Kapusta (Polish Cabbage Soup)

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Every Sunday, as a baby rising up, we spent the afternoon visiting my Babci.  Babci capacity grandmother in Polish,* and she was my mother’s mother.  Like most girls of her generation, she usually made dishes that originated from the ‘old country’ and the unique tastes and flavors of these dishes are hardwired in my memory.



INGREDIENTS


  • 3–4 kilos of meaty beef ribs comparable to nation taste ribs
  • 6 ounces diced salt beef (4 ounces after elimination skin. The fatty sort no longer the meaty type)
  • 1 ½ cups onion, about one huge onion
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 pound recent sauerkraut with juice (found within the refrigerated part of most supermarkets)
  • 1 medium head of cabbage, shredded (about 1 1/2 – 2 pounds)
  • 2 14½-ounce cans of stewed tomatoes
  • 1 tablespoon caraway seeds
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 kilos all-purpose potatoes
  • Rye bread and butter

INSTRUCTIONS

  • Place beef ribs in a huge 8 quart heavy pot and disguise the ribs with water nearly to the top. Bring to a boil uncovered, decrease to a quick simmer (low boil) and prepare dinner for 45 minutes, skimming off foam as they bounce to boil. Shut off burner and allow them sit within the water for 15 minutes.
  • While the beef is cooking, in a medium frying pan, prepare dinner the diced salt beef on a medium excessive flame for 2-3 minutes or till just beginning to brown. Add onion to the pan and sauté for 2-3 minutes till just beginning to get tender. Reduce to medium heat, stir within the flour and sauté for three minutes. Turn off warmth and set aside.
  • Once cooked, take away ribs from the pot and allow cool. Save the liquid within the pot.
  • To the pot of liquid, upload the sauerkraut and juice, shredded cabbage, stewed tomatoes, caraway seeds and salt as effectively because the cooked salt beef and onion mixture.
  • Cook over medium excessive warmth till cabbage is cooked, approximately 30-35 minutes. While the cabbage combination is cooking, take away the beef from the bones, shredding the beef into bite-sized pieces. Return the cooked beef to the pot as soon because the cabbage is delicate and warmth to serving temperature.
  • Peel and quarter potatoes and region in chilly sated water whereas cabbage combination is cooking. Bring to a boil and over a medium boil, prepare dinner potatoes for 5-10 minutes or till tender. Drain water and funky potatoes to room temperature. Once the cabbage combination has completed cooking, cut cooked potatoes into chunk sized items and both upload to the completed cabbage dish or serve at the side. (cooking in quarters and slicing after the truth will make them extra agency and a whole lot less mushy considering that a whole lot less of the floor touched the boiling water.
  • Serve with rye bread and butter for a typical Polish meal.



Even today, I can right this moment pass again in time each time I odor sure meals or sure dishes cooking.  One of these dishes is Kapusta**, a typical Polish cabbage soup.  We had been all the time truly psyched when Babci made her delicious Kapusta for us for dinner.

Years later, I found that my husband Jack – who quite a lot loves all-things cabbage – had by no capacity eaten Kapusta!



Since I didn’t have my Babci’s real recipe (it was one in every of these recipes that was cooked from reminiscence and by no capacity written down), I’ve carried out my greatest to recreate it from my very own memory, and I assume I’ve gotten it quite near with this version.

Although no longer traditionally a Polish ingredient, my Babci brought canned stewed tomatoes to her Kapusta which offers it an extra layer of taste and truly enhances the different ingredients on this dish.  Served with rye bread and butter, Kapusta is one in every of these dishes that just sends me again in time.  And Jack, who can’t get sufficient of this, wonders how on earth he missed out on this amazing Polish vintage till he met me!


*Since originally publishing this recipe, a number of feedback beneath have allow me understand that “Babcia” is the right phrase for grandmother in Polish.  In my family, we merely universal as her Babci.

**Since originally publishing this recipe, a reader has allow us understand that this soup can be identified as Kapusniak, or according to Wikipedia, Kapusta kiszona duszona.  Kapusta is the title that many Polish-American households like mine have given this soup.

DESCRIPTION
A typical Polish cabbage soup made with pork, cabbage, sauerkraut, onion, carraway seed and my Babci’s mystery ingredient…stewed tomatoes to truly increase the flavors on this soup.