Holy Week and Wielkanoc

As we close out Holy Week with the penultimate Easter Sunday (Wielkanoc: Great Night) a tradition-rich weekend lies ahead and, in fact, spills over into Monday. Today is Good Friday, which is actually a day of fasting, but most people just settle on fish.

Tomorrow, on Easter Saturday, families go to church for a blessing of baskets of food-święcone. It's well endeared here, and even the most lapsed of Catholics love it. A wicker basket, lined with a lace cloth, is filled with decorated eggs (pisanki), small loaves of bread, salt, pepper, a miniature lamb figurine, a miniature chicken figurine, and a piece of sausage. Usually, springs of boxwood and pussy willow garnish the whole basket. The whole thing is called święconka. As with anything tradition that incorporates something cute, beautiful, or requiring the minimalist of artistic merit, some people turn it into a competition on who can create the most beautiful basket. Apparently, the competition can rival Abel and Cain's in terms of the heat.

Easter Sunday, is a festival one, where people usually gorge themselves with food and drink. Everyone visits the inlaws for Easter Breakfast and then a lounging about for the rest of the day. The whole country essentially shuts down while everyone goes home.

Easter Monday (something entirely foreign to me) should rather be called Wet T-Shirt Monday, as rogues go about throwing buckets of water on hapless victims. My personal plan is to launch a full-scale bombing campaign off my balcony.

Tuesday? It's business as usual and back to the normal grind.

Recipe: Leniwe Pierogi (Lazy Dumplings)

While traditional stuffed pierogi such as pierogi ruskie and pierogi z miesem dominate Polish pierogi menus, several varieties of solid pierogi (like those more available in Slask and Czech cuisines) are still made by the bearers of tradition. Some Poles are hesitant to even classify them as pierogi (dumplings) at all, and refer to them as noodles.

This recipe comes from the mother of a student of mine, which in turn got in from her mother, and so on.

While a sweet dish, it's served for dinner.

Ingredients:

700-800 grams of cottage cheese (probably around three-four cups) (NOTE: The best cheese for this is twaróg (called quark in English, I believe.) It's like a drier form of cottage cheese.)

3 tablespoons of flour (more if needed)

2 eggs

Pinch of salt

Butter (optional)

Bread crumbs (optional)

Sugar (optional)

In two separate bowls, separate the egg whites and the yolks. Beat the whites until stiff like a meringue. Combine first four ingredients (including both egg whites and yolks) into large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly until a sticky dough has formed. Start boiling some water.

Divide the dough into two equal balls; roll balls between palms and a floured surface to form a mid-sized 'ropes' of dough about two-inches thick. Cut the ropes into pieces, maybe a half-inch thick. Place the pieces into the boiling water and cook them for three (3) minutes. Retrieve the dumplings using a slotted spoon and place on a dish.

Smother with butter; sprinkle with bread crumbs; sprinkle with sugar; serve.

The bread crumbs, sugar, and butter are optional. You may wish to serve them in a white-cheese sauce, or as traditional pierogi (or however you wish.)

There are several variations of this recipe. Some call for potatoes (use 75% of the cheese and add in 200g of cooked, mashed potatoes.) Experiment a little and see what works!