"German" Hot & Sour soup

[tephra]

Whenever I post a recipe that is something I came up with on my own the ingredient amounts are all guesstimations unless I'm baking. Sorry about that.

• stew beef (1-2 pounds, how much meat do you like in your soup?)
• one large onion, cut in quarters and sliced
• 4-5 cloves of garlic (we just buy minced in a jar so a generous heaping tea spoon, the sort you stir your tea with)
• water (I used about 3 quarts)
• beef soup base or bouillon to make that water into broth (or just use broth if you have it handy)
• a couple dashes of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 large turnip (or 1 small rutabaga), chunked
• a generous handful of baby carrots cut in half crosswise (or about 2 regular carrots, chunked)
• 1 humongous potato or about 2 normal sized ones, peeled or not as to your taste and chunked (we like Yukon Golds)
• 1 can sauerkraut, size determined by how sour you want your soup (15oz is a good starting point)
• black and cayenne pepper to reach the desired level of "hot"
• vinegar if you need more "sour"
• salt to taste

If the stew beef is in big chunks cut them down to bite size. Sear them in a bit of oil to get a nice carmelized brown on them.

Add onions and cook until soft and somewhat browned, add garlic, cook a bit more but don't burn the garlic. If you burn the garlic there's no recovery.

Add water, soup base, Worcestershire, some of the pepper, turnip/rutabaga and carrots. Cook until turnips and carrots are about half cooked.

Add potatoes and simmer until they are done.

Add sauerkraut and heat through.

Adjust hot/sour/broth-iness to taste.