My great grandmother Elizabeth Cszienski emigrated to the United States via Ellis Island from Poland in 1910 when she was 12 years old. Since then lots of ski’s and zak’s have married to keep the Polish in the family and makes me a 3rd generation Pole in the states (there’s Irish and English mixed in from my mother’s side which arrived at the same time, but Polish always seems to win). We still keep some of the traditions as best we can, and the holiday sausage soup is one of my favorites (Aside from pierogies. And I make a mean pierogie.). We make it for Christmas and Easter and we all look forward to it all year long. There are many variations on this soup known as zurek, but universally across the board it has a special polish sausage (known as ‘holiday sausage’ at the deli counters at Broadway Market in Buffalo – old school Polish) which has been smoked and contains marjoram, and hard boiled eggs.
- Boil 2-3 pounds of link holiday sausage in a large pot of water for 20 minutes
- Remove sausage from water and refrigerate the pot over night
- Skim the fatty junk from the top of the water and bring to a boil one again on the stove top
- Mix 1/2 cup flour with 1 cup cold water and pour into the rolling boil
- Add cut sausage and a dozen hard boiled eggs (sliced) and simmer for 15 minutes
- Salt & pepper to taste as well as a few splashes of vinegar
It’s true. If you didn’t grow up with it, it looks a little gross and probably tastes the same too. But I love it. Despite it being a Christmas morning dish (yeah, this was Christmas breakfast in our house), my husband is not a big fan, so I made it a little early for me. So. Good.
If you can’t find the sausage in your local market (which there is a really good chance you won’t) you can order it through Redlinksi Meats or Buffalofoods.com. Don’t forget to get a pastry heart or two while you’re at it….
annie.crafty.pants 