Recipe

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Episode 122

Zurek (Sour Rye Soup)

Zurek (Sour Rye Soup)
Ingredients
• 8.5 cups (2 litres, 0.5 gallon) meat stock (chicken, mixed-meat)
• 7 oz (200g) unsliced bacon
• 1 (200g, 7 oz) medium white onion
• 2 medium carrots (roughly 4.2 oz, 120g)
• 2 parsley roots (roughly 4.2 oz, 120g) – can be substituted for a celery root)
• 4 links (500g, 1.1 lb) white kiełbasa sausage (fresh, uncooked)
• 2 ¼ cups (500ml) Sour Rye Flour Starter ( Recipe below)
• 1 garlic clove
• 3 tbsp whipping cream (optional, 30-36% fat)
• 1 tbsp dried marjoram
• Salt to taste
• Pepper (freshly ground) to taste
If using a homemade ‘zakwas’ fermented without spices:
• 4 bay leaves
• 5 all-spice berries
• 5 black peppercorns
To serve:
• 4 boiled eggs, halved
• Fresh marjoram to garnish
Instructions
1. Get a cooking pot. Pour in the stock and start heating it up (on a medium heat).
2. Chop bacon and onion into small cubes. Using a frying pan, fry up the bacon first. There is need to add any additional frying fat, bacon will release plenty of its own.
3. Once the bacon fat has rendered, add the onion pieces and continue frying until both ingredients turn golden.
4. Move the contents of the frying pan into the pot with cooking stock. If your ‘zakwas’ starter was fermented without spices (that is: bay leaves, all-spice berries and peppercorns), it’s a good moment to add them directly into the soup. I place them inside a mesh spice bag/stock sachet, so that I don’t have to struggle fishing them out later.
5. Peel carrots and parsley roots, drop them whole into the stock.
6. Add white kiełbasa (uncut, whole links) as well and continue cooking for 30-40 minutes, until the stock becomes meaty in aroma and flavour (you’ll have to test that empirically).
7. If you haven’t boiled the eggs already, now is a good moment to do so. Once cooked, allow them to cool down.
8. The next step would be to remove the spices. If you used the spice bag, just take it out. Otherwise, you can fish them out manually with a spoon, or get rid of them using a sieve – and return the soup into the pot.
9. Now it’s time to add rye ‘zakwas’ starter. Add 1⅓ cup (300ml) of zakwas for a mild Żurek, up to 2 cups (or more; roughly 500ml) for a more sour result. If you’re not sure how much you should add, just pour it over gradually, tasting along the way.
There are two ways to do it:
• Mix the contents of the jar/bottle, so that the liquid part blends with the floury part,
• Or start by adding the liquid only, topping with the muddy floury part later on – spoonful by spoonful, until you reach the desired thickness. That’s how I do it.
10. Add 1 tablespoon of dried marjoram and one garlic clove (crushed or roughly chopped), cook for another 4-5 minutes.
11. Remove the pot from heat. Remove the sausage and vegetables with a slotted spoon, slice them all and return to the pot. You can also leave the sausage unsliced – that’s up to you.
12. Adding cream is optional, but it balances the flavours very nicely. Place 3 tablespoons of whipping cream into a cup or a small bowl. Add in a tablespoon of Żurek, mix well with a fork. And another spoonful of soup and mix again. Repeat with 2 more tablespoons of Żurek. Pour the mixture into the pot.
13. Have a taste. Does it need any more salt or a pinch of pepper? If so, add some to taste. Garnish with fresh marjoram or chopped parsley and serve with boiled egg halves.

Zakwas Zytni

Ingredients
• 7 tbsp (100g) Wholemeal Rye Flour
• 2 1/4 cups (500ml) Water
• 4 garlic cloves
Spices (optional, see the ‘Notes’ section):
• 4 bay leaves
• 5 all-spice berries
• 5 back peppercorns
• 1 tsp dry marjoram
Instructions
1. At a later stage, you’ll need a cooled boiled water. I’m mentioning it now, so that the water has time to cool. If you have an activated carbon filter at home, you can use that filtered water instead.
2. Prepare a 16 oz (500 ml) jar. We don’t want any bacteria in there, so it needs to get clean. There are two easy ways to sterilize a jar:
In a microwave: pour some water into the jar, set it on the highest setting for 2 minutes. Normally, we would sterilize the lid in a pot of boiling water, but this time the lid won’t be necessary. Dry up the jar completely.
On the stove: Using a detergent, wash the jar in the sink. Rinse thoroughly. Place the jar in a cooking pot, and pour boiling water over it. Wait a minute or two and remove carefully with a jar lifter.
Alternatively, you can pour cold water over and around the jar and bring the water to a boil, cook for a few minutes. Then remove carefully from the pot.

3. You don’t have to measure the amounts exactly. A general rule of thumb is: “one part of flour to three parts of water”. For the size of our jar, drop in ⅔ US cup (100 g) of rye flour.
4. Pour a little bit (3-4 tablespoons) of boiling water in and mix well with a spoon. This will “wake up” the gluten present inside the flour.
5. If you got some gooey mud at this stage – you’re in the right spot.
6. Now, add the garlic. It’s also a good moment to add the spices in (all-spice berries, peppercorns, bay leaf, marjoram), but personally I skip this step – see my explanation under the “Notes” section.
7. Fill the rest of the jar with cooled boiled water (or with water filtered using activated carbon filter). Mix everything together with a spoon.
8. We don’t want any bugs in our ‘Zakwas’. Cover the jar with a piece of muslin, cheesecloth, or any other natural cloth and secure it with an elastic band or a piece of string. For that purpose, I use a muslin square that I chop into smaller pieces.
9. The flour needs to ferment for 4-5 days, ideally in a shaded, but warm spot – 77°F/25°Cwould be ideal.
10. Check on the jar every day. There is no need to open it and stir it – just let it be.
11. In the first 3 days, you’ll notice tons of activity. If the garlic (or spices if you used any) floats to the surface, I just rock the jar a little bit to submerge it.
12. After 4-5 days at room temperature, ‘Zakwas’ is ready. The fragrance should be pleasant: distinctively sour, but not overbearing, not razor-sharp.
13. Once it’s done fermenting, screw the lid on and keep ‘Zakwas’ in the fridge. It will be good for 2 weeks.
14. Now you can use your Rye Starter to make Żurek Soup. If you skipped the spices in ‘Zakwas’ (as I usually do), remember to add them when brewing the soup.
NOTES
Many recipes for Rye Flour Starter include spices, such as all-spice berries, bay leaves and more.
Personally, I avoid them. They don’t seem to improve the fermentation process. In fact, they tend to float to the surface, inducing mould formation – and the whole jar of spoiled ‘Zakwas’ has to end up in a bin. Since the starter ends up in a soup anyway, I choose to spice the soup instead.
You can try both methods and see what works better for you.