Recipe: Zurek (Connie's Polish Dill Pickle Soup)

One of my very dearest friends in the universe, Connie Misiolek, is not only 100 percent Polish but also an excellent cook. She happily sent me her recipe for Zurek - dill pickle soup - with no measurements, because she can cook instinctively and knows the correct proportions from having made this soup all her life. But she did give me very specific instructions about the preparation, while leaving the tartness and the richness of the soup - and thus the quantities of pickle juice and sour cream - up to my tastes.

Ingredients

• 1 pound kielbasa
• 1 cup water + water to cover sausage
• 3/4 cup juice from a jar of Polish dill pickles
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup chopped Polish dill pickles
• 5 hard-boiled eggs, chopped, for serving
• slices of caraway rye bread, toasted and buttered, because as Connie puts it: “Of course, you have to have a good rye bread to go along with it.”

Directions

Place the kielbasa into a medium saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil; lower heat and simmer for 1 hour. Remove the kielbasa from the saucepan and slice to desired thickness.

Add the 1 cup of water, the pickle juice, salt and pepper to the saucepan. Combine the sour cream and the flour in a medium bowl, then slowly stir in 1/2 cup of the broth until smooth. Whisk this mixture back into the broth, bring just to a boil (small bubbles around the edge of the soup), then remove from heat.

Stir in the chopped pickles and the sliced kielbasa. Serve hot, with the eggs and the toasted rye on the side.

Makes 4 generous servings.

 This recipe was written by Mary Bilyeu and originally posted on AnnArbor.com on March 4, 2010.