Emily comes from a long line of Polish women. Strong, ornery, Polish women. Kind of like her. I met Emily in college so I never met her grandma but my favorite stories that Emily would tell about her family were always about Bus (bOOsh) - as in Busia: Polish for grandma.
I always just kind of pictured her as a refined, vintage version of Em.
Anyways, I figured there had to be some secret special ornery Polish woman recipe involving cabbage, so I asked Em to send me one.
She replied quickly with Bus's recipe for kapusta - a Polish sweet and sour cabbage.
When a googled kapusta (I like to have a visual), the majority of the first page of links to recipes served kapusta with a fried pork cutlet - kotlet schabowy.
I told Em that that's what I was going to end up trying to make.
She said her family made the fried pork thingies a lot but she never knew what they were called.
YEA! Blog's working! Everybody's learning!
When it came to the pork cutlet I didn't have a meat tenderizer mallet thing and in the original link the author makes it sound like a huge pork-juice-flying-everywere mess... so I opted out. They turned out pretty good sans re-pounding them.
But, I'll leave the instructions in there in case you feel like pounding some meat with a mallet. Gross.
Anyways, here you have it.
Busia Paszczykowski's Kapusta
(includes Emily's notes that I followed)
1 large head white cabbage (the cheap kind, not that fancy napa stuff)
½ - 1 c water (I usually use closer to 1 cup)
½ - 1 c white vinegar (start with 1/2 and then add more. I like mine with about 3/4 cup)
½ - 1 c sugar (I usually start with 1/4 cup and end up putting in 1/2 cup. Kapusta is sweeter than sauerkraut but should still has to have the zip of vinegar b/c Polish people love our vinegar.)
Salt and pepper to taste (I use only maybe 1/4 tsp of salt and pepper b/c the vinegar adds so much flavor)
2 tbsp bacon grease (or olive oil) (both work just fine and I only use 1 tbsp)
1 tsp caraway seeds (optional) (I love this flavor with cabbage/vinegar but its not necessary, esp if you don't like caraway (aka rye seeds). If you do add them, crush them up a bit in a mortar and pestle to release some of the flavor before throwing them in.)
Shred cabbage (use a really sharp knife and patience or a mandolin). Put cabbage in a large pot and then pour boiling water over cabbage. Cabbage should stay immersed in the water for 10-15 minutes (no heat on the stove and covered). Drain water and put cabbage back in large pot. Add the other five ingredients, then bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for 20-25 minutes (uncovered). Stir it every so often and taste to see if you need more vinegar/sugar. Sometimes I leave it for 30-40 b/c I just forget and you really can't mess it up. You just want the cabbage to no longer be crunchy but not be mushy. Also, you want a some liquid left b/c its all the flavor but a lot of the water should cook off. We eat kapusta as a side dish at any meal. Or, if you're a true Paszczykowski woman, you eat kapusta cold directly out of the leftover dish standing in front of the fridge b/c you have no patience to wait to heat it up and its delicious on the go.
Kotlet Schabowy
serves 6
Pork Chops (with or without Bone in)
Egg, Beaten in bowlFlour
Garlic Salt or table Salt
Pepper
Plain Breadcrumbs
Oil for frying
Butter
Pound both sides until nice and tender with a meat mallet (on the side with the Tenderizer spikes). - Like I said, optional. In three wide bowls, set up the "assembly line". In one bowl, mix the flour and spices, in another bowl, the beat an egg and in the last, dump the breadcrumbs.
In a frying pan, heat enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan in a 1/4-1/2 inch layer. Dip the pork chops on both sides in the following order: flour, egg, breadcrumbs and fry to gold brown - flipping only once.
Add a dollop of butter to each chop and place in a baking dish in the oven at 300 to let the butter melt and bake into the crust. YUM
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