Romanian Sour Duck Soup

This Romanian sour duck soup is one of the meals that Romanians call ciorb?. Yes, we do eat sour soups regardless of season or weather, but we’re especially fond of them during the cold season.

Since autumn is here and we all love dishes that are nourishing and hearty, we can start to make sour soups which contain more fat, like this sour duck soup that I prepared.

Using different parts of the duck, with bone and fat, will give your soup an amazing flavor. I could only find duck legs for this sour soup, but if you can find any other duck parts, please use them generously.

An ingredient that might be more difficult to find outside Romania is our traditional bor?, which we use to give the soup its sour flavour. You could substitute it with lemon juice, but if you have any Eastern European stores nearby, please ask about this ingredient. It’s basically fermented wheat bran, and it truly makes a difference when it comes to making our traditional ciorb?.

Make sure to add lots and lots of fresh vegetables, a splash of sour buy synthroid 100 mcg cream and a good amount of chopped parsley and lovage.

Ingredients

1 kg duck meat (without breast)

3 l water

½ celery root

1 parsley root

1 parsnip root

2 carrots

1 red pepper

1 onion

1 cube of vegetable bouillon

½ liter bor? (or juice from 2 lemons)

250 ml cream

Fresh parsley and lovage

2 tablespoons oil

Salt and pepper

Directions

1. Wash the duck meat, the add it along with the water to a large pot.
2. Let boil for about 1 hour. Make sure you collect the foamy residue that forms on top.
3. Chop all the veggies into small, square pieces.
4. Heat the oil in a pan and sautee the veggies for 3-4 minutes.
5. Collect the duck meat from the pot and remove large bones and skin.
6. Add the duck meat back to the pot, along with the sauteed veggies, the vegetable bouillon, salt and pepper.
7. Bring the bor? to a boil and add it to the pot. If you use lemon juice, just add it to the pot without boiling it first.
8. Let simmer for 10 minutes, then turn off the heat.
9. Add the cream, stir, then garnish with freshly-chopped parsley and lovage.