I have some kind of love/hate relationship with kapuśniak, and was so ready to argue with your version when I started playing the video, but damn - it's very simple version that is adapted to American market, and I love it for it. Here in Poland it's actually somewhat difficult to get store-bought stock (most only have instant/concentrated products), so 98% of a time we are making soups based on home-made ones. It's rarely purely chicken stock - it's easy here to buy pork spare ribs, and while they are not necessary, they make the stock for kapuśniak much nicer, thanks to added taste and gelatine that you can get from the bones. You can then strip meat from them after finishing the stock and add it to the soup, it fit especially well if you get some browning going on it while you render the fat from the bacon. While kapuśniak is not bigos, there is never such thing as too many types of meat in here. Other thing that is somewhat surprising to me is white pepper - it's actually very rarely used in Polish kitchen, we usually just add few whole black peppercorns and allspice next to the bay leaves, then grind some more black pepper to finished soup when serving. The paprika is also considered very much optional, and sometimes even supplemented with tomato paste and some chilli powder. Then there is whole argument here that carrots should be shredded as thinly as sauerkraut; that we would more often make roux and not use corn starch; that celeriac, marjoram and caraway are necessary to get proper taste... and so on - but it would make the recipe unnecessarily complicated for usual American spice rack or just take too long to be worth it. Kapuśniak doesn't need to be always made in traditional way - your version is super simple, fast and I am absolutely sure that it's delicious too.
I’m definitely in agreement with using a medium dark roux for thickening and the flavor over cornstarch . My granny used to put a big scoop of mashed potatoes in the middle of the bowl to stretch this depression meal even further.
Couldnt agree more, kapuśniak and kiełbasa pronouncation is on point. Powdered paprika is indeed not so common and we mostly use tomato paste. Couldnt agree more with either smoked pork bones, ribs or belly being added to the broth itself. Whole thing calls as well for some sauerkraut water being added towards the end, the idea of the kapuśniak is to be really sauer but to extent that everyone can eat it. Cheers and love from Poland.
One of my favourite traits of you, Sir, is that you really cover the whole spectrum of cuisines around the world with the equal amount of due respect and curiosity. French haute cuisine? Sure. Chinese wok dishes? Yup. Turkish breakfast dishes? Certainly. Colombian soups? Absolutely. And now the less recognised Polish cuisine with ingredients especially young people would maybe frown upon - writing as a Eastern German - because it seems Grandma-ish to them. Thank you so much for every video and piece of knowledge and stay healthy!
I hate this pandemic, but without it we may have never gotten Kenji’s wonderful POV cooking. These videos are inexplicably captivating, and I hope this format endures for a long time to come. Thank you Kenji.
You should also look into zurek, sort of a sourdough based soup with halved hard boiled egg, coils of whote sausage potatoes and other veg (atleast that’s the ones we use). Would love to see you explore this!
żurek (rye sourdough soup) with kiełbasa, bacon and egg, served with a slice of sourdough rye bread, is actually eaten as a part of traditional Polish Easter breakfast, so it may be a good idea for Kenji to cover this dish in a couple of months :)
You eat such a range of foods that I'm curious to know how you decide what's for dinner, especially with a family to feed. How much pre-planning goes into your groceries, etc.
It's like learning or mastering any subject , if someone asks me to go write a program and create a device to implement it , at this point in life you could put me in a cave with scraps and I'd probably be able to engineer something. Same thing with Kenji, you don't have to think when you have the knowledge in your head. It's unexplainable , it's just there, not much thought that goes Into it , you just know what you can do
@@thomasw178 you just buy what you "feel" as I said there's not much thought that goes into it. The only time thought goes into groceries is when there is a budget or its for a restaurant
People always ask about my patience, energy and planning behing my meal variety and schedule. There are two main points: Knowledge about food, and the joy of cooking. Im someome who loves to cook, so it makes everything worth it.
These past few months have been rough for me. Life is a chaotic whirlwind that's moving so fast. Your genuine demeanor and calm energy has been a bit of an escape and a bliss for me. Your recipes and tips are everything I look for and I can follow along with you and create a meal that all of my family love. Thank you sir. You've done more for me then you will ever know❤️
It’s nice to see central and Eastern European recipes getting loved. Whatever it might lack compared to French cooking, it more than makes up for in goodness and comfort.
This is a dish from my childhood! Mom sometimes did it with cabbage and sometimes with sauerkraut. In fact, when we didn't have kielbasa, she would (if she could get some) make it with potato sausage. I was told it was German-based (as per a huge part of our ancestry) but, honestly, there was so much cross-cultural exchange in that region that it's probably found in most of Northern-Eastern Europe! :)
Yeah, it is same in the Czech Republic (neighbouring those two countries) as the sour cabbage, potatoes and klobasa (kielbasa or wurst) were main ingredients in countless of foods of that region (sour cabbage is a good source of vitamin C in winter and sausages and potatoes are easily stored throughout the year as well).
I love these recipes, Kenji! I grew up on the "Southern" version of all of these... thanks to my Mom, who made sure we were fed well (and was a fabulous cook...despite the fact she couldn't afford expensive stuff!)! 😀
@@huckleberryjam4975 soup based on lacto fermented pickle water (and usually some meat/stock) with potatoes, carrots and sour pickles at least that's how my mum makes it
@@tracer.s lmao too right, its a great soup. Used to have it with with smashed potatoes when I was little, unfortunately we dont get many polish oriented restaurants in the uk
Kenji, this is surreal. As a long time fan from Poland, crazy to see you doing our kapuśniak, and doing it good. Make gołąbki or bogracz and I'll die happy.
Hi Kenji, I'm so surprised you're cooking something Polish 😉 Please try to use a stock based on smoked pork bones (hopefully you can find them), also add there some bay leaves and allspice. Kapuśniak must be sour and smoky. You should come to Poland to try more our traditional dishes 😊 we're waiting for you!
