Polish cooking - 'the ultimate comfort food', says journalist Anne Applebaum

Anne Applebaum with co-author Danielle Crittenden: photo - publicity materials

“I find cooking therapeutic,” Anne Applebaum, who is also wife of Poland's foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski, says of her new book, From a Polish Country House Kitchen: 90 Recipes for the Ultimate Comfort Food, which she co-wrote with Danielle Crittenden, international blog editor of the Huffington Post.

Applebaum, whose Gulag: a history (2003) won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, said writing the cookbook brought some light relief while she was finishing her latest history, Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956.

“Heavy writing doesn't go so well with precision baking,” she tells reporter Nick Hodge, “but making soup you can absolutely do when writing a book”.

She also reveals that Poland's foreign minister is not a fan of carp, one of the traditional foods on the Polish Christmas table.

From a House Kitchen: 90 Recipes for the Ultimate Comfort Food is published by Chronicle Books.

For more on Anne Applebaum's work see her web site here. (pg)