NYE | Bigos, or Polish Hunter's Stew

Before the bacchanalia, comfort. In fact, comfort food to line the stomach. Cabbage, sauerkraut, mushrooms, sausage are key. Without those it's just not it. Beyond that, get creative with cooked meats and prunes. Wash down with vodka preferably and traditionally, or beer to keep it in the hunter spirit, or red wine to take it in that direction. Be bold. Happy New Year!

Sunday Feast № 44 | Festival des Pommes, with Honey Glazed Roast Pork with Apples as a Main Attraction

"An impressionistic tour of Normandy, where the apple is king and calvados completes the meal" said the subtitle to a story in Saveur magazine May 2016 issue. That also means apple cider, or as it was in my misreading of a recipe I locked onto - apple cider vinegar. Yes, that is what I used even though looking at the recipe again, it distinctly calls for just apple cider. Did the swap matter? No, it was super tasty just as the run through the ingredients promised.    If the photo here does not grab you, please ignore it, I was in a rush to eat and feed, and proceed with cooking your own. Absolutely worth it. All that butter and honey help, I'm sure. Also, if you happen to have those big size apples, three is enough. Pair it with apple, celeriac, and carrot salad and apple cider to drink. Finish off with after-dinner swigs of calvados. Life is good.

Sunday Feast № 12 | Chinese Five-Spice Spare Ribs with Hoisin Glaze

The beauty of communal feast preparation is that you do not have to do it all, and since I hosted, I took to what required overnight preparation and slow cooking. To boot, one of my local supermarkets had a deal on pork spare ribs (2 for 1) that primed me for taking on this spare ribs recipe twice!    The recipe came courtesy of a friend who attended a Chinese New Year meal class at Chicago's The Chopping Block, with original Hoisin Glaze recipe halved by me second time around. And since she attended the class, the accompanying chicken bao and vegetable pot stickers were under her purview - she was effectively branded "The Chef" - and the purview of a friend that has mad bao assembly skills - "The Sous Chef" - with the bao dough prepared by a friend that is a real life pastry chef and who also made crêpes for desert - "The Pastry and Deserts Chef". All of these require skills which are currently beyond me - yeast dough is involved, nimble fingers and good eye for "done" are required. Hence, I was an apprentice line cook chopping, stirring and cleaning when required, a dish washer, and when just watching or calling to the table, a self-appointed "Restaurateur".    The ribs were the appetizer to give us energy to prepare the rest of the feast, but they also make a great main dish with rice and vegetables or salad.

Sunday Feast № 8 | Polish Comfort

Kotlet schabowy. I am strongly attracted to the breaded pork cutlet. You can have your Viennese schnitzel, I rather opt for the familiar comfort and the memories of the whole cultural shebang.      You see, I always liked when Mum made it and I put up with her predilection to heavily sprinkle the kotlet, and potatoes it was inevitably paired with, with parsley whenever parsley was on hand, which seemed to be most of the time, and how every time I lamented "Enough!" she retorted in a matter of fact fashion with "But it's good for you", parsley that is. Fussing about, or worse still rejection of, what was put in front of you was not the done thing. This was where Dad occasionally interjected with a reminder that "You will eat what you're given." So ultimately, that parsley and those potatoes were dues to be paid while enjoying the kotlet I was given.      The whole "You will eat what you're given" was as much a parenting technique and about respecting the cook as a reflection of the place and time. Food shortages, restrictions, or whatever it really was, prevalent back in the days of Poland under Communist rule meant that if the food arrived in the shop most often there wasn't enough to go around. It was a case of either being "first in [the queue/line], best [fed]" or having the right connections. When you got it, you didn't waste it. Pounding of those cutlets was a surefire indication to the next door neighbors living in the same klatka schodowa w bloku (that is the stairwell in one of those hideous buildings constructed all across Soviet Bloc countries during the second half of the 20th century, that beyond Soviet Bloc would find siblings in U.S. housing projects and someone's idea of modern affordable high density housing in 1970s) that you got some. Which led itself to comedic scenarios in movies, and maybe even real life, where the cook of the house would pound the kitchen counter in imitation of to get under the skin of the neighbors - a "keeping up with the Joneses" twist.      Nowadays I will take that kotlet with any sides especially if Mum's cooking. Although typically herbs such as rosemary, dill or sage would not be added to the breadcrumb mixture, the recipe from "The Food and Cooking of Poland" by Ewa Michalik has these three in the mix (rosemary and sage are really the odd ones here but cuisine moves with access and times). Make as many as you like since they reheat well, and serve with mashed potatoes or boiled red potatoes, sauerkraut or red cabbage (with or without apple), cauliflower po polsku, okra, green beans, brussel sprouts with bacon and balsamic, or anything you like with breaded pork cutlets.

Fun on the side and after Watch "Sex and the City" marathon starting when Carrie meets the Russian "Shameless" anytime, any season "Dark Star: HR Giger's World" "Homeland" Season 5 Drink Vodka, what else!