Regional Polish Cuisine - Maloposka - Maczanka krakowska

Caraway is very popular spice in the Malopolska cuisine. Caraway seeds have many opponents and supporters in Poland due to its characteristic, slightly scorching and spicy flavour.

If it is added with caution, it gives the dish unique taste. Caraway was often used in traditional Polish cuisine for its medicinal properties. It improves digestion and has antibacterial qualities and it was often added to greasy meat or bean dishes. Currently, caraway is often used in dishes in Malopolska. Caraway is added to many dishes: salads, white cheese, baked apples, sauerkraut and bread. It is used in soups from mushrooms, potato and cabbage soups,. We can add it to meat dishes but it can also be used to make flavoured vodka. I like caraway seeds and I often use them in my kitchen.

Now I wish to introduce one of my favourite dishes with caraway – Maczanka krakowska.

In the past Maczanka was a good way to utilise remnants of roasts as food .

It lies in the fact that meat is cut into small pieces, heated in the sauce and eaten with bread. You dip pieces of bread in the sauce and eat them . You can eat them with your hands. So my grandparents ate it this way in a restaurant in Krakow before the war, and now I serve it this way in my home.

I prepare this dish with fresh meat rather than from the remaining roasts from dinner.

80 grams pork meat,

1.5 tablespoons lard or butter ,

3 large onions,

salt and pepper, to taste

bay leaves, 2

a half tablespoons of caraway,

spoon of flour,

6 buns

1. Rub the meat well with salt, caraway and pepper and put in the fridge for a few hours, preferably at night.
2. In an oven-pan dissolve fat , pour water (a few tablespoons), put the meat, cover and bake in the oven for about 1.5 h at 180 degrees.
3. In the middle of baking the meat, add the onions sliced .
4. After baking, remove the meat and thicken the sauce with flour.
5. Cut the meat into slices, serve in a deep plate with sauce and a bun.

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