Michal Korkosz - Fresh from Poland: New Vegetarian Cooking from the Old Country

Fresh from Poland : New Vegetarian Cooking from the Old Country Text and photographs copyright 2020 by Micha Korkosz

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Korkosz, Micha, author.

Title: Fresh from Poland : new vegetarian cooking from the old country / Micha Korkosz, Saveur award winner.

Description: New York : The Experiment, 2020. | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019054739 (print) | LCCN 2019054740 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Cooking, Polish. | Vegetarian cooking. | LCGFT: Cookbooks.

Classification: LCC TX723.5.P6 K67 2020 (print) | LCC TX723.5.P6 (ebook) | DDC 641.59438--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019054739

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019054740

Ebook ISBN 978-1-61519-656-2

Cover and text design by Beth Bugler
Author photographs by Katarzyna Pruszkiewicz

To the most important women in my life,
my mother and grandmother, who taught me
the greatest joy of cooking

Breakfast
niadanie

Breads and Baked Goods
Chleb i wypieki

Soups
Zupy

Main Dishes
Dania gwne

Side Dishes
Saatki, surwki i inne dodatki

Pierogi and Dumplings
Pierogi i inne kluski

Desserts
Desery

Preserves, Jams, and Pickles
Konfitury, demy i kiszonki

T his story begins with my childish greed. Growing up, I was a fat child who ate everything in sight. Every summer, I would stay with my brother at my grandmother Zosias house. She, the truest example of a Polish grandmother, derived joy from feeding me constantly. In the morning, when we were still sleeping sweetly under thick eiderdown, she would go to the bakery for fresh buns and bread, and then to the farmers market for the sweetest tomatoes and farm eggs, which she would cook for breakfast with generous amounts of butter, chopped vegetables, and chives. When I woke up, I would spin around her dress, curiously looking at the kitchen stove. She would serve the scrambled eggs in one pan for my brother and me, dividing it in half with a wooden spoon. We would eat, and she would smile at the joy her food would bring us.

My mother also played a fundamental role in shaping my personality and my love of food. Though shes not known for her cooking (shes not a bad cook, thoughshe makes a few spectacular recipes!), she is the truest gourmand and lover of good food that I know. As I grew up, she would watch mouth-watering culinary programs with me, and then lend me her books, which I read endlessly, choosing the recipes I wanted to try. Then she let meat nine years oldtry out these recipes, inevitably making a mess in the kitchen as my love of cooking developed. After every recipe I made, I would anxiously await her opinion, hoping she would find my dishes tasty. Most of the time, she liked them! The feeling of joy I experienced when she liked my food was exactly like that which I had seen before in my grandmas eyes.

This is how my passion for foodmy inner need to feed myself and otherswas born. I discovered that food can not only satisfy the body but also, above all, soothe the soul. This is why I started my blog Rozkoszny, a Polish word that means delightful. I felt the need to give an outlet to my ideas and make other people happy through my food. Rozkoszny refers to those magical moments of the human experience and the most pleasing sensations in the worldwhich, in this case, are the sensations of making food. The blog creates an environment where readers should first feel fuzzy inside, then suddenly develop an overwhelming appetite. My hope is that my recipes inspire people to run into the kitchen and re-create the delectable dishes to make their day more rozkoszny.

I was born in Poland and raised on the Polish cuisine of my mother and grandmother. As I learned to cook, I discovered other cuisinesItalian pasta, French desserts, and completely new-to-me Asian flavors. They are exciting, delicious, revealing, but over the years I have discovered that they do not have the one thing I sometimes miss: the nostalgia that can transport me back to the most wonderful, carefree moments of my life. Certain flavors and smells define comfort for me and bring me back to my childhood. Memory, for me, is the sixth taste, and recipes are a crucial part of our heritage.