Overall it's fine and dandy. As a pole and a guy who make kapuśniak quite often i would like to throw some details. 1. I use smoked ribs/bones/pork broth instead of chicken one. 2. I use quite a lot of caraway seeds (1/2-1 tsp.) 3. I use a bit of tomatoe paste (2-3 tsp.) 4. I use a lot more sauerkraut, but i precook it before adding to soup. Sourness of final soup is controlled by adding sauerkraut "juice" (fresh and cooked) PS. Soup tastes great with a slice of bread covered with cold butter, try it.
I have made this quite a few times now, because it's a favorite in our house. It's so good! I don't even need the recipe anymore. Thank you for this one👌
Got to love the parallels to kimchijjigae/budaejjigae, which I’m sure you felt too! I think I’ll make this next time as a little spin on it. There’s (there was?) actually a polish/korean hipster fusion sausage/hotdog place in chicago called “Kimski” - they should put an interpretation of this on their menu!
Great video! Reminds me of a similar dish in Slovakia (which is right below Poland) called kapustnica. It's traditionally eaten for dinner on Christmas Eve and it's absolutely delicious.
I love how Shabu and Jamón give off totally different vibes. Shabu’s like “OH HECK YEAH HE’S FEEDING US I’M GONNA CATCH IT IN MY MOUTH!” and Jamón’s like “what’s up? Food? Sure I’ll take some. Thanks bro”
@@selfrighteous88 What makes you say that? He obviously moved and opened another place, but I don't recall him ever saying he sold Wursthall. Lots of chefs seem to have restaurants in multiple cities
Made this yesterday with some beets and cabbage thrown in as I had it laying around. The flavour was so deep and it had a great warmth from the paprika and white pepper. Definitely will do this again. Especially as it was so cheap to make!
I enjoyed watching your take on this recipe. My mom is Ukrainian, so she has a few Polish recipes up her sleeve. I remember a couple of times she made this Polish soup that had pickles in it. I don't remember what it's called, but it was surprisingly tasty. Being born in America I always enjoy seeing Western takes on Slavic recipes because I feel like Slavic cuisine is so underrated in the West. I remember there would be many occasions when my mom would pack me lunch and I would get lots of weird looks from my classmates for just eating Russian shredded beet, mayo, and walnut salad. With time I just learned to embrace my "weird looking food."
I've been making this soup for years (pretty much right after it was first published on Serious Eats). It's one of my favorite winter soups and makes regular appearances on the menu. I once made it for my parents and they like it so much that now they make it regularly too.
I usually use pork knuckle to make broth and use it as a base for soup, it makes it more rich in fat and more tasty as a result. Add bay leafs and a couple allspices, a standard for broth based soups for me. You can add the potatoes before adding the sauerkraut, which will make them softer faster. Potatoes can be well replaced with barley groats. Finnish it off with browned butter 'roux' (zasmażka) to thicken and add texture. A bit of marjoram is optional, but be careful as too much will dominate the taste.
My husband saw this earlier today and wanted to make it tonight. It was soooo good. Really flavorful but balanced. Excellent with some crusty bread. According to him, it wasn't difficult to execute.
I always use smoked pork ribs as broth base with the meat pulled from bone after they're boiled enough, pork belly also goes in and the sausage goes in little cubes so it all can be mixed in the sauerkraut fibers. Give it a try. Hope to see more polish cuisine on your channel.
I gotta get me one of those mini trash cans for the counter like Kenji. He's a great chef, but he impresses me the most with his cleaning while cooking skills.
So this would typically be cooked with raw pork ribs and indeed some smoked meat - pork belly is more common than kielbasa. That thin broth, cooked with carrots, parsley, leek and celery (root!) is then used to cook sauerkraut with some more carrots (these ones stay in the soup) and potatoes. My mom makes the best kapuśniak in the entire world. It's hearty, warming - it's simply the definition of comfort food. I usually eat it with lots of black pepper. Fun to see you cooking Polish dishes :) You should definitely try dill pickle soup! Another magnificent Polish dish! Cheers from Poland!
Love, love, ❤ 😍 You brought me back to my childhood in our family kitchen🤗. I stumbled across your recipe and so many fond memories poured in. I am now subscribed and cannot wait to make your recipes. Also just amazed at your sauerkraut maker. We used to make our own growing up. I must find that so I can make sauerkraut again. Thank you a zillion times😍
10:38 I'm glad you addressed the cooking of vegetables in a low pH environment, I feel like almost no western food blogger mentions this. In my family, when we make this kind of soup that has fermented cabbage and potatoes, we don't dump everything in. Instead, we cook the soup as normal, but sautee the sauerkraut in a separate skillet, and add that at the end. For a weeknight meal, anyhow. If it's the weekend, and you got all day, dump it all in. :)
Why not just put the sauerkraut in after the potatoes soften and if you're not also using fresh why boil it? Why not treat it like miso paste to retain probiotics?
@@thethpian you want the sauerkraut to cook and soften up. If you just put it in after the potatoes cook, by the time the cabbage is the right texture, the potatoes will turn to mush.
I made something similar recently, with a 4 day old Xmas Eve choucroute garnie. Chopped up the meats and fried some extra fingerlings, made a roux, and just dumped the thing in with some milk. Mind-blowingly delicious. Sauerkraut soup is definitely in regular rotation now.
Made this today after seeing your video! I’d never heard of a soup with sauerkraut, but I love sauerkraut, so had to try it out, and it was delicious!! Thank you for showing all kinds of different dishes and cuisines😃
My mother and grandmothers use smoked bones with some addition of smoked bacon (you can buy those at local meat stores in Poland) for "smokey-stock". There are many polish or silesian soups based on that smokeystock or smoked bones. In my family (Silesian) recipes, Kapusniak was one of them. Other examples are żur (fermented rye soup), beans soup (called fasolowa), split pea (grochówka). That extra smokey flavor is amazing in these soups. And recently I have found that you can make a vegan version of that smokey stock based on smoked paprika. It is nearly as good as meat version.
