🇷🇴 Romania · Danube Delta (Sfântu Gheorghe)
StorceagRomanian sturgeon soup
The sturgeon soup of Sfântu Gheorghe in the Danube Delta: boned sturgeon with potatoes, onion, carrot and tomato, finished with dill and egg yolk beaten into maslea (the soured milk left after separating; sour cream today); not soured with borș.
Origin and history
Storceag is the fish soup of Sfântu Gheorghe, the fishing village where the southern arm of the Danube meets the Black Sea. Romanian sources say Ukrainian (haholi) fishermen there fixed the recipe by the 1940s, and that its name comes from starceak, their word for the small sturgeon used in it. Radu Anton Roman wrote that storceag is eaten in only one place in Romania, a mix of Ukrainian and Romanian cooking. With wild sturgeon now protected, it is made with farmed fish.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 6 servings
- Total time
- 1 h 15 min
- Hands-on
- 35 min
Ingredients
- 900 g2 lb farmed sturgeon (sturion: nisetru, păstrugă or cegă), skinned and boned, cut in 3 cm (1 1/4 in) cubes; see notes for substitutes
- 2 tsp salt, for the fish, plus more for the pot
- 2.2 l9 1/4 cups water
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 2 carrots, diced
- 1 parsley root or parsnip, optional; diced
- 500 g1.1 lb potatoes, peeled, diced
- 3 ripe tomatoes (about 350 g / 12 oz), peeled and diced, or 250 ml (1 cup) tomato juice
- freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 egg yolks
- 250 g1 cup sour cream (smântână), at least 20% fat, at room temperature
- 1 large bunch (about 40 g)1 large bunch (about 1 1/2 oz) dill (mărar), finely chopped
- lemon wedges and fresh hot peppers, to serve
Method
-
1. Toss the sturgeon cubes with 2 teaspoons of salt and leave them in the fridge for 20-30 minutes while you start the soup.
-
2. Bring the water to the boil in a large pot with a teaspoon of salt. Add the onion, carrots and parsley root and simmer for 15 minutes, until the carrots are almost tender.
-
3. Add the potatoes and simmer for 10 minutes.
-
4. Add the tomatoes or tomato juice and simmer for 5 minutes more, until the potatoes are just tender.
-
5. Slide in the sturgeon and keep the pot at a gentle simmer for 8-10 minutes, without stirring hard, until the cubes are opaque all through and firm but still moist.
-
6. Take the pot off the heat and let it stand for 2 minutes so it stops bubbling.
-
7. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sour cream until smooth.
-
8. Whisk two ladles of the hot broth into the cream, one at a time, so the yolks warm up slowly without curdling.
-
9. Pour the cream mixture into the pot in a thin stream, stirring gently so you do not break up the fish. Do not let the soup boil again.
-
10. Stir in most of the dill and season with pepper and salt. The soup should be pale, silky and mild.
-
11. Serve at once, scattered with the rest of the dill, with lemon wedges and hot peppers on the side for each person to add.
Notes
- No borș: storceag is not soured in the pot like a Romanian ciorbă de pește. Its mild, slightly sweet sturgeon flavour is lifted only by tomato and, at the table, a squeeze of lemon.
- Sturgeon: wild Danube sturgeon are endangered and protected, so use farmed sturgeon, which is how Delta restaurants make it today. The Delta's fishermen once used the small sturgeon kept back from the catch. Radu Anton Roman allowed zander (șalău), pike (știucă), salmon or other white sea fish, but not catfish or carp, which he found too fatty; Delta cooks say a soup of catfish, carp or zander may be good but is not storceag.
- The finish: in the fishermen's homes of Sfântu Gheorghe the yolks were mixed with maslea, the soured liquid left after separating milk, rather than with cream, and the fish was sometimes cooked in whey. Sour cream and yolk is the version Delta restaurants serve and the easiest to reproduce.
- Herbs: dill is the defining herb. Some cooks add a little lovage (leuștean), sweet pepper, celeriac or a squeeze of lemon into the pot.
- Serving: with bread or mămăligă (cornmeal porridge), hot peppers and lemon. In the Delta it is made in big pots for a whole fishing family and its guests.
- Reheat gently without boiling, or the yolk-and-cream liaison will split. It is best eaten the day it is made.
Adapted from Radu Anton Roman, Bucate, vinuri şi obiceiuri româneşti, Jurnalul, "Zamă de pește: Storceag, borș pescăresc, halászcsárda sau bouillabaisse", and Daniel Călin Horvath, "Storceac, regina ciorbelor pescărești", Alba24.
At the festivals
Served at 1 festival in Romania.
Earlier editions
-
September 21, 2024 – September 22, 2024
🇷🇴 Jurilovca, Romania
Festivalul Borșului Lipovenesc