A More Sophisticated Girl's Caraway Seed Soup

My mom named the soup as such based on when she first began to prepare it. In the book of recipes she gave me she says: This is a very tasty soup. The parsley, caraway seed, and cream of wheat flavors mingle and determine its final flavor. At home, in Esztelnek, I made this in my big girl years. You kids favored the flour dumplings far too much and so I never made this version, but it is very delicious.

• 1-2 tablespoons of oil for the roux
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• 8-10 cups water
• 1 onion, peeled, un-chopped
  
• salt
• 1 teaspoon of paprika
  
• egg
• cream of wheat
• parsley

Boil the onion in the water. Meanwhile, extract the essence of the caraway seed by boiling it in a cup of water and add into the pot with the onion, keeping the seeds out of it. When the onion is soft, make the roux by sauteing the flour in the oil until it is evenly a light reddish brown. Remove the pan from the stove and add the half a teaspoon of paprika to the roux. Water the roux down with a half a cup of cold water and thoroughly mix to eliminate all lumps. Add to soup.

To make the cream of wheat dumplings, scramble the egg with 1 teaspoon of oil and 1 teaspoon of water and a dash of salt. Stir on very finely chopped parsley. Add as much cream of wheat as it can take. With wet hands, form dumplings and add to boiling soup.

The soup is ready when the dumplings float to the top. Toss the remaining parsley on top of the soup and serve.

If your egg is too cold, the cream of wheat dumplings will be flaky when dropped in the hot soup and likely fall apart. If the egg is take out from the fridge at the beginning of the cooking process, this can easily be avoided.