PzU Food Corner: Grub a Dub Dubski at Warp Factor Eight

I posted a bit about food when I first arrived but haven’t mentioned it recently but it’s time to turn the heat back up on the blogpot. I've lost 10 KGs in the past year from a record high of 83.4KG in March 2010 (bear in mind I'm 173cm tall) to 73KG in June and I really think that is down to moving and living in Polska - it can't be exercise as with my bad knees, I can't do any. Now it’s time to turn it up to Gas Mark Ten (the culinary equivalent of warp factor eight).

Bring me joy in my heart, bring me zupy

Some say Polish cuisine is fattening. Well, it is if you eat in the rynek every day. Being a poor robotnik in this post industrial world means I have to count every pea, but that's no bad thing if you're looking to lose weight. Over the winter when money was even tighter I ate a lot of soups. Consider the sour tartness of orgokowa, soup made with ogórki kiszone and sour cream, or the filling richness of Krupnik (not the vodka) a chicken soup with buckwheat kasza (an omnipresent and really healthy alternative to other grains and growing in popularity in the UK)

Aforementioned trudging

Sitting steaming on a bus or trudging mutely in the dark along with everyone else watching out for potholes, snand and icy patches, drawing collars and scarves ever closer, there is one thought that maintains me: a bowl of steaming soup awaits.  The king of all of them is, in my opinion, the mighty Żurek, also known as “hangover soup” and here’s my version of the soup as passed down from babcia to babcia until it reached my greedy, febrile claws (it doesn’t involve fermentation or anything like that as I am not yet a Żurek Grand Master Black Belt).

Ingredients

1 Packet of Winiary Barszcz Bialy

1 Packet of Winiary Zurek

2L woda, 1L zurek

6 Pieces of kielbasa bialy (white sausage)

2 Large potatoes, 1 onions chopped small

Eggs, Majorek, Vegata, Carrot Parsnip

Seasoning: paprika, pepper, marjoram, 3 english peppers, 2 bay leaves, 1 tspn of vegeta (mixed herbs) 1 spoon of horseradish, garlic.

For the stock: 1 carrot, 1 parsnip, 1 root celery piece, half a leek, 200g smoked bacon.

Recipe:

Put 3.5L into a pot and add bacon and the white sausage. Bring to the boil and boil for 5 minutes, before removing sausage. Continue to boil adding all the vegetables except for the onion and the potatoes. As the mixture boils chop the potatoes.  Leave the bacon.

On a medium heat after adding all the veg it should take 30 minutes to boil again. Then take out vegetables and add chopped ziamniki (tatties) and add 1tspn of Marjoram. Leave for 10 minutes to cook.

Having added the potatoes, fry the onions until browning and add to the pot.

Add both the packets of the Winiary Baszsc and Zurek into 500ml of water. Add the mixture to the main pot and keep stirring until the pot simmers then stir occasionally.

Taste and adjust seasoning. If too watery add chicken stock cubes.

Chop sausage and add when the soup is ready.

Add quartered hard boiled egg to soup. 

A labour of love and a little bit more expensive than the other too but the sour, creamy, smoky, filling goodness leaves a lasting memory.


I’ve no doubt that living here has meant I’ve had to be a bit more disciplined about how I get my food and where from. No more sandwiches from a corner Tescos to fill a gap – the sandwich market is almost completely unknown in Polska – but regular, cheap, well planned and healthy food. I make between 2 and 3 soups a week and vary between Polish and English recipes. Being a teacher also means I have time during the day to shop and cook as well, so I can’t complain. Life is Good.