White Asparagus and Crayfish Cake with a Strong Polish Twist

The preface to the 1986 New York reprint of the very old “Polish Cookery” by Marja Ochorowicz - Monatowa starts with following words: “Poland, like France, is a country where people really know food. One can stop at a wayside inn in the countryside or at a modest restaurant in a working-class city neighborhood and be served a meal worthy remembering. Good food is a tradition….”

As far as I know, Polish Cookery by Marja Ochorowicz Monatowa, which contains 2200 rustic, peasants and bourgeois recipes, had been edited at the end of the XIXth Century, and was then reprinted several times before the Second World War. In the 1950’s, the book was translated into English and published in the United States. Last summer, I found the 1986 English reprint in a bookstore in Krakow, and I bought it straight away.

I agree that food plays an important role in Polish traditions; one of my friends noticed that the Poles “grignotent” all the time (especially, secretaries in public administration), and tables are weighed down because of the huge amounts of food, especially during celebration days. I would be, however more skeptical about stopping by at a modest restaurant, “just like that”, as written in the book. The reality of restaurants is not that simple and as nice as described in the preface to American edition of this old cook book. That’s why one should be rather cautious about credibility of the words cited above.

Today’s recipe contains crayfish.

In Monatowa’s book one can find tens of recipes with crayfish (soups, butter, sauces, terrines, pâtés and so on). On the contrary, few Polish cookbooks, edited after 1989, mentions crayfish - a popular ingredient in Polish cooking (mostly bourgeois) before the communist era. Probably this is due to the lost of our old culinary culture on the one side; and on the other – probably also due to poorer conditions of soft waters.

I do not eat crayfish often. Frankly, I eat them very rarely, although they are not so difficult to buy (in some grocery stores, both in Paris and in Krakow, one can find cooked crayfish). My first experience with crayfish was at the beginning of the eighties, when I was a kid. On our way back from the Baltic Sea to Kraków, we stopped over in the historical area of Mazury, which is known for its thousand of small and bigger lakes and forests. My parents’ friends owned a little house in a small village, close to a town called Pisz. My two memories from that place: night crayfish catching, and children’s secret visits at the old and abandoned Prussian cemetery.

Well, I do not remember so much from crayfish catching, except for the parents, wearing wellington boots, floundering in water at night. I remember also our parents dropping living creatures into boiling water. I came back to Kraków from that holiday with a small package of red crayfish shells, which I kept in one of my secret boxes for a couple of years, until I grew up a bit and started to collect other “treasures”.

Today’s recipe is my first experiment with a salty cake. Some time ago, I bought a nice, small Hachette book about salty cakes, hoping to bake one soon. I like salty cakes, but I did not know them when I lived in Poland. Not so long ago Polka and Anoushka presented beautiful salty cakes on their blogs, and I realized that my small book is covered with dust (girls, thanks for reminding me).

They are easy to do. Most of recipes use the same basic ingredients: flour, eggs, milk, yeast and cheese. The rest depends on your imagination and taste.

The season for asparagus will be finished soon, so I decided to use white asparagus this time (today’s post is my last one concerning asparagus). I decided to mix them with two other delicate ingredients, meaning crayfish and saffron, and to add a strong rustic touch to the dish, by adding some grated cheese, similar to Oscypek, that I got from Poland. It gave a nice smoked and slightly salty taste to the cake, but did not dominate it. You can use, however, any of your favorite hard cheese.

I used one half spelt flour and one half regular flour; the texture was a bit solid, so next time I will experiment with other types of flour.

White Asparagus and Crayfish Cake with a Strong Polish Twist

Makes one 24 cm long and 7 cm deep mold – serves a small crowd as a snack

Ingredients:

250 g white asparagus

120 g crayfish, unshelled (unfortunately, I only could buy cooked crayfish)

60 g grated Oscypek, or any other hard cheese (preferably smoked)

2 pinch saffron stigmas

1 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped

Grated zest of half a lemon (organic)

100 g spelt flour, sifted*

100 g all purpose flour (you can use 200 g all purpose flour instead of spelt flour), sifted

3 egg yolks (you can use egg whites as well)

50 ml milk

60 ml whipping cream

50 ml olive oil

3 g dried yeast

Pepper

15-20 g butter (for the mold)

Some extra olive oil

Preparation:

Start to prepare the white asparagus. Break or cut off the wooden dry part of them and throw them away. Peel delicately their stems. Cut the asparagus across into halves. Slice delicately the parts with tips along (they should be about 5 to 6 cm long). Cut the remaining parts across into thin slices.

Steam asparagus for 3 to 4 minutes or cook them for a few minutes in boiling water. Then strain under cold water and put aside.

In a large bowl, combine yeast with flour and pepper.

In a second bowl, pour the egg yolks. Whip them slightly. Add milk, cream and olive oil and mix. Add parsley, saffron and mix.

Add the liquid into the dried mixture and mix until it is homogenous. Add the cheese and mix. Taste. I do not advise to add salt if you are going to use a salty cheese. If you like your dough to grow more, leave it for around one hour, covered with a towel.

Prepare the mold: butter the inside and sift a bit of flour over it.

Divide the mixture into three parts.

Place the first part at the bottom of the mold and spread it equally.

Then place one layer of asparagus slices. Cover with the second layer of the dough but ensure that you do not leave any air bubbles.

Then place crayfish and cover with the third layer of dough. On the top of your cake, place the tips of asparagus and leftovers of crayfish. Cover them with a bit of olive oil, so they will not dry out while baking.

Bake in the oven, preheated to around 170 degrees for about 30 to 40 minutes (cover the mold with aluminum foil, remove it after 20 minutes). The cake is ready when a wooden stick, put into the cake, comes out dry.

Switch the oven off, open the oven door a bit, and leave the cake inside for another 10 to 15 minutes so its surface will not drop down suddenly. Then remove the cake from the oven.

Once the cake is completely cooled down, remove unmold it.

It will taste best when eaten on the same day.

Cost:

1 pack of crayfish (cooked): 3,20 €

250 g white asparagus: 1 €

3 eggs (organic): 1,20 €

Saffron (hard to say, I had it in stock)

Other ingredients: around 2 €

Oscypek : 1 €



*I redid the cake on Monday 17th, but this time I used all purpose flour (type 65). It was much lighter in texture, and it nicely grew (before baking, I let it to raise for around 40 minutes).