This Chilled Crayfish Soup (холодник з раками – cold soup with crayfish) is one of many cold soups enjoyed by Ukrainians and their Eastern European neighbors. On a hot summer day, Ukrainians substitute a hot meal with a cold soup – kholodnik (холодник from the root word холод, meaning cold in Ukrainian) to refresh and stay cool.
The origin of cold soups is unclear but their ubiquity in the world’s cuisines illustrates the pleasure of cool meals on hot days, easy digestibility and folk beliefs’ alleged curative properties. Cold soups are versatile and readily adaptable to local ingredients. For example: coldness is the common quality between vastly different tasting soups such as Balkan, Greek and Turkish tarator (ground walnuts, garlic yogurt or tahini, cucumber, herbs), French vichyssoise (potato, leek and cream), Hungarian meggyleves (sour cherry), Korean naengmyeon (cold noodle and vegetable), Norwegian rabarbrasuppe (rhubarb), Polish chłodnik ogórkowy (beets, cucumber-buttermilk-chives and dill), Spanish gazpacho (tomato, peppers and bread) and Swedish fruktsoppa (dried fruit).
I grew up in a Ukrainian family that enjoyed cold soups on hot summer days. I was introduced to cold soups as a young child by Babunia, my maternal grandmother Juliana Bulawka. She prepared them for Didunio, my grandfather Vasyl Bulawka who loved to eat soup at every meal except breakfast. Babunia assembled a repertoire of seasonal and regional, savory and sweet soup recipes during their 67-year marriage. She prepared kholodniks with minimal cooking during the dog days of summer.
Before refrigeration was widespread in Ukraine, Babunia’s kholodniks were eaten at room temperature. The soup was usually prepared from chunky, raw or blanched ingredients, mixed or passed through a sieve or food mill, chilled in an underground root cellar (where the temperature was naturally cold) or kept at room temperature and served. These soups were not refrigerator-cold but nonetheless refreshing in the summer heat and their preparation did not heat the house.
As a child, I didn’t understand how Babunia made the cold soups, only that she made many versions, and each was a special treat. Over the years, I was sure that I tasted most creamy and brothy kholodnik versions prepared in Ukraine. Looking through old Ukrainian cookbooks for a fresh recipe, I learned that the varieties, while seemingly infinite, are usually based on kvas*, kefir**, sour cream, buttermilk, cucumber-pickling liquid or soured milk or vegetable or meat broth, diluted with water to a pleasant tanginess. The primary savory ingredients are beets, sorrel, spinach, mushrooms, carrots, radishes, pumpkin, potatoes, eggs, horseradish, mustard and plenty of assorted herbs. Although their combination varies somewhat from recipe to recipe, they are essentially variations on several basic themes.
My interest in cold soups recently let me to search for novel kholodnik recipes. As a last resort I’ve turned to my favorite Ukrainian cookbook, Zynovia Klynovetska’s 1913 Dishes and Drinks in Ukraine (Страви й напитки на Україні***), where I found a recipe for Chilled Crayfish Soup which started with the words “Cook one hundred crayfish…” and went on to require three liters of kvas.
I was intrigued by this unusual recipe because crayfish do not seem to rank highly on the country’s seafood preferences. As the Ukrainian folk saying goes, “When there is no fish, crayfish is a fish!” (На безриб’ї і рак риба!). So, I challenged myself to prepare this kholodnik with this uncommon ingredient and adapted Klynovetska’s recipe to comparable local products.
Crayfish, freshwater crustaceans that resemble miniature lobsters, ranging in size from 3 ½ to 7 inches (8.9 -17.8 cm), live in rivers, lakes, swamps, canals, wetlands and irrigation ditches worldwide. Seafood aficionados assert that crayfish are best cooked live, but live crayfish are impossible to find in Chicago since Illinois imposed a ban for bringing crayfish from other states during the pandemic. **** So, I bought five pounds of whole preboiled, flash-frozen crayfish (on my fishmonger’s advice of its high quality) which yielded 1 pound (454 g) of crayfish tails.
