recipes

Delicious Homemade Broth

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There is something quintessentially evocative of a Polish home, at least to me, about a big pot of stock simmering on the stove. Growing up, we would make stock at least once a week, and sometimes even more than that. We would have ingredients for stock prepped and frozen in the freezer so we could put together soup whenever we ran out of the bits already made.

Store bought, just can’t compare to the taste I grew up with.

If you have any kind of meat bones lying around, chicken, pork, beef, cuts of freezer burned meat, they can all be tossed together into a pot and simmered into the kind of soup that’s perfect for when you are under the weather, outright sick, or just craving something homey.

With everything going on, I thought I would share the family recipe for stock. If you are feeling adventurous and want to give it a kick, when roasting the bones, smoke them instead. It will add a smoky flavour to your broth.

Chicken Stock Continue reading “Delicious Homemade Broth” →

Delicious Homemade Broth
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Sausage Adventures: Homemade Liverwurst

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I grew up on liverwurst sandwiches. I love a slice of rye or sourdough, spread with some liverwurst, some tomato, and a slice of pickle. It’s my favourite sandwich, for all that I was mocked at school for eating them let alone liking them.

I am kinda picky about the kind I like though. I hate it when it’s coarse, or in any way gritty. I don’t even add THAT much to my sandwich, preferring a thin layer. When it comes to other forms of liver, I’m not a fan. The smell, taste, and texture are not really things that appeal to me.

When the opportunity came up to get my hands on a whole pig, one of the first things I thought of was getting a chance to try my hand at making my own. NOT for the faint of heart, let me tell you.

To start with, there are MANY different schools of though around ingredients, fillers, and so on. Different techniques, spice mixes, and so on. It can get overwhelming trying to figure out what and how to try. So those of you who know me won’t be surprised to hear that my decision was to sort of try it all at once. xD Luckily this porker had a BIG LIVER (easily 2 KG).

What do I need to get at the Store?

The base recipe that I finally settled on includes the following.

  • 500 g Liver
  • 500 g Pork Fat
  • ½ Onion pureed
  • 1-2 large cloves of Garlic, crushed
  • ¼ tsp Cure 1
  • 35g salt
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • 2 slices sourdough
  • 2 slices buttermilk potato
  • 3-4 roasted chestnuts
  • 1 cup of water

Your choice of assorted spices

I then added different ingredient variations to see what worked and what didn’t.
I find the flavor to be pretty versatile, so that a lot of different interesting additions work surprisingly well. Just think of what you like on your sandwich and what you like with pork and have at it!

Continue reading “Sausage Adventures: Homemade Liverwurst” →

Sausage Adventures: Homemade Liverwurst

Gluten Free Pierogi Dough

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A while back, a good friend of mine came to visit. This friend is Polish and we’ve frequently gushed together over food and recipes. Around the time of the visit, they were coming to terms with the fact that they had developed some type of non-celiac gluten sensitivity, which caused a significant increase in pain symptoms when they were “glutened”.

One of the foods we bonded over were iconic Polish Pierogi, delicious little dumplings stuffed with all sorts of yummy possibilities, though the famous classic is cheddar cheese and potatoes. The lack of these little pillows of deliciousness was quite a blow and so a part of the visit was devoted to finding a half decent replacement.

The final product that yielded the highest level of satisfaction was this one here.
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Gluten Free Pierogi Dough

Lachsshinken

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One of my family’s favourite deli meats is this German smoked and cured pork loin known as Lachsshinken. The name, funnily enough, translates basically to “salmon ham”, although it has no salmon in it. It refers to the usual cut of meat used to make it, however, for my purposes I used a basic boneless loin with all the fat and silver skin cleaned off.

I’ve been getting really into learning how to reproduce some of my favourite foods from scratch. There are two major reasons for this: the need to save money, and the need to control what goes into my food because of my Crohn’s.

One particular area I’ve had little opportunity to really explore is sausage and deli making, as well as cheese making. It’s this area that living at home has given me the chance to learn, especially with the gift of that wonderful smoker. With that in mind, I decided to tackle this family favourite as one of my first attempts.

