Cookbook:Kyselo

Kyselo
Category	Czech recipes
Servings	5
Energy	250 kcal
Time	1 hour
Difficulty
Note	Requires specific ingredient - sourdough - or much more time to prepare it

Cookbook | Ingredients | Recipes

| Cuisine of Czechia

Kyselo or Krkonošské kyselo is old traditional sour soup from mushrooms and sourdough originating from krkonoše mountain region in Northern Bohemia.

More information about kyselo can be found on Wikipedia.

Here follows old traditional recipe from Držkov village:

Ingredients

• 100 g Sourdough ideally from rye flour. It can be bought at local food stores in Krkonoše. In the rest of World it should be bought at some bakery shops or it could be made from water, flour and old bread. Or from sourdough starter and flour and water. Look at article on wikipedia.
• 15 g dried (or 150 g fresh) mushrooms - edible Central European species such as cep and similar. But it can be used also champignon or similar mushroom.
• tablespoon of caraway seeds
• 1250 ml water
• 1 onion
• 20 g butter
• 3 chicken eggs
• salt
• vinegar
• potatoes

Cookware

• big stockpot for soup
• another stockpot for boiling potatoes
• bowl for sourdough grow
• pan for scrambled eggs and potatoes
• mixing spoon
• dishcloth

Procedure

1. Put 250 ml of tepid water into the bowl.
2. Pour sourdough into it and dissolve it in water.
3. Leave it somewhere in room temperature for 30 minutes (or more - ideally 3 hours - to restart the fermentation process) covered by dishcloth.
4. Put another 1000 ml of water into the soup stockpot.
5. Add mushrooms and caraway into the stockpot.
6. Boil for at least 15 minutes. You have to make strong broth from these ingredients.
7. Add sourdough with water from the bowl (point 3) and carefully dissolve it in the broth. Stir it well and still. There is danger that sourdough will shrink into the small dumplings and it is not wanted. You may use fork or something...
8. Boil it and stir until the added sourdough will make "jelly" appearance of soup. It takes approximately 10 minutes. Now the basis of soup is made.
9. Chop the onion into small pieces and saute it on butter on pan and then add it into the sauce.
10. Scramble eggs on pan (with a bit of salt, without adding grease) and add it into the sauce.
11. Boil potatoes with jacket (you can start boiling them earlier - it takes some time), then peel them, chop onto small pieces and roast it in a pan (without adding grease). Do not add it into the soup, potatoes should be served separately and added by consumer itself just before eating. It preserves the crispness of the potatoes.
12. Season it by salt and vinegar. Sour taste makes sourdough but it depends on its quality, so sometimes it is necessary to add bit of vinegar - but the soup should not be only savorous sour, just soft sour and the main taste should be the mushrooms and "bread-taste". If someone likes it more sour there is possibility to season it by vinegar directly into the own plate...

Serving

Kyselo is served hot in soup plate or bowl. It could be decorated by chopped scallion, parsley or another green herb. The potatoes are often served on special plate (one for whole table) and everyone can add quantity as needs. Usually is on the table also vinegar and salt for personal seasoning.

The kyselo is very nutritious food so it is often served as main (and only) course, but in small quantities it could be also served as a soup course.

Variations

• Poor variant of kyselo doesn't contain eggs.
• There are also variants without potatoes.
• Eggs could be hard-boiled and chopped
• The potatoes are sometimes boiled directly in the water: added at beginning into the stockpot and then logically not roasted. But roasted potatoes are crispy and it is more delicious.
• Sometimes the kyselo is made softer by adding the cream.

Notes

• Sometimes another sour mushroom based Czech soup Kulajda or its variants is by mistake named as kyselo. The difference is that kulajda and similar soups does not use sourdough but sour cream or milk and vinegar. To reduce this misunderstanding is kyselo often called Krkonošské kyselo (Kyselo from Krkonoše region).
• The kyselo is close relative to Polish traditional sour rye soup Żurek or Żur which contains meat and does not contain mushrooms.

External links

• Kyselo on Wikipedia
• Another kyselo recipe with handy information how to make sourdough. But unfortunately in Czech language
• Strictly traditional kyselo. But unfortunately in Czech language.