Tara has now joined the ranks of the blogging.... She has her own exercise blog now, like my running blog. I moved her two posts from this page to there, since they were fitness related.

posted by jendoist 7:34 PM

I just made the Polish dish, "Bigos" (or "Hunter's Stew"). This is a time-intensive dish, so I have not made it very often (only 4 times really, and only 3 of those times was I successful). Some interesting things about bigos:

1. There are as many recipes for Bigos as there are Polish chefs, though all could agree if something IS Bigos or not.
2. Bigos tastes better the more it ages, like Wine or Cheese. Some say the third day, some say the 6th day. This is assuming it is reheated every day.
   
3. The Polish say, "Dobry Bigos nigdy nie byl zly" - Good Bigos is never bad. This could be interpreted many ways. (See item 2 above).

In accordance with item 1 above, and since my Bigos met a very warm reception (my wife, a teenager who group up in Spain, and another like me who served and LDS mission in Poland all enjoyed it a lot), I hereby introduce to the world MY Bigos Recipe, stolen and modified from about 5 different recipes found from a Google search:

Crockpot Bigos

3/4 med cabbage head, cut finely 2 lb Sauerkraut 1/2 Hillshire Farms "Polska Kielbasa" cut in small pieces 2-3 thick slices of ham, diced into cubes 1/4 lb bacon 2 garlic cloves ~10 peppercorns 11 C water

~20 Jamaican Allspice berries 1 small can tomato paste 1-2 tsp Real beef buillion ~ 1 tbsp brown sugar 1-2 small onions 1 medium apple Salt to taste 2-3 bay leaves

The recipe I looked at primarily had me cook the sauerkraut for an hour, THEN cook the cabbage for another hour, THEN combine them. Forget that! We have the technology to do things at the same time. So, boil the cabbage in one pot with about 5 cups of water with 1 tsp beef bullion, for about an hour, or until it is soft. At the same time, in a pot add the sauercraut (washed well!), bay leaves, all-spice, 1 tsp beef bullion, and 6 cups of water. In yet a third pan, cook the bacon, and brown the rest of the meat, cooking it together with the onions and garlic. After the meat is sufficiently cooked, add it to the sauerkraut mixture, and put the apple(peeled, and finely cut) and brown sugar in as well. Bring the Sauerkraut mixture to a boil then let it simmer on low for 45 minutes. When this is done and the cabbage is soft, throw everything into a pre-heated crockpot. Continue to cook until the whole mixture has cooked for a total of three hours. (Hence the crockpot, so you can go do something else).

I personally did not add the tomato paste until later on, but it could be put in from the beginning. The taste wasn't quite right until I added it. Also, you could add diced tomatos instead.

As I said before, this really needs three days of reheating for the flavors to mix the best. You can shortcut this by cooking it morning and evening for 1-2 hours at a time (2 in a crockpot since it heats up slowly). I think I got about 10 hours of total cooking time in only 2.5 days, and it tasted great! Every time you cook it, salt and pepper and sweeten to taste. Make sure to refrigerate between cookings. This is primarily a winter dish in Poland, probably because they could "refrigerate" easiest by putting the pot outside in the freezing cold weather between cookings. Unless you have a large refrigerator, you will be faced with the same options here as well.

posted by jendoist 12:29 PM