your journey to magic tastes

1. The Food
of the Royals
your journey to magic tastes

2. We would like to dedicate this noble story to the
most honourable knight of Polish traditional values:
Sir Gabriel Janowski

3. Centuries ago, a majestic white eagle looked after the Polish lands
covered with grain harvested by local farmers. Polish royal court turned
its image into the national emblem and put a crown on its head.
Today, creating a new brand of Polish food of the highest quality,
we have reached deep into this tradition and in it found inspiration
for our logo. It features the crown, a metaphor for all the best of the
Polish land, and an apple - the symbol of dynamic growth and the
excellent flavour of the fruits from our orchards and forests.
Thanks to PQF - Polish Quality Food - all these fruit treasures can find
their way to your tables. We will make every effort so that the Polish
local products can cross the border and reach the plates of demanding
cuisine enthusiasts. Production and distribution of healthy food is one
of the most important tasks we set before us for the coming years.
We would like to introduce our rich tradition. That is why we invited
our chef friends from the Food Think Tank to prepare recipes
for dishes referring to the culinary heritage of Polish manors
but still compatible with global modern culinary trends.
We want to bring you closer to original flavours coming from
the cleanest corner of Europe, but also surprise you with
ideas for new, simple and healthy meals, which we have been
composed on the basis of natural ingredients from Poland.
We give it to you to surprise you with the richness of flavours!
Anita Siemińska
Chief Coordinator
of the Polish Quality Food
Matthew Jarosiewicz
The President of the Chapter
of the Noble Polish Tastes
Ladies and gentlemen

4. Polish Quality Food is a luxury brand of high quality food produced
in Poland - a region of exceptional natural beauty, on the area of the
Green Lungs of Europe. PQF combines a passion for healthy eating,
sustainable production and a passion for new technologies. We
operate as a consortium and a cluster of producers and processors
in the food sector co-creating the “Food 2.0” platform.
Our mission is to promote Polish products abroad, providing customers
with the highest quality natural products and extraordinary taste sensations.
The satisfaction of our customers, who want to make wise food choices,
is of vital importance to us. Our goal is to systematically expand the offer
with new foods according to the needs of our trading partners in Asia.
What distinguishes us are processed fruit products produced
in small local factories from the highest quality apples, cherries,
raspberries, strawberries, currants and other regional fruits. Out
off all the products, we have chosen a basket of those that capture
the diversity of flavours and the character of Polish food.
Our partners will soon be offered an online platform for contracting Polish
products, which will allow for ordering the highest quality Polish food well
in advance ensuring the security of the transaction between the parties.
Every formal Polish dinner starts with a soup. The picture on the
side presents a pigeon broth with root vegetables prepared on
a sourdough starter. On the next pages you will find recipes for more
dishes of the Polish royal cuisine in their new modern versions.

5. The Food Think Tank Foundation is an extraordinary collective of Polish
artisans co-operating with each other to change the face of Polish cuisine.
To achieve it, they work on developing individual skills by reaching to
their very roots and designing tools of the future. Together they started
a new trend in gastronomy called the root cuisine. Most of all, they
reach back to the traditional cooking techniques that have shaped the
Polish cuisine. They combine fair treatment methods with fair Polish
products that have always grown on Polish territories. On top of it they
add modern scientific thought from the areas of chemistry and biology.
Head chefs, ceramics, scientists, designers, musicians, photographers,
film makers, baristas, farmers and engineers learn from each other
as equals and inspire one another in searching for The Taste.
All recipes that can be found in this book were created by the Food
Think Tank specialists. We found out that we share many views - from
the awareness about how much of a value the Polish culinary tradition
is, to the opinion on how excellent and natural Polish food is. Polish
Quality Food and Food Think Tank stand for the fair, responsible
production, building awareness of the origin of the products among
consumers, strengthening the Polish brand and reaching out with
it to more distant cultures. Good taste knows no boundaries!

