Popska Yahnia – Priest’s Pork Stew AKA Pig Feet Stew

Name: Popska Yahnia – Priest’s Pork Stew AKA Pig Feet Stew
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Bulgarian,Ukrainian
Ingredients: Pork feet: 2 kg of; Onion: 700 g of; Lard: 5 tbsp. of; Red wine: 100 ml of; Paprika powder sweet: 2 tsp. of; Tomato paste: 1 tbsp. of; Carrot: 2; Bay leaf: 1; Black pepper whole: 15 peppercorns of; Garlic: 1 bulb of; Salt: to taste

Features:

Cuisine:

4 h 15 min
Serves 4
Medium

Ingredients

2 kg of Pork feet
5 or 6 medium-sized pig's feet
700 g of Onion
7 onions
5 tbsp. of Lard
Or ghee/olive oil
100 ml of Red wine
Dry red wine
2 tsp. of Paprika powder sweet
1 tbsp. of Tomato paste
Heaped tablespoon
2 Carrot
1 Bay leaf
15 peppercorns of Black pepper whole
1 bulb of Garlic
A medium-sized bulb
to taste Salt

Directions

The Bulgarian dish Popska Yahnia is my favorite New Year’s Eve and post-holiday dish from my childhood. I’m not sure how to describe its taste and fragrance, but it combines Hungarian Goulash, Ukrainian Pork Aspic and Czech Baked Knuckle. It’s such an incredible dish!

My granny brought this recipe from a vacation at a resort. There she met a married couple from Central Asia (my mom told me the story, she doesn’t know the details though :)). I have no idea how much the resort acquaintance praised the dish and why on Earth it wasn’t Central Asian but a Bulgarian dish, but when my granny returned home, she actually cooked it. (They must have praised that dish very actively because pig feet were quite an exotic ingredient for us:)). Anyway, since then, all my childhood, after a traditional duck or goose on New Year’s Eve, we’d go to my granny’s for the Pig Feet Stew on January 2.

I associate the flavor of this dish with the holidays and family feasts, presents, the Christmas tree and my childhood. But it doesn’t mean I make it once a year :).

Now it’s my regular dish, the collagen booster :). I like to eat it for breakfast. It may not be typical, but it energizes me until lunchtime perfectly!

I’m sharing this recipe with you and perhaps, it will become your favorite too!

This dish is cooked in a clay pot in the oven in the original recipe. This recipe has already been simplified and adapted for the slow cooker, making it the easiest and most delicious way to cook it. If you do not have one, you can also cook in the oven under a lid at 120 degrees Celsius for about 4 hours.

P.S. To clarify: the pig feet in this recipe are the lower part of the legs, where the hoof is (not the knuckle!).

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Steps

1 Done	Cut the onions into small cubes. Cut the carrots into quarter rings. Peel all the garlic cloves from one medium-sized bulb and crush slightly with a knife. In a large frying pan, sauté the onions and carrots in 2 or 3 tablespoons of lard/ghee/olive oil until golden. Then add the ground paprika, stir quickly and sauté for about 30 seconds so it wouldn't stick. Now add the tomato paste and sauté all together for a few more minutes. The tomato paste should get slightly darker, but it shouldn't brown. Now add wine, stir, and bring to a boil. The sauce is ready.
2 Done	SLOW COOKER OPTION: In the bowl of a slow cooker, put the pig feet (preferably chopped in portions of 5 cm or lengthwise) and pour the sauce over them. Then salt to taste and add all the spices and garlic. Add some water, if necessary, so that the pig's feet protrude by one-third from the liquid. Cook them in a slow cooker on low mode for about 10 to 12 hours.
3 Done	OVEN OPTION: Put everything in a cauldron, bring it to a boil on the stove, cover it with a lid and cook in a preheated oven at 120 degrees Celsius for about 4 hours. It may be more, depending on the feet.
4 Done	The cooked meat should be very soft and detach from the bones easily. Serve them hot with gravy. We eat without a side dish, but I think buckwheat or black or red rice would work well. The next day the dish will taste even better! Bon Appétit!