Polish Chłodnik (Cold Beet Soup) with Sour Cream

History

Chłodnik is a cold soup of the western borderlands, developed within the shared culinary space of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth; the prevailing account dates it to the era of the Grand Duchy and holds that it entered Polish kitchens during the Commonwealth of the 16th–18th centuries. Its Polish name, chłodnik litewski, means literally 'Lithuanian cold soup,' and one of the earliest documented recipes was set down by Paweł (Paul) Tremo, chef to King Stanisław August, in late-18th-century Warsaw. From that Polish-Lithuanian home it spread across the region into Belarusian, Latvian, Ukrainian and Russian kitchens. Molokhovets — the great codifier, not inventor, of 19th-century Russian gentry cooking — preserves the origin in her own title, calling this recipe 'Polish.' Her version rests on the tradition's defining feature, a base of the freshest sour cream let down with soured beet kvass over finely chopped young beets and beet greens, finished with hard eggs, cucumbers, crayfish tails, dill and lemon over ice. That dairy foundation distinguishes chłodnik from Russia's own cold summer soups — botvinya, a dairyless kvass-and-greens soup built on noble fish, and okroshka, kvass poured over chopped meat or vegetables.

Ingredients

• funt young beets
• handful dill
• young green onion (chives/scallions)
• stakan fresh sour cream
• beet kvass
• fresh cucumbers
• crayfish
• hard-boiled eggs
• lemon
• salt, pepper, ice
• optional strong bouillon

Instructions

1. Grind dill and green onion with salt; cook, drain and finely chop young beets and greens; put in tureen.
2. Add sour cream, thin with beet kvass or cold water to 9 glasses.
3. Add eggs, cucumbers, crayfish tails, dill, lemon, salt, pepper and ice; serve cold with extra ice.