ON THE CHRISTMAS TABLE - ŁAZANKI - NOODLES WITH CABBAGE AND MUSHROOMS
Traditionally, during the Polish Christmas Eve supper we don't eat any meat. Instead we have twelve dishes with fish, mushrooms, vegetables and cabbage. In my home everybody waits for their favourite meal: my husband and daughter for the herring dishes and vegetable salad, my son for the fried fish, while I wait for dumplings and jellied carp.
One of the traditional dishes in many Polish homes is łazanki with cabbage and mushrooms. Łazanki are small, square noodles. The best dish is made with noble porcini mushrooms. I sometimes mix these forest mushrooms with sliced champignons, which look beautiful among the noodles. Łazanki are a Christmas Eve dish, but sometimes when my children ask me I prepare it during the rest of the year too.
Ingredients:
500g of sauerkraut
1 onion
60g of dried porcini
6-7 champignons
1 tablespoon of caraway seeds
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons of butter
300g of łazanki
salt and pepper
Soak the dried porcini in water for 4-5 hours. Cook them until they are soft. Cut them into smaller pieces. Dice the onion, slice the champignons and fry them in butter. Cut up the sauerkraut. If it is too sour, rinse it with water. Put the sauerkraut, onion, caraway seeds, bay leaves and cooked porcini and champignons in a pan with a heavy bottom. Spice it up with salt and pepper. Stew until the sauerkraut is soft (for 2-3 hours). Boil the Łazanki until it is al dente. Mix the noodles with the sauerkraut and mushrooms. Serve hot.
Enjoy your meal!
