You may have noticed that we’re part way through Farmhouse Breakfast Week (20th-26th January 2013) here in the UK, aiming to highlight the importance of breakfast with a campaign called ‘Shake Up Your Wake Up!’ Coincidentally, I wrote a piece about breakfast early last week, focusing on the importance of a good breakfast for children before school and mentioning the Primary School Free Breakfast Initiative. This week, we’ve been struck down with illness again, but despite feeling pretty rubbish we’ve managed to keep up our good breakfast habits in order to have enough energy to start to feel better. We don’t always have time for a full cooked breakfast like this one, but on more leisurely mornings, this is our favourite – it’s a One-Pan Polish Breakfast, and I usually use a Polish garlic sausage (available now in UK supermarkets) to give us an extra boost, along with mushrooms, tomatoes, organic free range eggs and a sprinkle of dill – optional! This is the kind of breakfast my dad would cook for us before school. The best bit? There’s hardly any washing up!
Polish Charcuterie
The Poles love their charcuterie, which include sausages, such as smoked kabanosy and cured hams. Cold Cuts are generally known as Wędliny, whilst sausages are Kiełbasy. Polish charcuterie has been made since ancient times and it graces the tables of both the richest and the poorest Poles, often served as part of breakfast, but also often added to soups and stews. The basic processes of making Polish charcuterie involves curing, salting and smoking. In the UK, I regularly now see a few different varieties of Polish sausages and meats, the most popular being Polędwica Sopocka, which is a high quality ham made of pork loin, Polskie Kiełbasy, or Polish sausages, such as Wiejska or Sokołów and Kabanos, a thinner variety of smoked Polish sausage. Each has its own distinctive flavour, some have garlic, others more subtle herbs and spices. Here’s one way of eating Polish charcuterie, but you can also use it to make sandwiches, serve it as a cold cut or add it to pasta dishes or stews.
Eagle-eyed readers will notice that I over-cooked my fried eggs – I’m still adjusting to my new tri-ply copper pans, which retain the heat even when you take them off the heat! Ideally, your eggs should be just cooked and lovely and runny!
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I’m linking this post up to Helen’s Breakfast Club Event, this month hosted by Janice at FarmersGirl Kitchen with a theme of ‘Cooked or Baked’ breakfast!
I hope you manage to cook up a lovely Farmhouse breakfast – there are plenty of ideas for light healthy breakfasts, as well as more substantial cooked breakfast on the Farmhouse Breakfast Week site and you can search under the hashtag #BreakfastWatch for more ideas, too.
Here are some other breakfast ideas –
Polish Scrambled Eggs with Chives
Swiss Scrambled Eggs with Croissants
Healthy Hot Chocolate Breakfast Smoothies
Buckwheat and Buttermilk Pancakes with Pears and Maple Syrup
Honey Nut Toasted Oats with Ribena Berry Sauce
Happy National Farmhouse Breakfast Week!
Czigany says
I absolutely LOVE this bread! I m gluten intolerant and allergic to eggs, it seriously makes breakfast a bummer. This is so perfect! I ve made it per the recipe (except I chop up the hazelnuts to spread the love around) with great results. My d batch I ran out of flax seeds and used ground flax with the addition of a little extra water. Still perfect results. Then I tried adding a little extra maple syrup, cinnamon, and golden raisins. UH.MAY.ZING. Another thing I figured out I have a tiny stomach (gastric sleeve surgery) and I can t eat very much at all. Like half a cup at a time. I make this in muffin form instead of a loaf since that s about my stomach size. I make it in a bowl, let it rest 2-12 hours, squish handfuls into the muffin pan, and then keep the d bake phase to 30 minutes. It still works perfectly. I LOVE THIS BREAD! Thank you!
Corina says
This is lovely variation on a cooked breakfast. I love the idea of sprinkling fresh herbs on top – it makes it seem much fresher and healthier.
Mireille says
This is very similar to Israeli Shakshuka…this Polish version looks delicious also
Ren says
Thank you so much Mireille for your comment, I haven’t tried an Israeli version, I’ll look it up
Janice says
Love the idea of garlic sausage for breakfast, thanks for joining Breakfast Club.
Ren says
Thank you Janice, loved the theme
chip butties and noodle soup says
Nothing beats a good Polish breakfast – looks delicious! My gran used to make scrambled eggs with Polish sausage 🙂
Ren says
Ooh yes that’s a GREAT one! I love that, too! Thanks for the comment x
Sally - My Custard Pie says
It’s the weekend here and I usually make poached eggs on toast for our leisurely breakfasts but I fancy a change now! Great explanation about the different kinds of Polish sausage. The type you can buy in Poland is fantastic with no artificial preservatives and made from organic pork.
Ren says
Yes that’s the only problem I have with the exported stuff – some of it does contain preservatives. There’s an amazing deli in Manchester though where you can get really good quality Polish food. Hope you enjoy your weekend breakfast!
Andrea Mynard says
Looks fab for the weekend Ren. Love the idea of cooking it all in one pan, I do love the ease of one-pot cooking for any meal, but now I’m wondering why on earth I normally end up with grill, frying pan and at least one saucepan to clean for a cooked breakfast. The addition of dill sounds great too.
Ren says
Ha ha, yes, once you try this you’ll love it as a way forward – especially with all your gorgeous pork and sausages! I should think you’ve researched the Art of Charcuterie a lot!
Camilla @Fabfood4all says
Ooh Ren delicious , you’ve made me so hungry now and luckily I have a few rashers of bacon that need using up so although I have no mushroom I will improvise:-)
Ren says
Thanks Camilla – excatly, improvising is perfect!