Hi Kenji, a good take on one of my favourite recipes. As a well-traveled central-european where this recipe comes from, and convinced this is one of the most fantastic recipes anyone will ever taste, I need to expand: - a very universal recipe - variants of this are traditional to a then region of now countries of Hungary, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Austria, even Eastern Germany - all throughout central Europe. Some believe this recipe started more than 2000 years ago in China. Now I dont think we needed the Chinese folks to bring fermented cabbage to Europe, but I may be mistaken. I believe eastern Europe (Belarus, Ukraine, Russia) have their variants of this also. You will not find this much at local restaurants, except the really posh ones using /Guys I´m really sorry/ quail eggs and truffle/; it is considered outdated and a grandma (childhood comfort) food, much to its shame. This is traditionally a poor folks festive soup - originating from poor mountainous regions where all meat products were scarce and potato/lettuce was just about the only thing abundant. So note, all meat products added should be in small proportion (scarce at the time), just enough to give it a smell of meat, but do not make it a meat-based recipe. - feel free to use hungarian style paprika based sausage. I would actually highly recommend it - paprika does wonders to the recipe. Traditionally you would make use of any smoked/salted/preserved meat available in the house. - for frying, use lard or butter or other animal fat instead of vegetable oil. Don´t use olive oil. Olive trees don´t grow here. - cut everything in large chunks. Each chunk should be a mouthful. -use about 2:1 ratio of sauerkraut to all other ingredients combined. This is and should be predominantly a sauerkraut recipe. Sauerkraut is a superfood as most fermented foods are. It really does wonders to your health and cannot recommend it enough. Check out on wikipedia. - do not add starch to thicken. You should make light roux. - you need to use these spices, do not omit any: garlic, bayleaf, newspice, caraway (I suggest to make it a rule of thumb to always add caraway when potatoes are present in a dish - any potato recipe without caraway just sucks, with the exception of french fries. But I digress.) - sweetness: absolutely get the most sweetness out of your onions, it is part of the recipe. Traditionally you would add some dried sugar plums (other dried sweet fruit) and cook it to oblivion to increase sweetness. Nowadays we just add sugar to taste. The dish should be intensely acidic and sweet (as well as salty). - you can add forest mushrooms for extra umami flavor - frequently done in woodland (shroom abundant) areas. - a tablespoon of sour cream should be available to top your portion for extra comfort. Enjoy and forever pass this on.
Though not using kraut but in japan, pot au feu is mostly made using sausages (have seen hot dogs used as well) with big chunks of vegetables ie cabbage, potatoes, carrots, turnips, bay leaves, etc cooked in broth. Kids love them because it tastes gentle without very strong taste coming through. Often, a side small dish of mustard is served for adults. This sort of reminded me of that minus paprika and kraut.
Yaaas Kenji! A classic Polish recipe done well! 👏🏻 As a first-generation Pole who's lived abroad for over two decades I love to cook Polish dishes that remind me of 'home'. But, as Polish cuisine is sometimes (in my opinion, unfairly) seen as not particularly glamorous or exciting, it makes me even happier to see non-Poles embrace it with such gusto! ❤️ Funnily enough I made my own version of kapuśniak just the other day before stumbling across your recipe, psych! I normally skip the bacon as I think the sausage (if good quality) gives plenty of flavour already and I make mine 50:50 with fresh cabbage to balance the sourness, then plenty of caraway and black pepper to season and lots of fresh dill at the end. Yum! 😋 Sometimes I go a bit left-field/fusion down the Korean/kimchi route, adding in some hot sauce (something quite neutral like Tabasco) or a sprinkle of gochugaru after serving for that extra kick. 🔥 Love your recipes and I look forward to seeing more of them 👍🏻
hey guys I'm a Korean I found this video very interesting. So if you follow Kenji's recipe and essentially replace all the herbs with garlic, replace sauerkraut with kimchi, replace chicken broth with Ox bone broth and add gochugaru (chili flakes) it becomes 부대찌개 (Budae jjigae). Don't add corn starch as well. The bone broth should have enough collagen to thicken the soup
This video could not have been better timed! I have so much fermented red cabbage left over from Christmas that I gotta use for something. This looks perfect👏
I've been making this every so often since you first posted it and I gotta tell you I think putting the dill in at the end instead of while its cooking is an accidental stroke of genius, and your daughter going through an anti-dill phase brought a blessing on this world. Gonna be making this on Dyngus Day. I'm gonna see if I can get to a butcher and get some nice kielbasa instead of the usual Johnsonville ones.
So cool to see this being made on my favorite TH-cam channel! We make a Slovak version of this to eat on Christmas eve. It also has prunes, mushrooms, and is steeped with a whole apple in it. Then it is thickened with sour cream. All he needed was some rye bread to eat with it!
So I have both cabbage and jarred sauerkraut. I'm thinking of adding both, rinsing the jarred to mellow it a little and sauteing the fresh with the onions. Looks like a warming winter meal along with some San Francisco buttered sourdough.
Wow, huge respect! In Poland sourkrout is made with cabbage shredded on mandolin. So we are cutting everything is in smaller pieces that gives more natural thickness into soup. At my home it was sometimes prepared with golonka (pork knuckle) instead of kiełbasa and smoked pork belly - too fat, but tasty 😋. Try other polish sour soups if you like ogórkowa made from sour cucumbers and żurek that is based on sour rye flour (something like more watery sourdough). Again huge respect and I am huge fun of what you are doing!
Nice video. Love kapusniak, such a healthy & filing soup in the cold wet winters here in the UK. We're lucky to have a big Polish community here so there area lot of Polish grocers for some of the harder to get ingredients for some dishes & to feed my pierogi addiction when I don't make them myself. Really like that fermentation box from Crazy Korean Cooking, hadn't seen those before but have now tracked one down. Thanks for showing it to us.
Hi Guys, I'm from Poland and my grandmother does this dish similarly, I approve. 🤠🤠 Regionally there is also a variant called "Kwasica" it is made with sauerkraut juice super sour and served for a hangover.
My stepmom introduced me to this dish, she called it boiled dinner bc that's basically the process. Very good, even with just simple store-bought ingredients
Same ingredients as in a dish whe have here in the Netherlands called zuurkoolstamp. What basically is mashed potatoes with sauerkraut. Verry delicious!
I’m not Polish but I’ve often had a similar dish called bigos. I’m not sure what the exact difference is but it’s also a sauerkraut and meat/ sausage dish, maybe with less water. I like to make it with duck leg, kielbasa and bacon.
