Bigos, or Hunter’s Stew

I really connect with Polish food. It’s rustic, seasonal and affordable, as well as being influenced by just about anyone who’s passed through at some point; notably French, Jewish and Russian cuisines. I know this is silly but it feels really earthy and spiritual somehow when I cook something Polish for dinner; I feel transported to a scarred land of wheat fields, cabbages, harvests and preserving. I want to go to Poland at some point to get the “peasant making delicious stew on farmstead” image out of my head; I’m sure that it doesn’t actually resemble a Bertold Brecht play. This aside, what’s most important to me is the food, and it’s really delicious. One café, Barbakan, situated on Walmgate in York was one of my favourite lunchtime spots when I was a student. Small, bustling and cosy, Barbakan really opened my eyes to the wonders of Polish food. Baskets of sourdough bread would be served alongside piping hot dishes of goblaki -stuffed cabbage leaves- potato and cheese stuffed pierogi -dumplings- or peppery, juniper-spiked bigos. According to my worn cookbook, The Polish Kitchen, by Mary Pininska, bigos is the national dish of Poland and was traditionally made with any food harvested from the land; game, juniper berries, mushrooms, all bolstered of course, by sauerkraut. See this as a base recipe to expand upon and make additions to; there is only one prerequisite, which is that you absolutely must make bigos at least one day in advance to let the flavours mature.

Happy Halloween Everybody!!

Sausage Mummies: roasted in ketchup and honey then wrapped in sourdough bandages

Sourdough Bones with Roasted Pumpkin and Chestnut Soup

Blueberry Cheesecake with White Chocolate Strawberry Ghosties

Our Pumpkins!

Rough Puff Sausage Rolls

One thing that I love about the patisserie course is learning new skills. I thought I was pretty clued-up before but there are always things to learn and a few weeks ago it was puff pastry. Practicing pastry so often doesn’t come cheap though and using butter actually makes the product unstable, as it has such a low melting point. Although we were all shocked on our first day to see Fabrice advocate the use of pastry margarine in lieu of butter, when it comes to rough puff, I’m now a convert.

My French Holiday Diary- Day 9

We visit the comic book fair, have another delicious dinner, and the stew of the century begins...