Ciorbă de Perișoare

Romania's sour meatball soup, soured with borș fermented from wheat bran and finished with a fistful of lovage

Origin: Bucharest, Moldavia & the Lower Danube

From the journey of Wheat.

A ciorbă is defined by being sour, and what makes it sour in Romania is borș: a cloudy, pale, sharply acidic liquid fermented from wheat bran and water over several days, kept in a jar in the pantry and added to soups by the ladle. It is not the same thing as Polish or Ukrainian barszcz, which is a beetroot soup; Romanian borș is a souring agent rather than a dish, and it is the single ingredient that separates a ciorbă from a plain supă. The fermentation is a genuine one and it is lactic. Wheat bran and maize flour are steeped in warm water with a piece of old borș or a crust of bread to start it, left in a warm corner for three or four days until it smells sharp and yeasty, and then strained. It is thin, sour, and faintly bready, and it gives a rounder and less aggressive acidity than lemon or vinegar. Where borș is unavailable, Romanians abroad use sauerkraut brine, lemon, or unripe fruit, and say plainly that it is not the same. Perișoare are the meatballs, and they carry rice and are dropped in raw so they poach in the soup and thicken it slightly as their starch releases. The vegetables underneath are the standard Romanian base of carrot, celeriac, parsnip, onion, and pepper cut small. The finishing herb is leuștean, lovage, and it is what a Romanian misses first in any ciorbă made abroad. It tastes like a very intense celery leaf with something darker underneath, it goes in off the heat, and no other herb quite covers for it; celery leaf plus a little flat-leaf parsley is the usual approximation. Soured cream and a hot green chilli on the side complete the bowl.

Ingredients

Borș

150 g wheat bran
50 g maize flour
1.5 litres warm water
1 crust of stale bread or 2 tbsp of an old borș

Meatballs

500 g minced pork and beef, mixed
80 g rice, rinsed
1 onion, very finely chopped
1 egg
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Soup

2 carrots, in fine dice
150 g celeriac, in fine dice
1 parsnip, in fine dice
1 onion, finely chopped
1 red pepper, in fine dice
3 tbsp sunflower oil
2 litres water
2 tbsp tomato purée
2 tsp salt, or to taste

To finish

1 large bunch lovage, chopped, or celery leaf with parsley

To serve

200 ml soured cream, to serve

Method

Make the borș four days ahead: stir the bran and maize flour into the warm water with the bread crust, cover with a cloth, and leave in a warm place.
Stir it once a day. By the third or fourth day it should smell sharply sour and yeasty rather than mouldy; strain it through muslin and keep the liquid refrigerated.
If it smells unpleasant rather than sour, discard it and start again. A good borș smells like sourdough starter, not like anything spoiled.
For the soup, soften the diced carrot, celeriac, parsnip, onion, and pepper in the oil over a medium heat for twelve minutes without colouring.
Add the tomato purée and cook it out for two minutes, then pour in the two litres of water and the salt and bring to a simmer.
Mix the meatball ingredients and roll them into balls the size of a walnut. The rice goes in raw.
Drop the meatballs into the simmering soup one at a time and do not stir for the first five minutes, which lets them set.
Simmer gently for twenty-five minutes, skimming any foam, until the meatballs are cooked through and the rice inside has swelled.
Now add the borș, starting with about 400ml, and bring the soup back to a simmer for five minutes.
Taste, and keep adding borș until it is properly sour. This is judged rather than measured, and a Romanian ciorbă is sourer than a newcomer expects.
Boil the borș briefly after adding it; unboiled borș tastes raw and flat in the finished soup.
Take the pot off the heat, stir in most of the lovage, and let it stand five minutes. Serve with soured cream and the rest of the lovage, with a hot green chilli on the side.

Notes

The borș is the dish and is worth making; it takes four days of doing nothing and keeps for weeks refrigerated. Sauerkraut brine is the best substitute, lemon juice the most available, and both give a thinner sourness. Add the borș at the end and boil it briefly. Drop the meatballs in raw and leave them alone for the first five minutes. Lovage is what a Romanian will notice missing, and it is sold by Eastern European grocers and grows easily; celery leaf with a little parsley is the working substitute. Make it sourer than feels right.

The Gastrographer

Name: Ciorbă de Perișoare
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 1 h 20 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Moldavia & the Lower Danube
Ingredients: 150 g wheat bran; 50 g maize flour; 1.5 litres warm water; 1 crust of stale bread or 2 tbsp of an old borș; 500 g minced pork and beef, mixed; 80 g rice, rinsed; 1 onion, very finely chopped; 1 egg; 1.5 tsp salt; 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper; 2 carrots, in fine dice; 150 g celeriac, in fine dice; 1 parsnip, in fine dice; 1 onion, finely chopped; 1 red pepper, in fine dice; 3 tbsp sunflower oil; 2 litres water; 2 tbsp tomato purée; 2 tsp salt, or to taste; 1 large bunch lovage, chopped, or celery leaf with parsley; 200 ml soured cream, to serve

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control