Muleski: Any idea what herbs and spices?
As many folks here have told before me: whatever suits your taste, just make sure it goes well with the cabbage (sauerkraut).
My father NEVER added any tomatoes to his bigos. Our next-door neigbour ALWAYS added tomato paste into his bigos. BOTH of these dishes were "100% bigos".
For instance, I'm making now my own bigos - without any meat (I don't eat meat, although I don't consider myself a vegetarian) - but using (among others) such unorthodox spices like sechuan pepper, falafel spice mix, cummin seeds (typically, only caraway seeds are used), mild ("sweet") and hot paprika powder, coriander seeds and nutmeg.
The jury is still out whether to add a "hefty bit" of sambal belachan to this concotion - definitelly not a traditional Polish ingredient, but it seems (or, rather "smells") to me to match the content of the pot very well.
(Well, I've spent quite a few years in SE Asia and India, so my sense of flavour is kinda skewed. ;-))
And, whenever I cook, I just let my nose to make the final decision on what to add, and how much of it - I just smell the content of the pot and the spice in question, and then act "impromptu".
Not that it always brings good results - sometimes the ready dish is barely edible, but, hey, one learns from mistakes, doesn't he? ;-)
If you're interested, here's a rundown on how I made my bigos today (next time it will be probably bit different - depending on the spices available, moon phase, my mood and the amount of beer I'd have before the cooking session):
Ingredients:
3 kilos (over 6.6 pounds) of sauerkraut (well, "you can't make a little bit of bigos...");
2 heads of garlic;
approx. 5 pcs of middle-sized onions (use as many as you like);
about 50-100 ml of cooking oil (rice bran oil, in this particular case - good for long frying, better than olive oil - and doesn't have that "oily taste" like canola/ rapeseed oil - and doesn't separate out from the dish like grapeseed oil);
a bit of smoked yellow cheese ("Rolada Ustrzycka" - for the smoky flavour);
2 packets (@ 390 ml each) of chopped tomatoes (but I might add some more latter on - seems 2 packets are not enough);
and a "little bit" (means, as much as you like; all amounts given are "approx. only") of following spices:
mustard seeds (white) (approx. 1 tsp);
caraway seeds (1-2 tsp);
cummin seeds (1-2 tsp);
sechuan pepper (1/2-1 tsp);
coriander seeds (1 tsp);
one nutmeg (chopped);
black peppercorns (1-2 tsp);
allspice, whole (1-2 tsp);
bay leaves (5-10);
hot paprika powder (1 tsp - I'd prefer more - I like spicy food, but my wife "not really", so I have to moderate)
mild ("sweet") paprika powder (2-3 tsp)
ginger powder (1 tsp)
falafel spice mix (1 tbsp)
dried mushrooms (a handfull)
I've put the suerkraut in the pot, poured enough hot water just to cover it, boiled it briefly, then drained (if you skip this part, the bigos is going to be quite salty, and as sour as car battery electrolyte ;-)
You can keep the "sour water" aside, to add it to the bigos latter on, should you find it not sour enough - or use it to make some another Christmas Eve dishe, the beetroot borsch, the variety made with that "sour water" - or just to save it for the next hangover day; it does help ;-)
Then I've heated the oil in a wok (I find wok more practical for this kind of frying, where you start with small amount of stuff and keep adding on during the course of frying), and fried the chopped garlic.
When the garlic started to turn golden brown I added chopped onions, and fried till golden (on high heat, stirring constantly). At the same time I added mustard seeds and cummin seeds to the frying onions. Toward the end I've added falafel spice mix to the mixture, and fried all that for another minute or so - then added chopped tomatoes and the cheese.
I've mixed it all thoroughly, brought to boil, boiled for few minutes, then dumped into the sauerkraut. Added most of the other spices (except for ginger pwdr and nutmeg - I guess these should be added later on, otherwise the flavour would get lost, but I'm not sure about it), poured enough hot water to cover the whole mix, and put on a low heat to simmer for as long as the beeer in the fridge lasts ;-)
The dried mushrooms: unfortunatelly, all the mushrooms we've had in the house were used up for making other Christmas dishes, so while I should have added them together with the fried onions and spices mix into the cabbage, I'll be able to add them only after tomorrow (during Christmas holidays nearly all shops heree in Poland are closed).
OK, thats it. Bye & cheers,
Bonifacy the Cat
PS: Sorry, brevity was never my strong point... ;-)
Well, the beer is nearly finished, and seems it's time to go sleep (4:30 AM).
Tomorrow I'm going to
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