Pysznie wygląda ten kapuśniaczek Kenji. So I'm polish and a version of the kapuśniak my mom makes is that you don't use like regular stock. What you do is take a pork rib (a cut with little meat mostly bones) that was very heavily smoked and cook that in vater with smoked raw Bacon ad some bay and allspice and them the seared sausage and all the veg Kenji added. One of the most important steps is cooking cubed potatoes in the broth before the sauerkraut so they can get soft. Good recepie Kenji, so can you try making żurek some time soon ? (another fermented polish soup) Would love to see it,have a good day!
Thanks for another great video Kenji. We've learned so much from you! Any tips on using a Y-peeler without nicking your hand holding the vegetable? Just time and practice? Is there a claw-like technique for a Y-peeler?
Very nice to see Kapuśniak on your channel! I would just like to add that we often use something to make this soup even more acidic by adding sour cream or even vinegar! I personally love to make it even more sour with apple cider vinegar. Also if you like this soup flavor profile than i recommend you the polish Zupa Ogórkowa, which is also made from fermented vegetable but here it is a cucumber (polish dill pickles).
Polish kapusniak, Slovak kapustnica, Czech zelňačka, Hungarian korhelyleves, German Sauerkrautsuppe, ... Every version is slightly different. Still the same, but different. :-) You can make it "natural" as you did, you can add a shitload of paprika, you can add some creme fraiche or cream and it will be delicious every time. And BTW your homemade sauerkraut looks so tasty! I make like 40kg of it (a little shy of 90lbs) every year, we put it into a ceramics barrel and store it in between 5-15 degrees C (40-60F) depending on the time of the year and it never got spoiled in over 15 years. Also, as a guy with Eastern European roots, I am impressed by your pronunciation.
my grandma would combine sour cream with the cornstarch and paprika and add that at the end Make sure to slowly warm the sour cream up before adding to keep it from curdling. Maybe helps incorporate the paprika flavor?
Caraway seed is essential. Sauerkraut just begs for it. Also we usually make this soup with heavily smoked ribs/beacon, never had one with sausage. In my family we use black pepper, caraway seed, allspice and bay leaf. Anyway. It is really nice seeing here some polish recopies. You should try pierogi ruskie.
Made my own sauerkraut and polska kielbasa: I will try your version! Outstanding as usual, Kenji! And I am FOREVER in your debt for your 170 F (no más) temp for shrimp! Best ever!!!
I would argue that square is not necessarily ideal for carrot. It guarantees that there will be pieces of quite different size, whereas a radial arrangement allows for same sized pieces. Of course, may not matter for the dish, you may want slight variety in texture, or something else I'm not thinking of. Either way, psyched to try this. Looks great!
This is extremely similar to choucroute garnie which is sauerkraut with various sausages and cured/smoked meats but cooked in a casserole without the broth I think. Great recipe! I notice you also grabbed one of those super cool fermenters! I've made kimchi and I have a batch of sauerkraut going now. Could you do a video about fermenting with that particular kind of fermenter? Thanks for making these videos!
Hey! Sauerkraut is transformative. If I want cabbage in a stir fry but don't have any ill use Sauerkraut. The sourness goes away but you'll appreciate it's taste and texture.
Bro I’m polish and I really thought that kapuśniak will be the last thing u would do that came from Poland! Great work!
Fuck yeah same😂😂
Next thing you know he'll be doing begos
@@alanmyr1507 it's called bingos bro
@@bedogie it’s called bigos bro
@@barteklewandowski5157 nie
@@barteklewandowski5157 ur german dont speak to me
I have some kind of love/hate relationship with kapuśniak, and was so ready to argue with your version when I started playing the video, but damn - it's very simple version that is adapted to American market, and I love it for it.
Here in Poland it's actually somewhat difficult to get store-bought stock (most only have instant/concentrated products), so 98% of a time we are making soups based on home-made ones. It's rarely purely chicken stock - it's easy here to buy pork spare ribs, and while they are not necessary, they make the stock for kapuśniak much nicer, thanks to added taste and gelatine that you can get from the bones. You can then strip meat from them after finishing the stock and add it to the soup, it fit especially well if you get some browning going on it while you render the fat from the bacon. While kapuśniak is not bigos, there is never such thing as too many types of meat in here. Other thing that is somewhat surprising to me is white pepper - it's actually very rarely used in Polish kitchen, we usually just add few whole black peppercorns and allspice next to the bay leaves, then grind some more black pepper to finished soup when serving. The paprika is also considered very much optional, and sometimes even supplemented with tomato paste and some chilli powder.
Then there is whole argument here that carrots should be shredded as thinly as sauerkraut; that we would more often make roux and not use corn starch; that celeriac, marjoram and caraway are necessary to get proper taste... and so on - but it would make the recipe unnecessarily complicated for usual American spice rack or just take too long to be worth it. Kapuśniak doesn't need to be always made in traditional way - your version is super simple, fast and I am absolutely sure that it's delicious too.
I’m definitely in agreement with using a medium dark roux for thickening and the flavor over cornstarch . My granny used to put a big scoop of mashed potatoes in the middle of the bowl to stretch this depression meal even further.
Love the pork ribs idea and the spice set. What’s your bigos recipe please?
@@olyasorokina3780 try searching for any recipe: 'bigos staropolski' and it should be just fine without translation. Smacznego!
Couldnt agree more, kapuśniak and kiełbasa pronouncation is on point. Powdered paprika is indeed not so common and we mostly use tomato paste. Couldnt agree more with either smoked pork bones, ribs or belly being added to the broth itself. Whole thing calls as well for some sauerkraut water being added towards the end, the idea of the kapuśniak is to be really sauer but to extent that everyone can eat it. Cheers and love from Poland.
Yes!!! My grandmother (from Poland) always added pork ribs. She also added dried yellow split peas.
Here I am, a Polish guy, learning how to make a Kapuśniak from Kenji. looks almost exactly like my grandmoms
My family loves kielbasa and it's totally soup season here in MN so this is getting made ASAP!
Interested in knowing your thoughts on how it tastes!
Just say smoked sussage it's same thing or polish sussage
You are a wonderful teacher. Love your style. Very easy to watch !!!! Can't wait to see your other cooking vids...
