Recipe - Krupnik (Mushroom And Barley Soup)

1 ounce (2540 grams) dried cepes
(up to 11/2)
13 cup (3 liters) or more water or
stock
2 small Carrots
2 small Turnips
2 small Onions
2 md Potatoes
2 Celery stalks and celery
leaves
Three fourths cup (125 g) pearl barley

Soak the cepes in a little water for 15 minutes, until they soften. Chop
all the vegetables finely in 2 batches in the food processor and put them
in a pan with the barley and all the water, including the mushroomsoaking
water. Chop the softened mushrooms in the food processor, and add them too.
Bring to the boil, remove the scum, season with plenty of salt and pepper,
and simmer for 1 hour, or until the barley is very soft and bloated. It
gives a jellylike quality to the soup. Add water, if necessary, to thin it.

Serve with sour cream if you like if you have used water.

SERGIO'S NOTES:

It looks very unappealing, but it is heartwarming in winter, and the dried
cepes with which it is traditionally made give it a unique musty flavor.
Krupnik is important because it was a mainstay in Poland, Lithuania, and
the Ukraine, and it has been kept up. There is even a dried soup mix
produced in Israel. In Eastern Europe, people went out to pick cepes in
season and dried them on the top of the stove. They kept them in jars and
built up stocks to last the year. The soup can be very simple, with only
onions, barley, and mushrooms, or it can have several vegetables. It can
also be made with chicken stock or with a meat bone. Posted to JEWISHFOOD
digest V97 #204 by Linda Shapiro lss@coconet.com on Jun 28, 1997