6. Marinade for the meat
125 g of sugar
250 g of pine shoots (the first half of May)
Cover the meat with sugar and pine shoots and leave to marinate for 16 days.
Dried sauerkraut - the finishing
200 g of sauerkraut
Leave the cabbage in an electric dehydrator at 60 ° C for about
6 hours until the water evaporates and the cabbage gets crispy
Roasted mushroom - the finishing
100 g of mushroom
7 ml of apple cider vinegar
a pinch of salt
Season the mushrooms with vinegar and salt by mixing the ingredients
in a bowl, put it aside for an hour and then grill over the fire.
wild boar’s neck stewed
in a cast iron pot in the ground
author: Tomasz Hartman

7. Cooking in the ground - the technique
a 10 l cast iron pot with a lid
cherry wood
a 50 cm wide and 50 cm deep hole in the ground
Start a fire in the hole and wait until the flame burns out
and you get the ember, put the pot on the ember without
a lid, and let it burn like that for about 15 minutes
Stewing the wild game
2 kg of marinated wild boar’s neck (diced into 3x3 cm chunks)
100 g of carrot
100 g of celery root
100 g of leek (the white part)
100 g of onion
young green walnuts (crushed in a mortar)
3 cloves of garlic
3 bay leaves
5 allspice grains
5 juniper fruits
3 l of water
30 g of goose fat
Put the fat into the heated pot and when it dissolves, add the meat and
do not stir until it burns on one side, then stir and after about 2 minutes,
add the baked vegetables and fry it, pour water, add spices, cover with
a lid and cook for 2 hours, making sure the ember does not burn out)
Finishing
Put the meat and roasted mushroom on a plate, pour over with
the broth and sprinkle with the dried sauerkraut on the top.

8. root vegetables - leek, carrot, potato
shallot
fresh greasy milk - churned into butter
herbs - thyme, mint, rosemary, lovage
sorrel - one leaf per portion
clay mixed with lake sand
Wash the vegetables under running water. Clean them with
a brush, do not peel, cut into 5-centimetre long pieces.
Boil the sand for an hour to kill the bacteria.
Mash the clay and mix it with the sand. Form “bowls” and mantle the
vegetables in them. Leave it to dry for 4 hours. By that time, the clay will
absorb most of the water from the vegetables. Roast the vegetables
over an open fire (just like we do with potatoes) with the maximum
temperature for about one hour. The clay will protect the vegetables
against overcooking, it will also dry out and turn into “porcelain”.
Meanwhile, prepare the herbal butter - chop the spices and mix them with
butter then put it in the refrigerator. Serve the baked vegetables right away
with a slice of the herbal butter on the top, which will complement the loss
of water in vegetables, giving them a full, herbal flavour. You may use a leaf
of sorrel as a garnish to stimulate the taste buds and deepen the flavour.
Root vegetables baked in clay with home made butter
author: Tomasz Trąbski

9. 1 kg of cherry tomatoes
1 head of garlic
1 horseradish root
2l of water
2 tablespoons of salt
rapeseed oil
spices - coriander, bay leaves, black pepper (whole grains), allspice, dill
Cut a “cross” on one end of every tomatoe. Put them into boiling water
for 15 seconds, then temper. Peel the tomatoes prepared this way gently, try
not to damage the flesh. Cut the garlic across, pour gently with oil, season with
salt and black pepper and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 180°C. Then
cool it. In the meantime, boil the water with salt and cool down to 80-85°C.
Peel the horseradish and cut into 3-5-centimetre long pieces.
Put the tomatoes in a jar layered with the horseradish, roasted
garlic and spices then pour with the brine. Close the jar tightly
with a metal lid and put in a place with a room temperature.
Pickle for at least 5 days.
After opening the jar, store in a refrigerator.
Pickled tomatoes
author: Michał Werda

10. Mealworm tacos
100 g of mealworm (after drying you will be left with 20 g of flour)
30 g corn flour
15-20 g of hot water (approx. 60°C)
a pinch of salt
Throw the larvae into boiling water for 10 seconds, then temper them.
Dry it in the oven for 2-3 hours at a temperature of 85-90°C. Then grind
until it turns into flour. Add the corn flour, salt and gradually warm
water to obtain a soft, smooth dough. Roll it flat while sprinkling with
flour. Finally, grill the dough or fry it in oil heated to 150-160°C.
Bean cheese
1 kg of white beans (dry)
200 g of soya beans (dry)
a pinch of salt
120 ml of white vinegar
water
Soak the soy and beans overnight. Grind together with water. You should add
1 liter of water for every 300 ml of soaked beans and soybeans.
Separate soy milk from the pulp using a clean cloth. After adding
salt, heat it to a temperature of 80°C. Add the vinegar to acidify
the milk and start the precipitation process in order to obtain
the whey. Filter once again until you get a firm cheese pulp.

