Kapusta-Polish Christmas soup

[bif]

http://cookingwiththemark.blogspot.com

Ingredients
1 bag of split peas
1 c onions, chopped
1 c celery, chopped
1 lek, cleaned and chopped
2 1/2 quarts water
1 bag sauerkraut, rinsed
Dried mushrooms--reconstituted, rinsed, and sauteed in a bit of butter until browned.

Directions
Saute the onions in a bit of olive oil until softened. Add leeks and celery and cook for a couple minutes. Add water and split peas and cook until the peas turn to mush. Add sauerkraut and mushrooms and cook for at least an hour under low heat. Scrape the bottom frequently to make sure the bottom doesn't burn and stick. The next day, reheat and cook for at least an hour. Serve with pumpernickel bread and butter.

[The empressof all]

1. Ha..I make mine a little differently but still good

I drain one of those huge jars of sauerkraut and give it a quick rinse and let it drain
I chop a small cabbage finely or use a bag of shreds and rinse and combine with kraut and let drain for an hour. The salt in the kraut will combine with the cabbage and soften it.

In the meanwhile, in a large dutch oven, I gently cook a large chopped onion in a half stick of butter or schmaltz or with three strips of bacon cut into lardons.

I combine the onion with 2 chopped carrot, 2 chopped celery, 2 chopped leek,a pound of chopped mushrooms and 1 chopped parsnip and continue to cook in the fat for a few minutes more then add the cabbage and kraut. I also add a bay leaf, about a teaspoon of pepper and check for salt. At this point I add about a half bottle of white wine and about two quarts of chicken or veg stock. You need to let it simmer for a few hours

My family didn't use the peas but I think every town has it's own customs. My sister adds garlic to hers...I never do but it's yummy.
I sometimes add a few chopped potatoes if I have them around but I prefer to serve this soup with a few potato pirogies floating on top with a dollop of sour cream...

My mother put caraway into it...but I don't care for that.

[bif]

2. Wow. Yours sounds pretty amazing.

Different than mine and a lot more work. I'll have to try some time. Thank you!

[rdharma]

3. Bif, you mentioned your father's short cut in your blog.....

..... of using canned pea soup instead dry peas. I would recommend trying Habitant French-Canadian Pea Soup for this purpose. This soup is made with the same yellow peas and is the best damned canned pea soup eva! It's made in Canada but you can get it through Amazon.com and other sources (if you can't find it locally).

The Polish versions that I'm familiar with had both sauerkraut and chopped cabbage with the some of the same vegetables that The_ empressof_all mentioned above. Very tasty and the chopped cabbage gave it a nice semi-crunchy texture as well.

The true Polish Christmas Eve (Wigilia) kapusta z grochem is meatless for advent. But it's SO much better with some sort of bacon and schmalz or lard!

I don't know exactly what type of wild dried mushrooms were used, but dried porcinis would probably be a good substitute.

[bif]

5. P.S.

We're sort of recovering Catholics, so the meat thing doesn't enter into it.

[bif]

4. That soup is awesome

They have it at our local Kroger's. It's good except like making things from scratch to reduce the sodium. And I'm just a purist. I used dried Shitakes and they worked out great. Old world Polish mushrooms would have been better but I couldn't find them.

[Jenoch]

6. The only thing I might do to change your recipe

would be to add the mushroom water to the soup at the end. Just remember to let it settle and if there is any particles on the bottom, be sure not to add that too. The mushroom broth would add great flavor to the soup.

[HappyMe]

7. Holy smokes!

Boy is that a blast from the past. I was never crazy about that soup, but I did eat it. I remember my grandma getting those dried Polish mushrooms and using them in beef/mushroom gravy for roast beef. I think they were pretty expensive even then.
I suppose dried porcini would be a good substitute.

We used to get oplatki ( the 'l' should have a little line across it -pronounced like 'w'). They were postcard sized, thin white wafers. There were religious Christmas scenes embossed on them. Before dinner we would each get one. You would go around break off a piece of someone else's and they would do the same. You tell them that you loved and appreciated them, hug and kiss and say Merry Christmas. It's one of my dearest, fondest memories.

More about oplatki.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_wafer

Thanks for posting the OP.

[bif]

8. We used to do the wafers too!

I forget to get them this year though.