Seasonal Recipe of the Week
Shav is the kind of soup we used to buy in the Jewish section of the supermarket and keep on the refrigerator door all summer. It's like green borscht and can be served with a dollop of sour cream or some diced onion and cucumbers and peppers to make it fancier. After doing some research, I found it it was originally made with sorrel, which is kind of hard to find in this town, but very easy to grow in your garden so that will be on my crop list for next year. For now I use spinach and just up the lemon a bit to give it that slightly sour edge.
Ingredients
4 cups water
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
2 sprigs fresh dill
3 chopped scallions
1 pound spinach or sorrel, washed, stemmed, and finely chopped
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup cold water
1 cup sour cream
chopped dill or scallions
diced peppers and cucumbers to garnish, optional
Procedure
In a soup pot, bring water, potatoes, dill, and scallions to a medium boil and cook 5 minutes. Add the chopped spinach or sorrel, lemon juice, salt, sugar, and pepper. Simmer 10 minutes more or till potatoes are tender. Remove from the heat and discard the dill sprigs. In a large bowl, beat the remaining 1 cup of water with the eggs until light. Very slowly pour 2 cups of the hot liquid into the egg mixture, stirring constantly to prevent curdling. Then pour the tempered liquid back into the soup pot. Stir well and then chill for at least 3 hours. Before serving, whisk in the sour cream and garnish with the chopped dill and the diced veggies.
