Christmas Eve in Poland means fish flavors.Even if it’s just herring and carp, there must be fish. Herring, the basic fish of Hamburg and North German street food (Fischbrötchen, the classic fish-in-a-bun), is a people’s fish — staple food for fishermen and villagers along the Baltic and North Sea coasts for centuries. In plant-based cooking, … Read more
Once very popular in traditional folk cooking, today these ingredients are truly underappreciated and underused. Various grains, seeds, and nuts — from sunflower seeds to hemp (with their phenomenal protein content), pumpkin seeds, and walnuts. On the one hand, they no longer play the role they once did, when even a hundred years ago, nuts and seeds … Read more
Stuffed vegetables are my personal comfort food — not just for the taste itself, but for the memories they bring back of the best thing from my INGREDIENTS 50 g TVP (soy protein granules)Marinade for the TVP: 2 tbsp soy sauce 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce 1 tbsp Crema di Balsamico Filling: 100 g millet … Read more
What’s the worst thing about vacations? Especially when you live alone. In the middle of the forest. The contents of the fridge when you get back. It’s a good idea to get rid of everything in the fridge before you leave, so you don’t get greeted by a newly evolved civilization when you return. And when you come … Read more
Hail Seitan (Not to be confused with Satan. I had to — the phonetic similarity still cracks me up. Though honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone out there took it seriously and saw in seitan a satanic conspiracy.) Ingredients: 200 g seitan powder 50 g hemp flour 50 g sun-dried tomatoes in oil 50 g oil from sun-dried … Read more
Gryfny Shalad for Advent. That’s about the extent of my Silesian, which is barely better than my German. These languages are very much relevant here because *Hekele* is a Silesian Advent salad, sometimes also served on Christmas Eve. And Silesia is one of the most fascinating corners of Europe. Situated between Poland, the Czech Republic, … Read more
TVP: texture vegetable protein. Until recently, only TSP, or “textured soy protein,” was available on the market. These are all those products like dry soy cutlets (affectionately called “sawdust cutlets”), pieces, granules, steaks — large, rectangular cutlets with a fibrous texture. TSP products had their time, at least in Poland, in the 1990s, when they were pretty … Read more
Stuffed vegetables are my comfort food and a traditional folk Polish dish.Poland and Germany are countries with allotment gardens. Small plots of land, originally on the outskirts of cities and usually belonging to working-class families, were an important supplement to the diets of many households in Poland until the 1990s. INGREDIENTS:– 500 g cooked white … Read more
Food is an energy-intensive affair, whether it’s about industrial production and processing or home cooking. Of course, that also includes the intermediary stages, like institutional kitchen gastronomy. It’s worth examining our energy consumption in the kitchen and how we can reduce it. And it’s not just about the kitchen, as there’s already been a lot … Read more
One of a thousand dishes created from leftovers. The recipe, proportions, and ingredients should be seen as a starting point for a refrigerator review. The key elements are primarily protein and umami, two components whose absence in dishes is the main reason for saying ‘I won’t eat without meat.’ If I had a dollar for … Read more
