polish sour rye soup ('żurek')

Prep: 5min | Fermenting: 3-5days | Cooking: 30min

Complexity: 3/5

ingredients:

(serves 4)

Soup

• 4 large potatoes, diced

• 1 carrot, diced

• 1 parsnip, diced

• 350g polish kiełbasa, chopped

• 1 onion, chopped

• 4 eggs, hard-boiled and quartered

• 1 tsp marjoram

• 1 tbsp cream

• salt, pepper

Sour Rye Starter

• 3tbsp rye flour

• 2 large garlic cloves

• 1 jar that holds 250ml (1 cup) liquid

method:

Place flour, garlic and 250ml water in a jar, close the lid and shake well. Open the lid again and close it lightly so it isn't airtight and set aside. Shake contents of jar 2-3 times per day for 3-5 days. (It hasn't happened to me before, but I've heard that mould can form at the top, in which case the starter should be discarded, and started over).

Boil vegetables in a covered pot with 1.5-1.75 litres water (and some salt), for 15 min.

In a pan, fry the sausage of choice until cooked through ain its own fats, and add the onion towards the end.

Discard the garlic from the starter jar, and pour the jar contents into the pot with the cooked vegetables. Add the sausages and onion, and season with marjoram, salt and pepper.

Allow soup to simmer, uncovered, for 15-20min so that the liquids reduce a little.

Place a quartered egg on each soup plate and ladle the soup on top.