How often do housewives have to think about what to cook to please all family members? In summer, this issue is solved quite simply - fruits, vegetables, salads will allow us to diversify the menu and make the family diet tasty and nutritious. And what to do in the winter? First, use frozen vegetables and fruits. And secondly, remember that there is such a dish as sauerkraut bigus. This is a great option for a family dinner, when you want not dainties, but really tasty and homemade food. At the same time, the bigus recipe is quite simple, cooking it is quite simple and quick. In general, bigus came to us from Polish cuisine, but it has already become a completely familiar and beloved dish by many thanks to its fullness and spicy taste.
How to cook bigus? It turns out that there is more than one bigus recipe, and many recipes are very dissimilar. For example, you can cook this dish from sauerkraut and (or) fresh cabbage, use pork, beef, chicken (raw or smoked), as well as sausage or sausages as meat - in any case, the result will be a very appetizing and aromatic dish.
Sauerkraut Bigus Recipe
To prepare this option, we need half a kilogram of sauerkraut, half a kilogram (or slightly less) of meat, one or two onions, one or two carrots, 100 g of tomato paste (or ketchup, preferably not too hot), salt, sugar and frying oil . If desired, spices can be added to the dish to enhance its piquant taste (black pepper, bay leaf, dill, paprika, turmeric, rosemary). First you need to cut the meat into small pieces, finely chop the onion and grate the carrots on a coarse grater. Then fry all together in vegetable oil. To enhance the taste, you can improve the bigus recipe and add more smoked meat and sausages (about 200 g), which also need to be cut into pieces and added to the fried onions, carrots and meat. For lovers of prunes, you can advise at this stage of cooking to add a few chopped fruits (5-8 pieces) to the bigus. It is best to fry food in a pan with high sides and a thick bottom, and you can also in a special cauldron. It is necessary to add cabbage to the fried meat, stew a little, then salt, pepper and add water (about a glass). Cover the dishes and let the bigus stew for about half an hour or a little more (just remember to mix the cooked dish regularly to prevent burning of the lower layer). Then you need to add tomato paste or ketchup to the bigus, mix well and stew for another 10-15 minutes. That's all - you can serve.
The recipe for bigus from fresh cabbage looks about the same, only the cooking time can be slightly reduced (especially if the cabbage is young). A very interesting option can be cooking bigus from sauerkraut and fresh cabbage at the same time. In this case, both types of cabbage are added to the meat at the same time, and then everything goes according to the scheme described above. Pork is most often taken as meat, but if you cook bigus with leaner meat, such as chicken or beef, it will turn out no worse (and at the same time the dish will become much more dietary). Instead of ketchup or tomato paste, you can add fresh or canned tomatoes. To diversify the taste, you can cook bigus with mushrooms, for which it is necessary to pre-fry the mushrooms, and then add them to the cooking cabbage with meat for 10-15 minutes before switching off. It is interesting that the bigus recipe that came to us from Poland includes dry red wine, which is used to stew cabbage, as part of the ingredients. However, if the bigus is prepared for the whole family, including children, it is better to do without alcohol.
Enjoy your meal!