Sunday, February 14, 2010

Feeling Very Polish

Good Morning!!! Well I feel great after a good nights sleep. Now I'm able to tell you about my amazing day yesterday. Its gonna take a while so grab a cup and something to munch on!!



First I'd like to introduce a major player in this story. This is Stephanie, my great-grandmother. Besides being one of my grandmothers, she is my inspiration.





This is her senior portrait. Fortunately she saved everything so I have alot of her stuff including her senior annual where I found this picture.





This is her in later years. It was cool making all these yummy things because alot of the utencils and bowls I used were hers. My grandfather remembers her cooking very vividly.


Ok, on with the show. So, we're polish and being polish means 3 things in our family: we're catholic, we like to partake in the drink, and we EAT!!! Two things that Stephanie made were Pierogis, potato dumplings, and Paczki (pronounced Ponch-key) which are a Polish jelly doughnut, but better. Now we haven't had paczki in a long time, since my uncle passed, so it was a big deal to make them. So we all decided it was time to start making them again and it was time for me to learn how.


The recipe is easy, the procedure is long. The dough has to rise 4 times!! Its literally an all day thing. In between the risings I made pierogies, lots of pierogies! This is the procedure in a nut shell, starting with my amazing shirt!!!




I made it just for the occation. I know as soon as Mable sees it she'll be wanting one!




Paczki start with alot of egg yolks. This is one of Stephanie's bowls!!



Then you have to whisk them all up. Thats Stephs egg mixer too! Then you add in a bunch of flour and yeast and let it rise. Then you punch it down and let it rise again!!



Now comes the fun part. Now you have to fill the dough with your favorite jelly. We used blackberry and blueberry, made by Mother and I, and the family favorite, red plum. This is the hardest part because the filling technique is difficult. You have to make sure that you seal the dough completely or the jelly will ooze out when you fry them.


Once you get them all filled and sealed up right. You let them rise again!




Once they've doubled in size, they're ready to fry. Then you coat them in powdered sugar and devour, well at least once they've cooled because that hot jelly is like molten lava.




Thats it. The pierogies were a bit easier. They're just dough then you cut them in circles, fill, boil, and eat.

So we had a Polish feast and everyone, especially my grandfather, was on cloud nine!
Now I have to go help The Man clean up the house. Ya'll have a good one and a Happy Valentine's Day.

2 comments:

  1. Great post...and you're right, i do want one of those shirts!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I ated one and they wuz good!

    ReplyDelete