Crayfish
Sourcing kvas in the United States required searching through American craft brewers and delis. Although several brewers experimented with making kvas in recent years, production was discontinued because of low demand. Fortunately, I found a rye bread kvas imported from Lithuania in Chicago’s Ukrainian deli Ann’s Bakery. The taste was spot on: dark, sweet, bready and yeasty which with some olive oil, spices, herbs and salt created a perfect medium for quickly cooking the crayfish as instructed in Klynovetska’s recipe. If kvas is unavailable, a wheat beer and water mixture makes a suitable substitute.
According to Klynovetska’s 1913 recipe, this Chilled Crayfish Soup is made creamy by adding sour cream, an amount not specified, to the kvas-cooking broth. Several cups of sour cream will make a creamy but very caloric soup, so I reduced the calories by replacing some of the sour cream with a mixture of equally tart 1% kefir* and four tablespoons sour cream to retain the soup’s creaminess. However, no sour cream is needed if full-fat kefir is available.
Ukrainian cucumbers are a short variety similar to Kirby pickling cucumbers with thick, dark green bumpy, hard to chew, skin that needs to be peeled and watery seeds scooped out. English cucumbers, long with an edible smooth green skin and tiny soft seeds, are a good substitute and retain crispness in this Chilled Crayfish Soup.
I prepared Klynovetska’s recipe with my changes and chilled it overnight to blend and intensify flavors. The Chilled Crayfish Soup was super cold the next day. I adjusted seasonings, ladled the soup into chilled bowls, garnishing each bowl with extra crayfish tails, dill sprigs and a whole crayfish for dramatic effect, and served it for dinner. (It also would be great for lunch.) A thick slice of dark rye bread completed this light meal on a hot day.
This Chilled Crayfish Soup is delicate, nourishing and refreshing — creamy, tart and sweet, with a subtle richness. The radishes retain their bite and cucumbers preserve their crispness in the overnight chilling. The dill, chives and garlic impart a fresh taste with a herbaceous undertone. The red-striped crayfish tails are tender and succulent. The balance of vegetables and savory broth is perfect. No further additions are needed, even though Klynovetska also suggested adding shredded lettuce, chopped onions and garlic. This is an excellent soup made with frozen crayfish. It is hard to imagine how live crayfish would improve the taste of this Chilled Crayfish Soup. I will prepare it again when crayfish are plentiful on my next trip to New Orleans and let you know.
Chilled Crayfish Soup, adapted from Zynovia Klynovetska***
For cooking crayfish:
5 pounds (2.28 kg) live well-washed whole crayfish
or substitute with an equal amount of preboiled frozen whole crayfish
3.17 quarts (3 liters) bread kvas* or substitute with 2 quarts (1.89 l) wheat beer and 1 quart (0.95 l) water
5 sprigs fresh dill
1 teaspoon black peppercorn
1 teaspoon whole allspice
3 large bay leaves
1 tablespoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
For soup:
5 large eggs, boiled and peeled
4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
8 large red radishes, about 2 cups (240 g), in ¼ inch (0.6 cm) cubes
2 English cucumbers, about 2 cups (240 g), in ¼ inch (0.6 cm) cubes
2 ounces (57 g) scallions or chives, finely sliced
3 ounces (85 g) fresh dill, chopped fine with additional sprigs for garnish
1 ½ quarts (1.4 l) plain full-fat kefir ** or substitute with equal amount of plain 1% kefir
4 tablespoons sour cream (omit if using full-fat kefir)
1 teaspoon kosher salt (Morton’s)
8 ounces (237 ml) kvas-cooking broth
1 teaspoon sugar
2 garlic cloves, minced
Salt and white pepper to taste
1-2 cups (237-473 ml) water to thin, if desired
Preparing live crayfish: Prepare an ice bath by combining four cups of ice and water in a large bowl and set aside.
