Some Traditional Krakow Dishes - Recipes 

It would be a pity not to try the local cuisine when in Krakow. Home you may do some Krakow cooking yourself. Here are fairly easy recipes for traditional Krakow dishes. 

Christmas Eve Borsch To get sour beet juice peel and cut into thin slices 3 lbs. or so of red beets, put into a glass jar, fill it with lukewarm water, and top with a slice of whole-wheat bread to hasten the process. Cover the container with gauze and keep in warm for 4-5 days. After removing carefully the surface froth pour the clear ruby-red juice into bottles and cork (it can be stored in cold for months). Cook celery and parsley root, carrots, leeks, one onion and 4 peeled and thinly sliced red beets with 10 grains of black pepper, 2 grains of allspice and a little bay leaf. Cook 2-3 oz. of dried boletus mushrooms with two cups of water in the second pot. Sieve both the vegetable and the mushroom broth and blend them together. Add the soured beet juice–3 pint for every 21 pint of broth, and heat the borsch to the boiling point. Its color should be rich red, so add fresh beet juice if necessary. Spice up the borsch to your taste. If too sour add a bit sugar. Add some dry red wine or lemon juice to make it more sour, but no vinegar please. Add crushed garlic clove some 15 minutes before serving. Polish ‘Uszka’ ravioli with mushroom filling traditionally accompany the Christmas Eve borsch. 

“Krupnik” barley soup Cut 1lb of beef into small pieces and add 1lb of beef bones. Put into a pot and fill it with 3 and half pints of water. Cook over low heat for an hour and add assorted vegetables–carrots, parsley, celery root, leek and one onion–plus 4 small dried mushrooms (all the stuff cut into stripes). Carry on with stewing till the meat is tender. Sieve the broth. Salt 3/4 pint of the broth and cook with 4-6 oz. of pearl barley. Add a tablespoon of butter into cooked barley and mix with a wooden spoon till it turns white. Pour in the remaining broth and add 3 potatoes diced into cubes. Stew for 15-20 minutes. Add the diced meat, mushrooms and vegetables. Salt to taste. Sprinkle with chopped parsley before serving. You can use pork instead of beef or replace it with 1/2 lb. of lean smoked bacon.

Krakow duck with mushrooms. Cook 2 oz. dried mushrooms in 3 pint of water over low heat in a covered pot until tender. Fine lean duck, salted, fry in a pan with some butter (or oil or lard) over high heat till it browns nicely. Next stew covered over low heat pouring a part of mushroom broth over the duck at times. When tender take the fowl out, let it cool, and divide into 4-6 portions. Mix 1 pint sour cream with 11 teaspoon of flour and add the sauce left in the pan together with finely chopped boiled mushrooms. Put the sauce over the duck portions in a pan over low heat and stew 10 minutes. Serve with barley or rice.
You can also make young goose the same way.

Zrazy collops with mushrooms and cream Cook 2 oz. dried mushrooms in a pint of water over low heat in a covered pot until tender. Cut small slices of sirloin or other fine beef against the grain, batter, and sprinkle with pepper. Fry meat for a while on butter. Cut the cooked mushrooms into strips. Put the meat in a saucepan (preferably heatproof casserole) in one layer, cover with the mushrooms, and pour over the salted mushroom broth. Stew over low heat for 20 minutes (make sure the lid fits well). Add 2 lbs. of potatoes cut into thick slices, shake the saucepan slightly, and leave to cooking over low heat. Mix 1 pint of sour cream with 11 teaspoon of wheat flour and pour over the potatoes just before they get tender. Stew covered for another 15 minutes over very low heat. Serve right away in the saucepan. 

"Golabki" stuffed cabbage leafs (rice with mushrooms). Cut the entire cabbage stump out and remove four outer leaves. Put the rest of the head of cabbage in a pot with boiling water and cook 15-20 minutes. When it cools to warm, divide into single leaves and pound their midribs and veins gently. Cook 8-10 oz. rice salted till near-tender, rinse with cold water and drain on a sieve. Boil 2 oz. dried wild mushrooms, keep the stock and chop cooked mushrooms finely. Chop 2 medium onions fine and brown them lightly in 2 oz. butter. Blend rice, mushrooms, and onion. Salt and pepper to taste. Put a good deal of the stuffing on every cabbage leaf, wrap its edges over the filling, and roll each golabek up tightly. Arrange all your golabki tightly in a stoneware or thick enameled pot. Pour salted mushroom stock over them adding just enough boiling water to have golabki submerged, cover with a lid and put in a heated oven for 15 minutes.

Eating the Krakow Way 

It is hearty indeed.

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