I grew up having a dish at Easter made with grated horseradish and beets. I cheated this year and bought a small jar of grated horseradish. (Too hard to find good horseradish and too painful to grate it by hand) It is too hot to eat it by itself but it goes great on ham and hard boiled eggs. I am almost certain it is Polish but it might not be. Does this sound familiar?
Before coming to Poland I hated horseradish and Polish horseradish is still the only type I can stand
I'm the opposite; used to quite strong horseradish, the kind traditionally served with roast beef back home. We always had quite a bit growing on the farm.
The stuff here is OK, especially if it's prepared as ćwikła, though very very mild.
I had a reasonable sized chunk of horseradish left over one year so I stuck it in the garden. What can it hurt, right? Stuff started to take over the garden! I dug out as much as I could but it came back almost as fast. That is one tough plant! Of course my real problems started when I ran over it with a rototiller. Bad move.
If I ever make it to Poland I'll look for ćwikła, now that I know it is available year-round.
The best stuff with a good kick comes from freshly grated horseradish, a one you pull out of the ground yourself.
Always.
Polish foot is bland
Compared to India, Mexico etc, it is certainly bland; people like the idea of 'łagodny' here. It isn't for nothing that the word 'majonez' is used as an intensifying adjective now, in the expression "git majonez".
A while ago, I was at a very formal dinner in a hotel in Kato. The people there were mostly Poles, a few people originally from other countries, France, Ukraine and me. They served two soups, one was a very good zupa grzybowa, the other was a sort of thick and sweet puree with coconut and pear, basically baby food. The Poles were all saying how wonderful the baby food was, whereas the rest of us thought it was awful and enjoyed the zupa grzybowa.
Just to make it clear cwikla is grated beetroots with horseradish but grated horseradish is also one of traditional Easter foods. Both available and eaten all year round.
There seems to be several "tricks", like avoid using metal and seal it well to keep air out. I had some pretty wimpy ćwikła until I learned the tricks.
Hot foods are pretty interesting. Horseradish is great since (at the risk of sounding indelicate) it is only hot on the way in. Not so with peppers. But enough ...
As I discerned that I was losing the horseradish pandemic, I resorted to chemical warfare. I got some of the baddest plant killer I could find and applied it. About all it did was to curl the leaves a bit more than normal. I have heard since that you should plant it in a large pot or half-barrel. But one guy told me that it can still jump out of the barrel. Horseradish zombie apocalypse!
What? We forgot about our wonderful food thread??? Shame on us.
Joohny, I keep your most awesome posts in my archives, I learnt it from you, do you remember how you mentioned your barbecue occasion on 12th July?
Then stop at the market to get a couple of family packs of chicken wings to get marinating for the grill later this evening for another BBQ after a swim at the beach. What a beautiful summer. Damn life is good.
Yes, I agreed with you that life is/was so good. I found it most fascinating you mentioned only chicken wings. Was it because of diet and health reasons? I am asking coz we still don`t care about health when we have a barbecue. Not only do we use an old charcoal grill (cancer from smoke) but we also consume most fattening meats from it. Luckily, it happens once in fortnight and mostly in summer, sometimes spring, too.
What horrible unhealthy foods do we have? I like wings, too. My family also like Polish sausage and pork slices of: ham, neck, bacon in various marinades, e.g. chilli or apricot. Plus chicken or pork schishkebab. And various other staff.
We seldom use our own marinades coz those supermarket ones are OK to us. Yes, I know, they are full of artificial stuff but we don`t care.
Oh my, something for my taste! Forget all the fancy marinated meat - give me grilled Podwawelska with a baguette with garlic butter and a beer and I'm the happiest girl alive :)
Omg, it's been such a long time since I had grill :(
Step by step, I introduce kids to eating exotic foods. One of them are shrimps - at first, kids look at them with utter disgust but gradually they change their mind.
I never go to KFC and similar eateries which offer fried chicken. Yet, I like to eat it from time ti time - I can get it in a shop and cook at home. Not bad - I especially like its chilli version.
This year I have grown about 50 tomato plants - all my own seedlings After a few weeks of eating a kilo every day, we started looking at them with a little disgust. I got a sudden idea of pickling them for winter like cucumbers. I have already prepared about 20 big jars. After two weeks of fermentation, I opened one. Wow, delicious. Amazing taste! I devoured all of them coz my family didn`t want. Strange people.
Ingredients: garlic, horseradish root or leaves, dill, sugar, salt, a little vinegar, water. I pour warm water over the tomatoes and tightly close the jars - no boiling afterwards!. One week is enough to get it pickled. Sugar is my invention coz I want them to be a little sweet. I added salt at the beginning but after the first series I stopped. Vinegar to make them a little sour.
Joohny, I learnt it from you, do you remember how you mentioned your barbecue occasion on 12th July?
That would be the 4th of July, the United States Independence Day holiday when everyone grills.. To be honest Pawian, I limit myself to grilled foods as good as all those pictures look. Remember, when grilling, if you burn meat it brings out cancer causing carcinogens. Carcinogens are present in grilled foods. The process of grilling your food, especially if it's chicken, can change the food's structure on a molecular level. This change can turn your grilled food into carcinogenic food. The safer option is to boil or bake your food like most authentic Polish foods. Your tomatoes look absolutely delicious. Eating to many like you did can cause inflammation (arthritis flare up) in old people like us so pay attention. The traditional cuisine of Poland is characterized by meat and vegetables, especially potatoes and dills. Lunch and dinner tend to be heavy. Breakfast is usually simple, often meatless, and eaten before 9 a.m. in Poland.
Remember, when grilling, if you burn meat it brings out cancer causing carcinogens.
Yes, of course. But I also consume a lot of carcinogens killers at the same time so there is balance in nature.
Eating to many like you did can cause inflammation (arthritis flare up)
You mean joints are affected? Fortunately, I have a remedy for ot, too - my amazing amber spirit - all aches in joins or bones vanish after 2 days - I recommend it sincerely to you.
Thank you very much. Reading about pickling them, I found a mention of using green tomatoes - popular in Ukraine or Belarus. Today I collected the last bucket of tomatoes, they are mostly green coz the plants have already died. Tomorrow I am going to put them in jars.