The famous Polish bigus - cabbage stewed over low heat with a lot of different types of meat, smoked meats, mushrooms and dried fruits - was originally a hunting dish. It arose at the end of the 14th century. It is believed that it was first prepared for the Lithuanian prince Vladislav, and the very first bigus included sauerkraut and various princely hunting trophies - a hare, a wild boar, a pheasant.
It is necessary
-
- 1 cup pitted prunes
- 30 g dried porcini mushrooms;
- 2 glasses of water;
- 1 tablespoon melted fat or vegetable oil
- 1 medium onion;
- 1 small head of fresh cabbage;
- 500 g sauerkraut;
- 250 g Polish sausages (Krakow
- Lublin);
- 250 g semi-smoked sausages;
- 500 g of various meats (pork
- chicken
- duck
- beef, etc.) without bones;
- 3 large tomatoes;
- 1 glass of dry red wine;
- 1 bay leaf;
- salt and black pepper to taste.
Instructions
Step 1
Place prunes and dried mushrooms in a bowl. Boil water. Pour boiling water over the mushrooms and dried fruits, cover and let it brew for 30 minutes or until the mushrooms soften. Drain the infusion and set aside. You can cut the mushrooms and prunes into strips, but leaving them intact will add juiciness and authenticity to the dish.
Step 2
Chop fresh cabbage into strips. Melt the fat or heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan. Peel the onion and cut into half rings. Put onion and fresh cabbage in a saucepan, stir. Rinse and squeeze the sauerkraut. Cut the meat set into cubes of 1-2 centimeters. Scald the tomatoes, peel them off and also cut into cubes. Cut the sausages too. When the contents of the saucepan are quenched by half, add sauerkraut, meat, tomatoes, sausages, pour in wine, put a bay leaf, add mushrooms and prunes, pour in the liquid from them.
Step 3
Stir well and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for at least 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally and adding liquid as needed to keep the food from burning. The longer you cook the bigus, the tastier it will be. Some people leave the pot on the tiniest fire or on the edge of a warm stove overnight.
