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I wish I could say that this blog is where I share all the knowledge and recipes passed down by my grandmothers, that what I share is rooted in a deep tradition from my motherland. But the truth is, it is not. ‘Babushka Training’ satisfies and challenges me and what I share is from what I teach myself by reading and watching and sometimes what my mother teaches me.

I did not grow up with my grandmothers. My parents left their home country when they were a bit younger than I am now. Many people in America know what this type of life is like. I met my grandmothers a handful of times. Some people move on, they are citizens of the world and find happiness anywhere they go. Some live their life with one foot back in their home country. My parents did a little of both and as their child I always felt a part of me was missing.

It wasn’t until I was older and started spending my days how I wanted that I started to yearn for deep old traditions. The beauty of folk art and culture really touched me. I was living in New York at the time and after moving around to 4 different apartments in 5 years I moved to the Polish neighborhood of Brooklyn called Greenpoint. It is a really charming little community that is now what you would call very ‘hipster’. But the Polish history still stands. I started going to the Polish church and the little deli and I realized I don’t want to loose this as I get older. I finally felt like I was home, I finally realized I missed this part of myself and If I didn’t work to keep it, it would just disappear.

This year seemed like the perfect year to really dive in to more babushka training. More time at home, more time in general! That’s what I am always lacking is time. But for some reason it was hard to motivate myself. But I realize now that I was practicing another skill, maybe an even more important skill. Babushka training isn’t just about cooking and baking and making, babushka is amazing because of her character. I posted on my Instagram and my last post that we can get through whatever this year is and it is because people have gone through worse, my babushkas were teenagers when WWII broke out in Poland. They were right in the middle of it all. Their country destroyed, people being killed for no reason except that they were Polish; hiding, fighting, living in fear. And then they raised their children in Communism. Their land was taken away and they had to live in apartments that were too small. Everything they stood for was no more, the only thing that got you ahead was to be a part of the ‘party’. Freedom as we know didn’t exist. But they endured. They were stronger than us.

That is what I have been thinking about this year. They were stronger than us. How can I be strong like them. So here is my babushka manifesto, what makes a real babushka. Maybe you feel the same way, maybe you call yours something else, in Polish it’s actually babcia. But at the end of the day, real babushka training is character. And with that hopefully we can carry the traditions of our ancestors as well.

Babushka:

works hard

doesn’t complain

doesn’t think of herself first

cooks you too much food, is always welcoming

doesn’t let you leave too quickly

does not care what people think about her

stays calm when things get crazy

will tell you the truth when needed

family is number one

takes her time

let’s you sneak in some chocolate once in a while

values the simple things in life

has high standards but will love you no matter what

is polite and has impeccable manners

stays humble

Maybe your babushka was different and that is ok. Whatever in was in her that you looked up to, I hope you keep striving for that in your life. I hope your babushka will live in you and you pass that on to your future generations!

Peace and lots of love to anyone who reads this!

This is an Easter soup.

I didn’t realize when I started this blog that I would have so many soup recipes, although I am not surprised because Polish food is so much soup. A meal is not complete without a soup. Even in the summer. I have a secret dream of opening a soup shop somewhere, maybe here in Chicago, called ZUPA, and we just serve soups. It won’t even be just Polish but French and Italian, all soups welcome. And we’ll have really good bread and coffee. Would you go to a place like that?

This soup, like barszcz in general, needs to be prepared in advance, you need to know you will be making it because you need to make your sour starter. But the good news is you can buy it ready made in a jar from Eastern European stores, so check it out. This time we are using rye. We are making a fermented rye juice. There are different ways to make it, here is my way.

żur zakwas (fermented rye liquid)

1/2 liter warm water (2 cups)

60 g rye flour (1/2 cup)

peppercorns

4 garlic cloves

2 bay leaves

a small pieces of stale naturally leavened bread (optional but helps it turn sour faster)

liter jar

– Stir everything together in a very clean jar with a clean spoon. If you don’t have a piece of stale bread that is ok, it might just take longer. Cover the jar with a paper towel or cheese cloth with a rubber band. Let it sit for 4-8 days. Stir it around the first two days and then check it to make sure it is not getting too sour because you don’t want it to grow mold. Keep it in a bowl in case in bubbles up. If it turns sour enough you can always put it in the fridge before you use it for soup. But sour is good, that is what makes this soup good! Longer is better is you like it to be very sour so give yourself time to have some wiggle room.

