My mum the Master Chef!
Stan Krawczyk • 11 December 2019
My mum the Master Chef! Self taught
My mum probably only knew how to peel potatoes and boil an egg but the responsibility of parenting forces you to learn the art of feeding yourself and family very quickly!
When she married my dad she didn't know how to cook anything? Her mother used to tell her 'you need to learn!' Sadly her mother was across the pond in central Europe not England.
My mum was a very sensitive person, she would be easily upset and quite shy at times. I remember her father being the same quite shy for a big man, I mention that because it's like she had a sixth sense if you will? I don't know how to describe it but she had a natural ability to just try something and get it to work. I am talking food here as well as plants - but that's another Blog!
She had a couple of Polish cook books from Lodz, which I drew all over when I was about 5 or 6, I know this because it says my name and age 5 and 6 over the pages its a boy thing, but anyway she used them as a guide, tried something out burnt it (caramelised as we say in the trade) the second time it was perfect. By adjusting the recipe to her own version it was superior to the original.
Once I cooked some home made Chicken Fajitas, mum never had them before and she liked them. She had a go the following week and they were 500% tastier than mine and I never told her how to do them she just guessed!
Her own versions meant the portions would feed the population of Lancashire and the ingredients were the best available.
If baking she would use live yeast from the Deli, not powder, or self raising flower! How very dare you Sir!
You had to use Canadian Strong Flour Krupczatka from the Deli, not many places sell it even today.
I remember you warmed up some milk, cut off a piece of yeast dissolving it then adding it to the mix.
We used to eat the yeast raw, good for you but also gives you wind!
The kitchen was small, the window and back door generally open since the whole space would be filled with steam, from boiling pans, any commercial chef would have been proud.
The entire house would smell of whatever she cooked that day, which was both good and bad.
FACT! Because of my mum's love of fish (which is a common Polish thing) she used to pan fry lots of fish usually the really smelly ones, whatever the yellow smoked ones are?
The entire house stunk for days, the smell makes me feel ill and to this day I can't stand to eat any fish and wont even try to eat them because of my childhood traumas!
On the plus side when she baked bread, dumplings or cake the house smelt divine. She made Poppy Seed cake roll for Christmas Eve, doughnuts, cheesecake etc.
One cake in particular passed on to mum from our dear friend Mrs Zarzecka, chocolate sponge, with, marzipan, Plum jam and sugar crust on top! The most favourite cake in the entire world for me. I have never made it but for the sake of this website I will do and pray I don't create a new form of caramelised cement compound!
She cooked lots of meat with veg and a sauce and potatoes dishes, various soups, cucumber, beetroot, mushroom, bean, white soup and casseroles. They all start out life as casseroles, it's a variation on a theme. We use stock cubes also but its always based on real chicken or other meat. These recipes are for later blogs.
Steamed dumplings the size of water melons were my favourite (particularly steam filled kitchen days). They were slightly sweet and substituted potatoes.
Breaded pork chops or Kotleti (type of meatball) were staples and I still make them frequently, served with new potatoes (French Charlotte are the nearest to Polish) with melted butter, side of sour cream cucumber and dill. To be covered in another blog when I get around to making them.
We also did Bigos (Sauerkraut and pork) very easy to make - another blog.
Pierogi, like Italian Pasta parcels but made differently and usually larger.
A butter sponge Placek very similar to French Madeleines and Italian Panettone.
You have to remember Poland has been invaded by just about every country over the centuries and took elements of their cooking.
I think Polish cooking is very similar to French, Italian, German and Swedish.
We also made our own fresh egg pasta sheets, rolled out onto that Remploy table in the living room on a large clean sheet of material to dry out. This was in the 1970's long before you could buy all this in supermarkets like you can now!
So we did very thin sheets, folded them and sliced them into narrow strips of pasta.
We also did drop Kluski basically the same mixture but dropped into a hot soup where they set in the soup - more blogs to do.
For Easter mum would do filled pancakes with her own special mix inside. This was well known by many friends and polished off (no pun intended) very quickly. That is something I need to try myself , I have all the ingredients listed somewhere.
Then Chrusty which I did with my daughter last year, basically pastry strips - blog to do.
The more I think about this the more meals come to mind and now I am feeling hungry.
So other than experimenting she also watched a famous TV show in the 1970's called 'The Galloping Gourmet' , which is kind of cheesy now but there was nothing like it. Today's cookery programmes are very staged, this was live and it was fun and silly and enjoyable to watch! Take a look on youtube if you have a spare 5 mins.
It wasn't healthy cooking by any means but fun.
Check out the blogs for Mum's Polish kitchen, where I try to recreate them for you, if I can do it you can.
You will notice a lot of cooking blogs, food defines a culture /country doesn't it and in my case be they special occasions such as Easter, Birthdays or Christmas good food was always on the table. Mum didn't have any fancy food processors for years it was all done by hand, which after cooking the same recipes myself is not exactly a 5 minute job, not difficult but time consuming.
Smell and taste being 2 very powerful senses linked to memory just remind me of the good days when my parents were still here.
Some of these blogs recreating mums recipes I admit have brought a tear to my eye but at the same time I know they are both stood next to me in the kitchen watching me cook. Mum probably shaking her head saying 'no Stash not that way and add more salt!'
I hope you enjoy the food blogs but give them a try its all good stuff and cost effective especially during these times when everything is getting more expensive.
Poppy Seed Roles from Barbakan Deli in Chorlton Manchester.
Poppy Seed plait for Christmas. Mum always made these but involves a lot of manual effort for her. This one is from Barbakan Deli in Chorlton, still the best place for such things, not cheap but you do get what you pay for.
Cornish Christmas Eve get away 2024
The Last Krawczyk - 200 years in the making.
Penhros Polish Village - end of an era
Mum's Polish Kitchen - Krawczyk stuffed pancakes - nadziewane naleśniki.
Keeping the website going...
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5 Years today since mum passed away.
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