Borscht, hot

by CharlieD to be found on

discusscooking.com

A word about Charlie, he is now of the USA having come from Kyiv, Ukraine where he had a chance to attend the Kyiv culinary school before their military draft cut that short. So we have someone from there with formal training and who enjoys cooking. How much more real is that? The recipe follows his presentation and the instructions and comments are from that post.

Ingredients, exactly per Charlie

Meat, about three pounds

Water – 3 quarts

Onion finely chopped or diced – 1

Potatoes diced – 2-3

Carrots grated – 2-3

Beets grated – 1-2 (could be canned, but not pickled)

Cabbage I buy coleslaw salad – 1-2 cups, or grate your own.

White beans, I use canned, you can use as much as whole can or about a half would be good

1 tablespoon of ketchup or tomato sauce for coloring

Secret ingredient (recipe to follow) – 2-3 tablespoons 

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Start by making a good meat broth. Use whatever meat you like. Lately I’ve been using chicken, but pork or beef are definitely great. Short ribs are good. But in my opinion, the best part is cross cut shank meat with marrow bone. The reason for that is because the broth comes out with a hint of tartness. I do not know why it is but that is exactly what you want in borscht. If you search for other recipes you’ll find that some of them use lemon juice, some use citric acid, also known as sour salt, or pickled beets or sauerkraut, and then they have to add sugar to compensate.

All that is nonsense because all those things will only ruin the natural taste of borscht.

If I use beef I cook it for a long time to make sure the meat is extremely soft and practically melts in your mouth so you do not have to sit and chew the darn thing for half an hour.

While the meat is cooking prepare all the vegetables. Again, you can use fresh or canned beets. If using fresh beets they will take an hour or so to cook. I cook the whole beet and then take it out, immerse in cold water, grate and add almost at the end of the process.

I do not like the texture of cooked onion so I usually put it in early so it over cooks to the point that you can’t even see it. Adds great flavor. Cook potatoess, carrots, coleslaw, beans. Should take about half an hour or less.   

Some people will tell you that I do not know what I’m doing or talking about. The true purists of an authentic Ukrainian Borscht will sauté their beets, onion, and carrots in some fried pork fat, yum. Very unhealthy, I do not do it anymore.

So, I do not worry about them anymore. The taste of my borscht is very fine.

Now the secret ingredient. Indeed some people will add the same ingredients separately, but I make this special concoction. In fact I use it for many soups and other dishes, especially when I make spaghetti sauce.

Here it is

10 sweet bell peppers – any color is good, but not green

10 hot peppers (It could be any hot peppers you like; depending on how hot you like your food.)

3-4 heads of garlic

2 tablespoons of salt (works as preservative)

Cut, remove seeds, wash, put everything thru a meat grinder or, if using a food processor make sure not to chop very fine.

I make the whole recipe, put it in a couple of jars and keep it in the refrigerator for up to 6 months. It actually never last that long because I use it up faster. You can scale the recipe down.

When the borscht is nearly ready add a couple of tablespoons of the special mixture. Taste and re-season to taste.

Serve hot with a spoon of sour cream and hearty bread. A Russian will have a clove of garlic right next to the plate and they will keep biting into it. I’m not sure about the taste but very healthy.

Thank you Charlie! Your comments, tips and secret ingredient really make this recipe sing – great!