Christmas Eve bigos is a meatless version of the classic bigos. Its taste is influenced not only by well-selected ingredients, but also by when we cook it. It is best to do this a little earlier so that all the products can enhance their aroma. We tell you how and when to prepare Christmas Eve bigos and what to pay attention to when preparing this dish.
The secret to making bigos taste perfect is when you cook it. It is best to do this a few days in advance. We can prepare it even a week before Christmas. The key to success is to reheat it often and slowly, even every day.
This will make this dish even tastier, because the aromas of individual ingredients will penetrate it better. This will make our bigos full of flavor and will certainly delight all guests during Christmas.
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Another important issue that influences the taste of the bigos we prepare is the ingredients we use. First of all, we need to make sure that we have good quality sauerkraut.
It is also very important that it is actually pickled and not acidified, because then the taste of the dish could be dominated by the taste of the acidifier, i.e. vinegar or citric acid. Of course, if bigos is to be served for Lent, do not add meat to it. However, we can enhance its flavor by using dried mushrooms or smoked plums.
Contrary to appearances, the recipe for Christmas Eve bigos is not complicated. However, it requires us to compose appropriate products that will ultimately create an aromatic dish. Here are the ingredients necessary to prepare Christmas Eve bigos:
- 1 kg cabbage,
- 100 g ,
- 1 large onion,
- 3 cloves of garlic,
- 3 bay leaves,
- 1 handful of dried plums,
- oil,
- sun,
- 2 teaspoons of black pepper,
- 4 grains of allspice,
- 1 teaspoon of marjoram,
- (optional) 4 tablespoons of honey.
The first step in preparing bigos is to soak the mushrooms in water. We keep them in it for an hour and then strain them, leaving the water. Cut the mushrooms into strips. Then we try the cabbage – if it is very sour, we rinse it and only then put it into the pot. Pour enough water into it to cover the cabbage and cook for about 40 minutes.
The next step is to peel and chop the onion. Fry it with chopped garlic in olive oil and add drained and chopped mushrooms. When the cabbage is half soft, add fried onion with mushrooms and garlic, as well as all spices and plums.
Then pour in the water in which the mushrooms were soaked. Cook everything until the cabbage is soft. Finally, add honey and set aside the bigos. For the next days, as we mentioned, we cook it over low heat.
