Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

As I’ve noted in other book reviews and essays you may have read, I am very active in my church community. We have a new pastor, a priest from Poland, and I wanted to prepare a few dishes from his homeland. I checked out this cookbook, Polska: New Polish Cooking by Zuza Zak, from my local library and today I sat and read it cover to cover.

Before reading this cookbook, my knowledge of Polish food was pretty limited to beets, sausage, and pierogi. Boy, did I have a lot to learn! It is evident from the extensive section on vegetables that hearty vegetable soups, stews, and side dishes are a major part of the Polish cuisine.

In reading through the vegetable recipes, I was struck by how similar some of them are to the methods used to cook beans and greens in the Cajun cuisine of south Louisiana.

One recipe in particular that I will definitely make is Butter Beans in a Marjoram and Tomato Broth. The accompanying photo looks just like something my late father would have gladly finished off with good French bread and a glass of red wine. He loved large butter beans stewed this way!

While beets are certainly the national vegetable of Poland, the apple takes top ranking over all other fruits. There’s a charming headnote to a recipe for a cocktail called simply Apple Pie, where author Zuza Zak states, “If we had a national cocktail, then this would be it!” It’s a very simple concoction requiring only vodka and apple juice mixed together over ice with a sprinkle of ground cinnamon for garnish!

Poland is a Catholic country and thus follows the liturgical calendar for fasting and feasting. During Lent, seafood is the primary protein at all meals and one of the dishes in that chapter caught my eye, Poached Halibut in Buttery Dill Sauce. I love halibut and how could you go wrong with a sauce made of butter and chopped dill?

Breading and pan frying thin cuts of meat is common all over the world. I grew up with panéed meat, a term common in the New Orleans area, stemming from the French word pané. My mom’s was a thin cutlet of any meat (pork, beef, chicken), dipped in egg and milk, and then rolled in Progresso Italian bread crumbs, pan-fried in vegetable oil. My brothers and I would have eaten the tires off of my dad’s truck if they had been prepared that way. Here are the terms used for this same method of cooking in other regions:

• Escalope (France)
• Schnitzel (Austria and Germany)
• Milanesa (Latin America)
• Tonkatsu or Katsu (Japan)
• Cotoletta or Scallopini (Italy)
• Kotlet Schabowy (Poland)
• Chicken-Fried Steak (southern United States).

In this cookbook, it is an escalope of turkey breast that is breaded and fried, served alongside a cucumber and dill salad. I am definitely making this dish, maybe later this week!

All in all, this is a great cookbook for anyone who wants to try out a new cuisine, the foods of Eastern Europe, or to prepare a meal for a priest from Poland!