Polish’d

This is a wonderful cookbook with really creative dishes that sound delicious. There’s a photo for every recipe and a wide variety of recipes that are uniquely grouped in chapters according to method (like steamed, smashed or raw) instead of course. No nutritional information is provided, which is generally a reason to knock off a star for me as so many of us need that information.

My husband and I eat clean keto and most of the dishes won’t work for us but the cookbook will work for a lot of others with special dietary needs like gluten free. Dairy is used fairly often but vegans should be able to adapt.

All in all, it’s a delight of a cookbook that will be a blessing for anyone looking for authentic, creative plant based Polish cuisine.

I read a temporary digital review copy of this book via NetGalley.

There are so few Polish cookbooks out there -- this is a great addition to the roster! I loved Fresh From Poland and this latest offering from Korkosz is even more exciting. It really is modern food, with a clear homage to the foods and traditions of Poland. The photos look appetizing, there are tons of them, and I'm excited to make some of this food (and buy a copy for my old-school Pole dad).

A truly beautiful and original cookbook.
It manages to be very modern, with tantalisingly intense flavours, vegetarian and capture many Polish flavours we expect, such as mushrooms, fermented veggies, sour cream and mild hard cheeses.
This cookbook is really nice to look at, the pictures are colourful and amazing and I wanted to try absolutely everything!
There is a lot of sweet and savoury flavours because of the addition of fruits, and sour flavours with vinegar, lemon, yogurt and cream. I love sour foods so I'm all in, but I feel those are not necessarily present in the more Anglo diet.
The recipes are not easy and a lot are quite time consuming as they follow a more traditional approach to cooking, but the use of ingredients is very very unique with fantastic fusion touches, like the addition of miso in many recipe, which is such a healthy alternative to boring salt.
If you want different recipes, new ways of approching cooking and want to discover new flavours I highly recommend this book.

Polish'd is a modern, plant-forward approach to a strong culinary tradition, and Michał Korkosz's interpretation of traditional Polish cuisine is reverent and cerebral.

This isn't my Babcia's meat and potatoes kitchen. This cookbook pays homage to the dishes of the old world and reimagines them in a fresh, vibrant, and colorful new light. There are a number of specialty ingredients that may not be available to everyone, but many of the recipes are highly accessible. This is a beautifully and lovingly crafted cookbook that I highly recommend for anyone looking for an inspired and innovative approach to Polish cooking.

Thank you to The Experiment and NetGalley for gifting me with an ARC to review! I enjoyed it.

What an amazingly beautiful cookbook! Plus, every recipe has a photo, which is a huge plus. The book is laid out well, based on the type of preparation—raw, stovetop, steamed, smashed & blended, etc., ending with a sweet chapter.

The ingredients are playful but don't seem like they would be hard to find at all. Plus, all the dishes looked so good! There were honestly very few that I swiped through thinking that I probably wouldn't make. My favorites include Goat Cheese Pierogi with Honey and Marjoram, Charred Corn Risotto with Cherry Tomatoes and Hazelnuts, and Chanterelle Challah Toast with Roasted Garlic Butter, Soaked in Rosemary Wine Sauce.

This cookbook is filled with beautiful photos of deliscious sounding recipes. I really enjoyed the Charred Corn Risotto, although I left the hazelnuts out because I simply didn't have any on hand. I'm interested in trying the mushroom pate for charcuterie boards!

Growing up Polish, but not eating meat was difficult. Like the author I started to resent Polish cuisine and distance myself from tradition Polish foods. It has only been now in my adult years that I have started rediscover traditional recipes and make them work for me. I was really excited to receive a copy of this book because being a Polish vegetarian is not the easiest. I can't wait to try the different variations of pierogi and kopytka from this cookbook. I might even start to like bigos for the first time in my life with this vegetarian version. I love that the author included a photo of each recipe. I think that helps me narrow down what I will make, especially when I'm hungry. I was a little disappointed a barszcz recipe wasn't included in this book, however I think this is a great book for anyone who doesn't eat meat. Thank you to NetGalley and Michal Korkosz for the advanced copy of this cookbook.

I wanted to eat everything in this book. I am not a vegetarian, but I am of Polish ancestry and I eat a lot of veggies, so this book was a welcome delight to read. I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to gussy up their vegetable based dish repertoire!

