Żurek: Polish sour rye soup with white sausage and egg
Żurek on a stock of smoked bacon and white sausage, soured with fermented rye starter, seasoned with marjoram, garlic and horseradish, with potatoes and a hard-boiled egg. Thick, tangy and filling. Shop-bought starter is fine, as long as there is no vinegar in it.
Your own work in that: 25 min.
- Stock 40 min
- Sausage and potatoes 15 min
- Starter and seasoning 10 min
- Eggs 15 min
Step by step
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Make the stock
Cover the bacon, vegetables, onion, mushrooms and spices with water, bring to the boil, skim. Add the white sausage whole and simmer 30 minutes. Cooked whole, the sausage stays juicy and gives the stock its flavour.
Ingredients: 500 g raw Polish white sausage (biała kiełbasa) · 150 g smoked bacon · 1800 ml water · 1 pcs carrot · 1 pcs celeriac, a piece · 1 pcs onion · 3 pcs dried mushrooms · 2 pcs bay leaves · 4 pcs allspice berries
TipBacon in one piece, not slices: slices boil down to shreds.
Bacon, whole sausage, mushrooms
Shake the starter before use
Flour settles at the bottom of the bottle, and it is what thickens the soup and gives it its velvet. Shake hard to lift it.
TipHomemade starter: 100 g wholemeal rye flour, 500 ml boiled lukewarm water, 3 garlic cloves, a crust of rye bread. In a jar under muslin, 4–5 days somewhere warm, stirring once a day. When ready it smells cleanly sour; if any mould appears, throw it away.
The flour at the bottom is the body of the soup
Slice the sausage, add the potatoes
Lift out the sausage and bacon, discard the vegetables (you can slice the carrot and keep it). Cut the sausage into thick coins and the bacon into dice. Add the diced potatoes to the stock and cook 12 minutes, until tender.
Ingredients: 500 ml sour rye starter (zakwas na żurek) · 400 g potatoes · 3 cloves garlic · 2 tbsp dried marjoram · 1 tbsp grated horseradish from a jar · 100 ml whipping cream (30%) · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper · 6 pcs eggs
Sausage in coins, bacon in dice
Add the starter
Pour the starter into the hot stock, stirring constantly, and bring to the boil. Cook 5 minutes, until the soup thickens slightly. Adjust the amount to taste: half a litre gives a distinctly sour soup.
TipPour the starter into hot, not boiling stock, and stir at once so the flour doesn't clump.
Starter in, the soup begins to thicken
Season
Crush the garlic, rub the marjoram between your palms, add both with the horseradish, salt and pepper. Pour in the cream, heat through but don't boil. Return the sausage and bacon.
Marjoram rubbed in the palms, garlic, horseradish
Hard-boil the eggs
Boil the eggs 9 minutes from the boil, cool in cold water, peel and halve. You can cook them earlier, while the stock simmers.
Nine minutes: a set yolk, no grey ring
Serve
Sausage and bacon into the bowl, soup from the ladle, egg halves and a pinch of marjoram on top. With bread. Even better the next day.
Sausage, egg, marjoram
Before you start
Żurek or barszcz biały?
Żurek is made on a rye-flour starter, white barszcz usually on a wheat-flour one (sometimes mixed) — it is paler and milder. Otherwise the recipe is the same.
Too sour
Add stock or water and a spoon of cream. Too mild: more starter, or a teaspoon of lemon juice.
In a bread bowl
Hollow out a round loaf, dry it 10 minutes at 180 °C, pour in the soup just before serving. The bread holds for half an hour.
Nutrition
per 100 gStep photos are computer-generated from the recipe.
