WÜSTHOF Employee Recipes: Bigos à la Famille
Food & Drink
Welcome to the WÜSTHOF Employee Recipe Series
Sometimes, the best way to answer age-old questions like “What should I cook tonight?” or “What should I bring to brunch?” is to simply ask around. Luckily at WÜSTHOF, we’re surrounded by exceptional kitchen knives and passionate home cooks. We heard so many brilliant recipe ideas around the proverbial water cooler that we decided to start compiling them into an employee recipe series to share with our community.
Throughout these recipes and videos, you’ll get a glimpse into the way WÜSTHOF employees like to use our premium knives in their own lives. Some of our colleagues, like Fiona, are all about fine, decorative details, like making a lovely Summer Melon Cake out of the season’s peak produce. Others, like Raphael, use cooking to feel connected to loved ones, such as his family recipe for bigos, a Polish-style hunter’s stew.
Home cooks are WÜSTHOF’s greatest inspiration, and we’re so grateful that some wonderful cooks (and colleagues!) are here to help us spark an appetite. They’re in charge of the recipes, and we’re in charge of the perfect kitchen tools. Win-win!
Bigos à la Famille
Raphael Schufla
Global Project Manager Digital & DTC
Ingredients
3 ounces thick-cut bacon, thinly sliced
6 ounces (about ¾ cup) tomato paste
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 (16-ounce) jar sauerkraut, drained
2 bay leaves
6 allspice berries
3 tablespoons clarified butter or ghee
2 onions, thinly sliced
1 pound boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 pound boneless beef chuck, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 ¾ teaspoons salt
1 pound smoked Polish sausage (such as Krakauer, kabanos, or kielbasa), diced
2 cups white button mushrooms, quartered
¾ pound white or green cabbage (about 1 small head), thinly sliced
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
2 teaspoons hot paprika
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Bread and butter, for serving
Directions
Preheat the oven to 325°F.
Add the bacon to a large, 9-quart Dutch oven and set over medium heat. Cook, stirring often, until the bacon fat has rendered and the bacon is browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and cook, stirring frequently, until the tomato paste has darkened in color and begins to stick to the bottom of the pan, 2 to 3 minutes longer.
Carefully pour in the stock; add the drained sauerkraut, bay leaves, and allspice. Bring everything to a boil, then reduce the heat to low. Keep at a slow simmer while you prepare the rest of the bigos.
Heat 1 tablespoon of clarified butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of the onions, the pork shoulder, the beef chuck, and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are translucent, and the meat is seared on all sides, 7 to 10 minutes. Transfer the onion-meat mixture to the Dutch oven (save the skillet).
Heat another tablespoon of clarified butter in the skillet over medium-high heat. Add the remaining onions, the mushrooms, and ½ teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms have released most of their liquid and browned, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer the onion-mushroom mixture to the Dutch oven (save the skillet).
Heat the remaining tablespoon of clarified butter in the skillet over medium-high heat. Add the smoked Polish sausage and cook, stirring often, until deeply browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer the sausage to the Dutch oven (save the skillet once more!).
Return the skillet to medium-high heat. Add the sliced cabbage, ½ cup water, and the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the water has evaporated and the cabbage is just tender, 7 to 10 minutes. Transfer the cabbage to the Dutch oven and remove the Dutch oven from the heat.
Stir the sweet paprika, hot paprika, and black pepper into the Dutch oven. Close the Dutch oven with a fitted lid, then transfer it to the preheated oven. Cook, covered, until the meat is extremely tender and collapses easily with a fork, about 3 hours. Serve the bigos hot with bread and butter.
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