How to make a Mazurek Easter Pie

Mazurek- a traditional Polish Easter pie


The mazurek cake  is said to be a variation on a Turkish recipe, and has been a firm element of Polish Easter tradition since the 17th century. 'Mazurek' is also the name of a traditional dance, and Mazury (Mazuria in English) is a region in the North-East of Poland, green with forests and blue with lakes.

As usual, the pluralisation gets tricky when translated. Mazurek is one cake, mazurki are many.

Here is how to make some mazurki:


500 grams of flour
250 grams of butter
150 grams of powder sugar
3 egg yolks

Mix the flour and butter until it has the consistency of breadcrumbs.
Mix in the sugar and egg yolks until you have a dough. If it is too dry, add a little cream.
You can use an electric blender.
Wrap up in cellophane, refrigerate for about an hour.

This is your pie and cookie dough. Roll it out thin, tuck it into a pie pan, and be careful that it doesn't burn in the oven. And let the crusts cool before you take them out of the pans and pour in the filling.

The filling can be jam, caramel, kaymak... our family standard is chocolate, and you're on your own there- it's a matter of preference. The general rule is to sit a pot inside a saucepan of simmering water, and melt down a combination of dark and milk chocolate. You can add nutella, you can add fudge spread- just be careful that it doesn't get too hot and start clumping.

Pour it into the pie crusts, shake them gently to spread it evenly. And then start decorating.

Done? Congratulations! But you can't eat any of it until after the Resurrection!

Since the mazurek was supposed to be the crown of the feast which the family would wait for all through Lent, the idea is to make it as pretty as possible. As a child I used to play with cookies and that horrific coloured icing which comes in little tubes and requires samsonic force to be squeezed out...until somewhere around 2007 I discovered seeds.

Seeds look classy. They look sophisticated. They look rustic, quaint, traditional.

They taste better than the icing...though they are a mite less colourful!

So, for your appreciation and inspiration, here are all the Easter treats baked at my house in the last few years:

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

How to make a real Christmas borscht: part 2

You thought I'd left you hanging with that borscht, huh? All those beets, getting pretty smelly in their jars...

Click here to see Part One of the recipe, which should have left you with jars full of beets.

Remember, the longer the wait, the more acidic the soup. These jars have been sitting here since December 7th.

And the truth is, when you open these jars, you will get a nasty surprise.

Aaaaaaargh!

Mold! Nasty, horrible, green mold! Oh god and skies alive, what went wrong?

Nothing. This is exactly what was supposed to happen. Fermented beet juice. Trust me, I've eaten borscht acidified with sourdough bread all my life and I'm fine. 38 million people living in Poland are fine. And awesome. Beet borscht makes you awesome.

But, of course, we don't want to be eating the mold. Blech. Scoop it out. Yuck yuck yuck. That's your bread, and what's left of the garlic. Into the bin it goes. Forget you ever saw it.

Yuck.

Next, to make perfectly sure no nasty stuff remains in our soup, place a sheet of gauze over a thick sieve and pour the beet-water through.

Clean gauze, of course.

Wear an apron. Beet splashes are hard to wash out.

The gauze and the sieve will catch all the bad bits, leaving you with a pot full of gorgeous, red liquid.

Clean, gorgeous, magical.

This is not yet borscht.

A step I have permitted myself to skip, because I assume everyone knows the basics, is making a large pot of broth. For Christmas Eve, it should be vegetable (no meat allowed) but on any other day you can use chicken, beef, or whatever your pleasure is.

Just in case you forgot how to do it, here's a quick reminder: chop up some vegetables (absolute standard are carrots, leek, parsnip, celery root, onion) and dump them in a pot of water. You can add some butter, too.

Simmer until vegetables are soft and soup is tasty.

Take vegetables out. You have broth.

Now, take that amazing red beet water and pour it into the broth.

You can throw away the beets that were in the jars, by the way, they're useless to us now. However, you should take two or three fresh, raw beets, peel, and chop them.

Add them to the broth, too. They won't do much for the taste at this point, but they will continue bringing out the colour.

Now, this is important- let the lot simmer, but never boil. If it boils, it will lose that gorgeous colour. Keep an eye on it and let it cook slowly on a small flame until the fresh beets sink down to the bottom of the pot.

Taste it. It should be strong, acidic, strangely exciting. If for some reason it fails to arouse your tastebuds, season it to your liking. And voila. Your borscht is ready.

Remember to serve it with boiled mushroom uszka!

How to make Christmas Pierogis part 2

Yesterday, I showed you how to make the filling. Now that it's had its time to chill in the fridge, let me tell you about the dough.

But first, some more linguistics. As I mentioned earlier, pierogi is a plural noun, so while 'pierogis' is acceptable amongst foreigners, don't be surprised if you never see the term in Poland. The singular form is pieróg, pronounced pyeah-roog. Uszka, meaning 'little ears', is the plural for uszko, pronounced, respectively: oo-shkah and oo-shkoh.

