Żurek – Polish Rye Soup

Serves: 6

Ingredients

2 cups of zakwas (fermented rye flour)
1 lb of white sausage (biała kielbasa), chopped
1/2 lb of bacon, chopped & cooked
1 onion – minced
1/2 cup sour cream
4-5 boiled potatoes, cut in cubes
hard boiled eggs, cut in half
1 tablespoon marjoram
salt/pepper to taste

Directions

In a soup pot, sauté the chopped onion in butter or oil until translucent. Prick the white sausage all over with a knife/fork, add to the onions, and add water to cover (about 4-5 cups). Bring to boil, reduce to simmer, and cook for 30-40 minutes over low heat.

In another pot, hard boil your eggs, and boil up some peeled potatoes that have been cut into quarters or diced into cubes.

Remove the sausage, cut into 1/2 – 1 inch slices. Return to pot. Spoon out 2 cups of zakwas into the pot. (You may need to strain it, if you used oats.) The rye flour from the zakwas will act as the thickener. Add about one teaspoon marjoram, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook for about 5-10 minutes. If the soup hasn’t thickened enough you can add 1/2 cup sour cream mixed with 1 tablespoon of flour.
If your soup is thick enough already, just add sour cream alone. Bring to boil and cook until the raw flour flavour has cooked out, about 5-10 minutes.

To serve, arrange boiled potatoes and hard-boiled egg halves in a bowl. Ladle the żurek over, making sure you get some sausage pieces in the bowl.

My Notes

I used a bottle of ready made Zakwas that a friend had given me, and we also had a different kind of sausage to use as well, in addition to the white sausage and some leftover cooked bacon. This turned out really nice! 😀
I think, when using ready-made Zakwas, it’s OK to add it at the same time as the 4-5 cups of water. Apparently you can also add a garlic clove during the onion step, and use a few bay leaves, too. Very pleased with my first attempt, I’ll definitely be making this again! Next time, I may only add the cooked bacon at the end, so it doesn’t get soft. Our leftovers (without the hardboiled egg) froze well.

If you want to make your own Zakwas:

Zakwas

1/2 cup oat flakes
1 cup rye flour
2 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
rye bread crusts or 1 tablespoon sourdough starter
3-4 cups water, boiled and cooled to room temp (to evaporate any chlorine in the tap water)

Directions

Mix all of the zakwas ingredients into a jar with the water. Add the crusts or sour dough starter, and place jar in a warm, draft-free location, 70-80 F ideally.
In about 24-36 hours, you should notice some bubbling as well as a sweet-sour smell. If you know the scent of lactic bacteria (as in naturally fermented sauerkraut or pickles) that’s what you’re looking for.
The zakwas should be ready to use in 3-6 days, depending on what level of sourness you desire. If you’re using the crust of rye bread, remove after two or three days to prevent mold formation. Once your zakwas is fermented, you can make your Zurek.