One of my favourite traits of you, Sir, is that you really cover the whole spectrum of cuisines around the world with the equal amount of due respect and curiosity. French haute cuisine? Sure. Chinese wok dishes? Yup. Turkish breakfast dishes? Certainly. Colombian soups? Absolutely. And now the less recognised Polish cuisine with ingredients especially young people would maybe frown upon - writing as a Eastern German - because it seems Grandma-ish to them.
Thank you so much for every video and piece of knowledge and stay healthy!
I hate this pandemic, but without it we may have never gotten Kenji’s wonderful POV cooking. These videos are inexplicably captivating, and I hope this format endures for a long time to come. Thank you Kenji.
You should also look into zurek, sort of a sourdough based soup with halved hard boiled egg, coils of whote sausage potatoes and other veg (atleast that’s the ones we use). Would love to see you explore this!
Your comment sent me down an interesting rabbit hole. Thanks.
żurek (rye sourdough soup) with kiełbasa, bacon and egg, served with a slice of sourdough rye bread, is actually eaten as a part of traditional Polish Easter breakfast, so it may be a good idea for Kenji to cover this dish in a couple of months :)
I'm not sure how easy it is to get biała kiełbasa for the żurek where Kenji Lives.
Kenji thank you for continuing to share your "why we do it" tidbits! I really enjoy learning from you !
You eat such a range of foods that I'm curious to know how you decide what's for dinner, especially with a family to feed. How much pre-planning goes into your groceries, etc.
It's like learning or mastering any subject , if someone asks me to go write a program and create a device to implement it , at this point in life you could put me in a cave with scraps and I'd probably be able to engineer something. Same thing with Kenji, you don't have to think when you have the knowledge in your head. It's unexplainable , it's just there, not much thought that goes Into it , you just know what you can do
@@OneDayIMay91Bil "Kenji built this, IN A CAVE, WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!"
-that guy from Iron Man lol
@@OneDayIMay91Bil It's more of a question of how to decide what to buy at the grocery store.
@@thomasw178 you just buy what you "feel" as I said there's not much thought that goes into it. The only time thought goes into groceries is when there is a budget or its for a restaurant
People always ask about my patience, energy and planning behing my meal variety and schedule.
There are two main points: Knowledge about food, and the joy of cooking. Im someome who loves to cook, so it makes everything worth it.
Can u please do more late night , I love how relaxing it is
These past few months have been rough for me. Life is a chaotic whirlwind that's moving so fast. Your genuine demeanor and calm energy has been a bit of an escape and a bliss for me. Your recipes and tips are everything I look for and I can follow along with you and create a meal that all of my family love. Thank you sir. You've done more for me then you will ever know❤️
Wow Kenji you are truly something else. I never expected to see such a dish on any American food channel. Much respect from a Pole.
It’s nice to see central and Eastern European recipes getting loved. Whatever it might lack compared to French cooking, it more than makes up for in goodness and comfort.
This is a dish from my childhood! Mom sometimes did it with cabbage and sometimes with sauerkraut. In fact, when we didn't have kielbasa, she would (if she could get some) make it with potato sausage. I was told it was German-based (as per a huge part of our ancestry) but, honestly, there was so much cross-cultural exchange in that region that it's probably found in most of Northern-Eastern Europe! :)
Yeah, it is same in the Czech Republic (neighbouring those two countries) as the sour cabbage, potatoes and klobasa (kielbasa or wurst) were main ingredients in countless of foods of that region (sour cabbage is a good source of vitamin C in winter and sausages and potatoes are easily stored throughout the year as well).
I never thought that non-polish person will teach me how to make kapuśniak!
Great video, as always :)
Everyday becomes 10x better when I see you’ve uploaded :)
Finally someone gave this masterpiece a shoutout! The best hangover killer there is.
Hello there.
General Kenobi
Yo!
hi kenji 🤝
GENERAL KENOBI
Thanks! So glad to see a new video from you
I love these recipes, Kenji! I grew up on the "Southern" version of all of these... thanks to my Mom, who made sure we were fed well (and was a fabulous cook...despite the fact she couldn't afford expensive stuff!)! 😀
Love polish soups, we definitely got some interesting recipes. One of my favourites is pickled pickle soup, sounds odd but it tastes amazing👍
You talk about OGÓRKOWA soup?
can you elaborate?
@@huckleberryjam4975 soup based on lacto fermented pickle water (and usually some meat/stock) with potatoes, carrots and sour pickles
at least that's how my mum makes it
Ogorkowa is to die for. Added beef to mine with a dash of pepperoncinis, worcestershire, dill, and cream. It's like the edgy sibling of stroghanoff.
@@tracer.s lmao too right, its a great soup. Used to have it with with smashed potatoes when I was little, unfortunately we dont get many polish oriented restaurants in the uk
SO HAPPY to see your videos popping up more often again! I missed watching you cook DEARLY, Kenji! 😅
My favorite part of these videos is when you feed the dogs at the end, and love all of your vids kenji keep up the good work
Kenji, this is surreal. As a long time fan from Poland, crazy to see you doing our kapuśniak, and doing it good. Make gołąbki or bogracz and I'll die happy.
Hi Kenji, I'm so surprised you're cooking something Polish 😉 Please try to use a stock based on smoked pork bones (hopefully you can find them), also add there some bay leaves and allspice. Kapuśniak must be sour and smoky. You should come to Poland to try more our traditional dishes 😊 we're waiting for you!
Also, we cook potatoes separately, so they cook faster 😉
yes, please more slavic cuisine!
Overall it's fine and dandy.
As a pole and a guy who make kapuśniak quite often i would like to throw some details.
1. I use smoked ribs/bones/pork broth instead of chicken one.
2. I use quite a lot of caraway seeds (1/2-1 tsp.)
3. I use a bit of tomatoe paste (2-3 tsp.)
4. I use a lot more sauerkraut, but i precook it before adding to soup. Sourness of final soup is controlled by adding sauerkraut "juice" (fresh and cooked)
PS. Soup tastes great with a slice of bread covered with cold butter, try it.
Is it weird that one of my favorite parts of Kenji's videos is when he open his fridge?
