The dish with the interesting name "Bigus" is nothing but fragrant stewed cabbage with meat.
The dish is unique in that it cooks simply, but it turns out so tasty and satisfying that once you try it, you want to cook it again and again.
Fresh cabbage bigus - general principles of preparation
Cooking starts with a selection of the main ingredients. Usually they take already mature white cabbage, but young varieties can also be used. To give the bigus interesting sourish notes, it is permissible to use a mix of fresh and pickled cabbage.
Any meat is used: beef, chicken, pork, as well as smoked meats, sausages or any other semi-finished products. There are lovers of big cabbage with fresh fish. There are no restrictions - it all depends on the taste preferences and the products available at home. In addition, meat ingredients can not be used at all, having prepared a vegetarian version of the dish or bigus with mushrooms.
Additionally, you can put carrots, onions, tomatoes in bigus. For a special bright taste - cranberries and lingonberries, apple.
The process itself is simple:
• The meat is cut, fried in butter until blush, then stewed until half cooked.
• Fresh cabbage is chopped and stewed in a different container as well until half ready.
• All components of the dish are combined and brought to readiness on the slowest fire.
Of spices, the most accessible and well-known components are usually used: cumin, laurel, pepper. A bigus with greens is good; add this ingredient either at the end of the stew or in a ready-made dish.
1. Fresh cabbage with apples and lingonberry jam
Ingredients:
• half a kilogram of pork meat;
• five hundred grams of two types of cabbage (pickled and white cabbage);
• sausage (three hundred grams);
• onion;
• fresh carrot;
• tomatoes in their own juice;
• natural lingonberry jam;
• soy sauce;
• sugar;
• half a liter of water;
• Red Apple;
• one hundred grams of fat;
• caraway seeds;
• chopped garlic;
• Bay leaf.
Cooking Methods:
1. Grind lard in small cubes, melt in a skillet.
2. Combine the diced pork meat with lard. Sauté both ingredients.
3. Add onions with fresh carrots to the fried meat. Sauté all the ingredients together.
4. Squeeze sauerkraut from brine. To eliminate acid, it is recommended to rinse the cabbage with warm water and squeeze again.
5. Add the sauerkraut to the pork.
6. Put natural jam made from lingonberries.
7. Stir all the ingredients. Sauté.
8. Pour in the sauce with plain water.
9. Stew for about thirty minutes.
10. Chop fresh cabbage, put in a pan.
11. Add the tomato mixture. Simmer, top up if necessary.
12. Gently chop the apple into thin slices. Put to the rest of the ingredients.
13. Stew for half an hour.
14. Add salt, sugar.
15. At the very end of cooking add sausages, chopped garlic, laurel leaves and caraway seeds.
2. Old Polish big cabbage
Ingredients:
• onion;
• four hundred grams of white and sauerkraut;
• one hundred and fifty grams of champignons and prunes;
• 100 milliliters of dry white wine;
• one hundred grams of ham and boiled sausage;
• vegetable oil.
Cooking method:
1. Fry onions until glassy.
2. Add chopped cabbage (both sauerkraut and fresh). Fry until half cooked. When using very acidic sauerkraut, add sugar.
3. Add sliced mushrooms, prunes.
4. Pour in dry white wine.
5. Ten minutes before braising, put the ham and sausage.
6. Season with spices.
7. Simmer for about 20 minutes until cooked.
3. Big cabbage with rice and minced meat
Ingredients:
• half kilograms of fresh cabbage;
• one medium-sized carrot;
• onion;
• 200 grams of rice;
• 200 grams of minced meat;
• salt and seasoning to taste.
Cooking method:
1. Fry the onion, cut into thin quarter rings.
2. Grate the carrots.
3. Separately, fry the minced meat, salt.
4. Combine onions, grated carrots, minced meat, chopped cabbage.
5. Simmer for about twenty minutes over low heat.
6. Rinse and boil the rice until tender, drain the water, pour the cereal itself to the fried ingredients.
7. Stir, add seasoning and salt to taste.
8. Cover, simmer for several minutes over low heat.
4. Big cabbage in a slow cooker
Ingredients:
• 400 grams of beef pulp;
• 600 grams of white cabbage;
• large onions;
• one medium-sized carrot;
• one hundred grams of tomato paste;
• one hundred milliliters of water;
• one bell pepper;
• five pieces of prunes;
• a teaspoon of salt and spices;
• a tablespoon of vegetable oil.
