The Ingredient of All Ingredients: The Potato
If there’s one ingredient that best represents Polish cuisine, it’s probably the potato. There are, obviously, other products that might seem more distinct or interesting to the foreign audience, such as buckwheat groats, sauerkraut, cottage cheese or foraged mushrooms. There are other countries – say, Ireland – that might be in love with – and historically dependent on – the potato even more. And yet the humble spud is at the core of an infinite number of traditional, regional and modern dishes.
We often take them for granted, simply boil them and put next to more attractive ingredients which form the Polish obiad – 'eat your meat, you can leave the potatoes’ grandmas would say to fussy kids. For a country that has so many potato dishes, we are also quite uninformed when it comes to all the different cultivars, and often just divide spuds in two categories: those with white and those with yellow pulp (the former are preferred in the East, and the latter in the West of the country). And yet when treated with respect – or when particularly tasty themselves, as new potatoes are in the spring – they can become the main event.
You might think they were a part of Polish cuisine since times immemorial, but it isn’t so – potatoes were introduced to Poland – as to most of Europe – just around 200 years ago, but quickly caught on and replaced wheat and other grains in a variety of dumplings and pancakes. Their popularity is reflected in the wide array of names they were given in Polish – we usually say ziemniaki or kartofle, but you can also come across names such as pyry, grule, bulwy, perki or zimnioki. Among the most interesting and popular potato dishes there are babka ziemniaczana from Podlasie, kluski śląskie from Silesia, and ruskie pierogi with a cheese and potato filling. Here are some others:
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Typical polish dinner, photo: Getty Images
Potato Gołąbki
In Bolesława Kawecka-Starmachowa’s wartime book Sto potraw z ziemniaków (A Hundred Potato Dishes, 1940) we find a recipe for cabbage rolls, which aren’t – as usual – filled with meat and rice, but with potatoes. The author advises:
Shred raw potatoes on a grater, drain off excess water, add 1/3 of boiled potatoes, fried onions, salt and pepper, mix thoroughly and put the mix into leaves of sauerkraut, place tightly into a saucepan, cover with hot water and bake in an oven. The next day, when they set, fry them.
Cabbage rolls similar to these, filled with a mixture of potatoes, onions and bacon, are actually a regional dish from Eastern Poland. Very popular in Belarusian cuisine, they are now known in Podlasie as holubce or golubcy. Once upon a time they were wrapped in whole leaves of fermented cabbage – a technique now mostly forgotten.
Pyzy
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Pyzy, photo: Artur Kotowski/Getty Images
If there’s one dish that can be named a traditional Warsaw speciality, without any doubt it’s pyzy. It’s a type of potato-based dumplings (two parts raw potato to one part cooked potato) which can be either plain or filled with meat. Typically, they’re served with fried onions and pork scratchings. Sounds simple? It isn’t only about the dumplings themselves, but about where and how they were served.
A place synonymous with old-time Warsaw folklore is Bazar Różyckiego – a market in the Praga district opened in the late 19th century by the pharmacist, philanthropist and entrepreneur Julian Józef Różycki. As the commercial centre of the right side of the River Wisła, its hustle and bustle became legendary. Even during World War II, people could buy foods here that were inaccessible anywhere else. Although part of the market burned down during the Warsaw Uprising, after the war, it truly flourished: luxurious goods, furs and fashionable dresses were sold here. And when you got hungry, you could always buy a glass jar of pyzy, hidden between blankets or newspapers to keep them warm – and eaten standing up, in the middle of the chaos of the Bazar Różyckiego. Nowadays you can sample a more modern version in the Pyzy, Flaki Gorące bar right next to the market.
Moskole
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Moskale, photo: Grzegorz Kozakiewicz / Forum
One of innumerable types of potato pancakes, typical of the mountain region of Podhale, moskole are made with only cooked, mashed potatoes, flour and salt, and then – traditionally – baked on a very hot top of the stove. Nowadays they are usually made in the oven or on a heated pan. Using wheat flour is actually another departure from tradition – oat or rye were more popular in the past, since these grains grew on steep mountain fields. Moskole can be served simply with garlic butter, or with some lardons and bryndza cheese.
Although some claim the dish arrived to Podhale during World War I with Russian captives – since its name seems to refer to the inhabitants of Moscow – it’s much more probable pancakes like these were present in the repertoire of the mountaineers much earlier. They were a dish born out of necessity, eaten by the poor, in the spirit of no-waste before anyone heard the term – it was best to use potatoes left from the day before.
Pyry z gzikiem
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Pyry z gzikiem, photo: iStockphoto/Getty Images
In Poznań, in the Greater Poland region, potatoes are known as pyry and often they are boiled in their skins (or, as we say, w mundurkach – in uniforms) and served with gzik – twaróg or Polish cottage cheese mixed with cream, finely chopped onions and chives, sometimes sprinkled with a bit of delicious linseed oil. The dish was invented in the 19th century, when potatoes gained popularity in Greater Poland – a region already famous for its dairy – and has been a staple ever since. At first it was especially handy on Fridays, when Catholics tend to abstain from meat, then it also joined the ranks of zakąski – small dishes served with vodka.
And these are just some examples of what you can do with potatoes – and remember, they are also the main ingredient of some of the best Polish vodkas. It’s like other vegetables aren’t even trying!
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