The Hungarian name of this sauerkraut soup is korhelyleves whose literal English translation means drunkard’s soup. It’s eaten traditionally on New Year’s Day as it’s considered to be an effective cure of hangover. The soup’s sourish flavour can supposedly relieve the hangover’s unpleasant symptomes – in the absence of personal experience can I neither confirm nor deny it. But I think it’s even better than “hair of the dog”.
In my opinion cooking this tasty soup shouldn’t be restricted to this one day, it can be a perfect lunch at any time of year. The following recipe differs from the classic korhelyleves in so far as it includes root vegetables, mushrooms and rice, but doesn’t contain roux, it’s thickened with a flour – sour cream mixture.
photo: zserbo.com
Ingredients:
- 350 g (~3/4 lb) smoked pork blade steak
- 1 medium onion
- 1 carrot
- 1 parsley root
- 1,5 l (~6 cups) broth
- 400 g (~1 lb) sauerkraut
- 100 g (~3 1/2 oz) mushrooms
- 100 g (~3 1/2 oz) smoked sausage
- 30 g (~2 tbsp) rice
- 2+1 tbsp. oil
- 2 tsp. sweet ground paprika
- 1/2 tsp. black pepper
- 200 ml (~1 cup) water
- 1 tbsp. flour
- 3 tbsp. sour cream
Place the smoked pork blade steak in a bowl, cover with water and soak overnight.
Wash the sauerkraut if you find it too salty and sour.
Wash and rinse the rice.
Chop the onion; dice the carrot and parsley root.
Cut the blade steak into cubes.
Heat up 2 tablespoons of oil in a soup pot, add onion, carrot, parsley and pork cubes to fry them quickly.
Season with freshly ground pepper and sweet ground paprika; pour in half a litre of broth and cook over medium heat until meat and vegetables are tender, for about 30 minutes.
Add the sauerkraut to the soup, pour in the remaining broth and cook for 30-40 minutes.
Slice the mushrooms and sauté in 1 tablespoon of oil in a skillet.
Add the sliced sausages, mushrooms and rice to the soup and cook further for 15 minutes.
Make the thickener by mixing the flour, sour cream and water together. Pour the mixture in the soup and cook for another 5 minutes while stirring frequently.
Taste the soup and, if necessary, add salt but probably it’s not needed since both the sausages and sauerkraut are salty.
