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[Photograph: Bogdan Bialy]
Bigos, or traditional Polish Hunter's Stew. is among individuals homey recipes that changes at home by. Actually, in From The Polish Country House Kitchen . Anne Applebaum and Danielle Crittenden describe the stew as Poland's form of chili—long stewed meat having a suggestion of vegetable offered with thick rustic bread. Their take blends pork, venison, beef, veal, and sausage with cabbage, sauerkraut, and mushrooms for any no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners, hearty meal for that meatiest of meat enthusiasts. Quite simply, this is an awesome accessory for your late winter repertoire.
Why I selected this recipe: I have not simmered sauerkraut inside a meat stew, and believe to test it compared to meatiest of meat stews?
What labored: The tanginess from the sauerkraut and wonder from the prunes marries effortlessly using the tender meats.
What did not: No problems here.
Recommended tweaks: The selection in meat is really your decision. Don't feel at ease cooking veal? Use pork. Aren't able to find venison? Substitute any slightly gamey meat, like lamb.
Reprinted with permission from From the Polish Country House Kitchen: 90 Recipes for that Ultimate Comfort Food By Anne Applebaum and Danielle Crittenden, 2012. Printed by Chronicle Books. All legal rights reserved. Available wherever books are offered.
Serious Eats From the Polish Country House Kitchen's Hunter's Stew (Bigos) Studying Options: Cooking Mode
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 lb (800 g) sauerkraut
- 4 strips bacon or, better still, 4 thin slices Canadian bacon, diced
- 1 small mind eco-friendly cabbage, thinly sliced
- Small number of dried wild mushrooms (any sort)
- 1/2 lb (225 g) boneless venison, leg, or perhaps a stewing cut (not the loin), reduce 1-inch (2.5-cm) pieces
- 1/2 lb (225 g) boneless stew beef, for example chuck, reduce 1-inch (2.5-cm) pieces
- 1/2 lb (225 g) pork or veal shoulder, reduce 1-inch (2.5-cm) pieces
- 1/4 cup (30 g) all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil or lard
- 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
- 1 cup (240 ml) dry dark wine
- 1/2 lb (225 g) smoked kielbasa or any other spicy hard sausage, heavily sliced
- 1 cup (225 g) pitted prunes, quartered
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- Bread for serving, preferably rustic and dark, like a Russian loaf
Directions
Drain the sauerkraut, put it inside a medium saucepan, and add 2 cups (480 ml) water and bacon pieces. Cover and boil over medium heat for 25 minutes or longer, before the sauerkraut is extremely tender and also the bacon is cooked.
Meanwhile, place the fresh cabbage and dried mushrooms inside a separate large saucepan, cover with water, and produce to some boil. Continue boiling before the cabbage is tender, twenty to thirty minutes. Drain and hang aside.
Rinse all of the meat and pat dry. Place the flour inside a shallow bowl and chuck the ball meat to coat.
Heat 1 tablespoons of from the vegetable oil over medium heat inside a stew pot big enough to carry all of the meat and vegetables. Prepare the onion until softened, remove having a slotted spoon, and hang aside. Add some remaining 2 tablespoons of oil towards the pot and gently brown the meat, in batches, over medium heat, two to three minutes per side, transferring the meat to some plate when it’s done.
When all of the meat continues to be browned, enhance the heat to high, pour within the wine, and boil briefly, scraping in the browned bits at the base from the pot having a wooden spoon. Return the meat and all sorts of its resting juices to the pot, and add some onion, kielbasa, prunes, cabbage, and also the sauerkraut and bacon mixture, and its cooking water. Salt generously, add several grinds of pepper, and produce to some boil.
Turn lower heat, cover the pot using the lid slightly askew, and simmer on really low heat for any good two to three hrs, before the meat falls apart and also the broth is wealthy and brown. Stir the stew from time to time, and be sure that the liquid isn’t evaporating too rapidly (add a tiny bit of water at the appropriate interval). Some just like a watery bigos, but we discover the tastiest result's for that sauerkraut, cabbage, and meat all to become practically melted together, with sufficient sauce to help keep everything moist, but less that the ingredients float, as with a classical stew.
Serve inside a large casserole having a big spoon and thick slices of dark peasant bread. You’ll obviously need utensils, but the it's to shovel the bigos and it is juices to the bread. Bigos lasts forever, and will get better as time passes. Certainly one of Anne’s buddies routinely makes this on Wednesday for everyone on Saturday night, and swears it improves every single day.
