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KAPUSTA is just cabbage. But sometimes we say it when we mean 'kapusta kiszona' that is sauerkraut.
KAPUSNIAK is a kind of soup made of sauerkraut. You may add some potatoes and kielbasa to it. BIGOS is more complicated dish:) It is made of sauekraut or sauerkraut mixed with white cabbage. Kielbasa is actually a must in it:) It is not as liquid as the soup. One may add a little bit of tomato puree if the sauerkraut was too sour.
I think what your mum made could be bigos. It is one of the most traditional Polish dishes and I am sure many eat it during Christmas. People also add some new things to it...
I will try to ask my mum about rinsing. Being vegetarian, I have never cooked bigos myself... yet:)

Not bigos just plain simple kapusta...see the foto on the plate is kapusta this is what I am trying to make only to be served along side ham instead.

Just spoke with my cousin in Poland. She has been cooking and cooking and tomorrow celbrating Wigilia.....sounded pretty good. I tol dher to take a photo of the meal. If only it were possible to email food back and forth. She does't write in English so I can't ask for any recipes as they would be lost on me as I would never be able to translate it to be able to use it. (sigh.....)

Mniam, mniam...:) kapusta is good too;) I also took a lot of photos on Wigilia... I have krokiety (rolled crepes), golabki (stuffed cabbage), pierogi with cabbage, red borsch with mushroom dumplings, fish, chala... uff:) the photos are far from perfect (let's say that the light was bad:) but I'll tryt o post it here too:)

Rdywenur, remember that I read Polish (English too:) so I could translate the recipes... if tehy are in reasonable numbers:) - meaning that I don't get 100 recipes sent to me to translate:)

Barbara my quest for Kapusta recipe led me to this link. The blog is written by a Pole and cute one at that. Check him out. Quite interesting too.


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Greetings Everyone
I hope everyone had a nice Christmas! As life gets busy, certain traditions are amended, and we were no strangers to that this year...my dream would be to have a Wigilia dinner in my home with friends and family, but it always seems we travel to my husband's family's place (no offense, they're not Polish! ...so on Christmas Eve this year we spent some time at my friend's house who is Polish and we ate pierogi and other Polish food and shared Oplatek. It was a refreshing night for me, and just the fellowship we shared and our common bond was enough for me. The season is supposed to be peaceful, and really, it was. I got to make lots of good Polish food like pierogi and Angel Wings (Chrusiki). A little Krupnik would have gone nice with it, but no such luck!

Hello PolishLisa:) I know what you mean:) I have a friend who lives in France now (with her French fiance) and each year she fells she MUST come for Christmas to Poland:) the good thing is he feels the same way! In his family (and probably in many families in France) Christmas is not that big family thing. This year it was not sure whether they would come - and it was a disaster for them! But they managed:)

I see really the traditions being amended:) I have never seen yet Angel Wings for Christmas:) But probably because it is Polish dish, it is used for special occassions. It's the most important to just feel the spirit, right?

Oh - my - gosh! This makes me soooo hungry!!!

Oh, I ate today VEGETARIAN bigos:) I must say it was... mniami:)

I have been looking for good vegetarian recipes, Barbara. Do you have a recipe for the bigos?