Polish food is domestic, comfort food ideal for occasions when nothing other than hearty soup or rich-flavored stew will do and when generous hospitality is the order of the day. The harsh Polish winters mean that many key ingredients are those that are preserved or stored--dried mushrooms, pickled herrings, sauerkraut, hot paprika paste, fruits in syrup, cucumbers in brine and root vegetables--so it is the perfect cooking to create from store cupboard essentials. Drawing on the culinary archives and expertise of her family and friends, Mary Pininska's The Polish Kitchen is a treasury of Polish cooking ancient and modern. It is enlivened with personal annecdotes and spiced with a wealth of customs and folk traditions.