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Paczki.....
Little-known fact about me #28: I'm Polish on my mom's side.
In the local supermarket was a display of foods for Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday/Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, when Lent begins. There were king cakes, other foods whose name I forgot, foods that looked like oversized cookies, and paczki. (The "a" has a little hook underneath it.) They looked like oversized jelly donuts, and so I took a 4-pack home with me.
I didn't celebrate any of my mother's family traditions while I was growing up. I remember her mentioning some of the foods, like pierogis and fastnacht kuchels (or however it's spelled), but none of the Polish traditions were carried on in my family. So we didn't eat paczki -- or any special food -- on Fat Tuesday. It was just another day.
On the side of the box is a short explanation of the Paczki tradition by Herbert A. Holinko, receipient of Poland's highest civilian award, the Cavalier's Cross: "For hundreds of years in my beloved Poland, my country men have been celebrating the arrival of Lent by making Paczki (Punch-key). These delicious, jelly filled dough balls are made from the finest ingredients and are covered with several types of sugar or glaze. For Fat Tuesday (Ostatki), the day before Ash Wednesday, our bakers make paczki because we are going to fast for 40 days and we want to use up the ingredients in our housholds. Our German neighbors to the west call them Berliners and our Austrian friends to the south celebrate with the Krapfen. Please join me, a Polish-American leader, and your baker in re-living this old Polish custom tradition by enjoying the best paczki."
OK, you can stop thinking about JFK's "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech now. :-)
The Wikipedia has a short article on paczki here.
So over 4 successive days, I had one for breakfast . They have more body (and filling) than a traditional yeast-fill doughnut with icing. But they're not that much different from the standard US/Canadian donut that you'd find at Dunkin's, Tim Horton's, Krispie Kreme, and other local/regional chains.
By the time the last one was eaten, it had dried out so much that it could only be resuscitated by dunking it into coffee.
If I get these next year, I'm splitting the box with someone. Any takers?
In the local supermarket was a display of foods for Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday/Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, when Lent begins. There were king cakes, other foods whose name I forgot, foods that looked like oversized cookies, and paczki. (The "a" has a little hook underneath it.) They looked like oversized jelly donuts, and so I took a 4-pack home with me.
I didn't celebrate any of my mother's family traditions while I was growing up. I remember her mentioning some of the foods, like pierogis and fastnacht kuchels (or however it's spelled), but none of the Polish traditions were carried on in my family. So we didn't eat paczki -- or any special food -- on Fat Tuesday. It was just another day.
On the side of the box is a short explanation of the Paczki tradition by Herbert A. Holinko, receipient of Poland's highest civilian award, the Cavalier's Cross: "For hundreds of years in my beloved Poland, my country men have been celebrating the arrival of Lent by making Paczki (Punch-key). These delicious, jelly filled dough balls are made from the finest ingredients and are covered with several types of sugar or glaze. For Fat Tuesday (Ostatki), the day before Ash Wednesday, our bakers make paczki because we are going to fast for 40 days and we want to use up the ingredients in our housholds. Our German neighbors to the west call them Berliners and our Austrian friends to the south celebrate with the Krapfen. Please join me, a Polish-American leader, and your baker in re-living this old Polish custom tradition by enjoying the best paczki."
OK, you can stop thinking about JFK's "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech now. :-)
The Wikipedia has a short article on paczki here.
So over 4 successive days, I had one for breakfast . They have more body (and filling) than a traditional yeast-fill doughnut with icing. But they're not that much different from the standard US/Canadian donut that you'd find at Dunkin's, Tim Horton's, Krispie Kreme, and other local/regional chains.
By the time the last one was eaten, it had dried out so much that it could only be resuscitated by dunking it into coffee.
If I get these next year, I'm splitting the box with someone. Any takers?
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P.S. I would love to help with that pack as well. *wink* Those sound delicious!
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One of the Polish foods we had at home was kielbasa and sauerkraut. Why my mom cooked them in a pressure cooker and not in a frypan is beyond me. Both were already cooked; just heat and serve.
P.S. Ask
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Maybe she cooked them in the pressure cooker to infuse the kielbasa with the sauerkraut flavor? It always tastes better that way.
P.S. I shall ask her!
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Maybe she cooked them in the pressure cooker to infuse the kielbasa with the sauerkraut flavor? It always tastes better that way.
Y'know, that makes sense, and that's probably why she did it that way. I've been leery of using pressure cookers myself, especially since they have a tendency to go kablooey if it's not sealed properly. And we went through gaskets like crazy.
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My sister found a recipe for the cookies in a Martha Stewart magazine and they were called bow-tie cookies. You cut the dough into strips, pull the ends through a slit in the middle and then you deep fry them and dip them into powdered sugar. They are wonderful.
Sometimes I miss my mom's stuffed cabbage so much I can hardly stand it. I've only once had some that came close to what she used to make and that was at a Polish restaurant in Montreal.
Paczki!
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Re: Paczki!
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Who would have thunk it? Bavarian Cream inners and 4 in the pack. Yum! One for me, one for hubby and one for the two kidlets still at home.
BTW there is a Polish presence on the north side of Dayton. The Polish Club is just off of Needmore Road. :-)