Mickiewicz & Saffron Milkcaps: Flavours of Migration

smaki_emigracji_mickiewicz_we_francji_1.jpg, default, Maciej Nowicki during the preparation of dishes for the culinary show 'Flavours of Migration. Mickiewicz in France', 23 October 2022, Embassy of the R, center, #000000

Recipes

#polish cuisine

This year sees the bicentennial anniversary of the first edition of Adam Mickiewicz’s 'Ballades and Romances'. To celebrate it, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute created a proprietary programme '44 x Mickiewicz', to support the implementation of projects illustrating the ideas of Polish Romanticism as a crossing point for many cultures, opinions and art movements.

On 21 October, a scientific conference entitled Sociabilité et usages culinaires de la Grande Emigration ou Mickiewicz à Paris took place at the Slavonic Studies Department, the Sorbonne University, in Paris. It was jointly organised by the Embassy of Poland in Paris, the Sorbonne, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, and the Museum of King Jan III's Palace at Wilanów. Speakers during this meeting included Bogusław Deptuła, Maciej Nowicki, Professor Iwona Pugacewicz, Professor Małgorzata Smorąg-Goldberg and Dr Małgorzata Grąbczewska, PhD. And although this was a scientific conference, yet its character was light, because it focused on food-related subjects.

The flavours of the emigration fare interwove, from memories of home to the completely different and distinctive French cuisine. They are reflected in writings from that period. However, Mickiewicz’s Mister Thaddeus remains the real treasure trove of them, and from its pages came the saffron milkcaps mentioned in the title and definitely the most favourite mushrooms of the poet. Using this knowledge, Maciej Nowicki, a chef and a researcher of flavours of the past, normally working at the Museum of King Jan III's Palace, prepared a special menu inspired by Mickiewicz, the Great Emigration, Poland, and France. It was presented on 23 October, in hospitable rooms of the Embassy of Poland in Paris, due to the commitment and support offered by His Excellency, Polish Ambassador Jan Emeryk Rościszewski. The invited guests could try various dishes, and you can find their recipes below. It should be strongly emphasised here that those flavours, in previously unknown configurations, were created with the project Great Emigration from the kitchen, or Mickiewicz and saffron milkcaps... in mind. The recipes that we present to you are both a journey into the past, as well as an attempt to create a new soaring Polish flavour on the streets of Paris.

Bogusław Deptuła

Picture display

standardowy [760 px]

Red Borscht, photo: Nils Warolin

Picture image

barszcz_czerwony_fot._nils_warolin.jpg

Borscht

4 kg beetroot
1 kg carrots
500 g onions
2 large celeriac roots
5 fresh bay leaves
10 dessert apples
2 heads of garlic
100 ml good quality apple cider vinegar
fresh marjoram
salt & pepper

Roast the carrots, celeriac, and onions for about an hour at 150 °C, place in a pot and cover with water. Let it simmer for ca. 2 hours. Remove the vegetables, add rinsed beetroot (skin on), and add water to cover the vegetables. Add the vinegar and cook on very low heat for about 4 hours, then add the apples and sliced garlic and cook for another 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat, add the marjoram and strain. Finally, season with salt and pepper to taste.

Picture display

standardowy [760 px]

Sour rye soup, photo: Nils Warolin

Picture image

barszcz_bialy_fot._nils_warolin.jpg

Sour rye soup

2 kg carrots
2 kg parsnips
2 celeriac roots
1 kg onion
200 g pickled saffron milk caps
100 ml of cream
40 g ginger
50 g dried porcini mushrooms
2 lemons
50-100 ml spirit vinegar
salt & pepper

Roast vegetables in the oven until they are tender and then place them in the pot. Add the soaked dried porcini, cover with water and cook over low heat for ca. 1 hour. Remove the carrots and blend the remaining vegetables. Strain through a fine mesh sieve. Add lemon juice, sliced ginger, cream, salt, and pepper. Season with spirit vinegar to taste. Serve with chopped pickled saffron milk caps and/or croutons.

Picture display

standardowy [760 px]

Fish with pea babka [*baked dish, a bake similar to kugel], photo: Nils Warolin

Picture image

ryba_na_babie_grochowej_fot._nils_warolin.jpg

Fish with pea babka [*baked dish, a bake similar to kugel]

Fish

400 g swordfish fillet
200 g monkfish cheeks
100 g scallops
1 litre of milk
4 onions
5 aniseed stars
100 ml cream
1 lemon

Divide the fish into portions of ca. 100 g. Place in a baking dish. Add milk, onions cut into feathers and aniseed stars. Place in an oven preheated to 90 °C and boil for ca. 20 minutes. Tenderize the monkfish into thin slices. Blend the prepared scallops with cream and a pinch of salt and pour onto the fillets and roll them up. Bake in the oven for ca. 30 minutes at 90 °C.

Fish sauce

5 kg white fish heads
3 whole hens
2 kg carrots
1 kg onion
200 ml dry white wine
pinch of saffron
salt

Roast the vegetables, then cook for 1 hour, and remove from the pot. Add the hens to the broth and cook on a very low heat for around 3 hours. Strain the broth, add the prepared fish heads, top up the liquid and boil for another hour. Leave the broth to cool and strain through a fine mesh sieve. Add wine and reduce to ca 10% of its volume. Add saffron and a pinch of salt.

