RECIPES+Poland

=**Christmas Food**= The traditional Christmas Eve supper consists of twelve dishes representing the twelve months of the year. No meat is served during the supper, only fish, usually herring, carp or pike. Other traditional dishes appearing on the table include red borscht, mushroom or fish soup, sauerkraut with wild mushrooms or peas, dried fruit compote and kutia, a dessert especially popular in eastern Poland. Boiled or fried pierogis, Polish dumplings with a wide variety of fillings, are among the most popular [|Polish dishes]. For the Christmas Eve supper, pierogis are usually made with sauerkraut and mushrooms.



**Pierogi Recipe**
Knead a dough from 14 oz. of flour, a pinch of salt and a whole egg, adding some warm water to soften the dough. Cover the dough with a bowl and let it sit for a few minutes. Divide it into four parts and cover three with the bowl. Roll the remaining piece out thin and cut out two-inch circles with a glass or cup. For the sauerkraut filling, take a pound and a half of sauerkraut, boil it for 30 minutes in little water, allowing the water to evaporate. Mince the cooked sauerkraut. Chop one big onion finely saute till golden. Mix with the sauerkraut. To complete the filling, take two pounds of mushrooms, slice and cook them with 2-3 spoons of water until it evaporates. Chop one onion and saute till golden, add mushrooms and season the mixture with salt on pepper before you mince it and mix it with the sauerkraut. Place a spoonful of the filling in the middle of each circle and fold over pressing the edges firmly so that the pierogis do not open during cooking. Boil the pierogis in salted water for about 3 minutes (until they surface). The may be served immediately or chilled and then fried in vegetable oil.



Fish in horseradish sauce
This recipe is the first of the 12 dishes that make up the traditional Polish Chrismas-eve meal, which is eaten after sundown on Christmas eve. The Polish word for "Christmas eve" is //Wigilia// (pronounced VI-gee-lee-ah). Its root is like the English "vigil": waiting for Christ to be born. At the end of the Wigilia meal the family goes off to midnight mass at church. There are usually 12 dishes in a Wigilia meal to symbolize the 12 apostles, though some families serve 13 because they include Christ in their count. The meal starts when the first star can be seen; this symbolizes the star of Bethlehem. Although The Wigilia is meatless (Advent, the season of penance, continues until midnight), it is still festive and delicious. The tradition of Wigilia, though centuries old, is still current in Poland. There is no fixed set of rules for what the 12 (or 13) dishes must be; the items in the meal change somewhat according to location and availability of ingredients. Nevertheless, all of the dishes are traditional, and in addition there are many traditions for the serving of the meal. For example, some people place straw under the tablecloth to symbolize the manger in which Christ was born. Most families set an extra place, for the stranger who might be passing by. This is my family's traditional Wigilia meal: Fish in horseradish sauce Pike Polish style Pickled beets Pickled herring in sour cream Stewed sauerkraut with mushrooms Christmas eve kutia Almond soup Noodles with poppy seed and raisins Poppy-seed rolls Christmas bread Baked apples with red wine Marzipan 12-fruit compote With this first recipe you will notice a similarity with my last name. Now you know a word of Polish (namely chrzan = horseradish ie. "hot stuff").

Ingredients
(Serves 6)

Fish

 * 2 carrots
 * 2 stalks celery
 * 1 parsley root
 * 1 onion, quartered
 * 5 peppercorns
 * 1 bay leaf
 * 10 ml salt
 * 1.5 l water
 * 1 kg fish fillets (carp, sole, pike or similar fillets)

Sauce

 * 50 g butter
 * 50 ml flour
 * 200 ml prepared cream-style horseradish
 * 5 ml sugar
 * 1 ml salt
 * 150 ml sour cream
 * eggs, "hard-cooked peeled and sieved

Procedure

 * 1) Combine vegetables, dry seasonings, and water in a saucepan or pot. Bring to a boil; simmer 20 minutes, then strain.
 * 2) Cook fish in the strained vegetable stock 6 to 10 minutes, or until fish flakes easily.
 * 3) Remove fish from stock. Arrange on serving platter and cover with plastic wrap. Chill.
 * 4) Strain fish stock and reserve 3/4 cup for horseradish sauce; cool.
 * 5) For horseradish sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan, then blend in flour until smooth, making what the French would call a roux.
 * 6) Add the cooked fish stock gradually, stirring constantly. Cook and stir until the sauce boils and becomes thick and smooth.
 * 7) Remove from heat and stir in horseradish, sugar, salt, sour cream, and eggs. Cool for 15 minutes.
 * 8) Pour the horseradish sauce over the chilled fish, and garnish with shredded lettuce.