Kulajda

Ingredients

• 600 g waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 cm cubes
• 250 g chestnut or button mushrooms, sliced (or 25 g dried porcini, soaked)
• 1.2 litres cold water
• 2 bay leaves
• 5 allspice berries
• 6 black peppercorns
• 1 tsp caraway seeds
• 40 g butter
• 3 tbsp plain flour
• 300 ml full-fat sour cream
• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 20 g fresh dill, finely chopped (a large bunch)
• 4 eggs
• 1.5 tsp salt

Before you cook

• Peel the potatoes and cut them into 1 cm cubes.
• Wipe the mushrooms and slice them about 5 mm thick.
• Strip the dill fronds from their stalks and chop them finely.
• Measure the bay leaves, allspice, peppercorns and caraway into a small dish.

Steps

1. Put the diced potatoes into a large pot with 1.2 litres of cold water, the bay leaves, allspice, peppercorns, caraway and one and a half teaspoons of salt.
2. Bring the pot to a boil over high heat, then turn it down and simmer for 12 minutes, until the potato cubes give easily to a knife tip.
3. Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium-high heat until it stops foaming.
4. Add the sliced mushrooms and fry them for 6 minutes, stirring only twice, until the edges are browned and the pan is dry.
5. Tip the mushrooms and all the butter from the pan into the potato pot.
6. Whisk the flour into the sour cream in a bowl until the mixture is completely smooth and shows no lumps.
7. Ladle two ladlefuls of the hot soup into the cream and whisk hard to loosen it.
8. Pour the loosened cream back into the pot in a thin stream, whisking the soup the whole time.
9. Simmer the soup gently for 5 minutes, stirring often, until it thickens to the body of pouring cream.
10. Stir in the vinegar and the sugar, then taste and add more of either until the soup reads clearly sour first and faintly sweet after.
11. Lower the heat until the surface only trembles, then crack the eggs one at a time straight onto the soup.
12. Poach the eggs for 4 minutes without touching them, until the whites are firm and the yolks still soft.
13. Take the pot off the heat and scatter in all the chopped dill.
14. Ladle the soup into four bowls, lifting one egg into each, and serve immediately.