During my travels I’ve never participated in some cooking class until now and I can honestly say it was one of the best experiences I had in Warsaw. Not only do you learn about traditional food and cooking, but you meet local chefs and other attendees from all over the world. You make special memories together and friendships with like minded people, who share a passion for traveling, learning and of course cooking with you. I participated, with my colleague Domagoj, in Polish Your Cooking cooking class. We learned how to prepare Pierogi (Polish dumplings) a traditional Polish meal as well as apple pancakes. The class lasted for approximately 4 hours (from 10 am to 2 pm), but to me time ‘flied’, because it was so much fun. Together we prepared food, participated in a ‘spice’ quiz and in the end we tried everything that we cooked. Our chef Magda was very friendly, she helped us all the way and made us feel like we were in our own kitchen. The atmosphere during the whole cooking class was very cheerful and relaxed, I felt like I was having fun and cooking with friends I know for a long time. Isn’t that the best feeling you can get when traveling and visiting new countries? When you feel so comfortable like you’re in your own home, your hosts did their job wonderfully. Definitely, this cooking class is something I would highly recommend.
Photo credit: Domagoj Sever
Polish dumplings (pierogi) are very simple to prepare. It’s filled pastry and you can put any filling you like. We prepared dumplings with minced meat and another with potatoes and cheese. Potatoes should be boiled and pressed with potatoes’ masher and mixed with cheese. But there are also dumplings with spinach, beet, cheese only … So the choice is wide. Of course, you just have to be careful – because regarding the filling – you set time for boiling. Pastry is standard – water, flour, eggs.
Photo credit: Domagoj Sever
Another important ingredient is an onion. We fried the chopped onion on a little bit of butter for a couple of minutes. When the onion was fried and got nice gold brownish color, we added it to the minced meat but also to potatoes and cheese fillings.
Photo credit: Domagoj Sever
You should add spices like salt, pepper to the fillings … to the ones that we made, we added Vegeta Natur. It’s up to you to add what you like the most and that is exactly what we did.
Photo credit: Putopis
The best way to create dumplings is to make a shape with the glass on the pastry, and than use a little spoon for the filling measure. The sticky part of the pastry should be turned up – so when you fill the dumpling – you can easily close it with your fingers.
Photo credit: Domagoj Sever
Photo credit: Domagoj Sever
When shaping the dumplings, the beauty is that you can play and be creative. I named mine ‘Happy dumplings’ and you can see why :-)
Photo credit: Putopis
Chef Magda doing her magic with our new friends. Needless to say, the youngest were the best chefs and made the perfect dumplings.
Photo credit: Domagoj Sever
The final step is boiling. Put dumplings in boiled, salted water and boil them for a couple of minutes, until they come to the surface.
Photo credit: Domagoj Sever
I was delighted with my first Polish dumplings.
Photo credit: Putopis
They tasted delicious and were fast gone while we tasted and chatted with our new cooking colleagues and friends from Australia at the end of the cooking class.
As we are all aware, food connects people. And for me, the right people are always the most important ‘ingredient’ of life. I’m very happy to have met the wonderful chef Magda, whose learning methods are so fun and easy-going and make you love cooking even more. In the end, we all received certificates and that is a great reminder of this wonderful day to me, as well as a great detail at the end of our cooking class. Also our cooking experience wouldn’t be perfect without an amazing Australian family, our new friends. I really do hope our paths will cross again somewhere in the world and that we’ll see each other again. So to the end of this great experience one selfie was a must :-)
If you find yourselves in Warsaw and want a new, great experience and memory, definitely book your Polish Your Cooking class. You can find all the details regarding cooking class at Polish your Cooking
Just cook and have fun :-)
Jasminka Đaković
This blog was done in partnership with Podravka and Polish Your Cooking. All stated opinions are my own and are not influenced in any way.