Passport & Plate - The Borsch united we eat.
Russian Federation | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 3 photos
Ingredients
100 gr of beef on the bone
100 gr of beef fillet
2 medium, preferably fresh, very red beets
2 tomatoes
1 small onion
2 medium carrots
3-4 medium potatoes
200 gr of cabbage
3 table spoons of vegetable (sunflower) oil
3 cloves of garlic
juice of 1 medium lemon
100 gr tomato paste
some dill or parsley for decoration
sour cream 2 table spoons per portion
salt, black pepper and couple of bay leaves
You will need:
knives, a spatula, a scoop, 3 cutting boards, (it is better to use a plastic one for very red beets, it tend to color wooden cutting boards), big pot for soup, a frying pan for sautéing vegetables, a grater (optional), garlic press (optional) and a Great desire to eat some Borsch!
Tip: Best served with brown rye freshly baked bread
You can make it vegetarian friendly, skip the meat steps and you will enjoy your vegetarian Borsch even faster!
How to prepare this recipe1. Wash and cut the meat into small cubes, start boiling them in salted water. (Set a time for approximately 40-45 minutes) It depends on how big is your pot and how juicy or thick you like soups, but generally speaking, all the meat and bones should be covered in water. Be careful in order to get a clear broth you have to timely get rid of the scum that will appear.
2.While you are waiting your broth:
- Peel potatoes and cut them into cubes
- Peel carrots, beets and onion, cut them into straws, you may use grater as well for carrots and beets. Try to cut or grate beets into relatively smaller pieces than the rest of the vegetables. If you are lucky to find good red beets, it will take a little while to cook it.
- Sauteed all the vegetables above on the sunflower vegetable oil approximately 15 minutes on a slow fire.
3. While you are sautéing the vegetables:
- Cut tomatoes into small pieces and add them to the pan after 10 minutes together with tomato paste
- Dice or grate cabbage but do not add it to other vegetables
4. At the end of sautéing the veggies add some crushed or cut into small pieces garlic, salt and pepper
5. Add sauteed vegetables, cabbage and bay leaves into the boiling beef broth,
6. Add lemon juice into your Borsch and boil everything for another 5 minutes.
7. You are now ready to serve your Borsch! Pour soup into bowls and add two table spoons of sour cream and fresh dill/parsley for decoration on the top. Eat it with rye brown bread.
Enjoy! Bon Appetit!
The story behind this recipeItaly is a gastronomic paradise for food lover as I am. But what makes food so interesting to study and adore. The human soul is the answer. If you cook without putting a soul in it, it will never be delicious, nutritious maybe. But to feel the soul of a country you need to understand the people of that country.
Growing up as an Asian ethnic minority in Siberia, I was exposed to both food cultures: Buryat nomadic style food with lots of meat and dairy products and Russian-Siberian diet with more vegetables involved. Later on I was lucky enough to live abroad and be exposed to foreign culture of USA and China. Of course I ate everything from deep dish Chicago pizza, fast-food to Beijing roast duck and alive Sago worms!
But one dish that would not just represent me but also unites people around me would be Borsch!
The Borsch, Russian-Ukrainian or (enough politics) Slavic traditional soup was the most requested dish from me, when I was living in US and China. One can find Borsch in any school canteen on the territory of former Soviet Union or in a fancy restaurant like Cafe Pushkin in downtown Moscow. Borsch is so affordable in hundreds of different recipes and styles so I would hardly cook it before I went out of my country.
However the special day, when my best friend and I had to cook Borsch for the first time came while we were in college in US for the international banquet. My friend is half Ukrainian, half African and me, a Buryat. For days we were collecting recipes and tips from my friends Ukrainian mother's family, her Angolan dad, what did he like in this exotic soup, my family in Siberia for it be a perfect representation of our unified culture and soul. We finished 2 huge pots of Borsch and guests on the banquet loved it! One of them happened to be half Russian and she thanked us and told us " It tasted like home!" Borsch also took me to the Food Congress in Malaysia this year and dozens of people tried it! Where will borsch take me this time?
