What is wonderful about this dish? Bigus (bigos) can be cooked from any meat, sausage or sausages, take fresh or sauerkraut cabbage (or both), add favorite spices, tomato paste or tomatoes if desired. As you can see, during the preparation of bigos, each hostess can give free rein to the imagination and prepare her own, special bigos.
Today we will cook Bigus from fresh cabbage with meat. You can take your favorite spices, I used some paprika and hot peppers. Meat - pork, but it is possible to take beef.
Spread on vegetable oil first chopped onion for 1-2 minutes, then add carrots to it.
While vegetables are being sauteed, we cut the washed and dried meat into medium pieces, add it to the onions and carrots. At this stage you can add pepper and spices, I prefer salt later.
Stir, cover and fry the meat with vegetables for 10 minutes, stirring. Meanwhile we chop cabbage. Add it to the pan.
Pour about half the height of water (250-300 ml), salt, cover and simmer for 30-40 minutes over low heat, making sure that the water does not boil (add more water if necessary). Finely chop the tomato, after removing the skin from it. If there is no tomato, you can add tomato juice or 1-2 spoons of tomato paste. Tomato gives the necessary acidity to bigos. I added more garlic and a few ringlets of hot pepper.
Mix, cover and stew the cabbage with meat for another 5-7 minutes, you can add a bay leaf. Here is our bigos from fresh cabbage and I'm ready, please go to the table! Aromatic, nourishing, rich bigus from fresh cabbage with meat will be enjoyed by your relatives. Add your favorite greens and serve. I have fresh Chinese garlic leaves straight from the garden, very fragrant!
As you can see, cooking bigus is not at all difficult, and the dish turns out great! Enjoy your meal!
- veal - 700 g,
- smoked products - 600 g,
- krakow sausage - 300 g,
- white cabbage - 600 g,
- white cabbage - 400 g,
- fresh carrots - 1 pc.,
- onion - 2 pcs.,
- madera - 1 cup,
- sugar - 3 tbsp. spoons
- salt to taste
- tomato paste - 3 tbsp. spoons
- prunes - 10 berries,
- bay leaf - 3 pcs.,
- spices - to taste,
- bacon - 200 g,
- garlic - 1 tooth.
Cooking process:
To prepare bigus take: sauerkraut, fresh white cabbage, tomato paste, fresh veal, smoked meat, be sure to Krakow sausage, onions, carrots, prunes, wine Madera (or Sherry, Port), salt, spices, sugar.
Put sauerkraut into a cauldron or a thick-walled pot. As you can see in the photo, my homemade cabbage was souring immediately with carrots, so it has a dark color. For my bigus I will not use carrots anymore. In addition, cabbage can be fermented and too sour. Rinse such cabbage with running water, and squeeze out the water, put it in a saucepan. So, put the sauerkraut in the pan, turn on the fire and simmer, stirring occasionally, on low heat.
Pour into a heated pan vegetable oil. Heat well. Smoked or fresh bacon cut the bacon into small pieces to the extent that the fat is melted and the bacon is not burnt.
To the fried bacon add chopped onion half rings. Fry the onions and bacon together. If your sauerkraut without carrots, then grate the carrots and add it to the pan and fry. I no longer use carrots, given its presence in sauerkraut.
Rinse fresh veal under running water. Remove the wires and film. Cut the meat into small pieces and place in a frying pan. Fry the pulp with vegetables. All this time, our sauerkraut for bigusse has been stewed separately in a cauldron.
When the meat is well roasted, add smoked meats to the pan. In order to facilitate the cooking process, I bought such a set of smoked meat at the retail chain, “But for all that, we still need Krakow sausage. Cut it separately, by rings. Add smoked meat and Krakow sausage to the pan and mix. Smoked meat will give a little fat and roast.
Add tomato paste and some water to the pan. Water will need about 0.5 cups. Simmer on low heat for 10 minutes. Be sure to add 1 tbsp. a spoonful of sugar.
By this time, the cabbage will be quite soft. Chop fresh white cabbage and add to the cauldron. Simmer both kinds of cabbage together, stirring.
