Some of the measurements in these recipes – oh, especially in Grammy’s recipes – are inexact. It’s customary for “real” cookbook writers to pre-test recipes and come up with exact quantities and ingredients, but these are home recipes made by our family for decades, and they work just fine even if the recipe calls for “a cup of chocolate paste.” We have tried to standardize … Continue reading ingredients and measurements
Maggi is a yeast extract originally made in Switzerland; the Nestlé version manufactured for U.S. consumers is kind of like a bland soy sauce. But the European version is totally different: yeasty, mushroomy, truffly, dense, meaty, salty, it’s the liquid incarnation of umami. We could not make our Polish-Lithuanian dishes without it. We are fortunate enough to have stores nearby that carry imported groceries where … Continue reading our go-to ingredient, Maggi
Family legend says that our paternal grandmother – “Mamcik,” which means “mother” in Polish – made her beef stock by boiling a full sirloin roast until it liquefied. We don’t go quite that far; despite legend, making soup stock isn’t complicated. You need: Roasted bones add a depth and richness to stock that you can’t get if you toss in, say, a bunch of raw … Continue reading making soup stock
Around Our Table 