Polish Market, Panic and Pierogi Victory

It all began with a conversation with Jeff, he was telling me about a sauerkraut soup he had in Ludington and we had to look it up. We found out is called Bigos (Hunter’s Stew) and it looked good…..so I had my soup idea for today’s moved up Soup Club (Thanks Andy).

And then….Jeff said he wanted to make a version of it….so I secured permission from Jeff, in triplicate, to have his blessing to make this soup idea.

Now on to the ingredients…I didn’t have enough time to ferment my own sauerkraut, so I had to get top quality stuff and there is only one place to go for that…the Polish Market in Troy, MI.

I’m planning how I’m going to do all this and Jeff txt’s me at 5:52pm on Friday that I should have mini-pierogis in my soup like Italian Soup has mini meat balls….great idea! Added to the list. I also prepped my homemade Pumpernickel bread, for a Saturday morning bake.

Got up early on Saturday to be there 5 minutes before it opened at 9am and I was the 8th car there, this place has to be good! Quickly got my sauerkraut and then had issues finding mini-pierogis, only saw the big ones, until I went to the frozen section, and there they were. Mushroom and Cheese mini-pierogis in the cart. Finished with the sausage from the meat counter (double smoked) and off to the Westborn for the cabbage, mushrooms, and vegetarian ingredients. Got everything put away at home and the bread went into the oven.

Sunday is cook day, started at 5pm and had everything in the slow cooker by 6pm. Meat was all browned (both versions) by 6:30pm and put into separate containers. Drank the two remaining Polish beers and prepped everything for the morning. The bread came out earlier, and was wrapped up so it could finish the flavor process.

On Monday morning, got the two slow cookers going for the Meat/Meatless soup in the office, added the mini-pierogies, and hoping everything turns out yummy for Soup Club at 12noon. Lot of fun work and can’t wait for the pay off!

So Soup Club time!

I got everything ready, bread pre-sliced since it was tough to cut, and awaited my peers.

Served and sitting down, we all enjoyed the soup. Andy had two bowls! Very rare indeed!

I told them the story of making the bread, which has a 24 hour baking time, about how I was panicking over possible too much CO2 in the house and opening the windows. Image that on my tombstone: RIP loved soup so much, he died for it. Also, RIP his entire family and two dogs….

Not the best way to go out, luckily it all was fine, though we shared a good laugh at the Soup Club table.

Overall ratings were 9.175. For the first time making this soup and taking some risks, I am ecstatic.

Thank you to Jeff for helping with the mini-pierogi idea and the inspiration!

To make it even better, pan fry the mini-pierogi’s and add them right before serving.