Polish Cooking 102: Polish Christmas Eve

My grandma Em was Polish and taught us how to celebrate Christmas Polish style. The true Polish Christmas Eve Dinner is a 12-course meatless dinner, but with my sister, Kristen, mixing the Egg Nog, our dinner ended up being only 7 courses including one course of Advil, but what the hell…we had a good time! I hope your holiday was special too.

Course 1: Kristen’s Christmas Eve Egg Nog

1 quart Egg Nog
½ cup Captain Morgan’s Rum
½ cup Southern Comfort
1 cup skim milk
1 pinch nutmeg

Course 2: Polish Mushroom Soup

This is a staple at my family’s Christmas Eve Dinner. In the past, we’ve used mushrooms that our relatives in Poland sent to us but we lost our hook-up when Aunt Sophie moved to Boston so we’re stuck with the ‘shrooms they had at Harris Teeter. I won’t complain though since my soup turned out way better then Grandmas ever did (sorry, Em!!)



Recipe:
½ cup onions, chopped
1 Tablespoon butter
1 pound fresh sliced mushrooms (I used baby bellas, Portabellas and white button mushrooms)
6 cups water
5 teaspoons beef flavored bouillon
¼ cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper

Cook onions in butter in a large stockpot until slightly brown and caramelized, about 10 minutes. Add mushrooms, salt and pepper. Add flour and cook for about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer 30 minutes. Shortly before serving, remove about 3 cups of the soup and put in the blender with yogurt. Blend until smooth. Add back to soup, mix, heat to desired temperature and then serve soup with a dollop of sour cream and sliced green onions.


Course 3: Kristen’s Christmas Eve Egg Nog

Course 4: Pierogies


Course 5: Kristen’s Christmas Eve Egg Nog


Course 6: Prosciutto -Wrapped Scallops

½ cup sun dried tomato pesto
24 medium scallops
12 slices prosciutto

Preheat the oven to 350. Toss the scallops in the pesto and let marinate for about 5minutes. Meanwhile, cut each piece of prosciutto in half lengthwise. Wrap each scallop in a slice of prosciutto (and secure with a toothpick if necessary) and place in a buttered baking dish. Bake until scallop is cooked through, about 15 minutes.

Course 7: Advil to ease the wrath of the SoCo.