CharlieD
Chef Extraordinaire
Borscht! Borscht! Borscht!
Yes again Borscht. Apparently it is subject that just doesn't go away judging by the amount of replies to the thread below "the good recipe" one.
Ukrainian food are near and dear to me, I would like nothing else but people understand and enjoy Ukrainian food. Borscht being one of the most popular and most recognised when people speak about Ukrainian food. There are a whole bunch of recipes in our files and there is endless amount elsewhere. What I want people to understand is how easy it is to make borscht. That is why I want to show you here the whole process in pictures. The whole process took me about 2 hours and it is only because I was cooking chinese dinner per my daughter's request, so borscht was kind of in between, again a show of the fact how easy it is.
Ok, here it goes.
1. Meat. people ask what kind of meat to use. The answer I will give: Any, any meat. Just make sure that you have a very good meat broth. Here I was making Mongolian beef for which I bought 2 ribeye steaks. I cut out the eye and the bone and some meat leftovers thru n a 6 quart pot. About half a o of water.
2. I am a busy person, I work 50-60 hours per week, everything I make has to be made fast, but it doesn't mean it should be tassles. Thus the ingredients are all ready to go into the pot. Or almost ready.
3. Most recipes that came down to us from our grandmothers talk about sauteeing the onion, the carrots, the beets, the tomatoes. Let's think for minute why. Why, you ask? I tell you why. The life of a simple people 100 years ago was so poor, they could have never imagine the riches we have now. Just look at meat department of any store. We are talking about cooking here so the reference is about cooking ingredient
.
They had no meat. The hog was slaughtered once, maybe twice a year, Soup was made from vegetables and to add flavor everything was sauteed in pork fat, Salo. We have to take this into consideration. We put so much meat into soup that if a poor villager from late 1800's or early 1900's saw that he/she would consider us some sort of Millionaires. We do not need to Sauté anything. Having said that. 2 bones were not enough to make good soup, thus I sauteed some onions, onions only.
4. How you cut your vegetables is absolutely up to your imagination. This is how I like to cut my potatoes. Don't let anybody tell that what you are doing is wrong.
5. After about an hour or so meat was done, in went potato and beans. I like the beans very soft. When potato was almost ready, I add carrots and cabbage.
Taking a step back. Previously I have said that I never add vinegar or sugar. I lied, I do, in the form of tomato ketchup.
6. Couple of tablespoons of ketchup or tomato paste do the trick of substituting sugar, vinegar and tomatoes. Look at the color of the soup after ketchup added.
7. I add herbs, dill and parsley, and pepper relish ( I think I have posted recipe in the files, I can add at the end) bring to a boil, stir, taste, at this point check and re-season, add salt, pepper, maybe more ketchup, whatever you think the borscht needs.
8. I use canned beets as you can see, I grate them and add at the very end. They are cooked, they do need to be cooked any more, but they will your borscht the beautiful Borscht, so to speak color. Bring to a boil, turn it off.
9. Put the spoon in, make it sure it stands on it's own, just joking.
10. You are done, serve and enjoy.
This is as simple as it gets. Honestly.
Yes again Borscht. Apparently it is subject that just doesn't go away judging by the amount of replies to the thread below "the good recipe" one.
Ukrainian food are near and dear to me, I would like nothing else but people understand and enjoy Ukrainian food. Borscht being one of the most popular and most recognised when people speak about Ukrainian food. There are a whole bunch of recipes in our files and there is endless amount elsewhere. What I want people to understand is how easy it is to make borscht. That is why I want to show you here the whole process in pictures. The whole process took me about 2 hours and it is only because I was cooking chinese dinner per my daughter's request, so borscht was kind of in between, again a show of the fact how easy it is.
Ok, here it goes.
1. Meat. people ask what kind of meat to use. The answer I will give: Any, any meat. Just make sure that you have a very good meat broth. Here I was making Mongolian beef for which I bought 2 ribeye steaks. I cut out the eye and the bone and some meat leftovers thru n a 6 quart pot. About half a o of water.
2. I am a busy person, I work 50-60 hours per week, everything I make has to be made fast, but it doesn't mean it should be tassles. Thus the ingredients are all ready to go into the pot. Or almost ready.
3. Most recipes that came down to us from our grandmothers talk about sauteeing the onion, the carrots, the beets, the tomatoes. Let's think for minute why. Why, you ask? I tell you why. The life of a simple people 100 years ago was so poor, they could have never imagine the riches we have now. Just look at meat department of any store. We are talking about cooking here so the reference is about cooking ingredient
.They had no meat. The hog was slaughtered once, maybe twice a year, Soup was made from vegetables and to add flavor everything was sauteed in pork fat, Salo. We have to take this into consideration. We put so much meat into soup that if a poor villager from late 1800's or early 1900's saw that he/she would consider us some sort of Millionaires. We do not need to Sauté anything. Having said that. 2 bones were not enough to make good soup, thus I sauteed some onions, onions only.
4. How you cut your vegetables is absolutely up to your imagination. This is how I like to cut my potatoes. Don't let anybody tell that what you are doing is wrong.
5. After about an hour or so meat was done, in went potato and beans. I like the beans very soft. When potato was almost ready, I add carrots and cabbage.
Taking a step back. Previously I have said that I never add vinegar or sugar. I lied, I do, in the form of tomato ketchup.
6. Couple of tablespoons of ketchup or tomato paste do the trick of substituting sugar, vinegar and tomatoes. Look at the color of the soup after ketchup added.
7. I add herbs, dill and parsley, and pepper relish ( I think I have posted recipe in the files, I can add at the end) bring to a boil, stir, taste, at this point check and re-season, add salt, pepper, maybe more ketchup, whatever you think the borscht needs.
8. I use canned beets as you can see, I grate them and add at the very end. They are cooked, they do need to be cooked any more, but they will your borscht the beautiful Borscht, so to speak color. Bring to a boil, turn it off.
9. Put the spoon in, make it sure it stands on it's own, just joking.
10. You are done, serve and enjoy.
This is as simple as it gets. Honestly.
Last edited:
. As I was about to try it, her father sprang up, tore up some chunks of bread, then sliced a hard boiled egg and unceremoniously tossed them into my soup. "Now", he said, "that is white Borscht. And if you must, you can add beets, but we don't do that."
