For our family, as a half-Polish family (perhaps three-quarter-Polish family since I lived there so long), the highlight of the entire year is always the Wigilia (pronounced “Vee-gee-lee-a”) dinner. It’s an occasion that requires hours of preparation, lots of patience, and much love.

One element that takes a substantial amount of time is the barszcz z uszkami (“borscht with little ears”). To begin with, the barszcz requires fermented beet broth to provide the requisite sourness. Sure, one can add vinegar if the soup in the end isn’t sufficiently sour, but that’s cheating, my wife insists. To create this concoction, one needs to begin almost a week in advance by making a mixture of water, diced beets, garlic, and whole allspice in a ceramic jar. To initiate the process, the cook needs to float a thick slice of real (i.e., from a bakery, thick, heavy, and course) bread on the top of the water for at least three days. After that time, the bread can come off and the mixture sits for another couple of days.

Once that’s done, it’s time to start the uszki — “little ears,” which are mushroom-stuffed dumplings that look like small ears, hence the name. First, the mushrooms must be sauteed and then ground in a meat grinder: a food processor would make a pulp out of them, and they need simply to be small, small chunks of mushroom. Once that’s done, it’s time for the dumplings themselves, which take a couple of hours to make. My wife usually makes them a couple of days in advance and simply freezes the uncooked dumplings. When it’s time for the soup, all she has to do us toss the dumplings into some boiling water and wait ten minutes.

Finally, there’s the soup. It begins with a regular vegetable stock made from carrots, beets, celery, parsley root, and onions. That cooks for hours. Finally, everything is strained and an appropriate amount of the fermented beet stock is added with lots of freshly ground pepper and some salt.

For my son, there’s nothing better in the whole Christmas season. “When are we going to have barszcz z uskami?” he asks continuously in the days leading up to Christmas Eve. And when he gets them, he’s utterly thrilled.