Zupa Koperkowa - Polish Dill Soup

I had some friends who went on holiday to various East European countries, and when they returned, the brought back tales of culinary horror.  Not only was it nigh-on impossible to get a decent vegetarian meal in Latvia, but in Poland - horror of horrors - they put dill on EVERYTHING.  And my friends REALLY couldn't stand dill. Now I can't vouch for the veracity of these stories, but I'm pretty sure my friends would hate this soup...

This is a really simple soup that is really all about the dill, although it is really filling and creamy and would be good as a winter warmer, or as a summer soup.  Of course, the recipe I really wanted to do this week was a Polish Tripe soup, but the supermarket seems to have stopped stocking cow's stomach linings, so I will have to take a trip to Leeds Market to procure some.  You have been warned...

Ingredients
1 Carrot
1 Potato
2 Parsnips
250ml Sour Cream
150g White Rice
1.5l Chicken Stock
1 Bunch of Fresh Dill
2 Bay Leaves
Salt and Pepper

Method
1. In a large pan, heat your chicken stock.  Add the bay leaves and the carrot, potato and parsnip, all peeled and cubed.  Bring to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes

2. After 20 Minutes, add the rice and continue to simmer for another 15 minutes, until the rice is cooked and the vegetables are soft.

3.  Finely chop the dill and add to the pan, along with the sour cream. Heat through

4.  Adjust seasoning to taste and serve with some extra dill for garnish.  Enjoy!

Shchi - Russian Cabbage Soup

Some soups are born great, and others have greatness thrust upon them.  Some soups, just by their very name conjure up visions of exotic countries, opulence or comfort. 

And then there is cabbage soup.

When I think of cabbage soup, I think of three things -

1) Poverty.  Like Charlie Bucket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, who's family were so poverty stricken that cabbage soup was all they could afford, this poor soup seemed to be a byword for cheap, bland food.

2) Communist Russia.  Connected to the first point really, when I think of Communist Russia, visions of flat capped men in grey concrete tower blocks drinking potato vodka and eating bowls of cabbage soup spring to mind.

3) Vile diets.  Think of slimming plans where you have to suffer the awful fate of eating just cabbage soup in order to lose a few pounds.  It tastes awful but hey, you'll look good in a bikini come the summer.

With all this in mind, imagine my horror when I checked the soup ingredients pantry to find that pretty much all we had to create this week' recipe from was (yes) cabbage.  And not the fun, exotic kind, but common or garden white cabbage, like the kind that used to be served boiled to death next to school dinners.  Oh the humanity.

But, what do you know, with a few choice additions, you can actually make a nice cabbage soup - leave it to those crafty Ruskies to come up with a good way of doing it (I assume the Russians we are talking about are the good ones, like Sean Connery in Hunt for Red October and not those guys that killed Patrick Swayze in Red Dawn)

This soup was another that I made, then kept in the fridge for 8 hours to see if the flavour intensified, and what do you know, it really did!

The stars of this soup aren't the cabbage itself, but the extras, like the caraway and dill with white wine (A typically Eastern European flavour combination I may have fallen a little bit in love with), but don't take my word for it how good this soup is.  Grab a cabbage and give it a go yourself.  I promise, comrade, that you won't be disappointed. So until next time, dos vedanya tovarisch!

Ingredients
350g White Cabbage
2 Cloves Garlic
1 Large Potato
1 Carrot
1 Onion
1 Leek
30g Butter
2 Bay Leaves
1tsp Black Pepper
1tsp Caraway Seeds
1tbsp White Wine Vinegar
2tbsp Tomato Puree
1.2l Beef Stock
Fresh Dill
Sour Cream

Method
1.  Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage and the core, then finely shred the rest.  Peel the potato then cut into small cubes, remove the green parts of the leek and cut into slices, finely chop the onion and grate the carrot.

2.  Heat the butter in a large pan and then gently cook the vegetables, along with the garlic, for 10 minutes, into everything starts to soften.

3.  Add the caraway, bay, pepper, tomato puree, stock and vinegar, then bring the soup to a boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes, until everything is cooked.