There was so much satisfaction to be had in the kitchen cooking up a vegetarian Polish-inspired menu from Michal Korkosz’s new cookbook Polish’d. He’s got a fantastic, award-winning website (Rozkoszny–”delightful” in Polish) and is a food columnist and recipe developer living in Warsaw. His first book, Fresh From Poland, explored vegetarian interpretations of traditional Polish food, but in Polish’d he explores the more multicultural Polish traditions of his native Warsaw, “a cultural melting pot where you can taste flavours from all over.” I’ve always associated Polish cooking with tending towards meat-heavy, but apparently Warsaw is a vegetarian paradise. Who knew?

He writes, “On one hand, these recipes are a modern, vegetarian take on long-established Polish recipes, but on the other, they’re infused with flavors and ingredients brought to Poland by immigration and globalization throughout history. Some people may call this fusion, but I'd rather think of it as the natural integration of global flavors and ingredients into Polish cuisine that has come to pass over time.”

Korkosz has divided his book into chapters based on cooking technique, from Raw to Panfried, and he even has a Fermented & Preserved section! There’s a handy section on the modern Polish pantry too.

The recipes:

Crunchy Broccoli and Hazelnuts with Grapes, Apples, and Spicy Honey Dressing

In his introduction to this recipe, Korkosz says, “I was nineteen years old when I learned that broccoli can be eaten raw. It’s the total opposite of the watery, overcooked, faded green broccoli of the school cafeteria.” Personally, I grew up with raw broccoli on veggie trays, and dipped the spears liberally in ranch dressing. Mmmm, good times. I love the vegetable every which way. This was a new broccoli adventure, though. Broccoli with grapes and apples? Not so sure. But the combo of all of these amazing foods was fantastic. The Spicy Honey Dressing brought it all together. So many tastes at once! It was a new way for me to serve broccoli and everyone loved it.

Crispy Brussels Sprouts with Miso Bagna Cauda

LIke Korkosz’s experience with soggy broccoli, soggy Brussels sprouts were my childhood Christmas dinner delight. I didn’t hate them, but they’re not going to win any awards (sorry, Mom!). The wonders of beautifully cooked, crispy, well-seasoned Brussels sprouts are a revelation. I’ve had some pretty great takes on the vegetable in restaurants, and my own roasted sprouts are a winter dinner staple at our house, but Korkosz claims his recipe serves up “the world’s best Brussels sprouts.” The main oomph factor here is bagna cauda, an Italian dipping sauce that is eaten akin to a fondue, with veg for dipping. It features anchovies, so miso subs in here. I’d never heard of it. I prepared the sprouts, added toasted panko, some sunflower seeds and this magnificent miso bagna cauda and tossed it. It was amazing! Salty, sharp and very umami. I’m going to have to side with Korkosz here, I think these may just be the best Brussels sprouts around, and I made them in my own kitchen, not a high end restaurant.

Pearl Barley Salad with Pickled Red Onion, Fennel, and Szafir Cheese

I find barley so satisfying. It’s something about the bite, the mouthfeel and how hearty a grain it seems. I don’t eat it nearly enough, so when I saw this salad I was drawn to it. Quick-pickling red onion was a new skill for me, which proved simple and added a great crunch. Korkosz calls for slicing a lemon and stir-frying it with fennel. I wasn’t clear: should I leave the peel on the lemon? A quick peek at the picture of the finished dish advised me that I should. It seemed risky, but came out mild and lemony without bitterness. Finally, I substituted feta cheese for the Szafir because I couldn’t find it. This salad was easy, delicious and filling. It would make a great meal on its own, or prove a perfect potluck dish.

Salted Szarlotka (Apple Pie) with No-Churn Brown Butter Ice Cream

This apple pie was a conundrum. There were a lot of steps to make it: the crust, the apples, the ice cream (which had a few steps in itself). I loved learning the no-churn ice cream technique, and while it wasn’t the same as regular ice cream, it was pretty close, and very tasty. I’d never browned butter, so check off another new technique. When I put it together and served the dessert, it tasted great but the pie didn't hold together well. The top of the crust seemed more like a crumble, and the bottom was a tad soggy. Finally, the sweet ice cream with the sweet pie together was probably a bit too rich. But every bit tasted amazing! Over the next week I ate all the pie and ice cream, and savoured every last bite. A bonus: the whole process of browning the butter, cooking the salted brown butter crust and the apples produced a heavenly smell. Korkosz loves the smell of this dessert so much that he went to a Warsaw perfumery and had these scents made into his own signature perfume.

