Random Ramblings

Passport & Plate - Traditional Ukrainian Borsch

Ukraine | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 4 photos

Ingredients

We never cook borsch in small pots, because it tastes better with every passing day. Our normal portion for a big family is cooked in a 5-liter pot.

For the perfect family borsch you'll need:
One chicken breast
2 or 3 chicken legs
3 or 4 medium sized potatoes
2 small beetroots
1/4 small cabbage head
1 large carrot
1 large onion
2 cloves of garlic
Kidney beans – 300 grams
Salo – 1 table spoon
Dill – 1 tea spoon
Laurel– 3 or 4 leaves
Tomato paste or home-made preserve for borsch – 150-200 grams

For serving:
Rye bread and sour cream

How to prepare this recipe

To make a perfect borsch you need to get ready in advance. First, wash the kidney beans and put them in a small pot, filled with water. Let them stay that way for one night, so when you boil the beans, it takes an hour or an hour and a half.

It's also a great idea to prepare your bouillon in advance. Wash chicken breast and legs and boil them in a large pot. Once the broth boils for the first time, pour out the water, wash the chicken parts and boil them in clear water again. This way your broth will be clear and tasty. Add laurel leaf for aroma and let the broth simmer on a low fire for an hour.

After your preparations are done, put the bouillon in the fridge and go to sleep.

Next day start by boiling the kidney beans. Meanwhile pull the chicken legs and breast apart, tearing meat into small bits and return them into bouillon set on a small fire.

Peel the onion and the carrot, dice them and braise the vegetables in a pan. When they are nice and golden, add beetroots after peeling and grating them. The last ingredients to go into your pan are tomato paste and a cup of bouillon. After that let the vegetables simmer on a small fire for 5 or 10 minutes, before pouring them into bouillon.

At the same time add boiled kidney beans and gently stir the beginnings of your borsch. Now all you have to do is peel and cut potatoes into small pieces and add them to the pot.

When potatoes are almost ready add finely sliced cabbage and don't cover the pot with a lid, letting it boil for 5 or 10 minutes.

The secret to a fabulous borsch is in a last group of ingredients. You need to peel and dice garlic and salo, adding a little dill. After you put this combination into the pot, stir it and cover with lid, cutting off the burner.

Leave your borsch to settle for at least a couple of hours, or better yet till tomorrow, storing the pot in the fridge.
Serve the borsch as hot as you can and add a little sour cream to make the taste even better.

The story behind this recipe

Borsch or beet-root soup is a traditional Ukrainian dish, though every woman has her own secret recipe, so no two plates of borsch can be the same. In our family traditional borsch recipe has been passed from mother to daughter for at least four generations. I've learned cooking it while still a little girl, sitting around the kitchen and getting in the way while my mom cooked us a huge pot of borsch that would last us at least four days.

Cooking borsch is also a kind of a test for a girl who wants to impress her boyfriend. For any man his mother's borsch will always be the best, but his wife's should at least be on the second place.

My latest borsch was also cooked to my boyfriend who valiantly tried to help. After trying my masterpiece he genuinely told me that my borsch was no worse than his mother's, so I count it a success.

The most important thing you need to know about cooking borsch is that it's a ritual. You can't just throw everything you have left in the fridge into the pot and expect to cook a masterpiece. Cooking borsch demands patience, wisdom and experience, but also a great deal of love towards those people you are cooking for.

Unlike most dishes that taste best when freshly cooked, borsch needs time to settle, so that all ingredients blend together and form an extraordinary flavor that you will never forget id you try it once.

In Ukraine we even have a joke:
"Want to try yesterday's borsch? Come back tomorrow!"

There are many jokes and sayings about borsch, which won't fit the character limit, so I'll finish my story with another joke:

If you stick your spoon into borsch and it stays standing, you've made the best kind of borsch.