Bigos – Polish national dish

Ingredients for 10 servings:

• 500 g pork neck
• 300 g bacon
• 300 g Cabanossi or Krakauer
• 3 large onions
• 1,000 g sauerkraut
• 1 small white cabbage
• 1 handful of prunes
• 1 handful of mushrooms, dried
• ¾ tube(s) tomato paste
• 2 tbsp honey
• Beef broth
• bay leaves
• allspice berries
• Juniper berry(s)
• Caraway seeds
• salt and pepper

Instructions

Working time approx. 40 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 2 hours; Total time approx. 2 hours 40 minutes

Dice the meat, bacon, and sausage, and dice the onions. Finely slice the cabbage. Chop the prunes into small pieces. Crumble the dried mushrooms in your hand. Cook the chopped cabbage until al dente (not soft), drain, and collect the water to make the broth. First, brown the meat in a pot, followed by the sausage and bacon, and add a little salt. Then add the onions, prunes, mushrooms, caraway seeds, pepper, bay leaves, tomato paste, and honey. Briefly roast everything together again. Now add the cabbage and sauerkraut, mix well, and top up with the broth until everything is covered. Place a few juniper berries and allspice berries in a tea bag or tea strainer and hang it in the pot. Simmer everything for 1-1.5 hours, until most of the liquid has evaporated, stirring occasionally. Taste at the end and season to taste with a little more honey or salt, if desired. You can serve it with bread or potatoes, or even kluski (dumplings). It’s important to note: the more often you reheat bigos, the better it tastes. It freezes well. I always make a large batch of bigos at once.