Yummy
In my family home, on Grapa in Konstancin, on the first floor of a socialist block on Dwudziestolecia PRL, Mom was preparing Christmas Eve dinner. There was no point in going near the kitchen, because Mom wouldn't let any of her three boys, that is, Dad, my brother and me, help her with anything that day. And even if one of us managed to sneak into the tiny kitchen, before he could grab a treat, he would probably hear that it was for the holidays.
Dad's job was to do the shopping, discreetly execute the carp, and install the Christmas tree, which my brother and I later decorated with handmade chains made of colored paper, cotton wool simulating snow, and baubles.
My mother's, Kujawianka, Christmas Eve dinner consisted of a compote of dried fruit with an intense flavor of plums, pears and apples, herrings soaked in milk in oil, cut into square pieces with onion in small cubes, red borscht with dumplings with forest mushrooms, vegetable salad with finely diced carrots, celery, parsley, potatoes, apples, cucumber, peas and eggs with homemade mayonnaise, cabbage with mushrooms, carp fried in flour breading, snow-white fish in aspic decorated with carrots, eggs and parsley, fish in carrots, parsley, celery, onion and tomatoes, today called Greek fish, and after the presents poppy seed cake, cheesecake and apple pie.
The flavors of my mother's dishes are and will remain unmatched, unmistakable, and unreproducible. And that's why I constantly try to experiment with dishes without which I couldn't imagine Christmas Eve.
The inspiration for the stuffed fish was the Christmas video blog of Magda Gessler, my culinary guru. I bought two, 1.5-kilogram carps and two kilograms of carp leftovers from filleting. I filleted the carps. I put chopped vegetables in a large pot: a large celery, four large parsley roots, four large carrots, a large leek and the leftovers from the carps. I didn't salt them. I only added bay leaf, pepper and cumin. I boiled the broth for three hours. Then I strained it through a sieve, added salt and lightly beaten egg whites from five eggs, mixed well. I boiled it for a while until the egg whites coagulated, collecting all the scum. Then I strained the broth through cheesecloth and added gelatin. I ground the carp fillets in a grinder. I added ingredients whose mass was roughly equal to the mass of the meat: breadcrumbs soaked in milk, onions fried in oil, fresh onions cut into cubes, a heaping spoonful of potato flour and the yolks of five eggs. I salted and peppered them well. Then I added a handful of soaked white raisins, a handful of blanched almonds and a handful of boiled dried apricots – all finely chopped. I mixed all the ingredients well and then formed two thick rolls in a wet cloth, which I boiled in a wrapped cloth for an hour with celery, leek, carrots, parsley, bay leaves, salt and pepper. After cooling, I cut them into thick slices, placed them on a platter, decorated them with an egg, carrots, parsley and poured the cooled broth over them.
Greek-style fish was also inspired by Magda Gessler's holiday video blog. I cut two kilograms of cod fillet into not too large pieces, salted, peppered and rolled in potato flour, then deep-fried in oil, which I had previously flavored first with two halved heads of garlic, which should be removed as soon as they change color so that they do not become bitter, and then with two onions cut into quarters. In olive oil, I fried in batches without adding any seasonings the chopped vegetables: five large carrots, a large celery, five large parsley roots. I grilled 10 red peppers, two zucchinis, two aubergines and five tomatoes. I took only the pulp from the aubergine, and removed the charred skin from the peppers and tomatoes. I mixed all the vegetables with two tomato passatas and a few cans of tomatoes. I added olive oil, salt and pepper. Then I layered the fish and vegetables in ovenproof dishes and baked at 170 degrees for an hour.
My Apfelstrudel was inspired by an Austrian website with Viennese recipes. I kneaded the dough well, consisting of flour, two eggs, oil, sugar, water and a pinch of salt – proportions by eye. I left the dough in the fridge for a day. I rolled the dough out into a thin layer on a cloth sprinkled with flour. I cut the peeled apples into pieces, added cinnamon, breadcrumbs, white and black raisins and mixed well, then threw them on the dough, which I had first spread with butter. I spread the apples in an even layer, then wrapped them into a thick roll using a cloth. I spread the roll with butter and baked it for an hour in an oven preheated to 180 degrees.
I admit that for most of my life I watched our mothers, grandmothers and mothers-in-law prepare holiday meals for hours with admiration and compassion. Today, when I started cooking myself, I see it differently. It gives me great joy. And the more labor-intensive the recipe, the greater the joy. And there is probably no more beautiful way to declare love to your loved ones. With a piece of your heart on a plate.
