Polish potato dishes that saved housewives in difficult war times

Potatoes are the most popular product not only on our table, but also in Polish cuisine. This nutritious vegetable saved us even in times of famine. And the book.
Bolesławy Kavetskaya-Starmach’s One Hundred Potato Dishes, published in 1940, proves this. It describes delicious potato dishes. There are lunches, dinners and even desserts.



Today's edition. "Site" He tells you what this book was about, and he shares a couple of recipes from it.

In Krakow during the Second World War, the General Guardianship Council published a series of manuals on economical farming. It was called “Take Care of Yourself” and contained many tips on how to farm. From how to make home glue to how to heat the house. To summarize, the book told how to live a normal life during the war.

Most of the books in the series were devoted to food: growing, storing and cooking. In this series there were books by Zofia Peh “Dishes from Vegetables”. Including one-course lunches, salting and canning vegetables" and "60 kale dishes," which were all about cooking vegetables. However, the greatest variety of dishes is from potatoes. Therefore, the book by Boleslaw Kavetskaya-Starmakh “One hundred dishes from potatoes” was popular.



"One Hundred Potato Meals" This book began with a brief account of potatoes. It was also briefly described about its storage. And, of course, the most interesting is the recipes. They were divided into categories: soups, salads, meat dishes, vegetarian dishes, sauces, desserts. Many of the dishes are well known in our kitchen: dumplings with potatoes, mashed potato soup and, of course, potato pancakes or dranics.



There were some strange recipes in the book. For example, potato sauce with caramel, lemon juice and tomatoes looks intriguing, but somehow too exotic. Many recipes use roasting - flour fried in butter. Now it is used only for the preparation of traditional dishes. However, it is a cheap and satisfying thing. During the war, these ingredients were indispensable.

In those days, the most important thing was to twist and prepare edible food from available products. And this is exactly what the author suggests. For example, use leftover meat from yesterday's dinner or pruning ham. For each recipe, there is an even more simplified version. There are some alternatives for almost every ingredient. Their list is not too large, the dishes seem similar. But that is the value of this book. The author came up with an incredible number of recipes based on a limited set of products.



We offer you two simple recipes from the book, which can be prepared now. For a modest budget, this is the case! We also need to learn to live a normal life in war.

The first recipe I would like to share is potato salad. A very simple recipe that will definitely remain in your cookbook.

The ingredients

• 1 kg boiled potatoes
• 5 tbsp boiled vegetables
• 2 tbsp green peas
• 2 boiled eggs
• mayonnaise

Preparation

1. The salad preparation is obvious. You need to boil all the ingredients, cut them in cubes and mix. As boiled vegetables suitable carrots or cauliflower. Also in the book, it was proposed to make a salad with homemade mayonnaise.

There was a classic recipe with butter and also an alternative without it. How do you make it? It is necessary to roast 1 tsp. flour per 1 tbsp. l. butter. Add cold water to the pan. When the mixture cools, add 1 tsp. mustard, 1-2 raw yolks, lemon juice, sugar and salt to taste. Then mix thoroughly.





Stuffed potatoes Ingredients

• 10 potatoes
• 250ml cream
• parsley

Filling ingredients

• potato-pulp
• 3 fillets of herring
• 2 eggs
• 1 bulb
• 2 tbsp cream
• tasteful

Preparation

1. Boil the potatoes in uniform. Cut each potato in half and take out the flesh with a spoon, making boats.
2. Herring fillets, potato pulp and shredded onions. Add raw eggs, cream and spices. Instead of cream, you can take milk or butter, which is available. Grind the parsley and add it to the filling.
3. Fill the potatoes with stuffing. Put it in the form, pour cream and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Serve the dish hot with chopped parsley.

We don’t get too good at making potatoes. However, a collection of old recipes like this book can inspire us to experiment and try unusual delicious potato dishes. After all, we see that a whole hundred dishes can be prepared from an ordinary ingredient. Good luck with the cooking!