What a modern Polish vegetarian cooking adventure! I had so much fun with this cookbook, and there are a lot of recipes that I want to try, particularly from his Fermented & Preserved section. In Polish’d, Korkosz has given us a great book for the vegetarian shelf.

“At the end of the day, cooking is an invitation to fantasize–to push boundaries–and is only limited by your imagination…In this cookbook, I celebrate my Polishness, and my goal is to honor my heritage in the best way I know how–through food.”

Thanks to The Experiment Press and NetGalley for a digital ARC.

Being of Polish decent, I was excited for this cookbook, especially since it is vegetarian!

Most of the recipes can be made vegan, too.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: finally a cookbook with new ideas and new meals I've never heard of!

Things I liked:
- NEW DISHES
- "normal" photos (pretty but not magazine-style; more homemade vibes)
- photos of every recipe or just about
- wide variety
- vegan and GF friendly
- clear passion and love for Polish food by the author


Things I wished it had:
- pronunciation tips
- nutritional information
- different organization (it's organized by method instead of course)

The only negative is that there are speciality ingredients I don't think most people will have access too, but the bulk of the recipes feel "every day"

I have not yet tried any recipe as it is very very hot where I live and we are basically living on salads. I look forward to making a few of the recipes during comforting winter months.

Thanks netgalley for my ARC

I've wanted a book about vegetarian takes on Central European food for years, and here it is! Open-minded and unpretentious, Polish'd gives the reader the perfect guide to recreating yesteryear's classics with healthy, delicious vegetarian twists that more accurately represent modern Polish culture. The writing in this book is fresh and inviting, and all ingredients, skills and concepts are well-explained. The commitment to honoring tradition while leaning away from nationalistic viewpoints on Poland's food culture is refreshing in today's world. Furthermore, despite being a vegetarian book, it does not exist solely or even largely to push vegetarianism as an ideology; it is simply providing fresh takes on an infamously meat-heavy cuisine.

I'm definitely buying this one when it comes out, and I recommend it to any fans of Polish and Central European food, vegetarian or not. I also think it might be a helpful English-language resource for Polish-Americans like myself who are interested in their ancestors' food culture but disapprove of the nationalistic echo chamber that modern discussions of Polish and Polish-American culture sometimes become, at least on the Internet. Overall, though, I genuinely think there is something in this book that anyone can enjoy, whether or not they are connected to, familiar with or even interested in Polish/Central European food and culture, as it's just that well-written and understandable by anyone from a beginner to an experienced chef--not to mention it all looks delicious!

My friends and I used to do a monthly dinner night were we would choose a random country and research and try our hand at making traditional dishes from that country. Polish’d made me disappointed that we never chose Poland!

Honestly, I was expecting a bunch of basic Pierogi recipes, heavy on the potato and cabbage, what I got was a huge variety of recipes with insanely large flavor profiles. This was a side of Poland that I’ve never seen, but am eager to try!

Being of Polish ancestry, I was delighted to be given the opportunity to provide feedback on “Polish’d”. The cookbook stood out from other standard cookbooks as a lot of the recipes were not familiar to me and it was hard choosing which one to try first!

Each recipe is partnered with stunning photograph of the dish, which often we do not see in recipe books, but I consider a huge win to be able to visualize what one is preparing. I can see how Michal Korkosz won the 2017 Saveur Blog award for Best Food Blog Photography!

Thank you to NetGalley and The Experiment publishing company for providing me the opportunity to review "Polish’d” prior to publication. I am appreciative and leave my review voluntarily.

My bestie is Polish so I grew up with some of these recipes. I love the twist of updating, a somewhat heavy cuisine, with a vegetarian twist. The recipes are easy to follow and easily accessible ingredients.

A fascinating, fresh take on Polish cuisine, which in its traditional incarnation is not known for being vegetarian-friendly or particularly exciting. However, Korkosz shows that many of the dishes we take for granted have a lot of potential and just need a little twist to turn them into culinary discoveries. Each recipe is accompanied by short personal reflections and beautiful photographs, making it a real pleasure to browse through.

I think it will be a perfect gift for people who like to seek new adventures in the kitchen.

Thanks to the publisher, The Experiment, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

This cookbook is stunning! Beautiful pictures accompany amazing vegetarian Polish recipes. Everything is so fresh and modern, but still has a homey feel. Simple recipes like Mushrooms to Die For will be in my regular rotation at home. Love it!

Delicious! It didn't matter to me that this book had no meat in it because the recipes were amazing and I didn't feel like i was missing out at all. Also the illustrations made me hungry.