11. 250 ml of milk
100 g of sugar
250 g of 30% fat cream
4 egg yolks
25 g of fresh yeast
3 g of xanthan
180 ml of dark beer with a strong yeast flavour
Heat the milk with cream. Separately, whip the eggs with sugar and yeast.
Temper the egg mixture by slowly pouring the hot milk, constantly stirring.
Pour everything into the pot and cook over low heat, stirring constantly until
it reaches 83°C. Boil the beer, reduce up to half, add xanthan to make it
thicker and pour the milk-egg mixture, stir thoroughly and cool it down.
Put the cooled mixture to a pacojet or an ice cream machine.
author: Krzysztof Klimaszewski
Yeast ice cream

12. Wintered russet apples
10 russet apples wintered in the hay for 4 months
Aqueous solution:
2 l of water
500 g of brown sugar
20 g of citric acid
1 vanilla pod
Combine together all the solution components, boil and cool them down.
Peel the apples, put them in the solution, leave for 3 hours, stir occasionally.
Dry the apples, put them in the vacuum bags and remove the air. You can
also put some additives in the bag such as peppermint, nettle, cinnamon.
Freeze for the minimum of 12 hours at - 18-21°C, then defrost.
Black garlic caramel
1 cup of sugar
200 ml of water
6 table spoons of butter
1 cup of 30% cream
approx. 20 cloves of black garlic
3 g of edible charcoal (optional)
Melt the sugar in water and reduce it with garlic until the liquid turns brown.
Bring to 170°C, pour in the cream and add the chilled butter. Stir until
it all dissolves and then blend until it’s smooth. To get a deeper colour,
you can optionally add some edible carbon and blend it once again.

13. Drying the meat
1kg of wild boar’s loin
300 g of salt
300 g of sugar
a blend of spices: bay leaf and juniper
Rub the meat with salt. Put it in the refrigerator for 24 hours. After that,
rinse it and dry it thoroughly, rub it with 300 g of sugar and again put it
in the refrigerator. After 24 hours rinse it and dry once again. Rub the
meat once again, this time, with the spices and leave it in the refrigerator
for another 24 hours. After that, wrap it in a cloth and hang in a dry, well-
ventilated and dark place. For the best results, we suggest you to wait for
about seven weeks, you can also wait longer if you like your meat extra dry.
Roasting
seasoned wild boar’s meat
rich sour cream
Cut the meat into portions and leave it overnight in the cream to
get the intense flavour and smell out of the meat. Afterwards, put
the meat directly on the ember and cook for two minutes.
Seasoned wild boar’s meat with a honeycomb
author: Adrian Klonowski

14. Finishing
wafers
60 g of butter
100 g of sugar
35 g of egg white
60 g of finely ground wheat flour
40 ml of water
Melt the butter with sugar in a saucepan, then cool it down.
Meanwhile Whip the egg whites and sieve the flour. Add the
egg whites, flour and water to the butter and gently stir all the
ingredients to a smooth mixture. Pour it into a baking sheet, make
the layer as thin as possible. Bake at 200°C for 5-8 minutes.
Cut the honeycomb into 1x1 cm-long squares. Put them
on the pieces of meat. Serve with wafer on a side.

15. 500 ml of clean lake water
5 g of dried freshwater fish flakes
1 small duck mussel
apple cider vinegar for seasoning
salt for seasoning
120 g of sturgeon
Reduce the lake water to 100 ml. While reducing, put a sieve with the sturgeon
fillet seasoned with salt over the saucepan. Once reduced to 100 ml, brew the
dried fish flakes in the water and add the mussels. Bring to the boiling point,
pull out the mussels, strain the broth and season with apple cider vinegar
and salt. Pour the broth into bowls and add the pieces of fish and mussels.
broth with sturgeon and duck mussels
author: Michał Czekajło