Żurek – a white barszcz

2 carrots, peeled and diced

1 parsnip, peeled

1/4 celery root, peeled

4 peppercorns

2 bay leaves

a couple of dried mushrooms if you have them

1 tbsp butter or ghee

3 white sausages (like Polish or German bratwurst)

1/4 pound thick slab bacon, diced

1 small onion, peeled and diced

2 tbsp dried marjoram

1 tbsp horseradish from a jar, less if you can get fresh

4 garlic cloves crushed and minced

1/2 liter żur zakwas

4 hard boiled eggs

salt and pepper

sour cream (optional)

– First make a base broth. In a large pot add the carrots, parsnip, celery root, peppercorns, bay leaves, dried mushrooms and one sausage. Cover with 2 liters of water. Bring it to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes.

– In the meantime you will sauté the other sausages. If they are really fresh, cook it with a lid on a low heat so it cooks through all the way and then slice it after it has cooled. If it is pre-cooked or you can easily slice it, sauté with butter or ghee in small circles on a skillet. Set it aside.

– On the same skillet or cleaned if that one is dirty, sauté the bacon for about 5 minutes on a medium heat until just a little crispy. Add the onion and sauté for another 5-8 minutes. Set aside.

– Once the broth is ready, remove the parsnip, celery root, mushrooms, bay leaves and peppercorns if you can with tongs. Otherwise strain it into a different pot. But you want to keep the carrots! (At least I do). Take out the sausage and slice it up. Add that sausage plus the sautéd ones and bacon and onions. Stir well.

– Strain the zakwas and add it into the soup and cook for about 3-5 minutes to break down any flour. Add the marjoram, horseradish and garlic and cook another 3-5 minutes on low. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

– Serve the soup with slices of hard boiled eggs. enjoy! You can also add a bit of sour cream.

-julia

I love soup. Polish people love soup, and I love that they do. Soup is easy to make, it lasts a long time, it feeds many and it fills you up. Plus this one has sauerkraut which is really good for you. So many reasons to make it and love it.

Kapusta is cabbage. The underrated vegetable that kept many Europeans from starving. Kapuśnaik is just a cute way of saying cabbage soup. I mean what is not to love! I always put a lot of garlic into my soups, feel free to add less or more. I also used Italian sausage I have to admit! I was trying to avoid saying it but I just like the flavors better for this soup, traditionally it is made with kielbasa. Don’t get me wrong, kielbasa has my heart forever just not in this soup. We’ll save that for bigos (Polish hunters stew). In the meantime this is much easier and very satisfying.

Kapuśniak

2 tbsp neutral oil (like grapeseed or sunflower)

half of an onion, diced small

4-6 garlic cloves, minced

2 small carrots, peeled and diced

2 celery sticks, diced

1 tsp ground fennel seeds

1 tsp dried marjoram

2 tsp salt, more to taste if needed

1 tsp pepper, more to taste if needed

4 small yellow potatoes, diced

1 cup thinly chopped cabbage

8 cups vegetable broth

1 cup sauerkraut, roughly chopped

3 Italian sausage, diced into pieces

parsley for serving

– Heat the oil in a large saucepan on a medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until it is soft. Add the carrots, celery, dried herbs, salt and pepper. Sauté about 3-5 minutes. Add the broth and the cabbage and potatoes.

– Bring the soup to a boil and then lower the temperature to a simmer for about 10 minutes.

– Add the sauerkraut and the sausages and cook for another 20- 30 minutes until the potatoes and sausages are cooked all the way through. Season with more salt and pepper if needed. serve with chopped parsley.

Enjoy!

Some people love fall. I get it. It’s not my favorite I will admit. The transition just doesn’t do me well, it hits me out of nowhere and I get a bit depressed. But I do what I can and cook and bake and start to be a babushka again.

This recipe is actually really easy and so tasty, it will impress if you think your not a good cook. It’s also mushroom season right now so feel free to use some different types if you can get your hands on them!

Beef Stroganoff

2 lbs beef sirloin, lean, cut into thin slices

1 tbsp unsalted butter

2 cups sliced mushrooms, baby bella will do just fine or some sort of button type

2 small onions, cut into thin half moon shapes

2 cups of beef broth, sometimes I use mushroom which is also good

4 tbsp all purpose flour

1/3 cup sour cream

salt and pepper to taste

1/3 cup chopped parsley for serving

12 oz of egg noodles

– In a wide saucepan add the butter to melt and sauté the beef for about 5 minutes on each side until it is half browned on both sides. Remove from the pan and set aside for a moment.

