The most common, popular and loved Russian soup. There is no classical recipe, almost every family has one of its own. Just three mandatory ingredients
Category: Uncategorized
My version of Borsch
I never really knew how my mom cooked borsch. I remember it was a very long process, she boiled whole beet roots with the broth, then shredded cooked beets for which they had to be cooled and then she put them back to the pot. By the time I needed to cook borsch my mother was sick in a hospital, so I asked neighbors and my mom’s friends. I collected and compiled all the advices they gave me, and after several trials developed the recipe of my own. What makes it different – I split the cooking process into two parts: broth (chicken, turkey, beef bone or just vegetable) to which cabbage and potatoes are added and beets/herbs/tomatoes mixture – the essence of borsch flavor, which joins the broth pot in the end. For this mixture I shred raw beets, put it into a separate pan, add a little amount of water, sprinkle it with lemon juice to preserve the color, and cook it with the lid on on medium high heat, so it takes no more than 10 minutes for the beets to be fully cooked. It simplifies the cooking process by a lot, and can be done ahead of time or in parallel and is very fast. There is a minus though – an extra pot to wash.
For 3.5 liters pot (8 servings)
Ingredients:
- Medium size beet root, if stems and leaves look good – use them too. In that case the root can be smaller
- Onion (for the broth)
- Parsnip
- Celery
- carrots 2 medium size (for the broth)
- Sweet pepper
- Potatoes – 2 medium
- Chili pepper – 1 small (optional)
- Big ripe tomato, or a cup of diced tomatoes
- Tomato paste – 1tbsp
- Cabbage – it should be about a cup when shredded
- Garlic – 3-4 cloves
- Bay leaf
- Parsley
Directions:
- Start cooking you broth with usual aromatics (onion carrots, celery), season with salt, pepper, add bay leaf. Cook on medium heat. Make sure you have enough room in the pot for the vegetables.
- When broth is ready and meat is cooked add shredded cabbage and diced potatoes. It will take about 10 minutes for the vegetables to cook.
- Season with salt, pepper, add bay leaf.
- In a separate pan place shredded beat with chopped stems and leaves, add 1/2 cup of water, sprinkle some lemon juice (about 2 tbsp) to preserve the color, cover with the lid and put on medium heat.
- It should take about 7-10 minutes for the shredded beets to cook through, but check in 5 minutes and add some water if needed.
- Add your other chopped aromatics: sweet pepper, chopped parsnip, chili pepper, parsley.
- Cook everything together for 2-3 minutes
- Add fresh and/or diced tomatoes, tomato paste or maybe even ketchup, bring the mixture to a boil and take off the heat.
- Add the mixture to the pot with broth when potato and cabbage are almost cooked, bring everything to a boil. Check that potatoes are cooked, check for seasoning, add salt/pepper if needed. It should be very fragrant, rich and slightly sour from tomatoes and cabbage.
- Turn off the heat, add pureed or smashed garlic, cover the lid, let your borsch rest and the all flavors mix.
Chopped Liver Alternative
Granted – not everybody likes liver, nor that it has an appetizing look. For some reason this organ does not get any respect in the
Starting new year right
Baked a couple of loaves – a simple tartine bread with olives, and rye/buckwheat/amaranth loaded with seeds, inside and out. Slice of that rye bread,
Sauerkraut Russian style
It is one of Russian specialties, a unique combination of tasty and healthy food, loaded with vitamins C and K, iron and fiber and contains probiotics. It is called sour cabbage, and with all due respect to all things German is much better than pale mushy sausage condiment. It makes a great side for anything – chicken, fish, steak or ribs. It can even be a salad of its own, or mixed with some sliced shallots and topped with olive oil. One of my favorite meals when I was a child was mashed potatoes mixed with sour cabbage.
The cabbage should be fermented in its own juice, therefore it has to be green cabbage usually harvested late in fall. Another traditional ingredient is carrots, it contributes more to the color, not so much to flavor. The only important proportion to remember – 30 grams of salt per kilogram of cabbage. The rest is optional
Ingredients:
- Cabbage 1 kg (2 lbs)
- 2 medium carrots
- Kosher salt 30 gr
- 2 garlic gloves (optional)
- Caraway seeds 1 tsp (optional)
Directions:
- Cut the cabbage into 4 big parts, remove the core
- Make sure you weight what will be chopped, the ratio of cabbage to salt is important
- Shred the carrots
- Chop the cabbage into thin strings, the way you do for the coleslaw
- Add salt, caraway seeds, thinly sliced garlic and several red pepper flakes
- Place everything into a big bowl
- Mix everything with your clean hands, don’t squeeze, just mix to evenly distribute salt, carrots and spices. It is actually tasty right away, somewhat like oversalted coleslaw
- You will see that the cabbage starts extracting the juice when salt touches it.
- Transfer the mix into a glass jar pressing it tight with a spoon, potato masher or just your fist.
- Cover the lid
- Let it sit on the counter top for 3 days, check daily, open the lid and let some extra gas to evaporate, but still pressing it is submerged into the juice.
- It should be ready in 3-4 days, just taste it – it won’t taste like a coleslaw anymore. It will taste like sour cabbage.
- Needs to be refregarated once ready
Eat more Pumpkin
Eat what’s in season. Pumpkin on its own maybe boring but adding it to other dishes brightens and gently sweetens them. The hardy creature gives
Pumpkin crepes
All ingredients and proportions are the same as for regular crepes, pumpkin addition makes them extra flavorful. You can stuff your crepes with whatever you like, making them sweet or savory. They are actually absolutely delicious just as they are, and the color will brighten your day.
Ingredients :
(for 10 small crepes, about 4″ in diameter, double the amount for more)
- 1 egg
- Sugar – 1 tbsp
- Salt – 1/4 tsp
- Flour – 1/2 cup
- Milk – 1 cup
- Pumpkin puree – 2-3 tbsp
- Vegetable oil – 1 tbsp
Directions:
- Put an egg into a bowl, add salt, sugar and about one third of flour
- Mix all together with whisk till well combined
- Add pumpkin puree and mix again
- Start adding milk gradually alternating with flour till batter is smooth with no clumps of flour
- Whisk in a tablespoon of vegetable oil
- Put your non stick skillet on medium high heat, no oil is needed since there is some inside the batter
- Using ladle pour 2-3 tbsp of batter into the pan, rotate the skillet it so the batter spreads evenly and covers the skillet surface
- Fry about 1 minute on one side (when the edge is golden brown), flip it over and fry about 30 seconds on another side
- Remove a crepe into a plate
- I usually taste the 1st one and adjust salt/sugar if needed
Paris can’t wait
Paris was never on my bucket list. On our recent vacation, my destination was actually Provence in the south of France, but thanks to the
Eggs in Piedmont Sauce
It is a great way to utilize eggs in case you have too many. Just boil the eggs, I usually take “the oldest” ones, place
Abundance of Cilantro!
It’s not just a way to preserve such fragrant and delicate herb but make a great condiment of your own.
Here is one idea – cilantro pesto:
Ingredients:
- Cilantro – about 1 cup (stems can be used too)
- Garlic – 3-4 cloves
- Red pepper flakes
- Lime juice 2-3 tbsp
- Olive oil – 3/4 of a cup
- Pistachios – 1/4 cup
- Salt -1/2 tsp
- Pepper – 1/4 tsp
- Optional – Manchego cheese
Directions:
- Put all the ingredients into the food processor and pulse till it becomes a paste.
- It can stay in the fridge for weeks, great with rice, pasta, fish, cracker or just slice of bread.