I have made this quite a few times now, because it's a favorite in our house. It's so good! I don't even need the recipe anymore. Thank you for this one👌
Got to love the parallels to kimchijjigae/budaejjigae, which I’m sure you felt too! I think I’ll make this next time as a little spin on it. There’s (there was?) actually a polish/korean hipster fusion sausage/hotdog place in chicago called “Kimski” - they should put an interpretation of this on their menu!
Great video! Reminds me of a similar dish in Slovakia (which is right below Poland) called kapustnica. It's traditionally eaten for dinner on Christmas Eve and it's absolutely delicious.
I love how Shabu and Jamón give off totally different vibes. Shabu’s like “OH HECK YEAH HE’S FEEDING US I’M GONNA CATCH IT IN MY MOUTH!” and Jamón’s like “what’s up? Food? Sure I’ll take some. Thanks bro”
It is amazing Jamón actually caught it this time.
Finally went to Wursthall last night! The sausages were amazing and everything was cooked to perfection! Loved the Korean style fried chicken too
I don't think he's an owner anymore.
@@selfrighteous88 What makes you say that? He obviously moved and opened another place, but I don't recall him ever saying he sold Wursthall. Lots of chefs seem to have restaurants in multiple cities
@@selfrighteous88 he is still the owner. He just trust his people and quality of their work
Made this yesterday with some beets and cabbage thrown in as I had it laying around. The flavour was so deep and it had a great warmth from the paprika and white pepper. Definitely will do this again. Especially as it was so cheap to make!
Thanks so much for your flexibility in ingredient substitutions! Very helpful!
I enjoyed watching your take on this recipe. My mom is Ukrainian, so she has a few Polish recipes up her sleeve. I remember a couple of times she made this Polish soup that had pickles in it. I don't remember what it's called, but it was surprisingly tasty. Being born in America I always enjoy seeing Western takes on Slavic recipes because I feel like Slavic cuisine is so underrated in the West. I remember there would be many occasions when my mom would pack me lunch and I would get lots of weird looks from my classmates for just eating Russian shredded beet, mayo, and walnut salad. With time I just learned to embrace my "weird looking food."
I've been making this soup for years (pretty much right after it was first published on Serious Eats). It's one of my favorite winter soups and makes regular appearances on the menu. I once made it for my parents and they like it so much that now they make it regularly too.
I usually use pork knuckle to make broth and use it as a base for soup, it makes it more rich in fat and more tasty as a result. Add bay leafs and a couple allspices, a standard for broth based soups for me.
You can add the potatoes before adding the sauerkraut, which will make them softer faster. Potatoes can be well replaced with barley groats.
Finnish it off with browned butter 'roux' (zasmażka) to thicken and add texture.
A bit of marjoram is optional, but be careful as too much will dominate the taste.
My husband saw this earlier today and wanted to make it tonight. It was soooo good. Really flavorful but balanced. Excellent with some crusty bread. According to him, it wasn't difficult to execute.
I always use smoked pork ribs as broth base with the meat pulled from bone after they're boiled enough, pork belly also goes in and the sausage goes in little cubes so it all can be mixed in the sauerkraut fibers. Give it a try. Hope to see more polish cuisine on your channel.
I gotta get me one of those mini trash cans for the counter like Kenji. He's a great chef, but he impresses me the most with his cleaning while cooking skills.
I am so glad to find someone who shares my love of fermented foods.
So this would typically be cooked with raw pork ribs and indeed some smoked meat - pork belly is more common than kielbasa. That thin broth, cooked with carrots, parsley, leek and celery (root!) is then used to cook sauerkraut with some more carrots (these ones stay in the soup) and potatoes.
My mom makes the best kapuśniak in the entire world. It's hearty, warming - it's simply the definition of comfort food. I usually eat it with lots of black pepper.
Fun to see you cooking Polish dishes :)
You should definitely try dill pickle soup! Another magnificent Polish dish! Cheers from Poland!
Love, love, ❤ 😍 You brought me back to my childhood in our family kitchen🤗. I stumbled across your recipe and so many fond memories poured in. I am now subscribed and cannot wait to make your recipes. Also just amazed at your sauerkraut maker. We used to make our own growing up. I must find that so I can make sauerkraut again. Thank you a zillion times😍
10:38 I'm glad you addressed the cooking of vegetables in a low pH environment, I feel like almost no western food blogger mentions this. In my family, when we make this kind of soup that has fermented cabbage and potatoes, we don't dump everything in. Instead, we cook the soup as normal, but sautee the sauerkraut in a separate skillet, and add that at the end. For a weeknight meal, anyhow. If it's the weekend, and you got all day, dump it all in. :)
Why not just put the sauerkraut in after the potatoes soften and if you're not also using fresh why boil it? Why not treat it like miso paste to retain probiotics?
@@thethpian you want the sauerkraut to cook and soften up. If you just put it in after the potatoes cook, by the time the cabbage is the right texture, the potatoes will turn to mush.
I made something similar recently, with a 4 day old Xmas Eve choucroute garnie. Chopped up the meats and fried some extra fingerlings, made a roux, and just dumped the thing in with some milk. Mind-blowingly delicious. Sauerkraut soup is definitely in regular rotation now.
as a pole, i'm impressed with your pronunciation 👍 gotta show this one to my mom to scrutinize haha
wszystko zajebiscie :)
@@bag3lmonst3r72 and their profile picture is the most famous instant noodle brand in indonesia
@@bag3lmonst3r72 it's a burner account
2022 started amazingly good for me, lucky one for just found your channel! Much love from Brazil Kenji!
I had a roommate that made something similar, but with all fresh cabbage, It was great, can't wait to try this soup, Thanks Kenji!!
Made this today after seeing your video! I’d never heard of a soup with sauerkraut, but I love sauerkraut, so had to try it out, and it was delicious!! Thank you for showing all kinds of different dishes and cuisines😃
My mother and grandmothers use smoked bones with some addition of smoked bacon (you can buy those at local meat stores in Poland) for "smokey-stock". There are many polish or silesian soups based on that smokeystock or smoked bones. In my family (Silesian) recipes, Kapusniak was one of them. Other examples are żur (fermented rye soup), beans soup (called fasolowa), split pea (grochówka).
