Christmas!

It's taken a while, but I'm finally getting round to posting photos of my Christmas feast. We decided to have it at home this time, and celebrated it on Christmas Eve with the delightful Miss Kitty Valentine, my cushion-making partner in crime Aldona and her family.

In true over-the-top Polish tradition, our dinner consisted of at least 12 dishes (since I'm not actually Polish, I don't know if it is true that a Polish Christmas dinner has to include 12 dishes, it's just what I've been told.) 

The coffee table had an array of sweets - (from top), homemade panforte, a quince, ginger and walnut cake based on this recipe, and some untraditionally shaped gingerbread biscuits (gingerbread T-rex, anyone?). Aldona also brought along some makowiec (poppyseed cake) and more biscuits.

The star of the night, a perfectly roasted goose! Manbacon (who can be partially seen behind the bird) cooked the goose himself, following a great recipe by the Hairy Bikers. He also managed to rustle up succulent salt beef, as well as plenty of delicious apple and pork stuffing. 

£10 notes to wipe our greasy hands and lips on, because we're hedonists and filthy rich. You can't see it, but we also had a stack of £20 and £50 note-napkins. 

Wild mushroom dumplings in beetroot soup (above), as well as some bigos, plenty of cured pork products, some marinated herrings, and possibly some other stuff as well. 

The aftermath - empty vodka bottles, half-finished bowls of soups and stews, burnt-out candles, crumpled napkins and wrapping paper, plenty of half-eaten food, and one stained tablecloth. Our guests were sent away with boxes stuffed full of food. 

Eating Europe Part 4 - Poland

Ate soooo much in Poland - this is just from the first couple of days. 

Manbacon's mother presented us with this wonderful meal as soon as we arrived home in Stalowa Wola - freshly made breaded pork and warm, buttered new potatoes with dill, as well as the obligatory plate of pickles. The perfect meal for two tired travelers on a rainy afternoon.

I got hungry during a walk around the neighbourhood, so we headed in to Ekspres Bistro for a pick-me-up meal of pierogi, served with a garnish of crispy fried lard.

Delicious homebaked goodies (again, made by Manbacon's mum) - raspberry cake with a jelly layer on top, as well as Polish-style apple cake-pie.

Oh, and bread from a street stall in Krakow - it was so deliciously chewy I forgot to document it until very nearly the last bite. You'll see little old ladies selling these behind blue metal and glass carts all over Krakow. Did I mention I went to Krakow too? Well, I did.

More to come soon...

In A Pickle

What do you do on holiday? Well, sometimes you get pulled into the kitchen for a good pickle-making session. Making these sour little Polish pickles is a relatively fussfree process - gather your containers and ingredients, assemble them in the jars and then pour some hot, salty brine over it. Put the caps on, leave the jars aside for a few weeks, and you've got a stash of tasty gherkins to accompany every meal (maybe not breakfast).

Dill umbels in clean jars. 

Garlic and fresh horseradish for a tasty pickle. 

Most important ingredient - fresh, washed gherkins. 

No vinegar is added to the brine at all, just lots of salt and water. The sourness comes from the alchemical combination of salt, water and bacteria...yummy!