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Monday, February 17, 2014
Feb. 17th, 2014 08:39 pm Soup Project 2014: Soup 6 - Borsch
I wanted to make borsch for the longest time. It is a classic Russian soup and a staple since my childhood, whether warm in a winter with beef or cold in the summer without beef with egg and fresh cucumbers (so good). But for some reason it was always intimidating to me. I started the soup project with an intention to finally master it. And it is actually pretty easy. I called my Mom and asked how she makes it - there are so many version but I always loved my grandmother's and my Mom's the best. (I didn't like my Aunt's). She doesn't like recipes and thinks I should have just absorbed by osmosis but I got her to tell me the basics. Lately, she's been doing borsch without meat, but I wanted a classic version with beef. (It's pretty the same, just beef has to boil for 1.5 hours first before veggies. It just veggie versions, just boil water and dump all veggies for 30 minutes. My Mom loves to add celery and whatever veggies are around, but I'm not a fan of celery. Vary the veggies and their number based on preference - beet is a must.
Ingredients
1 chunk of beef, still frozen (again I just have a bunch in the freezer)
1 large beet, peeled and shredded
1 onion, chopped
1 leak, cleaned and chopped
2 potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 large carrot, sliced
some sauerkraut (I use the Russian version, from the local store, so it is not quite the same as the American one. I don't add a lot. I didn't measure it).
salt to taste
sour cream
a dash of dill
Directions
1. Take a small pot, put the chunk of frozen beef in cold water. Boil. Once the water has boiled, pour out the water and put the beef in a large pot (I use my biggest pot to make soup for the week). Cover with fresh cold water to 3/4 of the pot, bring to boil, and then lower the heat. The meat should boil by itself in a pot for about an hour and a half overall after you take it out of the freezer. Meanwhile, chop and prep all the veggies. Skip this step if just making vegetarian version and just boil water instead.
2. After beef was boiling for an hour and a half, add all the vegetables at once (the consistency of the soup is up to you. Add more veggies for thicker soups). Stir it a bit. Add salt to taste.
3. Let it boil on low heat for 30-40 minutes.
4. Take the beef out and cut it up in small pieces. It should be clearly fully cooked. Put back in the pot.
5. Pour into a bowl. Add a table spoon of sour cream and a little washed dill for taste. A piece of black bread will also go well.
I accidentally dumped more salt than I was planning on and I was afraid the soup was ruined. But it was a big pot so disaster was averted. In fact, it came out quite good and tasty so I consider my first venture into borsch a success. Yay!
It really feels like Sunday since it is a holiday and we were home. We even went grocery shopping today. I also finished re-reading Equiano's autobiography for class and graded a few papers. And we watched biathlon with dinner. Go, Belarus! While I do cheer for US quite often, I also root for the country of my birth and they are doing quite well.
I wanted to make borsch for the longest time. It is a classic Russian soup and a staple since my childhood, whether warm in a winter with beef or cold in the summer without beef with egg and fresh cucumbers (so good). But for some reason it was always intimidating to me. I started the soup project with an intention to finally master it. And it is actually pretty easy. I called my Mom and asked how she makes it - there are so many version but I always loved my grandmother's and my Mom's the best. (I didn't like my Aunt's). She doesn't like recipes and thinks I should have just absorbed by osmosis but I got her to tell me the basics. Lately, she's been doing borsch without meat, but I wanted a classic version with beef. (It's pretty the same, just beef has to boil for 1.5 hours first before veggies. It just veggie versions, just boil water and dump all veggies for 30 minutes. My Mom loves to add celery and whatever veggies are around, but I'm not a fan of celery. Vary the veggies and their number based on preference - beet is a must.
Ingredients
1 chunk of beef, still frozen (again I just have a bunch in the freezer)
1 large beet, peeled and shredded
1 onion, chopped
1 leak, cleaned and chopped
2 potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 large carrot, sliced
some sauerkraut (I use the Russian version, from the local store, so it is not quite the same as the American one. I don't add a lot. I didn't measure it).
salt to taste
sour cream
a dash of dill
Directions
1. Take a small pot, put the chunk of frozen beef in cold water. Boil. Once the water has boiled, pour out the water and put the beef in a large pot (I use my biggest pot to make soup for the week). Cover with fresh cold water to 3/4 of the pot, bring to boil, and then lower the heat. The meat should boil by itself in a pot for about an hour and a half overall after you take it out of the freezer. Meanwhile, chop and prep all the veggies. Skip this step if just making vegetarian version and just boil water instead.
2. After beef was boiling for an hour and a half, add all the vegetables at once (the consistency of the soup is up to you. Add more veggies for thicker soups). Stir it a bit. Add salt to taste.
3. Let it boil on low heat for 30-40 minutes.
4. Take the beef out and cut it up in small pieces. It should be clearly fully cooked. Put back in the pot.
5. Pour into a bowl. Add a table spoon of sour cream and a little washed dill for taste. A piece of black bread will also go well.
I accidentally dumped more salt than I was planning on and I was afraid the soup was ruined. But it was a big pot so disaster was averted. In fact, it came out quite good and tasty so I consider my first venture into borsch a success. Yay!
It really feels like Sunday since it is a holiday and we were home. We even went grocery shopping today. I also finished re-reading Equiano's autobiography for class and graded a few papers. And we watched biathlon with dinner. Go, Belarus! While I do cheer for US quite often, I also root for the country of my birth and they are doing quite well.