Ciorbă de perişoare (Sour Meatball Soup)

[derketchup]

This soup is awesome. It takes a little time, but it's soooo good. My MIL is from Romania and the first time I tried this soup I fell in love. She gave me the recipe and I can make it, and it is almost as good as hers

P.S. I absolute HATE sour kraut.... except in this soup.

You need:

Soup (Ciorbă)
2 Liters of water
30 oz of sauerkraut
3 carrots (chopped or grated)
1 parsley root (chopped or grated)
1 whole onion (chopped)
2 soup bones (I've made it without the bones)
3 tomatoes or 15 oz can of whole tomatoes
1 teaspoon lovage (it's an herb, a bit hard to find)*
1/2 teaspoon dill weed
1/2 teaspoon parsley

Meatballs (perişoare)
1 lb ground pork or chicken
1 lb ground beef or turkey
1 slice bread
2 spoons of cooked rice
1 onion finely chopped
1 egg
salt and pepper

Directions:

Place bones and onion in cold water on medium heat. As it cooks, skim the fat off the surface two or three times. Add carrots and parsley root. Let cook for 15-20 minutes. Add sauerkraut (include the juice) and tomatoes. Boil until sauerkraut is closed to being soft.

Meanwhile, make the perişoare. Dip the slice of bread into water or milk, then squeeze out the liquid and cut it very finely. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. (She does this by hand.) If the mixture is too hard add warm water. Mix again with your palm until it is soft, but not runny. Then, wet your palms with water and with a spoon take the perişoare and roll it in your hands to form meatballs. Drop into the pot of boiling soup. You can make them small, medium, or big.

After you put the perişoare in the pot, leave them to boil for 30-45 minutes. She recommends tasting it a lot to make sure it's sour enough, and also to take out a meatball and cut it in half to make sure it's done.

When it's done, add the lovage, parsley, and dill. Turn off the heat and cover for 15 minutes.

Serve in bowls, and top with a dollop of sour cream.

*If you can't find lovage, you can use lemonsalt (not the same thing as lemon pepper). I've also used just the juice from 2 lemons when I couldn't find either, and it seemed to work well.