Pierogi and uszka use the same dough. It's not too terribly difficult to make, but it does dry out very quickly, so don't even think about storing it. However, once you've filled and rolled the pierogis, you can freeze them. They will keep for months.

Darth Vader mug optional, but it seems to help. Click to enlarge.

Dough for Pierogis and Uszka


about 500 g of flour
1 egg (optional)
1 flat teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of oil (canola or sunflower is good)
about 250 ml of boiled water, or milk

Sift the flour into a little mountain on your work surface. Make a crater for the oil (and egg, if you choose to add it). Fold and knead, carefully adding water or milk as needed. You will have to try and keep the dough springy and stretchy, but not sticky.

(psst...we just tried doing it in the blender...that works too!)


Roll it out as flat as possible, and don't dawdle- it dries out fast. Keep any dough that you are not working with in a covered container.

If, by accident, the dough is just too dry for pierogis, don't worry. You can cut it into strips, then lay it out on a cloth to dry... and you have delicious homemade pasta!

Nothing gets wasted.

But, assuming your dough came out just right, cut circles into it with a glass. Bigger ones for pierogis, smaller ones for uszka.

Here is a helpful diagram showing the four stages of making an uszko. The third stage is pretty much where you stop to have a pieróg.

Still confused? Check out the video:

And that's it! Make many, lay them out on sheets, freeze immediately. When they're cold enough not to be sticky anymore, put them in plastic bags. They'll keep in the freezer for a long time- when you want to eat them, just drop them into boiling water and wait until they bob up to the surface.

Storing your pierogis. Top shelf: waiting to harden. Bottom shelf: bagged and ready.

Pierogis are usually eaten by themselves, while uszka belong in your bowl of barszcz.  The picture below has it all wrong- but it was leftovers at that point and I couldn't be picky!

Pierogis in the barscz? Blasphemy! Those should be uszka. But they're the same thing, just shaped differently.

Meta information:


Music in video: Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies (Tchaikovsky),  Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons "Attribution 3.0" http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/"

How to make Christmas Pierogis, part 1

Technically, one should not pluralise 'pierogi', since it's already plural. But pierogis rolls off the tongue so much better. Mind, you will not want these to roll off anywhere except into your belly, because they're absolutely delicious, and in combination with that traditional barszcz which we will soon set boiling, they're the quintessential Polish Christmas Eve meal.

But how do you make them?

To avoid confusion, a small visual guide:

Pierogi comes from an old slavic word meaning stuffed dough. Uszka is literally 'little ears'. Well, just look at them!

The difference is in shape, and in the unbreakable rule which states that while pierogis may be stuffed with anything from potatoes to strawberries, uszka may only ever contain mushrooms as a filling. Anything else? Tortellini. And that's Italian, so none of our business.

The filling should be made at least one day before the dough. It tastes much better if it's left to sit for a while.

Today, we will be making two staple fillings: mushroom, and mushroom-and-sauerkraut.

Pierogi filling:


350 g of dried forest mushrooms (porcino are an excellent choice. Oh, all right, if you must, you can use frozen ones. )
2-3 onions 
2 generous tablespoons of butter
two eggs
2-3 tablespoons of breadcrumbs

All you need to make mushroom filling.

Wash the mushrooms, then heat them up in a small amount of water until they soften. Let them cool, then chop them up. Also chop up the onions. It's okay if the chunks are big, we'll stick the lot into the blender later.

Melt the butter in a pan. Add the onion and braise it. Then, add the mushrooms.

Once the lot has turned a pretty golden-brown, add the eggs. Stir well, season with salt and pepper, and lastly, add the breadcrumbs to thicken.

Let it cool a little bit, then stick it in the blender. Leave some chunks in- it tastes better that way.

Put it in a bowl, smooth it down with a spoon, and when it's cool, stick it in the fridge for the night.

Mushroom filling. Chunky! Crunchy! Yummy!

For the sauerkraut-and-mushroom filling, you pretty much take your mushrooms, and heat them up in a pan with some cooked sauerkraut before blending. Easy peasy!

Sauerkraut and mushroom filling. Notice the sauerkraut-to-mushroom ratio. This is why it is much smoother.

Tune in tomorrow for instructions on how to make the dough and the finished pierogis.

How to make a real Christmas borscht: part 1

Borscht! Beet soup, in other words, but the true Polish spelling is barszcz. Borscht is the name that traveled with Jewish immigrants, and sometimes refers to a completely different kind of soup. There's cold borscht, and Ukrainian borscht...

None of that. Today we will be making proper Polish Christmas barszcz. Now, you may be reading this and thinking, it's only December 7th. Why on earth would you make the soup nearly three weeks before the dinner?

Because that's what makes it taste so good.