In time, the cabbage will become like this. It took 30 minutes later.
Add smoked meats to cabbage and mix.
Pour in some water (0.5 cups). Add to the bigus prunes and Madera, a little sugar to extinguish the acidity of the cabbage. Simmer Bigus on low heat for about 2 hours. Stir occasionally. If necessary, pour some water.
You need to understand that Bigus is not a soup. This is a rather dense main course. When stewing, add bay leaf and ground black pepper, coriander. While stirring occasionally, bring the dish to readiness.
Serve Bigus in Polish to the table. It is delicious and flavored dish will not leave you indifferent. At the end of cooking, you can add a little chopped garlic, but this is optional.
There are many dishes that you can not even guess! And some of them are known for a very long time. And, as you know, everything new is well forgotten old. If you want to try something unusual, cook bigus.
What is this dish?
Bigus or bigos is a traditional second course of Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Russian, Polish cuisines. It is believed that Poland is the birthplace, but according to one of the legends, then it was brought to this country by King Vladislav Jagailo, who often ate such a hearty snack while hunting.
The main ingredients of bigus are meat and cabbage, and most often used is fermented, but fresh is also allowed. In the traditional version, the dish was made of pork or game, but later the cooks and hostesses began to introduce other ingredients, such as bacon-streaked bacon (podcherevina), sausages and various smoked meats. And to diversify the taste of bigus, you can add tomatoes, prunes, mushrooms, a variety of spices, red wine. To make the dish full, you can use rice, potatoes.
As for the preparation technology, the components are usually processed separately: as a rule, the meat is fried and the cabbage is stewed. Then they are connected and are subjected to prolonged quenching together. As a result, Bigus turns out very juicy and acquires the aroma of meat with a barely perceptible pleasant sourness.
Cooking options
How to cook a bigus dish? There are a great many recipes, and several will be discussed below.
The first
To get started is to try to cook a classic bigus. Would need:
- 500-700 g of pork (part can be replaced by beef);
- about 0.5 kilogram sauerkraut;
- rather large onion;
- two carrots;
- butter;
- pepper, salt.
- Take a sauerkraut. It should be put in the pan, pour water so that it almost completely covers the product. Put the container on low fire, simmer for about fifteen or twenty minutes.
- Wash carrots and cut into strips or rub. Onion after peeling, chop or slice into thin half rings. Wash the meat thoroughly and cut it into cubes.
- In another large skillet, warm the oil well, fry the carrots and onions on it first, so that the latter becomes transparent and soft. Next, add the meat, fry all together for about ten minutes.
- Next, add to the meat with carrots and onions cabbage. Stir all the ingredients, cover the pan and simmer for forty to fifty minutes.
- Add pepper and salt, mix again and simmer for about ten minutes.
- Dish can be served.
Second
You will be able to cook not less tasty bigus from fresh cabbage. Here is what you need for this:
- a small head of cabbage;
- about 500 g of beef or not very fatty pork;
- about 200 g smoked sausage, bacon or bacon;
- one carrot;
- bulb;
- a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste;
- three cloves of garlic;
- butter;
- spices, pepper and salt.
Step-by-step instruction:
- Chop cabbage, fry slightly, then simmer under the lid for at least fifteen minutes. It should soften.
- Peel and chop onions and carrots (for example, you can grate carrots and chop onions into thin half rings). Cut the meat and smoked sausage into small pieces.
- In the other pan, heat the meat, fry the onions and carrots on it in just three minutes. Next, add the meat, fry it for five minutes, and then enter the sausage.
- Mix the cabbage with roasted meat, sausage, carrots and onions. Add a little water to make the dish more succulent.
- Simmer all ingredients for half an hour, then add garlic, salt, spices, and pepper that has been leaked through the press.
- Ten minutes later, remove the pan from the heat.
Third
To make bigus more nourishing, cook it with rice. You will need:
- 1.5 cups sauerkraut;
- 500-600 g of pork or other meat (beef or even chicken will do);
- half a cup of rice;
- a third cup of vegetable oil;
- bulb;
- carrot;
- one bay leaf;
- garlic clove;
- spices and salt at your discretion.
