Pikeperch Ingredients: pikeperch, 150 g of chanterelle, 200 g of French pastry, salt, oil, béchamel sauce. Debone the pikeperch, remove the skin, cut into pieces and add salt. Simmer chanterelle in oil. Coat the fillets with thin layer of French pastry. Bake in a hot oven. Use the pastry to make toasts, serve the fish and chanterelle with toasts and béchamel sauce.

Pike-perch

Three Polish gifts

This dish perfectly combines the three most valuable gifts of Poland's natural world: fish from the crystal-clear lakes, mushrooms from the deep forests and crayfish from our ever cleaner rivers. Adam Michalski, Master Chef at the Sofitel Victoria Hotel and the author of this recipe, drew his inspiration from many old cookery books. This is how he came up with an idea to serve pike-perch with mushrooms. He also proposed, quite unusually, the addition of crayfish. Adam Michalski explains that lobsters improve the colour harmony of the whole composition.

The white, delicate meat of the fish is nicely complemented by the subtle brown hue of boiled chanterelles and the orange colour of crayfish tails, lightly roasted with crayfish butter.

The most delightful fish recipes can be tasted in the Mazurian region, which also abounds in crayfish, rather scarce in other parts of the country. Descriptions of midnight expeditions to “hunt” for those most palatable crustaceans are often found in memoirs describing long-gone life in the countryside.

The neighbouring Suwałki region is slightly different in character. Being less exploited for tourism, it offers scenic lakes teeming with fish and surroundings that can truly enchant visitors with the quiet pace of life and unspoilt nature.