Free Mushrooms, From Poland with Love

Over the last year, I've taken on more and more unique cuisine. Although most would not consider Polish, or pretty much any food from Eastern Europe, particularly if you live in western NY, to be particularly exotic or adventurous, they would be wrong.

Aspic for one, is a dish from a distant time and no modern palate, most especially white bread Americans, could handle the cold gelatin with it's bits of meat and fat and colorless vegetables immobilized until melted on the tongue. Or calf brain cutlets. A favorite of my Scottish Nana, she would have her daughter, my Grandma Betty, stew them in butter and then fry them in bread crumbs and eat them with strawberry jelly and minced pickles, just like the people of southern Poland. Or how about beef hearts braised in heavy cream and salty brown gravy stuffed with barley pearls? No? Too exotic? Too adventurous?

With all of this "adventuring" has come offers around the globe to taste and sample cultural gems. Pictured above are Boletus, Borowiki dried forest mushrooms from the primeval forests of Podlaskie. I received an email at the beginning of December, asking if I would like to try free mushrooms. Skeptical, I opened the website, and discovered the "Green Lungs" of Poland. This operation takes place in forests over 8,000 years old for only a few weeks a year. Harvests are done by hand, with families going out together and making a day of it.

I recieved this mailer right before Yule, below is the recipe I used them in.

Indyk z nadzieniem pieczarkowym or Roast turkey with mushrooms

Cook turkey gizzard, heart, and neck in 4 cups water along with 1 portion diced kale and several peppercorns and allspice grains 1 1/2 hours or until giblets are tender.

Soak 1/2 pound stale bread in 1 cup milk. When soggy, run through meat grinder with giblets, kale, and raw turkey liver. Grind only the skin and meat of neck, discarding bones. I used a stick blender since I didn't have a grinder.

In 3 tablespoons butter simmer 12 ounces fresh, chopped mushrooms and 2 chopped onions until tender. Combine with ground mixture, add 2 beaten egg yolks (or 2 tablespoons of sour cream), the leftover milk if any,

several tablespoons bread crumbs, 2 beaten egg whites (or 1 tablespoon more of sour cream) , 2 tablespoons each chopped fresh dill and parsley and salt & pepper to taste.




Fill turkey with dressing, pin or sew up closed, and roast in 400 degree fahrenheit oven, allowing 25 minutes cooking time per pound. Baste alternately with melted butter and a little water (about 1 cup) and later with the pan drippings.

During last 1/2 hour of roasting, add another 12 ounces or more chopped or thinly sliced fresh mushrooms

(I reconstituted the dried mushrooms for this part) to pan drippings and let them simmer.

Pour the pan drippings and mushrooms over the sliced turkey and dressing on a platter or thicken with a little flour and sour cream, simmer briefly, season to taste, and serve in gravy boat.

We had this for our New Year's dinner with a large salad with sweet peppers, minced cold leftover brussels sprouts, and pomegranate seeds. It was outstanding!

Eating well on the cheap

Lately I've been fielding a lot of questions. They often are followed by statements that I can't really be working poor because: my pictures are too nice, I go to fancy places to eat, I make fancy food, I have a whole bunch of websites (actually I only have two), I make dishes using organic ingredients, and so on and so on.

The thing is, I do all of those things because I'm smart about it and have figured out how to feed five people on about $700 a month. The USDA Food Plan works out to $1,215, nearly $500 more than what we're spending. These numbers are from 2009 and don't reflect the rise in food costs. 

I compared the cost of organic to conventional one month, writing down the cost every time I purchased something organic and I noted it's non-organic counterpart's cost and found only a $117.34 difference. I basically purchase the same food stuffs every month. I look for buy one, get one sales. Thursday's at Wegmans are when the Special of the Day prices get slapped on many of the organic meats and poultry, these are sometimes as much as 50% off. 

I sometimes pick up fruits and veggies that may not be organic but have labels that read that they were not grown using pesticides and such. Getting that USDA organic label is a very lengthy and expensive process and there are many farmers that farm with low or no chemical interventions but cannot afford to get the certification. This is where it's good to talk to your local growers, send them an email, call up corporate and ask questions. 

I buy organic if the fruit or veggie has an edible peel or is likely to absorb whatever is sprayed on it, for example, bananas are notorious for being yellow chem-bombs (something I've only discovered over the last two years). The following can be chem-bombs too; strawberries (actually any berries), lettuces (includes spinach), mangos, tomatoes, apples, blueberries, cherries, grapes, peaches, nectarines, plums, figs, celery, bell peppers, kale/collard greens,  carrots, and potatoes. 

Unless you can buy everything organic, focus mostly on foods with edible skins. Technically, pesticides can be absorbed by any plant during the growth cycle, but much of the chemical sits on the peel and doesn't wash off entirely. If you can peel off the outer layer, it should be safe to eat the non-organic version. So I save by buying conventional low or no spray squash, pineapples, nuts, and peas and beans that can be shucked. 

When my tax return rolls in, I commit $400 of it to purchasing olive, sesame seed and peanut oils, rices, large canned whole organic tomatoes, large canned beans in all sorts of varieties, white and apple cider vinegar, locally made pastas and sauces, canning and soap making supplies, and baking staples like flours, oatmeal, sugars, salt, baking powder and soda, and yeast to be used over the next 6 to 7 months.

Photos come off my two year old Galaxy S phone. I actually read the manual on how to operate the phone, including it's amazing camera feature. If I ever take a bad photo, it's user error, so I always shoot between 100 to 150 photos for events and restaurant/store reviews. Dishes are between 10 to 45 shots. Trips to the garden 1 to 7. I do all of the post production work on a 5 year old Apple mini using iPhoto (though for the really nice stuff like my recent 'Silos in the evening' series I use 

an equally aged copy of Photoshop).

I wait until the latter end of the farmer's market to pick up fruits and veggies farmers don't want to lug back home for often as much as half the cost it was three hours earlier. I grow herbs and some veggies like chard during the summer months. Herbs can be arranged to make repetitive dishes seem different. I can my own jelly, hot peppers, salsas, and tzatziki base.

As to the events and shops and restaurants? I go to events that are free or donation. When I head to a shop, I purchase the minimum amount to photograph well and to taste and/or add to a recipe. Restaurants are a bit more difficult as they are often $10 to $15 a visit, and so I visit less frequently, but sometimes I'm served a free meal when I mention I'm a blogger.

I use free websites, sources, links and web page builders like Blogger and Wix. 

The International Dinners run about $70 to $120 per-event. The door prizes are usually donated. Guest performers and speakers come for free, though I usually present them with a thank you gift and a fine meal. The food is often donated, or the money placed in the donation basket goes towards the next dinner, so that very little actually comes out of pocket.

So that's about it. 

Live well. Live frugally. Live smart.