Schav Food

ICE-COLD SCHAV

Steps:

• Melt butter in nonreactive soup pot. Sweat shallot and minced potato scraps in the butter slowly, stirring gently. Season with salt.
• Put diced potatoes in the water, season with salt and bring to a boil. Simmer potatoes until perfectly cooked, a couple of minutes only. Taste one cube to determine.
• Add sorrel to sweating shallot-potato mixture, and season with salt. Stir and wilt the sorrel, which will happen almost instantly, turning drab immediately.
• Add the cooked potatoes and their salty water to the pot of sorrel. Season with salt, if needed, keeping in mind that when chilled, the flavors are dulled significantly.
• Chill immediately and thoroughly - overnight even.
• Chop the hard-boiled eggs, and scatter in the cold soup. Mince half the reserved stems from the sorrel as you would chives, and sprinkle over soup.

SCHAV

Steps:

• Stem and wash the sorrel, and cut the leaves into ribbons. Peel the potatoes and cut them into half-inch dice. Cut the leek in half, chop it and wash it thoroughly.
• Melt the butter in a large saucepan, and cook the leek for two minutes over medium heat. Add the sorrel and potatoes and cook for five minutes. Add the stock, two cups water, salt and pepper to taste, and the sugar, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until the potatoes are very tender.
• Puree the soup in a blender or food processor. (A blender works better than a food processor; if you use the processor, puree the solids first and gradually add the liquids). Stir in the cream and chill the soup for at least an hour. Just before serving, add the lemon juice and additional sugar and salt, if necessary - the soup should be refreshingly tart but a little sweet. Serve schav in bowls with dollops of sour cream. Garnish each bowl with chopped scallions.

SCHAV BORSCHT - SORREL SOUP

Steps:

• Wash the sorrel thoroughly in several changes of cold water. Remove and discard the stems. Chop the leaves into thin ribbons. You can make this with spinach but the taste will be different. Sorrel has a sour/bitter flavor.
• Heat the butter or oil in a 3 quart saucepan and saute, the sorrel and onions.
• Cook stirring, for 10 minutes until the sorrel is wilted and the onion translucent. Add water and salt.
• Let the soup simmer for 25 to 30 minutes more.
• Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Add the lemon juice a little at a time, tasting constantly to achieve the degree of tartness that pleases you.
• Beat a tablespoon or two of the soup into the egg yolks, then stir egg yolks into the soup. Reheat the soup but do not let it boil after adding the egg yolks.
• Serve hot or cold, accompanied by sour cream.