Easter Barszcz

Most of these products are available at a Polish deli if you can’t find them elsewhere.

Ingredients

• 1 cup rye flour
• Filtered water (for the rye mixture)
• 1 egg, plus more, hard-boiled, for soup bowl.
• 1 to 2 tablespoons salt
• ¼ cup whole milk or cream
• Fresh grated horseradish root
• Kielbasa
• Ham
• Andrulis Farmers cheese
• Boiled and smoked bacon

Preparation

1. Take about 1 cup rye flour and place it in a 1-quart jar. Fill it with room-temperature filtered (non-chlorinated) water and leave it, lid slightly askew, for three days to a week. During this time, skim the crust off the top. (If you want to hurry the fermentation process, add a pinch of yeast and it should be ready in a day or two.) When the rye mixture is ready, strain it. If it’s too thick, add a little water to it. It shouldn’t be thicker than heavy cream.
2. Bring about 2 quarts of water to a boil. Ideally, use water from the Easter ham you boiled or some kielbasa you cooked, but plain water can do in a pinch. Pour the rye mixture in, whisking the whole time (or you’ll get a big noodle in there) and bring it back up to a boil. Reduce the heat so it’s no longer at a boil.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together one egg, 1 to 2 tablespoons salt and 1/4 cup whole milk or cream.
4. Pour the egg mixture into the pot of water, making sure not to scramble the eggs (I’d probably temper the eggs by adding a bit of the hot liquid into them before adding them back into the pot of hot water, but who am I to mess with Andy’s father’s proven cooking methods?)
5. Bring the mixture to a boil. As soon as it hits a boil, turn it off.
6. In individual soup bowls, place a lot of fresh grated horseradish root (none of the jarred stuff) and finely diced kielbasa, ham, firm Andrulis Farmers cheese, bacon that’s been boiled and smoked at the deli (no need to fry it) and hard boiled egg (preferably eggs you’ve had blessed—wait, actually, have all of this stuff blessed by a priest, for good measure). Pour soup on top.

At least a day