Potato Soup with Prunes and Mushrooms
Mushroom broth sweetened with prunes and raisins sounds strange to a Western ear, but it comes straight out of the Slavic Lenten kitchen, where dried fruit supplied the body and sweetness that meat and cream otherwise would. The dried mushrooms are the wild forest kind — porcini or another bolete, sold in small bags at Eastern European and Italian shops — and 30 g, barely an ounce, carries the whole pot.
- Soak the mushrooms in cold water first, then strain that soaking liquid into the soup through a coffee filter. Half the flavor lives in it, and the grit stays behind.
- Cook the flour into the sautéed onion for the full 5-8 minutes, until it smells faintly nutty. Undercooked it tastes pasty; scorched it turns bitter.
- Rinse and soak the prunes and raisins before they go in, or they will drink up broth and stay leathery in the middle.
One note on the fruit: prunes sold across Eastern Europe are often smoke-dried, so the original soup has a campfire edge that ordinary supermarket prunes will not give you. Cut the 700 g (about 1½ lb) of potatoes into large chunks so they hold their shape while the fruit softens, and serve with dark rye bread.
Part of Ukrainian cuisine — 447 more recipes in the section.
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Ingredients
Instructions
Cook a mushroom broth. Shred the cooked mushrooms.
Finely chop the onion, saute it in oil until soft, add the sifted flour, and continue sauteing, stirring, for 5-8 minutes.
Combine the roux with the mushroom broth, add the shredded mushrooms, and bring to a boil.
Add the potatoes cut into large cubes, the rinsed and soaked prunes, and the raisins.
Cook until the potatoes are done. Sprinkle with herbs before serving.
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