Pascal Brodnicki: Show, Cookbook & More

A few months ago I was chatting with one of my relatives in Poland about cooking shows. As I found out in Poland they have some of the same cooking shows such as ones with Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver that we here in North America know well, they are translated into Polish. But they also have their own celebrity chefs that I have never heard about such as Pascal Brodnicki. Pascal who?

This is a young man, who came from a half Polish background, his dad is Polish and mom is French. Born and grew up in France, then moved to Poland as a teenager and then went back to do his culinary training in France. A lot of moving... Now he has a very successful cooking show "Pascal, po prostu gotuj" (the name of the show translates to "Pascal, Simply Cooking"), teaching Poles how to cook delicious food from around the world.

My relative in Poland send me his cookbook because here in Canada it was nowhere to be found. It is a well made book, with beautiful illustrations of all the recipes, each one with personal note from Pascal. The recipes all look easy to prepare, and I can imagine that most people will actually try them.

After going through his book I got in touch with Dominika, my aunt that send me this beautiful gift, to ask her a few questions. Are all those foreign ingredients that Pascal is using such as ginger, lemon grass, Kaffir leaves; are they all readily obtainable in Poland? I know here in Canada, sometimes its hard to get them. She assured me that at least in Warsaw they are easy to acquire, there are huge oriental markets with everything under the sun plus smaller markets also carry a lot of diverse products.

Having gone through Pascal's book I was really looking forward to seeing his show. This past weekend I had a chance to spend some time at my parents place who have a satellite with Polish programs. The entire family gathered in front of the TV, including my dad who never watches food shows. In this episode he was preparing a sweat-sour soup with shrimp, Thai curry chicken, and coconut pancakes for dessert. We were all entertained to no end; we laughed at his candid mispronunciation of Polish words, and his endearing French accent while speaking in Polish. He captivated us with his sense of humor, love for food, and ease with which he made food not only look good but from where I was sitting taste delicious.

I don't mean to sound like I'm making fun of someone with an accent. I, myself, have an English accent when I speak Polish and I mispronounce Polish words all the time, sometimes changing English words to Polish, other times I just use wrong words at the wrong time. My husband also speaks a bit of Polish, although his Grandfather described it as "good Polish for someone who can't actually speak Polish". I have truly enjoyed Pascal's show, not only for his recipes, but because he is comfortable with who he is in front of the camera, and to some degree it reminds me of myself. In addition I love the fact that he has a large fan base (including some in Canada) and is successful due to his love of food and sharing it with the Polish public and his friends.

Now that I have watched one show, I was craving more. What to do when what you want is not available on regular TV channels? I went to the biggest online video website I know, YouTube. I did find a few video that are posted on line, however they are very poor quality. I guess I am out of luck and need to stick to reading his book and checking out what's new on his website and blog.

I wish him all the more successes in the future.

Click here for my recipe, Pot Stickers with Bok Choy and Cashews.

Cool Cucumber Salad

A few days ago I was inspired to make a salad that was light, refreshing, and would remind me of hot summer days. Winter in Canada always seems long and harsh. By the end of February I long for those hot summer days...

All this day dreaming took me back to the innocent days of my childhood. All the kids at our families cottage running around freely, our mom's calling us for dinner and at the table waiting for us was "Mizerja" salad. Yummy, creamy, refreshing and of course delicious. There never seemed to be enough, we engulfed it, literally. The word Mizerja translated to a cucumber salad that is made with fresh cucumbers cut into thin slices, seasoned with a dash of salt and freshly ground pepper plus a generous amount of sour cream or whipping cream and often garnished with dill.

I was craving Polish Cucumber Salad, but without all all that extra fat and calories from sour cream or whipping cream. Yoghurt? Why not! I love yoghurt, especially natural Balkan style yogurt, it has a little bit of fat, but it tastes delicious and typically it is a good quality product. Plus it has much less fat and than sour cream or 30% whipping cream. Changing a recipe with a lot of fat to a small amount of fat and still keeping all that creamy texture, in this recipe really worked out well, a moment of brilliance. On an aside, I'm sure this dish would be similarly tasty using 1% or 0% yoghurt.

The brilliance of this recipes is straining the whey through which we eliminate a lot of excess water and sourness. The final result is a more creamy flavoured and thick textured yoghurt. To the yoghurt add thinly sliced cucumber, salt and pepper, and for a modern twist instead of dill add sliced mint leaves. Voila!! Easy and delicious.

Yes, this salad was perfect, a perfect salad for a hot summer day... now those hot summer days need to arrive. However I can only do so much.

For a full recipe click here.