Bigos
Nestled in the Winter Vegetables section of The Soup Book is Marie-Pierre Moine's recipe for bigos, a meaty Polish stew rather than soup, according to many internet sources. I identified the recipe last weekend and thought it would be a substantial "soup" for sharing with others, but only sent out invitations yesterday afternoon. We had two guests to share our meal with and there was a substantial portion left over.
The ingredients include Savoy cabbage, sauerkraut, smoked bacon, smoked Polish sausage, duck breast (you can substitute venison), a red onion, garlic, brown mushrooms, smoked paprika, a bay leaf, juniper berries, marjoram, caraway seeds, red wine and beef stock. Getting all the ingredients together was the fiddliest part of a fiddly soup. The spouse might as well have gone to Poland when trying to find the smoked sausage and sauerkraut. Or so he said. I went out yesterday evening after the rugby match had started to buy a bottle of red wine and was distracted by the sight of two bottles of absinthe on the shelf behind the till. The assistant told me they had been discovered in the corner of the wholesaler's warehouse. With an alcohol level of 60%, I'm not sure that absinthe will become my tipple of choice.
I started making the bigos at about four o'clock. There was chopping and shredding (my food processor has really paid for itself in the last two years), there was draining and straining. Not having a big casserole, I had to use my larger dekshee. I cooked the shredded cabbage; I heated the sauerkraut; I reserved the liquid from both. Then I fried the bacon, the duck and the sausage. These were left to rest on kitchen paper while I fried the onion, garlic and mushrooms in the savoury grease from the meats. All the fried ingredients were put into the dekshee with the herbs, spice, wine and spice, and left to simmer for an hour. The final stage of cooking involved adding the cabbage, then the sauerkraut and most of the reserved liquid. At half past seven we were ready to dish up.
Our guests were the younger offspring's pal "Graham" ("G-Banger") and MH ("Millie H"). Everyone was complimentary about the bigos. What I found particularly flattering, however, was twelve-year-old Graham's interest in this blog (sorry, Millie!). Millie offered her positive comments, of course, but took me to task for the brevity of my more recent entries. What's a busy woman to do? Anyway, I really enjoyed the bigos. The ingredients list alone indicated that it would be a rich meal. The smells in the kitchen and the combination of meats and herbs confirmed my predictions.
Bee Links
The spouse recently sent me this link to Christina Rosetti's poem What Does the Bee Do?
And here's a notice about a bee-keeping event in the National Botanic Gardens on the 14th-15th April.
That's it for now.
Minnie
Nestled in the Winter Vegetables section of The Soup Book is Marie-Pierre Moine's recipe for bigos, a meaty Polish stew rather than soup, according to many internet sources. I identified the recipe last weekend and thought it would be a substantial "soup" for sharing with others, but only sent out invitations yesterday afternoon. We had two guests to share our meal with and there was a substantial portion left over.
The ingredients include Savoy cabbage, sauerkraut, smoked bacon, smoked Polish sausage, duck breast (you can substitute venison), a red onion, garlic, brown mushrooms, smoked paprika, a bay leaf, juniper berries, marjoram, caraway seeds, red wine and beef stock. Getting all the ingredients together was the fiddliest part of a fiddly soup. The spouse might as well have gone to Poland when trying to find the smoked sausage and sauerkraut. Or so he said. I went out yesterday evening after the rugby match had started to buy a bottle of red wine and was distracted by the sight of two bottles of absinthe on the shelf behind the till. The assistant told me they had been discovered in the corner of the wholesaler's warehouse. With an alcohol level of 60%, I'm not sure that absinthe will become my tipple of choice.
I started making the bigos at about four o'clock. There was chopping and shredding (my food processor has really paid for itself in the last two years), there was draining and straining. Not having a big casserole, I had to use my larger dekshee. I cooked the shredded cabbage; I heated the sauerkraut; I reserved the liquid from both. Then I fried the bacon, the duck and the sausage. These were left to rest on kitchen paper while I fried the onion, garlic and mushrooms in the savoury grease from the meats. All the fried ingredients were put into the dekshee with the herbs, spice, wine and spice, and left to simmer for an hour. The final stage of cooking involved adding the cabbage, then the sauerkraut and most of the reserved liquid. At half past seven we were ready to dish up.
Our guests were the younger offspring's pal "Graham" ("G-Banger") and MH ("Millie H"). Everyone was complimentary about the bigos. What I found particularly flattering, however, was twelve-year-old Graham's interest in this blog (sorry, Millie!). Millie offered her positive comments, of course, but took me to task for the brevity of my more recent entries. What's a busy woman to do? Anyway, I really enjoyed the bigos. The ingredients list alone indicated that it would be a rich meal. The smells in the kitchen and the combination of meats and herbs confirmed my predictions.
Bee Links
The spouse recently sent me this link to Christina Rosetti's poem What Does the Bee Do?
And here's a notice about a bee-keeping event in the National Botanic Gardens on the 14th-15th April.
That's it for now.
Minnie
Thanks for such an exceedingly good and exceedingly long entry this week Minnie:))
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome, Millie.
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