next blog with photos, the remaining travel report and another beautiful Polish recipe will be online soon. On my Instagram page you will find a highlight "Poland tastes good", there you can also look back on this journey. I'm going to have fun with the next recipe!
Do you like the above recipe? Then try the recipes below:
pierogi recipe