Polish

Sauerkraut gets a smoky taste from bacon and sausage in a recipe from Orbit, a Polish restaurant in Chicago.

This soup is from Russia and Poland.

A quintessential Polish comfort food, pierogies can be stuffed with potatoes, cheese, sauerkraut, or wild mushrooms. Here, dried porcini are combined with cremini mushrooms, adding a woodsy depth to the filling. Served with golden sautéed onions and sour cream, these dumplings make a delicious main dish.

Gefilte fish is one of those recipes where touch and taste are essential ingredients. A basic recipe goes this way:"You put in this and add that." If you don't want to taste the raw fish, add a bit more seasoning than you normally would. What makes this recipe Galicianer (southern Polish) is the addition of sugar. For some reason the farther south in Poland, the more sugar would be added. A Lithuanian Jew would never sweeten with sugar but might add beets to the stock. I have added ground carrot and parsnip to the fish, something that is done in the Ukraine, because I like the slightly sweet taste and rougher texture. If you want a darker broth, do not peel the onions and leave them whole.

This psychedelic purple sauce has all the earthiness and tang of sour-cream-topped borscht.

This Polish hunter’s stew features kielbasa, smoky bacon, melty cabbage, and lots of delicious broth that can be sopped up with bread.

To make this vegetarian, omit bacon and add 4 Tbsp. olive oil for browning mushrooms. 

These sweet pierogies help balance out the savory fillings from Kielbasa, Sauerkrat, and Potato Pierogies, Beef, Onion, and Cheddar Pierogies, and Bacon, Mushroom, and Spinach Pierogies, making them perfect for any pierogi party.

Why choose between boiled or fried? The key to these pierogies is doing both.