– In the same pan add the onions and the mushrooms until soft. Add the beef back in and season with salt and pepper. add the broth and the flour and mix everything very well.

– Let the sauce boil and then bring it to a simmer with a lid on for 20 minutes. Take the lid off and simmer for another 10 minutes.

– Meanwhile cook your noodles.

– Once the sauce has thickened adjust the seasoning if needed and mix in the sour cream. We like to add a lot of black pepper! Serve with noodles and parsley on top.

Enjoy xoxoxo

Barszcz is borscht.  And borscht is борщ.  And probably some other names.  We are going with barszcz here.   You got me?

Now the history of barszcz is deep and complex.  And that is how it should taste, even if it’s simple.  I’m sure someone will write a book about it’s interesting evolution and history, and I will read it.  If there is a book out there, correct me please!  Apparently first made with fermented hogweed (a common plant) in Poland, it eventually was just sour things.  But basically the beet was not introduced to this so called barszcz for a long time.  There are still others types of barszcz, most commonly in Poland is white with a fermented rye starter and white sausage.  I have also heard of green barszcz and each country and region has slightly differently additions.

I have been thinking about making barszcz all winter.  I have an awesome cold barszcz recipe here.  The kind I made below is a winter soup to me, it’s rich and hearty.  Polish barszcz is a clear broth most of the time, but I like having some more substance, something like the Ukrainian’s do but still simple.

Mine starts with a zakwas.  Which is kvass, which is also квас.  Zakwas is a fermented juice/liquid.  It can be also made with bread, which usually you make white barszcz from.  I also added bread to my beet kwas to help it ferment.  Here is how I made mine.

Zakwas

a couple of fresh small beets, skin on

1 tbsp sea salt

2 cups of filtered warm water

a couple of garlic cloves

stale naturally leavened bread – rye is best (optional)

1 liter jar with a lid

– make sure your jar is cleaned really well!

– chop off the ends of the beets.  wash them really well with a scrubber.  chop them into small pieces, leaving the skin on.

– mix 1 tbsp of sea salt with the water until evaporated.  place the beets in the jar, pour the water on top.  crush your garlic cloves and place in the jar.  cover it and shake it around a bit to mix everything.  you want to make sure the beets are fully submerged.  remove the lid and add more water if needed.  place the stale bread on top, also making sure it is covered with water.  if you don’t have bread that is ok, it might just take longer to get fermented.

– let the beets sit 1-2 weeks.  if your lid is very tight, open it once a day to release pressure and check for mold.  the jar I used is pretty loose so I don’t do it every day, maybe every other.  if there is mold best to not risk it so throw it out.

(also you can just drink this for health!)

Meaty Beety Barszcz

1 lb beef short ribs

1 onion

3 bay leaves

5-8 peppercorns

1 carrot, ends cut off and skin peeled

4 medium beets

5 small waxy yellow potatoes

4 garlic cloves, crushed and minced

1 tbsp oil

2 cups beet zakwas

juice of half a lemon

herbs for garnish, like dill, parsley or cilantro

– place the short ribs in a large pot. cut the onion in half and place half of it in the pot along with the carrot, peppercorns and bay leaves. cover everything with 4 cups of water, a little more if not covered all the way. bring to a boil and then simmer on low heat covered for an hour.

– meanwhile peel the beets and chop them into match stick size pieces. dice the potatoes into big chunks and set aside (you can do skin on of off, I don’t mind it on).

– cut the other half of the onion into thin half moons. heat the oil in a skillet on medium heat. cook the onions on medium low, slowly until they start to turn soft and lightly brown, then add the garlic. cook about 8-10 more minutes. set aside.

– once the meat has cooked for an hour and softened, remove the carrot and onion. either strain the broth and place the liquid and meat back in or try and pick out the peppercorns and bay leafs with tongs and a spoon. add the beets and potatoes and simmer covered for another 30-45 minutes until the beets and potatoes have cooked.

– add the onions. add the beet zakwas and lemon juice and stir well. you can take out the meat to serve and chop the more meaty parts into small pieces, it’s quite fatty usually and hard to leave in the soup whole.

Enjoy!!

