So as you know, I have a bee in my bonnet about Polish food being misrepresented in the UK, with, for example, bigos being served on food stands in the summer. Why anyone would want to eat heavy sauerkraut stew on a hot day is beyond me, and it would be unheard of for someone to serve you that in the middle of summer in Poland. For dinner, we may have a soup, like
chlodnik or botwinka (a sour soup made from young beetroot leaves), followed by cold meats and salads (though a pot of homemade lard with tasty crispy bits, next to a jar of home pickled cucumbers is not uncommon, I must confess). This a herring salad, which is particularly tasty, and combines sweet, sour and salty in a way that pleases the Polish palate
Ingredients
3-4 salted herring fillets
3 hard boiled eggs
Tin of pineapple
Cup of sour cream
1 tsp sugar
Chives
Mayo to taste
A little bit of pepper
The herrings my mum bought were very salty, so we soaked them for 20 min in cold water, before chopping them into bite size chunks. The eggs and pineapple were chopped into the same sized bits and added to the bowl. We mixed the sour cream and sugar together and added a couple of tablespoons of mayo. Then poured the sauce onto the salad and mixed well, adding pepper to taste. Once the salad was transfered to a serving dish, we sprinkled it with finely chopped chives and chilled for 20 min before serving. Great with ice-cold vodka!
