As the title states, I’ve got some kielbasa. I don’t want to do the usual cook-it-up-with-onions-and-peppers routine. Does anyone out there have any good ideas?
um, onions and peppers is “the usual?” Where’s the kapusta?
Use in Christmas stuffing. I just like it plain broasted in beer with a bit of mustard. I like to eat it with a steak and baked potato. They call it polish steak.
Make a balloon animal out of it; a poodle, maybe. Invite some friends over, run a spit through it, and let it cook slowly while it turns over an open fire. Serve with appropriate Polynesian side dishes.
Or is that more elaborate than you had in mind?
The what, now?
A little bit, yes.
It’s a good pork/shrimp/meat substitute in fried rice; chop it up into manageable bits, chop up some veggies and garlic, and saute it for a few minutes, then add cold/day old rice, five spice powder, and some soy sauce to taste.
kapusta = the polish version of saurkraut. i say net to the kapusta.
what kind of Polack are you? kapusta=cabbage=sauerkraut. kielbasa y kapusta, the two were made for each other.
That sounds incredible. I’ll have to give it a shot.
I’m not. In fact, Poland is one of the few European countries that none of my ancestors came from. But I know my Swedish food inside and out.
I buy a big box of scalloped or au gratin potatoes and cook them (or you could make your own) and then layer them with thin slices of the kielbasa instead of ham. Hillshire Farms has a chicken kielbasa that is really good, very spicy.
Kielbasa soup. Some sort of broth. I like vegetable broth. Whatever veggies you like. I use carrots, cabbage, celery, and sometimes potatoes. Oh, and onions. I use pearl onions. If you want it to cook really fast, you can use frozen veggies but it’s so much better with fresh, big veggies.
Cook the veggies in the broth until they get almost to the texture you like. Then add the cut up kielbasa. Stop cooking when the kielbasa is fully cooked. It cooks very quickly.
All in all, it’s super easy to make, not at all time consuming, and tastes really good. The veggies help to tone down the strong flavor of the kielbasa. One problem with kielbasa in soup is the toughness of the skin can make for an unusual, non soupy texture. If you cook it longer, like in the crock pot, the kielbasa meat gets a really good soup-meat texture. It all depends on how you want it to feel when you eat it. I like it quick cooked when I’m sick and really want soup fast. When I’m not sick, I prefer the longer cooked, softer meat version. The only possible way to screw up the soup is to cook it so long that the meat disintegrates and the broth cooks away.
Fry up some potatoes, add the sausage and brown, add some chopped onions. Simple and tasty.
Cook it (instead of hamhocks) with beans and onions for a good soup.
Kielbasa + sauteed chicken + can of chopped tomatoes + can of white beans + sprig of rosemary. Cook together for about a half hour. Good stuff.
Moved IMHO --> Cafe Society.
I slice it up and make a lentil soup with chicken stock, sauteed onions, along with some greens like spinach or chard. Hearty stuff, makes a meal out of it.
Of course, that is fresh pork, garlic, and pepper kielbasie… it is not smoked. I start a two pound double link covered in a pan with around a 1/2 to 3/4 bottle of beer in hand, a tablespoon of available mustard… a bit of minor mixung with the same tablespoon and then cover the broasting pan lid. I start it at 400F fahrenheit for a half hour covered, uncover it and go at 365F for around twenty minutes.
My wife’s family makes this recipe around the holidays…
- slice a kielbasa into circles
- chop up an onion into medium sized pieces
- throw the kielbasa, onion, some dijon mustard and about 3 cups of orange juice into a pan
- let it simmer for 2 to 3 hours
At the end the onions should have completely softened, the kielbasa should have a little bit of browning around the edges, and the orange juice should have cooked down to a sticky syrup/glaze. Serve it on top of Ritz crackers with a chunk of extra sharp cheddar cheese.
I know it sounds a bit weird but it is delicious. She brings it to parties and it is always the first thing eaten. It is one of those things that hits all the flavors and textures in one bite: sweet, salty, meaty, acidic, crunchy and creamy all in one go.
My go-to cheap meal:
Chop kielbassa into 1/4" disks, lightly brown in skillet. Throw in a bunch of chopped cabbage, stir till that gets covered with yummy kielbasa fat. Crush a brick of raman noodles into that. Optionally throw in the salt/stock/spice packet that comes with the raman. Cover and simmer a few minutes until the raman gets tender…might have to add a little water/beer/chicken stock depending on how hydrated the cabbage was.
Stuff it into a pork sirloin roast. Ideally, I’d do the roast on a Weber with indirect heat, but an oven will do in a pinch. Slice and serve. Give a great taste to the roast.
Use it anywhere you would use a smoked meat. It’s good in bean soup. Sauerkraut soup. White borscht. Jambalaya. Stews of all sorts. As Chefguy mentions, it’s good with potatoes and onions. One Mexican friend of mine fries it up with potatoes and onions and some chipotle peppers and serves it in flour tortillas as tacos.