Typical food in Poland

So, I think right now it is time to talk about the typical food that the Erasmus people in Lodz we are enjoying. First of all, it's necessary to say that I haven't tried yet some of these typical plates that I will gradually explain, but thanks to the collaboration of my Polish friends that have been suggesting me what to add or not and to my "research", people could make the recipes without any problem. I will try to explain them in the easiest way, and of course the recipes will have all the different ingredients that you should use to cook. I will start with the, for me, most typical meal in Poland:

PIEROGI

Before starting, I would like to say that if you are living in Poland and you haven´t tried yet pierogi, you can´t wait more (I will tell you soon the best restaurants of the city). So, it is basically the most famous meal not only in Lodz, even in the whole country. To understand it, pierogi are like a kind of patty, but the difference with them it´s that you can do it also boiled, not only fried. It is curious that although it are not very famous in Spain (maybe in Catalonia) we can find it in the United States of America and other countries in the world (like in Hungary that pierogi became very famous to use to celebrate weddings). It´s worthy to say that of course I tasted this meal, and although if you buy it in the supermarket and are not very good, if you go to the correct place they are really tasty.

Moreover, I would like to say that actually the word in singular is "pierog" and "pierogi" would be the plural in Polish language. Also, the origin comes for the word "pir" that means festivity, and there are a lot of countries that claim to be the first who cooked this meal (Russia, Czech Republic, Poland; all Eastern countries) because pierogi have been related with lots of typical foods of other Eastern countries.

As a curiosity, just before going to the important issue (how to cook them), I have to say that in some countries (above all EE. UU. ) there are competitions every year about this famous meal, and that the world record of the biggest pierogi is in 7, 6 meters.

Ultimately, they are done with a kind of dough, the similar form as the Spanish dumplings (to understand it, semicircular) and it may be filled with lots of ingredients, even they could be filled with salami, salmon or fruit (my favourite with cream above, thanks to a sympathetic Polish mate and to her mother that made them).

In this case, I will explain how to cook the "Pierogi Ruskie" (the most basic kind, although they are very famous in Poland, they have Russian origin).

Ingredients to cook "Pierogi Ruskie":

For the realization of the dough

• Three hundred and fifty grams of flour
• One or two eggs
• 1/2 glass of water

Filling for pierogi ruskie

• Eight hundred grams of potatoes
• Two hundred grams of white cheese
• Fifty grams of onion
• Thirty grams of fat
• Salt
• Pepper

And if you want to make them tastier, we can add outside

• Eight hundred grams of fresh mushrooms
• Thirty grams of breadcrumbs
• Forty grams of fat
• Salt
• Pepper

How do you prepare it?

First of all, to the flour that we have on the table we mix it with the egg, and we add some water and salt. Then it´s time to mixing and kneading hardly, to get all perfectly mixed. Now we have to divide this dough in different pieces to get thick pierogis. We start to kneading, and then we cut semicircles of 4-5 centimetres in diameter (you can to them with the size that you want, but, if you have never tried them, it´s better to make them small and with different fillings).

After we have the semicircles, it´s time to fill them, with a spoonful of the filling mentioned before. We will put it in the middle of the semicircle, and we will join the extremes to get them closed. We must repeat this step with all the pierogi that we want and the filling will be different according to the taste of everyone, so it´s not necessary to explain this step too much, just leave your imagination run.

When we have the form made, and the fillings inside the pierogis, we can heat the water, to put later the pierogis on it and wait them to be ready, just 2 or 3 minutes at maximum. We will know that are ready when they float. One important thing, it´s that we must stir them during the process otherwise they will get stick.

After this, we have to drain them just to get them dry and put them inside a sauce with fat, due to like this they will get some flavor (this is optional, but it´s typical).

Now it´s time for the sauce that we´ll put outside the pierogis, and for this, we will peel the potatoes used, and we will joined with the white cheese; that will be later mixed to make it more liquid. Then we add the chopped fried onion, salt and pepper and all will be ready to be mixed. After mixing, we could put this wonderful sauce on our pierogis and add some chopped mushrooms, that should be fried with the onions. And finally, we must join it to the plate and we have achieved the pierogi ruskie that we wanted.

Timescale: thirty five minutes more or less.

Difficulty: quite simple.

Place suggested to eat pierogi in Lodz: Pierogery in Manufaktura, where you can taste them boiled or fried; big or small; and with lots of different fillings perfectly cooked. It would be enough with one huge plate of pierogi; and I suggest you that if you are various people order different flavors and ingredients to taste them, because all are really good.

Price: if you buy them in the supermarket, it would cost about eight zlotys per box (enough for two people), two euros, but you would have to prepare the filling by yourself.

Moreover, if you go to the previously mentioned restaurant it would cost 14 zlotys (3, 50 euros), but of course with the perfect sauce and well prepared.

Just to finish if you love risk and you want to do them by yourself, with the ingredients mentioned before (that would be enough for 3-4 people) you would have to pay each person six zlotys (1, 50 euros) more or less, that it´s not too much.

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