4.  Serve with a spoonful of sour cream and lots of fresh dill.  Enjoy

Lohikeitto - Finnish Salmon and Potato Soup

 Today's recipe is another one suggested by someone who sent me a postcard via Postcrossing.  I'm beginning to think this was the best soup related idea I ever had, as it saves me the hassle of trying to think of a new recipe every week - instead I just let someone else do all the hard work, and all I have to do is come up with a recipe, cook it and then eat it!

Some friends of mine spent a week in Finland on holiday, and when they returned they did so with tales of culinary horror. "The food's alright" they said, "But they put bloody dill on everything"  To me this sounds like heaven, as I love the taste of dill, especially with fish, which is another reason why this recipe appealed to me.  It's just so simple and can be whipped up in next to no time.  I guess if you were on a diet you could substitute some low fat milk for the cream and maybe thicken the soup with a little cornflour instead, or just mash the potatoes to break them up, which thickens the soup up a treat.

Ingredients
1 Leek
300g Potatoes
400g Salmon Fillet
1l Water
150ml Single Cream
1 Bay Leaf
Fresh Dill
1 Lemon
 

 Method
1.  Thinly slice the leek, removing the dark green bits, and cook in some olive oil until soft

2.  Add the water and bay leaf then bring to the boil.  Add the cubed potatoes, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, until the potatoes are soft and starting to break up slightly

3.  Add the skinned, de-boned salmon, cut into cubes and cook for a further 5 minutes.

4.  Stir in the single cream and some freshly cut dill and heat through but don't allow the soup to boil.  Taste and adjust seasoning and then serve, ganished with some more dill and a slice of lemon.

Shchav - Russian Chard Soup

The process of inspiration when it comes to recipes for the blog is often a strange and meandering thing.  Some soup recipes are old favourites, some are things that I see in shops or read about somewhere and have a crack at coming up with my own variation of, and sometimes, I will just pick an ingredient out of the aether and wonder if it can be turned into soup.

That is most definitely the case with today's recipe.  I remember the first time I had chard, after signing up for a vegetable box to be delivered and receiving a rather manky looking cabbage, some flea-bitten carrots (do fleas bite carrots?) and some big dark green and red things that could, in a bad light, be mistaken for rhubarb, but rhubarb it most assuredly was not.

I think that i just steamed it and had it with chicken breasts or something, not feeling particularly inspired at the time, but it was thinking about this incident that made me wonder if there was such a thing as chard soup.  After a quick Google, I found a few references to Shchav (or Schav, depending on how you want to spell it) which it seems can be made with chard, but is more traditionally made with sorrel but can be made with chard instead.  My local supermarket is particularly well stocked with regards to fresh produce, but I couldn't find sorrel anywhere, so I went back to plan a) which was to make the soup with chard.

So apologies to any Eastern Europeans who find this version of Shchav slightly inaccurate, just consider this the Yorkshire version of a classic soup (also sometimes known as green borscht, and sometimes eaten cold as well. This soup is also served with boiled eggs, and has a wonderful creamy taste)

Ingredients
300g Swiss Chard
200g Red Chard
1 Red Onion
1 Large Potato
2 Cloves Garlic
30g Butter
25g Plain Flour
1.2l Chicken Stock
Fresh Dill
1 Lemon
200g Smoked Sausage
4 Eggs
150ml Sour Cream

Method

1. Prepare the chard. First give it a good wash, then remove the stalks.  Slice the stalks and chop the leaves.  Peel and cube the potato and roughly chop the red onion.

2. In your soup pan, heat butter, then add the chopped chard stalks, onion and garlic. Lower the heat, cover and cook for 4-5 Minuntes

3.  Add chopped leaves and cook for another 4-5 minutes, then stir in the flour. a bit at a time.

4. Add the stock and stir well, then put the potatoes in, bring to a simmer and cook for 15-20 minutes, until the potatoes are fully cooked through

 5. Add the chopped dill and juice of a lemon, then cook for another 5 minutes

6.  Take the pan off the heat and let the soup cool, then blend it smooth (pass through a sieve to get any lumps out) then return to the heat, checking the seasoning and adding the sour cream.

7.  When the soup is cooling, hard boil the eggs.  Shell them for use as a garnish.  At the same time, fry the smoked sausage, cubed or thinly sliced until it starts to colour.

8.  Serve the soup in warmed bowls, with slices of hard boiled egg and smoked sausage for garnish, as well as a sprinkling of chopped dill. Enjoy!