Braised sauerkraut

Zasmażana kapusta,[1] known to many Polish people simply as kapusta [kah-POOS-tah] (which is the Polish word for "cabbage"),[2] is a Polish dish of braised[3] or stewed sauerkraut[1] or cabbage, with bacon, mushroom and onion or garlic.

It is seasoned with salt, pepper and sometimes bay leaf, caraway seeds, sugar, paprika and apples.

In others, its ingredients are thickened with flour or cooked until it becomes nearly as thick as mashed potatoes.

[4] Cabbage, the primary ingredient, is often pickled, like sauerkraut, which is amplified with a mix of mushrooms and onions and meat—fatty pork—either rib meat, bacon, or occasionally smoked kielbasa.

A chapter of Herta Müller's novel The Hunger Angel (Atemschaukel) deals with the protagonist's relationship to kapusta, which comes to represent both his life as a prisoner and his hopes for freedom.