One of the main things I learned whilst eating my way around Poland, is that the Polish try and use as much of their food product as possible. They aim for little to no waste and use seasonal produce where possible, so they can be as sustainable as possible. To give us some more ideas of how to do this we were taken to Baccaro, a culinary studio in the centre of Lodz, where we were guided by chef Malgorzata Pindych and her leftovers!
Before we get into the cooking, can we appreciate how beautiful the space is? There are gorgeous views out of the old windows to the courtyard area which, has many cool looking bars and restaurants. It reminded me of Ancoats in Manchester so much with the old mills, independent shops and hipster eateries.
As well as numerous cooking stations, Baccaro Studio also has a large seating area where you can perch to eat the food you have just prepared or take some time out whilst your food cooks. This is something I think lacks in many cooking spaces and the light streaming through the windows just added to its perfection.
Onto the food and we split into groups to make different elements of our meal. Malgorzata brought along a number of ingredients that she had left over from events and cooking demonstrations, with everything else being made from staples ensuring there was no waste.
We made a ricotta cheese from scratch from some milk that was left over and due to turn bad in the next day or so. I was fascinated to watch how quickly it turned into cheese and we ate it as part of our main meal with confit pork belly, beetroot and pierogi. Malgorzata had used a different part of the pork for a dish earlier in the week so brought the belly for us to cook.
Doesn’t it look delicious?
We made a soup with the whey leftover from the ricotta, potatoes including the skins and minced goose, which was leftover from an event Malgorzata had catered the day before. She literally minced everything that was left from the goose and we ate it in a soup, it was rich and decadent with a beautiful earthiness from the potato peel.
Malgorzata explained that she had ran an event a few weeks before where she had ordered too many herrings. You know the Polish love herrings from my previous post, but to ensure everything is used she filleted them and preserved them in some oil. At Baccaro Studio we finely chopped the fish and served it tartare, dotted with mayonnaise which we made from the oil the herrings had been preserved in. I thought it would be too much and the fish would drown out the whole dish but the oil didn’t take on too much of the flavour and actually brought out the richness of the egg yolks.
My main role in the Studio was to make these banana muffins for our dessert. Along with Adele, we mashed black bananas that I would normally have thrown in the bin at least 3 days before and made delicious muffins with an apple topping and maple syrup. Malgorzata explained that the simple cake recipe is made a lot in Poland from whatever they have left that is looking past its best. She said Polish people usually make this with carrot and that is top of my list to try next time. You can find my version of the banana muffin recipe in tomorrow’s blog post.
Whilst we cooked the individual elements of our dishes separately, Malgorzata helped to plate and finished off the dishes before serving them to us as a group to enjoy. It was a lovely way to experience cooking and I picked up so many tips on how to reduce food waste using as much of the food product as possible.
If you travel to Lodz I would highly recommend a visit to Baccaro Studio. It is a great way to learn how to prepare different dishes and learn about Polish cuisine.
