Don't get me wrong. I absolutely loved being a member of the Food Project CSA this summer. It was a joy to receive all of those fresh organic veggies every week. Sometimes it was a challenge to figure out what to do with them, but it led to the discovery of many new kinds of soups, salads and other veggie delights.
One week back in July, my CSA box contained the first head (of what would be many heads) of cabbage. Having just returned from Krakow, Poland, I was inspired to make sauerkraut. The Polish national dish is bigos, a sort of hunter's stew made from a sauerkraut base, with many kinds of meat, mushrooms, etc. mixed in. One tends to eat a lot of bigos when in Poland, but I had never made it myself.
Well, I confess, the sauerkraut thing did not go so well. It's easy enough to make, but I was overly liberal with the salt, meaning I didn't measure, I just dumped it in. It did cause the brine to form as it's supposed to, and underwent the fermentation process. But it was way too salty. And when it seemed to be ready (after about a month), I moved it out of the "Bigos Bucket" and into a tupperware in the fridge. At this point, I dumped out most of the brine, which was a little grody looking. Unfortunately, I think that brine is actually important to the preservation of the sauerkraut. By the time I got around to making my bigos, my sauerkraut was covered with a fine fuzzy mold. Ew.
In the meantime, I had stocked my freezer with many pounds of meat and I really had my heart set on making bigos. Fortunately, I found a jar of sauerkraut in my pantry. I know it's not quite the same - not sure it would meet the approval of the Polish peasant - but it would have to do. At least I checked the label to make sure it was the real deal: sauerkraut made with only two ingredients - cabbage and salt - and no vinegar or other additives.
There is no consensus about exactly how to make bigos, mainly because it's one of those dishes where you can throw in anything that you happen to have in the root cellar (or fridge, if you are not actually a Polish peasant). Did you shoot a wild boar on the hunt last week? What a great addition. Trying to get rid of some Polish sausage left over from last week's cookout? That'll work too. The more the merrier. And remember, this is "hunters' stew" so game is good.
I got some great pointers from this poster on Chowhound, who revealed her mother's secrets. But I did a lot of other research, and came up with my own version of the recipe:
1 lb pork shoulder (or some other stew meat), cut into 1-in cubes
1 large onion, coursely chopped
1 small head fresh cabbage, coursely chopped
4 carrots, thickly sliced
10-12 oz mushrooms (I used baby bellas), halved
1 lb sauerkraut
1 lb sausage (I used elk sausage, which was delish), thickly sliced
1-2 stock cubes
bay leaf
pepper
1 C dry red wine
1 C pitted prunes
Briefly brown your pork cubes over high heat to seal. Set aside.
In a large pot, saute onion, fresh cabbage and carrots in vegetable oil for about 10 minutes. When the volume of the cabbage has reduced by about half, add mushrooms and cook for a few more minutes.
Add sauerkraut and just enough water to saturate the mixture. Mix well and bring to a boil. Lower heat to simmer and add your browned meat and sausage, plus stock cubes, bay leaf and plenty of pepper. Simmer on low heat for about an hour.
After an hour or so, add wine and prunes. Return to simmer.
After simmering a few more hours, I started eating it. I couldn't help it, I was hungry, and it was pretty tasty. But everyone agrees that it tastes better the next day. So if you can wait, store it overnight in a cool place (the poster on Chowhound said "My Babcia would do this on her balcony"). The next day you can bring it back to a simmer and cook for a few more hours, adding water if necessary. Every time you do this - cool and cook - the flavors get more intense and more delightful. Serve with a hardy peasant bread or boiled potatoes.
Bigos is also supposed to good for freezing and eating later. But I wouldn't know. I gave some of it away, and we ate the rest in two sittings.
Incidentally, I still have two heads of cabbage sitting in my fridge leftover from my CSA. Maybe it's time to give that sauerkraut another try.
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