Is it possible to host a vegan Christmas Eve? Absolutely — and it can be fully in line with Polish holiday tradition. Much more so than the Western-inspired habit of serving roasted poultry for Christmas Eve dinner. If we look deeper into history — and also deeper into society — we see a culinary reality that is very different from what … Read more
The Easter Menu is part of my project “The Ritual Year,” dedicated to food and culinary customs connected to the traditional ceremonial yearly cycle. Designing a Christmas Eve menu has been great fun for me for years. Christmas Eve is a fasting meal, and a properly strict one, at least in the most orthodox version—meaning … Read more
I already mentioned in the recipe for a meatless miso soup that it is a similar culinary tradition to Polish sourdough żurek. The base for Polish sourdough is wheat or other grains, while miso uses soybeans with the addition of grains, usually rice. However, in both cases, we use the same process: one of the … Read more
What connects Poland and Korea? Fermented foods. Fermented cabbage, to be exact. Fermented cabbage that saved the lives of our peasant ancestors. Fasting soups made with fermented vegetables like sauerkraut and sour rye soup were a staple of the Polish peasant diet. Miso and kimchi are Asian fermented foods similar to sauerkraut and sour rye … Read more