Cooking method:
1. Rinse and finely chop the beef.
2. Onion and sweet pepper cut into thin straws.
3. Grate the carrots coarsely.
4. Put the beef in an oiled multicooker bowl. Salt.
5. Add chopped vegetables, salt, seasonings.
6. Chop the cabbage, salt, remember with your hands, put in a slow cooker.
7. Add a mixture of spices, chopped prunes and mushrooms.
8. Dilute the tomato paste with water. Pour the mixture into the rest of the ingredients.
9. Close the cooker lid. Set the Extinguishing mode. Cook for one hour. Then cook in the "Frying" mode for about ten minutes.
5. Big cabbage with mushrooms
Ingredients:
• a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste;
• 50 grams of wheat flour;
• one onion;
• 250 grams of white cabbage;
• 300 grams of fresh champignons;
• root celery;
• Bay leaf;
• black pepper;
• salt.
Cooking Methods:
1. Rinse the mushrooms, chop finely.
2. Chop the cabbage finely.
3. Stew mushrooms in water for five minutes.
4. Grind the celery root.
5. Add cabbage and celery to the mushrooms.
6. Separately, fry chopped onion with a little flour and tomato paste.
7. Transfer the onion to the rest of the ingredients. Simmer for 15 minutes.
8. Five minutes before cooking, add salt, black pepper, bay leaf.
6. Big cabbage with potatoes
Ingredients:
• 600-800 grams of beef meat;
• two hundred grams of pork fat;
• six large potatoes;
• one large onion;
• medium-sized carrots;
• 500 grams of fresh cabbage;
• garlic;
• a pair of bay leaves;
• allspice;
• salt with sugar, seasoning mixture.
Cooking method:
1. Stew the diced meat with chopped pork fat.
2. Add the onions to the meat. Stir fry.
3. Put pre-grated carrots. Leave on low heat for a little less than one hour. Try stirring regularly.
4. Add slaw to the pan. Simmer until volume is halved.
5. Add spices, sugar, salt.
6. Put the diced potatoes.
7. Add a glass of water.
8. Stew until the potatoes are cooked.
9. Serve the dish hot.
7. Fresh cabbage with chicken
Ingredients:
• chicken meat;
• sauerkraut;
• fresh cabbage;
• bow;
• bay leaf;
• pepper;
• butter;
• greenery;
• tomato mixture (water with paste).
Cooking method:
1. Divide the chicken meat into pieces. Fry over low heat, pouring a little oil, until half cooked. Salt and pepper, remove temporarily on a plate.
2. Fry sauerkraut in meat fat for five minutes.
3. Add coarsely chopped onions and fresh cabbage.
4. Fry everything together for 5-6 minutes until a light blush of vegetables.
5. Pour the vegetable mixture with a glass of water. Simmer for about ten minutes.
6. Add the chicken. Stew for 30 minutes.
7. Pour in the tomato mixture.
8. Five minutes before the end of cooking, put chopped herbs, black pepper, peas, bay leaf.
9. Stir the ingredients. Remove from heat.
10. Insist bigus under a closed lid for several minutes.
8. Big cabbage with sausage
Ingredients:
• five to six sausages;
• a pound of cabbage;
• onions and carrots - one at a time;
• 20-25 g of tomato paste;
• dried dill;
• butter;
• salt;
• laurel.
Cooking method:
1. Grate carrots, chop onions. Fry both ingredients in butter until softened.
2. Boil sausages, drain the water, cut the sausages themselves into circles.
3. Chop the cabbage into strips, add to the onions and carrots, add salt, to taste the spices.
4. Stew, stirring occasionally, for about 40 minutes. Pour some boiled water if necessary.
5. For a couple of minutes before being ready, put the tomato paste, previously boiled sausages. Shuffle.
6. In the finished dish, put the bay leaves, pour dill.
7. Serve after at least half an hour.
Fresh Cabbage Big Tips - Useful Tips
• Fresh cabbage bigus is tasty in hot form, but it is even tastier after standing in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Cold bigus is a great appetizer for strong drinks.
• Do not use too much water; the consistency of properly cooked bigus should be thick.
• Smoked meat added to dishes will add a special taste and aroma to bigus.
• Bigus can be procured for future use. It is stored in the refrigerator in sealed packaging or frozen.
• Cabbage and any kind of meat go well with various vegetables, mushrooms, prunes, wine, tomatoes, so you can safely add these ingredients to the dish.
• It is best to cook bigus from fresh cabbage in a cauldron or in a deep cast-iron skillet; you can also use a slow cooker.
