Grybivka — Mushroom Soup
Recipe from the book "The First Ukrainian Everyday Cookbook" (1-ша українська загально-практична кухня), 1929, by Olha Franko.
We find virtually the same method of preparation in the cookbook by Lucyna Ćwierczakiewiczowa, « 365 obiadów za pięć złotych », published in Warsaw in 1860. There it goes by the name « Zupa biała ». The pearl barley is not simply added to the soup. It is cooked separately, worked together with butter and blended with sour cream — and only then stirred into the broth. It is precisely this that gives the soup its thickness and that distinctive white, creamy consistency.
In Lithuanian cuisine, there is the well-known Žemaitiška žąsienos sriuba — a goose soup associated with the traditional cooking of Žemaitija (a historic region of Lithuania). And in « Kucharka litewska » by Wincenta Zawadska, in the 1913 edition, we find the recipe for Zupa z gęsich podróbek. Once again we encounter goose offal, vegetables, dried mushrooms, pearl barley, butter and sour cream. The barley, as in Olha Franko's recipe, is cooked separately, then mashed with butter and sour cream before being combined with the broth.
Ingredients
- 2 l water
- 200 g goose or turkey giblets* (gizzards, hearts, neck)
- yaryna (soup vegetables: carrots, onion, celery, parsley root)
- 150 g porcini mushrooms
- 1 apple
- 1 cup pearl barley
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 cup homemade sour cream
- ½ tsp ground caraway
- salt, pepper
Method
- Cover the giblets, soup vegetables, mushrooms and apple with water and cook until tender.
- Season with salt, pepper and caraway to taste.
- Cook the pearl barley separately (bring three cups of salted water to a boil, add the pearl barley and cook until tender).
- Strain the soup, slice the mushrooms, giblets and carrots, and return them to the broth.
- Add butter and sour cream to the cooked pearl barley and blend until smooth. Stir into the soup, mix well and bring back to a boil.
* podribky — offal (poultry by-products: gizzards, hearts, neck and similar)