Ciorbă, Romanian pork bone soup with peas and flour dumplings

Ingredients

• 600 g bone-in pork belly
• 1500 ml water
• 1 medium onion (150 g)
• 6 garlic cloves
• 1 medium carrot (100 g)
• 50 g celery
• 2 red potatoes (300 g)
• 1 jar (400 g) peas with baby carrots
• 1 tablespoon Eros Pista hot pepper paste
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 3 sprigs fresh parsley
• 2 sprigs fresh lovage
• 3 sprigs fresh dill

For the dumplings

• 2 eggs
• 4 tablespoons (40 g) white flour

For the sour cream mixture

• 500 ml barrel-aged borș
• 150 ml sour cream with at least 20% fat

Preparation

1. Take the sour cream out of the fridge 15 minutes ahead. Pat the pork belly dry with paper towels and cut it into suitable pieces. Put the meat and 1500 ml water in the bowl of the Philips multicooker, select the BOIL program for 30 minutes and press START. The meat should be cooked through, with no pink in the middle. 2. Peel the onion, garlic, carrot, celery and potatoes, then dice them. Drain the jar of peas with baby carrots. Add the vegetables, the peas and carrots from the jar, salt, pepper, hot pepper paste and the finely chopped herbs. Set BOIL again for 30 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. 3. Beat the eggs in a cup and stir in the flour until you have a batter the consistency of sour cream. Spoon the batter into the hot broth and cook for 5 minutes, until the dumplings puff up and firm. 4. Heat the borș in a small saucepan for 2 minutes, until lukewarm. Mix it with the sour cream, then stir in a few spoonfuls of hot broth. Pour the mixture into the soup and let it simmer gently for 2 minutes.