The thing about New York, and maybe this is similar in other big cities, is that it is always changing.  You have your favorite place you go to, and then you go back a couple years later and see that either that place has changed to keep up with the times (sometimes in a good way and sometimes not) or it is gone for good.  So in that way it’s hard to make guides sometimes, but here is to hoping these places make it in the big apple for a while!

I recently went back for a weekend and did a lot of wandering around Brooklyn, because I tried to not go into Manhattan unless I really had to.  So here is a tip for traveling, if you go to New York spend some time in Brooklyn.  Honestly, if you booked a trip only in Brooklyn I bet you would have an awesome time.  You can go along the waterfront and take the ferry and look at Manhattan from a distance. There are so many different neighborhoods and awesome parks, museums and the best food these days seems to be happening in Brooklyn.  Sure, Manhattan will always be cool, but Brooklyn is like super cool now and it’s worth spending more than a day there.

These are places I actually would go to, and I don’t go out a lot because I am a babushka.  Some were neighborhood spots and some were more places my friends would go.  I am not sure you need to plan a whole trip around these places, but if you find yourself in these neighborhoods check them out!

EAST WILLIAMSBURG

(This has become a very hip place to live lately but if you look past the ramen and juice shop and the tattoo parlor that used to be a gravestone shop you will find an old Italian neighborhood where people still walk around talking to each other in Italian and grow tomatoes and basil in there tiny yard and walk to church at 7am with rosary in hand ❤️. Things you’ll only see living there.  I lived here for a bit and I really miss it.)

Emily’s Pork Store

This place is the best.  It has all your Italian staples.  Jerry is such a nice guy, works hard and makes amazing food.  They have real cheese and meat, they have pictures on the wall of all the people who love this place, some famous! They have awesome rice balls, or aracini.  For sure get the dried sausage, that is what he is holding up in the picture, it is my favorite thing there, spicy and sweet are both delicious.  Also, if you are hungry and just want a sandwich they make awesome roast pork sandwiches with mozzarella and sweet peppers.  Gevork has one of those shirts hanging up there and was wearing it in Chicago and got stopped by a man who used to live nearby and also loved this place.  It is that good!

The Blue Stove

This place is pretty popular.  Other bakeries have tried to open in this neighborhood but this one always does the best.  They keep it simple.  Pies, biscuits, quiches, scones, cookies.  I think it has become a bit pricey but sometimes you can treat yourself.  Also, it feels like grandma’s kitchen, and you know I love that.

Beco

I have a soft spot for really small restaurants.  This is one.  They serve Brazilian food.  Just simple, good stuff.  It’s great in the summer when you can sit outside but also great in the winter huddled inside at a big table.

GREENPOINT

(This is the Polish neighborhood of Brooklyn that is slowly being taken over by hipster families.  My favorite hole in the wall Polish restaurant shut down and I kind-of stopped exploring.  But there is one I really like that is super cool)

Polkadot

This is kind-of like a updated deli, not intimidating at all, it’s appealing to those who maybe don’t know Polish food as well.  Meats, pickles, soups, blintzes.  They make everything really well and it’s very fresh.

PARK SLOPE

(This was the first area I lived and worked, I worked at a restaurant called Miriam, it’s pretty good but I’m not putting it on my list because I haven’t been there since I stopped working there like 5 years ago.  This is a yuppy neighborhood.  But some good classic food spots.)

Brooklyn Larder

They just make really good stuff, and sell really good stuff, it’s like a little taste of what Brooklyn’s about.  Get the tune egg anchovy sandwich, deliciously salty 🙂

Blue Sky Bakery

Oh the days when I used not wake up or have the right groceries to make breakfast and instead would get a muffin and a coffee here. Solid, interesting muffins, they sell them other places too but here is the original. Cute vibe inside, it feels like someone’s beach house. Newspapers being read, books in case you don’t have one, people chatting. It’s been a while since I’ve gone here regularly but I’m guessing it’s the same.

BED STUY

(I really like Bed Stuy, it’s really the epitome of gentrification but it has really pretty brownstones and it’s far enough from Manhattan that those people don’t make it out.)

Saraghina

This place is so hipster, it’s hasn’t been here forever but long enough. It’s so good though. Sit outside in the summer in the back and get pizza, it’s the real deal. Also it’s called Saraghina. Fellini anyone?

So there is my short list. I wish it was longer, but these are all solid places. Enjoy!!