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Bigos Posted by on Mar 25, 2011 in Uncategorized

Such a great Polish dish! Not mentioned as often as Pierogi or Gołąbki, but still worth trying! A savoury stew of cabbage and meat! Typical ingredients include fresh and fermented white cabbage (sauerkraut, kapusta kiszona in Polish), various cuts of meat and sausages, often whole or puréed tomatoes, honey and mushrooms. The meats may include pork (often smoked), ham (szynka), bacon (bekon), beef (wołowina), veal (cielęcina), sausage (kiełbasa), and, as bigos is considered a hunters’ stew, venison (dziczyzna) and leftover cuts find their way into the pot as well. It may be seasoned with pepper (pieprz), caraway (kminek), juniper berries (owoce jałowca), bay leaf (liść laurowy), marjoram (majeranek), pimento (pieprz angielski), dried or smoked plums (suszone albo wędzone śliwki) and other ingredients (inne składniki).

Ingredients:

One 33 ounce jar of Sauerkraut

One Savoy Cabbage

Two pounds beef (optional)

Two pounds pork (optional)

½ pound smoked bacon

One pound Kielbasa

One onion

wild mushrooms

One SMALL can of Tomato paste or sauce

3 to 5 Bay Leaves

salt, pepper, oil, sugar, allspice

Directions:

bigos-mysliwskiFirst, get a jar of Polonaise Sauerkraut and a pound of kielbasa. Don’t use watered down sauerkraut that comes in a plastic sack with lots of water and vinegar. The final product is only as good as the best ingredients you can get. Then, get the best beef and pork with a minimum of fat. Cut off all that you can before cooking. Get a half pound of thick sliced bacon. If you cannot find a Savoy cabbage, a regular cabbage works just fine. Start by getting a large pot of water boiling. Add the sauerkraut. Let it bubble away. Cut up the beef and pork into little fork size squares and brown. Generally this takes two frying pans (one for beef and one for pork). Season with secret herbs and spices. Grate the cabbage. Throw it into the boiling pot. Chop up the onion and put it in the boiling water. When the beef and pork is browned pour both in the pot. Cut the kielbasa into short pieces and sear in one of the frying pans. The searing keeps kielbasa from mushing up when it spends a lot of time in hot water. When seared, into the pot it goes. Cut all the bacon into half inch long pieces and fry. Drain off the extra fat as necessary. When the bacon is done throw all pieces in the pot. It’s ok to cook the sausage in the same frying pan with the bacon. Little chunks, any size. Add a little (teaspoon full) of salt, a half teaspoon of pepper (go light on this), one eighth cup sugar, and the bay leaves to the pot. And here’s the final touch. Dump in a SMALL can of tomato paste or tomato sauce. Stir. Add water as necessary. Cook at low heat. Let it simmer. The longer it simmers, the better it gets.

You can it as a soup – by itself, or it could be a dish with side of mashed potatoes. Leftovers can be frozen and thawed. Or you can just store in the refrigerator and reheat through the week.

Let me know how it went!

Smacznego!

Do następnego razu! (Till next time…)

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About the Author: Kasia

My name is Kasia Scontsas. I grew near Lublin, Poland and moved to Warsaw to study International Business. I have passion for languages: any languages! Currently I live in New Hampshire. I enjoy skiing, kayaking, biking and paddle boarding. My husband speaks a little Polish, but our daughters are fluent in it! I wanted to make sure that they can communicate with their Polish relatives in our native language. Teaching them Polish since they were born was the best thing I could have given them! I have been writing about learning Polish language and culture for Transparent Language’s Polish Blog since 2010.


Comments:

  1. Casimir Ziezio:

    There are as many recipes for Bigos as there are Polish kitchens. My Bigos is different from this, far less water, lots of paprika used in browning the beef & pork, pre-baked (wild) fowl & venison not browned, 100% pork kielbasa not sauteed, thin sliced sautéed savoy cabbage & rinsed kraut, mead & vodka. And of course sour cream added when served with good rye bread & dry mead. But if done right, all Bigos just melts in your mouth.

  2. Karola:

    Smacznego! I love Bigos! I enjoy reading your blogs too! Well sone!
    Karola

  3. Karola:

    Ooops! Well done!

  4. Emilia:

    Yes I like bigos especially in the winter.

    You are doing a good job here keeping up Polish customs. I like that!

  5. Kim:

    Thank you for the recipe! I’m all about the food.

  6. Tadeuz Figlock (Figlak):

    Making your own kielbosi with a family recipe always gets the best flavor as our tastebuds have their own memory! Most supermarkets will supply the flaki for casing, and be glad to bone and cube pork butts The pork will taste better marinated overnight with garlic, sweet marjoram and beer. When the cubed meat is ground, before going into the casing, it is good to knead in sugar to keep the mix stuck together. If you are squeamy about mashing garlic cloves and mixing it into the cubed pork, you can experiment with garlic/salt seasoning. I use no preservatives because the kielbosi gets eaten up with eggs and warm bread after Mass on the special day it was made for. Tadek.