Bring kvas and 5 sprigs dill, peppercorns, allspice, bay leaves and salt to boil in a large pot.
Kvas-cooking-broth
Add crayfish and cook for 5-8 minutes until shells are bright red.
Cooking crayfish
With a spider or slotted spoon, remove crayfish from pot and plunge into ice water bath to stop the cooking process.
Cooked crayfish
Reserve the kvas-cooking-broth.
Once cool, reserve a few whole crayfish for garnish and clean the remaining crayfish by removing heads, shells and dark vein, placing tails in another bowl. Refrigerate whole crayfish and crayfish tails.
Cleaned crayfish tails
Place heads and shells into the cooking kvas and steep for 30 minutes to extract more flavor. Cool to room temperature. Using a fine strainer or cheesecloth, strain the kvas-cooking-broth into a clean container and refrigerate for later use.
Preparing frozen crayfish: Thaw frozen whole crayfish in the refrigerator overnight. Follow the remaining instructions for preparing live crayfish but cook for 4 minutes only.
Vegetables and other ingredients
Preparing eggs and vegetables: Cut eggs in half, separating yolks from whites. Chop whites in a small dice and place in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mash yolks with the mustard. Set aside.
Dice radishes and cucumbers into ¼ inch (0.6 cm) cubes. Mince garlic. Finely chop green onion/chives and dill, reserving some dill sprigs for garnish. Transfer vegetables and herbs to bowl with diced egg whites.
Preparing kefir base: In a large bowl, combine kefir, sour cream, salt, sugar and 4 ounces (118 ml) of the kvas-cooking broth. Stir in the Dijon mustard-yolk mixture. Taste. Adjust salt, and pepper, adding more cream to increase creaminess or more kvas-cooking-broth for added sweetness.
Transfer vegetable-herb-egg mixture to the kefir bowl. Gently stir until combined. Add crayfish tails, reserving a few for garnish. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least six hours or preferably overnight.
When ready to serve, adjust seasoning, thin with iced water if necessary and ladle into chilled bowls. Garnish with reserved crayfish tails or whole crayfish and dill sprigs.
Serves 6 as main dish.
Ready to eat
*Kvas is a low alcohol drink made from fermented bread or beets. It is a probiotic-rich, thirst-quenching drink with ancient roots in Ukraine.
**Kefir is a fermented milk drink originally from the Caucasus and Central Asia. It has a thick, slightly effervescent consistency and mildly sour flavor. Kefir has 78% fewer calories than sour cream; kefir has 43 calories per 100 grams and sour cream has 198 calories.
*** Зиновія Клиновецька, Страви й напитки на Україні, Київ, 1913. (Zynovia Klynovetska, Dishes and Drinks in Ukraine, Kyiv, 1913,reprinted by Chasy Publisher, 1991).
**** Ninety percent of the U.S. farmed and wild crayfish production comes from Louisiana from November to July; the remaining 10 percent are farmed and harvested wild throughout the year by fishermen from the cool waters of Pacific Northwest, California and Midwest.
Photo credits:
Bulgarian, Greek, Turkish tarator – dreamstime: 96819966 – © Dubravina
Crayfish – dreamstime: 34183539 –- © V777999
English cucumbers – dreamstime: 79591733 — © Bhofack2
French vichyssoise — dreamstime: 32071790 –- © Mylitleye
Hungarian meggyleves – dreamstime: 156800200 — © Mikhail Laptev
Kirby pickling cucumbers – dreamstime: 31354490— © Yuliia Davydenko
Korean naengmyeon – maanhchai.com/recipe/naengmyeon|
Norwegian rabarbrasuppe – dreamstime: 15009629 –- © Galina Shchipakina
Polish chlodnik ogorkowy – dreamstime: 266150315 – © Nataliia Gr
Swedish fruktsoppa – shutterstock: 1181190325 – © Suzanne Tucker
All other photos: © Slava Johnson
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