Pea babka

100 g cooked peas
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites
10 fresh basil leaves
butter
breadcrumbs
salt

Blend the cooked peas until smooth and strain through a sieve. Add the egg yolks, whipped egg whites and chopped basil leaves. Season with salt and stir gently. Grease 150ml baking forms with warm butter and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Pour the mixture into the moulds and bake at 140 °C for ca. 15 minutes.

Picture display

standardowy [760 px]

Goose gizzards with cabbage and pumpkin, photo: Nils Warolin

Picture image

zoladki_gesie_na_kapuscie_2_fot._nils_warolin.jpg

Goose gizzards with cabbage & pumpkin

2 kg goose gizzards
1 litre of red wine
2 chickens
2 litres of rich vegetable broth
2 kg calf bones
200 ml cherry or strawberry tincture/liqueur
10 fresh bay leaves
10 sprigs of rosemary
salt

To cure the gizzards, prepare brine with 3 litres of boiled water and 200 g table salt. Bring to a boil, add bay leaves, and cool. Soak the prepared gizzards in the brine. Marinate for at least 24 hours, then rinse and cover with vegetable and poultry broth. Top up with red wine and cook for ca. 3 hours. Remove the meat from the liquid. Reduce the sauce to ca 10% of its original volume.

Pumpkin potage

1 muscat pumpkin (ca 1.5 kg)
400 g butter
300 ml cream 36%
50 g French mustard
3 limes
salt

Peel the pumpkin, cut it into 2 cm pieces. Roast in the oven for ca. 1 hour at 130 °C. Blend with warm butter and cream. Strain through a fine mesh sieve, season with lime juice and salt.

Sauerkraut

1 kg sauerkraut
3 l vegetable broth
150 ml honey
5 cinnamon sticks
5 white onions
10 grains of juniper (preferably fresh)
pepper
fresh thyme or sage (optional)

Chop the sauerkraut, add to large pot, cover with vegetable broth, and add juniper seeds and cinnamon sticks. Mix the onions cut into feathers with cabbage. Cover and cook on very low heat for ca. 2 hours. Remove the lid and allow the liquid to evaporate a little for another 30 minutes. Season with honey, and/or add fresh thyme or sage.

Picture display

standardowy [760 px]

Buckwheat blinis with mint yoghurt and plum potage, photo: Nils Warolin

Picture image

bliny_na_potaziu_sliwkowym_fot._nils_warolin.jpg

Buckwheat blinis with mint yoghurt & plum potage

Blini

200 g buckwheat flour
200 g wheat flour
2 eggs
450 ml milk
30 g fresh yeast
50 g butter
1 tablespoon of cane sugar
salt

Combine the flours and sieve. In a pot, mix 5 g of yeast, 2 tablespoons flour, 100 ml warm milk and sugar. Stir gently and leave in a warm place to rest. In a separate bowl, add the remaining flour, milk, butter, egg yolks and stiffly beaten egg whites. Finally, add the yeast mixture and combine gently. Cover with a linen kitchen towel and leave in a warm place for ca 30 minutes. Fry the blinis in a non-stick frying pan.

Mint yoghurt

400ml thick natural yoghurt
100 ml honey
a pinch of pepper
fresh mint leaves

Add the chopped mint to the yoghurt and honey, mix carefully and season with a little pepper. Top the blinis with the yoghurt.

Plum potage

2 kg ripe plums
300 ml dry red wine
100 g cane sugar
2 limes

Rinse and stone plums, place in a wide pan and roast for 3-4 hours on a very low heat. Pour in the red wine, add sugar and cook for another 30 minutes. Then blend the potage, strain through a fine mesh sieve, add the lime juice and a pinch of salt.

Picture display

standardowy [760 px]

Kaltyszal, photo: Nils Warolin

Picture image

kalteszal_fot._nils_warolin.jpg

Kaltyszal [from the German Kaltschale – chilled soup] with nuts in vodka & roasted apples

300ml non-alcoholic beer
200 g challah
50 ml honey
100 ml 36% cream
3 apples
50 g butter
200 ml good quality apple juice

Pour the beer into a small saucepan, add the shredded challah and heat to ca 70 °C, blend. Add the honey, cool and mix it with the whipped cream. Chill for at least 24 hours. Cube the unpeeled apples, fry in butter for ca. 10 minutes, then add the juice and cook for another 10-15 minutes until the mixture evaporates to around half of its original volume. Chill the mousse and serve with the kaltyszal.

Nuts in vodka

100 ml vodka
200 ml honey
50 g almonds
50 g unsalted, shelled pistachios
50 g hazelnuts

Roast the almonds, pistachios, and hazelnuts in the oven until golden, then crush in a mortar. Combine with honey and vodka at least 24 hours before serving.

Recipes provided by: Maciej Nowicki

Language English

recipes

polish emigration

Romanticism