Zasmażana kapusta, known to many Polish people simply as kapusta ah-POOS-tah(which is the Polish word for "cabbage"),Robert Strybe
Polish Holiday Cookery and Customs
page 205, 152 is a Polish dish of braised or stewed

sauerkraut Sauerkraut (; , "sour cabbage") is finely cut raw cabbage that has been fermented by various lactic acid bacteria. It has a long shelf life and a distinctive sour flavor, both of which result from the lactic acid formed when the bacteria ferm ...

or cabbage, with bacon, mushroom and onion or garlic. It is seasoned with salt, pepper and sometimes bay leaf,

caraway seed Caraway, also known as meridian fennel and Persian cumin (''Carum carvi''), is a biennial plant in the family Apiaceae, native to western Asia, Europe, and North Africa. Etymology The etymology of "caraway" is unclear. Caraway has been ...

s, sugar, paprika and apples. The traditional dish is usually served along with boiled potatoes as an accompaniment for pork chops, pork cutlets, other pork dishes, veal, or game meats. In some homes, kapusta is served very thin, almost like a soup. In others, its ingredients are thickened with flour or cooked until it becomes nearly as thick as

mashed potatoes Mashed potato or mashed potatoes (American and Canadian English), colloquially known as mash (British English), is a dish made by mashing boiled or steamed potatoes, usually with added milk, butter, salt and pepper. It is generally served as a ...

. It has been described as less sour in flavor compared to German sauerkraut. Cabbage, the primary ingredient, is often pickled, like

, which is amplified with a mix of mushrooms and onions and meat—fatty pork—either rib meat, bacon, or occasionally smoked kielbasa. Almost always the dish contains a kind of

roux Roux () is a mixture of flour and fat cooked together and used to thicken sauces. Roux is typically made from equal parts of flour and fat by weight. The flour is added to the melted fat or oil on the stove top, blended until smooth, and cook ...

In popular culture

A chapter of

Herta Müller Herta Müller (; born 17 August 1953) is a Romanian-born German novelist, poet, essayist and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Nițchidorf (german: Nitzkydorf, link=no), Timiș County in Romania, her native language is G ...

's novel '' The Hunger Angel'' (''Atemschaukel'') deals with the protagonist's relationship to kapusta, which comes to represent both his life as a prisoner and his hopes for freedom.Müller, Herta; ''Atemschaukel''; Carl Hanser Verlag; 2009; pp. 157–163.

References

{{Reflist Polish cuisine Cabbage dishes Plant-based fermented foods

In popular culture

See also

References