Process description:
- Cut the meat into small portions of small portions, fry it in the pan until a barely noticeable crust appears (this will take about ten minutes, but the fire should be weak or medium).
- Peel and chop the onion, grate the carrot. Fry the vegetables in a separate skillet so that they become soft and become light golden.
- Now combine the meat with carrots and onions, fry a little. Then rinse the rice thoroughly, put it into the pan and fry for about five minutes with the rest of the ingredients so that it absorbs the oil and soften it a little.
- Then take sauerkraut. It is not necessary to squeeze it strongly from the brine, the liquid will absorb rice. Add this ingredient to the rest.
- Simmer the dish on low heat for ten minutes, and then add bay leaf, spices and salt, as well as garlic, peeled and minced in any way.
- Cook Bigus for another five minutes under the lid, then turn off the heat and let the dish stand for a while.
Fourth
Quick and easy option - bigus with potatoes and sausages. For its preparation you will need:
- five or six potatoes;
- 8-10 sausages;
- onion head;
- one carrot;
- 350 grams of sauerkraut;
- several teeth of garlic;
- sunflower oil;
- ground pepper, salt.
Cooking:
- Peel the onion, chop it. Carrots after washing thoroughly rub. Peel and cut potatoes, for example, into strips.
- In a deep frying pan, heat the oil, fry crushed carrots, onions and potatoes on it. They should get a light blush.
- Add water in a small amount and simmer the ingredients for about ten minutes.
- Next, enter the sauerkraut in the pan. Put it all together for ten minutes.
- It was the turn of sausages. Cut them into slices, add to the dish.
- Peel and rub the garlic, finely chop or chop in the press.
- Stew all the ingredients under the lid for five minutes, then add the garlic, pepper and salt.
- After another five minutes, the pan can be removed from heat. Give Bigus a little brew and serve it to the table.
Fifth
Modern housewives can easily cook bigus in a slow cooker. These ingredients will be needed:
- a glass of sauerkraut;
- about 200 g of fresh cabbage;
- 400 grams of any meat;
- one onion;
- carrot;
- three tablespoons of tomato paste;
- 200 g of champignons;
- butter;
- spices with salt.
Instruction:
- First you can prepare all the components. Onion after peeling, shred, carrots after washing, rub. Cut meat into cubes, chop fresh cabbage into thin straws. Mushrooms can be cut into plates or cubes.
- Turn on the slow cooker, pour in the vegetable oil, select the frying mode and fry the onions with carrots for two minutes. Then add the meat, and after two minutes fresh cabbage with mushrooms.
- Next, select the program "Quenching" and simmer the ingredients for twenty minutes.
- Add sauerkraut with tomato paste, extinguish the bigus for another five minutes.
- Then add spices with salt, cook the dish in the same mode for another five minutes, and then turn off the device.
- By choosing your favorite recipe, you can change it a bit by entering your favorite ingredients, such as prunes, sour berries, any spices and so on.
- Be sure to let Bigus brew after preparation.
- The dish is served hot.
- You can cook lean bigus without adding meat, it will be no less tasty.
Enjoy your meal!
Bigus is a traditional and popular Polish dish, the main ingredient in which is cabbage. Meat, smoked meats, mushrooms, some vegetables, and also prunes or other dried fruits are often added to the bigus. Learn how to cook bigus from our recipes.
The classic recipe of Polish bigus
The classic method of cooking bigus involves the use of not only fresh, but sauerkraut. Prunes add interesting notes to the dish, and pork serves as a meat component. We will cook Polish bigus from:
- fresh cabbage - 400 g;
- sauerkraut - 400 g;
- carrots - 1 pc .;
- pork pulp - 300 g;
- butter - 30 g;
- bulbs - 1 pc .;
- prunes - 50 g;
- salt, pepper - to taste.
The whole cooking process can be divided into stages:
- Fresh cabbage should be chopped into strips, rubbed peeled carrots, cut onions into cubes. With sauerkraut should squeeze the pickle, the meat should be cut into small pieces. If the prunes are very dry, you can soak them in water for 20 minutes, and then cut them.
