What Poles eat for Christmas Dinner

The actual Christmas dishes vary between regions and families, but certain items are found almost everywhere. The most important and essential part of the food eaten on Christmas Eve is fried carp. and beetroot soup served with tiny dumplings called "uszka" (ears) filled with wild mushrooms.

Here are the recipes for them.Maybe you will try to make it yourself.

BEETROOT SOUP(BARSZCZ)

Barszcz in polish means"borscht."

Barszcz is made with sour starter from chopped beetroots, garlic,salt cover by warm water.Starter have to stay in room temperature for 4 days and after is ready to use.
Clear red barszcz gets a desired hint of sourness from this starter and is great eaten hot with boiled potatoes.
This meatless soup is served with mushroom little dumplings also known as "LITTLE EARS" because of their shape.
They are my favorite for Christmas Eve wigilia dinner so i put a recipe for that dish below.

RECIPE

INGREDIENS

4 beets,washed and chopped
1 liter of  beetroot's sour starter
4 cup vegetable stock
2 minced clove garlic
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tbspoon fresh lemon juice
Salt and black pepper

        

sour starter from beetroot

Preparation:

Heat oven to 200 degrees.Wrap beets in aluminium foil and roast until tender,about 30-45 minutes.When cool enough to handle, peeland slice into strips or julienne.
In a medium pot bring stock to boil,add beets,garlic,sugar,lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.Simmer for 20 minutes.
Sieve liquied and add sour starter into it.Brig to boil an serve with boiled  little dumplings.

beetroot soup "borscht" in progress...

beetroot soup (barszcz)

Here is a photo how i made Polish "USZKA" with porcini mushroom  for my Christmas dinner. 

 mushroom filling

Little dumplings "uszka"

KARP

The centrepiece of the traditional Christmas Eve feast in Poland is CARP.
If you walk around the streets of almost any village,town or city in Poland you will come across street corner sellers with live carp for sale.

Customer pick out their favourite fish,and take home.
These Christmas carp are kept alive in large buckets or the bathtub until Christmas Eve,when it killed and cooked!

In some parts of Poland is a custom to carry a large scale from the head of carp eaten on Christmas Eve as a token of luck.

Polish Carp has a lovely taste.

Jellied Carp its a special occasion dish,especially for Wigilia.It gets its taste from carp mixed with beer and vineger.

 I decided to make jellied carp this year,so I ordered one in a polish grocery.

 Polish Christmas desserts 

An Eastern European dessert table would invariably include something sweet made with poppy seeds, either ground or whole. This poppy seed roll or strudel is made with a yeast dough and is known as makowiec (mah-KOH-vyets) in Polish.

It is eaten year-round, but especially for Christmas and New Year's because Poles believe poppy seeds bring good luck. Canned poppy seed filling works well in this recipe unless you want to grind your own!

Polish Poppyseed Roll Recipe - Makowiec

Recipe :

.
Prep Time: 2 hours

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 3 hours

Yield: 2 Polish Poppy Seed Rolls

Ingredients:

Dough:
1 package active dry yeast
2 cups warm milk
8 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
5 eggs
4 ounces (1 stick) butter, melted
2 (11-ounce) cans poppy seed filling (or make your own, see below)
Poppy Seed Filling:
1 pound ground poppy seeds
1 cup sugar
6 ounces softened butter (1 1/2 sticks)
1 cup hot milk
1 lemon rind, grated

Preparation:

If making your own filling, grind the poppy seeds in a poppyseed grinder, then combine all filling ingredients. Beat well and set aside.

In a small heatproof bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup of the warm milk.

In the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt and eggs. Add remaining 1 1/2 cups warm milk, butter and yeast mixture. With the paddle attachment, or by hand, beat until smooth. Dough will be sticky at this point.

Scrape dough into a clean, greased bowl. Sprinkle the top with a little flour and cover. Let stand in a warm place for 1 hour or until double in size, or follow this Quick Tip to cut the rise time.

Punch down dough and turn out onto a floured surface. Divide dough in half and shape each half into a rectangle.

Spread 1 can or half of the filling you made on each rectangle of dough and roll up like a jelly roll. Turn ends under so filling will not leak out.

Place on a parchment-lined or greased pan, cover and let rise again until double in size.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Brush tops of rolls with additional melted butter. Bake 45 to 60 minutes or until rolls are golden brown.

Remove from oven and cool. Dust rolls with confectioners' sugar, if desired.

Polish Gingerbread Cookies Recipe - Pierniczki

Pierniczki are Polish gingerbread cookies. The Polish city of Torun, like Nuremberg, Germany, has been famous for its gingerbread cookies and cakes - piernik - since the Middle Ages. The cookies were originally baked in intricately carved wooden molds but today are more often cut in rounds or the shapes of St. Nicholas, hearts, stars and other fanciful designs. Chocolate-glazed, heart-shaped pierniczki are hung on Christmas trees.




Christmas Day is often spend visiting friends. Traditionally we eat hunters stew or stuffed pork.I made a pork lion with dried plum filling and braised red cabbage.