That extra smokey flavor is amazing in these soups. And recently I have found that you can make a vegan version of that smokey stock based on smoked paprika. It is nearly as good as meat version.
Hi Kenji, a good take on one of my favourite recipes.
As a well-traveled central-european where this recipe comes from, and convinced this is one of the most fantastic recipes anyone will ever taste, I need to expand:
- a very universal recipe - variants of this are traditional to a then region of now countries of Hungary, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Austria, even Eastern Germany - all throughout central Europe. Some believe this recipe started more than 2000 years ago in China. Now I dont think we needed the Chinese folks to bring fermented cabbage to Europe, but I may be mistaken. I believe eastern Europe (Belarus, Ukraine, Russia) have their variants of this also.
You will not find this much at local restaurants, except the really posh ones using /Guys I´m really sorry/ quail eggs and truffle/;
it is considered outdated and a grandma (childhood comfort) food, much to its shame.
This is traditionally a poor folks festive soup - originating from poor mountainous regions where all meat products were scarce and potato/lettuce was just about the only thing abundant. So note, all meat products added should be in small proportion (scarce at the time), just enough to give it a smell of meat, but do not make it a meat-based recipe.
- feel free to use hungarian style paprika based sausage. I would actually highly recommend it - paprika does wonders to the recipe. Traditionally you would make use of any smoked/salted/preserved meat available in the house.
- for frying, use lard or butter or other animal fat instead of vegetable oil. Don´t use olive oil. Olive trees don´t grow here.
- cut everything in large chunks. Each chunk should be a mouthful.
-use about 2:1 ratio of sauerkraut to all other ingredients combined. This is and should be predominantly a sauerkraut recipe. Sauerkraut is a superfood as most fermented foods are. It really does wonders to your health and cannot recommend it enough. Check out on wikipedia.
- do not add starch to thicken. You should make light roux.
- you need to use these spices, do not omit any: garlic, bayleaf, newspice, caraway (I suggest to make it a rule of thumb to always add caraway when potatoes are present in a dish - any potato recipe without caraway just sucks, with the exception of french fries. But I digress.)
- sweetness: absolutely get the most sweetness out of your onions, it is part of the recipe. Traditionally you would add some dried sugar plums (other dried sweet fruit) and cook it to oblivion to increase sweetness. Nowadays we just add sugar to taste. The dish should be intensely acidic and sweet (as well as salty).
- you can add forest mushrooms for extra umami flavor - frequently done in woodland (shroom abundant) areas.
- a tablespoon of sour cream should be available to top your portion for extra comfort.
Enjoy and forever pass this on.
This is my dinner tonight. It’s a cold winters day in Chicago - needless to say, I’m excited!
I love that I'm not the only one that has to keep upsizing my pot as the recipe progresses.
This is one of my favorite, and most often cooked, of your recipes Kenji. Perfection in a bowl
The best type of dish on a cold day! Will definitely try this out!
I am from Poland and I had kapuśniak for a lunch this week. Popular Polish soup.
Though not using kraut but in japan, pot au feu is mostly made using sausages (have seen hot dogs used as well) with big chunks of vegetables ie cabbage, potatoes, carrots, turnips, bay leaves, etc cooked in broth. Kids love them because it tastes gentle without very strong taste coming through. Often, a side small dish of mustard is served for adults. This sort of reminded me of that minus paprika and kraut.
Made it for dinner tonight. Holy crap. So good. I could eat this every day.
Just tried making a version of this with fresh cabbage and quite a bit of white balsamic vinegar. It is delicious!!!
Yaaas Kenji! A classic Polish recipe done well! 👏🏻
As a first-generation Pole who's lived abroad for over two decades I love to cook Polish dishes that remind me of 'home'. But, as Polish cuisine is sometimes (in my opinion, unfairly) seen as not particularly glamorous or exciting, it makes me even happier to see non-Poles embrace it with such gusto! ❤️
Funnily enough I made my own version of kapuśniak just the other day before stumbling across your recipe, psych! I normally skip the bacon as I think the sausage (if good quality) gives plenty of flavour already and I make mine 50:50 with fresh cabbage to balance the sourness, then plenty of caraway and black pepper to season and lots of fresh dill at the end. Yum! 😋
Sometimes I go a bit left-field/fusion down the Korean/kimchi route, adding in some hot sauce (something quite neutral like Tabasco) or a sprinkle of gochugaru after serving for that extra kick. 🔥
Love your recipes and I look forward to seeing more of them 👍🏻
Good to see some new videos from you, Kenji! I hope all is well with you and your kids.
Hi Kenji! Makes my Friday to see a new vid by you. Hope you’re doing well.
hey guys I'm a Korean I found this video very interesting. So if you follow Kenji's recipe and essentially replace all the herbs with garlic, replace sauerkraut with kimchi, replace chicken broth with Ox bone broth and add gochugaru (chili flakes) it becomes 부대찌개 (Budae jjigae). Don't add corn starch as well. The bone broth should have enough collagen to thicken the soup
This video could not have been better timed! I have so much fermented red cabbage left over from Christmas that I gotta use for something. This looks perfect👏
I've been making this every so often since you first posted it and I gotta tell you I think putting the dill in at the end instead of while its cooking is an accidental stroke of genius, and your daughter going through an anti-dill phase brought a blessing on this world.
Gonna be making this on Dyngus Day. I'm gonna see if I can get to a butcher and get some nice kielbasa instead of the usual Johnsonville ones.
i've made this twice since you posted this video and it's legit the best soup i've ever made, 10/10
So cool to see this being made on my favorite TH-cam channel! We make a Slovak version of this to eat on Christmas eve. It also has prunes, mushrooms, and is steeped with a whole apple in it. Then it is thickened with sour cream. All he needed was some rye bread to eat with it!
That sounds soooo delicious!
Always impressive. Thanks for that. I learn something every time.
As a Pole, you don’t know how excited seeing this made me. Making it soon!
Just made it - awesome that it pulls the flavor out of the meat that you wouldn't normally eat that way .