- It is convenient to cook Bigus in a large deep saucepan. We first heat it up. butter and fry pieces of meat on high heat.
- When the pork brightens, we add onions and carrots to it, again we fry everything over high heat.
- Then put sauerkraut in a bigus, reduce the fire and fry under the lid for another 10 minutes.
- Add chopped fresh cabbage and prunes. Stew on medium heat all this under a lid for about 15 minutes. While the products are prepared in the juice that is released from meat and vegetables, we do not add water. We taste, salt and pepper a dish. Then pour in some water and simmer the bigus for another 30-40 minutes.
Bigus with mushrooms and smoked meats
Mushrooms and smoked meats are often added to bigus, in our case they will be mushrooms, smoked sausage and ham. For a more pleasant and delicious taste, we will pour a little more wine into the bigus. So, here are some ingredients we need:
- fresh cabbage - 400 g;
- sauerkraut - 400 g;
- prunes - 100 g;
- champignons - 200 g;
- onions - 2 heads;
- ham - 200 g;
- smoked sausage - 150 g;
- dry white wine - 100 ml;
- salt, black pepper;
- parsley - to taste;
- sunflower oil - 3 tbsp.
Prepare Bigus for this recipe in the following way:
- Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet and fry the onion cut in half rings in it.
- When the onion becomes translucent golden, lay out the freshly cut cabbage and also the pickled one, squeezing off the extra brine. Fry cabbage with onions for 20 minutes over medium heat and cover with a lid.
- Cut up the mushrooms and add to the dish. A little chop prunes and also send in a saucepan. Fill the white wine, reduce the heat and extinguish the bigus for 30-40 minutes.
- Then try on the salt, bring to the desired taste, pour in black pepper. If sauerkraut is too sour, bigus can be a little sugar. Add to it pieces of smoked sausage and ham, as well as chopped parsley.
- Cook bigus on low heat for another 10-15 minutes.
Bigus with apples and lingonberries
A classic dish will be more original if you put in it certain ingredients that, in our case, are apples, soy sauce and lingonberry jam. Here is a list of ingredients for making such a bigus:
- pork - 0.5 kg;
- lard - 100 g;
- garlic - 3 cloves;
- onions - 1 pc .;
- carrot - 100 g;
- sauerkraut - 300 g;
- fresh cabbage - 0.5 kg;
- hunting sausages - 300 g;
- lingonberry jam - 3 tbsp. l .;
- tomatoes in their own juice - 50 g;
- soy sauce - 2 tbsp. l .;
- water - 400 ml;
- apples - 200 g;
- dried cumin - 0.5 tsp;
- bay leaf - 1 pc .;
- sugar, salt - to taste.
Cook bigus like this:
- Prepare vegetables, fruits, meat and sausages, peeling everything you need and crumbled. Cabbage chop straws and chop the garlic as small as possible.
- Melt in a deep stewpot lard. Fat the first pork in fat, after 10 minutes continue to fry it, but with onions and carrots.
- Then add sauerkraut and lingonberry jam. We continue to cook bigus on medium heat under the lid for another 10 minutes.
- Pour in soy sauce and 400 ml of boiling water. Reduce the heat and simmer the dish for 30 minutes.
- Half an hour later we send fresh cabbage, chopped tomatoes, apple slices, garlic and hunting sausages to Bigus. Salt, sugar and add the cumin and bay leaf. Simmer Bigus another 30-40 minutes.
Bigos or Bigus is an old Polish dish, which is long overdue to be registered in UNESCO as a historical and cultural monument. 😉 Jokes with jokes, but without knowing the history: where, when, why and from what was prepared in the old days - it is difficult to understand the principles of the selection of products and the very process of cooking this traditional dish.
