I think I may have mentioned before that my roots are a little bit Polish but I have never really explored Polish cuisine other than picking up the odd packet of ready made Pierogi (and the fun time I accidentally bought sweet cheese ones and served with a garlic butter sauce!) and this recipe by no means is particularly Polish in origin, though it does use a rather tasty ham called Szynka Swojska, which was wrapped in some kind of netting and proved fun to remove, plus a cheese that was labelled as being a soft cheese, but on opening it was actually rather crumbly upon touch and more resembled a cottage type cheese but without the watery gloop part! I will have to look next time in the Polish shop more closely to find its other name! Fortunately it also melted into the ham fairly well! I think next time I would add more cheese – as the last few pancakes were on the skinny side!
Serves 4-6
Pancakes:
180g plain flour
5 eggs
400ml milk
Pinch salt
Sauce:
250ml milk
250ml water
1 heaped tsp vegetable bouillon powder
1 tbsp finely chopped rosemary
6 tbsp grated extra mature cheddar
2 tbsp cornflour
6 cherry tomatoes, halved
Filling:
500g diced Szynka Swojska (cooked ham) cut into small strips
275g Polish soft cheese – crumbled
For frying – butter or spray oil
A large sheet of greaseproof paper –
Start by making the pancakes. Sift together the flour, salt and beat in the eggs. Add the milk bit by bit to form a smooth batter. Season with salt and pepper.
Heat a heavy based frying pan and add a little butter or spray oil, add a ladleful of batter and swirl around quickly to form a thin pancake. Cook for about two minutes then flip, and cook for a further minute or until cooked through. Place on the prepared baking paper, and repeat with remaining batter to form roughly 12 pancakes. Alternate the cooked pancakes with the greasing paper to stop them sticking to each other.
When your pancakes are all prepared, pre-heat oven to 200o. Lightly grease two large baking dishes.
Place a pancake on a board or clean counter. Spoon over ham and a litte cheese, roll up and place seal side down in the dish. Repeat with remaining until all filled.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden and bubbling.
.JPG)
Sorry there are no pictures of it plated it – it was gobbled up fast by my family and lovely neighbour who popped around for her share as she had never had them baked before! For the record I served mine with broccoli, and a tray of roasted new potatoes with cubes of butternut squash.
Many thanks to Hardy’s for the wine samples. All opinions, text and photography remain the property of Anne’s Kitchen and prior permission must be sought before use elsewhere.