16. Preserves are a part of the Polish culinary heritage and an important
part of our tradition. Our mothers and grandmothers embrace the
summer months of abundance preserving the apple, raspberry,
strawberry, plum, currant, chokeberry and other seasonal fruit harvests
to let us use them for the whole winter with bread, crepés, cakes and
beverages. “Summer locked in jars” means jams, fruit stews, confitures,
juices, honeys and dried fruits full of vitamins and nutritional values.
The recipes they are based on have not changed for ages.
All the companies, whose products we have chosen, combine the
passion for our tradition, a great care for the chosen high quality
materials and a modern design. In the production process, they are
driven by honesty and care for the client’s health. Therefore, all the
products we offer are natural and of an intense flavour and aroma.
We recommend our fruit preserves as an addition to all types of
dishes. The more dry in taste make a perfect match for patés, blue
cheese and roasted red meat. You could also try them with fried fish
and poultry. The sweeter ones, on the other hand, can be used for
desserts, for example, as an ice cream or pudding topping, for decorating
cakes and other delicacies like waffles, pancakes and omelettes.
They taste deliciously as an addition to all types of breads and pastries,
for example crispy baguettes, butter croissants or hot toasts. They
also make a good addition to beverages, especially tea and soft drinks,
but also alcoholic ones. They are perfect for breakfast as a tasty
topping for natural yoghurt or milk. The chocolate ones are the best
for sandwiches, but you can eat them straight from a jar as well!
Our gift sets, thanks to an excellent composition of delicious,
traditional fruit preserves and honeys, may become a great idea
for a present for your family and friends. Each set is unique. We
are able to meet individual needs of individual clients as well as
institutions. Our products will let you discover the magic of taste!

17. The Stelmachs family company produces natural fruit preserves of the
highest quality for connoisseurs and seekers of good taste. All products
are created according to their own, unique, tried and tested recipes which
has been in the family for generations. The company hold s the title of
the laureate of the Quality of the Year contest, the biggest proquality
contest in Poland, which they have won two years in a row.
Rajman is a high-end brand of gourmet culinary delicacies made
exclusively from Polish apples. They are handcrafted in small batches.
The supreme quality of the fruits and long cooking on wood-fired
stoves give Rajman its distinguished deep and intense flavour. Rajman
inspires original culinary compositions and enhances traditional meals.
Rajman uses organic apples as the sole ingredient. Nothing else.
In his production, Marian Schodnik focuses on the idea of healthy and ecological
lifestyle, in line with the notion that “we are what we eat”. The preserved foods that
are produced here take only the fruits with the Ecocert - European organic food
certificate (green leaf logo). The fruit content of every jar with the “Fruit Home” logo
is 100% natural and is characterized by purely fruity content of the highest quality.
Polish Quality Food’s Partners
Stefan Skwierawski specializes in the processing of fruits that grow in
the largest woodlands in Poland - Tuchola Forest which was designated
Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. In the offer, one can find jars filled with
fruity treasures – chokeberry and blackcurrant. The company has received
multiple gold medals and commendations at various healthy food fairs.
Lidia i Wojciech Kłosowscy manufacture hand-crafted preserves and chutneys
which are 100% natural, made of high quality ingredients produced without
additives or preservatives. They only use the finest resources from Polish
orchards, gardens and vegetable growers. Thanks to them, many forgotten
fruits and vegetables have been rediscovered to be offered in a variety of
flavours already known in the world, but recreated with Polish flare and chic.
Ernest Michalski’s company specializes in vitamin products made from
Polish fruit with high vitamin C content. The main goal of the company was
to start a production of fruit preserves with the highest possible nutritional
value but devoid of any preservatives or any other chemical additives. All
juices, nectars and syrups are produced exclusively with freshly pressed
fruits. The fruit and petal used come only from ecological plantations.
Szymon and Tadeusz Markiewicz run an ecological farm in Sępolno Wielkie.
Their beekeeping tradition is 40 years old. This tradition, started by the
Apiculture Master is now sustained by his son There are many different kinds
of honey produced on their farm. Various ecological plants constitute the
base for the honey production (e.g. buckwheat, phacelia, mustard and tare).
The final product is not only food but also possesses medical properties.
BEE YARD
in Sępolno
Wielkie

18. Recipes
Tomasz Hartman
Michał Czekajło
Tomasz Trąbski
Michał Werda
Adrian Klonowski
Luiza Trisno
Krzysztof Klimaszewski
Karol Karpiak
tableware
Karina Marusińska
Aleksandra Osowska
Katarzyna Mazurek
Patrycja Śliwińska
Ewelina Birut
Bartosz Pelc
Editing
Agnieszka Szydziak
Translation
Paulina Maciejewska
Photography
Jędrzej Stelmaszek
Graphic design and typesetting
Ewelina Turkot
food think tank

19. Lupus Sp. z o.o.
Ul. Strońska 8/2h
50-540 Wrocław
BIZCON
Tomasz Jakubowski
Ul. Kosmonautów 222/7
54-042 Wrocław
TTM Trading Services LTD
9B High Town Road
LU 20 BW Luton
Business partners