Pölsa attempt #1

Maybe I've been too over-ambitious in this blogging thing, either in how many times a week I planned on posting, or choosing recipes that are reasonably doable on a weeknight. I've been too busy cooking to blog for the past two four days, but did get the pölsa, the palt and the longanisa done. I'm going to keep trying to do it this way though with dishes that don't take as long to make and see if I can get the hang of it. I was debating skipping a week next week to use up all the food that I've made already but I'm looking forward to next week's cooking too much to do that :P

I'm calling this my first attempt at pölsa (pronounced peulsa, Swedish has a few extra vowels and this one in particular is similar to the pronunciation of the French word "peut" so that's why I'm writing it that way to help you pronounce it) because even if it turned out delicious it didn't taste like it was supposed to. Pölsa is basically ground organ meat and barley and spices that was originally made to use up scraps after butchering. It's very nutritious and hearty comfort food. It's usually served with a fried egg and some pickled beets and is sold by the can in stores in Sweden.

My mom doesn't have a recipe for it in any of her cookbooks and I couldn't find didn't look hard enough to find any in English recipes online except for this one, (I just tried googling "Swedish pölsa recipe" (if you just google "pölsa recipe" you just get recipes for "polska kielbasa" which is etymologically related to it, but not the same thing) again and going past the first page of results and got this, which I might ask my mother about whether it's worth making) which didn't have any measurements so I winged it, and my mom told me afterwards what changes had to be made. I guess I should have consulted her beforehand :P And now I have to try google-translating any Swedish results I find when searching for "pölsa recept". More research must be done!

When I went shopping for ingredients I went to an Asian grocery and asked for half a kilo each of pork liver and heart. As he bagged them I realized he probably misunderstood (or maybe just didn't want to cut the liver, or he wanted to sell more?) and gave me a kilo of each. So I decided to use it all anyways.

When I chopped them up and put them in the pot I didn't realize what an enormous amount of food it would make once I added an equal amount of pork, beef and cooked barley. I ended up having two big pots half full of the stuff, 6L in total. Luckily I have some friends and family who like it so I don't have to have it sitting in my freezer for 6 months while I finish it off lol. So change #1 I'm gonna do is scale this recipe down a lot.

Change # 2 is the ingredients. The website said to use liver, heart, pork and beef. I figured I'd start off with that, but it turned out tasting more like liver and onions than the pölsa I remembered eating during my trip to Sweden when I was 11 (although my memory might be wrong). My mom never made it herself so I can't compare to hers. So I asked my mom, and she said that you're not supposed to use as much liver, and no beef. She said that you can put anything in it really, but that was how she remembered it.

After some reading of a few more pölsa recipes on Swedish websites with the help of google translate I've decided I'll incorporate all the yummy-sounding variations into one recipe: I'll cook the meat WITH the barley, add some extra bouillon cubes, fry the onions before adding them, and add vinegar, anchovies, bay leaf and cloves.

So my tentative recipe for next time will be:

2lbs mixed organ meats
1lb fatty pork
1/2 lb pearl barley
3 medium onions, chopped
1 small tin of anchovies
1tbsp ground allspice
1tsp ground cloves
1tsp marjoram
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup vinegar
3 bouillon cubes
1tsp pepper

Cut the meat into 1-2" cubes and put it in a large pot with everything else and a bit of water (about 2" above the meat and barley I guess, I'll add more if needed). Simmer for about half an hour, stirring occasionally, or till the barley is tender. While the mixture is simmering fry the onions with two tablespoons of oil on medium-high heat while stirring often until they start to brown and then add them to the simmering mixture.

When it's done cooking drain the mixture, reserving the broth, and grind it finely with a meat grinder. Add the meat and barley mixture back to the broth and continue simmering it on very low heat for another 10-20 minutes, tasting it and adjusting seasonings as necessary.

Here is a picture I took while I was cooking it. I'll take a nicer picture on a plate with some other stuff  like this one when I re-make it.

Later: Poutine!