Bigos
A Polish dish of finely chopped meat of various kinds stewed with sauerkraut and shredded fresh cabbage. The recipe might also include plum and wild game with wild mushrooms or other forest produce. Also traditional for Belorussian, Ukrainian and Lithuanian cuisine.
Ingredients
- 1 large white onion
- 2 tablespoons of unrefined pork fat
- 250 gr pork in bite sized cubes
- 1 can of single malt beer
- 1/3 chopped cabbage or 300 gr sauerkraut, drained
- 4 or 6 black pepper corns
- 250 gr kielbasa or other smoked sausage
- 1 tablespoon of mustard
- 1 tablespoon marjoram (or oregano leaves)
- 1 tablespoon cumin seeds (or caraway seeds)
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 25 gr of oyster mushrooms
- 25 gr regular mushrooms
- Salt, water…
Optional: Bigos often has a sweet factor to it, that varies from recipe to recipe, the most common additions are pear, or dried prunes in winter.
Wild mushrooms, game meat and other forest produce are also very typical and will give your Bigos an authentic aroma.
Preparation
Chop up the onion in thick pieces, put a heavy pot on the stove and add the chopped large onion with the pork fat and the pork meat, make sure the meat seals well.
Next add the can of beer and the cabbage (or sauerkraut) with the pepper corns and some salt (just a bit, you can always add more later). Add 3 cups of water to keep it from burning while you stir it all together.
Put the lid on your pot and give it 30 minutes if you have a pressure cooker or three times as much if you are working with a regular pot (its a good idea to chop everything up while you wait). When its done the meat and the cabbage should be soft but not undone.
When you have the base broth ready, chop up the sausage roughly in to bite size pieces and add them with the mustard, the marjoram (or oregano leaves), cumin seeds (or caraway seeds), and the ground black pepper.
Finally add the chopped up mushrooms on top and stir them in lightly, wait another 15 to 20 minutes on medium heat and serve hot.
This recipe should accommodate well for 4 hungry stew lovers.