Zagorska juha – Croatian mushroom soup with smoked pork

Cut the porcini into slices about 5–7 mm thick, halving larger caps first. Cut the potatoes into cubes about 2 cm across and the carrot into small dice, finely chop the onion and crush the garlic. Dice the bacon and cooked pork neck separately into pieces about 1 cm across. Chop the parsley and set it aside for the finish.

Heat the lard over medium heat in a pot with a capacity of about 4 l. Add the bacon and cook for about 5 minutes, until it starts to brown and releases some fat. Add the onion and carrot and cook for another 6–8 minutes, stirring, until the onion softens. Leave the rendered fat in the pot.

Add the porcini and cook for 8–10 minutes, stirring often, until softened and most of the liquid they release has evaporated. Add the garlic and stir for about 30 seconds. Lower the heat, add the tomato paste and sweet paprika and stir for another 30 seconds without burning the paprika. Pour in the wine, scrape up the flavorful browned bits from the bottom and cook for about 2 minutes.

Add the potatoes, cooked pork neck, bay leaf, marjoram, pepper and 2 g salt. Pour in the 1.2 l water allocated to cooking and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer with the lid ajar for 20–25 minutes from when it comes to a boil, until a fork enters the potatoes easily; if they are still firm, cook for a few more minutes. The soup should bubble gently and the potatoes should stay in pieces.

In a bowl, whisk the sour cream with the flour and the remaining 100 ml cold water until there are no lumps. Ladle about 200 ml of the liquid part of the hot soup from the pot and gradually pour it into the bowl in 2–3 additions, whisking all the time. Keep the soup over low heat while you do this. All of the tempered mixture will go back into the pot in the next step.

Pour all of the tempered sour cream mixture into the soup, stirring. Heat over low heat for another 6–8 minutes, stirring regularly along the bottom, until the soup thickens slightly, steams and shows a few small bubbles. Do not boil vigorously; the sour cream should blend smoothly into the broth without lumps, and the potato pieces should hold their shape.

Remove and discard the bay leaf. Taste the soup and, if needed, add only the required amount of the remaining 4 g salt, remembering that the smoked pork is already salty. Stir in 5 g parsley. Ladle into 6 deep bowls, dividing the mushrooms, vegetables and smoked pork evenly; sprinkle with the remaining 5 g parsley and serve immediately, hot.