Garlic Dressing

Traditional Polish cuisine uses lots of garlic (but not too much). It’s especially popular in summer, especially at BBQs. This is a recipe for a simple garlic dressing that will go nicely with meat or salads.

Prep time: 15 min

Waiting time: 20 min

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

2-3 cloves of garlic (depending how much you like garlic)

Small pot of natural or Greek yoghurt

Half of green cucumber

2 tablespoons fresh dill

Salt

Method:

1.     Peel and grate cucumber into a mixing bowl. Add some salt and leave for about 5-10 minutes so the water comes out.

2.     Pour the cucumber water out of the bowl.

3.     Squeeze garlic into the cucumber and mix.

4.     Pour yoghurt into the bowl and add chopped dill leaves.

5.     Put in into a cool place and leave to rest for about 10-20 minutes.

Mushroom Sauce

Wild mushrooms have long traditions in Poland. In autumn, many people goes to forest for mushroom picking. There are so many mushrooms and it’s legal to collect them, and with some special mushroom guides or trainings you can’t make a mistake. Mushroom can be cooked just after the walk, or dried and saved for winter. Every autumn my family sends me a huge shoebox full of the best selection of mushrooms…

Mushroom sauce is very easy to make and goes very well with other meet, noodle or vegetable dishes. And it has this taste that reminds you of Poland…

Prep time: 20 min, easy

Cook time: 50 min

Serves: 6 

Ingredients:

200 g dry wild mushrooms (or 1 kg fresh)

1 medium onion

2 tablespoon of butter

1 tablespoon of flour

500 ml chicken stock

Salt, black pepper, parsley

Half of lemon

2 tablespoons of sour cream

Method:

1.     If you use fresh mushrooms, peel them, wash, chop into small pieces and cook in steam in the chicken stock for about 30 minutes. If you use dry mushrooms, wash them and soak in hot chicken stock for a couple of hours, then chop them and steam in the same water for about 30 minutes.

2.     While mushroom is steamed, chop onion in very fine pieces and fry on butter.

3.     Add flour to frying onion and stir. Add the mixture to the mushroom pot and steam for another 10 min. The sauce should become dense.

4.     Add juice of the squeezed lemon; add salt, black pepper and parsley for flavour. Steam for another 10 minutes.

5.     Add sour cream before serving. If you think that the sauce is not dense enough, add more sour cream. Add some water if it’s too dense.