Jana mentioned the other day, she must now dash and run to have her barszczyk and krokiety. I’ve been drooling ever since. Best clear barszcz can be found at my mom’s, full of flavour, smelling with garlic, cumin and marjoram. And if it’s a special occasion and she serves it with uszka, one is in for a treat.

In the middle of the making of our Home at 23 Enfield I would certainly not be tempted to be making uszka, but last night I made barszcz and looked up the recipe for paszteciki in “Kuchnia Polska”. I hardly ever use that book and that very recipe failed to amaze me with flavours or texture, so I won’t be copying it, the barszcz however I made the way mom does, so here it is.

I had about 5-6 medium beetroots, which I peeled and chopped roughly, covered with about 700 ml of cold water, added a carrot,  a halved shallot, a bay leaf, some peppercorns, marjoram, 2-3 dried mushrooms and chicken boulionette and let it cook for about an hour on a small heat.  Then added a tbsp of white wine vinegar and let to stand till the next day.

Today I reheated it, not allowing it to boil, added 2 small cloves of garlic rubbed with salt, adjusted the taste with pepper, ground cumin- amazing!!- sugar and a touch more vinegar. I ended up with rich, yet clean flavoured soup, lovely for lunch on a cold day, after lots of messy work in the house.