Polish Hunter’s Stew

Name: Polish Hunter’s Stew
Prep time: 3 h 40 min
Cook time: 3 h 40 min
Total time: 3 h 40 min
Yield: 10
Cuisine: Global
Ingredients: 28 grams dried porcini or other wild mushrooms; 2 Tbsps bacon fat or vegetable oil; 907 grams pork shoulder; 1 large onion, chopped; 1 head cabbage (regular, not savoy or red), chopped; 680 grams mixed fresh mushrooms; 454 grams kielbasa or other smoked sausage; 1 smoked ham hock; 454 grams fresh Polish sausage (optional); 709 grams fresh sauerkraut (we recommend Bubbies, which you may be able to find in the refrigerated section of your local supermarket); 1 bottle pilsner or lager beer; 1 Tbsp juniper berries (optional); 1 Tbsp black peppercorns; 1 Tbsp caraway seeds; 2 Tbsps dried marjoram; 1 serving Salt; 20 prunes, sliced in half (optional); 2 Tbsps tomato paste (optional); 425 grams tomato sauce (optional); 1 Tbsp mustard or horseradish (optional)

Polish Hunter’s Stew is a gluten free and dairy free recipe with 10 servings. This main course has 599 calories, 33g of protein, and 37g of fat per serving. This recipe covers 35% of your daily requirements of vitamins and minerals. It can be enjoyed any time, but it is especially good for Winter. 1300 people found this recipe to be flavorful and satisfying. A mixture of porcini, vegetable oil, sauerkraut, and a handful of other ingredients are all it takes to make this recipe so flavorful. From preparation to the plate, this recipe takes around 3 hours and 40 minutes. Bigos (Polish Hunter’s Stew), Polish Bigos / Hunter's Stew, and From a Polish Country House Kitchen's Hunter's Stew (Bigos) are very similar to this recipe.

Instructions

Pour hot tap water over the dried mushrooms and submerge them for 20-40 minutes, or until soft. Grind or crush the juniper berries and black peppercorns roughly; you don’t want a powder.

Ingredients you will need

Black Peppercorns

Dried Mushrooms

Juniper Berries

Water

Cut the pork shoulder into large chunks, about 2 inches.

Ingredients you will need

Pork Shoulder

Cut the sausages into similar-sized chunks.

Ingredients you will need

Sausage

Drain the sauerkraut and set aside. Clean off any dirt from the mushrooms and cut them into large pieces; leave small ones whole.

Ingredients you will need

Sauerkraut

Mushrooms

Heat the bacon fat or vegetable oil in a large lidded pot for a minute or two. Working in batches if necessary, brown the pork shoulder over medium-high heat. Do not crowd the pan. Set the browned meat aside.

Ingredients you will need

Pork Shoulder

Vegetable Oil

Bacon Drippings

Meat

Equipment you will use

Frying Pan

Pot

Put the onion and fresh cabbage into the pot and sauté for a few minutes, stirring often, until the cabbage is soft.

Ingredients you will need

Cabbage

Onion

Equipment you will use

Pot

Sprinkle a little salt over them. The vegetables will give off plenty of water, and when they do, use a wooden spoon to scrape any browned bits off the bottom of the pot. If you are making the tomato-based version, add the tomato paste here. Once the pot is clean and the cabbage and onions soft, remove from the pot and set aside with the pork shoulder.

Ingredients you will need

Pork Shoulder

Tomato Paste

Vegetable

Cabbage

Onion

Tomato

Water

Salt

Equipment you will use

Wooden Spoon

Pot

Add the mushrooms and cook them without any additional oil, stirring often, until they release their water. Once they do, sprinkle a little salt on the mushrooms. When the water is nearly all gone, add back the pork shoulder, the cabbage-and-onion mixture, and then everything else except the prunes.

Ingredients you will need

Pork Shoulder

Mushrooms

Cabbage

Prunes

Onion

Water

Salt

Cooking Oil

Add the beer, if using, or the tomato sauce if you're making the tomato-based version. Stir well to combine.

Ingredients you will need

Tomato Sauce

Tomato

Beer

You should not have enough liquid to submerge everything. That’s good: Bigos is a “dry” stew, and besides, the ingredients will give off more liquid as they cook. Bring everything to a simmer, cover the pot and cook gently for at least 2 hours.

Ingredients you will need

Stew

Equipment you will use

Pot

Bigos is better the longer it cooks, but you can eat it once the ham hock falls apart. Check at 2 hours, and then every 30 minutes after that. When the hock is tender, fish it out and pull off the meat and fat from the bones Discard the bones and the fat, then chop the meat roughly and return to the pot.

Ingredients you will need

Ham Hock

Fish

Meat

Equipment you will use

Pot

Add the prunes and cook until they are tender, at least 30 more minutes.

Ingredients you will need

Prunes

Bigos is best served simply, with rye bread and a beer. If you want a little kick, add the mustard or horseradish right before you eat it. Bigos improves with age, too, which is why this recipe makes so much: Your leftovers will be even better than the stew was on the first day.

Ingredients you will need

Horseradish

Rye Bread

Mustard

Beer

Stew

Equipment

Frying Pan

Pot

Wooden Spoon

Recommended wine: Cabernet Sauvignon, Chablis, Malbec

Cabernet Sauvignon, Chablis, and Malbec are great choices for Stew. Full-bodied red wines like malbec and cabernet sauvignon are the perfect accompaniment for beef stew. Fish stew probably calls for a white wine, such as chablis. The iNapaWine Cabernet Sauvignon with a 5 out of 5 star rating seems like a good match. It costs about 75 dollars per bottle.