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Stoysich
O M A H A N E B R A S K A S I N C E 1 9 4 9
About the Recipe
One of the most important dishes on the Easter table is żurek — a sour rye soup. It is the rye sour (zakwas) which gives this soup its specific taste. It takes a couple of days for the rye sour to ferment - make sure you start preparing it a couple of days before making the actual soup. In proper żurek you will find most of Easter specialities: fresh or smoked polish sausage, horseradish and eggs.
Ingredients
For the rye sour:
6 spoons of rye flour
2 cloves of garlic
3 bay leaves
5 allspice berries
2 cups of warm water
For the soup:
2 carrots — trimmed and peeled
2 parsnips — trimmed and peeled
1/2 celery root — peeled
1 leek (the white part) — peeled
2 onions – 1 peeled and and halved and 1 chopped
3 garlic cloves
7 cups = 5 l water
3 thick stripes of bacon — chopped
2 fresh or smoked polish sausage — cut into chunks
4 spoons of grated white horseradish
3 spoons of sour cream
3 bay leaves
5 allspice berries
2 tablespoons of marjoram
Black pepper and salt
4 eggs — hard-cooked
Preparation
For the rye sour:
Put the rye flour, cloves of garlic, bay leaves and allspice berries in a jar, add water and mix it together. Bear in mind that the mixture will expand so make sure the jar is big enough and only half full in the very first phase. Cover the jar with a cheesecloth and set aside in a warm place for around 4-5 days. If you don’t use the entire zakwas while making żurek you can store it in a fridge for one more week and make some more żurek again a bit later.
For the soup:
Place all vegetables (except for the chopped onion) in a large pot with water. Bring to boil, lower the heat, then simmer for around 30-40 minutes.
In the meantime fry together chopped onion, bacon and for smoked sausage, slice thick. If using fresh polish, boil for 15 minutes, then slice and fry.
Strain the broth and discard all of the veggies.
Add fried onion, bacon and sausages into the broth. Pour the rye sour. Add bay leaves and spice berries. Bring to boil, then reduce the heat and cook for another 15-20
Add horseradish, cream and the rest of spices: marjoram, salt and pepper. Mix everything together and cook for another 10 minutes.
Serve with a half of a hard-cooked egg in each serving.