"Zalewajka" - traditional rustic soup, overflowed with liquid surdough

 

     "Zalewajka" is a traditional rustic soup, prepared on the basis of meat or/and mushroom stock, diced potatoes, overflowed with liquid surdough and having a characteristic sour taste.
Preparation time is approximately 45 minutes. "Zalewajka" comes from central part of Poland.
 It is often served with bread.

    In my home, it was always a fasting soup (vegetarian version), prepared from broth of fresh wild mushrooms and cooked only during the period of their picking in the forest.

Here I present my version of this soup, just as I make it now.

 "Zalewajka" recipe

Ingredients for a pot with a capacity of 4 liters:

• 2.5 liters of water
• 5-7 bay leaves
• 4 grains of allspice
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 1 medium onion, cut in half and briefly scorched in a dry frying pan without fat
• 2 bouillon cubes, the best one will be with the flavor of wild forest mushrooms, but you can also use vegetarian vegetable or meat.
• 3 white raw sausages (for the meat version)
• 200-300 g fresh or frozen wild forest mushrooms or alternatively 20-30 g dried wild forest mushrooms (for a vegetarian version)
• 500 g potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
• 500-800 g *liquid sourdough, called "żurek, żur" or "borscht" and made with rye flour ("żurek", more spicy and sour taste) or wheat flour ("borscht", milder). Buy in a Polish store or prepare yourself as described below.
  
  

To be added only on a plate, after the soup is cooked in a pot:

• cracklings fried from pork fat or pork fat and smoked bacon
• sour cream

Method:

Pour all the water into a pot with a capacity of at least 4 liters and add: bay leaves, allspice, garlic, onion and bouillon cubes.

Put 3 whole sausages into the water with seasonings.
If you are making a vegetarian version, add fresh diced mushrooms or previously soaked dried mushrooms.

Bring everything to a boil and cook on low heat for 20 minutes.

In the meantime, peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes.

After 20 minutes of cooking the soup, remove the sausages and cool them on a plate. Then peel the sausages, cut them into cubes and put them back into the boiling soup.
Also add chopped potatoes.

Cook another 15 minutes,
 
Finally, when the potatoes are soft, add liquid sourdough, called żurek or borscht  and boil again.

Serve on a plate with cracklings and sour cream.

Enjoy your meal! :)

* Lliquid sourdough you can prepare yourself in this way:
Put 2 teaspoons of your rye leaven - fermentation starter - into a glass jar with a capacity of 0.8-1 l.
Add about 400 g/ml of warm water (35-40°C/95-104°F) and about 150 g of whole grain rye flour (żurek) or 20 g of whole grain rye flour and 130 g of wheat bread flour (borszcz).
Leave to ferment in a warm place for 2 days.

If you don't have live sourdough, omit it, but then the lactic fermentation  will last much longer, about 4-6 days.

The taste should be very clearly sour, with a sour fermentation aroma, sometimes of overripe fruit.

You can also add a teaspoon of active malt to the leaven, which will speed up the leavening process and give it a richer aroma and taste.
You can also add 10 g of apple cider vinegar to protect against mold and proper fermentation.

Photos: