Polish tastes # 003 - Uszka /read: ooshka/

Christmas is approaching and with Christmas Polish food gets extra boost. The best part - Wigilia [=Christmas Eve dinner], where everyone eats until they can't move or breath. I know, not too healthy, but how good the food is...

Wigilia is mostly vegan food, apart from carp and herring, which many people don't eat because they can't stand the taste. Personally I can't imagine this evening without a piece of carp. And i do not think it tastes like mud. It just need to be prepared the right way. But it is not about that today.

Today uszka [sing: uszko!!!], which can be pronounced almost this way: /ooshka/.


"Uszka" means literally "small ears". They are small, wild mushroom filled dumplings, which look like piglet's ears. They are a must addition for the Red [Beetroot] Borsch. Making them is so satisfying because they are very pretty. You can make them tiny or a bit bigger, it is up to you really. Poland is a big country and they are many rules about sizes, stuffing or even the dough. Plus everyone knows better how to make them :-)

* Red Borsch - in the next post.*

Because there is plenty of preparation going on before Christmas [just Wigilia should have 12 different dishes; one dish symbolising one apostle. Each person should try every dish to bring luck and happiness in a new year.] they can be made in advance and then frozen before or after cooking. My mum prefers to freeze them before cooking, myself - after. I think that if they are frozen after cooking they can be simply defrosted in the fridge over night, which you can't do with the raw frozen dough, because if defrosted it will get soggy and mushy. Raw frozen uszka need to boiled from frozen. You could also make and cook  them 3-4 days before Wigilia. They will keep well in the fridge. 

Because J has eczema not everything agrees with his body or his digestive system rather. Therefore, after many years of searching and trying, I found out that spelt flour works the best as a substitute to plain wheat flour. 

For uszka with wild mushrooms stuffing we need to make the dough and the stuffing as well. So let's get started.  

By the way - wild mushroom picking is a national pastime in Poland and many European countries. It is a great day out, but, of course, you must know what to pick. And you must do so without damaging the forest. 

This recipe makes about 40-50 uszka, depends on how thick the rolled dough is. Roughly it needs to be 2 mm. Too thin and the stuffing may go through. Too thick and all you will taste is pasta. 2 mm should be the right thickness. 



Wild mushroom stuffing:

What do you need? 

60 g dried wild mushrooms [soaked for about 2 h and cooked for about half an hour; KEEP THE LIQUID]

1 medium [about 100-120g] onion, chopped into small pieces, best chopped in the food processor]

2 large garlic cloves, chopped or pressed

2 Tbsp olive oil or sunflower oil

1 Tbsp red miso [if not using miso add 1 tsp salt + 1/2 tsp sugar]

1/2 tsp dried thyme

4 juniper berries crushed

1/8 ground black pepper * [I simply grind black pepper and mustard seeds freshly in mortar and pestle]

1/8 ground mustard seeds* 

1/2 tsp salt [or more, if you prefer]

How to? 

1. heat up the frying pan, add olive oil, chopped onion with garlic, salt, juniper berries, thyme and pepper-mustard seeds mix and fry on small/medium for about 5 minutes until soft and translucent. 

2. drain your cooked mushrooms but keep the liquid [this is basically mushroom stock]. Chop mushrooms in the food processor until fine, but not completely mushy.

3. add mushrooms and miso paste to the pan and and cook all on medium for another 10-15 minutes, stirring every few seconds. Keep adding some mushroom stock, couple of tablespoons each time. This will boost flavour and curds the stuffing from burning. 

4. leave to cool before making uszka. 


Dough:

What do you need? 

3 cups of spelt *[or plain flour] + 4-5 Tbsp extra for dusting the work surface, so the dough does not stick to it]; my cup is 250 ml 

200-250 ml of hot water [why the difference? Different flours take different amounts of water. Also you may find working with a bit tougher dough much easier then with the soft one, so use less water. Normally I use 3:1 ratio flour to hot water, but this creates quite a soft dough. Plus the dough gets softer after resting time.]

2 Tbsp of sunflower or rapeseed oil

boiling water for cooking

How to? 

1. Place your flour in a ball, add oil and boiling water. Mix roughly with a spoon. Leave for 3-5 minutes to cool down so it won't burn your skin, and then knead the dough with your hands. This is not a bread dough so about 3 minutes of kneading should do. Until all is nicely combined. Do not worry if the dough is too hard it will get softer after resting. 

2. Cover the dough in the ball with a plate or a plastic bag and rest it for about 1/2 hour. 

3. Sprinkle big chopping board or any working surface with some extra flour, divide the dough in half and roll each part with the rolling pin until it is about 2 mm thick. 

4. Cut it into small squares [5x5 cm up to 7x7 cm, but not bigger, as, if too big, uszka will, not keep their shape nicely].



5. place 1/2 of tsp of the stuffing in the middle of each square and fold it diagonally in half. Press edges together. You should be able to join the edges without any water. Now, you should have a triangle. Fold and join together the two vertices which are on the longest side of the triangle  and you have a one uszko. I hope the pictures can illustrate it well.













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