The day I made this soup it rained nearly all day. Last Saturday. A kind of day when we lit the fireplace, turned the thermostat up, and kept watching the drain lines around our house. We managed to get by without any flooding in the house, but we stayed on top of it all day. And I stayed close to the kitchen nearly all day too, working on this soup.
A hearty meat-laden and vegetable soup was what appealed to me. With a big chunk of pork shoulder from the freezer and cabbage as the mainstays, it wasn’t hard to make this, although it does take some chopping and mincing. And some slicing and sautéing. The recipe started from James Peterson’s book, Splendid Soups: Recipes and Master Techniques for Making the World’s Best Soups. Really making this began with the fact that I had not one, but two cabbage heads in the refrigerator. I had onions, celery, carrots and sauerkraut. From that, though, I weaved a bit off track with a few extra additions.
The pork (actually the original recipe called for beef, but Peterson said in his after-notes that he often makes it with pork instead) I cooked up in the crockpot for about 5 hours, until it was fall-apart tender. Once that was done I used the broth from the pork (strained of all its now spent vegetables) to start the soup. It comes together in a jiffy – you just have to chop everything (mushrooms, more onion, celery, carrots, turnips, and the cabbage). And at the end you add in some fresh sauerkraut, the cubed pork and some spicy sausage of some kind. I happened to have some imported Spanish dry (salami-type) chorizo which I cubed up to add flavor. But you do NOT want to put the sausage in earlier because it will give up all of its flavor to the soup and not have any taste.
The recipe is based on an old-world everyday soup from Russia. It’s called shchi in Russian. I went online hunting for how to pronounce the word. Some say it’s something like she, others sh-chi. But any way you want to say it, it’s a cabbage soup. With sauerkraut added in at the end too. And full of flavor. And healthy with all the veggies. It is mostly veggies. The pork I used was very lean and produced almost no fat whatsoever. You can see some of it in the photo, but I probably didn’t have 2 1/2 pounds as I’ve indicated in the recipe. Probably more like 1 1/2 pounds. But, you know, soup is very forgiving that way. I needed to add more liquid to the soup, so I added water and a dollop of Penzey’s pork soup base (a broth concentrate). You may remember that I’m a big fan of Penzey’s soup bases (I have small jars of beef, chicken, turkey, pork, ham, seafood and vegetable) that I use very frequently. You could substitute chicken broth granules or canned broth too. The soup can be made ahead – maybe even tastes better the next day.
What I will tell you – beyond the fact that the soup is downright scrumptious – is that you don’t want to omit the sour cream (I used light) and fresh dill for the garnish. As good as the soup was, it made it over-the-top, as far as I’m concerned, with the dollop of sour cream and a bit of dill in every bite. Eventually, as we ate the soup, the sour cream dissipated throughout the broth, and the dill floated on top. So, for me, just remember the sour cream and dill, okay? I think this likely serves more than 10 people – more like 12 – in 2-cup servings. I froze dinner-size portions (two of them), gave away another two-portion container, and still had enough for us for another 2 meals. So, however you pronounce shchi, just make this, okay? Hearty, healthy and comforting.
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Russian-Style Cabbage (and Pork and Sausage) Soup
Recipe: Inspired by a recipe in Splendid Soups by James Peterson
Serving Size: 10-12
NOTES: I used a spicy Spanish dry chorizo, but ordinary Polish sausage would be fine, or even ground Italian sausage (cook about 10 minutes first). The sour cream and fresh dill are the capper to this soup – don’t eliminate it as you’ll be missing some of the authenticity and flavor of this soup. The pork broth concentrate comes from Penzey’s spices (online). They produce a line of broth concentrates that are amazing, low in salt, and keep for months in the refrigerator. If you want to remove some of the fat from the pork shoulder, chill the broth and remove the congealed fat before continuing with the soup. Do not use canned sauerkraut.
PORK:
2 1/2 pounds pork shoulder — boned, trimmed
1 large onion — peeled, halved
2 whole carrots
2 stalks celery — cut in 3-inch pieces
2 teaspoons dried thyme
2 teaspoons dried rosemary
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
2 quarts water — (or more if needed)
SOUP:
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms — cleaned, chopped
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large onion — chopped
2 stalks celery — chopped
2 whole turnips — peeled, cubed
1 large head of cabbage — thinly sliced, then crossways in about 2-inch lengths
2 cups sauerkraut — rinsed
1/2 pound smoked sausage — cubed
2 teaspoons pork soup base and water — (or chicken concentrate or a quart of meat broth)
salt and pepper to taste
2/3 cup sour cream
fresh dill, chopped, for garnish (do not omit the garnish!)
1. PORK: Combine the pork, vegetables and herbs in a 4-quart pot. Pour over enough cold water to cover the meat by an inch. Bring the pot to a slow simmer. Ladle off any froth and fat that floats to the top. Simmer for 2-3 hours, until the meat is completely tender so that a knife inserted into the meat offers no resistance, adding water as needed to make up for any evaporation. Allow mixture to cool for an hour, then strain out the vegetables (and discard them), reserving all of the meat and broth. When the meat is cool enough, chop it up into 1-inch pieces. (Can also be made in the crockpot for about 4-5 hours)
2. SOUP: In a large soup pot melt the butter and sauté the mushrooms for 2-4 minutes. Add the onion, turnips, carrots, celery and garlic, then add all the broth from the pork. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Add the cabbage. If there is not sufficient liquid, add some water or chicken broth (or the Penzey’s pork soup base) and continue cooking for another 10 minutes or until the cabbage is just barely tender. Then add the rinsed sauerkraut, the cooked pork and the sausage. Simmer very slowly just until heated through. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Serve about 2 cups of soup mixture in a wide bowl (heated bowls, preferably) with a dollop of sour cream on top and sprinkled with fresh dill.
Per Serving: 414 Calories; 31g Fat (65.6% calories from fat); 21g Protein; 15g Carbohydrate; 5g Dietary Fiber; 96mg Cholesterol; 863mg Sodium.
A year ago: Chicken a l’Orange
Two years ago: Borscht with Andouille Sausage
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