Week 2 - Polish

The theme for week 2 of the 52 week cooking challenge was Polish. So many options! I've eaten Polish food plenty of times (although I still have a lot more to explore), but never cooked it before. I love pierogi, but they are the Polish food I'm most familiar with (eating, not cooking), so I didn't want to do that. (I also find anything dumpling-like to be so labor-intensive and the food disappears so quickly.) I had it narrowed down to kielbasa skillets, potato pancakes, variations of cabbage rolls, and a couple recipes for kapusta (something I had never heard of until I started researching, but is apparently Polish for "cabbage"). I couldn't decide so I let A make the call. He chose a kapusta and kielbasa slow cooker recipe I found on Chowhound.

Ingredients:

The only ingredient we had at home was a Costco onion, so everything else came from Fairway.

- 6 Russet potatoes ($1.28)
- 1 large yellow onion ($0.50)
- 1/2 lb of turkey bacon ($1.86)
- 16 oz package of sauerkraut ($1.99)
- 1 lb of kielbasa ($6.99)

$12.62 is more than our home cooking recipes usually cost, even when they include meat, but over 55% of that cost was the kielbasa. I had been planning to get turkey kielbasa from Trader Joe's which was more than $2 less, but we were shopping on the dreadful first Sunday after New Year's (the worst shopping day of the season, compounded by the impending polar vortex). The turkey kielbasa was out of stock and I didn't want to go back out on Monday (the lines were even worse because of weather craziness) or Tuesday (the day of frigid temperatures), so I went to Whole Foods and got the only kielbasa they had. Next time I need kielbasa I may stop by the butcher shop or keep searching for a cheaper option (provided I have more flexibility than I did this time).

Process:

The recipe was pretty easy to follow. I love loading up the slow cooker in the morning, allowing the aromas to circulate around the apartment all day, and then having a stress-free evening while the slow cooker finishes up all the work. 

This wasn't one of those recipes where you just throw all the ingredients in the slow cooker and press start (although I do love those). The preparation went as follows:

1. Peel and chop potatoes into small pieces and throw into slow cooker.
2. Chop bacon into smaller pieces.
3. Fry bacon and layer on top of potatoes (without the bacon grease).
4. Saute onions in bacon grease. Once tender and translucent, put onions and bacon grease into slow cooker. (Since I used turkey bacon and a nonstick skillet, I didn't really have much grease.)
5. Slice kielbasa and put into slow cooker on top of onions.
6. Drain sauerkraut (reserve juice) and add on top of kielbasa.

I set the slow cooker for 8 hours. I checked on it every 2 hours or so to make sure it wasn't too dry. I ended up adding all the sauerkraut juice plus an additional 1/2-1 cup of water about 1-2 hours in. The sauerkraut on top was a little dry but not much else was. I just wanted to use the sauerkraut juice and throw the bowl in the dishwasher. But I think the amount of liquid turned out just right. I stirred it around every so often but tried to keep the potatoes on the bottom so they would boil and soften.

I ended up running the slow cooker for 7 hours instead of 8, but everything was done by then. Stirred it a bunch of times to mix everything together and mash up the potatoes a little bit and then it was time to eat!

Review:

This was a good dish for a winter's night. The potatoes were soft and combined well with the cabbage, soaking up the saltiness and sourness of the kielbasa and the sauerkraut. I liked how well it all blended together. A thought the kielbasa would be more flavorful, and thought the sauerkraut flavor was a little bit blander after cooking (but the potatoes picked up a lot of both of those flavors). I'm not really a huge bacon fan (I know, it's a rarity), but A thinks real bacon would have made this taste better. In fact, A didn't think the turkey bacon had much of any flavor. I agree that it didn't seem to add much. The overall flavors of this dish were good, but we might make some adjustments if we were to make it again. Maybe fresh kielbasa and real bacon instead.

I'm not really a huge "meat and potatoes" eater, so I can't see making this on a regular basis. I just need more vegetables in my meals, especially if the recipe is making enough for two days of meals. But I did enjoy my foray into Polish cooking and would do it again. Maybe next time it'll be golumpki in the slow cooker.