Chłodnik

Chłodnik is a typical Polish soup eaten in summer. I can’t remember if we’ve ever had it at home when I grew up, but I definately ate it when visiting relatives in Poland. The soup is served cold on hot summer days and today was a perfect day to make this soup. This recipe is my own, inspired by several other ones that I’ve seen on the internet. The result is a delicous and refreshing pink soup. But be careful and don’t spill, beetroot stains are not fun…

Chłodnik

300 gr peeled beetroots
500 ml water
1 vegetable stock cube
5 radishes
2 red spring onions
2 tbsp chives
1 tbsp parsley
juice from 0.5 lemon
350 ml Kefir (or natural yoghurt)
50 ml sourcream
salt
pepper

Grate the beetroots and cook them in 5 deciliters of water, a stock cube and pepper. Cook until the beets are soft. Put aside the beets and the water, let cool, then transfer to the fridge to cool completely.
Chop the radishes, chives, onions and parsley. When the beetroots together with the beetroot water are cold, add the vegetables, lemon juice, sourcream and kefir. Salt and pepper the soup. Put it in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Serve the cold soup with boiled eggs.

The main ingredients for Chłodnik.

Let the beetroots cool before mixing all ingredients together.

Nubbe – ice cold spiced vodka

(Glad Midsommar = Happy Midsummer)

Midsummer Eve is a day of tradition, food and drink. In the old days it marked the summer solstice and was a pagan tradition. For more information see Anne’s post from this morning or this page here .

Last year we had a party with our friends, this year we had a calm and romantic dinner at home and then took a long walk in the centre of Gothenburg which was rather empty. For dinner we had all the traditional food: pickled herring, fresh potatoes with sourcream and chives, meatballs (vegetarian for me) and of course nubbe (ice cold aqvavit which is spiced vodka). For dessert we had fresh Swedish strawberries with whipped cream, just like all other swedes today :-) Glad Midsommar to you all!

Fransk Löksill (pickled herring with red onion)

Matjessill (pickled herring)

Skånsk senapssill (pickled herring in mustard from Skåne)

Cooked eggs with majonnaise and cod roe.

Swedish strawberries with whipped cream.

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Yesterday was time for another weekly dinner with my brother. He made delicious shrimp spits and afterwards we drank coffee and ate Nationalbakelsen that Fredrik had bought. The Nationalbakelse translates to The National pastry and is a sweet pastry made of dough with almond paste, which is then topped with vanilla cream and Strawberries. Very nice indeed. Maybe I’ll try to do it myself next week on the national day which from this year will be a holiday and thus a free day from work.

After dinner I picked some nice rhubarb in my brother’s garden. Next week when he’ll come to us for dinner he will bring me even more rhubarb! I’m already planning on what to do with it… :-)

Jajko Swiecone
(First we shared one of the blessed eggs and wished each other good health and other nice things, see previous post)

Eggs with mayonnaise and roe

Salatka z rakami
(Shrimp salad)

Salatka kartoflana
(Salad with potatoes, carrots, peas, mayonnaise etc)

Sledzie w smietanie
(Herring pickled in Créme Fraiche and onion)

Smoked Salmon

Kielbasa
(Polish sausage)

Kurczak w galaretce
(Chicken in jelly)

Main courses:

Fillet of Pork with mushroom sauce

Fish burgers

Fish in sauce

Makowiec z serem & Sernik
(Poppy Seed cake & Polish baked cheesecake)

Tort czekoladowy
(Chocolate cake)

Sernik na zimno
(Cheesecake)

Easter Basket, Swienconka

As a Catholic and with a Polish origin, Holy Saturday is a day when we go to church for the traditional blessing of Easter food. We bring baskets containing samples of the Easter food, Swienconka, decorated in various ways. The blessing of the Easter food is an old and lovely tradition that I’m raised with. I don’t think that the tradition is common for all Catholics, only for Eastern European Catholics. People put great effort in decorating the baskets and it’s nice to look at the beautiful baskets at church.

The content of the Easter basket varies from family to family, and here are the most important contents and their meanings:

Pisanki: Coloured boiled eggs symbolize life and rebirth, and especially Christ’s Resurrection from the Tomb.
A peeled boiled egg: The same meaning as above, the egg is shared with the family on Easter Dinner.
Kielbasa: A spicy sausage of pork products, indicates God’s favor and generosity. In the old days, all types of pork were forbidden until the coming of Christ when it became acceptable.
Baranek Wielkanocny: A sugar lamb, representing Christ Resurrected. It’s a typical Polish Easter symbol.
Pepper and Horseradish: Symbolize the bitter herbs of the Passover and the Exodus.
Bread: Symbolizes Christ, “the Bread of Life”.
Salt: “You are the salt of the earth.”
Vinegar: Symbolizes the gall given to Christ at the crucifixion.
Wine: Symbolizes the blood of sacrifice spilt by Christ at the crucifixion.

In my family we don’t bless neither vinegar nor wine, and as I didn’t have any Polish sausage nor Horeseradish at home, I had to go to church without them. Tomorrow on Easter Day we will have an Easter Dinner and before the dinner begins, the whole family will share the peeled boiled egg and exchange best wishes to each other.

I wish you all a Happy Easter!

Nalesniki z serem

Yesterday I visited my mother and she made me some delicious sweet Polish pancakes with quark-curd, Nalesniki z serem. The equivalent French name is much fancier, Crêpes au fromage blanc. But it really doesn’t matter as it tastes delicous anyway :-) It’s one of my favourite dishes and it reminds me of my childhood.

Quark-curd

Quark-curd is frequently used in the Polish kitchen and my boyfriend thinks that it’s the main ingredient in all Polish dishes :-) But of course that isn’t true, it just happens to be the main ingredient in my family’s favourite dishes: Sernik (cheesecake), Nalesniki z serem (pancakes with quark) and Ruskie pierogi (dough wrap filled with quark-curd and potatoes, see the photo below).

Ruskie Pierogi

I don’t have any exact recipe for the pancakes as I do them by heart. If someone wants an exact recipe please write me and I’ll do one batch of pancakes and make sure to write down the exact amount of all ingredients :-)

Nalesniki z serem
pancakes:
1 egg
1 decilitre of flour
2 decilitres of milk
butter
a pinch of sugar

quark-curd filling:
250 quark-curd (Swedes can use a package of “Kesella Gourmet”)
1 egg yolk
sugar
vanilla sugar
raisins (my mother always marinate them in rum for a couple of hours)

Make the filling by blending all ingredients. Make the pancake dough, fry the pancakes and set aside. Divide the filling between the pancakes, then fold every pancake in the middle and then fold them in the middle again. Sprinkle icing sugar over the pancakes and serve. Yummy!

“Äggmacka med Kalles Kaviar” and a cup of green tea

I love Sunday mornings, and Saturday mornings as well. Normally I don’t have time to eat breakfast so I make a basic cheese sandwich that I eat at work. On weekends I can sleep forever and afterwards I can eat a late breakfast, preferably my favourite one: Äggmacka med Kalles Kaviar, which is a sandwich with sliced boiled eggs and a Swedish caviar called Kalles Kaviar. Kaviar is a classic sandwich paste made from cod roe and Kalle is the blond boy who is on the tube – his father was the managing director at the time of the product’s launch in 1954. In Sweden Kalles Kaviar is a product that probably can be found in all refrigerators.

Kalles Kaviar