Zeamă

Ingredients

Borș acru (make ahead)

• 300 gwheat bran
• 50 gcornmeal
• 3 litreswarm water
• 1thick crust of rye or sourdough bread
• 2 sprigsof lovage or a few cherry twigs

Soup

• 1free-range chicken (1.6 kg), jointed, or 1 kg chicken thighs and wings
• 3 litreswater
• 2onions (300 g), one whole, one finely chopped
• 2carrots (200 g), one whole, one diced
• 1parsnip or parsley root, diced
• 1red pepper, diced
• 2potatoes (300 g), diced (optional)
• 500–800 mlborș acru, to taste
• 2 tspsalt, plus black peppercorns
• 1large bunch fresh lovage (leuștean), chopped
• 1small bunch parsley and dill, chopped

Home noodles (tăiței de casă)

• 200 gplain flour
• 2eggs
• 1 pinchsalt

To serve

• Hot green chillies or ardei iute
• Fresh bread, and mămăligă on the side

Directions

1. For the borș, stir the bran and cornmeal into the warm water in a large jar with the bread crust and the lovage sprigs, cover with a cloth and leave in a warm place for 3 to 5 days, stirring daily. It is ready when it smells cleanly sour like sourdough starter and tastes sharply acidic. Strain and keep refrigerated.
2. Make the noodles: work the flour, eggs and salt into a very stiff dough, knead 10 minutes, rest 30 minutes, then roll out as thin as you can, dust with flour, roll the sheet into a loose log and slice it into fine ribbons. Shake them loose and let them dry on a cloth for an hour.
3. Put the chicken into a large pot with the cold water, bring it slowly to the barest simmer, and skim the grey foam off patiently for the first 15 minutes. Zeamă should be a clear golden broth, and that clarity is decided in these first minutes.
4. Add the whole onion, the whole carrot and the peppercorns and simmer very gently, uncovered, for 50 minutes until the meat is tender and pulling from the bone.
5. Lift out the chicken and strain the broth. Discard the boiled whole vegetables, pull the meat from the bones in bite-sized pieces and return it to the pot with the strained broth.
6. Add the chopped onion, diced carrot, parsnip, red pepper and potato and simmer 15 minutes until just tender.
7. Bring the borș to the boil separately in a small pan, skim it, and then pour it into the soup. Boiling it apart first stops it curdling the broth and takes the raw edge off the sourness.
8. Add it gradually and taste as you go. Zeamă should be pleasantly, distinctly sour, not puckering, and the level of sourness is a matter of household pride.
9. Drop in the noodles and cook 4–5 minutes, no longer, or they will swell and drink the broth. Season with salt.
10. Take the pot off the heat and stir in a very generous handful of chopped lovage, then the parsley and dill. Lovage must go in off the heat; boiled, it turns muddy and loses the celery-anise note that defines the soup.
11. Rest 5 minutes and serve very hot, with a whole hot chilli to bite between spoonfuls and bread or mămăligă alongside.

Technique

• Lovage is not optional in Moldova. It is the herb that makes a chicken soup into zeamă, and there is no true substitute; celery leaf plus a little parsley is the nearest approximation and is noticeably milder.
• Borș acru is a live bran ferment, not beetroot borscht and not vinegar. It gives a soft, lactic sourness with a bready aroma that lemon cannot reproduce. Keep the fermenting jar covered and warm, and discard it if it grows fuzzy mould or smells putrid rather than sour.
• Cook the noodles in the soup at the last minute, or cook them separately and add them to the bowl, if you plan to keep leftovers. Left in the pot overnight they turn the whole thing to porridge.
• Zeamă is Moldova’s everyday restorative, the soup made for hangovers, for illness and for the day after a wedding.

Substitutions

• No borș acru: use 3 tbsp lemon juice or 100 ml sauerkraut brine, added off the boil. The soup will be sour but flatter, without the fermented depth.
• No lovage: celery leaves with a pinch of ground fennel seed, added off the heat, is the usual stand-in outside the region.
• Shop-bought egg noodles work, though homemade ribbons are softer and cloud the broth pleasantly.

Variations

• Zeamă de curcan, made with turkey, is the festive version cooked after a slaughter.
• Some households drop a beaten egg into the soup at the end, stirring it into threads.
• In the south, a spoonful of tomato and a little more pepper go in, giving a redder, sweeter broth.

History

Sour chicken and homemade noodle soup, soured with borș and scented with lovage, eaten as a restorative.

Frequently asked questions

What is Zeamă?

Zeamă is a soup & stew from Moldova: sour chicken-noodle soup brightened with fermented bran borș. Sour chicken and homemade noodle soup, soured with borș and scented with lovage, eaten as a restorative.

How long does Zeamă take to make?

Zeamă takes 30 min of preparation and 1 hr 20 min, plus 3–5 days if you ferment your own borș of cooking. The recipe makes 6 servings. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Zeamă?

Yes, within limits. No borș acru: use 3 tbsp lemon juice or 100 ml sauerkraut brine, added off the boil. The soup will be sour but flatter, without the fermented depth. No lovage: celery leaves with a pinch of ground fennel seed, added off the heat, is the usual stand-in outside the region. Shop-bought egg noodles work, though homemade ribbons are softer and cloud the broth pleasantly.

What is the most important thing to get right in Zeamă?

Add the whole onion, the whole carrot and the peppercorns and simmer very gently, uncovered, for 50 minutes until the meat is tender and pulling from the bone.