Hearty and Healthy Polish Cooking

By Michael Niksic

Chef Michael Niksic's first cookbook drops into Polish Cuisine. Reducing the use of saturated fats, flour and sugar was the first priority. During my career i never made a roux in a restaurant I worked in or controlled as chef. His staffs were never allowed to use a roux to thicken anything. Cleaner & concentrated flavor lines have always been the operating theme when preparing food. Faster cooking approaches reducing heat exposure times to many of the menu items built a career long before it was fashionable. Always ahead of the curve spanning 3 decades+ in the restaurant world he stayed ahead by breaking away from food service and starting his own cooking class circuit in Northern Illinois in 2004. He has over 600 TV appearances, 100's of printed newspaper and magazine articles along with dozens of radio interviews. He has also appeared in front of 36+ MILLION people live during his 22 years performing and competing as an expert & professional freestyle jet skier. He also owns one of the most globally respected online shops selling miniature toy soldiers. A fun and varied life has translated into a similar style of cooking in his lifetime. Always ready to share information and recipes is his approach to kitchen life. With a good dose of Rock n Roll to keep things moving.
The recipes are easy to follow, The methods needed to produce them are streamlined. Food prep methods rule, recipes exist because of methods. Good methods overcome bad recipes just as bad methods wreck good recipes. All of the recipes are designed to be easily modified. When asked "Why The Food Mercenary?" the response is "I was once asked what I did for a living. I answered: I am paid to prepare & serve food. I am a Food Mercenary". "Fish Fear My Name" because if I don't finish them on a grill or in a skillet I'll find them with my jet ski:)"

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543933727

Book preview

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

ISBN: 9781543933727

A sampling of the Food and Entertainment Festival Taste of Polonia hosted by The Copernicus Foundation where attendees asked me for new ideas for Polish Cooking!  The event is held annually Labor Day Weekend.

The best advice I was handed when I was a young cook was to trade money for knowledge early on and to diversify my culinary experience.  Following this advice allowed my great career flexibility.  25 years of experience in the restaurant & hotel industry including extensive experience in fine dining, crisis management and design & openings led to me going independent in 2004. 

That is when FreeCookingPrograms.com started.  Since then I have had the great pleasure of sharing my culinary experience, insane funny experiences, knowledge and recipes with 10’s of 1,000’s of food enthusiasts across Illinois.  Still, 95% of my programs are free admission to this day.  I have always loved teaching and have found a balance in life.  This is made easy as my wife Gail is super patient with my insanity!

‘Fresh Fish Caught Daily"

I began jet skiing in 1986 and found myself the #2 seeded freestyle jet skier in the Expert Class at the World Championships in 1998 at age 40.  Throughout that stretch I competed and performed for 17 consecutive years at the Chicago Air & Water Show with annual attendance averaging over 2.3 million per year.  I retired from competitions in 2008 ranked as the #5 pro at season end at age 51.  My media career began with my freestyle career and spawned into 1000’s of appearances on my ski and in kitchens in numerous publications and on every major TV network.  There were numerous Michael’s on tour so most everyone on the tour called me chef.  In my kitchens, I was called Michael, not chef.  I prefer my staff use my name, not my title to address me unless they wanted to refer to me as such. 

Hearty & Healthy Polish Cooking is inspired by the students attending my programs at The Taste of Polonia.  Several years of asking for new ideas with better dietary impact on health has resulted in this book.  The recipes in this book are appropriate for all skill levels.  The end results are high quality.  Unnecessary levels of ingredients like flour, shortening, sugar, salt, eggs and all artificial ingredients have been greatly reduced or eliminated without sacrificing satisfaction.  All of the recipes can be modified to suit your tastes in your home.  Some of these recipes have been prepared on TV live.

Recipes and articles are written by myself and are expressing my views and opinions.    Excerpts from my autobiography cookbook Fish Fear My Name can be found on FreeCookingPrograms.com. Do contact me on Facebook, Twitter, The Food Mercenary Channel on YouTube or WordPress.  OR, visit my Ebay store 1/72 Legions In Plastic Depot

Outside Anaheim Stadium before the start of my freestyle run.

Moments Before A Live TV Demonstration

Indications It Is Time For A New Pair Of Kitchen Shoes

1. Simmering them produces a new version of au jus that is seasoned and shelf stable.

2. They can be stored between shifts stuck to your locker door. 

3. The shoe laces have melted and bonded into the shoe.

4. You can’t tell or remember their original color.

5. The staff can smell you coming before they see you.

6. The EPA hands you a court order limiting how close you can wear them to bodies of fresh water.

7. Every time you remove your shoe your sock stays put.

8. Through time the accumulated layers of food waterproof them.

9. The park ranger orders you to remove them before entering the forest preserve for your own safety.

10. Your shoes reach the point where the FDA demands an ingredient label be visible on them!

OK I have one more in me!

11. Through regular harvesting your toe jam becomes a condiment on the Brunch Menu!

What Makes A Chef Great?

In the ever-changing perspective of the culinary world the 1st thing we have to do is narrow down who is determining the term Great and what do they really mean? In an age where adjectives are misused, over used and many times devalued from both lets eliminate a few things first.

Foodie websites or blogs, food critics, TV shows, relatives, their spouses, ALL companies, neighbors, magazines, culinary schools, and anyone else including your uncle Biff do not have a vote. They are biased, and in many cases out of touch with the reality of what a great chef is. Can someone not a chef figure out if a chef is truly great? Of course. The odds are not good. Great restaurants are not a guarantee the chef is actually great. They may have the needed culinary talent, and turn out to be 1st rate sphincters. Cooking skills alone are not enough to consider any chef as great. For the record, the height of that silly paper hat is a negative along with the fact you are wearing a paper hat!

Restaurant owners, managers, cooks, servers, kitchen staff, customers of the chef serving them and only that chef in that location, and other chefs with similar backgrounds or businesses have a voice in this process. Let’s set something straight. "Top chef, Iron Chef, Celebrity Chef and any other adjective you want to use in front of