Ukrainian Borscht By Yevhen Recipes

UKRAINIAN BORSCHT

Steps:

• Grate the carrots, beets, celery and cabbage on a medium size grater. I use the attachment on my Kitchenaid as this reduces the chopping time tremendously.
• Dice the onion, and together with the shredded cabbage, fry in a bit of oil until the onions are light in colour.
• Add the beets to the water; bring to a boil, then simmer on low for 30 minutes. To keep the colour in your beets, add the tablespoon of lemon juice.
• Add the rest of the vegetables and once again, bring to a boil. Turn down your heat to simmer. Add 2 or 3 tablespoons of the fresh dill.
• Add the tomato juice. I very often use tomato sauce but I have also used undiluted tomato soup at times.
• Dissolve the corn starch in 1/4 cup of water and add this to the simmering borsch. It'll thicken the soup.
• Taste and adjust with salt & pepper. Lately I have been leaving out the salt as the tomato juice or sauce already contains a fair amount.
• Just before serving, add a dollop of sour cream. Enjoy!

UKRAINIAN BORSCHT BY YEVHEN

Steps:

• Fill a large stock pot with 3-4 liters (a gallon) of water, add salt, peppercorns, bay leaf, chili pepper and bring to boil.
• Meanwhile, wash your veggies, drain and rinse beans, peel and grate carrots, chop potatoes, onions, garlic, and bell pepper. Chop onions finely, grate carrots on coarse grater, crush and chop garlic cloves.
• Wash the beets (separate and discard the leafy part) and add them whole and unpeeled to boiling water. While they boil on low heat, sauté in a heavy skillet with vegetable oil on medium heat chopped onion and grated carrots, until onion are golden. Add chopped garlic cloves and finely chopped red bell pepper, let them release flavor and add whole jar of tomato paste to the skillet. Stir well, and mix to blend the tomato paste in completely. Allow to sauté a few more minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat and set aside.
• At this time your beats should be cooked already (depending on their size - usually 15-20 mins of cooking for medium sized ones), so remove them from boiling water and set aside to cool off. Add the rinsed white beans to boiling water and lower the heat.
• Now you chop potatoes and shred the cabbage as fine as you can. Wash parsley and dill, chop and set aside. Add potatoes and onions/carrots/garlic/bell pepper mix to boiling water, stir well and continue to cook on low heat. Beets by now should be cool enough to handle, peel gently and grate them on coarse grater. Add to borsch along with 2 tablespoons of vinegar (helps to retain that beautiful beet color and gives a slight acidic kick). Immediately add your shredded cabbage, cover and simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Add chopped parsley and dill, and more chopped garlic if you wish, and simmer covered for additional 3 minutes.
• Turn off the heat, and it's done. Let it sit covered for an hour or so to allow all the flavors to blend. Serve hot with a dollop of sour cream and a few pinches of chopped parsley and dill.
• Drop a shot of ice-cold pepper vodka and enjoy your borsch in good health!

BORSCH (((AUTHENTIC UKRAINIAN CLASSIC BORSCH)))

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Place the diced bacon or panchetta in a Dutch oven or stockpot and cook, stirring, over medium-high heat, until the fat begins to render, about 3 minutes.
• Add the beef and continue to cook, stirring, until the beef is brown on all sides, about 6 minutes.
• Remove both meats from the pan with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
• Add the onions and carrot to the fat in the Dutch oven or stockpot and stir to coat.
• Cook until soft, about 4 minutes.
• Add the garlic, oregano, dill seeds and bay leaves and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
• Add the red wine vinegar and stir to deglaze the pot.
• Return both meats to the pot and add the water, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
• Reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, until the beef is tender, about 2 hours.
• Meanwhile, place the beets on a baking sheet and brush with the oil.
• Roast until tender and can be pierced easily with a fork or knife, about 1 hour.
• Remove from the oven and set aside until cool enough to handle.
• When the beets are cool enough to handle, trim the stem and root ends and remove the skins.
• Coarsely grate or chop and set aside.
• When the meat is tender and falling apart, add the beets, potatoes, cabbage, parsley, tomato paste and celery salt or seeds and simmer over low heat for another 30 minutes.
• Season with additional red wine vinegar, salt, freshly ground black pepper and sugar to taste.
• Ladle borsch into bowls and garnish with a dollop of sour cream and a pinch of fresh dill.
• Also, serve with Russian black bread.

LATVIAN BORSCHT(AKA UKRAINIAN BORSHCH)

Steps:

• Heat the stock in a large soup pot, add cabbage and potatoes and simmer for 15 minutes.
• In the meantime, mix the beets, vinegar, bacon fat, sugar, and tomatoes in a saucepan and cook gently, covered, for about 5 minutes.
• Set aside.
• Then, in another small pan, heat the butter, mix in the onion, carrot, and parsley root (or parsnip), and braise.
• When the cabbage and potatoes are finished simmering, add the beet mixture, the onion mixture, the peppercorns, allspice berries, and bay leaves--and cook another 10 minutes.
• Stir in the chopped garlic, the remaining bacon fat, and the chopped parsley.
• Then turn the heat down to a very low simmer, lightly cover the pot, and simmer very slowly for about 4½ hours.
• Turn off the heat, let cool, and allow to ripen for about 12-18 hours.
• When ready to serve, reheat gently then ladle into bowls.
• Top each with a teaspoonful of sour cream and serve with a slice of dark rye bread.

UKRAINIAN BORSCHT

Steps:

• Cook beets, carrots and onion in the 3 cans beef broth for 20 minutes.
• Add cabbage and butter, and cook uncovered for about 20 minutes.
• Season to taste.
• Stir in lemon juice.
• Now let it sit (but you don't have to), for an hour or so. Reheat or leave at temperature and serve with sour cream.
• This is better the next day!

AUTHENTIC RUSSIAN/UKRAINIAN BORSCHT

Steps:

• To a large pot (I use 8qts), add the meat and enough water to fill up the pot to halfway.
• Remove all froth that comes up from the meat.
• Continue to boil on med-high until no more froth comes up.
• Reduce heat to low and add consomme mix, whole onion, dill, beats, cabbage, and tomato sauce.
• Fill with water, cover partially with lid, and let cook for 90min.
• After that hour and a half of cooking, make sure meat is soft - then add the carrots, and squeeze all the juice you can possible juice from the lemons into the soup.
• You can add the rice and/or potatoes at this point, if you like.
• Cook, partially covered, for another 30-45 minutes, until making sure the potatoes and carrots are tender, and the rice (if you put any in) is ready.
• The soup is great on day 1, but tastes much better on days 2-3.
• Enjoy the soup while it's very hot.

UKRAINIAN BORSCHT

Steps:

• Gently cook the onion and garlic in butter in a large saucepan until tender.
• Cook beets for about 10-15 minutes in boiling water or stock, then add the carrots. Boil for another 10-15 minutes.
• Add the potatoes and dill. When potatoes are still firm (but not hard), add cabbage and beet leaves.
• Add celery, sausage and tomatoes. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 25 minutes.
• Add peas, sour cream (stirring out the lumps) and salt. Simmer, half covered, until remaining vegetables are tender (but not mushy).
• Stir in vinegar and serve hot.