Fresh From Poland: New Vegetarian Cooking from the Old Country (Workman Publishing)
The perfect image of lovely grandma and pampering is the one that lives in the memory of many of us. Those who have been lucky enough to meet theirs and see them embodied in this mold, have had one of the greatest gifts that can be obtained in this world. "Have you eaten yet?"... "Get yourself some more, come on"... "Here, take a Tupperware home, lest you end up hungry". The clichés with which our grandmothers receive us in their homes are fulfilled, they are repeated (go if they are repeated)... and they are greatly missed once they are no longer there.
The book Fresh From Poland: New Vegetarian Cooking from the Old Country (Workman Publishing) is just that, the legacy that Zosia, the grandmother of its author, the Polish Michael Korkosz , he inherited, along with the opportunity to breathe new life into prescriptions that have been relegated to a background within a recipe book from which we have only received the occasional hit as an eyedropper.
"Mine was a typical polish grandmother , of those who like to feed their grandchildren all the time. I imagine that she is the archetypal grandmother in all cultures and mine fit perfectly," she tells us from her home in warsaw the writer, who was born in Rzeszow , in the southeast of the country.
Historically, no attention has been paid to dishes that do not use animal protein as far as Poland is concerned. Exactly what Korkosz embellishes in this publication that reviews the essentials of your pantry –butter, grains, kefir, sour cream, dried fruit, ferments or vodka– and kitchen –inquiring into blunt breakfasts , tasty breads, unknown soups to the rest of the world... as well as main courses, entrees, pierogi, dumplings , desserts, pickles and jams–.
"Heavy recipes made with meat, instead of vegetarian, they became famous because they are the ones we usually eat in the Parties and celebrations . People took pride in them and it was what they shared abroad, promoting our culture as one with economic power. Not now, now we see our gastronomy in a different way", he explains.
We were missing out on a lot. Like that buckwheat stuffed pierogi and twaróg cheese; the tomato soup with lane kluski or egg-battered noodles cooked in boiled water. "After the second bath, they turn soft and are a slight hybrid between noodles and dumplings. I still remember my grandmother using an absurd amount of cream to turn the soup a faint pink," jokes the award-winning writer. reward Saveur Blog Award in 2017.
Korkosz's curiosity evolved into the eagerness that has led him to recover the Polish food DNA , which is totally the opposite of other bloggers and chefs his age, who prefer experiment with fusion and foreign flavors.
"Actually my passion for food comes from the flavors that are farthest from me. In my house we used to eat only Polish cuisine and I always wanted to try something new and exciting," he confesses. "When I started cooking I did it with new discoveries in terms of flavor and recipes, but as time went on I discovered that fusion and unknown flavors do not have what I usually miss: the nostalgia that can transport me to the most wonderful moments of my life", he continues. "Some flavors and smells define my concept of comfort by taking me back years to my childhood".
The memory is the sixth sense of the writer and recipes a crucial part of his inheritance . One that the world does not usually know. "I want to show the world my roots because I have the feeling that our gastronomic culture is not well represented or that it is associated with heavy plates As the kielbasa and the pork schnitzel ", he declares.
The process to carry it out was not easy and took approximately two years and a half in collecting dozens of classic recipes that could disappoint many. "The bad thing about this type of elaboration is that everyone has their own vision how they have to be, but my job was to show that they can be much better.
When he started writing the book Korkosz realized that he was going to reveal a different angle of his home and that, after all, it is the one he admires the most. "We have valleys rich in wonderful vegetables and fruits, the culture of the dairy products and the fermented food is incredibly advanced and the number of elaborations made from grains is almost infinite". He says this for dishes like the pierogie ruskie , the most adored in terms of comfort offered by the country's comfort food, made with potatoes, caramelized onions and twarog (artisan cheese), as well as with a considerable dose of black pepper.
In the book there is also a chapter dedicated solely and exclusively to the soups , that do not compare to those of any other place in the world. Each season has its own: in the summer it is the chlodnik litewski the one that triumphs, served cold and made with beetroot , crisp cucumbers, radish and dill. winter gives way to barszcz czysty czerwony , its clarified and fermented version to which mushrooms are added. "I also included the recipe for the żurek , which I made with sourdough and dehydrated boletus.
Michael Korkosz
When Korkosz isn't cooking at home for friends and family (every photograph in the book features them as "extras"...and with him as the photographer) he's not shy about enjoying what the city of his, warsaw , he has to offer.
One of his first stops is usually Vegan Ramen Shop . "Here every ingredient is umami at its finest. You have to try their Clear Shoyu Ramen, with roasted tomato and a broth made from six different types of mushrooms, or the Creamy Shio with burnt garlic oil." If it's lunchtime, Kuchnia Konfliktu tops his list. "It's a vegetarian bar in which immigrants cook dishes inspired by the stories of their countries. The owners launched this project as a way to give them work and help them integrate into society –there is no better way to do it than with food–", he tells us. And for dinner, regina . "It's one of my favorite informal places, eclectic and with a modern chinese cuisine , sourdough pizza and avant-garde cocktails".
She although she also confesses that he has recently fallen in love with Źródło , a restaurant specialized in giving new life to classic recipes and with an excellent selection of natural wines . "But if you want to go to one of the restaurants in high kitchen most interesting places in Warsaw you have to go to Bez Gwiazdek . There the chef Robert Trzopek offers a different tasting menu each month inspired by the different regions of Poland".