Despite some common Slavic features, Polish cuisine is still very distinctive and original. One of its central dishes is the famous bigos. The Polish recipe for this soup is quite complicated and time-consuming, but the result is above all praise. Moreover, the ingredients in it are quite affordable. With a lack of time, you can try to simplify the recipe or even make bigos in a multicooker, but for the first acquaintance you should still try. Try to follow all the rules of the classic recipe. So, we are preparing a classic bigos.
Polish recipe: necessary preparations
Many decades ago, every decent Polish mistress in the pantry always had an impressive tub or pot full of bigos. The more he stays cool, the fuller his aroma will be. It was possible to treat an unexpected guest with such a dish, feed the wandering traveler or hunter, and it’s hard to come up with a better table for the festive table. Bigos was also preparing for Christmas evening. The Polish recipe has not changed much now. You will have to be patient - you need to cook it for three days. So, take three dried pears and fill them with half a glass of red dry wine, leave overnight. Pour a handful of dried mushrooms with water, leave for an hour.
Rinse and cook until cooked, strain the broth. Melt two tablespoons of melted pork fat, known as lard, in a deep frying pan. Peel and finely chop two large onions, fry in fat. Add various meat products to the onion, all of which should be about a kilogram. The main secret to success is diversity. It is best to use boiled beef, boiled pork, and fried pork, and a couple of pieces of duck or chicken, several different types of smoked sausages and sausages, as well as fatty ham. All this needs to be cut into small cubes before being sent to the pan. Twenty minutes after the start of frying, everything needs to be transferred to a deep, half-filled pan with water, in which the bigos will be cooked. The Polish recipe advises you to do the following: pour the tomato juice into the lard left in the pan after frying, boil and put chopped fresh white cabbage there. Quench for a quarter of an hour, cover, then send to pre-prepared meat. Cut
pears soaked
in wine into straws, and mix the wine with a tablespoon of plum jam. Add it all to the soup. Finally, the last ingredient is an apple. Take two, preferably sweet and sour, peel and cut into slices. Add bay leaf and send to the fire.
Cook bigos
Cooking bigos should be very long, only then the products reveal all their tastes and aromas as harmoniously as possible. Once the dish begins to boil, add a little sugar, pepper and salt to it. Try it - it should be very juicy. Simmer for sixty minutes under the lid, stirring occasionally. If you ignore bigos, it will burn very quickly. If the liquid has boiled away too quickly, add a little water, but remember that bigos should be thick enough. After an hour, the dish should be removed in the cold for a day. After a day, extinguish it again for about half an hour and remove again. Finally, put out the last half hour. Only now the classic soup can be called ready. Such a long preparation really provides an amazing taste, so you will not regret your efforts.