Thursday, March 3, 2011

Oponki

First, I apologize for disappearing for two months: I've been awfully busy and sometimes sick,not to mention that I hate winter and if choosing would hibernate till mids of march. Now I'm back with some sweets, because in my opinion this is what we do the best: sweet, greasy, deadly good baking:)

Second, before I start explaining why the rest of the world celebrates Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday and we celebrate Tłusty Czwartek, Fat Thursday let me show you this amazing cookbook of my gradma's. I never saw her cooking from it, so I never had a chance to take a peek inside and when I finally did (recently) I was amazed by the fotos. It's a book from the sixties and contains some awfully Technicolor-ish funny arranged photos - I wanted to show you some, but my photo cannot transmit the original coloring. It also has some black and white shots that are at least weird:


There's something about the way they were taken, or the contrast, or merely their weird subjects (i.e. how to arrange plums in a cake; how to put a jelly in a glass to make it look good; shots of 60's kitchen appliances) that captured my attention and I became a bit obsessed by them; finally I decided to make some kitchen decoration with them. I'll show you when they're finished.



There's also a lot of characteristic "socialist" design that no book would be complete without:


Well, enough about my design obsessions and back to cooking.


The Carnival ends next Wednesday so today a Fat Week is starting: the last occasion to party before lent, which is, by the way, still important to most of the people, in a very weird way ( like, they pretend not to eat meat and do not listen to dance music... and, of course, go to church), but still. To celebrate it, we eat pączki (recipe follows in next post), oponki, faworki (recipe next Tuesday)- all kinds of deep fried pastry. Why is it deep fried? To go well with lots of alcohol, of course:) Today's recipe, oponki - meaning little tires - are curd cheese-based tire-shaped sweets decorated with icing sugar. I wanted to make those this year because they were the only thing I learned how to cook in school; I was twelve when I made them las time and remembered only that I liked them and the dough had no eggs in it. Since I really wanted to try frying something tofu based, I went with these. A total success except for one thing: I forgot how tall the rolled dough should be and they went out kind of flat. Flat tires, it is. But don't worry, now that I figured what size they should be I'll include it in my recipe:)

3 cups flour
200 g natural firm tofu, as fresh as possible
1 cup sugar
8 tablespoons oil
8 tablespoons soymilk (I used vanilla) + 3/4 tablespons to add if dry
2 teaspoons baking powder

oil for deep frying
icing sugar to decorate


Crumble your tofu into a big bowl, add soymilk and oil and blend until smooth and creamy. Add the rest of ingredients and begin kneading until it forms a ball (you might need some more milk but do not add more fat, ever). Roll the dough in two batches - it should be 1,5-2 cm thick. with a big cup start cutting out circles and then, with a much smaller one (in Poland we always use vodka shot glasses for it, but since you might not have them use something in similar size) cut out a small circle inside, creating a tire. Repeat until you run out of dough; you may make something with the rests, for example, my sister made very natural looking dough rats:)

Now frying: traditionally in a deep pan full of oil, which is what I consider dangerous and also it might result with very greasy pastry due to temperature. I used a deep-fryer, the kind you make french fries in and they went out perfect. Anyway, the temperature should be about 180C (350F), you rinse them for two minutes and take out. This is how they're supposed to look right after frying (remember that mine are flatter than they should be):



Let them rest in a big patch of paper towels to drain out the fat. Properly done, they should be delicious and not soaked in oil (yet still greasy, I'm sorry). When they cool down a bit decorate with icing sugar and serve slightly warm. They are not resistant and not even half as delicious the day after, so make sure you have some guest the day you fry them:) This recipe makes about 20 oponki.

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Tomorrow something for people who don't like fried stuff: baked Polish doughnuts:)

A special message for Ryan: I WILL make faworki (chruściki) next Tuesday because 1) this is the day to eat them 2) My stomach won't stand so many fried sweets and I already ate a lot of oponki yesterday and today, so I need a few days to rest:)

17 comments:

Ryan said...

Excellent! Looking forward to trying these (and, of course, for your next post... :) ).

Anonymous said...

Love iT because I love Polish food +I love a vegan. And like you, I don't find it very difficut to adapt Polish recipes for veganism. Unlike you i love sour cream in soups and find Apro soya cream perfect for this. Uuuum ogorkowa z smietana.

flamencokitty said...

Where's the paczki recipe? I cannot figure out how to veganize those things. Too many eggs. Hope you post it soon! These look so good too. Simple ingredients!

skoraq cooks said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
skoraq cooks said...

oponki są mniam mniam :-)

Anonymous said...

Hi. i just googeled poland + vegan and found your place.
Im a vegan from sweden travelling around.
Right now i am in poland. Do you have any tips about some vegan foods here?
Maybe something you can buy in the supermarket or any vegan restaurants in krakow or warzaw?

// Tomas

Lucyna Wegankiewiczowa said...

Hi Tomas! I don't really know any vegan places in there, but I know who will: for Warsaw write to the owner of this blog http://wiecejyofu.blox.pl/html (spaceage(at)gazeta.pl) and as for Kraków I heard this place (MOMO) is great: http://maps.google.pl/maps/place?um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=wega%C5%84ski+krak%C3%B3w&fb=1&gl=pl&hq=wega%C5%84ski&hnear=0x471644c0354e18d1:0xb46bb6b576478abf,Krak%C3%B3w&cid=15768632135676113727

This place is ok too, I remember being there few years ago: http://www.pora.pl/venue/glonojad-bar-wegetarianski

I hope you find more information:)

matt said...

hey

i'm a vegan coming to poland in a few weeks, and i'm trying to get some info on vegan food - bread, beer, and so on...any chance you could help with some info, or point me to some other sites?
m.j.wilson AT lboro.ac.uk thanks in advance...

Anonymous said...

Azzahar, I have been checking this blog frequently for the past 6 months in desperate anticipation of you publishing your baked Polish Donuts recipe! Please break the silence!

jennyfurlynn said...

baked paczki you say? YES PLEASE!

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad I found this blog!
My Grandpa is Polish and does not understand my veganism, and I've been looking for some recipes to cook for him, and this blog is perfect!
Keep them coming :)

Unknown said...

Hi there, would you be so kind and tell us the title of your lovely book? I have the German equivalent (Grete Wilinsky´s "Kochbuch der Büchergilde"), learned a lot from it and as I´m now diving into the Polish cuisine, this looks like a good place to start. Cheers from Vienna!

Anna said...

I know it has been years since you posted this, but I would love to read more of your recipes. My grandparents were Polish and I am vegetarian. I love learning about the foods they grew up on as a way to connect with that part of my family.

Cheers.

knitblitz said...

I am so stoked I found this blog!

Unknown said...

I love the idea of your blog! Pozdrowienia z Polski ;)
stellamoss.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

I know I'm years late to the party, but wondering if you every made the vegan chruściki on Tuesday? Searching for a vegan recipe to make them for my family! Thanks in advance!!

Naomi said...

I have the same question as Unknown...vegan chruściki. My husband's great grandmother's recipe has 10 yolks, 4 eggs, butter, etc....a lot of non-vegan ingredients. If you have a vegan version, I'd love to see it. Thanks!