I looked up several recipes online, and to my chagrin I could only really find complete recipes in German. Google translate provided a measure of the translation, and a good friend helped me out with verifying a few details. I used the combination of this recipe, with some details I scrapped from other sites as my guide.

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Lachsshinken

I May Never Buy Bacon Again

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No, I haven’t given up meat, or pork. Instead earlier this month and basically for the last week, I’ve started making my own bacon.

A good friend of mine received a bit of a Christmas bonus and decided to treat friends to some gifts. Her gift to me was an A-Maze-N smoker, which is this cool little box that you can put in your grill these people at the grill store in Ottawa had told me about.

It basically works by creating a little maze out of metal through which you thread a bunch of wooden pellets. The pellets burn around the maze letting it smoke for upwards of 8 hours. Here is the cool thing: because the pellets burn at a relatively low heat, it’s functionally both a hot AND COLD smoker. Yup! That’s right. I can COLD SMOKE things now. Continue reading “I May Never Buy Bacon Again” →

I May Never Buy Bacon Again

Homemade Polish Pickles!

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One of my favourite things about summer is getting the chance to can and pickle various local produce for the winter. It’s a lot of work, but if done right, can give me access to less expensive, healthier, and more environmentally friendly food all year round.

I learned how to can and pickle from my mother. She used to do it every summer and, though not always willingly, I used to help her. I still use the recipes she taught me, though the specific measurements are what I remember and so may not be exactly the same. Some recipes I discovered and created myself.

Polish pickles are something I always want to do, but often only manage to do a few jars when I manage to do any at all. It’s a shame because these pickles, which are fermented and use no vinegar, are really the only ones I truly like and that don’t hurt my stomach.

They have a wonderful slightly spice taste, they’re salty, garlicky, and just perfect on a rye bread with some liverwurst and salami, and a slice of tomato. They’re also the base for Pickle Soup.

This year, through sheer iron determination and buying small batches of pickles at a time, I managed to can more than ever before. All told I currently have 19 jars of pickles, and I’m pretty sure I gave away 3 jars.

Some I canned the old fashioned way, but the rest I put through a water-bath canner. I’ve never done that before so I look forward to seeing what that does to the overall process

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Homemade Polish Pickles!

Guava and Passion Fruit Creme Brulee: Grade A Bula-shit

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2 Cups of lactose-free whipping cream. (If you can handle lactose ok, regular is fine too)
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup Sugar
½ cup Passion Fruit juice* (Purple skinned passion fruit pictured 2
½ cup Guava juice *
¼ cup Guava paste
Brown or white sugar for topping

I used Ceres Juice. While the process should work with other juices, changing the concentration on sugars or other fruit used as sweeteners can change the taste. I highly recommend experimenting with different juices if you want to find the best taste for you.  Watch out as well for different types of passion fruit – there are different varieties, some of which are sweet and some of which are incredibly sour.

Continue reading “Guava and Passion Fruit Creme Brulee: Grade A Bula-shit” →

Guava and Passion Fruit Creme Brulee: Grade A Bula-shit

Last Chance to Stretch the Twisted Ladle Cookbook

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Ania the chef

Hi Readers!

Ania here.

It’s the last day of my IndieGoGo for the cookbook I am writing. I’ve been working hard on it already and have quite a bit already written. I’m fundraising to give me a chance to make the cookbook better by being able to exactly measure proportions for each recipe and take pictures of the process.

I’ve made my base goal, which is awesome! I’m hoping to be able to reach the stretch goals, in particular, the one related to the Video Cookbook.

I’ve been trying to make videos for a while now and have done some work towards that, however, I don’t really have the right equipment. My camera is pretty old, and so the video quality is pretty low. It is nearly impossible for me to be able to zoom in and get the detail necessary to really show how to do things.

If you have a chance, consider donating to my fundraiser. $10 gets you a copy of the eventual ebook, while higher donations get you access to secret early release recipes, and the chance to have a recipe named after you.

If you cannot donate, please share my fundraiser on Facebook or Twitter. Thank you so much.

Credit to Jade Hawk
Credit to Jade Hawk
Last Chance to Stretch the Twisted Ladle Cookbook