Bitkas
This
is traditional Polish beef dish. I recommend to
prepare it in the evening, do first
heating, go to bed, and
finish on the day after. Meat needs to
be hammered
thoroughly. The dish is time
consuming, but all your guests will
pronounce you the king of the cooks!
My serving suggestion: Put
some buckwheat cereals on 1/3 of the
plate, 2 to 3 bitkas
on next 1/3 of the plate, and pour
some sauce over the
cereals. Leave last 1/3 of the plate
free for the vegetable
salad of any kind. I like sour cabbage
combined with carrots
and apples. The meat just melts in
your mouth, and you
will hear the quiet sighs of
contentment around the table.
Suddenly all guests stop talking and
they START EATING. The
dish is rather spicy, (I do it medium,
our kids are 10 and
8), but it leaves a very light
sweetish taste afterwards
on your tongue. The dish goes
perfectly with cold beer,
preferably lager. The kids get peach
juice. Prep Time: approx. 30
Minutes. Cook Time: approx. 9 Hours .
Makes 6 to 8 servings .
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| 2
pounds round steak, cut into thin strips on the diagonal 2 onions, cut into 1/3-inch slices 1 tablespoon salt ground black pepper to taste 2 tablespoons Hungarian sweet paprika 4 cups water |
4
bay leaves 1/4 cup vegetable oil 4 dried shitake mushrooms 4 prunes prunes, pitted and chopped 1 teaspoon honey 2 cloves garlic, halved |
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Directions
1 Cut the beef into slices about 1/3 inch thick.
With a
meat mallet, hammer all the slices
flat until they are 1/3
of their original thickness. Sprinkle
each slice
generously with salt, pepper, and
paprika on one side only. Put 2
or 3 beef slices on a plate, with
seasoning side up, and
put some onion slices on top. Add
layers of beef and onion
until all the meat is out. Wrap the
plate with plastic wrap
or foil; set aside for one hour at
room temperature, or
overnight in the refrigerator.
2
Pour water into a Dutch oven, and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to simmer, and add bay
leaves.
3 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) .
4 Heat oil in a large heavy skillet over medium
high
heat. Separate onions from bitkas.
Reserve half of the
onions, and discard the rest. Fry
bitkas 3 at a time for 20
seconds on each side. Transfer fried
meat into boiling water.
5 Chop the reserved onion coarsely. Saute in the
beef
drippings over medium heat. Drain,
reserving drippings, and add
onions along with mushrooms, prunes,
honey and garlic to the
meat. Skim fat from drippings, and add
to the meat.
6 Transfer the pot to the oven. Roast for one
hour at 350
degrees F (175 degrees C). Turn the
heat off, and then let
the pot cool down slowly in the oven
for approximately 2
hours. Repeat the heating cycle 3
times. After 20 minutes in
the oven take the pot out, and fish
out the mushrooms; cut
into 1/8 inch wide stripes, and return
to the pot. During
heating, take the pot out every 20
minutes and rearrange the
bitkas. Check that nothing sticks to
the bottom; normally
nothing does. Check water level. If
necessary, add some
boiling water. Usually I have to add
about 1/2 cup boiling
water in the beginning of each heating
cycle. During last
heating cycle, check the sauce taste.
Season to taste.