So I have both cabbage and jarred sauerkraut. I'm thinking of adding both, rinsing the jarred to mellow it a little and sauteing the fresh with the onions. Looks like a warming winter meal along with some San Francisco buttered sourdough.
Wow, huge respect! In Poland sourkrout is made with cabbage shredded on mandolin. So we are cutting everything is in smaller pieces that gives more natural thickness into soup. At my home it was sometimes prepared with golonka (pork knuckle) instead of kiełbasa and smoked pork belly - too fat, but tasty 😋. Try other polish sour soups if you like ogórkowa made from sour cucumbers and żurek that is based on sour rye flour (something like more watery sourdough). Again huge respect and I am huge fun of what you are doing!
Nice video. Love kapusniak, such a healthy & filing soup in the cold wet winters here in the UK.
We're lucky to have a big Polish community here so there area lot of Polish grocers for some of the harder to get ingredients for some dishes & to feed my pierogi addiction when I don't make them myself.
Really like that fermentation box from Crazy Korean Cooking, hadn't seen those before but have now tracked one down. Thanks for showing it to us.
Hi Guys, I'm from Poland and my grandmother does this dish similarly, I approve. 🤠🤠
Regionally there is also a variant called "Kwasica" it is made with sauerkraut juice super sour and served for a hangover.
I think you meant kwaśnica, not kwasica. Kwasica is a name of a disease
That carrot hack!!! Amazing, thank you
My stepmom introduced me to this dish, she called it boiled dinner bc that's basically the process. Very good, even with just simple store-bought ingredients
Same ingredients as in a dish whe have here in the Netherlands called zuurkoolstamp. What basically is mashed potatoes with sauerkraut. Verry delicious!
I believe I've had the Czech version of this once, zelnacka. Very delicious and heavy on the caraway!
glad you liked it. caraway is usually added while fermenting sauerkraut, plus some ppl add it extra in the soup, so it can be overkill actually:)
made this tonight and it was awesome. another banger. thanks Kenji
This video just made a childhood memory of mine resurface and now I want some kapusniak
I’m not Polish but I’ve often had a similar dish called bigos. I’m not sure what the exact difference is but it’s also a sauerkraut and meat/ sausage dish, maybe with less water. I like to make it with duck leg, kielbasa and bacon.
Pysznie wygląda ten kapuśniaczek Kenji.
So I'm polish and a version of the kapuśniak my mom makes is that you don't use like regular stock.
What you do is take a pork rib (a cut with little meat mostly bones) that was very heavily smoked and cook that in vater with smoked raw Bacon ad some bay and allspice and them the seared sausage and all the veg Kenji added.
One of the most important steps is cooking cubed potatoes in the broth before the sauerkraut so they can get soft.
Good recepie Kenji, so can you try making żurek some time soon ? (another fermented polish soup)
Would love to see it,have a good day!
Thanks for another great video Kenji. We've learned so much from you! Any tips on using a Y-peeler without nicking your hand holding the vegetable? Just time and practice? Is there a claw-like technique for a Y-peeler?
Very nice to see Kapuśniak on your channel! I would just like to add that we often use something to make this soup even more acidic by adding sour cream or even vinegar! I personally love to make it even more sour with apple cider vinegar. Also if you like this soup flavor profile than i recommend you the polish Zupa Ogórkowa, which is also made from fermented vegetable but here it is a cucumber (polish dill pickles).
I love your videos. I learn something new each time!
I made this today with Chinese sauerkraut, Harbin sausage, a potato, half an onion, dried dill, and cilantro to garnish. It was tasty!
Love some saurekraut soup. Yum! Was fed this by my German ex when I had a cold. Feel in love with it.
Polish kapusniak, Slovak kapustnica, Czech zelňačka, Hungarian korhelyleves, German Sauerkrautsuppe, ... Every version is slightly different. Still the same, but different. :-)
You can make it "natural" as you did, you can add a shitload of paprika, you can add some creme fraiche or cream and it will be delicious every time. And BTW your homemade sauerkraut looks so tasty! I make like 40kg of it (a little shy of 90lbs) every year, we put it into a ceramics barrel and store it in between 5-15 degrees C (40-60F) depending on the time of the year and it never got spoiled in over 15 years.
Also, as a guy with Eastern European roots, I am impressed by your pronunciation.
I love sauerkraut soup. Curious to try that cornstarch and spice slurry mix next time I make it.
Looks great. Can't wait for this heat wave to be over, and this soup will be on the table.
Dude I love the way you cook it makes sense to me....I'm gonna make this next week....N I'm gonna get one of ur books....thanx Kenji
Thank you for the recipe and for feeding the dogs
my grandma would combine sour cream with the cornstarch and paprika and add that at the end Make sure to slowly warm the sour cream up before adding to keep it from curdling. Maybe helps incorporate the paprika flavor?
Caraway seed is essential. Sauerkraut just begs for it. Also we usually make this soup with heavily smoked ribs/beacon, never had one with sausage. In my family we use black pepper, caraway seed, allspice and bay leaf. Anyway. It is really nice seeing here some polish recopies. You should try pierogi ruskie.
Looks awesome Kenji! Love this kinda stuff during the winter months. Gonna make it this weekend! Thank you! 👍🏼
Made my own sauerkraut and polska kielbasa: I will try your version! Outstanding as usual, Kenji! And I am FOREVER in your debt for your 170 F (no más) temp for shrimp! Best ever!!!
I would argue that square is not necessarily ideal for carrot. It guarantees that there will be pieces of quite different size, whereas a radial arrangement allows for same sized pieces. Of course, may not matter for the dish, you may want slight variety in texture, or something else I'm not thinking of. Either way, psyched to try this. Looks great!
This is extremely similar to choucroute garnie which is sauerkraut with various sausages and cured/smoked meats but cooked in a casserole without the broth I think. Great recipe! I notice you also grabbed one of those super cool fermenters! I've made kimchi and I have a batch of sauerkraut going now. Could you do a video about fermenting with that particular kind of fermenter? Thanks for making these videos!
Hey! Sauerkraut is transformative. If I want cabbage in a stir fry but don't have any ill use Sauerkraut. The sourness goes away but you'll appreciate it's taste and texture.