Sure, you can get away with beet concentrate, or pour vinegar into the pot a day or two before Christmas, but that's just not very impressive or traditional, is it?

So. Let's start. Here is the step-by-step recipe for:

Traditional Polish Christmas Barszcz / Borscht

3 kg of raw, red beets

two regular or one extra large head of garlic

a couple slices of brown sourdough bread
a pot of lukewarm water (tap will do, if it's potable)

big glass jars (big enough to hold the sliced beets)

clean linen or cotton cloth

ribbon, string, or rubber band

Everything you need to make a killer barszcz.

Now, we're giving you a bit of a buffer here, but you will need to do this at least five days before Christmas Eve. The earlier you prepare the beets, the stronger (more acidic) the soup will be.

1. Peel the beets. Your hands will be red, but you can rub lemon juice on them later to wash the worst of it off.

Beets: peeled on the left, unpeeled on the right.

2. Slice the beets into the jars.

Of course, you could use less beets and smaller jars, but then someone wouldn't get seconds.

3. Add the peeled and cut cloves of garlic (don't worry if you don't like garlic, the taste dissipates)

No need to chop.

4. Fill the jars up with water, covering the vegetables.

Tap water is fine, you'll be boiling the end result anyway.

5. Slice the bread and put some at the top of each jar.

6. Cover the jar with a clean cloth and secure with a ribbon or rubber band

7. Stab some holes in the fabric to let it breathe, and leave the lot in a warm place until Christmas Eve.

Festive!

That's it for now. We'll get back to these jars in three weeks to make the actual soup, but the trickiest part is over. Meanwhile, you can watch as the beets turn the water a deep, wine red...

(to skip ahead a couple of weeks and find out what happens next, click here for part two)

Twelve dishes on Christmas Eve

Before we begin preparing for a Polish Christmas, you should know that unlike in most other countries, the big celebratory meal happens not on Christmas Day, but Christmas Eve.

We spend all day preparing. As the sun sets, which is usually around four or five pm at this time of year, the youngest child will look out of the window and try to spot the First Star. Its appearance is a sign that Christmas Eve has begun.

The dinner is a meatless meal- the only animal products on the table are fish, as the Eve is considered a day of fast. Thus, tradition also sets us a test of willpower- the Eve Dinner is all the more anticipated for being the first meal of the day.

Try spending the day in the kitchen without nibbling and snacking! But you should resist and save space in your tummy, because the traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner consists of no fewer than twelve dishes.

Hay on top or under the Christmas tablecloth represents the manger.

There is no fixed menu, but there are certain dishes without which Christmas just isn't Christmas. To do it Polish-style, you will definitely need to serve some of the following:

pierogi (dumplings) with cabbage and/or mushroom filling
barszcz (red beet soup) with uszka (small pierogis filled with mushrooms)
carp (battered, fried or baked)
herring (in cream or in oil)
mushroom soup (not portobello- forest mushrooms!)
dried fruit kompot (a bittersweet type of drink with fruit chunks at the bottom)
chałka (sweet challah, the Jewish bread)


...and an assortment of cakes, cookies, and gingerbreads.

You can cheat a little bit- pierogies with mushrooms and pierogies with sauerkraut count as two dishes. Similarly, the uszka in your barszcz are served on a separate platter and also count as a separate dish.

Needless to say, this is not a meal you can prepare the night before. Best to spread it out over the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Today being the 5th of December, we have a bit of time left to go. Let's start with something simple that will keep well and can be stored until Christmas, such as a nice batch of :

Mmmmm!

Kruche Ciasteczka (Shortcrust Cookies)

500 grams of flour

250 grams of butter or cooking margarine

150 grams of powdered sugar

3 egg yolks

1. Cut the butter into smaller pieces, then chop the flour and butter together in a large bowl until the mixture has the consistency of breadcrumbs.

2. Add the sugar and the egg yolks. Mix well, first with a spoon, if you like, then start folding with your hands. If you feel the dough is too dry, you can add a little cream. Remember that this dough is meant to be rolled out and cut with cookie cutters, so it can't be too wet or too sticky.

3.Wrap the dough ball in cellophane and stick it into the fridge for half an hour.

4. Roll out the dough, cut the cookies, and bake at about 160˚ C (320˚ F) until golden. It doesn't take long, so be careful not to burn them.

Once they're done and cool, sprinkle the cookies with powdered sugar and put in an airtight container. One batch will probably not be enough, especially once your family finds the container and starts helping themselves to 'just a couple of cookies...' Be prepared to bake these several more times before Christmas arrives.

That's it for today. Tomorrow, on the feast of St. Nicholas, I will tell you a bit more about what happens on Christmas Eve, and we will prepare the beets for the barszcz. Did you know that in order to make a truly authentic Polish barszcz, you need to start cooking at least one week before you plan to serve it?

Just something you can brag about at your Christmas table. See you tomorrow!