The origin of the name of this first dish is hidden under the veil of time. It is only known that the first time the word "hodgepodge" appears in Domostroy, and dates back to 1547, although some researchers believe that the name of the soup appeared much later, and the dish was called "villager", and then turned into "hodgepodge".
Regardless of the etymology of the name, the meat hodgepodge soup is a welcome dish on any table, as It is practically the leader among the first courses in terms of the number of delicious ingredients, the nutritional value of the broth and the unique rich taste.
Every right meat hodgepodge starts with a good broth. It is usually prepared from beef (500 gr. With a bone is taken). While the broth is cooked until cooked, it is necessary to take five types of smoked sausage and one type of cooked 50 grams and 50 grams of smoked chicken legs, and chop everything with small straws.
The finished broth should be filtered, brought to a boil, add diced potatoes (2-3 pcs.) And 100 gr. salted mushrooms. Finely chop one carrot and a couple of onions, fry for 2 tbsp. tablespoons of vegetable oil with 2 tbsp. spoons of tomato paste. Add the roast to the soup ten minutes before being cooked. Prefabricated meat solyanka is decorated with a solid spoon of sour cream, olives (whole with a bone or stuffed with lemon) and thin slices of lemon are added to the soup.
The ingredients for making hodgepodge can be very different. For example, you can take 100 grams of ham and sausages (or boiled / fried veal, beef, tongue), 4-5 pickles, 100 gr. sour cream, a couple of onions, a tablespoon of tomato paste, capers, vegetable oil, olives. Cook the meat broth using a pound of beef with bone. During the cooking of the broth, fry finely chopped onions with butter, and then stew with tomato paste. Sausages, cucumbers, ham, cut into thin slices and add to the bowl with onions, then capers, olives, salt, lavrushka, sour cream. Pour in the finished broth and cook for about 10 minutes. In such a hodgepodge, you can add slices of lemon, dill, thin circles of tomatoes.
An oriental meat hodgepodge, prepared using unusual ingredients, also has an interesting taste. For it, take 300 g. lamb and beef, which are poured with one and a half liters of water. The broth is boiled, after which black pepper (peas), peeled carrots and onions (whole) are added to it, then the broth is cooked for 1 hour 10 minutes, bay leaf, salt are added to it, and it is on fire for another 20 minutes.
While the broth is cooked, beef tongue is boiled (250 gr.). Prunes (8 pcs.) Are soaked for 20 minutes in boiling water, two large onions are cut into half rings and fried for 5 minutes. Two pickles are cut into strips and added to the onion, fried for 3 minutes. Next, tomato paste (1 tablespoon) is added to the mixture and the mixture warms up for another 2 minutes.
The finished broth is filtered, the meat and boiled tongue are chopped and added to the broth. After this, the mixture is poured, prunes, and the meat hodgepodge is cooked for another 6-7 minutes. Half of the lemon is cut into thin slices, added to the soup and warmed up. When serving, the dish is decorated with greens.
Experienced chefs recommend taking note of some of the nuances that will help make the hodgepodge especially tasty and healthy.
- It does not require a lot of spices and salt, because the constituents themselves contain a sufficient amount of these ingredients.
- If smoked products (ribs, chicken legs) or beef tongue are used in the preparation of the broth, then it is recommended to drain the water after boiling and pour the products with fresh cold.
- Pickled cucumbers are best taken from a barrel (large, soft, irregularly shaped), as small cucumbers from jars often undergo double processing and give the “wrong” taste.
- When frying onions in a hodgepodge, it should not have burnt edges, because this significantly reduces the quality of the soup.