Polish Dinner for Boyfriend - what to cook?

I have been dating my boyfriend for quite some time. He is Polish and I am American. He has been working with me on the language and although I know he loves me I feel like this would go along way showing I respect where he comes from and am interested in learning more as well as incorporating his Polish traditions in our future. I am at a loss of what to cook. I am somewhat of a beginner chef, but really excited to do this! Any and all help is appreciated, thank you!

The easiest would be young potatoes with dill, kotlet schabowy (pork chop beaten down in bread crumbs, alternatively chicken breast) and mizeria (cucumber in sour cream).

Not the fanciest but definately a taste of home and not too complicated to make

Cook nothing. Go to a Polish deli and get a pound of tartar, flaki, and a six-pack of Polish beer.
You will never get rid of the guy even if you wanted.

Don't listen to him. He knows nothing.


Home made pierogis should do the trick.

I think he may appreciate rosół (chicken soup). Take half of organic chicken and a couple of beef bones (with meat), cook the meat for a few minutes to get rid of fat, remove fat, remove water. Then add new water, slow-cook for an hour, then add vegetables (carrot, parsley, onion, garlic, etc.). Cook some long chicken-soup pasta and serve hot.

Another idea - "sałatka jarzynowa" (vegetable salad) - good with some Polish link sausage.

Thank you guys so much for the help so far!! At a risk to sound like a total idiot, how do meals typically go in Poland? Here I'm used to an appetizer/salad/happy hour snack followed by the main course with sides and a dessert. Is this how it typically goes in Poland as well?

If you were to go 100% the Poland-route.. In the old-fashioned / typical Polish kitchen, there is no appetizer. The "green stuff" goes together with the 2nd main dish (that is served with meat). So:

1. Soup (1st main dish).

2. 2nd main dish (like potatoes, pork cutlet, salad - eg. sour kraut with carrot / tomatoes or similar) - could be served with wine, beer, or vodka.

3. Dessert (could be a cake or ice cream) + tea / coffee.

On the other hand, if the guy has been in the US for some time, he'd get used to appetizer/salad being served first, I guess.

If you want to win this guy over make him a Kielbasa Reuben.
Half American and half Polish and very simple to make.
You will need the following:

Some kielbasa sausage
dark pumpernickel bread
Russian Dressing
Gouda cheese (sliced)
sauerkraut (well drained)
butter

1.Cook the whole kielbasa unsliced in a pan until heated through and browned.
2.Put a piece of cheese on each of 4 slices of bread.
3.Spread the Russian dressing over the cheese on all four slices.
4.Put the sauerkraut on two halves.
5.Cut the Kielbasa into ¼ inch slices and put it on the other two halves.
6.Heat a flat grill pan and melt butter to cover the whole surface.
7.When the butter starts to get frothy lay all four slices down with topping facing up.
8.Cover loosely with a sheet of foil.
9.Keep the heat on medium so that the cheese melts before the bread gets too browned.
10.Once the cheese melts, combine the two halves and slice in half.
11. Put a sliced dill pickle on the side.

A couple of those with a couple of beers and he will fall asleep in your arms.

Before you do any of that, check if he has a six-pack, if you haven't seen it yet. If he doesn't, drag him to the gym and skip all that cooking.

You have to start him early or very soon he will look like he is pregnant. Just as so many Polish guys do.

I'd give myself to a woman who would make me a kotlet schabowy (Viennese schnitzel) with baby patatoes and mizeria (cream infused sliced cucumber)!

to be honest I'd give myself even for a mcdonalds, but than again I'm quite cheap

I bet your granny didn't make it that way! You don't change the water. You just skim it to remove the scum from the top. If you throw the water away and add new, you'll lose the flavour.


You add the veggies at the beginning after you've skimmed the water, again for maximum flavour, carrot, leek, parsnip and some celeriac (włoszczyzna basically,which is the base for the stock of almost every Polish soup), garlic to your taste, onion and very importantly ziele angielskie (allspice, whole berries, not powdered),pepper to taste and you can chuck in a chicken stock cube.

Serve it garnished with chopped parsely or koperek (dill).

Some people eat the pasta and broth as a first course and then fry the chicken and serve it with mashed spuds and carrots as the main course. I personally prefer the chicken shredded into the soup Jewish style.


Can your boyfriend cook?? A lot of Polish men are really good cooks. You could suggest having a Polish food evening and making a couple of recipes together :)) If he can't cook at all, then you could get the recipes on a Polish cookery site (for authenticity, Polish-American versions are often not quite the same) and he could translate.

When I met my husband I hadn't a clue about Polish food though I was a fairly competent cook in general terms. It was my husband who taught me the basics of making chicken soup. He'd never actually made it himself but he based the recipe on how he remembered his granny and his father making it. Then I tweaked it as the years went by, and now we have our own 'family' recipe, which he claims is better than his granny's, so let that be an encouragement to you :D

These are awesome! Thank you so much for the help, I am very excited for the weekend!! Fingers crossed it goes well!

@marie23
I wonder if you are still together and if you still cook for him or maybe he cooks. Although who still cooks these days. Everything can be bought in stores ready and you just have to heat it up. 👨‍🍳👩‍🍳

Stuff which all Poles like, unless they are vegetarians. Fried pork chops, potatoes, salads, cakes.

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I would eat it but I can't say I like pork chops or cakes with cream.

Yes, pork chops, potatoes, bigos, żurek and flaki... not like those poor people before the war who had to eat very modestly their obiady skromne gospodarskie...
... ;)

This would fit today as a menu in some luxury restaurant.

Nothing better...

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Flaki and tatar! So you did keep some of the Polish heritage after all, Novi. :)

Actually, really poor people living in the prewar countryside couldn`t afford such diet. It was the diet of urban population, especially middle class plus.


Delicacies! I remember Novi showed us these photos a few years ago after his visit to Poland.


Strange....... :):):) I know why. As a young person, you didn`t live in communist times when there were periods that fried pork chops were unavailable.

:O

I love both xD 🤤

I am fine with Flaki but Tatar is a step too far for me....... meat needs to be cured or cooked..... raw is a nono.....

I have some easy ones for you to take for a test drive.

msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/foodnews/the-best-traditional-polish-foods-to-eat/ss-AA1hClJj?ocid=msedgntp

What kind of man wouldn't smelt his heart seeing his women making homemade pierogi's for him! Polish or not! The work in itself and the result is a gold winner

Making pierogi makes as much sense as making socks. We buy them here...

Do you want to live as long as Novi in perfect health? Then you better learn to enjoy tatar :)

Every grandma who knits thick woolen socks can also make pierogi.

Men die sooner than women because women like cooking and nagging men into eating more than they should and, thus, into an early grave.
The trick to longevity is being able to say no to men killers like grandmas and their daughters. I got this ability down pat and that is why my weight now is 6 pounds over what it was when I was 20 at 87kg.

Such good meat isn`t for mongrels. Gobble down your British minced sausage which provokes an average Pole to puke. hahahaha

Don`t forget that after Polish dinner of fried pork chop with potatoes and salads you need to serve Polish supper which consists mainly of meat, too.

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