Five things you should eat in the Podkarpackie

The dish entered the restaurants of the Podkarpackie region straight from peasants’ tables, where a hundred years ago it was a special Sunday treat. In the past people baked them by placing small rolls of dough directly on the cooking plate of stove. They were eaten warm, with butter and a cup of cereal coffee with chicory and milk. Today, all you need is a dry frying pan, but the ingredients are unchanged: wheat flour, egg, buttermilk, salt and baking soda. In fact the name proziaki is derived from the word proza which in some places was used with reference to baking soda. On the other hand, Lasowiacy people, once inhabiting the areas near the Sandomierz Primeval Forest, used the word broza with reference to soda, that is why in the Baranów Sandomierski area this product is sometimes called broziaki. They are served hot or cold, and the imagination of modern cooks even turns them into burgers. However, it is in their simplest form, with garlic butter, and perhaps with some cottage cheese, that they bring back the flavour of childhood in the green Podkarpackie region.

This is a Subcarpathian speciality excellent for those who are very hungry. Cutlets made of buckwheat groats and minced meat, spiced with garlic, can be found on the menu of many restaurants during culinary trips in the Bieszczady and the Low Beskids. This is a Ruthenian-style dish of Lemko and Boyko people. To this day, this is a popular dish cooked at home. They take their name from the word hreczka, used with reference to buckwheat groats in the former Borderlands. You can enjoy these fried cutlets in a variety of ways, with a side dish of stewed sauerkraut or with garlic sauce, but most typically they are served with sauce made from forest mushrooms, which are plentiful in this region. Even a thought of hreczanyki cutlets makes you feel hungry.

In many houses in the Podkarpackie region gomółki cheese was always present on the Easter table. It was taken to church in baskets with other products for the food blessing ceremony. During Easter breakfast it was added to borscht along with horseradish and eggs, and it was a real delicacy. The simple balls made of dried cheese still have their enthusiasts today, as it is difficult to find a snack with a similar taste. There is no secret ingredient - cheese, egg yolk, caraway seeds and salt are mixed together. You can add a pinch of paprika, you can add mint. The magic begins with the drying process. In the past, gomółki cheese had to be kept for a long time on top of the warm bread oven so that the water would slowly evaporate and the flavour of the seasoned cheese would become rich and strong. Today, the traditional bread oven has been replaced by modern devices, and drying process is faster, although it does take a few hours. Still, there's nothing else you can do if you want to keep such a delicious tradition alive. The only drawback of this snack is that it disappears from the plate too quickly.

Sometimes called “Polish olives”, pickled cornelian cherry is an invention from the Podkarpackie, entered on the List of Regional and Traditional Products maintained by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. In the Podkarpackie there are several family businesses that produce this delicacy in their small farms. It was in the Bolestraszyce Arboretum near Przemyśl that the first collection of Cornelian cherry dogwood was established in the late 1970s and early 1980s by Jerzy Piórecki. His son Narcyz Piórecki continued his work, selecting 12 cultivars of this plant. Today, the arboretum is the place where many fruit growers buy their seedlings and where the International Cornelian Cherry Dogwood Festival takes place every year on the second Sunday in September. The exhibitors' tables are laden with the Polish olives, as well as bottles and jars of vinegar, jam, juice and even beer made from cornelian cherry. For many of those into new flavours this is still a novelty. Meanwhile, this modest-looking and unique fruit has long been known to traditional medicine of Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia. Cornelian cherry contains vitamin C, as well as flavonoids and iridoids, which are rare in plants. Because of this the fruit delays ageing, strengthens blood vessels and detoxifies the body. In other words, it is an antidote to an unhealthy environment.     

This is a legendary dish certified as a Local Product from Bieszczady. You can get it at Chata Wędrowca (Traveller’s Cottage) in Wetlina. Waiting in the queue are tourists who have just come down from the mountains, and guests who have come to Wetlina, one of the most beautiful villages in the Bieszczady, only to have the famous pancake while enjoying the amazing view of the mountains. Once the dish is served, however, it is hard to take your eyes off the plate. You can see this mouth-watering huge pancake with a thick layer of forest blueberries, heaps of thick cream and a mint leaf. Crispy, warm and sweet. It is crispy because the traditional pancake batter, made of milk, water, flour, and eggs, is deep-fried. It is made the same way as many years ago, when the dish was served at Bacówka pod Małą Rawką (Shepherd’s Hut at Mount Mała Rawka). Baskets of blueberries were brought there by Władek Nadopta - the famous Majster Bieda known from the ballad by Wojciech Belon. Legend also has it that it is possible for one person to eat the whole Giant Pancake.