Traditional Polish Bigos is a rustic dish, which means it is very thick and satisfying. Preparing it for the first frost, when the winter climber was moving into winter. The vegetables were already cleaned, preparations were made, the cattle were stabbed, all long-term meat products took their places in the cellars and on glaciers. But the fact that the pantries did not fit, any non-condition, trimming, remnants and formed the basis of the bios. Hence the conclusion: the best bigus is obtained from the "sausage trimmings", and the more types of meat, sausages, smoked meats, the richer the taste. And one more commandment: meat does not happen much!
The vegetable component of the correct bigos - sauteed and fresh white cabbage, onions, roots, additives such as prunes or cream, as well as spicy herbs - are typical of Eastern Europe, no Eastern or Western exotics!
This bigos was cooked for a long time, in huge cauldrons, in a few tricks: they tomili, cooled, frozen and reheated again. Then the boilers with ready-made food were taken out into the cold, in order to otkolupnut the necessary piece in the winter, to warm them up and serve them to the table. That is, it is also a method of preparation, hence large portions, a lot of spices and fat, which in this case traditionally served as preservatives.
Imagine yourself as residents of an old Polish farm and proceed to the actual cooking process.
How to cook Bigus with meat and cabbage
Mandatory components of the rustic regular bigos are: pickled and fresh cabbage, mushrooms, onions, roots, prunes, meat products (sausages, smoked meat, lard). If you use fresh meat, it is usually trimmed or offal.
Cut meat products, separating the fat and meat.
Cut the skins into straws, fill with a small amount of water and set to boil over low heat. Spread half the sliced bacon into a large, well-heated pot and fry until rosy.
Golden crunchy cracklings are pulled out with a skimmer - they will make an excellent company of porridge, potatoes or just a slice of black bread with salt. The cracklings have already played their role in the creation of bigus.
Now we will slowly prepare the rest of the products and alternately stack them in the boiler. The first to go to the melted fat are chopped meat products. Fry them to ruddy.
Fresh cabbage in bigos is traditionally cut into large pieces.
It is necessary to scald or steam bath, cool quickly (you can pour cold water in a colander) and squeeze. Otherwise, it is cooked to complete tastelessness and structurelessness.
Rake off meat products to the walls of the boiler, and in their place in the red-hot lard lay out the pressed blanched cabbage. It should fry, slightly redden and absorb some of the fat.
The next tab is mushrooms, they should also be slightly fried. If the mushrooms were taken dried, then they must first be soaked and drained. The water in which the mushrooms were soaked will also go to bigos, but a little later.
Meanwhile, in a small cauldron or a large thick-walled, well-heated pan, lay out the second half of the cut bacon.
While the fat turns into cracklings, chop onions and roots.
We take out the cracklings, and in the melted fat, fry the onions, fresh and dried white roots to a rudiment.
Came the turn of sauerkraut. Throw it in a colander and squeeze the brine. If the cabbage is very sour, you need to soak it beforehand. We put the squeezed cabbage into a large cauldron, add fried onions and roots together with the fat, pour broth of smoked skins and water from soaking mushrooms.
There comes a crucial moment: now we will lay in the pot what will transform cabbage stew with smoked meat in the correct Bigos in Old Polish. It is a pre-soaked, prune cut and strawberry. If for some reason we don’t have a homemade confectionary, we will buy plum wine in the store!
Mix everything well, cover with a lid and let it quench for half an hour over medium heat.
There were final touches - to bring the dish to taste and aroma. Let's check for salt - it should be enough in cabbage and smoked meats, but you may have to dosolit. If the bigos turned out to be too sour, adjust this by adding sugar. And, of course, spices: black pepper and ground peas; marjoram is the main spicy grass for any dishes from any cabbage; basil - it will combine the taste of meat and vegetables into a single ensemble; Well, a few juniper berries. Bay leaf is added only if it is not in sauerkraut.
In principle, the preparation of the bigos is completed, but to gain full taste and aroma, he needs a few more hours later on the smallest fire.
When the dish is ready - put it to eaters on the plates.
This true bigos in the old Polish has a noble bronze color, spicy sourish-sweetish flavor, teasing spicy aroma. It is hot, fat, nourishing, tasty, and it is a sin to eat besides a glass of a bison or at least a glass of beer! And do not forget the crust of black bread with cumin!