Polish Barshch with Baked Beans
from “The Art of Polish Cooking”
by Alina Zeranska
I like this simple and
easy borsch with a difference. Check out the use of baked beans.
Ingredients from the original
recipe
2 10&1/2 ounce cans beef broth
2 1
pound cans red beets, chopped or coarse grated
1 cup water
1
14 ounce can baked beans, rinsed
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1
teaspoon sugar
salt to taste
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 tablespoon
fresh chopped dill
Instructions
as I write them
Add the juice from the beets to the broth.
Add 1/2 cup chopped beets and
1 cup water.
Add beans to the broth.
Simmer for five minutes.
Add lemon juice and salt to taste.
Use sour cream and copped dill
for garnish, either on the soup or available for each bowl.
How nice; quick, easy and tasty.
Would you
like to kick it up? From the same cookbook, “The Art of Polish Cooking”.
Barshch
from Eastern Poland with baked beans
Ingredients
from the original recipe
1 carrot, sliced
1 celery
stalk, sliced
1/4 small head savoy cabbage, shredded
2 potatoes,
diced
6 cups beef or chicken broth, homemade or canned
1
1 pound can beets, chopped or grated
1/2 cup canned baked beans, rinsed
4
tomatoes, chopped
1 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoons
cold water
Dash garlic powder
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2
teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Salt to taste
1/2
cup sour cream
Instructions as I write them
In the broth simmer the
carrot, celery, cabbage and potatoes until the vegetables are tender – about 20 minutes.
Add chopped or
grated beets with all the juice from the can.
Add the beans and tomatoes.
Simmer for five minutes.
Remove from heat
and season to taste with garlic powder, lemon juice, sugar, pepper and salt.
Add sour cream or use to garnish
each bowl.
If you would like to have a homemade Polish Chicken Broth, Alina Zeranska
has the answer.
Ingredients from the original recipe
1 chicken,
cut up
7 cups boiling water or more, add to make up during simmer
1 teaspoon salt
2 carrots coarsely
chopped
2 celery stalks coarsely chopped
1 parsley root, coarsely chopped (I am reminded that I can’t
always find parsley root here in Marion, Ohio so I use parsnip root – in the amount equal to a small carrot.
1 medium onion,
quartered
Oil to sauté onion
1/4 small head savoy cabbage, shredded
4 peppercorns
1 Tablespoon
chopped green parsley (optional)
Instructions as I write them
Place the chicken in boiling
water, be sure it is covered; add salt and reduce heat to simmer.
Simmer for 2 hours.
Add carrots,
celery and parsley root (or parsnip root, in an amount about the size of a small carrot).
Brown the onion in hot oil.
Add the onion
to the broth along with cabbage and peppercorns.
Simmer for twenty minutes.
Strain
Add parsley (optional)
depending on the use of the broth.
Refrigerate until fat congeals on the surface, remove fat and use or refrigerate.
The chicken
meat can be removed from the bones and used for another purpose, in a salad for instance.
You have
it all – from quick and simple to full homemade broth version. For the final borshch, you can use fresh beets when available.
Scrub the beets well and wrap with aluminum foil. Bake in 350 degree preheated oven until tender to a fork, about an hour.
When cool rub the skins off the beets.
Enjoy!
David
